Kim “Stats” Dae-yeob and Shin “SHIN” Hee-beom last met in December 2023 during AfreecaTV Pro Series #22, where SHIN won 4-0. It marked his third head-to-head victory of the year and his eighth overall (8-13).

Stats has dominated SHIN since they first met in 2015, but he could not match his compatriot last year as the balance of power flipped. For this match, we also have to consider Stats’ poor record against Zerg players.

Protos vs Zerg is Stats’ worst matchup at a 58.60% win rate across 1,413 games. That number has dropped to just 12.5% over the last 16 games, which is highly concerning. In contrast, ZvP is SHIN’s best matchup, with a 60.24% all-time win rate and 76% over the last 50 fixtures.

Considering Stats’ performance metrics and recent head-to-head record against SHIN, it’s tough to justify a wager on him.

After placing 17th-20th and 21st-24th in his last two trips to Poland, Clément “Clem” Desplanches enters IEM Katowice 2024 as the second favourite to win the tournament, priced at +280 on the outright betting markets. That’s hardly surprising, considering Clem is the current ESL SC2 Masters champion and the second-ranked player on the European ESL Pro Tour 2023/24.

Li “Oliveira” Peinan hasn’t accomplished nearly as much as the French StarCraft II pro over the last few months, but he has left a good impression in bigger tournaments. More importantly, Olivera is 1-1 in the head-to-head against Clem on the year, with a 3-1 victory from WardiTV 2023.

Olivera’s victory against Clem two weeks ago isn’t something to ignore, but it doesn’t prove he is a better player. Clem is in excellent form and holds a 67.37% win rate against Terran players over the last 95 games, whereas Oliveira’s win rate in mirrored matchups sits at just 48.89%.

Oliveira is a solid player, but at the offered StarCraft II betting odds, Clem is a more appealing choice.

Lee “Bunny” Jae-seon and Kim “Stats” Dae-yeob have not met once since March 2021, when Bunny won his third consecutive head-to-head match and improved his all-time record to 7-9. It’s been nearly three years since, so those numbers mean nothing.

SCII betting sites have Stats priced as an underdog for this match, likely because he hasn’t played an official game since mid-December. On the other hand, Bunny has been active over the last month but hasn’t accomplished much, recently placing 15th-16th at Master’s Coliseum 7.

This match is much closer to 50/50 than it may seem. Stats has a decent record against Terran players, whereas Bunny has a 57.58% win rate against Protoss over the last 33 outings. At plus money, Stats is a much better choice.

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Kim “Cure” Doh-wook and Kim “Stats” Dae-yeob have met 32 times since 2015, each winning 15 series and 39 maps. However, while their all-time head-to-head record is 50-50, Cure holds a perfect 6-0 record (12-0 in maps) against the 31-year-old veteran this year.

The strong head-to-head record explains why Cure is heavily favoured for this match, but we must also consider that Cure is in excellent form. He holds a 62.66% win rate across the last 233 games and is 65-34 against Protoss players. Stats has a 48.1% win rate across the last 54 games and an abysmal 36.84% win rate in PvT games.

Stats is never to be underestimated, but at the offered StarCraft II betting odds, we have to side with Cure to sweep Stats for the seventh time this year.

Lee “Bunny” Jae-seon is priced as a -333.33 favourite to defeat Jang “NightMare” Wook, which sounds fair considering Bunny is 3-0 against NightMare across their last three meetings. However, the two Korean SCII pros have not met once since November 2022, so that number doesn’t mean much.

NightMare’s best tournament placement was ninth–12th at the 2023 Global StarCraft II League Season 2: Code S, which isn’t too inspiring. However, Bunny hasn’t looked much better recently. He made the semifinals in GSL Season 1 Code S but then added two 13th–16th-place finishes at GSL Season 2 and ESL Summer.

The only thing going in Bunny’s favour is his strong record against Protoss players (57.14%), but even that is only slightly better than NightMare’s PvT record (55.71%). Bunny should be favoured, but not by that much. Value is with NightMare.

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Lee “Bunny” Jae-seon and Riccardo “Reynor” Romiti will clash on Thursday for the first time since the IEM SEason XIII Katowice European qualifiers in January 2019 when Reynor won 2-0. Even though two years have passed since then, it’s fair to expect another commanding showing from the Italian SCII pro, who is viewed as one of the best players in the world.

Bunny has had some solid showings in 2020, but he is not as good as he once was. His last Premier tournament title came in December 2017 and he has not finished above eighth in any of the high-profile events. What’s more, Bunny is 1-5 in his last six outings and has not played a single official match in two weeks.

Even though Zerg is Bunny’s best matchup (54.74% win rate), he is still an inferior player to Reynor, who holds a 64.52% win rate against Terran. This should be an easy 2-0 for Reynor.

The Latest StarCraft II esports betting odds suggest this will be a very one-sided affair, which we can’t quite agree with. Even though Lee “INnoVation” Shin Hyung has yet to lose against Gabriel Raffaele “HeRoMaRinE” Segat in his career, that hardly means anything considering these players last met in November 2019.

Esports betting sites have INnoVation priced at only $1.15, which makes no sense to us. HeRoMaRinE has beaten players of the same calibre before and holds a very high win rate in mirrored matchups (67.78%). There is a world where the German wins, but we will settle for a safer bet.

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