by ESB’s free League of Legends betting picks for Thursday focus on two LoL Champions Korea (LCK) 2021 Summer bouts. Here are our best bets for Liiv SANDBOX vs Gen.G and Afreeca Freecs vs T1.
LIIV SANDBOX vs GEN.G LoL BETTING & MATCH DETAILS |
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| LoL Betting Odds: | Sandbox +246 at BetOnline | Gen.G -312.5 at BetOnline |
| When: | July 22, 2021 at 14:00 KST |
| Watch Live: | Lolesports, YouTube |
?Gen.G are an excellent team, but they aren’t as good as they were early into the season. It’s unclear why Gen.G started to slump, but it’s fair to speculate that it has something to do with their weak early game.
Gen.G make up for that weakness with their exceptional mid-late game and strong objective control, so they should be in a fine spot to secure a ticket for the 2021 LoL World Championship. Liiv SANDBOX are ranked fifth in the summer standings with a 6-5 record, which is solid enough; however, they have not impressed us with their recent performances.
The big issue with Liiv SANDBOX is their weak early game, which won’t do them any favours against Gen.G, who are tough to beat if you don’t punish them early on. The stylistic matchup makes it hard to justify siding with the underdogs, even with a map handicap.
Gen.G -1.5 maps
AFREECA FREECS vs T1 LoL BETTING & MATCH DETAILS |
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| LoL Betting Odds: | AF +208 at BetOnline | T1 -256.41 at BetOnline |
| When: | July 22, 2021 at 14:00 KST |
| Watch Live: | Lolesports, YouTube |
?Afreeca Freecs are the most successful underdog team in the LCK, having managed five wins as an outsider. They were also involved in two 2-0 clean sweep wins as underdogs – the highest mark in the league next to Fredit BRION.
The underdogs have seen a lot of success this term, which is directly tied with the top teams’ struggles early into the season. However, things are stabilising, with the top teams slowly finding their stride ahead of the LCK 2021 Summer playoffs.
Out of the LCK heavyweights, T1 stand out as the most improved team over the last few weeks and are statistically the best team in the league currently. That might not be as obvious if you look at only the league standings; however, their metrics show a completely different story.
T1 average the highest numbers in Gold Percentage Rating (0.83 GPR), Early-Game Rating (59.9 EGR), First Blood Rate (71% FB), and Gold Difference at 15 Minutes (+1021 GD@15), and are ranked inside the top-four in almost all other metrics. Their only noticeable issue is mediocre objective control, which is a relatively minor problem that can easily be fixed.
Afreeca Freecs have shown a lot of progress and are a much better team than what their current standing would suggest. However, no matter how you look at this matchup, they’re still far below T1.
