(-170) 100 Thieves v Team Liquid (+130)
(+170) Flyquest v Evil Geniuses (-225)
(+210) Team Dignitas v Team Solomid (-285)
(+140) Immortals v Cloud9 (-180)
(-175) Counter Logic Gaming v Golden Guardians (+135)
There is a lot to unpack within the LCS this weekend and some major storylines could be breaking. Will Alphari rejoin the main Team Liquid? What version of Team Solomid will we see this weekend? Will Cloud9 continue winning with Zven back in the lineup? The matches seem like they should be chalky this weekend but this is the LCS and we have seen some wild upsets, so let’s break down this slate and see which players could have big performances! Let’s dive in!
Game #1 100 Thieves v Team Liquid
Cann’s Pick: 100 Thieves
Game #2: Flyquest v Evil Geniuses
Cann’s Pick: Evil Geniuses
Game #3: Team Dignitas v Team Solomid
Cann’s Pick: Team Solomid
Game #4: Immortals v Cloud9
Cann’s Pick: Immortals
Game #5: Counter Logic Gaming v Golden Guardians
Cann’s Pick: Counter Logic Gaming
Fantasy Value Breakdown
Captain
Favorite: Jizuke (EG: $11,700) Of the top three kill leaders in the LCS (Tactical- 61, Raes- 57, and Jizuke- 52) Jizuke is the safest pick by far. After their Friday loss to Team Liquid, Evil Geniuses went on a rampage on Saturday and Sunday. At the forefront of that rampage was a mid laner in Jizuke who controlled the pace of the game and racked up 7 kills, 2 deaths, and 19 assists in two games. Into Flyquest, there should be a relatively wide gap in skill between Jizuke and Palafox so I feel really comfortable with this pick.
Value Pick: Raes (IMT: $9,300)
Top Lane
Favorite: Impact (EG: $7,200) Impact continues to well, make an impact for Evil Geniuses. I would argue that the acquisition of Impact by EG was the single most impactful by any team in the offseason. In the Summer split he is the top lane leader in kills (39), assists (79), as well as a 33% team first blood participation rate. It goes without saying that regardless of the matchup, Impact produces. Into a laner like Solo, who is good but not great, I see some big production for Impact today.
Value Pick: Huni (TSM: $6,400)
Jungle
Favorite: Broxah (CLG: $7,200) After CLG went 0-3 in week 4 it may come as a surprise to pick up a player as a favorite. I think Broxah has quite a bit of upside here for a few reasons. The first being that he is jungling against the bottom team today in Golden Guardians and their jungler iconic. Golden Guardians have been prone to fighting but they rarely set up vision before skirmishes and ganks. This means that Broxah should have plenty of countergank opportunities. The second positive for picking up the CLG jungler is their team identity. They are a teamfight/hard initiation team with a lot of that pressure coming from unique jungle picks. This hard initiation style should give Broxah plenty of opportunities to pick up kill participation and earn you points.
Value Pick: Spica (TSM: $6,400)
Mid Lane
Favorite: Abbadagge (100T: $6,800) How this price is so low is beyond me. I am a Team Liquid fan and unless Alphari is starting, I can see this game getting out of hand after a couple early game teamfights. At the core of the 100 Thieves identity is having Abbedagge set the tone and carry team fights either through high damage assassins or control mages who have fight-changing utility. In both cases I think Team Liquid is really going to struggle to keep him down, even with the quality they have at mid lane with Jensen. The price on this pick is also a really big plus as well. I see a lot of fighting and for sub $7,000 you can pick up a 37 kill, 83 assist mid laner who has only died 17 times in 12 games mid laner. Slam dunk pick here.
Value Pick: Insanity (IMT: $6,000)
ADC
Favorite: Danny (EG: $8,000) I agree with some analysis I heard from the League of Legends podcast “The Dive” a few weeks ago in that the rookie Danny has been good, but not a stand out. That being said, there is a lot of value in this pick today. Danny does not go out of his way to make the openings for his own plays. He is extremely reliant on IgNar and the rest of Evil Geniuses to initiate big plays but his value comes with the fact that he follows up. He seems to have a good sense of how to play out fights and not get caught early in the fight. He has 46 kills and 70 assists which is respectable and even a 25% participation rate on team first blood kills. His laning is weak so don’t expect him to have massive damage numbers, hence the fading him into the captain role.
Value Pick: Tactical (TL: $6,800)
Support
Favorite: IgNar (EG: $6,200) I am putting a lot of faith in EG on Friday. I will add the caveat that I think fading this pick makes sense based on the price (I don’t like picking up supports for over $5,800 because of the low return on points). The upside here is that Flyquest has some uncertainty in the ADC role as well as having some really soft performances as of late. I think you can expect IgNar and Impact to initiate teamfights most off the time which will maximize your points if you’re planning on stacking those two.
Value Pick: Destiny (IMT: $4,600)
Team
Favorite: Team Solomid ($5,200) You will not pick up the “Win in less than 30 minutes” points with this pick. TSM Is slow and methodical and role by role really undervalued. Team Dignitas has not been winning through grinding out objectives like Team Solomid so I expect maximization of points in terms of towers, dragons, and barons taken in this match. I think Spica is playing at a really high level right now and there is a pretty strong correlation between jungler performance and team performance in DFS. I would also suggest either stacking TSM in the team role with either Spica or Huni as well.
Value Pick: Team Liquid ($4,600)
Cann’s Example Lineup
DraftKings Classic
$50,000 Salary Cap
Captain (x1.5): Raes ($9,300)
Alternate: Stixxay ($9,600)
Top: Huni ($6,400)
Jungle: Spica ($6,400)
Alternate: Broxah ($7,200)
Mid: Jizuke ($7,800)
ADC: Danny ($8,000)
Alternate: FBI ($7,600)
Support: IgNar ($6,200)
Team: Team Solomid ($5,600)