(+280) Oh My God v JD Gaming (-425)

(-125) Invictus Gaming v Bilibili Gaming (-105)

Wednesday’s LPL slate features four teams with their own distinct advantages against their opposition. JD Gaming will look to leverage their strong top side versus and OMG which has strong carries, but a weak supporting cast which is often incapable of setting them up. BLG’s superior bottom lane and jungle looks to dominate their opposition, trying their best to shut down IG’s TheShy before he gets rolling.

Captain

Kanavi ($10,800)

While OMG does sport strong carries in Creme and Able, and a solid support in Cold, their top side is a massive blackhole with New and AKi in the top and jungle respectively. These two roles comprise JDG’s strongest positions, with Kanavi in particular being one of the strongest junglers in the LPL throughout his tenure, being instrumental in JDG’s 2020 spring championship. Kanavi’s aggressive playstyle is likely to run over AKi and OMG, at a fraction of the price. If you desire a captain in a more “point-powerful” role, you can sacrifice some picks elsewhere in order to grab Yagao.

Alternatives to consider: Yagao ($11,400)

Top Lane

Zoom ($6,400)

Likewise, Zoom has for a long time been considered one of the LPL greats, especially in a role as contentious as top lane, typically an import dominated role, whereas Zoom is pure-bred LPL talent. New is a decent top laner, but nowhere near play-off caliber, while Zoom has the potential to be #1 in the entire world. Biubiu is a decent choice too, but TheShy can be a challenging opponent (see: coinflip) with the potential to pop off big time. I’d recommend stomaching the $200 upgrade for Zoom.

Alternatives to consider: Biubiu ($6,200)

Jungle

Weiwei ($6,800)

In any case, even if you select Yagao as captain, there’s no real issue with taking Weiwei in the jungle; XUN has been a weak point of IG for a long time now, he’s a decent jungler, but like his predecessor in Leyan, he doesn’t have any grit to knuckle down and pull out big performances against the best players in the LPL. I definitely recommend Kanavi due to his high carry factor, but Weiwei isn’t a horrible option in his own right considering his opponent.

Alternatives to consider: Kanavi ($7,200)

Mid Lane

Yagao ($7,600)

Yagao has been back and forth this split, ranging from “great” to “mediocre”. While early in the split it seemed apparent that Yagao had finally been coming into his own and fulfilling the reputation he was given early in his career, as the split dragged on, he’s been slowly slipping. Likewise, though, so has his opponent in Rookie: despite a surprising victory against Suning yesterday, Rookie didn’t show a level of competition much above what he showed the rest of the split. This causes me to believe that Yagao having the stronger jungler will be massive in gapping Rookie in his weakened state.

Alternatives to consider: Zeka ($7,400)

ADC

Aiming ($7,400)

The biggest selling point of BLG, by far, is their import ADC in Aiming. The player was a prodigy throughout his time in LCK, although he was often wasted on below average rosters. Now that he’s in the LPL, everything has changed- and he is now wasted on below average rosters across the sea. That being said, Aiming does have the opportunity to target a well known weakness of IG in their bottom lane: Lucas had a good game against SN, but throughout the split, he’s shown very little progress in terms of his development.

Alternatives to consider: Loken ($7,800)

Support

Ppgod ($5,400)

Furthermore, I’d recommend avoiding JDG’s bottom lane: OMG’s strong point is their bottom lane, but I don’t think it will be enough for OMG to beat JDG due to their weak jungle, a role which is extremely important in the current metagame. Loken and LvMao are just not ideal options even in a victory, whereas BLG’s Aiming and Ppgod do form a pretty solid 2v2 as far as play-off tier bottom lanes are concerned.

Alternatives to consider: LvMao ($5,800)

Team

JD Gaming ($5,200)

Zoom and Kanavi are all you should need to get a team into play-offs, with Yagao being a solid mid laner on top. I feel as though if JDG had a strong ADC, they could be a top 5 team in the LPL, but Loken is serviceable enough for play-off tier. I think IG’s victory over Suning, a team that’s well known for their inconsistency, isn’t especially telling as far as their skill is concerned, just another bookmark in Suning’s stumbles.

Alternatives to consider: Bilibili Gaming ($5,000)

Stacks

Zoom & Kanavi

JDG’s top side is amongst the best in the league with these two. Zoom has the makings of a world champion, and JDG’s import jungler in Kanavi is a young starlet who was following in the footsteps of Tarzan before being traded to JDG from an ailing Griffin. These two target OMG’s weak top lane, and are both strong players.

Aiming & Ppgod

BLG’s bottom lane comprises an interesting parallel to JDG’s top side: Aiming and Ppgod are way more controlled relative to JDG’s reckless top side, which is advantageous against a passive Wink and Lucas. Aiming is a commanding ADC, who should be capable of passively winning lane against IG while dominating teamfights, while Ppgod helps to support BLG’s top side against IG.

Creme & Able

While I can’t see OMG beating JDG, these two are the carries they’d need to perform if they were to do so. Right now, top lane is way easier to punish relative to a weak bottom lane, which firmly puts this game in the favor of JDG. However, Creme and Able are great players, and I hope they can find their way into play-offs in spite of their weak top and jungle.

Top Picks: Zoom, Aiming, Kanavi

I’ve talked so much about these guys throughout the slate. JDG’s top side is well worth your attention against weak players like AKi and New, while Aiming is a nearly world class ADC saddled with weak players elsewhere.

Top Value: Zeka, Creme, Aiming

The fact that Aiming somehow costs less than Loken is insane; he has the much, much better match-up versus IG’s bottom lane and is all around a way more complete player than Loken. Creme is unlikely to win versus Zeka, but has shown substantial progress throughout the split and could be an underrated sac pick to grab a big captain like Aiming.