LCS moves onto Saturday, where Team Liquid look to snipe a free win off TSM, Dignitas look to continue their streak against GGS, Cloud9 and 100 Thieves clash, EG look to get a win off an underpowered Immortals roster, and FlyQuest try to find their footing against a broken down CLG.

Captain

Josedeodo ($10,500)

Despite FlyQuest’s pretty poor start of the split, Josedeodo individually has been playing extremely well and looks like a capable jungler in the LCS. On the other hand, CLG’s Griffin looks like the worst jungler in the league- worse than Iconic- and CLG looks like FlyQuest’s 2nd win for the split. Jose has shown to be more than capable of carrying games, even in his new region and Saturday is a great opportunity to put that on display. For a different jungle pick, I’d recommend Svenskeren who looks much better this split, getting to face off against a mediocre Xerxe from IMT.

Alternatives to consider: Svenskeren ($11,100)

Top Lane

Alphari ($6,400)

I feel like Alphari and Santorin will be on these lists for a very long time. Alphari has lived up to his hype on Origen as an “elo helled” player, coming over to North America and looking like one of the best top laners in North America, comparable to only Impact. On the other side of the rift is Huni who has looked like one of the weakest players on TSM, and one of the worst top laners in the entire league. Alphari should be a smash hit on Saturday, but if you want to pick up the other best top laner in the league, Impact is the player for you.

Alternatives to consider: Impact ($6,800)

Jungle

Santorin ($7,200)

There’s 3 great choices for jungle on Saturday: Josedeodo, Svenskeren, and Santorin. We’ve spoken on the latter 2 already, but Santorin provides something different than the other two. While Josedeodddod and Svenskeren are straight better players than their opponents, Santorin is not only better, but also holds a stylistic advantage. Spica is a jungler like Blaber in the regard that he typically aims to accomplish objectives in the early game, whereas Santorin historically has been fantastic at stonewalling the early game oriented junglers in the league. Spica has toned it way down lately (much to the detriment of TSM), but he still is a powerful pick against Spica. Any of the 3 junglers are great picks, though.

Alternatives to consider: Svenskeren ($7,400)

Mid Lane

Jensen ($7,600)

Team Liquid mid laner Jensen is the KDA leader in the league, and has the opportunity to play against a PowerofEvil who looks completely lost on TSM. Calling TSM a “team” is sort of a stretch; they feel like 5 players who have queued up for a solo queue game and have no concept of pings or general communication. Without strong laners in Wildturtle, Solo, or even the supporting Santorin, PowerofEvil’s easy going style looks ineffective, and Jensen is likely to be the latest exploiter of it. For a different mid lane option, I’d recommend picking up Jiizuke against Immortals, in particular, in combination with jungler Svenskeren.

Alternatives to consider: Jiizuke ($7,800)

ADC

Tactical ($8,000)

Tactical needs no introduction to frequenters of these LCS articles: he’s the best ADC in the league since the retirement of Doublelift, with Zven and FBI as his only competition. They each fulfill a different niche on their team, but Tactical versus Lost is a clear win. Lost looks weak in lane, and support SwordArt will be no help against CoreJJ’s onslaught. If Tactical looks too expensive for your roster, I’d actually recommend Neo, who looks a tier below the big 3 but is by no means bad; he gets to face off against Stixxay on Golden Guardians whose support Newbie has been underwhelming.

Alternatives to consider: Neo ($7,600)

Support

Aphromoo ($5,000)

Surprising? Maybe, but Aphromoo is actually the highest KDA support in the league. He absolutely exploded against Immortals and posted a ridiculously fantastic performance. Aphromoo on Dignitas throughout 2020 and now in 2021 has looked greatly improved relative to his time on 100 Thieves, and getting to now play against Newbie is a great opportunity to get plenty of points for Aphromoo. If you prefer to play it safe, go ahead and pick up CoreJJ, but Aphromoo is an underrated gem.

Alternatives to consider: CoreJJ ($5,600)

Team

FlyQuest ($5,200)

There’s plenty of good team choices: FlyQuest, Dignitas, Evil Geniuses, and Team Liquid are clearly the superior teams relative to their opponent. In particular, I’d recommend either FlyQuest or Dignitas due to their low cost, but you can’t go wrong with any of them.

Alternatives to consider: Dignitas ($5,400)

Stacks

Neo & Aphromoo

DIG’s bottom lane is likely the most underrated in the entire league; they’ve consistently been posting good results despite inexperienced solo laners in Fakegod and Soligo. They completely wrecked Immortals and look to do the same to Golden Guardians on Saturday, who look even weaker than the Immortals 2v2 they faced the day before.Jensen & Tactical

The carry core for Team Liquid will steal the show against TSM: PowerofEvil and Lost look painfully slow moving and weak in the early and middle game. Which in particular is a death sentence if you’re incapable of creating a passive advantage early through superior laning. Liquid have too many advantages in too many roles for that sort of approach to work, which has occurred to TSM far too often throughout this split already.

Jiizuke & Svenskeren

Finally, the EG mid jungle 2v2 round out the list for stacks. Jiizuke and Svenskeren work well in tandem in a way that reminds me of Closer and Damonte. They gave Cloud9 their first loss of the season on Friday off their fantastic performances, and versus IMT they’re likely to do the same. Insanity is a decent mid laner but his weaker laning phase alongside his jungler having an incompatible playstyle lends IMT vulnerable through the middle area of the map.

Top Picks: Santorin, Alphari, Tactical

TSM look bad and their wins have looked like lucky breaks due to the sheer incompetence of their opponents. Team Liquid tripped against Immortals, but even IMT have a win condition through Insanity’s solid mechanics and teamfighting, and Raes being an all around solid ADC. TSM on the other hand look completely dysfunctional and lack significant firepower past PowerofEvil or Lost running into a massive bounty after their opponent assuredly gets their early to mid game lead over their cadaverous gameplay.

Top Value: Neo, Aphromoo, Josedeodo

The “tier 2” teams are a solid source of free money for elsewhere on the roster. FlyQuest’s Josedeodo gets a free ride against CLG’s inert mid/jungle, Neo and Aphromoo are an underrated gem of a bottom lane and get to play against Stixxay and Newbie, likely the weakest bottom lane in the entire league. Golden Guardians is another team that lacks a solid “win condition” courtesy of their inexperience. Additionally, Newbie and Stixxay don’t strike me as prime leadership figures either.