eSports has become the focus of the sports betting world, and one of the most widely competitive video game leagues is the League of Legends Pro League (LPL), currently in its ninth year in China. We are in Group Stage (Week 5-7) of the Spring 2020 league, and 17 teams are squaring off in a ten-week season. The top eight teams will advance to the playoff tournament. Let’s take a look at the Thursday matches in Week 7 and their League of Legends Odds.
eSports: League of Legends LPL Matches: April 16
Standings (through April 15)
- Invictus Gaming 12-2
- eStar 11-4
- FunPlus Phoenix 10-3
- JD Gaming 10-4
- EDward Gaming 9-5
- Top Esports 9-5
- Royal Never Give Up 8-7
- OMG 7-8
- Team WE 6-7
- Rogue Warriors 6-8
- Vici Gaming 6-9
- Bilibili Gaming 6-9
- Suning 6-9
- Dominus Esports 6-9
- LGD Gaming 5-8
- LNG Esports 4-10
- Victory Five 0-14
Bilibili Gaming (1.056) vs Victory Five (9.5) (3:00 am ET)
The extreme odds in this match show the competitive gap between the two teams. Bilibili Gaming is not among the playoff contenders right now, but the gap between their play and that of winless Victory Five. The two sides have met twice, with Bilibili Gaming winning both of them in 2-0 fashion.
Bilibili Gaming moved within a game of the eighth slot in the LPL standings with a 2-0 win over LGD Gaming on April 14. They had lost the match before that, losing 2-1 to LPL-leading Invictus Gaming, but they had had a two-game winning streak before that.Victory Five not only has an 0-14 record in match play in the LPL Spring 2020 season, but they have only won one game in their 29 rounds. It is safe to say that, unless something drastically changes, that Victory Five will be an excellent candidate for relegation at the end of this season. For now, though, it’s difficult to argue that they could even take a game against Bilibili Gaming. With the scant value in taking Bilibili, it might be better to look to one of the other two matches.
Prediction: Bilibili Gaming wins, 2-0.
LGD Gaming (4.06) vs FunPlus Phoenix (1.15) (6:00 am ET)
The third-place team in the LPL standings meets the team that sits third from the bottom — and just one slot clear of the relegation playoffs, as FunPlus Phoenix is a heavy favorite over LGD Gaming. The two teams have met four times, with FunPlus Phoenix winning three of the matchups and LGD Gaming winning just once, back on August 3, 2018.
LGD Gaming lost to Bilibili Gaming, 2-0, on April 14 but had won three matches in a row before that, taking down Team WE, Royal Never Give Up and OMG. However, FunPlus Phoenix has won four out of five, with their lone loss coming on April 10 against Vici Gaming — a bad loss, given that Vici is in 11th place in the standings. With the balance of play, though, FunPlus Phoenix is the smart pick.
Prediction: FunPlus Phoenix wins, 2-1.
eStar (1.83) vs Top Esports (1.83) (8:00 am ET)
Two of the LPL contenders square off in this match, with second-place eStar facing fifth-place Top Esports. This will be the first match ever between the two teams. Top Esports has played inconsistently in recent matches, which is why they have slipped down into a tie for fifth. They did beat winless Victory Five on April 13, but before that they had dropped two in a row, losing to Bilibili Gaming and Team WE.
eStar has won two matches in a row, taking down OMG and Team WE in 2-0 fashion each time. Those two wins ended a three-match losing streak that saw them fall to Vici Gaming, Royal Never Give Up and JD Gaming. While JD Gaming is a contender (currently in fourth in the LPL standings), the other two teams are well down the table. The two victories in their last matches show that they may have fixed some of their recent issues.
Prediction: eStar wins, 2-1.
