Western clash for dominance at VCT Masters Reykjavik today
All eyes aimed at Sentinels, Fnatic, Liquid and Version1 to bring glory to their home region today. Two EU versus NA duels will define expectations at VCT Masters Reykjavik with regional glory at stake, and plenty of EU<>NA banter to boot.
After the initial rounds played out on Day 1, our opening round predictions and pre-event Masters Reykjavik Power Rankings are still holding. Let’s look at what Day 2 holds for us, and which Valorant betting predictions we can create today.
Jake “Boaster” Howlett
Sentinels vs Fnatic
Fnatic are coming out a dominating showcase against KRÜ Esports. Derke absolutely dominated the LATAM challengers in the opener, while Magnum and Boaster lurked their way around the opponents to completely smother the opponents on both Heaven and Icebox. The first match yesterday was not a true showcase of what Fnatic can show, as KRU were not really a challenge throughout their entire series.
Sentinels are now set to play their first LAN match against an opponent coming in hot from yesterday. The challenge is on TenZ and ShahZaM to navigate the traps and ingenious rotations Fnatic puts forward. We did however see how bad FNC is in pistol rounds. If Sentinels manages to take each pistol round but also convert the “bonus round” into a full buy, we might see a Fnatic that never quite catches on to Sentinels.
I predict a three map duel in which Fnatic comes out 2:1 ahead. This also provides us with a hefty x3.86 return over at GG.BET.
Team Liquid vs Version1
Version1 had a close duel against Crazy Raccoon yesterday. In all honesty, I expected more dominance from the second best NA squad especially against a team that relies heavily on Munchkin’s Raze to do all of the heavy lifting. With both matches ending up quite close in scorelines, we might be in for a tough beatdown against Team Liquid today.
ScreaM and team are looking to put their best foot forward in their own opener against Version1. If they remain on point as they have during the EU portion of the season, we are looking at a clear 2:0 win. Sadly, bookmakers tend to agree with such predictions, offering only x1.53 in return for Liquid’s domination.
Sharks vs KRÜ Esports
Finally, two teams are playing for the tournament future tomorrow. The South American derby has two teams that just couldn’t find their footing in their opening matches. We already covered how LATAM champions KRU just couldn’t find a way to deal with Fnatic and Derke. The Brazilians on the other hand were outmaneuvered and outpaced by the KR representative in NUTURN Gaming.
When it comes to a head to head duel, we have two teams who have great players but are tactically “lost” in terms of rotations and map posturing. Both KRU and Sharks played relatively passive in their games thus far, with Sharks rotating way too much between sites for no valid reason. KRU on the other hand managed to get flanked by at least one player in 23 out of the 35 rounds they played thus far.
In a head to head matchup it should all come down to pure dueling power. I expect straight up duels across multiple entry points each round, with the better players winning out more rounds overall. In terms of betting on Valorant we can safely go for a KRU Esports win at a whopping x3.62 return rate.
If you decide to put all three matches together in a single betting slip you are looking at a potential 20-fold return across most esports betting sites.
