Esports betting predictions & odds – Saturday, October 3

ESB’s daily esports betting previews for Saturday will focus on the continuation of Rainbow Six Siege Brasileirão 2020 and the opening four group stage fixtures at the League of Legends World Championship.

R6S Brasileirão 2020

The last time Ninjas in Pyjamas and FaZe Clan faced each other was during the Six August 2020 Major – LATAM: Brazil, where NiP swept the floor with their regional rivals (2-0 and 3-0). Since then, FaZe played only three fixtures and failed to win a single one. 

With two losses against MiBR (0-2) and Team oNe (0-2), as well as a 1-1 stalemate with W7M, FaZe now hold a 3-2-5 record in their last 10 and 1-1-3 in last five. FaZe last defeated NiP during Gamers Without Borders 2020 – NA&BR in May, but have since produced only one stalemate and suffered two losses.

There is nothing in FaZe’s recent performances that would lead us to believe they can upset NiP who should win this match with ease. 

League of Legends World Championship 2020

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The 2020 League of Legends World Championship will begin with a clash between the North American FlyQuest and the tournament favourites Top Esports in what is billed as a very one-sided affair. While we have no problems agreeing that Top looked very good this season, the regional bias has inflated the betting odds so much there is some value in siding with FlyQuest.

We don’t expect FlyQuest to upset the hosts since they don’t field the players who could overcome the talent on Top, but FlyQuest’s slow and calculated playstyle should allow them to keep this match under control. The handicap kill line is set at 11.5 which is far too high in our book and offers us a great opportunity to side with the underdogs to keep their Worlds debut close.

The second match of the day will feature another clash which on paper looks like it can only end one way. It’s worth taking into consideration, however, that these group stage fixtures are all played as best-of-one (Bo1) which is a format notorious for upsets.

Unicorns of Love are by no means one of the favourites to hoist the Summoner’s Cup, but their hyper-aggressive playstyle makes them a very potent team in a Bo1 scenario. The only issue we have with the Russian squad is their tendency to make silly mistakes, however, much of the same holds true for DRX.

This match can be much closer than what the betting odds would suggest and since UoL – unlike DRX – already got a chance to warm up we will give them the benefit of the doubt and predict they can keep the kill score tight.

The important thing to note for this match is that PSG Talon are entering the main event with their old roster and not the one which brought them through the play-in stage.

Even though we can’t know for sure how  PSG Talon’s “old roster” compares to the one they fielded in the play-in, we can say with confidence that Rogue are a very strong team and arguably much stronger than what many give them credit for. On a negative note, Rogue can fall apart if their star mid laner Emil “Larssen” Larsson get shut down.

Rogue have shifted their playstyle to focus more around getting an early advantage and since Talon used a similar approach for their play-in games, we can expect a bloody match with plenty of kills on the board.

Predicting the outcome of this match is very difficult, namely because we are picking between two extremely strong rosters. Even though DAMWON Gaming are the League of Legends Champions Korea (LCK) champions, there are arguments to be made the League of Legends Pro League (LPL) is slightly stronger, so JD Gaming’s silver medal could be ranked higher than DMW’s achievement.

We, however, still believe this is DAMWON Gaming’s match to lose. This is by far the strongest team hailing from LCK and while DWG are known as the team that underperforms on the international stage, they have looked much more consistent this split which should result in stable results at Worlds.