by ESB’s free StarCraft II betting tips for Thursday focus on a pair of PiG Sty Festival 3.0 round two matches. Check out our predictions for Byun “ByuN” Hyun-woo vs Tobias “ShoWTimE” Sieber and Riccardo “Reynor” Romiti vs Kim “Cure” Doh-wook, with esports betting odds courtesy of the best bookmaker for gamblers in United States.
BYUN vs SHOWTIME SCII BETTING & MATCH DETAILS |
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| Best Odds: | ByuN -303.03 at BetOnline | ShoWTimE +225 at BetOnline |
| When: | March 16, 2023 | 20:00 AEDT |
| Watch Live: | Twitch (https://www.twitch.tv/x5_pig) |
Byun “ByuN” Hyun-woo has met with Tobias “ShoWTimE” Sieber 14 times since 2016, but just thrice in 2022. The Korean StarCraft II esports pro won two fixures (2-1) last year, but both times with a minimal margin (3-2, 2-1), so perhaps he shouldn’t be priced at just -303.03 with esports betting sites.
However, ByuN has achieved a lot more at the end of 2022, including a semifinal run at the 2022 AfreecaTV GSL Super Tournament 2 and a bronze medal from HomeStory Cup XXII. He has since added a 9th-12th finish at IEM Katowice 2023, surpassing ShoWTimE, who finished the tournament in 17th-20th place.
Yet the biggest reason why ByuN is considered a firm favourite for this affair is his strong showing at Korean Starcraft League #1 last week, when he reached the finals and narrowly lost against the current no.1 on the Korean ESL Pro Tour 2022/23 standings, Cho “Maru” Seong-ju.
ShoWTimE fought well against ByuN last season, and his Protoss vs Terran record is at a solid 61.54% win rate. However, expecting him to defeat the in-form ByuN seems a bit too optimistic.
ByuN -1.5 maps
REYNOR vs CURE SCII BETTING & MATCH DETAILS |
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| Best Odds: | Reynor -303.03 at BetOnline | Cure +225 at BetOnline |
| When: | March 16, 2023 | 21:30 AEDT |
| Watch Live: | Twitch (https://www.twitch.tv/x5_pig) |
Riccardo “Reynor” Romiti ended 2022 with an incredible performance at HomeStory Cup XXII, where he hasn’t lost a match en route to his first trophy of the year. Unfortunately, the Italian SCII pro has since not added another title to his impressive resume after crashing out of the Intel Extreme Masters in Katowice at the quarterfinals.
Kim “Cure” Doh-wook hasn’t been on top of his game for a while now and has not won a tournament trophy since Global StarCraft II League Season 3: Code S in October 2021. He showed some glimpses of greatness last season but nothing exceptional, and his 17th-20th result in Katowice doesn’t help defend his chances to upset Reynor.
However, Cure looked incredible last week at WardiTV Korean Royale Qualifier #1, where he defeated Kim “Ryung” Dong-won, Kim “herO” Joon-ho, Park “Dark” Ryung-woo, and Kang “Solar” Min-soo. In contrast, Reynor hasn’t played against an Asian opponent since Katowice and has had a couple of shaky games at ESL Open Cup #165 Europe against lesser players.
As much as we don’t want to allow recency bias to dictate our predictions, Cure has done enough recently for us to argue that the offered SCII betting odds underestimate him. We don’t expect an upset, but Cure with a map advantage at -120.48 with BetOnline is a no-brainer pick.
