by The stage is set for the final two days of the LoL World Championship play-in stage, where the top eight teams from the group stage will square off to claim one of the last four remaining tickets to the main event.
We have already covered the opening two fixtures of the play-in knockout stage, meaning it’s time to turn our focus to Tuesday’s fixtures.
Hong Kong Attitude vs Isurus Gaming
Tuesday, October 8 – 13:00 CEST
Hong Kong Attitude
Hong Kong Attitude were a hyped team entering the LoL Worlds play-in stage, mostly due to the fact they earned their spot among the global elite by coming through the LMS region.
That being said, their performances were anything but impressive. HKA did manage to overcome their opponents in Group C, but on several occasions, they did not look as sharp as expected.
There is also an argument to be made their 3-1 record is a by-product of MEGA’s failure to step up and perform up to par.
Isurus Gaming
Favourites underperforming has become a staple of this year’s play-in group stages.
A number of teams we had high hopes for fell apart and crawled their way into the second round, and Isurus Gaming is one of those teams.
One thing we noticed from the Latin American giants is they are the strongest in their top lane. As far as other lanes are concerned, there is clearly some room for improvement.
Prediction: Over 3.5 maps – $1.45 at GG Bet
Despite issues and some mediocre performances from both sides in the group stage, the Isurus vs Hong Kong Attitude will possibly be the closest fixture out of all four in the final stage of play-in.
HKA are entering this fixture as favourites, which we believe is a fair assessment, however, from what we have seen from them, the odds offered on HK Attitude seem to overrate them a bit.
Isurus might not be the most dominant team coming from Group B, where they had their moments of weakness against DFM. However, with a lot on the line this Tuesday, we can count on the fiery Chileans to be on top of their game and at least win one map against HKA.
Splyce vs Unicorns of Love
Tuesday, October 8 – 18:00 CEST
Splyce
Splyce had a successful run in their group stage, where they finished with a convincing 3-1 record next to their name. So it’s safe to say the European giants had smooth sailing to the knockout stage, with the sole exception being the upset loss to DFM.
Looking at how European third seed played so far, it’s hard to find any huge flaws, as they play like a solid unit. But we must pay special attention to jungler Andrei “Xerxe” Dragomir and toplaner Tamás “Vizicsacsi” Kiss, who have proven to be the best performing players in the team.
Unicorns of Love
Unicorns of Love made it to Worlds in their first year as a part of LCL, which was a huge achievement on its own, yet UoL went on to impress further by dismantling the NA giants Clutch Gaming twice in the group stage.
The Russian super team are known for their aggressive playstyle and fearless approach to all their fixtures, which can only help them here.
What Splyce will have to be careful about is giving UoL an early lead, which as we have learned, Russians know very well how to take advantage of and snowball to a victory.
Prediction: Unicorns of Love +2.5 at $1.54 with GG Bet
This fixture will have a lot of emotions involved, and not only because it is the final fixture of play-in, but also because both Vizicsacsi and Xerxe are former members of Unicorns of Love and are ironically the two best performing players at Splyce.
Despite playing against their former teammates, we can’t see Splyce putting their foot off the gas here, meaning we are in for an exciting match.
Looking at the odds offered, we feel like UoL are underrated, considering the map handicap is set at +2.5. As we have mentioned, if Unicorns get an early lead, they will be a huge nuisance to Splyce and while the Russian team is objectively weaker, we can trust them to take at least one map off Splyce.
