[DOTA 2] After almost 3 days off, ESL One Germany 2020 continues. The upper bracket round 2 is scheduled for Wednesday. We will watch 2 matches with top European teams. The best 4 teams for now in this competition will fight for the upper bracket finals. Let’s analyze the matches and predict the winners.
Secret - Mudgolems: Secret -1.5, 1.33 @
MY BETSLIPTeam Secret and Mudgolems will open round 2 of the upper bracket. Team Secret is definitely the best European Dota 2 team by a mile, at least at the moment. It’s interesting to mention that Team Secret are the only squad in this competition that didn’t drop a single map in the group stage. Three 2-0 results for the easy spot in the playoffs. There, they faced Team Nigma in round 1. They won that match 2-1, but Nigma managed to take a map off Secret, and that surprised us all. Nigma is surely one of the strongest EU teams, but they are not showing it currently. And they are the first team to drop out of the playoffs. If Nigma took a map off Secret, I wonder if Mudgolems can too. Let me remind you that Mudgolems crushed Team Nigma with a clean 2-0 in the group stage. They are surely one of the hottest young stacks in Europe, the real underdogs of the tournament. And I can’t say anything against them. They are delivering it, as their performance is constantly shocking and surprising their opponents. In the playoffs round 1, they managed to take down Team Liquid with 2-1. Really impressive performance and win for them. However, I don’t think that Mudgolems are ready for Team Secret. Secret is just a few levels above every other team. Too experienced, with the best captain in the world, they are surely a mountain to climb for Mudgolems. Even if it’s a very risky bet, I do think Team Secret can take this match 2-0 easily. It can happen that Mudgolems can shine and take a map off, but I think there is a lesser chance for that compared to Secret -1.5 handicap.
Natus Vincere - ViKin.gg: Natus Vincere, 1.60 @
MY BETSLIPThis can potentially be a much more interesting match then the first one. CIS vs EU is always an interesting battle. Even though NaVi is favoured here, I do think this match can potentially be really close. In the end I would still favour NaVi. Let me explain why. Both NaVi and Vikin.gg ended up their group stage run with 3 wins and 2 losses. They’ve barely qualified for the playoffs in their 5th, deciding group stage match. NaVi had a pretty easy way to qualify for the playoffs. Basically, they’ve beat 3 weak CIS squads. While Vikin.gg managed to take down NiP with 2-1 in their decider match. That was their strongest win in the group. Basically, neither of the teams impressed me with their play. However, in the playoffs both teams stepped up their play. NaVi managed to take down OG 2-1, while Vikin.gg surprisingly managed to take down Alliance with a clean 2-0. And now, here we are. I would say those teams have a lot of similarities, but let’s focus on staff that differ them from each other. NaVi is more focused on individual strength with carries like V-Tune, Iceberg and General. Their individual strength and quality is not questionable. On the other side, I would say that Vikin.gg’s players have less individual quality, but they have better team play and awareness. For that reason, they are doing amazingly good. However, Dota 2 is currently in a stage where individual quality often makes big differences. Of course paired with good draft and hero picks. If top NaVi’s players get good hero picks and drafts, for example V-Tune and his Morph, I do think that Vikin.gg will have a lot of problems with that and they will eventually fall. For that reason, I fancy going to NaVi ML here. If you are not into ML play, try going Over 2.5 maps. Three maps are highly anticipated here.