LPL Monday

  • (-225) Rogue Warriors v ThunderTalk (+175)
  • (+475) Victory 5 v Invictus Gaming (-800)

Monday’s LPL slate is hit with two match-ups that should be fairly decisive; a multitude of Rogue Warrior substitutions has left them with a roster with a degree of potential, and Invictus Gaming is trying their best to reintegrate TheShy into their roster after his mandatory quarantine has concluded against a last placed Victory 5.

Captain

Betty ($10,800)

The biggest surprise of the LPL this split has been the upswing of Rogue Warriors, a team that seemed perpetually doomed alongside ThunderTalk and Victory 5 to be confined to the bottom rungs of the league. However, three critical substitutions have been made in order to revive the team- one of which, is the implementation of Betty in for ADC.

Alternatives to consider: Forge ($10,500)

Top Lane

Zdz ($6,200)

Surprisingly, Rogue Warrior’s new top laner has been a key member in turning around their season. Play-offs is likely out of reach for the team, but Zdz has been a massive upgrade for 8917, who was likely the worst top laner in the league. He’s matched Bin, Cube, and neny already, so a weak top laner like LangX shouldn’t pose much of a threat.

Alternatives to consider: TheShy ($6,600)

Jungle

XUN ($7,200)

IG’s XUN is a glass cannon. He has time and time again proven himself capable of defeating lower tier competition with complete ease, but just like his predecessor Leyan, whenever he is faced with an opponent that has a capable team who plays around them, he crumbles quickly. Thankfully, XUN’s opponent in pzx is the defacto weakest jungler in the league, with a completely incapable team. RW v TT’s match-up is actually quite volatile, seeing that Xiaopeng is consistently the strongest member of TT.

Alternatives to consider: Xiaohao ($6,600)

Mid Lane

Forge ($7,000)

I’m happy to finally see Forge find a team that’s at least slightly capable. The Rogue Warrior mid laner was formerly a substitute for Rookie on IG, and he appeared decent there too, and despite Rogue Warriors’ bottom tier placing for many weeks, he was by far the strongest member of the roster. Substituting their top side has done wonders for RW, and Forge too, who finally has a strong team to play around.

Alternatives to consider: Rookie ($7,400)

ADC

Wink ($7,600)

While Wink is a weak ADC, he is facing off against the worst ADC in the league hands down in SamD. I don’t have much else to write; most of it would just be talking poorly about both ADCs. Wink at least has some up side, and while Lucas is bad, he isn’t the dead last support in the league- that’d likely be Pudding, SamD’s support.

Alternatives to consider: Betty ($7,200)

Support

Qiuqiu ($5,400)

Despite going from the #1 team in the LPL to basically the last, Qiuqiu really isn’t much worse than “mediocre”, which is a compliment when you look at the field of players playing on Monday. Between him and Lucas, I don’t see a significant difference between match-up or anything else, Qiuqiu being cheaper (and a better player) is to his benefit though, so I’d prefer him over Lucas.

Alternatives to consider: Lucas ($5,800)

Team

Invictus Gaming ($5,400)

IG and RW are both likely to win, I only slightly favor IG since on paper, they should be a stronger team than they are, and likely play-off caliber. Unfortunately, Rookie has been playing poorly, and their bottom lane leaves much to be desired. That being said, they are still leagues ahead of ThunderTalk. Rogue Warriors is an uneasy success story. A decent team, but likely not play-off caliber.

Alternatives to consider: Rogue Warriors ($5,000)

Stacks

Betty & Forge

The carries of Rogue Warriors are a great option into ThunderTalk, a roster with extremely underpowered carries in Ye and SamD. Forge is a consistently strong player, whereas Betty has shown glimpses of high tier gameplay before, but has stepped it up lately.

XUN & Wink

Despite these two not being outstanding stars on their squad, they match up greatly into their opponent’s counterparts: ZYF, Kelper, and pzx are some of the weakest players in the entire league, and XUN is always a decent pick into the weak junglers in the league due to his all-gas-no-breaks playstyle.

Zdz & Xiaohao

The top side substitutions that boosted Rogue Warriors up a few notches. Xiaohao has been absent from this slate due to the power of Xiaopeng from TT. Zdz has been a fantastic top lane upgrade, and could become a very strong top laner later on in his career if he continues on with his trajectory.

Top Picks: Zdz, XUN, Betty

Zdz and Betty offers a strong mix of mechanical power and great match-ups on Sunday, ThunderTalk’s strongest player in Xiaopeng may be capable of putting in work, but it’s likely- just as it has been many times in the past, to not be enough to carry TT to victory. XUN is a jungler who matches up greatly into pzx, and has the raw materials to force IG to victory.

Top Value: Zdz, Forge, Qiuqiu

Rogue Warrior players are extremely cheap on Sunday, and these three players are the highest yield for their price point- and it helps that these are some of the best players playing on the day, since Rookie and TheShy are massively out of form as of late.