?Team Spirit and Virtus.pro have yet to lose a series this tournament, but for one team that’s about to change. Dota 2 bookmakers seem to believe it will be Spirit whose winning streak will be snapped in half, and perhaps that comes down to their poor record against VP.

Team Spirit have managed to defeat Virtus.pro only once before, and that was in their first-ever meeting back in December 2015. VP have since won every clash with their regional rivals, which translates to a 27-game win streak.

Justifying a bet against a squad with a 96.43% head-to-head win rate and 55-11 map differential is not an easy task. That said, Team Spirit are much stronger now than they once were.

Spirit are 15-2 since the start of March and have managed a 17-3 record since they last met VP in February. Virtus.pro have been similarly successful (8-2) during that stretch, but they have played far fewer games.

Virtus.pro might still come out ahead, mainly because they match up well stylistically with Team Spirit, but we don’t expect to see a 2-0 sweep. All of the last three meetings between these two went the distance, and we think that trend will continue.

?The latest odds at esports betting sites suggest HellRaisers should win this match 94.2% of the time, which is way too high. While the favourites are the more established and successful team with better players, the odds on Fantastic Five are too good to ignore.

We’re still in the online era of Dota 2 where results are as unpredictable as ever, so there is no real reason to have one team priced as $8.00 underdogs. What’s more, F5 didn’t look all that bad in their loss against Team Empire on Sunday.

HellRaisers are no strangers to losing against much weaker opponents, and they have played only two games across the last month. At these odds, we’re ready to take a shot on the outsiders.

?We’re not too big on Prosti Esli in this matchup. It’s not that we believe they’re a bad team, but they shouldn’t be priced as low as they are for this contest.

Team Empire have had their fair share of struggles this year, but they should improve now that they have Ivan “VANSKOR” Skorokhod in the roster. His impact has already been felt, as Empire looked far more organised in their 2-0 sweep of Fantastic Five last week.

Empire still have a lot of issues they need to fix, but they’re facing a team whose only official match was a narrow 2-1 victory against the struggling B8. Back the outsiders for the win.