(+115) MAD Lions v G2 Esports (-150)

(-125) 100 Thieves v Evil Geniuses (-105)

Saturday is going to be absolutely action packed with some of the highest quality League of Legends you can find in Western League of Legends. In Europe, we have two titans in the MAD Lions and G2 Esports who have a storied past against each other with their last best of five series having the MAD Lions coming out on top. 100 Thieves and Evil Geniuses are both looking to set a new bar for North American teams in being one of the handful of teams to make it to the World Championships from the region who are not Team Liquid, Team Solomid, or Cloud9. With everything on the line, let’s dive in! 

 

Game #1: MAD Lions v G2 Esports   

  • Cann’s Pick: MAD Lions (3-2)

Game #2: 100 Thieves v Evil Geniuses

  • Cann’s Pick: Evil Geniuses (3-1)


Fantasy Value Breakdown

Captain

Favorite: Caps (G2: $11,100) With this series, there is going to be a lot of bloodshed. Both G2 and MAD Lions are in the top 4 in terms of total team kills and nearly the exact same in terms of kills per minute. What makes me give Caps the nod over the MAD Lions mid laner (Humanoid) is his pedigree and his ability to limit horrible deaths. Caps has stood on the stage of a World Championship finals while Humanoid has struggled to win a domestic title and get into the group stage of the World Championships. Humanoid has the highest death tally amongst mid laners (63 deaths in 18 games) and a sub 3 KDA. Caps and Jankos will put the MAD Lions mid laner under constant duress and Caps will be the beneficiary of those early kills.    

Value Pick: Elyoya (MAD: $9,900)

Top Lane

Favorite: Impact (EG: $6,000) DraftKings are heavily sleeping on the guys from Evil Geniuses. They have looked reimagined in the Summer Split and their aggression and coordinated team play are at the core of their recent success. When you look at the 100 Thieves, they have seemingly fallen out of form in the last month of play. Most of all the 100 Thieves top laner (Ssumday) has seen some of the most steep decline in level of play and has been a liability for the team in many cases. Ssumday and Impact have the same KDA (3.3) but Ssumday has almost 10% less team kill participation compared to Impact (56% to 65%). Impact is at the heart of the Evil Geniuses identity and he is always present in team fights and objective takes. I love this when looking at his possible production and how he fits into your lineup. He is at a great pricepoint and I would give the nod to him over Ssumday as the favorite to win lane on Saturday. 

Value Pick: Armut (MAD: $5,800)

Jungle

Favorite: Elyoya (MAD: $6,600) Elyoya is the rock that the MAD Lions are built upon. I actually cannot imagine where this team would be without their rookie jungler. Their imported top laner (Armut) hasn’t been as dominant as the team had hoped and players like Humanoid and Carzzy have games where they really struggle to have positive production. The glue that keeps this team together (being Elyoya) is the aggressive and supportive play from the jungle. Elyoya has a 70% team kill participation and 133 assists which is the fourth best among European junglers. Elyoya will have to have a stand out series for the MAD Lions to move on, and I think he will be able to outpace the G2 jungler, Jankos. 

Value Pick: Contractz (EG: $6,400) 

Mid Lane

Favorite: JIzuke (EG: $6,800) I cannot believe how much shade is being thrown at Jizuke. Looking at the slate for Saturday, I thought that Jizuke would most definitely be priced higher than his series opponent in Abbedagge. Jizuke may have more deaths than Abbedagge, but he also have more than 20 kills more than him as well and is one of two NA mid laners who has over 100 kills in Summer (102). With the lower production from 100 Thieves, I am having a hard time determining who in their lineup is going to be able to match the Italian mid laner in the side lane. Absolutely love this pick and he is at an absolute steal of a price. 

Value Pick: N/A  

ADC

Favorite: Rekkles (G2: $7,600) Anytime I can say it, I will. Rekkles is the face of consistency for Western ADCs. In 18 games played Rekkles has an 8.7 KDA, 95 kills, and a 33% team kill share percentage. If G2 beats MAD on Saturday, it will have to be through the bot lane keeping Carzzy and Kaiser in check and Rekkles to have success outputting the high damage numbers in the late game. I avoided him in the captain role because there are stretches where Rekkles will have lower kill numbers but high assist totals which lowers his overall impact for the dollar amount.

Value Pick: FBI (100 Thieves: $7,400) 

Support

Favorite: Kaiser (MAD: $5,400) You could really justify picking any of the supports on the slate because each of them are play makers in their own right. I chose Kaiser in this role because of how much his team follows his play. Kaiser will leave lane really early and leave his ADC (Carzzy) alone in lane. Kaiser then finds ways to influence mid and top lane with the help of his jungler Elyoya. Kaiser has 170 assists and 66% team kill participation through the Summer split and I also love his lower death amount (54). Many times supports who have high kill participation numbers also have high death totals because they tend to throw their lives away to initiate fights. Kaiser finds the correct times to initiate fights but will not over commit to those fights which will mean you will not be losing as many points because of high death numbers.  

Value Pick: IgNar (EG: $5,200) 

Team

Favorite: Evil Geniuses ($4,800) I think this a gross misrepresentation of team power levels. With 100 Thieves jumping out to 1st place (which they lost at the end of the Summer Split to Team Solomid) has created this narrative that they are a strong high seed. In reality Evil Geniuses has performed at a much higher level in the last month (9-3 in their last 12). They play a challenging style in a 1-3-1 strategy and most teams (100 Thieves included) struggle managing the pressure they create in the side lane. I love EG here and the price is an absolute steal here. 

Value Pick: MAD Lions ($4,600) 
 

Cann’s Example Lineup

DraftKings Classic 

$50,000 Salary Cap

Captain (x1.5): Rookie ($10,500)

  • Alternate: xiye ($10,800)

Top: Impact ($6,000)

Jungle: Janoks ($7,000)

  • Alternate: Contractz ($6,400)

Mid: Jizuke ($6,800)

ADC: Carzzy ($7,200)

  • Alternate: Danny ($7,000)

Support: Kaiser ($5,400)

Team: Evil Geniuses ($4,800)