(-525) Bilibili Gaming v Rogue Warriors (+340)

(-105) Rare Atom v Invictus Gaming (-125)

(-175) EDward Gaming v TOP Esports (+135)

(-250) Gen.G v T1 (+185)

(+165) Fredit BRION v Afreeca Freecs (-210)

Friday’s matches gave up some of the wildest upsets and big plays that we have seen all split. DRX dropping their series to Nongshim RedForce and TT taking FPX to three games. Looking at Saturday morning there is a lot to keep in mind. Where are teams currently trending and which are still playing for something. With each league moving towards their end of split tournament and then MSI, we get to start seeing the best teams squaring up to see who are early favorites for Worlds this year. 

Game #1 Bilibili Gaming v Rogue Warriors

Cann’s Pick: Bilibili Gaming

Game #2 Rare Atom v Invictus Gaming

Cann’s Pick: Rare Atom

Game #3 EDward Gaming v TOP Esports

Cann’s Pick: TOP Esports

Game #4 Gen.G v T1

Cann’s Pick: Gen.G

Game #5 Fredit BRION v Afreeca Freecs

Cann’s Pick: Afreeca Freecs

Captain

Favorite: Aiming (BLG: $11,700) Now Aiming (and most of BLG at this point) don’t have the greatest of stats to sell you on but what they do have going for them is the fact that they are playing RW. BLG has a lot of natural talent and Aiming does have 107 kills and 117 assists on the split and has almost 30% of BLG’s kills. Pick for the opponent on this one, not just the actual skill of Aiming. 

Value Pick: Knight (TES: $9,900) Knight is a bad bad man and I am surprised to see that TES is outright dogs in this match. Knight is averaging 77.7 FPPG and has dropped over 80 the last three series. This is absolutely highway robbery to get him as Captain at sub $10k here. 

Top Lane

Favorite: Kiin (AF: $6,400) It is hard to not be overly critical of AF as they have lost the last two of their series, you do have to look at the fact that it was against HLE and DWG. He is 5th among LCK top laners in kills (67) and second highest in team first blood participation at 36%. His lane opponent (Hoya) is one of the lowest performing top laners in the league and I think AF should have an easy go at it as long as they don’t throw in late game teamfights. 

Value Pick: Rascal (GEN: $6,200) Rascal has either been top five in almost every statistical category all split. He is 1st in kills (99), 1st in first blood participation (47%), and 1st in gold differential at 10 min (+180). T1 still cannot land on a working starting lineup and I do not trust them in most series they play. 

Jungle

Favorite: Dread (AF: $7,200) Even in their 0-2 loss to HLE earlier this week Dread showed a lot of flair and skill. He stayed relevant throughout the entire game and was still able to make impact plays. Playing into a significantly worse team in Fredit BRION, Dread should have more than enough opportunities to take over the game. He leads all LCK junglers with 120 kills and has over 30% kill share percentage.

Value Pick: Karsa (TES: $6,000) TES is undervalued on this slate because they are going up against once league leader in EDG. I think the RNG versus EDG series showed us that there are glaring flaws for EDG. I think one of those weaknesses is from the jungle. Karsa plays with more agency and will get aggressive in the enemy jungle while EDG’s jungler (Jiejie) plays slower and for the late game. If Karsa and Knight prolong Jiejie from getting online and controlling objectives, Karsa is going to pay dividends. 

Mid Lane

Favorite: Scout (EDG: $7,400) This is one of the main places where EDG can find an advantage. TES’ mid laner (Knight) exposes the mistakes of his lane opponents and one of Scout’s biggest strengths is the fact that he just doesn’t make mistakes in the early game. In fact he has one of the lowest death rates (47 this split) andis only four kills behind Knight in terms of kills (97). Even if EDG lose this series to TES, I have pretty high expectations out of Scout specifically to play safely and be a late game insurance policy for EDG. 

Value Pick: Bdd (GEN: $6,800) Take out the fact that T1 has consistently cycled in two different mid laners this season, neither have performed as well as Bdd. He is third in the LCK in terms of kills (96) and has a gold differential of +149. This could be a trap game but the price of this pic on a team who is so heavily favored should not be passed over without even just a little bit of thought to it. 

ADC

Favorite: iBoy (RA: $7,200) Rare Atom and iBoy specifically have been a pleasant surprise since returning from the New Year break. iBoy has a 4.1 KDA and an almost 30% team kill share percentage. He is safe early and has been doing really well in late game team fights while pushing his kill total up to 110 on the year. IG is a volatile team and if you have played them in any lobby you know how feast or famine it can be. What RA has going for them in this match up is how controlled they are and if they can dictate the pace of the game, iBoy should be just fine. 

Value Pick: JackeyLove (TES: $6,800) While Knight was my value pick for Captain, I should be clear in saying that if TES win, it will be off the back of JackeyLove. He is a dominant force in the bot lane and probably the most skilled ADC in the world right now. He has a 4.7 KDA with 134 total kills. He generates massive amounts of pressure with Zhuo in lane averaging a +420 average gold lead at 10 min and forcing enemy junglers to babysit the bot lane. This is a place to look out for on Saturday.

Support

Favorite: Lehends (AF: $5,600) Bang and Lehends are solid players but have struggled against some of the strongest teams in the LCK. Luckily for them, they are playing another 4-10 team in Fredit Brion. This series could realistically go 3 games but what makes me like AF and this Lehends pick is how much he roams with Dread. Dread is the leading LCK jungler and Lehends is having a decent season himself. He has a 69% team kill participation rate with 239 assists. On top of that they did win their previous meeting with Fredit BRION which is another thing that makes me feel more comfortable with this pick. 

Value Pick: Keria (T1: $4,200) The only consistent pick from T1 and the third highest performing support from the LCK in terms of assists with 279 and is tied for second in terms of KDA with 3.0. His team kill participation rate is 70% and the T1 bot laners have had some really strong showings this year. Very cheap price for a support averaging 51.2 and hitting 68.3 points in their last series. 

Team

Favorite: Gen.G ($5,400) This is a pick focusing on consistency. T1 has had some really low, lows this split and at the top of each team’s game, Gen.G outpunches T1. Gen.G has moved past T1 in terms of early game rating (which was one of the biggest strengths of T1) and then T1 continues to tank in the late game. Gen.G is a heavily focused team on neutral objectives which will rack up some serious points for you if they keep the early T1 aggression at bay.

Value Pick: Rare Atom ($4,800) This feels like a bit of a toss up match but I am guessing Rare Atom will be a pretty low ownership pick. They have relatively similar early game ratings but they shoot pass IG in the mid to late game. This is a much slower team which means picking them as individual players 

Cann’s Example Lineup

The Example Lineup is meant to show roster construction based on players mentioned in the Playbook. It is not meant to be plugged and played.

Captain (x1.5): Bdd ($10,200)

     Alternate: Aiming ($11,700)

Top: Rascal ($6,200)

Jungle: Karsa ($6,000)

     Alternate: XUN ($7,000)

Mid: Knight ($6,600)

ADC: JackeyLove ($6,800)

     Alternate: iBoy ($7,200)

Support: Hang ($5,000)

Team: Rare Atom ($4,800)