League of Legends Record: 0-3 (-3U)

I had everything planned out. I’d finish my Friday plays around noon, get a hard start on Saturday plays, post my Friday plays at 2pm, proceed to get day drunk watching League of Legends with the boys (via facetime. Social distancing people!), and then wake up hungover at 8:00 am to finish my picks for the day.

I was a few beers deep and EG.A had an 11 to 9 kill lead I felt great. Seriously, emphasis on “I felt great.” I had told myself this was the start of a 3-0 day! Then C9.A aced EG.A and immediately ended the game and I proceeded 0-3 on the day.

So here I sit. Now sober. Damn near 11:00pm and I’m making a meme about being shit at gambling. If you’re waiting for an apology there isn’t one. This is merely an acknowledgement that I lost myself and the boys (I’ll take my chances that no female is looking for esports bets during a global pandemic) a nice deal of money. I have to live with that burden! It’s the cross I must bear as I make more picks. Now we’re moving on like adults do. Lets do this.

G2 Esports vs Mad Lions

11 AM EST

Stream

We’re heading across the pond for this European Matinee. This match between G2 Esports (G2) and Mad Lions (Mad) is a rematch from the first round of the playoffs where Mad pulled off a gargantuan upset over a G2 team that dominated the LEC this season. Mad followed up the upset by getting man handled 3-0 by 2nd seed, Fnatic, while G2 ousted 3rd seed, Origen, 3-1.

Less than 6 months ago this exact same G2 roster was competing in the world finals. Meanwhile 4 of the 5 members of Mad are LEC rookies. While that speaks to the magnitude of the upset they pulled off in round one, this double elimination format allowed G2 a chance to return to form before this rematch. I just don’t see how Mad can pull off the impossible twice.

My feeling behind these picks is that G2 is back. There is common phrase in League of Legends “Jungle diff” or jungle is the difference in the game. In their first playoff meeting G2’s Jungler, Jankos, was constantly a step behind Mad’s Rookie Jungler. Shadow. He’s However, in G2’s next matchup with Origen Jankos’ play was a thing of beauty, his positioning was flawless. He has two absolute savages in his mid and bot lane that, when he protects them from the enemy jungler, can absolutely dominate a game.

1U G2 First Dragon Map 1 (-149)

G2 got 3 of 4 the first dragons against Origen while Mad got 0 first dragons against Fnatic. We’re playing form here. I like how much of the map Jankos opens up whereas Shadow struggled against Fnatic.

1U G2 -6.5 Kills Map 1

I think the veteran G2 side carries their form over from the Origen match. Mad may take a map off of G2 though so we aren’t going to bet the kill spread beyond Map 1, we’ll live bet each map if the situation is right.

2U Parlay G2 ML and EG ML (-140)

I told you why I think G2 is going to win so we’ll skip ahead to Evil Geniuses (EG). EG vs FlyQuest is another rematch from the first round where EG won 3-1. FlyQuest heavily rely on drafting Xayah and Rakan in their bot lane and/or Azir in their mid lane. If they don’t draft either of those lanes they’ve found little to no success as of late. EG gave them that bot lane a few times in that first round series and still beat them. It’s going to be a 3-0 or another 3-1.

Evil Geniuses vs Flyquest

4PM EST

ESPN 2 / Twitch Stream

Hell yeah brother esports on TV! I still recommend watching this on Twitch since ESPN adds in a bunch of copper fit infomercials. Props to Brett Favre for still securing the bag though.

I don’t have much to say about this match up since the winner is going to be a lamb led to slaughter. C9 is waiting in the finals and are going to absolutely shit pump whichever team wins this. Seriously, bet the rent on C9 tomorrow.

2U EG -1.5 Maps (-111)

EG is simply a better team and they’ve already proved that with a 3-1 victory in round one. FlyQuest got the drafts they wanted against TSM and barely squeaked by them. I think EG does everything they can to ban out FlyQuest’s Xayah/Rakan bot lane which puts FlyQuest at a massive disadvantage.

1U o22.5 Kills Map 3 and 4 (-130)

These teams play the first two games a series very slow, hence the low o/u but the kills start to come out once a team has their back against the wall. This is the semi-final and losers goes home. Teams get desperate the later a series goes which leads to more kills. We’re going to be there to capitalize on the low kill total.

Lets print money.

Latest posts by Ben Durham (see all)