?Sparking Arrow Gaming are already guaranteed to drop to the lower division for the next season. Not only have they failed to win a single match, but SAG have also lost all 12 maps they have played. Xiao “XCJ” Chaojian and his crew enter this match on a 12-game losing streak that includes eight clean sweeps as well as losses to semi-pro teams such as Digital Gaming and ShenZhen.

Even though Vici Gaming aren’t in the best form, they’re still significantly better than SAG. Vici enter this match on a six-game winning streak and have also beaten SAG in all of their last four meetings. Expect a quick, straightforward victory for Ding “Dy” Cong’s side.

These two teams last met at the start of the month, when Team Aster won with 2-1 and 2-0. The previous three meetings of 2021 ended with two cleans sweeps for Aster and one 2-1 victory for Elephant.

Since their last clash, Aster have played out four fixtures and won only two – against MagMa (2-1) and Royal Never Give Up (2-1). Elephant were far less convincing with only one win from their last three, albeit they had to face much tougher teams in Invictus Gaming (2-0), Vici (0-2) and PSG.LGD (0-2).

Aster don’t need to win this match to secure the top seed, but they can’t afford to get swept either. On the other side, Elephant require a clean victory to lock in a top-four finish and a ticket for the WePlay AniMajor. Expect a close bout with three maps played.

?Invictus Gaming are 5-4 since they won the ONE Esports Singapore Major, which isn’t great, but it doesn’t show any major signs of struggle either. Royal Never Give Up, on the other side, are 2-5 in their last seven outings, which includes a 0-2 loss to IG just a week ago.

IG have cooled down a bit since their trip to Singapore, but they’re still playing well, whereas RNG hardly produced anything that would make us excited about them. Although they picked up a 2-0 win against Team MagMa (who beat IG 2-1) on Friday, RNG consistently underperform against the top teams.

If we don’t count their wins against EHOME last month and Team Aster in December 2020, RNG haven’t won a single match against a top-tier team since November 2020, when they beat IG (2-0). Until RNG start showing some improvement, we can’t trust them to win games like this..

?Vici Gaming and Elephant last met at the start of March, when Vici claimed a hard-fought 2-1 victory. It marked their fourth head-to-head win and their second of the year, adding to a 2-0 sweep that happened just two days prior.

Vici have since produced decent results, but nothing that would make us overly excited about them. While they’re still one of the strongest teams in the region, Vici are far too inconsistent for us to believe they’ll have an easy time on Friday.

Elephant are trying to make a name for themselves at the highest tier of the competition and so far they’re doing a good job. Although they still lack some quality to beat top teams consistently, they always put up a good fight.

Across the last month, Elephant forced Invictus Gaming and PSG.LGD to three maps (1-2), so they should do more than fine against Vici as well. An upset win for Elephant isn’t entirely unlikely, but we are satisfied with the Dota2 betting odds offered on over 2.5 maps.

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After a disappointing performance at the ONE Esports Singapore Major where Team Aster won only one of eight games, Du “Monet” Peng and co. have found some serious traction with wins over the likes of EHOME, Royal Never Give Up, Invictus Gaming, PSG.LGD, and Vici Gaming.

Sparking Arrow Gaming, on the other side, are having an entirely different experience. They’re without a win in their last nine, which includes losses against semi-pro teams, as well as Team Aster (1-2) at the start of March.

On paper, Aster are a significantly better team than SAG. That said, They tend to underperform when faced with weaker opponents.

The esports bookmakers believe Sparking Arrow have only a 35.5% chance of winning one map, which seems a bit low. While their form isn’t great, SAG usually do well against Aster, so we have to take a shot with the underdogs.

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These two teams last met just a week ago at i-League 2021, where EHOME reverse-swept PDG.LGD to claim a 2-1 win. It marked their third head-to-head victory of the year (3-2) and their second in a row.

Out of all Chinese Dota 2 rivalries, this one is perhaps the most unpredictable. These two sides swapped two players back in September 2020, when Yang “Chalice” Shenyi and Jian Wei “xNova” Yap left PSG.LGD for EHOME and were replaced by Cheng “NothingToSay” Jin Xiang and Zhao “XinQ” Zixing.

This gives each team a solid understanding of how the other functions, where their strengths and weaknesses are, and how to exploit that. These meetings have become a complete coin-flip since those roster changes, and we expect that trend to continue. Take the plus money on EHOME.

?Invictus Gaming will play out their first fixture of the tournament against Team Aster on Tuesday, April 27. It will mark the fourth meeting between these two sides in 2021 and their 37th clash since they first met in 2018.

IG last played Aster in March and lost 0-2, marking their second head-to-head defeat of the year. Regardless of that defeat, IG enter this match in much better form, having won ONE Esports Singapore Major 2021 just three weeks ago.

Aster also took a shot at winning the Major, but they failed miserably. Du “Monet” Peng and co. managed only one win out of eight games played, and finished the tournament in ninth-12th place.

Neither of the two Chinese Dota 2 squads played a single official match since then, so some ring rust is expected. Regardless, you can’t make a strong case against IG who are in their prime form.

?Vici Gaming and PSG.LGD both enter this match off a three-week hiatus from competing. They were last active at the Singapore Major, where Vici ended in seventh-eight, while PSG.LGD clawed their way to a third-place finish.

PSG.LGD’s only two losses at the tournament came against the eventual finalists in Evil Geniuses (1-2) and Invictus Gaming (1-2), so they’re arguably the current third-best team in the world. That, however, doesn’t mean much when predicting the outcome of a regional derby like this one.

The rivalry between Vici and PSG.LGD dates back to 2013, with these two sides playing 118 head-to-head bouts since. PSG.LGD have won 52.54% of those bouts, which isn’t enough for us to view them as the stronger side, granted they have won two out of their three meetings in 2021 (2-1-0).

PSG.LGD come off as a stronger side due to their successful run in Singapore. That said, we don’t expect a one-sided affair. Vici historically do well against PSG.LGD and there’s nothing that would suggest that will change here.

?Elephant and ViCi Gaming will clash on Saturday for the first time since December 2020, when Elephant won their first head-to-head bout (2-1) after losing the previous two. Elephant have kept their roster intact since then, whereas ViCi lost their star carry Nuengnara “23savage” Teeramahanon to T1 and replaced him with Yang “Erica” Shaohan.

Since their last clash with Elephant, Vici have played only seven games and won all but two, although most of their wins came against weaker sides in Team MagMa, LBZS and Aster. Elephant have played eight games during that stretch and won all but three, including victories against PSG.LGD (3-1, 2-1) and last week’s sweep of EHOME.

Elephant occasionally drop the ball against weaker sides, but they tend to perform better against stronger teams, which should work in their favour for this match. Although we expect Elephant to win, it won’t be a one-sided affair. All of their previous previous meetings with Vici have gone to three maps, and we are backing that trend to continue.