We welcome in the new week with another big day of Esports action on Monday, July 12th. Esports expert Michael Lee is back and today he takes a look at three matches from the LPL 2021 Summer and the Domination League Season 2 . Check out his Esports betting tips below!
ESports Betting Tips: Monday, July 12th
LGD Gaming vs Edward Gaming
LPL 2021 Summer
LGD Gaming and Edward Gaming will clash on Monday, July 12, in the opening match of the 2021 League of Legends Champions Korea (LCK) Summer. EDG are the current league leaders with a 9-1 record which sits them two wins above Rare Atom.
LGD Gaming are ranked only 10th with a 5-5 record and a somewhat underwhelming 12-12 map difference. Obviously, there is a reasonably large performance gap between the two, so it doesn't surprise me to see EDG priced as 1.18 favourites to claim their 10th win of the season.
The season is still very young, however, I don't believe much will change in the remaining four weeks, at least as far as EDG's power is concerned. They're by far the most efficient team in the league, with some of the best players on their roster.
Although it's not fair to say that a team is flawless, EDG are very close to achieving that. They like to play slow and put a lot of emphasis on scaling, which works wonders for them. This approach has one weakness, however, and that are aggressive early-game teams.
As seen two weeks back, Top Esports managed to take advantage of EDG's weakness, but we have to consider that Top Esports are one of the best teams in the world.
Although LGD could choose to approach this game with an early-game composition, the lack of individual talent will be a huge handicap in their quest to cause an upset. LGD are still a solid team and potential playoffs candidates, but they can't compare to EDG on an individual level.
There's a good reason why LGD are priced as 4.80 underdogs. Edward Gaming have been just too clean across the season for me to believe LGD have a serious chance to cause an upset or come even close to it. Take the LPL frontrunners to add yet another 2-0 sweep to their record.
Edward Gaming -1.5 Maps
$1.69
Rare Atom vs FunPlus Phoenix
LPL 2021 Summer
The day will end with an exciting fixture between the 2019 League of Legends world champions FunPlus Phoenix and the up-and-coming Rare Atom. Both teams have been enjoying their run through the summer split, but there can only be one winner, and this match could have heavy implications on which team will join Edward Gaming atop the standings.
Rare Atom hold a 7-2 record and a very solid 68% map win rate (15-7). FunPlus Phoenix are 6-3 after five weeks of play and have won 14 out of 22 maps played (14-8). As their record would suggest, Rare Atom and FPX are fairly evenly matched, and the betting odds fairly reflect that.
Rare Atom are slight underdogs at 1.92, while FPX enter the match as favourites, priced at 1.86. While I believe both teams have been playing well, I wouldn't favour FPX for this clash.
Last week, FPX announced two big roster changes. They replaced Jang "Nuguri" Ha-gwon with Ping "xiaolaohu" Xiao-Hu due to poor performances and were a couple of days later forced to promote ADC Liu "JingYi" Zi-Yan, who took over for support Wei "Shenyi" Zi-Jie, who is dealing with health issues.
Since FPX now field two ADCs, Lin "Lwx" Wei-Xiang had to switch his role and took over as the new support. While he has done well against LGD Gaming on Friday, FPX didn't look as dominant as they did with their usual starting roster.
Small weaknesses like that won't show against weaker teams, but they could make a considerable difference in matches where FPX will meet an equally strong opponent such as Rare Atom. Take Rare Atom to win!
Izako Boars vs GamerLegion
Domination League Season 2
Izako Boars won four of their last five matches against Illuminar Gaming (2-1), PACT (2-0), MAD Lions (2-0), and KOVA (2-1), but were unable to stop Copenhagen Flames (0-2). GamerLegion managed a 2-3 record in their last five, with losses to Team LDLC (0-2), mouz NXT (8-16), and forZe (2-0).
Gamer Legion's only two wins came against bankaPEPSI (2-0) and Ambush (2-0). By beating Ambush and bankaPEPSI GamerLegion are now only one win away from securing their spot in the Domination League Season 2 playoffs, but I have a hard time praising GL too much for those Ws.
Ambush and bankaPEPSI are two of the weakest teams at the tournament, so beating them isn't exactly an accomplishment. I also can't be too excited about GamerLegion, who dropped double digits in each of the two maps.
Izako Boars, meanwhile, had to defeat MAD Lions and KOVA, who are nothing special, but much stronger teams than bankaPEPSI and Ambush. Even in their loss against the Flames, Izako Boars played well and would have easily won had they not lost 12 of 15 rounds in the first half of the first map.
Izako Boars shouldn't be priced as 2.25 underdogs. Even though the Polish squad added two new players in Karol "Enzo" Lasota and Arek "Vegi" Nawojski at the start of the month, both have been playing well and seem like they feel comfortable in the new team. Take Izako Boars to defeat Gamer Legion!
