This Week In eSports Betting: Are LoL Aces SK Telecom T1 Now Fallible?
Published: Jan 21, 2016 - Last Updated: Jul 23, 2023
When it came to the best League of Legends eSports teams, 2015 was the year for team SK Telecom T1. After the disappointment of failing to make the World Championships in 2014, the South Korean 
team enjoyed a stellar year of top level LoL eSports gaming.
In May they won the SBENU Champions Spring Event and followed that up just eight days later on the 10th May with a 2nd place finish at the 2015 Mid Season Invitational. They had already qualified for the World Championships by the time they took another 1st place in the SBENU Champions Summer 2015 event, dominating their opponents in the process.
By the time the 2015 Season World Championships rolled around at the end of October 2015, SK Telecom T1 were the hot favourites to lift the title for a second time. The bookies were proven right and hundreds of punters claimed one of the most predictable eSports betting wins as the team rampaged through the event, winning the title with comparative ease.
However a shock was on the cards at the LoL Kespa Cup a few weeks later when as hot favourites, SK Telecom T1 once again seemed set to claim another win. However this time the team ran into Ever in the semi finals and it was Ever that prevailed with a shock 2-0 victory, going on to claim the title with a 3-0 win over CJ Entus in the final.
That defeat precipitated some major changes to the SK Telecom T1 roster with key players, most notably Marin, moving on to pastures new and new faces being drafted in to replace them in readiness for the 2016 season.
That season began a couple of weeks ago with the World Championship qualifier the 2016 LCK Spring event taking place online in Korea (as well as five other similar qualification competitions all around the globe).
Any illusions that SK Telecom T1 would dominate the event soon disappeared after Week One’s fixtures where after a comfortable 2-0 win over CJ Entus in the opening match of the tournament, on the final game of Week 1, SK Telecom were soundly beaten 2-0 by Jin Air Greenwings (who themselves had been beaten 2-0 by Longzhu Gaming earlier on in the week).
This now puts pressure on SK Telecom T1 for their third fixture in week 2 against table topping Samsung Galaxy who have won all three of their clashes thus far. This crucial match is scheduled to take place on 22nd January.
There’s also a number of other matches taking place over this week and also next week when Week 3 matches start. Highlights include KT Rolster against Samsung in Week 3 and Jin Air taking on SBENU also in Week three.
What the opening two weeks of matches in the 2016 LCK Spring has shown is that nothing is ever certain in eSports and for a punter, that can make for some seriously advantageous betting situations if you can get your wager on at the right time.
Check your local eSports betting site for all the latest betting markets on all six of the Spring World Championship qualifier events around the world over the coming week.
Dota 2 Captains Draft 3.0 Qualifiers get under way
Six of the best Dota 2 teams in the world have already been invited into the Captains Draft 3.0 Main Event, and now the search is on for the two qualifiers that will join them in this $100,000 base prize pool event.
The six teams already directly invited into the Main Event are Evil Geniuses, Team Empire, Vega Squadron, Virtus.pro, Team Liquid and Alliance. Two more teams will join them as a result of the qualification competition that is taking place at this moment.
Eight teams are contesting the qualifiers, Mamas Boys, Rox, Digital Chaos, STARK, compLexity Gaming, Power Rangers, Team Spirit and Steak Gaming and the format is a knockout format with a losers bracket.
The first qualifier will be the team that wins each of their quarter final, semi final and final games and thus claims the first qualification spot.
However for the seven losing teams, a second chance losers bracket is also in operation allowing them to progress through to the losers final, where the winner of that match up will also claim a qualification spot alongside the winners bracket winner.
There are plenty of qualification games from both the winners and losers brackets scheduled for the forthcoming weekend, so do check out what the latest odds are with your chosen eSports bookmaker to enjoy a flutter on this popular event.
StarCraft 2 & CS:GO fans eye huge events at the 2016 DreamHack Open Leipzig
If you are looking for the best eSports bets available for StarCraft 2 and CSGO tournaments this weekend, then you should be taking a closer look at the
big multi-eSport event the 2016 DreamHack Open in Leipzig, Germany this weekend.
At this huge event, which also features a number of other eSports gaming events, many of the best StarCraft 2 individual players and CS:GO teams will compete to take home the respective top prize in each of the competitions. Let’s explore each of these two very different competitions in more detail.
DreamHack Open Leipzig StarCraft 2
This multi-phase tournament will see an initial qualification stage where 64 players will compete in a straight knockout game against each other to win a place in the second stage. With $50,000 up for grabs in the tournament, this is certainly one eSports event that all the players will be taking seriously.
After the first stage, the second stage will begin with the 32 qualifiers joining 32 pre-selected seeded players in the second round. Here the players will be drawn into 16 groups of four, each playing the other individuals in their group in Best of Three matches to earn one of the top two places in the group.
The top two in each group then qualify for the playoffs, which is contested as a straight knockout event, consisting of Best of five games throughout the rounds until the final which is a Best of Seven match up. There is no losers bracket in this part of the event with losing teams eliminated.
DreamHack Open Leipzig CS:GO
With a prize pool of $100,000 to be won, this eight team event will be one of the biggest purses competed for by CS:GO teams in the opening months of the 2016 season.
Two qualifiers, SK Gaming and Team Dignitas earned their place alongside six directly invited teams Virtus.pro, Luminosity Gaming, Natus Vincere, Faze Clan, mousesports and Astralis) to line up at this big offline event in Leipzig.
Group A in the event sees Natus Vincere, Luminosity Gaming, Faze Clan and SK Gaming compete against each other for a place in the semi finals. The top two teams from the group progressing into the Semi Finals.
Group B teams are Astralis, Virtus Pro, mousesports and Team Dignitas with, again, the top two making it into the semi finals.
From the semi finals it is a straight knockout to see who will take home the $50,000 first prize.
Check out all the latest odds with many StarCraft 2 and CS:GO games scheduled over the coming games as part of the big 2016 DreamHack Leipzig event.
Since: August 10, 2015
