Another night of esports betting tips coming up from our guru Michael Lee this Tuesday, the 6th of April. Tonight he focuses in on the Funspark ULTI 2021: Europe Season 1 and the i-League 2021 for his three best bets of the night.
Esports Betting Tips: Tuesday, April 6th
SAW vs K23
Funspark ULTI 2021: Europe Season 1
SAW and K23 will clash on Tuesday, April 6, in the Funspark ULTI 2021: Europe Season 1 Elimination Match, where they will compete for a spot in the Decider Match and a promotion into the playoffs. SAW last met with K23 in December 2020 at European Development Championship 1, when the Kazakhstani squad won with 16-11 and 16-13.
Despite that loss, SAW are still viewed as the stronger team, which has its reasons, considering they are 8-2 and hold a 60.5% win rate across the last three months. K23 have managed a much worse 5-5 record in the same stretch and put together a poor 38.9% win rate since January.
If we look at those numbers alone, it's easy to see that SAW are in better form. On top of that, they also have a much better map pool, as they hold a better win rate on Inferno (56%-44%), Nuke (68%-0%), Train (33%-0%), Overpass (46%-45%), and Vertigo (62%-33%).
Despite what those numbers might suggest, I still believe K23 have a much higher ceiling and are overall a much more stable team with way more firepower. Although I don't expect an easy match for K23, they have the needed tools to steal the win, or at least force a tight series.
Copenhagen Flames vs HAVU
Funspark ULTI 2021: Europe Season 1
Copenhagen Flames and HAVU will meet in Funspark ULTI 2021: Europe Season 1 Group D Winners' Match, where they'll decide which of the two sides will secure their spot in the playoffs, and which will have to defeat the winner of K23 vs SAW for the final spot in the postseason.
The betting odds show HAVU as 1.20 favourites against Copenhagen Flames and I don't believe this is any sort of overreaction by the bookmakers. The Finns have been playing extremely well in March and are 8-2 across their last 10 fixtures.
The only two losses HAVU have suffered during the stretch of the last 10 games came against Dignitas and Gambit. However, they've also beaten BIG, ENCE, Ninjas in Pyjamas, and GODSENT, who are all much stronger than Copenhagen Flames.
Copenhagen Flames are 5-5 in their last 10 and it certainly doesn't help that they played teams significantly weaker than HAVU's recent opponents. Last month CPH lost against OFFSET, Nexus Gaming, K23, Endpoint and Tricked, which does not convince me this team is very strong.
CPH and HAVU last met just under a month ago at Pinnacle Cup, where HAVU won 2-0 with 16-11 on Overpass and 16-10 on Train, and I expect to see another one-sided result here. It's also worth mentioning that HAVU have a win rate advantage on all maps except for Vertigo (0%-74%), but since this map is perma-banned by the Finns, CPH will have to step it up big time to stand a chance.
Royal Never Give Up vs Elephant
i-League 2021
Elephant and Royal Never Give Up met six times throughout 2020, but not once since OGA Dota PIT Season 4 in December. Out of those six head-to-head bouts, each side won three, albeit it was Elephant who won both of the last two, so it should be too shocking to see them priced as the favourites for this bout.
After struggling to achieve much in 2020, RNG decided to make a few roster changes ahead of the new season. In late December, RNG signed Su "Flyby" Lei as a replacement for Sun "Srf" Runfa and most recently added Deng "Dstones"' Lei, who replaced Gao "Setsu" Zhenxiong due to health issues.
Although replacing Setsu just weeks before a big tournament won’t do their synergy any favours, RNG have not looked all that bad in their 2-0 win against MagMa on Sunday, nor do I have anything bad to say about their results from March, when they dominated the lower division of Chinese Dota Pro Circuit (DPC) league.
Elephant have made a name for themselves last year by winning the OGA Dota PIT Season 4, and they did not disappoint in 2021 either, having finished fifth in the upper division of the Chinese DPC league, on top of securing a bronze medal at FMWH Dota2 Championship Season 3 earlier last month.
Despite their relative success, Elephant have not looked too sharp recently - they're 4-6 in their last 10, which includes losses against Aster, PSG.LGD, VICI (twice) and EHOME (twice). Despite their slump, Elephant should still walk away with a win, but I don't believe they will come out without dropping a map.
