Vikin.gg, Na’Vi, and Nigma Show Their Might in EPIC League

EPIC League Division 1 is about to enter its 7^th competitive day and so far, some totally unexpected teams have dominated the tournament. In this article I’ll have a look at the results and provide some predictions for the next 6 matches.

EPIC League Division 1 Results

The first week of EPIC League showed important signs that warned us of the upsets we’re currently observing on a daily basis. Natus Vincere won all of its matches, going 3 W – 0 L. Vikin.gg won against Liquid, which in retrospect wasn’t that impressive because Liquid is currently 0 W – 4 L, but then managed to also win against Team Secret. That second victory clearly proved that either Puppey’s team had completely lost its touch, or Vikin.gg was now a scary competitor. And as we discovered over the last few days, it’s clearly the latter.

Nigma had had some really poor results prior to this event. But when KuroKy announced his return, everyone knew that they would shine. And they have so far. Only mudgolems managed to win a match against them. OG, Alliance, and Error got crushed by Nigma and I expect that more teams will follow.

The complete results for the first 6 competitive days are the following:

• 1^st place: Vikin.gg: 4 W – 0 L
• 2^nd place: Natus Vincere: 3 W – 0 L
• 3^rd place: Team Nigma: 3 W – 1 L
• 4^th place: Virtus.pro: 2 W – 0 L
• 5^th place: Team Secret: 2 W – 1 L
• 6^th place: mudgolems: 2 W – 2 L
• 7^th place: OG: 1 W – 3 L
• 8^th place: Just Error: 1 W – 4 L
• 9^th place: Alliance: 0 W – 3 L
• 10^th place: Team Liquid: 0 W – 4 L

Next Matches

The next 6 matches that will take place today (November 21^st) and tomorrow are the following:

Virtus.pro – mudgolems

This is going to be a highly disputed match. Virtus.pro began this tournament with victories against OG and Error. And in addition to that, their current roster has had a lot of great results this season. On the other hand, mudgolems is FATA-‘s team and everyone is either losing or struggling to win against them. Secret barely beat them (2 – 1) while Nigma lost to them (1 – 2). So I do expect a long match. I’d say that mudgolems is slightly favored to win with a score of 2 – 1. But anything can happen.

Alliance – Vikin.gg

No doubt, Vikin.gg will smash Alliance in this match. The results they’ve had so far combined with the fact that Alliance is currently 0 W – 3 L makes this battle quite easy to predict.

Team Secret – Error

Secret may have lost a match at this tournament, but they’re still one of the best teams in Europe. It’s hard to regard Error as anything more than an underdog. Sure, their roster is amazing, but they have yet to find a winning formula and it’s going to take weeks or even months in my opinion.

OG – Natus Vincere

OG is struggling but that’s nothing new for them. Ceb is perfectly used to this and I expect the losses to continue for them. Because Natus Vincere is simply too strong at this point in time and highly motivated to win something big.

Liquid – Alliance

This match will probably decide who gets eliminated. Both of these teams have had only defeats until this point. Given that the bottom two teams will leave the competition after the Group Stage, I’m not sure how the loser could recover from a 0 W – 4 L or even a 0 W – 5 L (in the case of Liquid).

Virtus.pro – Nigma

This is going to be another balanced match between two teams that have a lot to offer. I expect this to go 2 – 1 either way. The favorite is Nigma, but only by a tiny margin.

 

Photo credit: Valve