With the first round of the upper bracket already in the books, let’s take a look at the teams that will be going head-to-head to secure their slot for the grand finals tomorrow at 9:00 P.M. it will be the battle between the top two teams from Group A, Team Empire Hope and OG Seed, who both completed a clean sweep in round 1 against the top two teams from Group B.

Betting Lines

OG.Seed to win (1.29)

Team Empire Hope to win (2.93)

OG Seed +1.5 Map Handicap (1.06)

Team Empire Hope +1.5 Map Handicap (1.67)

OVER 2.5 (2.2)

UNDER 2.5 (1.51)

Previous Match Results

The last time these two teams went up against each other in the group stage, the series needed a deciding game 3. Both teams share the same win-loss record from the group stage, only dropping one game, but Team Empire Hope’s single loss came at the hands of OG.Seed.

Despite being considered the underdogs, Team Empire Hope held their ground and even won game 1 of the series to force the favorites to make a reverse sweep. This was all thanks to the early game cushion provided by Mastery’s Batrider and jAM3S’s Clockwerk who bullied OG.Seed’s lineup during the early game. With enough farming space and time bought by his team, tatakae’s Morphling just took over and ended the game once he got his Ethereal Blade enabling his shotgun combo.

OG.Seed returned the favor in game two and scored a full team-wipe at the 16-minute mark and ultimately forced the GG in just 24 minutes with their triple core lineup in QoP, Juggernaut, and Kunkka.

In game three, too many early kills were given to OG.Seed, even giving Madara’s Morphling a killing spree in just four minutes. Team Empire Hope found a way to fight back and secured a full team-wipe of their own just before securing the Aegis. Madara won’t let the game slip though as he carried his team into the late game even forcing lightless’ Templar Assassin to buy a Divine Rapier only to be dropped and stolen forcing Team Empire Hope to throw in the towel and call the GG.

Predictions

A quick look at the odds would point out OG.Seed as the heavy favorites in this match but their match from the group stage showed that this may not be as one sided as the lines suggest.

I believe that Team Empire Hope will not go down without a fight in this series and may even pull-off an upset here if they bring the same performance they brought from game 1 of their group stage encounter with the core duo of lightless’ 7/1/17 KDA Queen of Pain and a 12/2/24 KDA from tatakae’s Morphling.

However, I am still banking on the favorites to assert their dominance especially when they run a triple core setup with Chessie, Madara, and Xibbe. As their battle may boil down to the hands of their safe lane carries in Madara and tatakae, the winning condition would be to win the middle lane match-up as it would enable a better rotation and provide a bigger potential to find pick-offs against the opposing team.

With the first slot for the grand finals waiting for the winners of this match, I am looking at these teams to perform at their best making the over 2.5 a viable betting pick here.