by League of Legends Mid-Season Invitational 2023 enters the second round of the play-in stage on Wednesday, May 3. Check out ESB’s selections for Bilibili Gaming vs Movistar R7 and Golden Guardians vs GAM Esports, with LoL esports betting odds courtesy of BetOnline.
BILIBILI GAMING vs MOVISTAR R7 LoL BETTING & MATCH DETAILS |
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| Best Odds: | Bilibili -10000 at BetOnline | R7 +1600 at BetOnline |
| When: | May 3, 2023 | 13:00 BST |
| Watch Live: | Lolesports, Twitch |
Group A of the 2023 Mid-Season Invitational play-in stage kicks off with a one-sided meeting between LoL Pro League (LPL) runners-up Bilibili Gaming and Liga Latinoamérica (LLA) champions Movistar R7.
Movistar R7 are priced (+1400) as the least-likely team to qualify for the main stage, whereas Bilibili Gaming are the clear favourites (-2000) to reach the next stage. The odds alone should be enough to show how this match will go.
LLA teams have never performed well on the international stage, and very rarely have they won against a team from a major region. One exception happened at the 2020 LoL World Championship, when Movistar R7 (as Rainbow7) won a series against LGD Gaming.
This is a David-and-Goliath type of match where the question is not whether Bilibili will win, but how they’ll do it. Esports betting sites have set the kill line at 13.5, which is a high number, but knowing that lesser teams often opt for a more aggressive composition as their only win condition, we expect a bloody affair.
Bilibili Gaming -13.5 kills
GOLDEN GUARDIANS vs GAM ESPORTS LoL BETTING & MATCH DETAILS |
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| Best Odds: | GG -175.44 at BetOnline | GAM +125 at BetOnline |
| When: | May 3, 2023 | 16:00 BST |
| Watch Live: | Lolesports, Twitch |
While the first match of Group A might not be interesting for those hoping for close series, this one might. Golden Guardians and GAM Esports look evenly matched talent-wise; however, even though GAM are priced shorter to win the tournament, they enter this series as underdogs.
This doesn’t mean much in the bigger picture, but it shows that people have more faith in GAM to produce a deeper run in the tournament. That’s not so shocking since Golden Guardians are a one-dimensional team and shouldn’t be priced as -175.44 favourites with LoL betting sites.
The only scenario where those odds would be somewhat fair is if Golden Guardians get to start on the blue side. But since we don’t know which team will start where, this seems more like a 50/50 series than anything else.
At plus money, there’s value in backing GAM Esports to come out on top. They hail from a strong region, and their early-game aggression could be the key to shutting down Golden Guardians, who rely way too much on gaining early leads.
