(-325) Team Liquid v Dignitas (+230)

(-145) Team Solomid v Counter Logic Gaming (+107) 

(-105) Cloud9 v 100 Thieves (-125)

(+110) Golden Guardians v Evil Geniuses (-145)

(+131) Immortals v FlyQuest (-170)

After the conclusion of Friday’s matches ended in a postponement due to network issues, we have a new team solely in first place! FlyQuest sits in the driver’s seat as the only team with one loss after Team Liquid lost in shocking fashion to the Golden Guardians. TSM and CLG continue to flounder but only one can leave Saturday as the worst team in the league as they square of in the afternoon. 100 Thieves versus C9 will be the headlining match for Saturday as well as a possible look at a future playoff preview. With so much exciting League of legends to cover, let’s dive in!

Game #1: Team Liquid v Dignitas

Cann’s Pick: Team Liquid 

Game #2: Team Solomid v Counter Logic Gaming

Cann’s Pick: Counter Logic Gaming

Game #3: Cloud9 v 100 Thieves 

Cann’s Pick: 100 Thieves 

Game #4: Golden Guardians v Evil Geniuses

Cann’s Pick: Evil Geniuses

Game #5: Immortals v FlyQuest 

Cann’s Pick: FlyQuest 


Captain

Favorite: Johnsun (FLY: $12,000) Through only 6 games (FlyQuest and EG have to make up a game so they have played one less game) Johnsun is the LCS kill leader. His 34 kills leads all players and his 42 assists is respectable number. FlyQuest plays so intentionally through this veteran ADC and it feels like FlyQuest is not as much of a fluke as some believed early in the year. They do need to finish the deal as they begin the second half of the round robin but it is clear that they are going to continue to play through their ADC.

Value Pick: jojopyun (EG: $11,100) 


Top 

Favorite: Bwipo (TL : $6,800) Bwipo is the BrokenBlade in North America. There aren’t too many other top laners that you can point to and say is a legitimate carry threat. His 20 kills and 56% team kill participation rate is some of the best in the league among top laners and we have seen DIG falter from the heights they began at the beginning of the split.

Value Pick: Impact (EG: $6,400)


Jungle

Favorite: Closer (100: $7,000) Closer has the best KDA among LCS junglers and it isn’t really close. He has a 10.0 KDA and 59 assists to his name. His opponent (Blaber) is having his slowest start to a season with only 17 kills and 18 deaths through 7 games played so far. I think 100 Thieves will work over the C9 squad and mainly control the game through macro plays dictated by Closer winning the head to head with Blaber. 

Value Pick: Contractz (CLG: $5,600)


Mid

Favorite: toucouille (FLY: $7,600) So much hate was thrown at toucouille when it came out that FQ was picking up the French pro in the offseason. What we have seen is that after their embarrassing performance in the Lock In Tournament, FQ has redefined themselves. They have a very clear play pattern and they execute it effectively. HIs 29 kills (in one less game than everyone else) leads LCS mid laners in that category and he has done it with only 7 deaths this split. 

Value Pick: Fudge (C9: $6,800) 


ADC

Favorite: Danny (EG: $7,800) A lot of people have hopped off the EG bandwagon and I think it is just too premature to do so. EG has too much talent and their coaching is too good to see them continuing to struggle. Danny has a 70% team kill participation rate and 21 kills in 2022 which is solid but not reflective of where Danny actually should be. The ceiling is really high with this pick and that is why we see the high dollar price point for him into Golden Guardians. 

Value Pick: Hans sama (TL: $7,600) 


Support

Favorite: Elya (TL: $6,000) Even with CoreJJ out this weekend, I still think TL will perform fine in the remaining two days of games. TL lost to GG on Friday but that loss is far more reflective to drafting issues rather than actual play. I expect the level of play that we saw out of the Hans and Elya bottom lane to be the norm for the rest of the weekend. 

Value Pick: huhi (100: $5,600) 
 

Team

Favorite: Team Liquid ($5,600) Like I noted in the Elya section, don’t panic about the TL loss on Friday. The downfall of Western professional League of Legends is the fact that their regular season play is determined by 1 game matches rather than the best of three series we see in Korea and China. The issue here is you can find the occasional instance where the superior team will lose in draft and wouldn’t have the opportunity to take the series win. TL is one of the most objective focused teams and they do it through finding the most effective trades of resources/objectives. They avoid throwing away their lives at useless fights and instead will take safe objectives to continue to escalate into the late game. 

Value Pick: Counter Logic Gaming ($4,400) 

 

DraftKings Example Lineup

Captain (x1.5): FBI (100: $10,800)

Alternate: Inspired (EG: $10,800)

Top: Ssumday (100: $6,000)

Jungle: Josedeodo (FLY: $6,800)

Mid: Bjergsen (TL: $7,800)

Alternate: Fudge (C9: $6,800)

ADC: Hans sama (TL: $7,600)

Support: IgNar (EG: $6,000)

Alternate: Aphromoo (FLY: $5,800)

Team: 100 Thieves ($4,800)