by The final split of the League of Legends European Championship (LEC) season kicks off on Friday, June 17, and www.behindzioncurtain.com is here with top betting picks for a pair of first-round bouts. Here are our selections for Team Vitality vs MAD Lions and Misfits Gaming vs Excel Esports, with LoL betting odds courtesy of BetOnline.
TEAM VITALITY vs MAD LIONS LoL BETTING & MATCH DETAILS |
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| Best Odds: | Vitality -227.27 at BetOnline | MAD +162 at BetOnline |
| When: | June 17, 2022 | 18:00 CEST |
| Watch Live: | Lolesports, Twitch |
?MAD Lions made an interesting roster change in May with the signing of former Fnatic mid laner Yasin “Nisqy” Din?er. He could be a perfect addition, not necessarily because he is more talented than Steven “Reeker” Chen, but stylistically, he should fit in this roster better.
When MAD Lions were successful, they had Marek “Humanoid” Brázda, who is a better version of Nisqy, but a stylistically very similar player. So as long as supportive mid laners (Twister Fate, Galio) are in meta, MAD Lions should do fine.
LEC saw a lot of weird roster changes this offseason, but Team Vitality’s decision to replace jungler Oskar “Selfmade” Boderek with Kang “Haru” Min-seung is quite shocking. Reportedly, Selfmade and the rest of the players couldn’t agree on how the game should be played, in which case the change could improve the synergy. But quality-wise, Vitality have downgraded its roster.
On paper, Vitality are still much stronger, but MAD Lions have the potential to be nearly as good as they were in 2021. At +162, MAD Lions seem underestimated and are an excellent underdog pick for the first round of LEC 2022 Summer.
Alternatively, MAD with a +5.5 kill handicap is a solid choice given the current trend of low-scoring games.
MAD Lions to win
MISFITS GAMING vs EXCEL ESPORTS LoL BETTING & MATCH DETAILS |
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| Best Odds: | Misfits -120.48 at BetOnline | Excel -120.48 at BetOnline |
| When: | June 17, 2022 | 20:00 CEST |
| Watch Live: | Lolesports, Twitch |
?Excel Esports had a good spring split, but this team has minimal upside, so we wouldn’t expect much from them in LEC 2022 Summer. ADC Patrik “Patrik” Jír? and support Mihael “Mikyx” Mehle are both excellent players, but besides the bottom lane Excel don’t have much talent.
Mid laner Erlend “nukeduck” V?tevik Holm was surprisingly good during LEC 2022 Spring (relative to expectations), but he should not come even close to that level in the current meta. If we draw a line, Excel are a fairly mediocre team whose ceiling is making the playoffs.
Misfits Gaming replaced top laner Shin “HiRit” Tae-min with Joel “Irrelevant” Miro Scharoll at the end of May, which is a very strange move that likely won’t help the Bunnies’ chances to compete for the title. Irrelevant might prove to be an upgrade, but Misfits have other weaknesses, namely jungler Lucjan “Shlatan” Ahmad, who has to prove that he is more than Lee Sin one-trick.
This is a very tricky match to predict, largely because we don’t know how the LEC meta will develop, so we will stick with a proven method of betting on low-scoring games.
