TOP Esports
TOP Esports – a team that was considered one of the two main contenders to win the entire tournament before it started. Although TOP looked impressive in the group stage, their journey was very close to ending in the quarterfinals. Fnatic, having a 2-0 advantage, failed to close the series, having all the chances to finish the series in the 4th game and advance to the semifinals. TOP Esports took full advantage of the opportunities given by Fnatic and changed Worlds history as the first team to win a playoff series after being down 0-2.
Fnatic had prepared some interesting “picks” for the series against TOP Esports, which significantly contributed to their success in the first matches. It's hard to say whether SN Gaming will find a way to surprise TOP Esports with their champion choices. Nevertheless, both TOP and SN Gaming are more standard teams that improve by enhancing their synergy, teamwork, and individual skills rather than trying out many different champions and adapting them to specific series.
TOP Esports is undoubtedly the best team in the league in terms of individual skill, having a Top3 LPL player in each position. JackeyLove is recognized as undoubtedly the best ADC player in the tournament, and Knight continues to prove that he, along with ShowMaker, is considered one of the best Midlane players in the world. During the LPL season, these teams met twice, and TOP Esports won both series with a clean score – 2-0 and 3-0, respectively. From this, it can be inferred that SN Gaming is quite a favorable opponent for the Chinese champions.
SN Gaming
We probably wouldn't be lying if we said that SN Gaming is the most surprising team in this tournament. Although many experts identified them as a potential “dark horse” of the championship, few expected the team to take first place in their group and defeat the obvious favorites, JDG, in the playoffs.
SN Gaming is a relatively young team, with 2 players in their lineup debuting in the strongest Chinese league this season: huanfeng (ADC) and Bin (Top). Despite being practically inexperienced in high-level battles, both players do not seem like weak links in the team and play quite steadily. Huanfeng is even considered one of the best ADC players in the tournament, and given how strong this position is, such recognition is admirable.
No matter how well the team's newcomers perform, the entire game and the team's strategy rely on the jungle position player SofM. The current game “meta” revolves around Junglers, their support, and SofM feels like a fish in water in such a game. He plays aggressive champions that have a significant impact on the game and often attacks the opponent's jungler by going to the opposite side of the map. A large part of the team's success depends on SofM, and if he plays as well as we have become accustomed to seeing in this tournament, we can expect a good performance from SN Gaming.
Prediction
Both TOP Esports and SN Gaming have very strong jungle position players, as well as good macro and communication among themselves. Nevertheless, TOP Esports has already proven during the regular season that SN Gaming is a fairly favorable opponent for them, and the direct lane competitors are potentially weaker than those of TOP Esports. Of course, SN Gaming will put up a fight, and the matches should be close, but TOP Esports should close the series and lose at most 1 match.
TOP Esports, -1.5 game advantage 2.2 odds, betsafe
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