It isn’t much of a surprise to see the Flash Wolves listed as favorites over Gambit Esports. While Gambit is new to the international arena, Flash Wolves have had a great deal of success. They won the IEM Season 11 Championship last year and have made it to the semifinals of MSI for two straight years.
Unfortunately, disappointing performances at the World Championships have meant that Flash Wolves are no longer direct qualifiers for MSI. Instead, they have to qualify through the play-in stage. They crushed SuperMassive at this point last year, and they will try to do the same against Gambit.
MSI Betting Odds (Courtesy of BetDSI)
Flash Wolves -667
Gambit Esports +390
Gambit has been one of the stories of MSI thus far. They were not pegged as the favorite to win their group, but they were able to knock off Rainbow7 twice and topped Group A at 5-1. This team will be looking to prove the experts wrong once more.
In the group stage, Gambit relied on jungler Diamondprox in the early game and AD Carry Lodik in the late game. Diamondprox was able to effectively set up ganks to get his lanes ahead, helping Gambit put pressure on their opponents. He used five separate champions to make this happen and even drafted Nocturne for one game.
Gambit did have a problem of keeping leads in the mid game, but Lodik took over around the 25-minute mark. He posted a KDA over 10 on Xayah, Ezreal, and Jhin, effectively shutting the door on teams who had battled back. He accounted for nearly a third of his team’s damage in the group stage.
Winning through the top lane might be Gambit’s best strategy for this series though. PvPStejos was not asked to do a ton in the previous round, but he was more than capable of winning skill match-ups. He performed very well on Gangplank and recorded a Flame Horizon on the champion. Meanwhile, Flash Wolves changed top laners in the offseason, replacing MMD with Hanabi. Hanabi performed well in his first season and was also great on Gangplank. However, this is his first international appearance with the team.
Flash Wolves seem to have the advantage in the other two lanes. Gambit’s Kira did well in the group stage, but he is going against one of the top mid laners out there. Maple had some troubles at MSI last year, yet there is no denying his skill. He is competent on a number of champions and will likely make at least one surprise pick. Don’t be surprised to see Kira draft the reworked LeBlanc at least once too.
In the bottom lane, SwordArt makes all the difference for Flash Wolves. He is widely seen as one of the best support players in the world and he continues to perform at a high level. SwordArt and Betty are vastly better than any bottom lane duo that Gambit saw in the play-in stage. That will spell trouble for the CIS winners.
Prediction
I would be surprised if Gambit won more than one game in this series. Flash Wolves are just too strong in too many areas. It’s going to be hard for Gambit to win if they don’t jump ahead in the early game. They were not entirely convincing in their victories last week, and Flash Wolves will exploit some of the mistakes that other teams could not.
