After making it through the 1st round of the upper bracket, Invictus Gaming and Newbee go head to head in round 2 of the main event at the KeyArena in Seattle. From this point on, each team is guaranteed a minimum of $600,000 USD as part of the full $24m+ prize pool.
Newbee
Favourites to beat Invictus Gaming, Newbee gave had a solid run throughout the International 7 so far. Their most recent games have seen 2-0 wins over both Evil Geniuses and Digital Chaos and a 1-1 draw against the Russian side Virtus Pro.
Newbee have lost just two of their last 10 matches, one being a 2-0 loss against LGD.Forever Young and another 2-1 loss against LGD. Besides this, they have secured 5 wins and 3 draws within their past 10 games.
The Chinese team are no strangers to The International, having won the event in 2014 after a direct invite. Despite having a rough time in 2015/16, Newbee seem to be back on form after a string of 1st place finishes at events such as the Galaxy Battles, ZOTAC Cup Masters and the Dota 2 Professional League Season 2.
Invictus Gaming
Invictus Gaming have had a similar run this year to Newbee. They also lost 2-0 to LGD.Forever Young and have had multiple draws to teams such as OG and Virtus Pro.
They have played 9 games so far in this years International 7, 4 of which have been wins including the most recent 2-1 victory to Team Liquid. The remaining wins have all been 2-0 scorelines against Hellraisers, Cloud 9 and Digital Chaos.
Invictus Gaming last won the International 7 in it’s 2nd year, 2012 with a prize pool of $1m USD. Since that time, they have been missing from any top 5 finishes
Head To Head Record
These two teams have a long history of playing one another. Their most recent encounter was a Bo2 in the group stages of this years International, just a few days ago. Newbee took the first game but were denied the win as Invictus Gaming claimed the latter, ending the game in a draw.
Over the last 3 months, the teams have played each other four times where iG have won 2, Newbee 1 and most recently 1 draw.
Betting Odds & Predictions
The bookmakers have Newbee down as short priced favourites at odds of 1.55. Not only are they a higher ranked team, but they have performed better in recent months but this is mostly against other teams. However, if the recent head to heads show any sign of what is to come, Newbee may struggle to get any easy victory in this evening’s game.
It seems as if this game is much more of a 50/50 than the odds suggest, so anything over evens on either team is worth a bet. You can still get odds of 2.20 at some bookmakers such as Betway for an Invictus Gaming win, definitely worth a bet.
In their last encounter, both teams won a map each, ending the game as a draw. If you think they can both do it again but with IG gaining one extra map, then a bet on a 2-1 score looks very appealing at odds of 3.80.
Top Betting Tip
Our top betting tip for Newbee vs Invictus Gaming is Invictus Gaming to win 2-1 at odds of 3.80.