(-260) Team Solomid v Golden Guardians (+190)

(+140) Immortals v Evil Geniuses (-180)

(+200) Flyquest v Cloud9 (-275)

(-225) Team Liquid v Team Dignitas (+230)

(-475) 100 Thieves v Counter Logic Gaming (+315)

As the summer is nearing its end, as is the 2021 LCS season. We have the top five spots all but determined (not placement) with 100 Thieves, Team Solomid, Cloud9, Evil Geniuses, and Team Liquid. Immortals and Team Dignitas are relatively comfortable in 6th and 7th and there are three teams that have a legitimate shot at rounding out the top eight. Saturday seems heavily leaning towards the favorites but there are a few games where we could see some flipping of the script. With everything to lose for each team, let’s dive in!

Game #1: Team Solomid v Golden Guardians 

Cann’s Pick: Golden Guardians 

Game #2:  Immortals v Evil Geniuses

Cann’s Pick: Evil Geniuses

Game #3: Flyquest v Cloud9

Cann’s Pick: Cloud9

Game #4: Team Liquid v Team Dignitas

Cann’s Pick: Team Liquid

Game #5: 100 Thieves v Counter Logic Gaming

Cann’s Pick: 100 Thieves

 

Captain

Favorite: Zven (C9: $11,400) The C9 bot lane is putting the entire league on notice at this point. Zven is averaging 3 kills and almost 7 assists per game with just under two deaths per game. He and Vulcan have been gaining huge leads in lane and transitioning to into late game teamfights. Cloud9 should be able to see the playbook for Flyquest (don’t let them dictate the game through their messy fights) and handle them easily.

Value Pick: Closer (100T: $10,800)

Top Lane

Favorite: Alphari (TL: $6,800) When you look at the Friday night scoreline, you would think that Team Liquid were carried by the play of Jensen but if you wanted the match, that win was a result of an astounding performance by Alphari. Some games the pressure created by a player translates into huge kill numbers for themself and other games you see it in their teammates scorelines. I am willing top put a lot of faith that the skill gap in top will pay off in Alphari having a big scoreline on Saturday. 

Value Pick: Ssumday (100T: $6,400) 

Jungle

Favorite: Blaber (C9: $7,400) Cloud9 seem to have an understanding on what makes their team tick at this point. Cloud9 are now having their lanes play for Blaber rather than Blaber sacrificing resources for his lanes. This makes a huge difference in how he performs and what his score lines look like. In their wins against GG and CLG, Blaber had KDAs of 13 and 17. In their losses to Immortals and Evil Geniuses he had KDAs of 3 and 0.83 respectively. If Cloud9 plays through Blaber (especially if he is on his Olaf pick) you will pick up huge points with this pick. 

Value Pick: Iconic (GG: $5,400) 

Mid Lane

Favorite: Abbedagge (100T: $7,200) While is seems that Abbedagge has cooled off some from the beginning of the split, make no mistake that he and 100 Thieves are not a team you want to run into. He is in the top five for LCS mid laners in kills (71) and leads that same group with 130 assists. He is all about production and participating in team kills. He dropped 5 kills in his loss to Cloud9 on Friday, and Damonte/CLG are significantly weaker competition.

Value Pick: Ablazeolive (GG: $6,200)   

ADC

Favorite:  Danny (EG: $7,800) Make no mistake, picking up Danny here is going to cost you a lot of money. The upside for this pick is that that Danny is currently your LCS kill leader with 95 kills. He also has over 120 assists during Summer and a 4.7 KDA in that same time. Danny has settled into his role of a team player and has curbed a lot of his overaggression from early in the split by trusting his teammates to make the plays in front of him. This is the hottest team in the LCS right now winning 11 of their last 12 and Danny filling the consistent DPS role is a huge part of that. 

Value Pick: Tactical (TL: $7,400)

Support

Favorite: Vulcan (C9: $5,600) For as heavy favorites as C9 is against CLG today, this price point is insane. Like I had stated in the captain breakdown, Zven and Vulcan are clicking on all cylinders. They look like they could hit previous dominant levels that they had in the Spring Split of 2020 and a lot of that stems with how intuitive Vulcan is. He balances a delicate line between aggression and playing passively to absorb pressure. He has a league leading 216 assists and with the quality of play out of CLG’s WildTurtle and Smoothie, he is primed to hit even higher numbers today.  

Value Pick: IgNar (EG: $5,400) 

Team

Favorite: 100 Thieves ($5,800) This is probably the most consistent team in the LCS right now, despite losing a tough game to C9 on Friday. They have anb identity and know how to play through winning objective based fights with a league leading 69% baron control and second best dragon control rate of 59%. They focus these neutral objectives which is huge for your lineup racking up points.   

Value Pick: Evil Geniuses ($5,000) 

 

Cann’s Example Lineup

Captain (x1.5): Danny ($11,700)

Alternate: Tactical ($11,100)

Top: Alphari ($6,800)

Jungle: Iconic ($5,400)

Alternate: Xerxe ($6,200)
Mid: Abbedagge ($7,200)

ADC: Stixxay ($6,200)

Alternate: FBI ($8,000)

Support: IgNar ($5,400)

Team: Team Liquid ($5,400)