by The 2023 League of Legends Championship Series (LCS) season kicks off on Thursday, January 26, with Week 1 of the LCS Spring Split. Check out our selections for 100 Thieves vs Cloud9, Golden Guardians vs Evil Geniuses, and FlyQuest vs Team Liquid, with LoL esports betting odds courtesy of BetOnline.
100 THIEVES vs CLOUD9 LoL BETTING & MATCH DETAILS |
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| Best Odds: | 100T +120 at BetOnline | C9 -163.93 at BetOnline |
| When: | January 25, 2023 | 14:00 PST |
| Watch Live: | Lolesports, Twitch |
100 Thieves decided on quite a shocking roster change this offseason, bringing in two LoL veterans in Søren “Bjergsen” Bjerg and Yiliang “Doublelift” Peng. This is a move that is great for brand recognition and building hype, but the former TSM teammates are hardly top-tier players.
Bjergsen had a tough run with Team Liquid as their mid laner, while Doublelift hasn’t been involved in the competitive scene since 2020. Both are still highly experienced players, but we would have a hard time ranking them as top five in their respective roles.
Cloud9 made just one roster changes ahead of the 2023 season and signed former Vitality.Bee mid laner Dimitri “Diplex” Ponomarev, which is an excellent move. The 19-year-old has shown promise in the European regional league over the last two years, and with C9’s facilities, he’s bound to improve further.
Esports betting sites have Cloud9 priced as -163.93 favourites, which is more than fair. They were an excellent team last season, and with Diplex, Cloud9 can only improve. 100 Thieves, on the other side, have downgraded their roster and are a tier below C9, until proven otherwise.
Cloud9 to win
GOLDEN GUARDIANS vs EVIL GENIUSES LoL BETTING & MATCH DETAILS |
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| Best Odds: | GG +175 at BetOnline | EG -250 at BetOnline |
| When: | January 25, 2023 | 15:00 PST |
| Watch Live: | Lolesports, Twitch |
Evil Geniuses made a couple of changes to its roster this offseason by signing a new ADC Ian Victor “FBI” Huangand top laner Kim “Ssumday” Chan-ho, as replacements for Kyle “Danny” Sakamaki and Jeong “Impact” Eon-young. Losing Danny was a huge blow, but the Australian ADC is serviceable and won’t make the team any worse.
Even though EG’s ceiling isn’t as high as it was, Evil Geniuses are still a solid team and a strong contender for the LCS crown. Golden Guardians put together an experienced lineup, with an average age of over 24 years, which sounds good, but it gives GG very little room for improvement.
Moreover, it’s tough to say that Golden Guardians field top-tier talent in any of the five roles and unless something changes, we expect them to struggle.
We don’t know how the LCS meta will look or how the teams will approach games, but Evil Geniuses should ultimately come out ahead as a superior team. At -125, Evil Geniuses to win by at least six kills looks like a solid play.
Evil Geniuses -5.5 kills
FLYQUEST vs TEAM LIQUID LoL BETTING & MATCH DETAILS |
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| Best Odds: | FlyQuest +110 at BetOnline | Liquid -151.52 at BetOnline |
| When: | January 25, 2023 | 16:00 PST |
| Watch Live: | Lolesports, Twitch |
FlyQuest completely restructured its LoL squad by signing top laner Jeong “Impact” Eon-young, jungler Mingyi “Spica” Lu, former mid laner Lee “VicLa” Dae-kwang, ADC Lee “Prince” Chae-hwan, and support Bill “Eyla” Nguyen.
FlyQuest’s roster looks very solid, with good players in the right places. Impact and VicLa are good (not great) players; Spica is arguably the best North American jungler, Elya has shown a lot of potential last season, while Prince can easily emerge as LCS’s best ADC.
Like FlyQuest, Liquid made significant changes to its roster, adding Park “Summit” Woo-tae, Hong “Pyosik” Chang-hyeon, Harry “Haeri” Kang, and Sean “Yeon” Sung. Seeing Liquid promote two academy players in Haeri and Yeon is nice, but it’s tough to say how they’ll do at the highest level.
FlyQuest and Liquid look fairly evenly matched, but we’re leaning towards FlyQuest as a slightly better team.
