VIRTUS.PRO vs GAMBIT DOTA 2 BETTING & MATCH DETAILS
Dota 2 Betting Odds:	VP $1.46 at GG Bet | Gambit $2.25 at GG Bet
Dota 2 Betting Lines:	VP -1.5 at $2.33 | Gambit +1.5 at $1.55
When:	April 23, 2020 at 16:00 CET
Watch Live:	Twitch (https://www.twitch.tv/team/weplay)

VIRTUS.PRO vs GAMBIT WEPLAY! PUSHKA LEAGUE S1: DIVISION 1 BETTING PREVIEW

Virtus.pro and Gambit will renew their hostilities this Thursday on the opening matchday of the WePlay! Pushka League: Division 1 online Dota2 tournament.

Gambit will enter the Thursday’s bout on the heels of an underwhelming run through ESL One Los Angeles 2020 – Online: Europe & CIS, where Artiom “fng” Barshack and co. missed out on the playoffs after finishing outside the top four in Group A.

Gambit got off to a slow start in LA, losing their opening two fixtures against Vikin.gg (0-2) and Virtus.pro (1-2). Although they bounced back with a commanding win over Nigma (2-0) in round three, fng’s squad left a lot to be desired in their losses to HellRaisers (1-2), Cyber Legacy (1-2) and OG (2-0). En route to their seventh-place finish, fng’s squad picked up one more win against B8 (2-0) to bring their total series tally to 2-5 and their map record to 7-10.

Prior to their ESL One Los Angeles 2020 appearance, Gambit took a swing at StarLadder ImbaTV Dota 2 Minor Season 3. There, they looked fairly solid and picked up wins against CR4ZY, Alliance and BOOM Esports before losing to Team Aster (0-2) and Alliance (0-2) in the upper and lower bracket finals respectively.

Virtus.pro produced a mixed bag of results through 2019/20 season. For the most part, Alexei “Solo” Berezin and co. have struggled since their run to the last 12 at The International 2019. Fifth-sixth finishes at ESL One Hamburg 2019 and ONE Esports Dota 2 World Pro Invitational Singapore were well below the level expected of the 2018/19 Dota Pro Circuit runners-up, as was the 13th-16th result at DreamLeague Season 13.

In a bid to find more stability, VP have made a couple of roster changes in recent months. Bakyt “Zayac” Emilzhanov and Zaur “Cooman” Shakhmurzaev replaced Vitalie “Save-” Melnic and Egor “epileptick1d” Grigorenko, who was sent over to the VP.Prodigy academy team. VP also parted ways with their coach Anatoly “boo1k” Ivanov and at the start of April benched cooman in favour of Igor “iLTW” Filatov, who played as a stand-in during ESL One LA Online: EU & CIS and will continue in that role for the WePlay! Pushka League.

Although it would be hard to say iLTW is a massive upgrade on cooman, there is no denying that VP’s performances have improved since they signed the Russian carry. They dominated from the get-go at ESL One LA Online: EU & CIS, where they topped Group A with a perfect 7-0 series and 14-3 map record. They carried that form all the way through the playoffs, downing Team Spirit 2-0 and then beating OG twice to take out the title.

VIRTUS.PRO vs GAMBIT WEPLAY! PUSHKA LEAGUE S1: DIVISION 1 BETTING PREDICTIONS

Virtus.pro have won all four of their meetings with Gambit this season, racking up an 8-1 aggregate scoreline in the process. While Gambit pushed their regional rivals to three maps in their most recent clash at ESL One Los Angeles 2020, they never looked like they had a realistic chance to close out the series. VP have all the momentum after their big win at ESL One LA and should have no trouble sealing a clean sweep on Thursday.