It is the time of the month where we will finally see the top tier teams competing against each other at the MegaFon Winter Clash event. Group A includes Natus Vincere, Team Secret, and Virtus.pro, while Group B includes Forward Gaming, PSG.LGD and Team Liquid. Matches will begin on December 7 at 13:00 Moscow time.
MegaFon Winter Clash will be held December 7-9 in Moscow. The decisive meetings will be held on December 8-9 at Crocus Expo. Six teams will battle for a prize pool of $ 300 thousand.
We picked this match for you since it is one of the most interesting games of the year. Both teams have world class players but both also have their fair share of troubles since they don’t take the game seriously at all on many occasion and it has costed them. So, let’s have a look at this upcoming game.
Team Liquid
With the exception of Natus Vincere, who won the first The International and was runner-up in the second and third editions, most of the teams that claimed the Immortal Aegis at the time, did not maintain the same level of play the following year, getting bad results in the season and even coming to separate as a team. Examples of this are Alliance, Wings Gaming, and Team Liquid.
Team Liquid won The International 7 and started the new season by points conquering the first Minor, the StarLadder i-League Invitational Season 3. Later they reluctant to win a major, despite having been in the grand finale of two, but finished in style by achieving Supermajor China against Virtus Pro. With all this, they pocketed almost two million dollars and 9,459 points of classification.
Their 2017-2018 was phenomenal but their TI run was disappointing. They started well by getting the first place in the group stage, then in the Round Two of the upper bracket, they lost to their upcoming opponents PSG.LGD. They were beating by EG in the Round Six of the lower bracket.
After the TI, the organization didn’t make any changes to its roster. In The Kuala Lumpur Major Europe Qualifier they were first beaten by Team Secret, then they were eliminated by Team Lithium. Then in the qualification of the DreamLeague Season 10, Team Liquid lost to MangoBay. It might be the early days in the season, but it doesn’t look like Liquid are ready to face the competition ahead.
PSG.PGD
One of the most unfortunate teams of 2018 is PSG.LGD. The team could have been the story of champions in 2018. However, the team just couldn’t break through. PSG.LGD might have a problem in their in-game attitude, which is one of the main reason why they can be the best team on their day against weaker teams. However, when it comes to facing big opponents, the team just can’t get its act together. This has been the main issue for the side since its formation. But the team has managed to lift multiple titles and are also finished the TI8 campaign at 2nd place. Owing to these reasons, the organization seems to believe that PSG.LGD has what it takes to establish a solid run in the 2018-2019 season and made no changes for this season.
The new organization of PSG.LGD came into existence in the halfway of the 2017-2018 season of DPC when PSG, one of the richest football clubs in the world partnered with the LGD one of the veteran eSports organization of Chinese region. After this team came into existence, the side won almost every single tournament. This mid-season resurgence was enough to get them the direct invitation to TI. However, the squad showed weaknesses in the group stages of the competition. They were beaten 2-0 by EG and even dropped a game to VGJ.Thunder. However, PSG.LGD made to the upper bracket where they beat the like of Virtus.Pro and even their upcoming opponent Team Liquid. However, they failed against the eventual TI champions twice which couldn’t get them the eternal glory of lifting the Aegis.
With the TI ended, some assumed that PSG.LGD will bring some changes, but they have stick to their old roster and it seems like they have made a wise choice.
The team qualified as the first seed of the Kuala Lumpur Major. Then before the Major competition, the side participated in the PVP eSport tournament where they proved to be an immovable object until Secret took them down. Nonetheless PSG.LGD earned a respectable third place finish. Then in the Kuala Lumpur Major, the team made an impressive run. However, they couldn’t manage to get a single win in the playoffs against Secret and Evil Geniuses. Looking at these stats you can see why we made the justified assumption earlier that the Chinese lineup just fails to shine when it matters. This has been their problem in the previous DPC and it looks like they haven’t found out the solution in the new season.
Final Verdict
Apart from these defeats to high rated teams, they have made an impressive run in the Dota 2 Professional League Season 6 where they are undefeated after playing 10 games. This puts them at the top of their group. However, they have shown cracks in their past games, like getting eliminated early in the H-Cup Season 10. The team got beaten by Mr Game Boy in the first game of the playoffs then lost to Team Aster in the lower bracket. PSG.LGD even lost to EHOME in the qualifiers of the Chongqing Major though they still managed to secure the qualification. However, this just shows that the team has its weaknesses and Liquid being rated as one of the best teams in the world should be looking to exploit it.
Team Liquid 2 – 1 PSG.LGD
Odds on bookmakers
| Bookmakers | Team Liquid Odds | PSG.LGD Odds | ||
| European | American | European | American | |
| EGB.com | 1.71 | -140 | 2.00 | +100.00 |
| Betway | 1.75 | -133 | 1.95 | -105 |
| Loot.bet | 1.87 | -114 | 1.87 | -114 |
| GG.bet | 1.86 | -116 | 1.93 | -107 |
| Bet365 | 1.72 | -138 | 2.00 | +100.00 |
Shehryar is a professional eSports analyst with a particular affinity for CS:GO, LoL, and DOTA. He covers major eSports events across the world for WagerBop.
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