Kim “Cure” Doh-wook has met with Byun “ByuN” Hyun-woo 26 times in 2022, most recently during ESL Open Cup #151 Korea at the end of November, when Byun won 2-1. It marked ByuN’s 14th head-to-head victory of the year and his fourth consecutive.

Over that stretch, ByuN has managed just one clean sweep (0-2), with two series ending with just one map separating the two StarCraft II pro players. So considering ByuN’s recent success against Cure, the offered SCII betting odds make a lot of sense.

ByuN is in excellent form and holds a 72.04% win rate in mirrored matchups, whereas Cure’s TvT record over the last 65 outings stands at just 47.69%. Cure is still an excellent player who should do some damage on Saturday, but this is Byun’s game to lose.

ByuN to win 3-0 pays at $4.00, which is a fair price and a solid longshot bet.

Kim “Classic” Doh-woo enters this match as a massive underdog ($4.33), which isn’t too shocking, considering Kim “Cure” Doh-wook is 4-0 up in the head-to-head (10-3 in maps) on the year. Moreover, Cure is 15-5 against Classic since the two first met in 2014 but has not lost a single series since 2018.

The four-year-long streak of dominance Cure has been enjoying is quite impressive, as is his map win rate (67.55%) against his compatriot. So while you could argue that Classic is good enough to compete against any SCII player, Cure is his kryptonite.

If Cure’s last games against Classic are any indication, there’s a very good chance we’ll see another clean sweep, and $3.00 is a very generous offer on the outcome.

Park “DRG” Soo-ho and Byun “ByuN” Hyun-woo last met at the start of November, during PiG Sty Festival 2.0, when ByuN won 2-0. It marked his fifth (5-2) head-to-head victory of the year and 22nd (22-13) since the two first clashed in 2012.

And yet, despite holding an impressive h2h record against DRG, ByuN enters this match priced at $1.53, which seems a bit too generous. Although DRG won (2-1) this affair in September, it was only his first victory since March. Over that stretch, ByuN has won 11 maps to DRG’s five and has swept DRG in two of their last three meetings.

Beyond that, DRG’s recent win rate into Terran players over the last 28 outings is at just 50%. In contrast, ByuN is 86-29 (74.78%) against Zergs over the last 115.

It’s entirely possible that ByuN wins with a 3-0 sweep, but we’ll play it safe and pick the 29-year-old with a -1.5 map handicap.

The final round of Brawler’s Club #37 group stage will see Park “DRG” Soo-ho face off against Kim “Cure” Doh-wook for the eighth time in 2022 and the first time since November when DRG won 3-1. It marked DRG’s second consecutive victory and his third of the year.

Cure is still up (4-3) in the head-to-head this year, but he has managed to beat DRG just once since May (3-0 during Brawler’s Club #32), so it’s fair to view DRG as the favourite. But this is still a 50/50 bout in our book, mainly because the last two head-to-head matches were pretty close.

Even the players’ win rates into the opponent’s race are close to even (49.32% – 50%), so there are a couple of reasons why $1.25 on DRG is a bit too low. A bet on Cure to win at $3.75 is hard to ignore, as it offers excellent value.

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Byun “ByuN” Hyun-woo and Kang “Solar” Min-soo will meet for the first time since last Saturday, when ByuN won 3-1, marking his first head-to-head win of the year (1-9). And not only has Solar won all previous nine meetings, but he is also 27-8 up in maps won over that stretch.

The big question for this match is whether ByuN can repeat his success from last week and defeat Solar for the 40th time in his career (39-49). As much as we would like to believe that ByuN can do it, we have a tough time recommending a bet on the 28-year-old at $2.20.

He defeated Solar last weekend, but this was still his first head-to-head victory since December 2021, and you can’t ignore that. One game alone does not change the fact that Solar has dominated this matchup for the entire year. Solar at $1.61 is a no-brainer pick – we would need to see odds much closer to $3.00 to side with ByuN.

Joo “Zest” Sung-wook and Koh “GuMiho” Byung-jae have met just four times in StarCraft II during 2022, most recently in March, when Zest won 2-1. It marked his third head-to-head victory of the year and his second consecutive.

But even though Zest is the more successful player of the two this year (3-1) and across their entire history (33-21), we have to note that Zest’s last three meetings with GuMiho all reached the final map (2-3, 3-2, 2-1). Zest is still the better player, and he has a good record in Terran (62.43% win rate), but we don’t expect him to dominate the match.

Zest with a -1.5 map handicap at $1.89 is appealing, but we’re getting much more value on the over 4.5 total maps. GuMiho played well against Zest in their last two meetings, so it’s hard to doubt his ability to win at least two maps on Saturday.

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Kim “Shuttle” Yoon Joong and Choi “sSak” Ho Seon will clash for the first time since February, when Shuttle won 1-0 at AfreecaTV StarCraft Team League Season 2, to improve his head-to-head record to 8-6. It’s important to note that 12 out of those 14 meetings happened in 2017 or earlier, so we shouldn’t put too much weight on that number.

Regardless, we don’t believe Shuttle should be priced as high as he is, and would even go so far as to say that the esports betting sites shouldn’t be offering odds higher than $2.00 on the Afreeca Starleague Season 1 champion. He might not be as good as he was in 2016, but he is very effective against Terran players (5-1 in 2021).

What’s more, sSak is 3-7 in his last 10 outings and has played only two games since the start of March. The 32-year-old veteran has beaten stronger players than Shuttle before, but the odds are too low for us to take his side.

Jang “Snow” Yoon Chul is undeniably the better player of the two, and the latest StarCraft II betting odds make it very difficult to argue against that. However, we would not count out Ryoo “Scan” Seung Kohn just yet, especially at this price.

Snow enters this match with a 3-2 record since the start of March, which is not great, considering that his wins came against much weaker players in Choi “yoOn” Yoon Sun, Yoon “huro” Soo Chul, and an amateur ???. Scan, on the other side, has played 19 games in the same stretch and won all but four.

Even though Scan faced mostly weaker opponents, playing so many games has its advantages. Snow should come out ahead more times than not, however, since this is a best-of-one (Bo1) series, it’s not entirely unlikely we might see an upset win.

League of Legends World Championship

DAMWON Gaming’s performances this tournament were quite impressive, but we can’t overlook the fact that G2 Esports are a strong team that usually does well into Korean teams. What’s more, DWG are known as a team that regularly underperforms in high-stakes international matches, whereas G2 thrive in high-pressure situations.

While DWG might be individually stronger, G2 have an upper hand in other departments. Besides the aforementioned advantages G2 have, Korean teams are also far less experienced playing best-of-five (Bo5) series, and usually underperform if the series go the distance, so there is some value in backing G2 Esports to win Game 5.

ESL One Germany

Alliance hold a 8-2 record and a perfect 3-0 run since the start of October. Vikin.gg have seen a similar level of success with seven wins in last 10 and are also 4-2 since the start of the month.

Out of four meetings between Vikin.gg and Alliance since April, each side won twice. Their most recent bout happened in September during the OMEGA League: Europe Immortal Division, where Alliance won 2-0.

Because of their recent success, Alliance come off as a better team, however, they have lost at least one map in seven out of their last nine games. We don’t expect that to change here and like our chances with Vikin.gg to steal at least one map.

Mudgolems’ only two losses in the last 10 came against Vikin.gg and Liquid, which is not terrible considering they went on to sweep both Nigma and Natus Vincere. Meanwhile, Liquid are 7-3 in their last 10 with losses to Secret (0-2), VP.Prodigy (0-2) and Alliance (0-2).

Although we believe Liquid should be slightly favoured over Mudgolems, the $1.49 seems a bit too low. Mudgolems might have lost their most recent bout with Liquid (0-2) two weeks ago, but they are capable of much more than what they have shown that day so we have no issues trusting them to win at least one map and force a three-map series.

ESL India Premiership – Fall 2020

Orgless picked up a few solid wins this tournament, including 16-10 against Phoenix Esports and 16-9 against Reckoning. But they also disappointed with losses against BL4ZE Esports (5-16), We Own All (12-16) and most recently against 2ez Esports (10-16).

2ez Esports lost only one game this tournament against BL4ZE Esports (10-16), but had no real issues when faced with other teams. In all of their wins, 2ez kept their opponents to 10 or fewer rounds which is a fairly impressive feat.

BL4ZE Esports and 2ez Gaming are two of the strongest teams at the tournament, whereas Orgless can hardly be regarded as such since they have yet to show anything that would inspire confidence. We expect another effortless win for 2ez Esports.

2020 Global StarCraft II League Season 3

Unlike most other players who struggled with their form after returning from military duty to StarCraft, Park “Armani” Jin Hyuk is in the prime of his career. Much of it comes down to the fact that the current SC scene is far weaker than how it was back in the day, but that does not take away from Armani’s strong showings which includes a 4-3 win over Joo “Zest” Sung Wook in the quarter-finals.

Cho “Maru” Seong Ju has turned many heads with his commanding 3-1 win over Cho “Trap” Sung Ho and is now only two games short of adding another trophy to his cabinet. Usually, Maru should be the favourite over Armani, and while we would understand if esports bookmakers priced Armani at slightly shorter odds, the current prices make no sense. Maru is overpriced at $2.42, which makes him a no-brainer pick for our prediction.

Stats for his part is a top-tier Korean player. While not as flashy as sOs or as aggressive as Zest, Stats is the perfect example of a defensive protoss. In StarCraft, the most consistent results are achieved by getting slightly ahead in economy or tech while scouting for your opponents’ plan and then countering it with optimal defensive play. Stats’ humble nature makes it easy to underestimate him, but make no mistake, Stats is a force to be reckoned with.

Oddsmakers are currently putting Serral as a fairly substantial favourite to take down the tournament. I’m not convinced. As dominant as Serral may be in the segregated North American and European tournament scene, he has yet to achieve any prominent victories in top-tier Korean tournaments. It is one thing to best Special and Neeb, and quite another to be victorious against elite Korean players. Stats won a GSL super tournament earlier this year and came second to Maru in GSL code S season II. He also had strong results in 2017, including winning a GSL code S and taking second place at the IEM World Championship. Both Stats and Serral advanced to the finals with a 9-1 and this will be a far closer contest than the oddsmakers are presently predicted.

Betting prediction: Sats to win, paying $2.75 at GG Bet.

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