League Of Legends Worlds 2016 Commences In San Francisco This Week In Esports Betting
[toc]With five weeks of action spread across four different venues in four iconic cities in the United States, stretching from the West Coast to the East and then back again, the biggest and certainly one of the most popular esports events of the year, the League of Legends 2016 World Championships got underway this week.The event kicked off on Thursday in the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco, with a Prime Time League preamble.
The official tournament, however, started at midnight UK time on Friday, with the official opening ceremony followed by the first game of the tournament between G2 Esports and Counter Logic Gaming.
The first two weeks of competition take place in San Francisco. After these two weeks, the outcome of the group stage will be known and the eight teams qualified will head onto the next venue.
That venue is the Chicago Theatre in Illinois, where the quarterfinals will be contested from the 13th to the 16th October.
The semi finals then take place in New York at Madison Square Garden on the 21st and 22nd of October before the two finalists head back west to Los Angeles to the STAPLES Center to contest the final on the 29th October.
The prize money is a massive $1,000,000 for the winner, with $250,000 for the runner up. Each of the losing semi finalists will receive $150,000 with the fifth to eighth placed sides taking home $75,000 apiece.
The teams finishing third in the group phase each receive $45,000, while the bottom placed teams in the league format earn $25,000 apiece.
League of Legends Worlds 2016 Group Stage
In the group stage, to ensure every team has a fair chance of progressing, the 16 teams are split into four groups of four and they will play each team in their group twice over the fortnight of group stage action in San Francisco.
The groups were drawn on a special show on the 10th September 2016 and the teams were allocated into the following groups (click on the group to read our analysis of each team within the group):
- Group A – Counter Logic Gaming, ROX Tigers, G2 Esports, Albus NoX Luna
- Group B – SK Telecom T1 (defending champions), Cloud9, Flash Wolves, I May
- Group C – ahq e-Sports Club, H2K, Edward Gaming, INTZ e-Sports
- Group D – Team SoloMid, Royal Never Give Up, Splyce, Samsung Galaxy
The teams will play their six fixtures across eight days of action over the coming fortnight and Bet365 esport will have a huge amount of esports betting markets available across all the match ups in the group stages.
Group betting
In Group A, Korean aces ROX Tigers, many people’s tip to win the competition this year are a huge 1/20 to win the group, with G2 Esports a 7/1 shot, Counter Logic Gaming 14/1 and Albus NoX Luna the huge 100/1 outsiders in terms of esports betting odds.
Current holders of the title, SK Telecom T1, are the 1/10 favourites to win Group B unsurprisingly, with Flash Wolves a 7/1 shot, Cloud9 a 16/1 chance and IMay 18/1 in what looks like being a more evenly contested group, especially for that second qualification spot.
The biggest favourites for the Group Winner bet however are Edward Gaming in Group C who are a huge 1/50 to win their group. You can get 10/1 against ahq e-Sports Club, 14/1 on H2k and a huge 80/1 on INTZ to cause one of the biggest upsets in the competitions history by winning the group.
Group D is the most closely contested group with Splyce at 20/1 the only real outsider bet here. Samsung Galaxy and Team SoloMid are the joint favourites to win Group D at 13/8 with Royal Never Give Up a close second favourite at 15/8.
[show-table name=cta-alphadraft region=US] [show-table name=cta-bet365 region=ROW]To win outright
ROX Tigers are the 7/4 favourites to win the title, just ahead of the current holders SK Telecom T1, who are 15/8 shots. Edward Gaming are their closest rivals at 3/1.
After those three teams, you can back Samsung Galaxy or Team SoloMid at 16/1 right the way up to INTZ and Albus NoX Luna, who are both 1750/1 shots with Bet365.
Remember to tune in to Bet365 Sport – or whichever esports betting sites you prefer – over the next couple of weeks to check out all the latest match betting on this biggest of esports events.
Also remember to check their in play betting service as often you can bet in play on top esports events live with this esportsbook. If daily fantasy esports are more your thing, be sure to check out our DFS Worlds lineup suggestions.
StarCraft II KeSPA Cup continues through to a close
Alongside the massive League of Legends Worlds this week, another big event will come to a close on Monday 3rd October after two weeks of top class action. The StarCraft II KeSPA Cup 2016 will see the group stage concluded by the 30th September.
The knockout stage will take place on the 2nd and 3rd October to decide the overall champion.
Currently, only one group has been finalised and that has seen something of a surprise as two talented Korean players, ByuN and Rogue, were eliminated from the competition, with Need and Zest progressing into the Playoff stage.
The remaining three groups will be played to a conclusion over the next few days with five games scheduled to take place in each. Remember to check back to Bet365 Sport for all the latest match betting on this big event.
ESL One New York 2016 offers plenty of superb CS:GO betting
Additionally, if you are a fan of Counter Strike: Global Offensive, then the huge offline ESL One New York 2016 event takes place from the 30th September through to the 2nd October, with a $250,000 prize fund up for grabs for the eight qualified teams.
The eight teams (Astralis, Fnatic, G2 Esports, Team Liquid, Natus Vincere, OpTic Gaming, SK Gaming and Virtus.pro) will battle it out in a Swiss group over five rounds of action.
Then the four teams that qualify following these five rounds will battle it out in the playoffs semi finals. The winners of those games will go on to contest the final and a chance to battle it out for the $125,000 top prize.
This promises to be a more open event than the LoL Worlds, with the esports bookies currently having SK Gaming as the 7/4 favourites, Natus Vincere are 7/2, Virtus Pro 4/1 and G2 Esports at 11/2 shots.
Fnatic are 6/1 and arguably these five teams are where most of the smart money will go.
For an outside bet you can take Astralis at 11/1 or Team Liquid at 22/1. OpTic Gaming are the 40/1 outsiders to lift the title.
Remember to tune in to Bet365 Sport’s esports betting section for all the latest betting on this CS:GO event plus many others taking place over the next week or so.
Image credit: Riot / Flickr.com