eSports Betting: Overwatch League 2020 Playoffs Analysis

eSports Betting: Overwatch League 2020 Playoffs Analysis

Written by on October 2, 2020

The third season of Overwatch League is coming to a close, with only four teams remaining in the race for the prestigious title and the largest slice of $3,050,000 in tournament winnings. Entering the final stage of the competition are the two North American representatives in Philadelphia Fusion and the reigning OWL champions San Francisco Shock, as well as Shanghai Dragons and Seoul Dynasty, who emerged as two of the strongest Asian squads. Let’s take a closer look at the upcoming games so you can make your bets against their eSports odds.

Overwatch League 2020 Playoffs: Grand Finals Betting Predictions

The action will begin on Oct. 8 with a meeting between Seoul Dynasty and San Francisco Shock, followed by an exciting clash featuring Philadelphia Fusion and Shanghai Dragons. Here we will cover both fixtures and give our predictions with betting odds courtesy of MyBookie.

San Francisco Shock Vs Seoul Dynasty

Seoul Dynasty has made serious noise in 2020 and impressed many OWL fans with what they have shown. Despite their struggles early into the season, Seoul started to pick up the pace towards the end and produced a remarkable run through the Asia playoffs.

Seoul Dynasty started its journey into the playoffs with two convincing wins against Hangzhou Spark (3-0) and the regular season silver medalists Guangzhou Charge (3-0). Unfortunately, they missed out on winning the league after they had to admit defeat to Shanghai Dragons (2-3) in the finals.

Nevertheless, that loss did not faze Dynasty, who swept New York Excelsior (3-0) in the losers’ finals to lock in the ticket leading to the main event.

San Francisco Shock entered the 2020 season as the favorites. While it seemed like Philadelphia Fusion would manage to push Shock off the North American throne, the reigning OWL champions let everyone know they’re still the best Overwatch team North America has.

The betting odds favor Shock over Dynasty, and while there is a possibility Shock will win, the quality difference between these two teams is not as big as the odds would lead you to believe. Dynasty have drastically improved over the last few weeks.

While defeating Shock won’t be an easy task, we have to remember Dynasty pushed Dragons to five-map series, making them a great pick at the offered betting odds.

Prediction: Seoul Dynasty to win – 2.40 (+140) at MyBookie

Philadelphia Fusion Vs Shanghai Dragons

It would be fair to say that Philadelphia Fusion exceeded everyone’s expectations this season with their performances. After making it to the grand finals of the inaugural OWL season, Fusion started to slump and managed only a 10th-place finish in the 2019 OWL season, which suggested their glory days are over.

That, however, was not the case for the Philly squad, who went on to produce an outstanding run through the season. Besides their third-fourth place finish at May Melee, Fusion finished second in Summer Showdown and Countdown Cup, which helped them claim a silver medal from the regular season.

Fusion carried over the momentum into the NA playoffs and looked unstoppable up until the grand finals, where they got stomped by Shock (1-3). Nevertheless, Fusion showed no struggles in the losers’ finals, where they crushed Washington Justice (2-1, 4-3, 2-0) to secure the second and final ticket for the season’s culminating event.

Standing on the other side of the arena will be Shanghai Dragons, who have established themselves as the undisputed best Asian Overwatch team. Out of 29 games played this season, Dragons lost only two and even those came against the Asian second seed Seoul Dynasty and Guangzhou Charge.

After securing the regular-season title, Dragons cruised through the Asian playoffs, where they defeated New York Excelsior (3-1) and edged past Seoul Dynasty (3-2). While their bout against Seoul was fairly close, Dragons still managed to prove they’re the stronger team by closing out the series with 3-2 on Escort and 2-0 on Control.

The Asian OWL league is arguably stronger than the North American, so it makes sense to see Dragons priced as the favorites. Having said that, we should not undervalue Fusion based on the perception of the leagues’ strength alone.

Philadelphia Fusion looked very strong in the NA playoffs, whereas Dragons have seemingly slowed down a bit. Upsetting Dragons will be an uphill battle, but Fusion they can show the same fire here as they did in NA playoffs, they should push their Asian counterparts to the limit.

Prediction: Philadelphia Fusion +1.5 maps

Alternatively: Philadelphia Fusion to win – 2.27 (-127) at MyBookie


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