PSG.LGD vs Aster DPC China Division Picks, Predictions, Odds

• PSG.LGD will open as heavy favorites
• Aster will need Boboka to step up in the lanes
• PSG.LGD’s strong defense will be incredibly hard to break down

PSG.LGD vs Team Aster Pick

Pick: PSG.LGD to win (money line)

New year, new beginnings, new vigour, and verve. PSG.LGD and Team Aster begin their quest to be crowned champions of Division-1 of the DPC CN 2021-22 Tour-1. At stake are 690 Pro-Circuit points and US$ 30,000 for the top-placed team.

The top team will also qualify for the Major Playoffs, while the side that finishes second qualifies to the Major Group Stage. While not finishing in the top two doesn’t necessarily mean the end of the road – teams placed third and fourth qualify for the Major Wild Card – it’s not a route they’ll both want to take.

On paper, PSG.LGD start favorites, having won 47 of their last 66 maps amounting to a win percentage of 71.21. Team Aster have so far played catch up, having just about evened up their win percentage to 50.94 across the last 53 maps in this patch. But, of course, the battle isn’t played out on paper. And sport is replete with some wonderful underdog narratives that Team Aster would’ve definitely heard and read about.

As things stand, the more adventurous would want to hinge their bets on Team Aster, who have much higher odds stacked against them. PSG.LGD, in comparison, have substantially lower odds.

A tale of two approaches

One glance at the numbers tell you both PSG.LGD and Aster defend well. Aster’s death rate of 22.32 is marginally better than PSG.LGD’s 22.58. However a good defence is just part of the puzzle. When it comes to the kills, PSG average 26.44 per map, in comparison to Aster’s 24.04. It tells you how PSG.LGD have an excellent mix of attack and defence, as compared to PSG.LGD, who tend to tread on the ‘safety first’ approach.

PSG.LGD have built a lot of their recent success around a stoic defense that can be hard to break down, especially in the early and mid game. When the action picks up pace in the end game, you might see a quicker transition into offense to pick up objective points. This style is very similar to that of DWG Kia in League of Legends in the LCK.

More assists = More kills?

As in football or any other team sport, building up to a goal or the end-result is a process that involves the work of many, which is why assists is a vital benchmark to judge a team’s efficiency. More assists necessarily don’t translate to more kills, but more often than not, when a team consistently has a high assist rate, they tend to sift through the map better.

PSG.LGD have an assist percentage of 60.23 per map, with Aster lagging behind considerably at 53.89. When you read this and then compare their kill rate, it tells you why PSG.LGD are the more-fancied team here.

In terms of going for the kill, PSG.LGD are instinct driven. When they smell an opportunity, they pounce on it to seize the advantage, well indicated by their average of 37.20 minutes per map in wins in the new patch of Dota2.

Aster are slightly more calculative, sift through trying to eliminate deaths before swooping in for the kill. Perhaps why their average minutes per map in wins is a tad higher at 38.42.

Ame holds the horses

PSG.LGD’s central figure could be Ame, who holds an impressive kill rate of 7.09 across 838 maps. It’s the kind of experience that has been built up over a considerable period of time.

His henchman could be Y’, a perfect partner-in-crime, whose assist rate of 14.16 across 344 maps is quite staggering to say the least. It’s these two who need to be marked out by Aster if they are to try and pull off a coup.

What Y’ is to PSG, Boboka is to Aster. Boboka, whose highest average assists per game of 16.90 came at The Kuala Lumpur Major, has an overall assist rate of 12.16 across 680 maps. He has Ori to bank on to be on the offensive and look for kills.

While his average of 7.92 kills per map is the highest for the team, it’s over a small sample size of 12 games. Can he sustain this impressive beginning over a length of time? That’s the burning question.

How to Watch PSG.LGD vs Aster: DPC China Division