LCL: Unicorns Of Love

Spring Season Record: 10-4

Of all my choices for teams to make it to the “Rumble” Round, this is the one I am least confident about. I think there is a real chance that they get bounced early on and in a three team group, wins are so much more important because there is less room for error. Another thing to note is that this is a far more standard style of play than they did when they played in the LEC which is a good and a bad thing. As a good thing, they are more consistent and they have less really bad losses from the draft. The downside is they are a little less exciting to watch as in years past. They don’t have the same talent level as a team like RNG but they should stay competitive in any match they play.  

Lane Breakdown

In this section I am going to go lane by lane (or position by position) and grade out each player and set some expectations for what we should see from them in the group stage! Obviously playing on stage in an actual tournament can give us some pretty special moments but I will outline what should be the most likely outcome.

Top Lane (BOSS): UOL uses BOSS as a pressure point in the top lane. He rarely plays a pure tank but instead favors the more dueling champions who look for the 1v1 fight in lane. His only questionable picks were his Nocturne and Camilli picks, and those turned sideways because he was almost all damage and he just died so quickly. In the playoffs he added a Sion pick as a wrinkle and picked up and average 4 KDA over 5 games played which is pretty solid as well. I think he will hold his own but what strategy UOL choose to run will really determine if he will be a solid pick or not. If they opt to keep him as a tank player on a Sion, he will be ok on points but nothing really special. If they turn him loose and put him on a Jax or Aatrox or something like that, well grab him at a great cost. 

Jungle (AHaHaCiK): Small bit of griping here (and I don’t mean to sound like Tom Brady complaining about changes in jersey numbers here) but I hate when players have random capital letters in their name for no reason other than laziness when writing about them. That being said, AHaHaCiK is a decent jungler. I don’t think he really compares to Pabu or Wei. In fact I think he may be one of the reasons that UOL could fail to move on to the second round of matches in this tournament. In the regular season of the Spring Split, his most played champion with 6 total games played (Lillia) had an average of 4.83 kills but his second most played champion (Hecarim) averaged only 1 kill. He is very hot or cold and will almost always defer to being a more supportive player rather than the carry. This may work for UOL picking up wins, but not something that will make AHaHaCiK appealing as a DFS pick up. 

Mid Lane (Nomanz): I predict Nomanz will be an absolute must watch this tournament. I absolutely love his raw mechanical skill and ability to find openings in fights are really something fun to watch. The man played one of the riskiest picks for mid lane (Kassadin) in a meta where most people are playing counters to that champ and averaged a 25 KDA in two games and averaged 5.5 kills and 7 assists to boot. UOL will be funneling a ton of gold and resources into Nomanz and he will need to step it up but I think that he can match up well with the other mid laners in the group and be the deciding factor for UOL moving onto the Rumble Round. 

Bot/AD Carry (Lodik): There are some question marks here as technically Lodik is stepping up from the bench and has moved into the starting role for playoffs. In the three regular season games he had he was less than lackluster going 0-3 with only 2 total kills. In the playoffs he and his support (SaNTaS) hit their stride and he dropped 35 kills in 8 games and averaged just over 1 death a game. 8 games are a very small sample size and I think there could be a way for enemy teams to forgo the mid lane and let Nomanz win that but focus on testing Lodik and SaNTaS. With his most successful champion pool being Senna, Ashe, Seraphine, and Xayah it appears that Lodik is going to be best suited to fill the utility support role and hopefully keep Nomans and BOSS in positions to maximize their leads from the laning phase. I would imagine he will trend to be one of the lowest cost bot laners in the tournament which may make it a decent value for him. 

Support (SaNTaS): It was clear that bot lane was a weakness for UOL and there was an attempt to upgrade the ADC role but I don’t think SaNTaS was ever a question for this team. He had a fairly average KDA in the regular season (3.27) and 126 assists but absolutely hit a different level in the playoffs where he picked up 98 assists and had a KDA of over 7 in half the amount of games played. While there are limitations to these numbers it does mean we can see him able to change his play style to match Lodik. This will not be a flashy bot lane but SaNTaS will rack up serious assist totals with picks like his Tahm Kench and Alistar while focusing on peeling for Lodik. I would imagine that UOL will continue to opt for this safer bot lane which will be fine against PGG in the group stage but may lead to struggles against teams like RNG.  

Cann’s Final Thoughts

While PGG has their talent more spread out, UOL has it really in their mid lane and top lane to an extent. Watch for this in their matches and whether or not they will make it out. If teams allow them to funnel gold and kills onto Nomanz, they have a pretty strong chance of making it to the next round. If PGG and RNG can nullify the strengths of their top and mid lanes, this will be a quick exit for the Russian team.    

Cann’s Record Prediction: 4-8
Cann’s Final Placement Prediction: Rumble Round Play