eSports has become the focus of the sports betting world, and the Chinese professional league for League of Legends is the League of Legends Pro League (LPL), currently in its ninth year of operation. We are in the playoffs of the 2020 Spring season, with quarterfinal matches set for Friday and Saturday. On Friday, Top Esports squares off with Team WE, and on Saturday, FunPlus Phoenix will meet EDward Gaming. Take a look at our thoughts as you consider your online betting for these matches.
eSports: League of Legends LPL Matches: April 24-25
Spring 2020 Final Standings
- Invictus Gaming – x 14-2
- JD Gaming – x 12-4
- FunPlus Phoenix – y 12-4
- Top Esports – y 11-5
- eStar – z 11-5
- EDward Gaming – z 9-7
- Royal Never Give Up – z 8-8
- Team WE – z 8-8
- Vici Gaming 7-9
- Bilibili Gaming 7-9
- Suning 7-9
- OMG 7-9
- Rogue Warriors 7-9
- Dominus Esports 6-10
- LGD Gaming 5-11
- LNG Esports – r 5-11
- Victory Five – r 0-16
- x – would earn a bye to the semifinals in the playoffs
- y – would earn a bye to the quarterfinals in the playoffs
- z – would qualify for the first round of the playoffs
- r – would enter a relegation playoff
Spring 2020 Playoffs (as of April 23)
Format: Single Elimination Bracket, Matches best-of-fiveFirst Round
Team WE d. eStar, 3-1
EDward Gaming d. Royal Never Give Up, 3-1
Quarterfinals
Top Esports (1.18) vs Team WE (4.2) (Friday, April 24, 5:00 am ET)
Team WE continues their terrific run as they vaulted into the last playoff position just in the nick of time and then knocked off the fifth seed, eStar, in the first round. That marked the end of a stunning collapse for eStar, which had sat in second place before starting to slide down the LPL table. Team WE comes in as the heavy underdog despite the fact that they beat Top Esports in LPL Spring 2020 group play on April 8.
Top Esports finished the LPL Spring 2020 season with three straight wins, cleaning up on Victory Five but also sweeping eStar and FunPlus Phoenix, two of the other playoff teams. Team WE went 2-1 in the last week of the Spring 2020 season, losing to Invictus Gaming but beating EDward Gaming and knocking OMG out of the playoffs. The smart money probably goes on Top Esports, given their hot finish to the season.
Prediction: Top Esports wins, 3-2
FunPlus Phoenix (1.32) vs EDward Gaming (3.83) (Saturday, April 25, 5:00 am ET)
EDward Gaming held on to knock off Royal Never Give Up, 3-1, in a matchup of the sixth and seventh seeds in the playoffs. They dropped their last two matches in the regular season, losing to Team WE and Invictus Gaming. Before that, though, they had won three out of four. They come into the quarterfinals as underdogs against third-seeded FunPlus Phoenix.
FunPlus Phoenix saw a three-match winning streak come to an end when they lost to Top Esports in the regular season finale. Before that, they had beaten EDward Gaming, LGD Gaming and Rogue Warriors. So you have both teams coming into this matchup with some inconsistent results, although EDward Gaming has the momentum of that first-round win. I see EDward Gaming pulling off the upset (and giving us some odds value).
Prediction: EDward Gaming wins, 3-1
