Author: Kiara Velazquez

While most of this Dota Pro Circuit season’s Division I action has come to a close, The China region still has a final week full of exciting clashes in store for us.Dota 2 team Aster already qualified and are looking absolutely dominant at 5-0, but the remaining 7 teams are returning from their Lunar New Year break aiming to secure attendance at the Lima Major or simply fight off relegation to Division II. Each team will finish their season with two matches this week, and there are exciting storylines at play.At MyBookie, we are thrilled to offer the insights you need to confidently wager on this week’s coming matches. In this article, we’ll be diving into a critical match taking place on February 1st.Aster.Aries will be fighting for their very survival in Division I, while EHOME attempts to make a late push for a slot at the Lima Major. Without further ado, let’s jump into these captivating contests.Aster.Aries SafelaneAster.Aries currently possess just a 23% win rate this season, and their lack of a clear identity in the safelane has played a huge part of that. Carry player Ulu has played 10 different heroes across 13 matches, without a consistent track record of success.RedPanda, the team’s Position 5 support, similarly has featured 8 heroes through 13 games, including 3 losses in 4 tries on his signature Phoenix. Although Aries have approached their drafting in a chaotic fashion, there is a good chance Aster.Aries will go back to what works best for them, especially with elimination on the line.EHOME, meanwhile, seem to be more laser-focused in regards to their hero choices. Offlaner Xiaoyu has played one of the meta’s strongest offlaners, Death Prophet, twice with two wins, and Soft Support player Salad is able to force mistakes in the draft phase by shining on top meta picks like Rubick, Tusk, Snapfire, and Tiny.EHOME SafelaneIn stark contrast to the Aster.Aries safelane, EHOME’s carry player mks- has a proven track record of success. EHOME has 3 wins out of 4 matches on top meta carry heroes in Drow Ranger and Nature’s Prophet, and they have also forced out 6 Lina bans in 11 matches.In addition, EHOME’s Hard support, Lww, has 5 games on Disruptor through 11 matches, giving EHOME a reliable pick in any draft.Aster.Aries will need to be on top of their game to get a good result, but they have a tough road ahead of them. Soft Support TK has the third highest Deaths per Game average in the division, at 7.73, while Offlaner 生死 suffers from similar hero pool issues as his teammate Ulu, with 9 heroes in 13 matches.Opponents of Aster.Aries have banned Doom in 10 of their 12 matches, severely crippling 生死 ‘s ability to have impact from the offlane role, and with no other major draft threats from the rest of his team, it is likely that trend will continue against EHOME.Mid LaneWhite丶Album_白学家 has been the lone bright spot for Aster.Aries, featuring the 5th highest Kills per Game in the division at 7.69, and there is reason to believe he will continue to perform at a high level. With top-tier experience from his former job at Team Aster’s mid laner, White Album has looked impressive on Ember Spirit and Leshrac, two of the meta’s best mid lane heroes, with 3 wins out of 5 tries. His primary weak spot comes from his 0% win rate on Tusk in 3 tries, but Aries may still be able to select the hero due to its immense flex potential in other lanes.EHOME’s mid laner, Night, may be outmatched. Like Ulu from Aries, he is yet to fully solidify comfort picks in this meta, failing to display any prowess on top meta mid lane heroes like Ember Spirit, Leshrac, Death Prophet, or Tusk.Additional AnglesAster.Aries may be 0-5 in regards to their Dota 2 series records, but they still hold 3 high quality single-game wins this season. Knights, Invictus Gaming, and Xtreme gaming all dropped one game to the squad, and with EHOME weaker than Knights and Xtreme, there is a good chance for Aries to pull off an upset here. In addition, Aster.Aries take Roshan at a rate of 1.25 times per match, which is the highest rate in the entire division.EHOME, meanwhile, may be a paper tiger. While they are 2-3, one of their series wins was against the division’s bottom feeders, Dawn Gaming, a team which Aster.Aries are yet to play. Beyond that series, EHOME have not won a series against a competitive team since their 2-0 of Invictus Gaming, which was nearly a month ago on January 5th.Aster.Aries will be fighting for their survival, but they also know that a win in this series and a win against Dawn gaming will keep them alive, so expect them to be at their very best. It remains to be seen if their best will be good enough to overcome their very real flaws, however.Final Prediction:Aster.Aries 2-1 EHOME