After surviving the group stages, LGD and Virtus Pro get ready to take each other on in the main event of the Dota 2 International 7. There’s never been a better reason for teams to put all their focus into the tournament as it boasts the biggest prize pool across all esports.
LGD
The Chinese side are currently ranked 1st in the worldwide Dota 2 rankings. Despite an unexpected loss to iG Vitality in the group stages, LGD have been on point to take their piece of the prize pool, currently sat at over $23m USD.
LGD came 2nd in Group A during the group stages of the tournament with a score of 12-4. This is much better than the equivalent result in Group B for Virtus Pro who finished 3rd with a score of 10-6.
At the 2016 International, LGD took home $311,557 USD in prize money after losing 2:0 to Digital Chaos. 2015 was a better result for the team as they finished 3rd place with a win of $2,211,554. After coming 1st place in their most recent tournament entry (Mars Dota 2 League 2017), LGD should be feeling confident to brush Virtus Pro aside and progress further in the tournament.
Virtus Pro
The Russian side finished 3rd in the upper bracket of Group B with score of 10-6, this is the same result as Invictus Gaming who finished with the same results.
Virtus Pro failed to make it past the qualifiers for The International 2016 although they did see much success in other tournaments. They finished 1st place in the Boston Major 2016 and more impressively, 2nd place at the Kiev Major 2017 for $500,000.
Most recently the team claimed 1st place victory at the Dota Summit 7 after beating Team Secret 3-2. Despite this win, Virtus Pro have struggled to build momentum over recent months and have in fact dropped in the rankings. Their two games previous to todays match have been disappointing 1-1 draws against Invictus Gaming and Newbee. Although they have had a couple of wins previous to those draws, August has generally been tough for them. Throughout the group stages they racked up 3 numerous losses, including Execration, LGD.Forever Young and Cloud 9.
Head to Head Record
Both teams have played each other numerous times over the years. Despite this, there has never been a clear favourite as both teams have taken turns in claiming victory over the other. The most recent head to head was during the Summit 7 finals in June where Virtus Pro won 2-0. However, it was only 3 days previous that LGD stole a 2-1 win at the same event.
Betting Odds & Predictions
Most bookmakers have priced the teams up as joint favourites with Betway offering odds of 1.85 for both LGD or Virtus Pro to win. Interestingly however, Ladbrokes have priced LGD as favourites at odds of 1.72 with Virtus Pro sitting at odds of 2.00. Clearly if you’re a fan of Virtus Pro, you should snap that price up quickly before it changes!
However, looking at the stats it does seem like 365 have it right and LGD are in with a better chance of winning. Not only are they ranked way above Virtus Pro, but their progress in the tournament so far has been much better. They should have had plenty of time to analyse their loss to Virtus Pro at the Summit 7 and develop counter strategies for their game today. Odds of 1.85 for LGD to win (Match Winner) is well worth a shot.
The game is a Bo3 so taking a look at the correct score market, we are able to find some great odds on an LGD win of 2-0 at a price of 3.10. Alternatively, a 2-1 result at odds of 3.30 is just as worthy if you think Virtus Pro can steal a map.
Top Betting Tip
Our top betting tip for this match is LGD to win at odds of 1.85. They should have this in the bag easily and it would be crazy not to take these odds while they last!