LCS continues on Saturday, TL and EG both look to assert themselves to the upper echelons of LCS, Cloud9 faces off against a surprisingly solid Dignitas, TSM looks to continue their win streak against first place 100 Thieves, CLG look for a win with their new roster against IMT, and FlyQuest try to gain some ground against GGS. Let’s look at the picks.

 

Captain

Tactical ($11,400)

Team Liquid is marred with inconsistency, but despite this, ADC Tactical and support CoreJJ still look like the best bottom lane in the league despite their mid-jungle’s propensity to throw games; top laner Alphari also looks solid too. In their match versus EG, they should do their best to rely on their solid bottom lane to defeat Deftly and IgNar, while mid laner Jensen should be capable of beating on Jiizuke’s inconsistency. Despite Jensen not having the best 10/10 split, I still think he’s good enough to beat Jiizuke and lead TL to another win, so I give him my recommendation for captain if you want to go cheaper than Tactical.

Alternatives to consider: Jensen ($11,100)

 

Top Lane

Licorice ($6,200)

While Licorice has been having a mediocre split, getting to match up against Niles should be a massive boon for the top laner. FlyQuest has yet to play against Immortals and GGS, so there’s still yet for the squad, and the top laner, yet. Licorice’s performance against Finn has given me faith, and I think he will continue to stomp on Niles. If you’re burned by Licorice’s poor form this split so far, you could shell out big for a top laner like Fudge who has an easy match-up against Fakegod on Saturday.

Alternatives to consider: Fudge ($7,000)

 

Jungle

Josedeodo ($6,600)

FlyQuest’s Argentinian jungler has been a relatively solid piece on the squad alongside Johnsun. While he hasn’t been remarkable, his opponent in Iconic has been much, much worse. Saturday has many inconsistent teams facing each other, so it’s best to be safe and pick the poison that you know as opposed to gamble on the truly random teams. FlyQuest will certainly squash GGS and their players come cheap; if you want a more pricey option, I’d recommend Santorin, although he hasn’t stood out to me as being worth the bucks.

Alternatives to consider: Santorin ($7,000)

 

Mid Lane

Jensen ($7,400)

There’s a good reason why I would recommend Jensen but not Santorin: Palafox has been a weak point on FlyQuest and hasn’t fulfilled on the promise he’s displayed in academy. I don’t buy into Ablazeolive either, but I’d rather stick with a good option as opposed to picking between two bad ones. I’d venture to say that there are very few to no good choices for mid lane on Saturday, as many of the good ones are locked up in hard and explosive match-ups, whereas Jensen only has to face down Jiizuke.

Alternatives to consider: Palafox ($7,200)

 

ADC

WildTurtle ($7,000)

WildTurtle has been the one player on CLG that has continued to give me some hope for the squad, aside from having one bad game against TL (to be fair, it’s Tactical+CoreJJ). CLG’s opponent in IMT is another bottom feeder, and I actually think Raes has been an alright ADC so far, but I think Smoothie is generally superior to Destiny, the latter of whom I perceive as the worst support in the league alongside Diamond and Newbie. If CLG can continue what they showed on Friday against 100 Thieves now that Broxah has arrived, there may be hope for them to claw out of the mud of GGS and Immortals they’ve been placed alongside. Johnsun is another decent option, since GGS’ bottom lane looks similarly hopeless.

Alternatives to consider: Johnsun ($7,400)

 

Support

CoreJJ ($5,800)

These two are the only big budget options I’d consider for Saturday due to their high consistency level, 100 Thieves has looked jarring, TSM is somehow on a 5 game winstreak, and while I do enjoy Dignitas, I can’t deny their schedule has been very easy. CoreJJ and Vulcan are both set up for success on Saturday, but I give a slight preference to CoreJJ due to his synergy with Tactical, alongside EG’s inferior bottom lane relative to Dignitas who have Aphromoo in command.

Alternatives to consider: Vulcan ($6,000)

 

Team

FlyQuest ($5,400)

I still think FlyQuest is better than their standings suggest; their schedule so far has been absolutely brutal, and they still have a good chance to rally against GGS and IMT, and then convert that momentum into a play-offs berth. If you’re not convinced by FLY, you can always choose TL for a safe option, although I think EG has a higher level of potential than GGS so the upset potential could, perhaps, be there.

Alternatives to consider: Team Liquid ($5,200)

 

Stacks:

CoreJJ & Tactical

TL’s bottom lane is star studded, I talk about them nearly every single week and this one is no exception. While TL may be middling in the standings and have gotten upset way too often, they won the lock-in tournament for a reason, and CoreJJ and Tactical haven’t skipped a beat. These two are worth the money.

 

Fudge & Perkz

I like Soligo, but I can’t deny that Fakegod looks like a weak point on Dignitas. Fudge and Perkz should be able to translate their veterancy to a victory against Dignitas on Saturday and put an end to the upstart roster, Soligo being stuck in academy for a year and then immediately facing Perkz? Not ideal for the newcomer to the LCS mid lane.

 

Josedeodo & Johnsun

While FLY hasn’t been high in the standings, I do think their ADC and Jungle are the two players that have performed decently despite their rough schedule. Truthfully, during the preseason I would have predicted that DIG and FlyQuest would be where each other are now, although we can now see that Diamond’s relatively poor 2020 had an impact on his 2021 start in LCS, but there is hope yet for the young squad.

 

Top Picks: Josedeodo, CoreJJ, Tactical

Each of these guys are members in a stack: Tactical in particular preys on Deftly’s weak team fighting and defensive play style, CoreJJ stonewalls IgNar’s aggressive, roaming playstyle and Josedeodo should shut down Iconic in the jungle.

 

Top Value: Licorice, Josedeodo, WildTurtle

FlyQuest’s players are absolutely free, Licorice has been pretty bad this split, but Niles looks like a fish out of water. Jose is solid as mentioned before, and WildTurtle looks like an actual professional player on an amateur team. Each of these guys are great supplements to Team Liquid players on your squad.