The League of Legends World Championship 2023 is set to kick off on October 10, with the Play-In stage, which will welcome eight League of Legends esports teams fighting for a spot in the main event.
Here, you can find out top World Champs Play-In predictions for the opening round of the stage with the best LoL esports betting odds.
Movistar R7 vs. PSG Talon
We kick off our World Champs Play-In predictions with the opening match of LoL Worlds Play-In Group A, between Latin American champions Movistar R7 and PCS champs PSG Talon, who’ve never met before. But even though we don’t have any past record between the two teams, the LoL odds for this match make it very obvious which squad should come out ahead.
Esports bookmakers have priced Movistar R7 as +600 underdogs for their first match of the LoL World Championship 2023 Play-In stage, which makes plenty of sense, considering the PCS is a much stronger league than the LLA. Moreover, this is a best-of-three series, making it less likely for the underdogs to cause an upset.
However, while PSG Talon looks much stronger on paper, having Movistar R7 priced at +600 seems too generous. As with all LoL Worlds Play-In first-round matches, there are usually upsets mainly because the teams are a bit rusty and don’t know how to prepare for the upcoming game.
This doesn’t mean that PSG Talon will lose, but there’s a good chance they’ll slip at least once against an unknown opponent. The best LoL picks for the first-round matches are usually on the underdogs, so we’ll side with R7 with a map advantage.
- Prediction: Movistar R7 +1.5 maps +162
¡Con la niña no! 😡 #LLF #YearOf7 pic.twitter.com/HSpEIZK4Nu
— Movistar R7 (@Rainbow7lol) September 23, 2023
LOUD vs. GAM
LOUD and GAM enter their first match of LoL Worlds Play-In priced at the same LoL odds, suggesting that this should be a very close game. And rightly so.
Even though some might argue that GAM are much stronger, considering they hail from a stronger league, the Brazilian LoL scene has improved over the last few years to a point where it’s fair to believe that they can compete with other minor regions.
But on the other side, this doesn’t make backing LOUD one of the most inviting LoL picks. Brazilian teams all seem to struggle from one major issue – inconsistency. LOUD and other squads from the CBLOL can cause a lot of chaos mainly because they play at a high pace, but fundamentally, they’re still very flawed, which is something that can easily be exploited.
Talking about fast-paced gameplay, Vietnamese teams are by far the most aggressive in the LoL scene, so while this game might not see any high-level gameplay, we will be in for an entertaining match with a lot of blood.
We won’t take any side for our World Champs Play-In predictions for this match, as this is a 50/50 match. However, knowing that both teams like to fight, over 29.5 kills is the right play.
- Prediction: Over 29.5 kills – 120
DetonatioN FocusMe vs. CTBC Flying Oyster
DetonatioN FocusMe are priced as +200 underdogs to defeat Flying Oyster, which is quite a generous offer considering how good the Japanese team has been in previous iterations of LoL Worlds (relatively). But there’s a good reason why we’re getting these LoL odds.
DFM lost their top laner in the latter stages of the regular season and only recently acquired a new top laner in Ryo “apaMEN” Odagiri. That’s a good thing, but apaMEN has only recently joined the team, which brings up the question of synergy and ultimately explains why we’re getting such LOL esports betting odds on the Japanese champions.
CTBC Flying Oyster have not made any drastic roster changes recently, and they hail from PCS, which is widely considered the fourth-strongest team in the world. But that doesn’t mean that they’ll have an easy time beating DFM.
CTBC Flying Oyster are, like many other minor-region teams, very flawed and not as good as they seem. The hype that stems from the team’s region of origin is present annually, yet it’s always proven that there’s not much to separate the minor region teams.
So, as much as we can believe that CTBC Flying Oyster are actually good, they’re not that much better than DFM. When making your World Champs Play-In predictions, go with DFM to keep it close.
- Prediction: DetonatioN FocusMe +1.5 maps – 167
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