[ESEA S11] Week 1 Day 1 Predictions

ESEA 4 group play starts this week and several exciting match-ups are already here. You can look at the Upcoming Matches here. Let's take a look!

Under Rated Gaming vs Impressive Play

Although Under Rated Gaming is a newly formed team and therefore quite easily may be "under rated", they've got an impressive lineup nonetheless. This will be their debut match, and this match will allow us to see how strong they really are as they face off against the seasoned team, Impressive Play. Impressive Play, in my opinion, a middle of the road strong team - they are consistent and only barely missed the cutoffs for playoffs last season. I think this is the perfect opportunity to gauge the relative strengths of both teams.

I will have to give the benefit of the doubt here to Impressive Play, since we are more familiar with them, and predict a 3-2 win for them. Ruxin and Tbeezy from Under Rated Gaming are the two players I recognize and they are very good players, so I think in any case this match will be extremely close!

Flow Gaming vs Team Legion [image loading]

Again, we have a new team on the scene facing off against an experienced team. Flow Gaming is participating for the first time in ESEA and will be facing off against last season's 5th/6th place Team Legion. However, despite Legion's experience, they are also starting relatively anew this season as well! Their staple Korean lineup of Boss, Mystic, and ChiTa has left, but in their stead are Gix, Kane, and Karmy. This match is interesting both in that we will get to see how strong Flow Gaming is, as well as who Team Legion decides to run in their lineup. I predict a 3-1 victory for Team Legion but I have yet to see the caliber of Flow Gaming's skill, so this could go any way!

KEYD TEAM vs LighT eSports [image loading]

This will be a nice match between two teams that have both participated in ESEA before. We have KEYD Team who barely missed playoffs last season by coming in ninth place, and we have LighT eSports who came in third place last season. I made a prediction of 4-0 for LighT, as they have always been a strong team and now with the addition of Golden are even stronger, but I think a 3-1 situation is likely or even perhaps a 3-2, as KEYD's Everize and Maker are both two strong Terran players that could perhaps take a game or two.

CheckSix Gaming vs Nightmares [image loading]

Last season's second place CheckSix Gaming is facing against last season's seventh/eighth place, Nightmares. Last season these two teams had some pretty close matches and we could see that again here. CheckSix has added Sleep though, and that will make the match a lot tougher for Nightmares. NMxMaSa has been consistently strong however, and read more . . .