(-275) Fnatic v Team Vitality (+200)

(+105) Team Solomid v Team Liquid (-135)

In the European scene, we are down to three teams who will be fighting for the final World’s qualification spot and two of those teams are fighting for that right in the lower bracket. Both Fnatic and Team Vitality have superstar rosters and have had levels of success in the LEC. Fnatic has the edge in this matchup during the Summer Split (2-0) but Team Vitality had ended the split winning 3 in a row to lock in their spot in the playoffs. In North America, we have the two titans in Team Solomid and Team Liquid with the opportunity to punch their ticket to the World Championship in China by beating the other on Sunday. Which of these players will show out and help get their orgs to the ultimate League of Legends tournament? Let’s dive in and find out!

Game #1: Fnatic v Team Vitality 

Cann’s Pick: Fnatic (3-0)

Game #2: Team Solomid v Team Liquid

Cann’s Pick: Team Liquid (3-1)

 

Captain

Favorite: Upset (FNC: $12,000) I think of all the top tier players on this slate, I think Upset is the safest pick to have a memorable performance. The bot lane for Team Vitality (Crownshot/Labrov)have promise but as a team, they have struggled to get their fitting. They brought on the former Fnatic jungler (Selfmade) but to little avail. Upset and Hyli are going to be aggressive and pull out to a huge gold lead early. In mid game team fights around dragon and even some early game tower dives that gold lead will translate into high kill participation for the FNC bot laner. I love the matchup and have really high expectations for the team on Sunday.

Value Pick: PowerOfEvil (TSM: $9,900)

Top Lane

Favorite: Adam (FNC: $6,600) Adam is an interesting player to analyze. He has the highest kill numbers among those in his role (62) but hasn’t always been put on counter pick/carry duty. In fact, we see Fnatic actually opting to put him on the more front line champion of Sett most frequently. What this means is he is core to the identity of the Fnatic team fight but he most likely will not be grabbing the kills. This is fine in the top lane role but I wouldn’t trust it enough to put him as the captain. 

Value Pick: Alphari (TL: $6,400) 

Jungle

Favorite: Bwipo (FNC: $7,400) I was overly critical of Bwipo when he took over jungle duties for Selfmade but he has really grown as a player in that role. At the beginning of the split we saw Bwipo as a rabid dog who was constantly looking for a fight. In the last month or so we have seen Fnatic slow down and become more methodical. I actually would argue this makes him even better as a jungler now. He has become more controlled which has led to him having a 69% team kill participation and the highest assist total for an European jungler at 150. Great pick but will have his hands full on Sunday. 

Value Pick: Spica (TSM: $6,200) 

Mid Lane

Favorite: Jensen (TL: $7,400) If you watched the Team Liquid versus Cloud9 match you too would be excited about Jensen. He broke completely free from the mold he has been playing in all split to be more aggressive and worked to set the tone of the match. With almost 30 more kills over TSM;s mid laner (97 to 68) I think Team Liquid could have formulated a working game plan for this squad. I would imagine that you will see Jensen rotate bottom early and often to dive the weaker bot lane from TSM. I want to see Jensen and Santorin continue to connect and roam the map together as they did last weekend. 

Value Pick: LIDER (VIT: $6,800)   

ADC

Favorite: Tactical (TL: $7,600) The matchup between TL and TSM will be an interesting one, but I have a hunch on how Team Liquid are going to look to attack the higher seeded Team Solomid. Last weekend we saw TL look to attack and exploit the weakest member of the C9 squad in Perkz. I think they replicate that on Sunday by attacking the TSM ADC Lost. Tactical has a much higher skill ceiling comparatively and we have also seen that if his team demands him to perform without resources he can. And he can do it without giving up a lot of deaths in the process.  

Value Pick: Lost (TSM: $7,000) 

Support

Favorite: CoreJJ (TL: $5,400) CoreJJ may have been the biggest influences in the C9/TL matchup last week and the most valuable person to the organization over the last three years. Core has 230 assists in the Summer Split while SwordArt only has 205. CoreJJ is at the heart of what TL is and has shown that with his aggressive rotations through the mid lane. I think TL will need to speed up games on Team Solomid to win and that will need to be through CoreJJ roaming with the TL jungler (Santorin) and getting the TSM bot lane and jungler behind. 

Value Pick: HYlissang (FNC: $5,200) 

Team

Favorite: Fnatic ($5,200) If the Summer split had ended in the middle of July, Fnatic would have been the second seed in the LEC. I think some really poor drafting at the end of the season is the cause of where this team ended up and not where this team should actually be. They had the second best gold differential at 15 (+1600) and almost an 80% rate of taking first turret in their matches. They are probably the second or third best early game team and into the likes of Team Vitality, I think they have the opportunity to put up big numbers. 

Value Pick: Team Solomid ($4,600) 


Cann’s Example Lineup

Captain (x1.5): Upset ($12,000)

Alternate: Nisqy ($11,400)

Top: Adam ($6,600)

Jungle: Spica ($6,200)

Alternate: Santorin ($6,800)
Mid: PowerOfEvil ($6,600)

ADC: Tactical ($7,600)

Alternate: Crownshot ($7,400)

Support: CoreJJ ($5,400)

Team: Fnatic ($5,200)