OG take on Infamous in the lower bracket of The International 2017 Dota 2 tournament.
OG won both Majors organized by Valve in the 2016-2017 competitive year, being rewarded 1 million dollars for each of them. They also took 2nd place at the Dota 2 Asia Championships a few months ago. However, in spite of these great results, OG have looked shaky and had a series of poor performances prior to The International 2017. The patch that came right after The Kiev Major nerfed their most utilized strategies (which involved illusion based heroes) and as a result, the team has had difficulties at competitions and struggled to adapt to the new version of the game ever since.
Under the leadership of Sébastien “7ckngMad” Debs (their coach) and Tal “Fly” Aizik (their captain), OG have had a decent performance so far at The International 2017, finishing the group stage with two wins (against Cloud 9 and HellRaisers), five draws (against Digital Chaos, Execration, Invictus Gaming Vitality, LGD Forever Young and Newbee), and one loss (against Virtus.pro). Still, the points they accumulated weren’t enough to secure them an upper bracket start, so the Europeans will have to play in the lower bracket during the main event.
Infamous
They qualified for The International 2017 by winning the South American regional qualifier. The region had a single qualification spot reserved and it was supposed to go to SG e-sports, the team who had participated in The Kiev Major and had defeated Team Secret in the tournament’s round of 16. However, it was Infamous who claimed it after defeating SG e-sports with a 3-0 score in the Grand Finals of the second phase of the competition.
Infamous were regarded as a heavy underdog at the start of this year’s TI, and the predictions about this mostly unknown team turned out to be correct. They finished the group stage with one win (against Invictus Gaming Vitality), three draws (against Team Empire, Fnatic and Team Secret), and four losses (against Evil Geniuses, LGD, Team Liquid and TNC). Ultimately, they dodged direct elimination by taking 8th place in their group with 5 points.
Head To Head Record
With their current rosters, the two teams have never played against each other.
Betting Odds And Predictions
Based on the two team’s performances during the group stage of The International 2017, OG should easily win this match. They have a lot more tournament experience and incomparably better results in the 2016-2017 competitive year. They’re also known as a team that can adapt on the fly and make great comebacks after a slow start, both in matches and tournaments. This battle is a Bo1 however, so the best you can do is watch the drafts and make up your mind based on that. If Infamous manage to outdraft them, they might just lose to the South American team. But if no serious advantage is gained during this phase, OG will most likely outplay their opponents throughout the game.
Betway puts the odds at 1.25-3.55 in favor of OG. Betspawn gives similar odds in favor of the European team: 1.26-3.47.
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 OG will win destroy the first barracks. Another bet worth considering is that OG will be the first to get 20 kills, as they are likely to take early control over the game and then snowball from there.
Top Betting Tip
My top betting tip for this match is OG to win 1-0. They’re in the lower bracket simply because they had a rough start at this TI, and lost the upper bracket for just 1 point. Compared to their opponents, they’re lightyears ahead in experience and understanding of the game. So victory should come easily for them if the drafting phase goes well.