{"id":4903,"date":"2018-04-11T05:45:13","date_gmt":"2018-04-11T05:45:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/esportbet.com\/?p=4903"},"modified":"2018-04-11T06:10:10","modified_gmt":"2018-04-11T06:10:10","slug":"starladder-imbatv-invitational-season-5-preview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/esportbet.com\/starladder-imbatv-invitational-season-5-preview\/","title":{"rendered":"Dota 2: StarLadder ImbaTV Invitational Season 5 Preview"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>StarLadder ImbaTV Invitational Season 5 is the 17th Dota Pro Circuit LAN event of the 2017-2018 professional season. The tournament brings together 8 teams, has a prize pool of $300.000 and is scheduled to take place in Kiev, Ukraine between April 12th \u2013 15th.<\/p>\n<p><strong>ALSO READ: <a href=\"https:\/\/esportbet.com\/dota-2\/\">HOW TO BET ON DOTA 2<\/a><\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>FREE TIPS: <a href=\"https:\/\/esportbet.com\/dota-2-starladder-imbatv-invitational-predictions-free-tips\/\">STARLADDER IMBATV BETTING PREDICTIONS<\/a><\/strong> <\/p>\n<h2>Participating teams<\/h2>\n<p>StarLadder ImbaTV Invitational Season 5 features 8 teams from 6 different regions:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Europe:<\/strong> Team Kinguin.<\/li>\n<li><strong>North America:<\/strong> OpTic Gaming.<\/li>\n<li><strong>South America:<\/strong> SG e-sports.<\/li>\n<li><strong>CIS:<\/strong> Natus Vincere, FlyToMoon, Vega Squadron.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Southeast Asia:<\/strong> Fnatic.<\/li>\n<li><strong>China:<\/strong>  VGJ.Thunder.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>StarLadder ImbaTV Invitational Odds<\/h2>\n<p><strong>To Win outright<\/strong> <\/p>\n<p><strong>VJG Thunder:<\/strong> +225<br \/>\n<strong>Fnatic:<\/strong> +225<br \/>\n<strong>OpTic Gaming:<\/strong> +300<br \/>\n<strong>Kinguin:<\/strong> +1200<br \/>\n<strong>FlyToMoon:<\/strong> +1400<br \/>\n<strong>Vega Squadron:<\/strong> +1600<br \/>\n<strong>Natus Vincere:<\/strong> +1800<br \/>\n<strong>SG e-sports:<\/strong> +2200<\/p>\n<p>* odds courtesy of <a href=\"https:\/\/esportbet.com\/go\/betonline\/\"  title=\"Claim bonus at BetOnline\"  target=\"_blank\">BetOnline<\/a> and were correct at time of publishing. <\/p>\n\n<!-- Table view: sport-bp -->\n<style>\/* info (hed, dek, source, credit) *\/\n\n<\/style>\n    <h3 class=\"rm-sport-banking-title\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-src=\"https:\/\/esportbet.com\/data-central\/images\/flags\/US_tick.png\" alt=\"United States Bet from your country\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" class=\"lazyload\" \/><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" 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deposit bonus up to the value of USD $250<\/a><\/td><\/tr>\n\n\n            <\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n\n<h2>Tournament format<\/h2>\n<p>The eight participants will be initially divided into two groups of four. Both of these groups will be played in a double-elimination bracket format (GSL). <\/p>\n<p>The top two teams from each group qualify for the Playoffs, where 1st place from Group A plays against 2nd place from Group B and vice versa. Every match is a Bo3 series with the exception of the Grand Final (Bo5).<\/p>\n<h2>Prize pool and points distribution<\/h2>\n<p>StarLadder ImbaTV Invitational Season 5 belongs to the Dota Pro Circuit, offering not only prize money but qualification points as well. These rewards will be distributed among the participants in the following way:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>1st place:<\/strong> $135.000; 150 points<\/li>\n<li><strong>2nd place:<\/strong> $60.000; 90 points<\/li>\n<li><strong>3rd \u2013 4th place:<\/strong> $30.000; 30 points<\/li>\n<li><strong>5th \u2013 6th place:<\/strong> $15.000; 0 points<\/li>\n<li><strong>7th \u2013 8th place:<\/strong> $7.500; 0 points<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Team analysis<\/h2>\n<h3>VGJ.Thunder<\/h3>\n<p>VGJ.Thunder is currently sitting at number 8 in the Dota Pro Circuit rankings table with 1665 points. The team has a lot of potential and has had two 2nd place results at Dota Pro Circuit events this season. One of these events was a Major. At the latest tournament it participated in, VGJ.Thunder did poorly (9th-12th place), but the opposition was very strong. At this event, the Chinese team is more than likely to make it all the way to the Grand Final.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Best odds:<\/strong> VJG Thunder to win, paying +225 at <a href=\"https:\/\/esportbet.com\/go\/betonline\/\"  title=\"Claim bonus at BetOnline\"  target=\"_blank\">BetOnline<\/a><\/p>\n<h3>FlyToMoon<\/h3>\n<p>This is a CIS team that has existed for only 2 months. And although it\u2019s made up of experienced CIS players, it has very little experience and not a single notable result at the international level. In all likelihood, FlyToMoon will finish StarLadder ImbaTV Invitational Season 5 in 7th \u2013 8th place.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Best odds:<\/strong> FlyToMoon to win, paying +1400 at <a href=\"https:\/\/esportbet.com\/go\/betonline\/\"  title=\"Claim bonus at BetOnline\"  target=\"_blank\">BetOnline<\/a><\/p>\n<h3>OpTic Gaming<\/h3>\n<p>Apart from Evil Geniuses, this is probably the strongest North American team at the moment. OpTic Gaming has a lot of potential, having plenty of experience, good individual players and a formidable captain: Peter \u201cppd\u201d Dager, former TI champion with Evil Geniuses in 2015. OpTic Gaming is easily a top 3 team at this event and could easily get a great result. I\u2019m expecting them to qualify for the Grand Final.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Best odds:<\/strong> OpTic Gaming to win, paying +300 at <a href=\"https:\/\/esportbet.com\/go\/betonline\/\"  title=\"Claim bonus at BetOnline\"  target=\"_blank\">BetOnline<\/a><\/p>\n<h3>Team Kinguin<\/h3>\n<p>This is a mediocre European team with some level of international experience but not a single notable result. Given the level of competition at this event, they might get a 5th-6th place finish, but it\u2019s still more likely that they will finish among the last 2.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Best odds:<\/strong> Team Kinguin to win, paying +1200 at <a href=\"https:\/\/esportbet.com\/go\/betonline\/\"  title=\"Claim bonus at BetOnline\"  target=\"_blank\">BetOnline<\/a><\/p>\n<h3>Vega Squadron<\/h3>\n<p>Vega Squadron is an up and coming contender in the CIS region, having recently defeated Team Empire, Natus Vincere and Team Spirit in the CIS qualifiers for GESC: Thailand Dota2 Minor. With its roster of little known but experienced players, Vega Squadron doesn\u2019t stand much of a chance against the main contenders for this event (VGJ.Thunder, OpTic Gaming and Fnatic) but has a good chance of winning against all of the other teams. A 5th-6th or even a 3rd-4th place finish wouldn\u2019t be surprising in its case.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Best odds:<\/strong> Vega Squadron to win, paying +1200 at <a href=\"https:\/\/esportbet.com\/go\/betonline\/\"  title=\"Claim bonus at BetOnline\"  target=\"_blank\">BetOnline<\/a><\/p>\n<h3>SG e-sports<\/h3>\n<p>This is one of the strong South American teams, but unfortunately, South American Dota is known to be the weakest of all the 6 recognized regions. Like other teams present at this event, SG e-sports hasn\u2019t really had any notable results this season. And, based on the skill difference between their region and the rest of the world, I think it\u2019s safe to assume that they won\u2019t make it very far into this tournament.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Best odds:<\/strong> SG e-sports to win, paying +2200 at <a href=\"https:\/\/esportbet.com\/go\/betonline\/\"  title=\"Claim bonus at BetOnline\"  target=\"_blank\">BetOnline<\/a><\/p>\n<h3>Fnatic<\/h3>\n<p>Fnatic is currently sitting at number 11 in the Dota Pro Circuit rankings table with 884 points. So this tournament will be decisive for them in the sense that, if they want to get a direct invite at The International 2018, they need to earn as many points as possible and get back into top 8. If they can\u2019t do it at an event like StarLadder ImbaTV Invitational Season 5, where most of the participants are fairly weak teams, then it\u2019s pretty clear that they won\u2019t achieve this goal this season.<br \/>\nFnatic is the 2nd placed team at this tournament in terms of strength. Their main rival for qualifying for the Grand Final will likely be OpTic Gaming.<br \/>\nOne thing to keep in mind for this tournament is that Fnatic will be playing with their coach Adam instead of pieliedie. So we\u2019ll have to see how that decision turns out.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Best odds:<\/strong> Fnatic to win, paying +225 at <a href=\"https:\/\/esportbet.com\/go\/betonline\/\"  title=\"Claim bonus at BetOnline\"  target=\"_blank\">BetOnline<\/a><\/p>\n<h3>Natus Vincere<\/h3>\n<p>Natus Vincere is currently sitting at number 10 in the Dota Pro Circuit rankings table with 1199 points. So its situation is similar to Fnatic\u2019s. I honestly don\u2019t like this new Na\u2019Vi lineup and consider that after the departure of RodjER, Na\u2019Vi lost all momentum and all hope of getting a top 8 finish at the end of the season. Even when they win, Na\u2019Vi seem to be extremely lucky or are getting carried by one of their cores. The team as a whole doesn\u2019t seem to have much synergy.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Best odds:<\/strong> Natus Vincere to win, paying +1800 at <a href=\"https:\/\/esportbet.com\/go\/betonline\/\"  title=\"Claim bonus at BetOnline\"  target=\"_blank\">BetOnline<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>StarLadder ImbaTV Invitational Season 5 is the 17th Dota Pro Circuit LAN event of the 2017-2018 professional season. The tournament&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":4908,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ghostkit_customizer_options":"","ghostkit_custom_css":"","ghostkit_custom_js_head":"","ghostkit_custom_js_foot":"","ghostkit_typography":"","wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[17,4,329,109,132,151,330,233,209,124,267],"class_list":["post-4903","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-dota-2","tag-featured","tag-flytomoon","tag-fnatic","tag-natus-vincere","tag-optic-gaming","tag-sg-e-sports","tag-starladder","tag-team-kinguin","tag-vega-squadron","tag-vgj-thunder"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/esportbet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4903"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/esportbet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/esportbet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esportbet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esportbet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4903"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/esportbet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4903\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4915,"href":"https:\/\/esportbet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4903\/revisions\/4915"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esportbet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4908"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/esportbet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4903"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esportbet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4903"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esportbet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4903"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}