Ready, Steady, Cook – The International 7 tipster series – Day One match betting

We’re back with the second in the “Ready, Steady, Cook series” where imperious Dota 2 analyst Allen Cook provides his tips and picks for The International 7. 

We’re just days away from competition getting underway and with a four day round robin group stage, we have very little idea who’s hot and who’s not. Without further ado – we’ll leave the talking to Allen as he breaks down his selections for the first day of competition. 

You can read his initial picks and explanation of scoring system in the initial, outright picks here.

You can follow the man, the myth, the legend on Twitter here.

Disclaimer: Follow Allen’s tips at your peril.

And they’re off!

Nobody really knows the full strengths of the teams competing, and day 1 will be extremely interesting and a good indication of who’s put in the time required to go deep in the competition.

I won’t really be going into much depth on my reasoning for each selection, a general rule of thumb is that I think “X” team selected is better than their price suggests for this outcome, nothing more, nothing less.

Just a couple of betting points — some bookmakers offer outright betting on matches. So, you get Win/Draw/Lose. Other bookmakers offer handicaps — so if a team receives +0.5 maps that means you win the bet if they win or draw the game, likewise if they are -0.5 they need to win the game outright to win the bet.

So, my selections for day 1 are as follows: