LCS Lock-In begins their playoff push on Saturday, with Cloud9 trying to find their consistency against an underwhelming and disorganized TSM. 100 Thieves, a surprising star of the tournament, look to take down an Immortals team that has been performing slightly above expectations. Let’s get into the picks!

Captain

Closer ($10,500)

The role of captain on Saturday completely depends on what role you want two of: top lane, or jungle? I guess you could consider support too, but that's definitely the incorrect idea. Between jungle and top lane, I’d slightly lean towards jungle for a few facts: Fudge has not been as impressive as I’ve expected so far, and despite being up against a pretty bad top laner in Huni, I think Huni’s coinflip potential has odds to take a few lanes off Fudge. I think the dual carries of 100 Thieves and Cloud9 in the jungle lend you a good enough reason to pick them up: Potluck hasn’t been too bad so far, but with a mid laner in Damonte, Closer has a tremendous advantage in any team 100 Thieves face. If you’re not convinced and want to go with top laners, grab Ssumday.

Alternatives to consider: Ssumday ($9,900)

Top Lane

Ssumday ($6,600)

Between Fudge and Ssumday, the only thing that makes it slightly difficult is the fact that Fudge gets to play against Huni, while Ssumday has to play against Topoon. Topoon is actually a pretty solid top laner from what we’ve seen in OCE and in NA, although not exemplary: the real threat comes in the fact that Fudge doesn’t look completely comfortable yet, and may need time to reach his full potential. Meanwhile, Ssumday is pretty consistently dunking on the North American top laners like usual. One or the other, although I’d pick up Ssumday.

Alternatives to consider: Fudge ($6,400)

Jungle

Blaber ($6,800)

As mentioned earlier, we prefer two junglers on the day. Blaber in his sophomore year has looked really solid actually, maintaining a ~9 KDA across the event. Unfortunately, Spica may actually be a bit more rough than the usual suspects Blaber faces, although it’s clear that TSM’s mid-jungle synergy is, predictably, really bad with the more passive PowerofEvil incapable of facilitating the aggressive Spica. Perkz in addition has been… underwhelming, although he can still reclaim his reputation. Although, Closer is a superstar in his own right: pick him up if you haven’t already.

Alternatives to consider: Closer ($7,000)

Mid Lane

Damonte ($7,600)

I was talking with professional staff on LCS teams earlier, and there’s a pretty common consensus: Damonte may not be an incredibly insane mid laner, but he does not play League of Legends; he plays League of Damonte. The way he plays is unlike anyone else in North America, but it works to effectively facilitate his jungler and side laners. Damonte’s biggest strength is he understands and mitigates his own weakness: his relatively poor laning, instead, he evades laning and utilizes his time to assist jungler Closer. Pretty may not be stylistically great for him, but I’m hesitant to flip Perkz, as he’s been inconsistent across the event.

Alternatives to consider: Perkz ($7,200)

ADC

FBI ($7,800)

Open up indeed. FBI vs Keith is extremely good for FBI, as Keith has been on the downswing of his career as he is likely to retire soon. FBI is the “next big thing” as far as ADCs are concerned: he hasn’t skipped a beat since summer, and has continued piledriving the ADCs he faces with a ~6 KDA and solid CSDs. Money doesn’t permit it, but ADC would likely be the “best” role to double up on, although it is pretty much impossible, since Zven has also looked good on Cloud9, while Lost has been underwhelming. They’re both favorable match-ups, I just prefer FBI since he’s generally more resource intensive than Zven, who has to split resources with both solo laners.

Alternatives to consider: Zven ($7,600)

Support

Vulcan ($5,400)

With that, we’re out of 100 Thieves slots, so what comes next is simple. Vulcan is by no means bad, and while I may have slightly preferred Huhi over Vulcan due to it pretty much being necessary for Vulcan to engage most Cloud9 teamfights (maybe Fudge can too, but we haven’t seen enough yet), which leaves him vulnerable to “dying on impact”. Meanwhile, Huhi has Damonte and Ssumday who are each proficient engagers and have nerves of steel. Neither is a bad option, if you preferred Zven for ADC, now’s your chance to grab Huhi.

Alternatives to consider: Huhi ($5,800)

Team

Cloud9 ($5,000)

Despite 100 Thieves obviously being tremendous favorites, I’d actually say it’s more likely for Cloud9 to beat TSM than for 100 Thieves to beat Immortals; obviously, in a ratio of 99% to 98%. 100 Thieves dropped a game to CLG in groups, a team that literally finished dead last. Cloud9 only dropping a game to first place Evil Geniuses, in their first match as a team too, paints a picture of having a greater level of consistency. Literally all of this is irrelevant though, you’re picking Cloud9 to save on 100 Thieves slots anyway.

Alternatives to consider: 100 Thieves ($5,400)

Stacks

Damonte & Closer

I’ve said it before and I’ll probably pair these two together until they split up or retire: 100 Thieves is one of the best teams by utilizing an effective jungle-mid dynamic. Damonte’s aptitude to assist his side laners and jungler allows them an increased level of versatility in playing side lane favored compositions, which lends them greater access to resources over all. Damonte’s selflessness and Closer’s raw power is a threatening combination to any team 100 Thieves face.

FBI & Huhi

FBI had trolled a bit against Golden Guardians in the early game, before remembering that they were by and far the better team, and simply smashing them to bits. While Huhi may not make it on your roster, these two just make sense together: FBI is a teamfight god that wants big resources to output massive damage, and Huhi is a mid laner turned support who’s done a good job of translating his solid laning to a new position, and outclassing the denizens of support.

Blaber & Vulcan

The jungle-support of Cloud9 are the most sensible pick-ups on the squad. Vulcan is a versatile support, capable of playing laning-centric and roaming styles. Blaber is a high-er resource jungler who prefers to be very aggressive throughout the early stages of the game, and Vulcan is generally capable of following up and coordinating well with Blaber. TSM being a slow team is particularly susceptible to this sort of dynamic, so these two are a good stack to pay attention to from C9.

Top Picks: Closer, FBI, Ssumday

I can appreciate Topoon’s decent performances in North America to an extent, but 100 Thieves is about to tear Immortals to shreds. Their luck is within mid laner Pretty alone, the Greek mid laner has performed solidly despite being on a pretty bottom tier team. That being said, it’s likely Damonte is just going to do Damonte things and evade Pretty’s strengths while preying on his team’s weaknesses. This 100 Thieves 3 man core is what I’d be paying attention to on the day.

Top Value: PowerofEvil, Fudge, Blaber

PowerofEvil is probably the best performing member on TSM, but that’s not saying much when he’s just doing PowerofEvil things: farming through early and mid game, and simply favoring teamfights, furthermore, he fills what’s likely to be one of the most important spots on the team in middle lane. Fudge gets to play against Huni, who has looked like one of the worst top laners in the tournament. Blaber is all around solid, and comes in relatively cheap, too. Each of these players are cheap, but the ones worth taking are only from Cloud9 since they’re likely to stomp TSM.