The penultimate day of group games in the Thunder Fire Spring League sees Royal and Team MAX duke it out in a best-of-two series.
Royal are now sitting second in Group A with three wins and only one defeat after whitewashing Room310 and then playing out a draw with Team Serenity yesterday.
Those clashes highlighted how Royal like to draft according to their enemies’ knowledge of the hero pool.
SEE ALSO: HOW TO BET ON DOTA 2 ESPORTS
They banned Nature Prophet for both games against Serenity, who chose that hero when they played Invictus Gaming earlier in the tournament.
They understood that Roddgee, the position five player, is adept at pressure play and micro-managing the creeps when using Nature Prophet.
Royal drafted Invoker, the only hero in Dota 2 who has 10 skills, and picked Faceless Void to support Phoenix in team fights.
After a tricky start, Royal manoeuvred a dream team fight by executing Chorno and Phoenix’s ultimate abilities at the same time and following up with Invoker’s Tornado and Deafening Blade.
Bet Now Read Review | |
Bet Now Read Review | |
Bet Now Read Review |
Phoenix’s egg was well protected by the team and they took the control of the game after winning the crucial team fight.
Serenity called GG when they realised they had no way of getting at the egg in a team fight.
Team MAX boast a wide pool knowledge, having drafted 10 different core heroes in four games in the group phase.
They include Sven, Phantom Assassin, Ember Spirit, Juggernaut, Pangolier, Timbersaw, Ursa, Death Prophet, Sladar and Brewmaster.
Knowing how to play micro-management skill heroes is very important in this meta of the patch, which suits MAX down to the ground.
They already have a firm grasp on Brewmaster and could further their advantage by playing the likes of Lone Druid, Naga Siren and Beastmaster.
Clever drafting and banning decisions will be key in this encounter, which is why we give Royal a 55% chance of taking the tie outright.
Get on them at $1.77 odds with GG Bet – one of our top-ranked esports betting sites.
]]>After a solid victory over IG Vitality (IG.V) as we predicted yesterday, Newbee will finish the round robin stage of the Thunder Fire Spring League today with battles against Sky Walker Club and Keen Gaming.Luminous (KG.L).
Newbee hold top spot in Group B with four victories and only two games lost.
In game one against IG.V they constructed a pushing strategy by drafting Shadow Shaman and Jakiro as dual supports.
SEE ALSO: BEST BOOKIES FOR DOTA 2 BETTING
Shadow Shaman is best in pushing tower with his ultimate ability – Mass Serpent Ward – summoning 10 Serpent Wards to attack enemy units and structures.
In order to execute their pushing strategy, Dark Seer purchased Guardian Greaves which provides 300 health and 200 mana to nearby allies.
The cooldown time of this item is only 40 seconds, so every member of Newbee was getting 300 health and 200 mana every 40 seconds.
Thanks to this item, they did not need to back out after taking a team fight or tower.
Bet Now Read Review | |
Bet Now Read Review | |
Bet Now Read Review |
Newbee ended the game by the 36-minute mark after securing Phantom Assassin the Aegis of the Immortal by eliminating the opposition Roshan.
In game two they drafted Shadow Shaman as their support again, this time to work with the core heroes, Death Prophet and Lone Druid, in a pushing role.
Death Prophet is one of the best pushers in Dota 2, as his ultimate ability – Exorcism – unleashes up to 24 Spirits that each have attack damage of 58 and significant healing powers.
Keen Gaming.Luminous, the bottom side in Group B, are holding zero points after losing against IG Vitality and For The Dream.
Newbee whitewashed both of those teams, so the outlook is rather bleak for KG.L – especially when one factors in the drafting abilities of Banana and Sansheng, both former coaches.
It should surprise nobody that we are giving Newbee an 80% chance to win this match-up without dropping a game.
Thus, we recommend backing them for a 2-0 whitewash at $1.36 odds with GG Bet.
]]>After a one-day rest, Room310 will continue the group stage of the Dota 2 Thunder Fire Spring League by taking on Team Serenity and Invictus Gaming (IG) in a pair of best-of-two series.
Room310 are currently third in Group A after three victories and three defeats on the opening day.
They displayed some great plays with Keeper of the Light in their match against Newbee Young, picking the hero in position five in both games even though he is weaker as a result of recent patch updates.
SEE ALSO: DOTA 2 ESPORTS BETTING SITES
Room310 played to his strengths, however, using his fast farming ability to provide observer and sentry wards.
After the win over Newbee Young came a clash with Royal, who did their homework and banned Keeper of the Light at the first opportunity in both games.
That move paid off as Room310 lost in straight sets without their preferred hero at position five.
Bet Now Read Review | |
Bet Now Read Review | |
Bet Now Read Review |
Like their upcoming opponents, Invictus Gaming head into Wednesday’s matches with a 3-3 record in Group A.
They banned Keeper of the Light as well in their first game against Team MAX yesterday and won the bout within 25 minutes by drafting Tidehunter and Templar Assassin as their cores.
Templar Assassin is much stronger in the latest patch because his second skill – Meld – can reduce enemy armour up to 20.
However, IG did not ban Keeper of the Light in game two and Team MAX grabbed him immediately in their first picking phase.
Planet, the position four player from MAX, made expert use of the hero by purchasing Force Staff and Blink Dagger, both of which allowed him to get teammates out of trouble.
IG should now understand how annoying Keeper of the Light can be, so it will be a huge surprise if they do not ban the hero when they face Room310.
After running our eye through their heroes’ pool knowledge and drafting strategy, we give Invictus Gaming a 60% chance to win this match-up with 2-0.
As such, our recommendation is to back IG to salute in both bouts at $2.65 odds with GG Bet.
]]>After whitewashing For The Dream with 2-0 yesterday, Newbee now tackle IG Vitality (IG.V) in a battle for top spot in Group B in the Thunder Fire Spring League.
Even though Viper is being nerfed in this latest Dota 2 patch, Newbee still picked the Netherdrake to counter Faceless Void and Elder Titan in their first game against For The Dream yesterday.
Thanks to Viper’s Nethertoxin breaking down the passive skill of FTD’s heroes, Newbee won the game easily.
This team ranks among the best Dota 2 drafters in the world because Sansheng (position four) and Banana (position five) have previous coaching experience at different teams.
Besides them, Sccc, the position two player, has wide heroes’ pool knowledge to work with.
Bet Now Read Review | |
Bet Now Read Review | |
Bet Now Read Review |
IG.V played a total of four games yesterday – two against Flaming Cyborg Alpha and two against Keen Gaming.Luminous.
They picked Lifestealer in three of those contests and Shadow Fiend in two, with the former proving an excellent choice due to his tier-one status in this meta.
Shadow Fiend does not rank on either of the top two tiers in this patch and IG.V can use that to their advantage because Newbee are unlikely to ban him.
Besides of Shadow Fiend and Lifestealer, IG.V also drafted Earth Spirit in both games against KG.L.
Luobo, Vitality’s position four player, illustrated great plays with that hero by roaming around the map early to secure kills and create space for his team.
Newbee definitely have to respect his Earth Spirit and ban this hero.
We give Newbee a 55% chance to win this match-up 2-0, which is paying $1.66 at GG Bet.
]]>For The Dream (FTD) and Keen Gaming.Luminous (KG.L) are poised to do battle in a best-of-two series in Group B of the Thunder Fire Spring League.
Neither of them obtained any points yesterday, with KG.L losing to IG Vitality and FTD going down against Newbee.
For The Dream did not think of banning Viper because he was nerfed in patch 7.21c, but Newbee took advantage of that drafting oversight and picked the Netherdrake to counter Elder Titan and Faceless Void.
SEE ALSO: DOTA 2 BETTING TIPS
Viper’s second ability – Nethertoxin – deals 75 damage per second to any units in range of the attack, lowers their magic resistance and breaks their passive skill.
Faceless Void was unable to bash any target under Nethertoxins and Elder Titan’s third skill does not work under these conditions either.
FTD were totally broken in team fights because Faceless Void and Elder Titan had to position themselves very well and always wasted two seconds to walk out from Nethertoxins.
Bet Now Read Review | |
Bet Now Read Review | |
Bet Now Read Review |
In game two, they drafted Phantom Assassin into Sven, which was questionable because Sven is always a hero to counter Phantom Assassin with his third ability – Warcry – providing shield health to teammates.
Phantom Assassin was unable to eliminate the supports from Newbee because Sven was always able to shield to himself and his allies.
For The Dream have a lot of work to do on their drafting in patch 7.21c.
KG.L displayed better drafts yesterday, picking Shadow Demon as one of the core hero in their first game against IG Vitality.
That did not go well, however, because Vitality’s Shadow Fiend crushed Shadow Demon in the middle lane by constantly pressuring the lane and farming neutral creeps to speed up his item build.
Shadow Demon was unable to farm as fast as Shadow Fiend because he did not have the skills required to clear the neutral camp.
Shadow Fiend had a net worth of 16,700 while Shadow Demon only had 8,600 at the end of the game.
After analysing the two teams’ drafting abilities yesterday, we give Keen Gaming.Luminous a 70% chance to win at least one game in this match-up.
As such, we recommend backing KG.L for the double chance at $1.79 odds with GG Bet.
]]>Team Serenity are holding one point in Group A after tying 1-1 against Invictus Gaming on day one of the Thunder Fire Spring League.
They are playing with a new member as LongGGG recently replaced Jixing at position three.
Team Serenity drafted badly in their game against Invictus, picking Morphing, Chen, Batrider, Puck and Bounty Hunter.
SEE ALSO: DOTA 2 ESPORTS BETTING GUIDE
There was no synergy between these heroes, yet they won the game anyway because their opponents were unable to seal the deal before Morphing and Puck had their six-slotted items.
In game two, they drafted a pushing and global skill combo that included Nature Prophet, Death Prophet and Spectre.
With these picks, they were very strong at ganking enemies who were farming alone in early phase of the game; however, Invictus only let Terrorblade and Razor farm so Team Serenity were unable take them out one by one.
Bet Now Read Review | |
Bet Now Read Review | |
Bet Now Read Review |
Eventually, iG had better farming on Terrorblade and went rampaging against a Team Serenity side that was not well suited to a five-versus-five team fight.
Newbee Young are the only team that still have zero point in Group A because they lost 2-0 against Room310 yesterday.
Surprisingly, they drafted Viper in game one although he was nerfed in patch 7.21c a few hours before the match started, then finished off with Rubick, Earth Spirit, Razor and Weaver.
Viper, Razor and Weaver are core heroes that can push and win team fights in the early phase of the game, but Room 310 crushed them thanks to their incredible last-hitting skill and superior decision-making.
The Newbee crew have a long way to improve to take down Team Serenity, which features star players such as Shadow and Zyd who can overpower them late in the piece.
After looking at each team’s knowledge of the hero pools and the respective talents of each player, we give Team Serenity a 60% chance to win this match-up with 2-0.
Our recommendation is to keep it simple and back the favourites to win at $1.72 with GG Bet.
]]>After scoring one point in Group A on day one, Invictus Gaming (iG) will continue their Thunder Fire Spring League journey by taking on Newbee Young and Team MAX on day two.
iG are playing with Black.z, who is temporarily standing in because the team could not find a suitable player to take over position three.
iG displayed two different drafts yesterday in their games against Team Serenity.
ALSO READ: DOTA 2 ESPORTS BETTING GUIDE
In game one, they drafted Sladar as their position three hero along with Lifestealer and Ember Spirit as their position one and two respectively.
The draft was good because Sladar can decrease enemies’ armour by up to 20 with his ultimate skill, Corrosive Haze.
With this skill casted on enemies, iG always had vision on the targeted enemy for 30 seconds and allowed Ember Spirit or Lifestealer to kill them easily.
Bet Now Read Review | |
Bet Now Read Review | |
Bet Now Read Review |
However, both purchased magical output damage items instead of physical damage output items – a questionable decision because Corrosive Haze does not increase the magical output damage on them.
That game was tight until Puck from Team Serenity hit level 25 and learned the talent of getting 420 golds per minute, after which he eventually crushed iG with Morphing having full items on him.
Team MAX currently hold one point in Group A after drawing their match against ROOM310 yesterday.
They drafted very well in game two, picking Timbersaw after ROOM310 drafted Dragon Knight, Sladar and Lone Druid as their core heroes.
Those three heroes are physical damage dealers and Timbersaw’s third ability – Reactive Armour – provides him with up to 31.2 armour and 31.2 health regeneration per second.
It took at least three heroes from Team MAX to make a successfully gank on Timbersaw, which was crucial in creating space for Juggernaut and Pangolier.
Team MAX’s Juggernaut finished the game a net worth of 24,900, while the highest net worth of ROOM310 was only 12,900 for Dragon Knight.
After running our eye through their draft and item build displayed yesterday, we give Team MAX a 70% chance to win at least one map in this match-up.
Our recommendation is to bet on Team MAX to win the at least one game at $2.73 odds with GG Bet.
]]>