eSports: LoL Qualifying Opening Lines

The League of Legends World Championship is one of the biggest events on the eSports calendar. In what looks to be the most hotly contested game of the first week of qualifying for the LoL Championships, Fnatic is a slight -120 favorite over Invictus Gaming according to Sportsbook.

Many thought this would be a down season for Fnatic after four of the five team members left the team following their Season 4 World Championship victory, but veteran support YellOwStaR assembled a brand new team and never lost any steam. It is going to be critical for Invictus to keep an eye on Huni in the top lane as he has proven to be an aggressive difference maker in his first season on the scene.

Invictus has been consistent this season, finishing third in every major LPL event, but have also yet to walk away with any major victories this year. RooKie’s play in the mid goes a long way to defining how IG plays; when he is on form he is one of the best mid’s in the world but his performance can be up-and-down plus it is greatly dependent on how KaKAO plays.

SK Telecom T1 Massive Favorites over H2k-Gaming

To the surprise of nobody, SK Telecom is an absurd -700 favorite for their LOL World Championship qualifying match against H2k-Gaming Thursday. SK has not finished worse than second place in any premier LCK tournament so far this season.

After major Chinese teams raided many Korean team rosters the previous offseason, Faker remains one of the major stars in the sport to have stayed in Korea. Though many thought he should have started every game at mid this season, he would switch off with Easyhoon, which has given the team a more diverse strategy.

H2k-Gaming has been solid, yet unspectacular so far this season. In the emerging market of Europe the team was a consistent third place finisher in tournaments with a large gap between H2k and the top two teams (SK Gaming and Fnatic).

Ahq e-Sports expected to top Cloud9

Ahq e-Sports has been one of the top teams in the LMS this season, which is a big reason as to why they are a -240 favorite against the North American Cloud9.

The biggest challenge for Cloud9 will be stopping Westdoor, as his ability to control the mid with several champions makes him extremely deadly. Very often Westdoor will see two bans thrown specifically at him before each game.

Though Incarnati0n has been well mannered since joining Cloud9, the Danish player has been known to be a toxic after being banned from all Riot-affiliated leagues for several months this year. Seeing how Incarnati0n reacts to taking on such a diverse mid as Westdoor could cause some cracks.