Two of the usual names in the Chinese DOTA scene clash again at Beyond Epic. The victor of this match-up will increase their chances of clinching an upper bracket slot as we draw closer to the playoffs. RNG and iG both swept their opponents in their opening match. With these teams being currently both undefeated, we expect to see an intense match here as the winner will be sitting alone atop of the team standings.

Betting Lines

Royal Never Give Up to win (2.13)

Invictus Gaming to win (1.55)

RNG +1.5 (1.34)

iG +1.5 (1.13)

Over 2.5 (1.91)

Under 2.5 (1.69)

Previous Match Results and Statistics

The last time these two teams squared-off against each other, the stakes were higher as it was a lower bracket final match. The series went Invictus Gaming’s way, they eliminated Royal Never Give Up and advanced into the grand final and faced PSG.LGD. Is it time for RNG to return the favor? Let’s take a look at the strong points of each team and what their winning conditions that they need to keep in check if they wish to remain undefeated.

The first game of their match was actually extremely close and RNG even got the lead early into the game as they kept finding pick-off onto the iG supports in Oli and kaka. These two may have died a little too much for their teams liking as they had 6 and 10 deaths respectively in game one which gave the enemy team enough gold to pose a threat against them. Thankfully their core in flyfly’s Naga Siren got the farm she needed and just shredded through RNG’s heroes in the late game and finished with 13/3/10 KDA. JT-‘s Enigma was worth mentioning as well, he was able to set-up really good black holes that were extremely big for their team fight success. RNG’s core duo played well but was just not good enough as they still lost the game, however, they showed signs that they have what it takes to win against iG if they improve their execution. Monet dealt so much damage combined with Setsu’s torrent and boat combo which have been on point most of the time.

The second game was a completely different story though as game 2 was an all iG show with Emo’s Storm Spirit as its main star. Right from the get go Emo has outplayed Setsu in their midlane match-up. Their supports in September’s Shadow Shaman and Super’s Clockwerk suffered the most from Emo’s early power spike as he just zips straight into RNG’s backlines taking out the squishy heroes right away in every team fight and finished the game with a 20/1/16 KDA and 40K networth. JT- was once again on point with his initiations as a Beastmaster.

Invictus Gaming has all lanes in check as their respective midlaner, safe lane carry, and offlaner won their lanes the last time they faced RNG. If RNG wish to win this upcoming match, they must keep playing the way they played in their opening match against EHOME wherein they won their respective lanes and their supports did not die too much with September even finding a lot of skills as a support. Clinkz would be a crucial pick for their team here as the Clinkz pick for September has worked well for both games.

Predictions

I am looking at the favorites, Invictus Gaming, to take this match and stay undefeated for this tournament as I see that they have maintained the way they played from ESL ONE Birmingham, where they eliminated RNG in the playoffs. However, I am not expecting Royal Never Give Up to go down without a fight here so I am really favoring the Over 2.5 line in this one.

It will also be not as surprising if RNG manage to pull-off an upset here against iG as they have shown flashes of their ability to overcome this particular match-up with proper execution and with the way they opened this tournament, things may be looking up for them as they have been playing better as a team lately.