Another week of gaming action kicks off on Monday night and as always, our esports expert Michael Lee has some of his best bets for us to sink our teeth into. This week he focuses in on the LPL Summer 2021 and the EBL Season 9 Playoffs for his three best bets of the night.
ESports Betting Tips: Monday, August 2nd
Bilibili Gaming vs Ultra Prime
LPL 2021 Summer
Bilibili Gaming stunned Invictus Gaming (2-0) last Wednesday and secured their spot in the LoL Pro League (LPL) 2021 Summer playoffs. It was quite a shocking win, but considering how inconsistent Invictus Gaming have been over the season, it doesn't surprise me that they ended up losing that affair – even though IG demolished Top Esports just a day prior.
Bilibili Gaming have been playing well throughout the summer season and seem to be revving up for the playoffs. They're not one of the top teams in the LPL, but they can be challenging to beat on a good day.
Ultra Prime achieved the unthinkable on Saturday when they upset Top Esports (2-1). Unfortunately, that win doesn't mean anything for them since they are already guaranteed a bottom-seven finish.
Bilibili Gaming need to win since they could still improve their seeding and end the season inside the top-six. That should inspire better showings from them; however, BLG are facing a team with nothing to lose, which is never easy.
You should show some respect to Ultra Prime for their upset win against Top Esports, but this is still a weak team that should have no business winning against Bilibili Gaming. BLG can't afford to lose and should be motivated to deliver against one of the worst teams in the league.
BiliBili Gaming -1.5 Maps
$1.86
Rare Atom vs Suning
LPL 2021 Summer
FunPlus Phoenix, Royal Never Give Up, and Edward Gaming are easily three of the best teams in the league currently and the main favourites to win the league title. Below them, we have a group of squads that aren't quite good enough to lift the trophy but are still more than capable of upsetting the top teams. The best team of that bunch are Rare Atom.
Rare Atom have been heavily underestimated throughout this season, and while their record (9-5) isn't spectacular, this team have proven their worth time and time again. With players like Chu "FoFo" Chun-Lan in the roster, Rare Atom should always be considered as a very deadly outsider.
Suning might be the reigning LoL World Championship finalists, but I am not too excited about this team's chances to impress this season. Suning are ranked eighth in the league (8-6 record), a fair representation of this team's strength.
They have solid players, but I wouldn't rank them much higher than an eighth-best team in the league, and even that is under the assumption that they're better than Invictus Gaming. And that would be a bold claim seeing how Suning dropped a map against Victory Five (2-1) last Tuesday.
I'm taking Rare Atom as underdogs in this match every day of the week. If you're feeling lucky, a bet on Rare Atom to cover -1.5 map handicap at 4.00 is also a solid choice at the offered odds.
Rare Atom -1.5 Maps ($4.00)
Zero Tenacity vs Split Raiders
EBL Season 9 Playoffs
Zero Tenacity won the tiebreaker against Crvena Zvezda Esports to crown themselves as the EBL Season 9 regular season champions with an 11-3 record. The only three teams that managed to defeat Zero Tenacity throughout the season were Crvena Zvezda, Nexus KTRL, and Split Raiders, who they will meet in the first round of the EBL Season 9 playoffs.
You could say that Split Raiders had no business winning that match. They were 5.8k gold down at one point and were in a losing position until they produced a well-executed team fight at the Baron Pit, where they caught Zero Tenacity off guard.
Even though Zero Tenacity should have won, I can't defend them for losing. They should be able to create much more chances with the lead they had but were unable to do so.
Even though Zero Tenacity were clearly a much more efficient team throughout the season, this is still a match in a second-division league, where teams often make mistakes that end up losing them the games.
The EBL Season 9 playoffs will be played as BO5, which is a format that is far more accurate in displaying the teams' overall quality. By that logic, siding with Zero Tenacity would make a lot of sense, but I don't believe this match will end in a 3-0 sweep.
Zero Tenacity have weaknesses that Split Raiders should be able to exploit and win at least one map. However, it's unlikely that they'll achieve much more, so I'll take my shot on the correct score market and predict Zero Tenacity to win 3-1.
