The Dota Pro Circuit’s winter leagues have already wrapped in five regions, but China is only now entering its final week. Teams are playing for spots in the major and to avoid relegation, as well as for pride.
One team that has its pride on the line is the unheralded LBZS. The little-known squad pulled off one of the biggest upsets of the qualifiers by making it into the Chinese upper division ahead of bigger names including Royal Never Give Up and Sparking Arrow Gaming. In the weeks since, it’s been demonstrated why that was considered such an upset.
LBZS has notched the absolute worst performance of the 2021 Dota Pro Circuit to this point. 0-6 in series and 0-12 on maps, LBZS is positioned to be the only team to finish the season with every match being a sweeping loss. Their only chance to avoid that unfortunate distinction comes here against EHOME.Â
Looking strictly at how poorly LBZS has performed in the Chinese Dota Pro Circuit league, it might not be worth considering this team, but its poor record doesn’t tell the whole story. LBZS has actually been performing reasonably well of late, winning the Moon Studio New Year Showdown. The interregional competition saw LBZS beat a number of Chinese academy teams as well as some competitors from Southeast Asia.
Some of those come with an asterisk in that LBZS won by forfeit, but at the end of the day the team went 7-2 in played series and notched a 2-0 victory over Neon Esports. That’s the same Neon Esports who qualified for the ONE Esports Singapore Major as the second-place team in all of Southeast Asia.
EHOME was shaping up to be one of the best teams in China at the start of the season. But that changed quickly.
EHOME has struggled to gain any level of traction in the Dota Pro Circuit despite looking reasonably strong towards the end of 2020. The team has been competing with the following lineup:
At the moment, EHOME is 1-4 in the Perfect World China Dota Pro Circuit league, but it still have quite a lot of action ahead of it. This plays an important role when looking over this matchup from a betting perspective.
As of this writing, LBZS vs. EHOME has stacked odds with Winners.bet having EHOME as a 1.12 favorite and LBZS as a 5.35 underdog. That’s actually quite exaggerated given EHOME’s underwhelming performances over recent months and the fact that LBZS might be on a bit of an upswing.
LBZS might be worth considering as a flyer pick as-is, but there’s actually quite a few games between now and that match. EHOME has three matches in total between now and then. Anyone that wants to get a better feel for these two teams can check out those games and see how it further impacts the betting lines.
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