ESL One Hamburg 2018 Group Stage Predictions

Even though it is not a part of the DPC (Dota Pro Circuit) for the new competitive season, ESL One Hamburg 2018 is a prestigious LAN event that features several of the best Dota teams in the world.

ESL One Hamburg 2018 is scheduled to take place in Hamburg, Germany and has a prize pool of $300.000. The tournament is already underway, with the Group Stage preparing to enter day 3. The Dota 2 betting opportunities are very good and this article will give you a better understanding of who you should bet on and why.

ESL One Hamburg 2018 is attended by 12 teams from 6 different regions:

• North America: Forward Gaming, compLexity Gaming, Evil Geniuses.
• South America: paiN Gaming.
• Europe: Ninjas in Pyjamas, Alliance, Team Secret.
• Southeast Asia: TNC Predator, Mineski.
• China: Team Aster, Vici Gaming.
• CIS: Virtus.pro.

 
ESL One Hamburg 2018 takes place in 2 stages. During the Group Stage, the teams are divided into two groups of 6. Every team plays a Bo2 match against every other competitor from its group. In the end, the top 2 teams from each group advance to the Upper Bracket of the Main Event, the next 2 teams advance to the Lower Bracket while the last 2 teams are eliminated.

The Main Event is played in a GSL format (double-elimination bracket). Every series will be a Bo3 with the exception of the Grand Final (Bo5).

ESL One Hamburg 2018 does not belong to the Dota Pro Circuit, so it doesn’t offer any qualification points for The International 2019. However, the tournament does offer a decent prize pool of $300.000, which will be divided among the 12 participants in the following way:

• 1st place: $125K
• 2nd place: $65K
• 3rd place: $35K
• 4th place: $20K
• 5th – 6th place: $12K
• 7th – 8th place: $7.5K
• 9th – 10th place: $5K
• 11th – 12th place: $3K

 

These are the teams in each group at ESL One Hamburg 2018 and their current results within the competition:

Group A

• Vici Gaming (6 W – 2 L)
• Team Secret (6 W – 2 L)
• Evil Geniuses (4 W – 4 L)
• paiN Gaming (4 W – 4 L)
• Mineski (2 W – 6 L)
• Alliance (2 W – 6 L)

 

Group B

• Team Aster (8 W – 0 L)
• Virtus.pro (6 W – 2 L)
• Forward Gaming (4 W – 4 L)
• Ninjas in Pyjamas (3 W – 5 L)
• EVOS Esports (2 W – 6 L)
• compLexity Gaming (1 W – 7 L)

 

So far, Group A has been very disputed, with 4 of the 6 teams staying very close to each other. In Group B, Team Aster and Virtus.pro are dominating the other competitors. One noteworthy thing is that Team Aster has proved to be much stronger than people had anticipated. This Chinese competitor was expected to be strong, but not this strong. In its direct match against Virtus.pro, Team Aster won the series quite convincingly.

These are the betting predictions for the 3rd competitive day of ESL One Hamburg 2018:

paiN Gaming vs. Team Secret

This match is heavily Team Secret favored and I fully expect Puppey and his teammates to emerge victorious here. Both teams have had a good run so far at ESL One Hamburg 2018, but Secret is clearly much stronger at this point and its 1 – 1 draw against Vici Gaming speaks volumes. VG is currently leading in Group A and defeated paiN Gaming on the first day of the tournament.

 

Alliance vs. Evil Geniuses

Evil Geniuses should absolutely dismantle Alliance in this match, even though it’s playing with a stand-in. So far, this replacement has clearly affected EG, who was expected to crush everyone in Group A. But Alliance is still much weaker overall so I don’t see how it could actually steal a game from EG.

 

Vici Gaming vs. Mineski

During the first two days of ESL One Hamburg 2018, Vici Gaming proved itself to be in great shape and very motivated to start the season with a good result. So far, the team is leading in Group A and should win this next match with ease. Mineski simply isn’t in a position to contest this Chinese powerhouse and will likely go down in flames rather quickly.

 

Team Aster vs. Forward Gaming

Normally, Forward Gaming would have a decent chance of winning a game in this Bo2 series. But not against this version of Team Aster. This team has clearly been training very very hard since its inception, and the results are already quite obvious. Aster is currently leading the pack in Group B with 8 points in 4 matches. This Chinese competitor demolished everyone including Virtus.pro, showing that it is now one of the world’s best, even though it’s still a very young team.

 

EVOS Esports vs. Virtus.pro

This match will be a one-sided affair. VP is going to eat EVOS alive and there is absolutely nothing that can change this unless the CIS team throws one of the games by picking some random heroes to play with.

 

Ninjas in Pyjamas vs. compLexity Gaming

NiP is ppd’s new team and has a lot of potential, while compLexity Gaming has been a complete mess so far at ESL One Hamburg 2018. This match has a 2 – 0 score written all over it.