StarCraft King of Battles Odds, Preview, and Picks

• The King of Battles tournament begins on October 3rd, 2020 with a prize pool of $30,000 USD
• The event is made up of eight Korean and eight non-Korean players
• Innovation is the favorite with EVEN odds, despite not winning an event in 2020

The StarCraft King of Battles is an international competition between 16 of the top StarCraft players in the world. Innovation is the favorite to win the event at EVEN, but there are a lot of other players who are in contention to win the $7,800 USD grand prize.

Odds to StarCraft King of Battles

All odds taken Oct 2

An Unlikely Favorite

Innovation is a seasoned StarCraft pro with all kinds of accolades to his name. However, 2020 hasn’t been his year. He has to yet to win an event, though his best finish was second place at TeamLiquid StarLeague 5. Despite his lack of a win on the year, Innovation finds himself as the favorite to win King of Battles. Part of it must be his consistency in 2020 as he’s constantly made Top 8’s as well as the occasional final four.

The interesting thing with Innovation is that he doesn’t appear to be the best performing Korean player at this tournament. During the qualifiers, Innovation lost to Ragnarok, forcing him to go on a short loser’s run to qualify. Innovation should be in the discussion to win the King of Battles, but as the favorite, there isn’t any value here.

The European Challengers

The next two players behind Innovation in the odds present much better value and honestly, they have a higher chance of winning the King of Battles.

Reynor and Serral dominate the StarCraft scene outside of Korea and they’ve become two of the best players internationally. Reynor is fresh off a tournament win at DreamHack Masters Fall where he put up wins against TY, Clem, and Trap.

The power of these two Europeans was on full display at Douyu Cup. Reynor and Serral both finished 4-1 in the group stage, qualifying them for the playoffs.

The two would meet in Winners Finals where Serral won the series 3-1. After Reynor defeated Zest in the losers bracket, he once again faced Serral and this time he came out on top to win the Douyu Cup. These two are very evenly matched and it’s almost a coin-flip on who to pick between Reynor and Serral.

The one concern for Reynor is that his only group stage loss in the Douyu Cup was a 2-0 to Innovation.

Dark Horses

Outside of Innovation, there are several other Korean players who weigh into the equation at the King of Battles. The first is Trap who has been close on several occasions to that big win in 2020. It seems like he’s been improving as the year has gone on and it’s possible that he cashes in at King of Battles.

He finished second in the Summer and Fall Finals losing to Serral and Reynor respectively. His match against Reynor was especially close as it went all the way to game 7. At +900, Trap is an interesting bet as he’s totally capable of pulling off an upset over the Europeans.

Rogue might not be a true dark horse but he finds himself buried behind Innovation, Serral, and Reynor in the odds. This year alone, he’s won IEM Katowice and GSL Season 2. The problem is that all of his other results are very forgettable.

In 2020, it’s been boom or bust for Rogue. At +600, it might just be worth it to gamble on a player with a proven history of winning tournaments. However, my best bet for the King of Battles is Reynor at +240.

Pick: Reynor (+240)