MyBookie brings you free Dota 2 Betting predictions and tips for a pair of matches in the second week of action at DPC EEU 2021/22 Tour 1: Division I.

Check out our forecasts for Natus Vincere vs Team Empire and Team Spirit vs PuckChamp, who will cross swords on Thursday, December 9.

Top Dota 2 Games to Wager on Thursday, December 9

Natus Vincere vs Team Empire

• When: Thursday, December 9 – 17:00 MSK

Natus Vincere will kick off their 2021/22 Dota Pro Circuit (DPC) season on Thursday when they clash with Team Empire for the first time since June when Empire reverse-swept NaVi (1-2). But despite their success last time out, Empire are expected to struggle this week.

Natus Vincere freshened up its Dota 2 roster in September when the Ukrainian esports organization added Viktor “GeneRaL” Nigrini, lya “ALOHADANCE” Korobkin, and Alexey “Solo” Berezin. But while NaVi look stronger with their current roster, we have to note that this roster has not played an official match yet, and the team was inactive for nearly six months!

In fact, their last official match was the aforementioned loss against Empire in The International 10 Eastern Europe Qualifier.

Like NaVi, Team Empire have opted to make changes ahead of the 2021/22 season, but they took a more drastic approach. Instead of changing a couple of players, Empire formed a completely new roster, featuring Oleh “kaori” Medvedok, Sergey “[T]SA” Timchenko, Andrii “Ghostik” Kadyk, Sergiy “Shisui” Koren, and Alexander “lightless” Potapenko.

On paper, NaVi look stronger because Empire lacks any star players; however, we don’t believe Empire should be priced anywhere close to +250. Admittedly, Empire are weaker and likely won’t achieve as much success as NaVi long-term, but we have to keep in mind that NaVi are ring rusty.

Having been out of action for six months can’t do NaVi’s roster any favors, and we expect them to look a bit shaky before they warm up. Trust Empire to win at least one map.

Prediction: Team Empire +1.5 maps

Team Spirit vs PuckChamp

• When: Thursday, December 9 – 20:00 MSK

The reigning International champions, Team Spirit, will clash with PuckChamp on Thursday, December 9, in what is billed to be a very one-sided affair. And while anything can happen in the opening tournaments of the season, it’s hard to find a solid argument in favor of PuckChamp.

As the Dota 2 world champions, Team Spirit is the strongest team in the world and by far the strongest CIS roster. PuckChamp are nowhere near that status.

Even though PuckChamp have some solid pieces and are known to cause issues to CIS’s strongest Dota 2 teams, they should have no business defeating Team Spirit. The two teams have met three times in 2021, and each meeting ended in a 2-0 sweep for Team Spirit.

On a more positive note, PuckChamp nearly won one map against Spirit in August, but even that performance hardly makes them an appealing pick.

One thing that could concern you about this bout is Team Spirit’s tendency to take some games too lightly. This is still a very young roster featuring players who seem to focus more on having fun, which has backfired before. But playing this way and still winning TI indicates that Spirit are seriously talented.

This should be a complete stomp, and we don’t expect to see anything less.

Prediction: Team Spirit -12.5 kills