Shocks Aplenty At League Of Legends Worlds This Week In Esports Betting

[toc]For many years, Korean teams have dominated the League of Legends Worlds, but could that era of unrivaled success now be coming to an end?

After the first week of action at the LoL World Championships 2016 in San Francisco, there were more than a few eyebrows raised at some of the results.

Inside week one of Worlds 2016

Arguably the biggest shock comes in Group A where the 100/1 outsiders to win the group, Albus NoX Luna, who were 1750/1 to win the event, currently lead the table after three matches, albeit tied in first place with Counter Logic Gaming and ROX Tigers, the Korean team expected to win this division with ease.

With all teams winning two and losing one of their three matches thus far, G2 Esports is left at the foot of the table with three defeats.

It’s equally tight in Group B where SK Telecom T1 and Cloud9 lead the way with 2-1 records, although I May and Flash Wolves have one win and two defeats to their name, so no team is out of contention in that group.

It’s exactly the same situation in Group C with Edward Gaming and ahq e-Sports Club having two wins apiece and H2K and INTZ e-Sports at one.

Group D mirrors Group A with Splyce the surprise 0-3 team at the bottom of the heap and three teams, Samsung Galaxy, Team SoloMid and Royal Never Give Up, all up top with a 2-1 record.

This sets everything up very nicely for the second week of League of Legends action in San Francisco starting on Friday Oct. 7 with the final, crucial games from Group A.

These are followed on Saturday by the final games in Group C in the early hours of the morning, and Group D later in the evening. Group B’s fixtures are then played to a conclusion on Sunday.

What is abundantly clear from this first round of fixtures, however, is that the gap between the very top teams in the world and those on the next tier is getting much smaller.

Not one team goes into the second week of fixtures having been unbeaten in their opening three fixtures, which makes this the most open World Championships in the event’s history.

Betting on Worlds

There are some intriguing bets available this week in the match winner market with Bet365 Esports.

In Group A for example, you can back the current Albus NoX Luna at 9/1 to beat ROX Tigers. Perhaps more tempting is the 5/2 you can get on them to beat both Counter Logic Gaming and G2 Esports (both of whom they defeated in Week One of the event).

Indeed, the esports betting odds on Albus NoX Luna winning the event have come in from 1750/1 at the start of the event to 1000/1 at the time of writing.

[show-table name=cta-alphadraft region=US] [show-table name=cta-bet365 region=ROW]

What is clear is that the esports bookmakers still favour the top Korean sides with the likes of ROX Tigers in Group A, Edward Gaming in Group C and current world champions SK Telecom T1 all long odds on favourites for each of their games in the group.

Those odds, however, don’t seem to take into account the much more competitive element of this year’s event.

Other tempting bets from the next round of fixtures include Cloud 9 being 7/2 shots to defeat SK Telecom T1 in Group B and 11/10 to do the same to Flash Wolves in their next fixture.  You can also get 3/1 on Flash Wolves springing a surprise and defeating SK Telecom T1 in the final match of the opening group stage.

With this being the main event for League of Legends fans, and one of the biggest esports events in the world, there are plenty of betting markets available at Bet365 for the duration of the tournament.

This includes a number of markets based on in game action, such as betting on the team to slay the first dragon, total dragons slain, the team to destroy the first tower, and similar.

With this week seeing the sixteen competing teams halved to eight, who will make the trip east to Chicago for the quarter final stages in the Chicago Theatre on Oct. 13-16, there is sure to be plenty of drama to unfold over the coming days.

Shanghai Dota 2 Open reaches the playoff phase

The Shanghai Dota 2 Open started last week with the Group phase of the tournament as 20 Dota 2 teams competed online for the top prize of 200,000 Chinese Yen.

Following the group phase, eight teams made it through into the double elimination playoffs.

LGD Forever Young and iG Vitality qualified from Group A, Newbee and CDEC Gaming from Group B, EHOME and Braveheart from Group C, and lastly Vici Gaming and EHOME Keen from Group D.

In the main the group sections went very much to the form book with all the stronger sides in the tournament making it through into the quarter finals of the competition.

This tournament is a double chance format with a winners and losers bracket, with losing teams in the initial bracket playing losers round matches to decide the second grand finalist alongside the team that wins through from the quarter final stage.

Already, LGD Forever Young, CDEC Gaming and EHOME, the winners of Groups A-C, have claimed their semi final spot with wins over Braveheart, EHOME Keen, and iG Vitality in the quarter final stages.

Runners up from Group B Newbee claimed the final quarter final spot, defeating Group D winners Vici Gaming 2-0.

Bet365 are offering a number of betting markets on the Shanghai Dota 2 Open over the remaining fixtures for the event, including betting on which team will win Map 1 and Map 2 (you can bet on Map 3 winners if a third map is required to decide the winner).

There is also the chance to bet on the correct score in the game as well as, of course, being able to bet on the match winner, both outright and also with a handicap applied.

Image c/o Riot Esports