The International 2016 Continues With Plenty Of Dota 2 Action This Week In Esports Betting

[toc]After our preview of the Dota 2 The International 2016 promised an exciting tournament, now that the draws for the opening phases of the competition have been made, esports fans and esports betting enthusiasts can now take a closer look at the crucial opening two phases of the richest esports tournament in history.

Dota 2 The International 2016

Over the past week, the prize money has swelled from around $18.7 million up to an incredible $19.4 million and there is the chance that it could go higher with further sales of the Dota 2 Client Battle pass ($9.99 apiece) allowing users the chance to tune in and watch the action from Seattle’s KeyArena, which seats 17,000 people.

Wild card phase

The four teams that qualified from each of the four geographic areas (America, China, Europe and Southeast Asia) for the wild card phase have now been informed who their opposition will be in the Upper Bracket Semi Finals.

• EHOME (China) versus Execration (Southeast Asia)
• Escape Gaming (Europe) versus compLexity (Americas)

The two losing teams from this round of matches will battle it out in the lower bracket round 1, with the winner of that progressing into the lower bracket final. The winner of that will qualify for the group stage.

[show-table name=cta-alphadraft]

The two winners of the upper bracket semi finals will then face off in the upper bracket final, with the winner qualifying for the group stage and the loser getting a second chance in the lower bracket final to claim that coveted group stage spot.

Group stage

The draw for the group stage, minus the two wild card qualifiers, has now been made and as such, it is much clearer to see what each team needs to do to reach the latter stages of the tournament now.

The 14 group stage qualifiers have been drawn into two groups – A and B – and each team will play the other teams in their group once in a best of two format.

Teams receive three points for a win, one for a draw and no points for a loss.

The draws for the group have divided the teams as follows:

Group A

• OG
• Alliance
• Wings Gaming
• Natus Vincere
• Evil Geniuses
• LGD Gaming
• TNC Gaming
• One wild card qualifier

Group B

• Newbee
• Team Secret
• Vici Gaming Reborn
• MVP Phoenix
• Digital Chaos
• Fnatic
• Team Liquid
• One wild card qualifier

The top four teams in each group qualify for the upper bracket with a direct route into the Grand Final for the overall winner.

The bottom four teams in each group, plus the losers at each stage of the upper bracket tournament, will all drop into the lower bracket at various phases to contest the second Grand Final spot.

Dota 2 betting on The International

Now that the initial draws have been made, there has been a marked move in the odds on teams involved in the competition.

Team OG, who were favourites last week, remain so at 3/1, but their esports betting odds have lengthened from the 5/2 that they were last week. Team Liquid have drifted from 9/2 right out to 5/1 while both Newbee and Wings Gaming have come in to 9/2 to be joint second favourites.

You can bet on which team will lift the title, as well as a host of other betting markets such as which team will reach the final, which region the winner will come from, individual group betting, as well as a variety  of Match Winner and Map Winner bets all at Bet365 Sport both right now and throughout the tournament until it reaches an end on Sunday 13^th August.

CS:GO StarLadder i-League StarSeries Season 2 nears group stage finale

After Virtus.Pro’s stunning victory in the ELEAGUE Season 1 last weekend, it goes to show that anything can happen in the hugely competitive world of esports.

And with the the exciting StarLadder I-League StarSeries Season 2 at the qualifying stage, a host of CS:GO teams are lined up to try and claim a place in the Local Area Network finals.

The European Union qualifiers in this popular have been in action for a short while now and already two groups have seen the two teams qualifying for the playoffs decided.

In Group A, Team Kinguin emerged as the clear winners with an impressive 3-0 record and joining them in the playoffs are GODSENT who edged past Pride Gaming and PENTA Sports to claim the second spot in the playoffs.

In Group B it was much tighter with Mortal Kombat and ALTERNATE aTTaX earning the spots in the playoffs with a 2-1 record apiece, while ENCE eSports and Epsilon eSports both missed out having amassed a 1-2 record.

Group C has already seen three games played and at the moment it is Team Dignitas that lead the way with a 2-1 record, although they could be overtaken by Team X who have won their only game so far, while NokSuKao and Team AGG are both winless after their opening game.

After this the four teams in Group D, Team Spirit, Hellraisers, Gambit Gaming and fruits will battle it out for the final two qualifying spots from the 4^th through to the 7^th August, by which time all eight teams that have qualified for the playoffs will be known.

Bet365 esport are offering a number of CSGO betting markets on each of the games taking place in the StarLadder i-League over the coming week, including betting on the result of each of the group stage matches taking place. The site are also offering plenty of map betting, as well as handicap betting on each of the matches and plenty more.

With a number of fixtures scheduled to take place over the next few days as the final group places are decided and the places in the playoffs finalised, there has never been a better time to enjoy some quality esports betting at Bet365 Sports.