The International 2018: August 20 Match Predictions

The International 2018 Group Stage ended and two teams left the tournament behind. But before we get to the main culmination of the event, four teams will be eliminated from the tournament.

Liquid vs. OpTic

Opening match of the playoff upper bracket will be intriguing for venturous souls who love to make bets. Team Liquid are seen as favorites in this match, not only because of their outstanding results in the group stage but also because of previous matches of these two teams. Liquid won three of the four maps and got first blood in all the three maps. By the way, the First Blood statistics for both teams from this month is very interesting. Let’s take a look! Team Liquid got first blood in 75% of maps, unlike OpTic with their 48% which is worse as you can see. The match duration stats are as interesting: matches with OpTic in 44% of situations are dragged out beyond the 38 minute mark, while their opponents get to the same mark in 37% of matches only. The stats give you a great chance to try you luck predicting the match, map duration and FB – especially the last two as the bet coeff would be much more attractive. 

To sum it all up, Team Liquid should have no problems in defeating Optic due to a better coordinated team work which is quite noticeable in all the games. Mid phase of the game is usually orchestrated by the guys from Liquid and that’s where they typically put the last nail in the coffin of their opponents. OpTic, on the other hand, cannot boast with such organized team effort and mostly win using mistakes made by their enemy during pick phase and in the game itself. 

Virtus.Pro vs. PSG.LGD

These teams faced each other multiple times at many events and, after Virtus.Pro changed the roster, PSG.LGD leads the score 3-1 so far. Their last confrontation ended with the Russian team winning 2-1 (we’re talking about maps). The opponents know each other very well and this match promises exciting action and might run over, as compared to the Team Liquid vs. OpTic match. In 7 of 11 maps they had the match lasted more than 38 minutes which gives us hope for the our Fantasy League predictions to succeed. As for the rest, teams are really close stats wise which makes it harder to make precise predictions for the match. So, we are looking forward to the long and fascinating matches.

Lower bracket matches 

Bo1 matches are always difficult to analyze considering the teams won’t have second chance and often resort to some unusual strategies. These decisions usually lead to the loss, even obvious favorites suffer from that. But we will give you our thoughts anyway. There’s a reason why bo1 matches are called “roulette”, right? 

In the Fnatic vs. Serenity match the former are the favorites. Although their results weren’t that great these last two days which might affect the mood and chemistry within the team. Serenity demonstrate out-of-the-box thinking and tactical decisions and solid coordination of actions for a team of this tier. Envy factor makes this match even more confusing, as far as predicting goes. The match between TnC and Mineski should be a piece of cake for TnC. Despite Mineski winning more often, TnC are the kings of bo1 and won all matches against them in this format. The fight between Newbee and Winstrike must bring us some fun because the CIS team drives the emotional wave and uses the momentum against the enemy. Betting on them might give some fruits. The Vici Gaming Jeremy Thunder vs. Vici Gaming match should not be a problem for Vici to win.