League of Legends Champions Korea
League of Legends Pro League
February 18th, 2022
(+300) KT Rolster v T1 (-425)
(-650) Gen.G v Liiv SANDBOX (+400)
(-174) Rare Atom v LGD Gaming (+128)
(+265) Ultra Prime v Weibo Gaming (-360)
(-350) EDward Gaming v FunPlus Phoenix (+250)
Thursday was another wild day in the LCK and LPL. Damwon Gaming seems all but broken with their new roster as they lost to a much weaker DRX squad. The LPL also saw an upset with BLG dropping to a bottom tier team in IG, which made for a sad return of the LPL king Uzi. Friday will have some of the best players in the world squaring off and fighting for a spot in the playoffs, which will begin in about a month’s time from now.
Series #1: KT Rolster v T1
Cann’s Pick: T1 (2-0)
Series #2: Gen.G v Liiv SANDBOX
Cann’s Pick: Gen.G (2-0)
Series #3: Rare Atom v LGD Gaming
Cann’s Pick: Rare Atom (2-1)
Series #4: Ultra Prime v Weibo Gaming
Cann’s Pick: Weibo Gaming (2-0)
Series #5: EDward Gaming v FunPlus Phoenix
Cann’s Pick: EDward Gaming (2-1)
Fantasy Value Breakdown
Captain
Favorite: Gumayusi (T1: $11,100) Even with Faker on TI, the carry for the team is Gumayusi. His nearly 82 FPPG is third best on the slate and he holds 86 kills to his name through 20 games played. What makes him an even better captain pick is his 103 assists and whopping +383 gold differential at 10 minutes. He will roll over his opponents in the early laning phase and not look back. T1 will win on Friday through their bottom lane play and Gumayusi should be able to stack up even more stats in his matchup against Aiming and KT Rolster.
Value Pick: Elk (UP: $10,200)
Top
Favorite: Zeus (T1: $6,600) Sometimes winning your LPL/LCK lobbies comes down to just having players who play their entire series. Doran is out for Gen.G because of COVID and may or may not be playing on Friday. EDG’s Flandre was absolutely embarrassed in EDG’s last series and there is a chance that EDG uses xiaoxiang instead. So Zeus is your best pick. He has a 64 FPPG average which is a respectable amount for a player who is not a focal point for his team. Zeus doesn\t have shocking scorelines, most times carrying more assists than kills but you can me more assured that you won’t be as likely to have a player just sitting on the bench.
Value Pick: TheShy (WBG: $6,400)
Jungle
Favorite: Peanut (GEN: $7,200) Gen.G tends to be as good or as bad as Peanut decides to perform on any given day. He has the third highest FPPG among junglers on the slate with a 67.3, but he is facing the worst starting jungler on the slate in Croco. Gen.G should have the technical skill to just force fights and out fight LSB across the map. The benefit here is that they don’t have to. Gen.G is very clever in how Peanut escalates the game and pushes the pace. Their opponents then make mistakes to try and catch up to the Gen.G pace, which Peanut, Chovy, and Ruler then pounce on to pick up kills.
Value Pick: Shad0w (LGD: $6,000)
Mid
Favorite: Angel (WBG: $7,200) I have a toxic character trait of sleeping on Angel. Throughout much of Suning’s World Championship Finals run and the seasons surrounding it, I find myself not being impressed by Angel. The reason for this stems from Angel’s playstyle. His 67 kills (which is an average of almost 4 kills per game) do not come in flashy fashion. He loves control mages and would prefer to play a champion that can scale into the late game teamfights. He will win a fight around a dragon or baron that will decide the game but rarely do you see him outskill an opponent in a flashy 1v1 fight in the laning phase. His 31 KDA on Orianna (total of 2 games played) reflects this perfectly. His larger game knowledge will carry him and ensure his FPPG remains around his current 75.3.
Value Pick: YeG (LGD: $6,600)
ADC
Favorite: Viper (EDG: $7,600) Viper seems like a better investment at these more reasonable dollar amount. Viper has explosive games but tends to be more of a KDA player. He avoids risky situations and avoids bad deaths in lane and during rotation across the map. His 8.1 KDA is one of the highest among LPL ADCs and 64 kills and 73 assists is a respectable amount for the ADC role and in a matchup where should be plenty of fighting. FPX likes to scrap and will throw themselves at the enemy team. EDG’s ability to absorb that pressure will determine the outcome of this match.
Value Pick: Lwx (FPX: $6,400)
Support
Favorite: Keria (T1: $6,200) The LCK assist leader with 20 games played is Keria. His 5.0 KDA and 204 assists is the best among supports and he is one piece to the nearly unstoppable T1 bottom lane. There has been a lot of growth for this duo with T1’s Gumayusi growing up a lot over the last year. T1 shouldn’t struggle too much with the inconsistency of KT Rolster but they will need to bring their A game on Friday to put up big numbers. I will note, this is over the normal benchmark I put for paying in the support role, but the upside could potentially pay off the heavier investment.
Value Pick: SwordArt (WBG: $5,400) ** ON is currently the starter for WBG, but in a one-off lineup, it may be worth to put Swordart in. ON has had some pretty rough performances and a switch may be coming**
Team
Favorite: Gen.G ($6,000) Liiv SANDBOX is probably the worst team on the slate by a pretty wide margin. They have the worst team kill/death ratio (0.72) and the second lowest kill total (194). Gen.G is one of four teams with a KD ratio of over 1 and they are averaging nearly a +400 gold advantage at 15 minutes to the normal -1500 gold deficit that LSB finds themselves in. It can be hard to pin down which player will perform on any given day for Gen.G but as a unit, they are really effective.
Value Pick: Weibo Gaming ($5,400)
Cann’s Example Lineup
DraftKings Classic / $50,000 Salary Cap
Captain (x1.5): Chovy (GEN: $11,400)
- Alternate: huanfeng (WBG: $10,800)
Top: TheShy (WBG: $6,400)
Jungle: Peanut (GEN: $7,200)
- Alternate: SofM (WBG: $6,400)
Mid: YeG (LGD: $6,600)
ADC: Elk (UP: $6,800)
- Alternate: Lwx (FPX: $6,400)
Support: Meiko (EDG: $6,000)
Team: Weibo Gaming ($5,400)