?The current no.2 on the Korean ESL Pro Tour ladder, Lee “Rogue” Yeol, will take on Europe’s no.4, Raffaele “HeRoMaRinE” Segat for the first time since October 2020, when Rogue won 3-1. That might explain the latest StarCraft II betting odds, but we feel like HeRoMaRinE is underrated.

At $4.33, the esports bookmakers imply HeRoMaRinE has only about a 23% chance of winning, which is very low considering his past performances. The German SCII pro enters this tournament with a 8-2 record and four back-to-back top-four finishes at ESL Ope Cups, including a gold medal from the ESL Open Cup #97 Europe.

Even though Zergs are HeRoMaRinE’s worst match-up (63.50%), his win percentage against the race is still higher than Rogue’s against Terran (57.92%). Thus, Rogue should be favoured, but not by that much. HeRoMaRinE with a map handicap is a safer option, but we’re taking a shot with the outsider.

?Shin “RagnaroK” Hee-bum will clash with Joo “Zest” Sung-wook for the ninth time of 2021 and the 34th time since 2015. Zest has a slight edge over the 33 meetings (24-19); however, their head-to-head record on the year shows a tie at 4-4.

They last met during the Korean King od Battles 2 qualifier in October, when RagnaroK won 2-0, avenging his 0-2 loss from two days prior. Looking further back, Zest won 2-0 in August but lost 3-4 in July, further proving that there isn’t much to separate them.

Regardless, the esports bookmaker have Zest priced as a $1.44 favourite, likely due to his solid performance at ESL Open Cup #97 Europe (2nd). However, we can’t ignore RagnaroK’s success at ESL Open Cup #94 Korea (1st) at the end of October.

There is a chance RagnaroK wins a tightly contested match, but we like the safer option on over 2.5 maps at $1.90.

Riccardo “Reynor” Romiti enters King of Battles 2 off a runner-up finish at ESL Open Cup #94 Europe, where he eliminated Byun “ByuN” Hyun-woo from the quarter-finals with 2-1. It marked his third all-time head-to-head victory and his second consecutive of 2021.

Their previous meeting happened in October when the Italian StarCraft II pro won 3-0 in the semi-finals of the 92nd European ESL Open Cup. ByuN has since played 75 games and lost 15. Meanwhile, Reynor has played seven and lost just one – against Clément “Clem” Desplanches.

ByuN has done well over the last few weeks, so he might win one map, but there’s an equal chance that Reynor wins in two straight. The plus money on the latter outcome makes it easy to pick a bet.

Cho “Maru” Seong-ju won DreamHack Masters 2021 Winter Season Finals on Sunday when he beat Lee “Rogue” Yeol In the finals. But his most impressive performance came in the semis, where the Korean SCII esports pro swept Clément “Clem” Desplanches 3-0.

Grzegorz “MaNa” Komincz has not achieved anything even remotely as impressive of late, nor has he ever won this matchup (0-2). However, the odds we’re getting from the top esports betting sites on the outsider to win one map seem a bit too high.

Maru should win this bout more times than not, but $4.50 on MaNa to collect one map is hard to pass on. This is the opening match of the tournament and MaNa’s best chance to cause some damage, which is why we’re happy to place a smaller wager on the outsider.

Unlike the first match of Group Kashim, this one has far more upset potential. However, that doesn’t necessarily mean that fading Lee “Bunny” Jae-seon is a wise choice.

Looking at Bunny’s performances last month, the Korean pro finished StayAtHome Story Cup #4 and WardiTV Hype Train in ninth-12th place. Meanwhile, his most notable accomplishment came in September, when he placed third in the DreamHack Masters 2021 Fall Season Finals.

Elazer’s situation is worse, seeing how he has not won a single tournament since June (ESL Open Cup #75 Europe) and is 0-2 down in the head-to-head on the year. Furthermore, he has not won against a single good opponent for over a month, excluding back-to-back wins against Riccardo “Reynor” Romiti at the end of October.

Bunny can be a bit dicey at times, and he is more than capable of losing this bout, but everything points towards a 2-0 sweep for the Korean.