Team Liquid take on Invictus Gaming Vitality in group A of The International 2017 Dota 2 tournament.
Team Liquid
Team Liquid have had an impressive performance this year and received a direct invite to The International 2017. They won 4 tournaments over the last 5 months and are ranked as the number one team in the world at the moment. These 4 tournaments were: StarLadder i-League StarSeries Season 3 (they played the Grand Finals against VG.J, score 3-1), StarLadder i-League Invitational #2 (they defeated TNC Pro Team, score 3-2), EPICENTER 2017 (3-1 against Evil Geniuses), and DreamLeague Season 7 (3-2 against Planet Odd).
The team’s captain is Kuro “Kuroky” Takhasomi, a former Na`Vi member and TI finalist (in 2013). With his leadership and the help of top players such as Amer “Miracle” Al-Barkawi and Maroun “gh” Merhej, the team has a very high chance of outperforming their opponents at this TI.
Invictus Gaming Vitality
Invictus Gaming Vitality (or iG.V) secured a place at this year’s TI by winning their group in the Chinese regional qualifier. They have one of the best mid-laners in the world, a 9.5K MMR player named Zhang “Paparazi” Chengjun, who won the DAC 2017 Solo Tournament by defeating Team Liquid’s mid-laner (Miracle) in the Grand Finals (score 2-0). However, the team as a whole hasn’t achieved much this year. iG.V took 4th place at the Dota 2 Asia Championships 2017, were eliminated in the first round at The Kiev Major 2017, got 3rd-4th place at the ZOTAC Cup Masters tournament, and 5th-6th place at the Galaxy Battles tournament. Overall, they are ranked as the 15th-20th team in the world at the moment by various eSports websites.
Recent Performances
Head To Head Record
The two teams have only played one match against each other with their current rosters. This match took place at the Dota 2 Asia Championships 2017, during the group stage. Liquid won with the score of 2-0.
Betting Odds And Predictions
Based on both teams’ recent performances, Team Liquid look to be the clear favorites in this confrontation. They’ve been consistently winning tournaments and defeating big teams since the end of The Kiev Major, which leads me to believe they’re at the top of their game and have a high chance of starting off this TI with a victory.
Betway puts the odds at 1.70-2.45-8.90 in favor of Team Liquid. Betspawn gives similar odds: 1.85-2.20-8.50 in favor of the European team.
Still, Invictus Gaming Vitality have recently won a tough group in the Chinese regional qualifier, which is one of the most difficult and contested regions in the world. Furthermore, their mid-laner also defeated Team Liquid’s mid-laner in a recent solo tournament, showing exceptional mechanical skill. So I wouldn’t count out iG.V just yet. In fact, the Chinese team actually has a decent chance of taking one game off Liquid (especially if they get a draft advantage) and making a draw. A victory for iG.V is far fetched in my opinion, and it would basically require Team Liquid to succumb to pressure and simply defeat themselves.
Keep in mind that a lot of special bets are available for this match on websites like betway.com and betspawn.com. Among them, it’s well worth a bet that the games will have less than 50.5 total kills (on betspawn.com), as it is very likely that Team Liquid will not give away too many kills, and will in turn create enough of their own to get a good lead and then force iG.V to give up without much of a fight. In any case, it is unlikely that we’ll see a bloodbath between these two teams, as Team Liquid’s captain is known to be a great tactician and very calculated player. He will most likely fight only when it makes sense to do so, and whether he wins or loses, he will not lead his team into mindless fights that generally translate into a lot of deaths on both sides.
Top Betting Tip
My top betting tip for this match is Team Liquid to win 2-0. The Europeans are simply one of the main contenders going into the tournament, and it is unlikely that Invictus Gaming Vitality can stand in their way.