Not many people expected LOUD to do well following their abysmal performance at the last Masters, and they hadn’t impressed with their group stage showings either. However, the Brazilians found their stride and are now just one step away from reaching the finals.

Since qualifying for the playoffs, LOUD crushed Leviatan (2-0) and added a solid victory against DRX (2-0), granted that series was much closer than what the score suggests. Nevertheless, LOUD have been getting the job done and are living up to their tag as LATAM’s superteam.

OpTic Gaming are the current main favourites to win VALORANT Champions, priced at $2.25 on the outright betting markets, which sounds right, but isn’t quite. OpTic did well in the group stage, but they dropped a map against BOOM Esports (2-1), and they weren’t very impressive so far in the playoffs, playing three-map series against Team Liquid (2-1) and XSET (2-1).

Their wins were reasonably solid, but overall, OpTic have yet to show the dominant form you would expect from them. You could argue that OpTic should defeat LOUD since they already won this bout (2-1) at the start of the month, but LOUD have since improved while OpTic have not.

This should be a close series, but we’re leaning towards LOUD, so we’ll take a shot on a correct score market and take LOUD to win 2-1.

DRX have been playing surprisingly well this tournament, having suffered just one bad loss against LOUD (0-2) in the upper bracket semifinals. Still, even in that series, DRX had a chance to win and perhaps would have had they not choked on Breeze (11-13).

Overall, DRX are a solid team, and they’ve proven that with wins against 100 Thieves (2-0), Fnatic (2-1), and FunPlus Phoenix, who DRX beat in the first round of the playoffs with 2-0. Admittedly, their series with Fnatic on Tuesday started a bit shaky with DRX losing Icebox (7-13), but they quickly bounced back with wins on Ascent (14-12) and Fracture (13-9).

FunPlus Phoenix enter the lower bracket semifinals following a controversial yet deserved win against XSET, who they beat 2-1 (11-13, 13-10, 16-14) on Tuesday, securing their fourth victory of the tournament. Nearly losing to XSET might seem like a big deal, but XSET haven’t been playing that well, so we would take that success with a grain of salt.

FunPlus Phoenix are priced as 1.66 favourites to defeat DRX, which, assuming they play to their full potential, is a fair price. But we feel like DRX aren’t getting the respect they deserve and shouldn’t be priced at $2.10. They beat FunPlus Phoenix (2-0) last week, and there is nothing to suggest they can’t do it again.

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Vici Gaming enter the 2021/22 DPC season with four new players and Yang “poyoyo” Shaohan as the only carryover from 2021. On paper, this is still a team that can compete for top spots, but it will all come down to how well the players mesh.

Like Vici, LBZS freshened up its roster in November, with the addition of Chen “Kagome” Yuxing, Jin “Pyue” Peng, Hu “Molasses” Jiaxing, and Li “detachment” Ruofei, who teamed up with Tang “CatYou” Xiaolei. The roster changes make a lot of sense, and while they might not make LBZS title contenders, we have no issues ranking LBZS as one of the top-five teams in this division.

Like with Vici, LBZS’ long-term success will heavily depend on how the new teammates gel together, so there are a lot of question marks above this fixture. Still, we know what Vici are capable of, and we can’t say we were impressed, nor can the players be satisfied with placing top-four at Huya Dota2 Winter Invitational 2021 last week.

Vici might have a higher ceiling, but they shouldn’t be priced at $1.20 with online bookmakers. LBZS look good enough for us to believe they can do some damage on Tuesday, making them a solid pick with a map handicap.

The International 10 runners-up PSG.LGD enter the new season as one of the favourites to win the division and compete for the Major title. That is mainly because PSG.LGD are one of the few Dota 2 teams that have not made any roster changes this offseason, meaning we can expect the same level of consistency we saw from them last term.

Phoenix Gaming is a team with a high ceiling that can compete for a top-four finish; however, their performance at Asia New Star Cup would suggest otherwise. So while there is some potential, the results are not there yet.

Just last week, Phoenix Gaming struggled and even lost against squads that were significantly weaker than PSG.LGD, which only confirms our preference for the TI10 silver medalists. Admittedly, the opening games of a new season are filled with upsets, but we don’t expect to see one here.

Invictus Gaming placed top four at The International 10 last season and are expected to do just as well, if not better this season, mainly due to the arrival of Pan “Fade” Yi. However, while the addition of Fade makes IG stronger on paper, it remains to be seen how the 25-year-old veteran will fit in.

Royal Never Give Up enter the 2021/22 DPC season with three new members in Lu “Somnus丶M” Yao and two former EHOME players in Yang “Chalice” Shenyi and Yap “xNova” Jian Wei. With so many moving pieces, there were a lot of question marks above RNG, even though xNova and co. did well at Huya Winter Invitational 2021 last month and placed second behind OB.Neon.

At the same tournament, RNG also won against Invictus Gaming (2-1) in the lower bracket finals, and still, they’re priced as $2.00 underdogs for this rematch. Even though their first meeting was close and could have gone either way, there is no reason to have RNG priced as the underdogs.

At $2.00 or better, Royal Never Give Up are a no-brainer pick. A bet on over 2.5 maps is a solid alternative if the odds move.

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