Today marks the start of the Europe/CIS DOTA kings Team Secret’s chase for their fourth consecutive title as they face Team Unique for their opening match of this tournament. What are the odds of Team Secret in extending their winning streak even further? Read on to find out.

Betting Lines

Team Secret to Win (1.01)

Team Unique to Win (11.59)

Team Secret -1.5 Map Handicap (1.21)

Team Unique +1.5 Map Handicap (3.51)

Over 2.5 (3.8)

Under 2.5 (1.17)

Previous Match Results and Statistics

Team Secret come into this match as extremely heavy favorites and that does not come as a surprise at all as this team has shown no signs of weakness, no matter what team they face.

However, in their most recent encounter in the group stage of ESL ONE Birmingham, Team Secret lost the match and even got swept by Team Unique handing them their only loss of that group stage. Their cores in their safe lane carry in DyrachYo and midlaner in The Last Dance were spectacular in that match as they both won their lanes and amassed an impressive combined KDA of 21/3/33 from game 1. For game 2, these two were also able to score a draw in their respective lanes against Team Secret’s Nisha and MATUMBAMAN which help them win the game.

Now Team Unique is running a new lineup replacing these two who have performed well against Team Secret with Palantimos as their new carry and 19teen as their new midlaner. They are yet to find a win with this new roster and I think the impressive performance of DyrachYo and The Last Dance which propelled them to steal a win against Team Secret will be extremely missed here.

Predictions

The betting lines suggest Team Secret to overpower their opponent in this match and the 11.59 odds for Team Unique may seem extremely high but come to think of it I don’t see it as an over exaggeration at all. Team Secret has proven their strength in previous tournaments and have stomped on opponents at a higher level of competition. With Team Unique going on a losing streak and experiencing this much struggle, I don’t see this coming match as something that would help them regain confidence and find their winning ways. The disparity in talent just makes this match an order too tall for Team Unique to overcome.

Even though Team Unique won in their last match from ESL ONE Birmingham, I believe there is an extremely low chance for that instance to occur again here especially now that they have a different roster.

I am looking at Team Secret to come out strong right off the gates in this match and show everyone that they are just not yet ready to give up the crown to anyone. I am extremely favoring Team Secret in this match as expect a clean 2-0 sweep here making the under 2.5 line very viable. I don’t see them dropping a single game in this match, let alone being defeated by Team Unique in this series so I am also personally going with the Team Secret to win (1.01) line here.