Virtus.pro vs Vici Gaming Prediction: it’ll be tough for VP to keep their place in the upper bracket

The Last Chance Qualifier for The International 2022 continues on Monday, October 10. Virtus.pro and Vici Gaming will face off in the first games of the LCQ's top playoff stage.

The International 2022: Last Chance Qualifier is a qualifier for The International 2022, the year's main event in Dota 2. Twelve teams from around the world will be competing for two slots in the main tournament. Last Chance Qualifier, like the entire The International 2022 tournament, is a LAN tournament that will take place in Singapore.

Virtus.pro is disappointing with their game. Sometimes there is a kind of tilt in the players' actions, and their main star RAMZES666 is not playing like a multiple majors champion. But that didn't stop the Russian team to make it to the top of LCQ though their opponent wasn't very nice. The Chinese Vici Gaming is a passable opponent but their current status looks much more attractive in terms of further prospects in this qualification. VP won on the first game day, beating Infamous and giving a real fight to the main LCQ favorite, Xtreme Gaming to play in a draw. However, the Bears can't do without surprises and on the starting day this surprise was a draw in the match with Wildcard Gaming. This was followed by a draw with T1 and a devastating defeat at the hands of Team Liquid. Fortunately the scored points were enough to get a place in the upper bracket, which means that they will have one right to make a mistake.

Virtus.pro returned to their original name after six months, thanks to a change of ownership. While in CS:GO tournament operators have not decided whether to amnesty the organization and forget about Outsiders, in Dota 2 it has already been officially done, and at TI11 we will see the good old Bears.

Virtus.pro players had to draw some conclusions after the regional qualification finals, because their defeat by BB Team (0-3) revealed the actual problems of the squad led by the famous RAMZES666. But if anyone should be invited to the group stage of TI11, it is the Russian team apart from the Chinese.

In general, Virtus.pro can safely complain about some terrible bad luck. First they were deprived of a direct TI11 invitational, short of 0.5 points. Then they failed in the regional qualification finals when everybody thought they would win. For an even more frustrating end to the season, all that was left was to drop out of the Last Chance Qualifier somewhere in the final game for a slot.

Vici Gaming continues to surprise. If we don't take into account the failure in the game with nouns, the team performed above all expectations in the group stage. The players had a decent first game day in the Last Chance Qualifier. First, they played a draw against a strong opponent in the face of Team Secret, and then easily overcame the Peruvians from Tempest. The next day saw them defeat Polaris Esports of the Philippines and draw with NaVi. It can be seen that VG has a stable game, picking heroes perfect for themselves, and the Chinese meta brings results.

And in this DPC cycle, Vici Gaming was not even remotely similar to last year's squad. It is not certain that the current VG players will even make it to the main tournament of the year, as the result of the first qualifying game day shows. The new squad, in late 2021, was assembled around poyoyo, but the new formed crew failed in the course of the regional DPC leagues — they did not make it to The International 2022. Vici Gaming made a number of lineup changes ahead of the tournament, which will be the last ticket to Singapore. The three and four of the squad were renewed.

Now the third position is occupied by b a b, who has not glimpsed in professional teams for a long time, last time he played in Blaze in 2020. The fourth is represented by Fade, who since the end of last year represented Invictus Gaming. In March this year the team signed Yang to the third position, who is known for his performance Elephant and the early Vici Gaming. So, in fact, he returned to his mother team. He clearly did not worsen the game, though it's still far from ideal.

We would rather not be as optimistic as the bookmakers favoring Virtus.pro, so we suggest betting on Vici Gaming to win for 2.25 at Bet365.

It is hard to imagine this game go without three maps. You can bet on Maps Total Over (2.5) for 1.90 at Betway.

Another great option is Vici Gaming’s Frags Total Over (56.5) for 1.77 as offered by 1xbet