$3 Million Kiev Major Begins This Week In Esports Betting

[toc]After several qualifying competitions over the last few months, the first Valve-sponsored $3 million super-event of the year is here. Sixteen of the very best Dota 2 teams are currently competing in the Kiev Major. They’ve battled through the opening group stage with their sights set on the main event, which starts April 27.

The four-round Swiss qualification system means the first two teams with a 3-0 record will earn the top two seeds. That turned out to be Team Secret and Virtus.pro, which both won their opening three games. Team Secret didn’t drop a single round in their three victories, and Virtus.pro lost just one round on their way to the second seed.

The top five is rounded out by three teams with a 3-1 record, including Invictus Gaming, TNC Pro Team, and OG. Six teams finished with a 2-2 record to claim the middle seeds: Team Liquid, Digital Chaos, Thunderbirds, Evil Geniuses, Team VGJ, and Newbee.

Team Random, Team Faceless, and Mousesports finished with just one win and three defeats, while the bottom two seeds are iG Vitality and SG e-sports. Each lost all three games.

From here on, it is a straight knockout event. All matches will be best-of-three games, apart from the final, which is a best-of-five series.

The Kiev Major matchups

Here are the matchups in the initial Round of 16 (team seedings in parentheses):

• Invictus Gaming (3) v Mousesports (14)
• Team Liquid (6) v Newbee (11)
• Digital Chaos (7) v Team VGJ (10)
• pro (2) v iG Vitality (15)
• TNC Pro Team (4) v Team Faceless (13)
• OG (5) v Team Random (12)
• Thunderbirds (8) v Evil Geniuses (9)
• Team Secret (1) v SG e-sports (16)

The winner of the two games adjacent in the draw will contest the quarterfinals. For example, the winner of the Invictus Gaming-Mousesports match will take on the winner of the Team Liquid-Newbee clash.

Kiev Major odds

OG are currently the 4/1 favorites to win the event overall, which is somewhat unusual given that they are fifth seeds. Third-seeded Invictus Gaming are 9/2 alongside the ninth-seeded Evil Geniuses with the top two seeds Virtus.pro and Team Secret both ranked as 5/1 shots with Bet365 Sport. Sixth-seeded Team Liquid are 7/1 shots.

In addition to the Outright market, Bet365 has an extensive Match Winner 2-Way market available for those who wish to bet all the way through the knockout phase of the event. There’s also handicap betting available and the ability to bet on each of the maps (rounds) contested in each game. Don’t forget the Correct Score market either.

No rest for CS:GO players: DreamHack Austin starts Friday

Following SK Gaming’s dominant win at the CS Summit last weekend (earning them a nice $63,750 first prize), three participants from that event will travel to Austin, Texas to participate in the first DreamHack event of 2017, The DreamHack Open.

This is the first of nine scheduled DreamHack events for 2017. The full schedule comprises visits to France, Sweden, Valencia in Spain, Atlanta in Georgia, the Masters at Malmo, Montreal in Canada, Denver in Colorado before the final event of the year back in Jonkoping, Sweden.

Eight teams have made it into the event in Austin, six invited teams Cloud9, Gambit Esports, and Team Liquid (who all played in the recent CS-Summit event), plus Heroic, Immortals, and G2 Esports. They are joined by HellRaisers and Luminosity Gaming, which qualified via the European and North American qualifying tournaments respectively.

The teams have been drawn into two groups for the initial phase and will contest five matches to decide the top two teams in the group. These will be the top two seeds to progress to the semifinals. The groups have been drawn as follows:

• Group A – HellRaisers, Gambit Esports, Heroic, Luminosity Gaming
• Group B – G2 Esports, Cloud9, Immortals, Team Liquid

Once the four semifinalists are known, the top team in each group will face the team finishing second in the other. The winning teams move on to contest the best-of-five final on Sunday.

Bet365 is currently offering esports odds of just 11/8 on G2 Esports being named the champions of this event. HellRaisers are a 7/2 shot, a very short price for a qualifying team and one that suggests they may well have a chance at a big upset. Heroic are 11/2, with Gambit Gaming (runners-up in the CS-Summit last week) a 15/2 shot. Immortals are 9/1, with Cloud9 at 12/1, Team Liquid at 18/1, and Team Luminosity are the 50/1 outside bet.

Bets are also available on which team will reach the final at Bet365. G2 Esports are 1/3, and HellRaisers are 11/10 second favorites.