The contrast in games on this slate is almost dizzying. You have exciting matches in EDG v SUN and GEN v NS but you also have LGD v TT, I suppose we take what we can get. This has been more prevalent as we get closer to the midway point but remember a lot of teams have 2-3 players per role and are prone to throw out different lineups. Sometimes it is safer to pick the second best guy available but if there are no subs, you’ll get all the points. 

Game #1: LGD v TT

Cann’s Pick: TT

Game #2: EDward Gaming v Suning

Cann’s Pick: EDward Gaming

Game #2: Liiv SANDBOX v DWG KIA

Cann’s Pick: DWG KIA

Game #2: Gen.G v Nongshim RedForce 

Cann’s Pick: Gen.G

 

Captain

Favorite: ShowMaker (DWG: $11,700) ShowMaker has had a pretty good split but it has just been overshadowed by the performances put on by Chovy. ShowMaker has 47 kills, which if you take out Chovy’s 78 would make him the kill leader. ShowMaker has a KDA of 7.0 and participates in almost 73% of all of DWG’s kills. Safe pickup and not even the most expensive on the board. 

Value Pick: Twila (TT: $10,800) The Twila pick is more off of the comparison to his lane opponent in Uniboy. Comparing the two together and there are not too many categories where Uniboy has an advantage. I think the most telling in this matchup is that Twila has almost double the kills and 10 more assists comparatively. This should be a pretty good showing for TT who have looked far more cohesive as of late. 

Top Lane

Favorite: Rascal (GEN: $6,400) Rascal remains arguably the best top laner in the LCK. He has a league leading 49 kills and a 3.5 KDA. Rascal plays mainly for lane and focuses on creating a gap between him and his opponent to either force the enemy jungle to come and bail them out or allows him to rack up huge gold leads in the late game. NS’ top laner (Rich) has 50 deaths in 17 games which is league leading and I think this will be an area Gen.G will need to win to take over this game. 

Value Pick: bin (SUN: $5,800) If there is an area where Suning can find a way into this game against the league leading EDward Gaming, the top lane seems to be the place to do it. Flandre is a good player but young and inexperienced. On the other hand you have bin, who has been to a world’s final and of all the Suning players, is performing at that caliber. He has 44 kills through 13 games and even with a 54% win rate, is sitting at a 4.5 KDA.

Jungle

Favorite: Canyon (DWG: $7,400) Canyon’s opponent (Croco) is relatively similar in terms of kills (38 to Canyon’s 36) but the gap elsewhere on the map is what makes Canyon the pick here. I think this game could go three games especially if deokdam can make some plays against the more passive play in Ghost but this is probably the closest thing to a for sure 2-0 in favor of DWG.

Value Pick: Jiejie (EDG: $7,200) Now Jiejie is less of a kill machine compared to other junglers out there with only having 29 kills but he does have 100 assists and rarely dies in matches. One of (if not the leading issue) for Suning is the inconsistent play out of the jungle. SofM has 22 kills, 37 deaths, and 92 assists on the year and just has not had the same impact on the map as he had in their World Finals run. He has consistently fallen behind in gold and experience and the early game is a major strength for Jiejie. Look for the game to snowball in the jungle tomorrow. 

Mid Lane

Favorite: Scout (EDG: $7,600) Angel is not a dominant mid laner in terms of creating his own opportunities in lane but instead relies on late game team fights to pick up stats. Scout on the other hand has 10 more kills than him (51 total) and is one of EDG’s win conditions. Suning continues to sputter going 2-2 in their last 4 games and could go into the New Year break sub .500 win percentage.   

Value Pick: Bay (NS: $6,400) Here is the deal with this pick. Gen.G lost their minds in the last series and took out Bdd while subbing in Karis. Karis went 2-6-8 in Gen.G’s 1-2 loss to DRX. This is a gamble pick and may require you to be up when lineups are announced but if Gen.G trots out Karis, Bay should have a good day for points. 

ADC

Favorite: Viper (EDG: $8,000) Viper is currently keeping pace with GALA (84)  and Lwx (83) in the kill category with 80 to his name. His opponent (huanfeng) has a better KDA (7.1 v 6.1) but it has more to do with having less deaths (19 total) rather than having a larger overall impact on the game. EDG plays through Viper and the bot lane which means you should should make some money here. 

Value Pick: SamD (TT: $7,400) You are picking SamD here because TT is playing one of the worst LPL teams in recent memory. SamD has more kills (44) than the two bot laners from LGD in Garvey and Kramer (30 total). To his credit, SamD is a very good laner winning the early game in terms of gold, experience and actually picking up first blood in 20% of their matches. TT is trending upward and I like this positional matchup. 

Support

Favorite: Meiko (EDG: $5,800) Meiko has 129 assists, which puts him in the middle of the pack, but he only has 37 deaths which for a support, through 14 games, is an impressive feat. I think the pick up Viper and Meiko is a great stack that should pay dividends in your scoreline. This is even more probable when you take a look at the fact that he is part of 70% of all EDG kills thus far which means big points in the assist column. 

Value Pick: Kellin (NS: $4,400) While I was off in my NS over T1 prediction, me saying Kellin would be a big part of what NS does was not wrong. According to the FA prediction machine (if you are reading this article but not using our esports tools… what are you even doing?) thinks he will pick up 16 assists with a probable 5 deaths in the series. Meaning that he should have tremendous value for your dollar. If you need to squeeze some cash from areas or think that NS has a shot against Gen.G, make sure you pick up Kellin. 

Team

Favorite: DWG ($5,600) DWG has the best chance to 2-0 on this slate and the most probable team to pick up sub-30 minute wins which will pull you big points. They are also the best dragon stacking team on the slate playing Liiv SANDBOX who is one of the worst on the slate. Just an overall really safe bet here. 

Value Pick: Nongshim RedForce ($4,000) You feelin lucky punk? (Any Dirty Harry fans?) If you are feeling lucky this team has the best opportunity to upset at a low price. I think Suning has a pretty good chance to at least take Suning to 3 games but they are a pricier pick up and you had might as well pick a favorite elsewhere. NS has played some top teams (T1, DRX and even AF0 really closely and if Gen.G continues to explore roster moves, you could steal a lobby with some NS pickups.  

Cann’s Example Lineup

Captain (x1.5): Viper ($12,000)

     Alternate: ShowMaker ($11,700)

Top: Rascal ($6,400)

Jungle: Xiaopeng ($6,600)

     Alternate: Clid ($6,600)

Mid: Twila ($7,200)

ADC: Ruler ($7,600)

     Alternate: SamD ($7,400)

Support: Life ($5,200)

Team: EDward Gaming ($5,000)