LPL/LCK Thursday

(-135) KT Rolster v Hanwha Life Esports (+105)

(-1200) Rare Atom v ThunderTalk Gaming (+650)

(+160) DRX v Fredit BRION (-200)

(-2500) Top Esports v Victory 5 (+1000)

Thursday’s LPL and LCK features an uncertain HLE (although rising) against a KT Rolster which clearly possesses individual talent, but nonexistent teamwork. Rare Atom and Top Esports are sure to crush ThunderTalk and Victory 5 respectively, and DRX tries desperately for their first win against BRION following some roster changes.

Captain

Lava ($10,500)

BRO’s best player by far is mid laner Lava, and he gets to play against DRX’s weakest in Solka (since their bottom lane is now different)- Lava has been the leader for BRION throughout his tenure, even during their last place last season, he was always the consistent member who seemed capable of carrying his otherwise underwhelming team. Your other option is spending big on Jackeylove and going cheap on solo lanes elsewhere, particularly, grabbing Hoya and Lava for your solo laners.

Alternatives to consider: Jackeylove ($12,000)

Top Lane

Cube ($6,400)

ThunderTalk’s LangX is the face of “mediocre top laners” Cube isn’t an especially high tier player, but he’s solid enough to be a member of a 4th or 5th place team in the LPL- I’d consider him just above Breathe’s level, but not as good as Nuguri, or Flandre as an example. Still, this is more than enough to handedly wreck LangX. Your other option is Hoya at $600 cheaper- a tempting option, Kingen has been having a horrendous split, whereas Hoya has been improving at a solid rate.

Alternatives to consider: Hoya ($5,800)

Jungle

Karsa ($7,400)

TES is likely back on top after regaining their form, they’ve weathered past several of the stronger teams and are now ready to crush the lower tier V5 amongst others; Karsa principally plays around his laners, which allows him to rack up tonnes of points against a weak team like V5 that lack any laning power (or jungle power, for that matter) to stop him from doing so. UmTi is another decent option, although Pyosik is DRX’s best player. For that reason, I recommend Arthur as a value pick- he’s genuinely a solid jungler but needed time to sit well with HLE, I expect HLE to shoot up in rankings as Sandbox drops a bit lower alongside AFS, due to Arthur being the starter for the foreseeable future.

Alternatives to consider: Arthur ($6,600)

Mid Lane

FoFo ($7,400)

There are a lot of good mid lane options on Thursday. FoFo, Knight, Lava, and Chovy just to name a few. Out of these, I prefer FoFo second to Lava (who is a value pick) due to his propensity to win lane with relative ease and then perform solidly in teamfights. As stated several times before, FoFo has allowed Rare Atom to contend with top tier teams by neutralizing their strong mid laners. His opponent in Ye doesn’t have much to offer to his squad, if you’d prefer a premium option, Knight is also on the table for a $400 upgrade.

Alternatives to consider: Knight ($7,800)

ADC

iBoy ($7,600)

ADC is a position worth saving your money for on Thursday, Jackeylove, iBoy are the only two you should really be looking for, since any other option is a bad match-up, or a winning team with an inferior ADC. iBoy gets to play against SamD and Pudding, and Jackeylove is up against Kepler and Reheal (or ZYF, we won’t know until they get onto the rift) who are similarly bad. I think both teams have equal probability to hit it big, but being cheaper gives me a slightly better perception of iBoy.

Alternatives to consider: Jackeylove ($8,000)

Support

Vsta ($5,000)

Support doesn’t really matter, in my opinion on Thursday. If you have spare cash, I’d say grab the opposite support of the ADC you have, but I personally think Vsta is the best option since Deft is one of the more likely ADCs to opt into fasting Senna, whereas iBoy and Jackeylove want none of that. Vsta as a support is “good enough” and opens up your cash to be spent elsewhere.

Alternatives to consider: Hang ($5,800)

Team

Top Esports ($5,600)

Team doesn’t matter either- between TES, RA, and BRO, they’re all pretty much certain to win their game, HLE is likely to beat KT, but you’ll never know how convincing their “come up” game actually is, HLE is more than likely to flip a switch and become a decent team again at some point, it’s just a matter of time until they solve their problems.

Alternatives to consider: Rare Atom ($5,400)

Stacks

Lava & Hoya

The solo laners for BRO have scaled nicely into the middle of the season. I used to be Hoya’s #1 hater, but as he’s gained more stage time, I think he’s a decent enough top laner for a 6th placed team or so. Lava is just on the periphery of an “elite” mid laner for LCK, but doesn’t necessarily have the team to compete with the big boys. He’s strong enough in lane though, and will smash DRX.

FoFo & iBoy

The carries for Rare Atom are worth a good consideration, both are strong players in different ways- FoFo consistently edges out his opponent in lane and operates well in teamfights, whereas iBoy is a moving fountain laser, crushing his opponents and grabbing big points in the teamfights his team sets him up for. Both are excellent, and worth putting together on your squad.

Karsa & Knight (& Jackeylove)

This is definitely cheating, but TES have too good of a match-up, make sure to focus on grabbing big point roles since their players are extremely expensive. Junglers aren’t that great on Thursday, so I’d recommend Karsa, and Knight is capable of farming the entire map of V5 for massive points.

Top Picks: Knight, Jackeylove, Lava

As stated before, TES have the easiest match for Thursday against the absolute bottom placed team in the LPL, and their carries are sure to prosper as a result. Conversely, Lava is the strongest player on a mid-tier team against another terrible team, and Lava is typically the player BRO looks for to carry the game, allowing him access to big resources as a result.

Top Value: Vsta, Chovy, Lava

HLE is generally undervalued against KT, following their victory against NRF. Vsta is a great pick-up since Deft has been shown to play fasting Senna in the past, allowing Vsta to get an increased resource share relative to other supports. Chovy is a strong carry on the squad too, although he has a bit of a hard match-up against Dove. Either way, these three players are worth including to grab a big carry as your captain.