Welcome to this week’s edition of Start ‘em, Sit ‘em. In this series, I will look at four players who you should consider starting in Fantasy LCS, as well as four players you should consider sitting, and give my reasons why.
Start ‘em
Jonas “Trashy” Andersen: Splyce Jungler, matches against FC Schalke 04 and Team ROCCAT – $6,800 on Friday on DraftKings
The last time Splyce matched up against these two teams, Trashy had himself two games that were far from trash. He scored just over 50 points in the 2-0 series against S04 and ended the series with a 4-3-25 KDA; he had a similar performance with 51 points in the ROCCAT series back in week one. Those two games combined for over 100 points, and I expect similar numbers in week six. Splyce is currently tied with FC Schalke 04 for fourth place, so you know they have been preparing for this matchup that I believe they have the upper hand in. Look for Trashy and the rest of Splyce to have a high scoring weekend with these two matchups that play very much into their favor.
Alfonso “mithy” Rodriguez: G2 Support, matches against Giants and Team ROCCAT – $5,800 on Friday on DraftKings
G2 Esports is coming off of a flying week five that saw them sweep the number one team in the league, Fnatic. Confidence is half the battle inLeague of Legends, and this team, who now sit atop the standings, are not short on it. They look great playing together, and that gives any fantasy player confidence when starting one of their players. While he is already owned in 90% of leagues, he is only being started in about 75% of them, and I believe that number should be higher. Any G2 player is a start this week, but I wanted to point out mithy because he has the lowest starting percentage among G2 players who have started in all games this split. His ADC Zven is going to have a big week with these two matchups, so watch out for mithy to capitalize on that with high assist numbers, and few deaths.
Eugene “Pobelter” Park: Immortals Mid Laner, matches against Team EnVyUs and Team Liquid – $7,500 on Fri., $7,800 for Sat. on DraftKings
Pobelter and really any Immortals player is an automatic start on most weeks, but I just wanted to highlight Pobelter this week as his upside is slightly higher than his teammates. Without a doubt, Immortals are the second best team in the league right now, with only one loss and that of course being to number one Team SoloMid. Had Immortals played EnVyUs and Team Liquid in the same week, it would have meant a nearly 106 point weekend for the mid laner. In the second time around, Team EnVyUs has slowed from their strong early split form, but on the flip side, TL has been steadily rising through the standings. However, I do not see them posing too large of a challenge for Immortals and I think fantasy owners can expect big numbers out of Pobelter this week.
Noh “Ninja” Geon-woo: Team EnVyUs Mid Laner, matches against Immortals and Phoenix1 – $6,400 on Fri., $6,900 on Sat. on DraftKings
Some people may be scared away by the Immortals matchup, and I first was as well, until I looked into the numbers. In week three, these two teams met for their first meeting. Immortals swept Team EnVyUs, but it was not without a fight. Both games were very close, with game one ending in about 43 minutes, while game two ended in over 50 minutes. All the while, they may not have earned the win, but the EnVyUs players got tons of fantasy points. If EnVyUs plays like they did last time and just force a long game, fantasy owners can see a lot of production out of this squad. Even if Team EnVyUs experiences the flip side and the games end in something like 25 minutes, they can get out with at least some points to carry over into their next match against Phoenix1, which is very good for them. Expect Team EnVyUs to play very well in this matchup and to have it end strongly in the favor of the boys in blue.
Sit ‘em
Jung “Impact” Eon-yeong: Cloud9 Top Laner, matches against Team SoloMid and NRG eSports – $5,500 on Friday, on DraftKings, Sunday prices not released, check back for updates.
Cloud9 has a difficult week, while the issue of the TSM match stands out very clearly, the NRG match cannot be overlooked. Impact did not perform to his standards in either of these matches the first time these two teams met. While C9 won the series against NRG 2-0, Impact found just 26 points, and a similar story can be found in the TSM series, which the team lost 2-1, and Impact only earned himself about 26 points. Now, he has to play both of these matches in which he underperformed in previously in the same week. Cloud9 is going to be eying the TSM match, which they play first on Friday, and I can see them overlooking this NRG team, who if they have a good week, can be a serious threat to C9.
Son “S0NSTAR” Seung-ik: Giants AD Carry, matches against G2 Esports and H2k-Gaming – $6,400 on Friday on DraftKings
Ok, so I put S0NSTAR on this list last week, and he proved me wrong, but I believe that the Fnatic match was a fluke occurrence, and the ROCCAT performance of nearly 50 points just made things worse for people that took my advice. If you did, I am sorry, but trust me one more time this week. Giants will play G2 and H2k, teams that currently sit first and third in the standings, and both teams shut S0NSTAR down in their first meeting. He is a very matchup reliant player; he performs well against mid and low tier teams but struggles against top teams, which is not unusual but it just needs to be considered. If you combine the points scored from the first time these teams played, you only get 44. I think both G2 and H2k have improved since they last played Giants and I would not be surprised to see S0NSTAR struggle this week. It is a safe bet to leave him on the bench this week.
Raymond “kaSing” Tsang: Vitality Support, matches against Fnatic and Origen – $4,500 on Friday on DraftKings
One can most likely expect Fnatic to get on track after their trainwreck in week five, and that leaves kaSing without much action going in the favor of Vitality. You would probably think that the Origen match would be better but his first performance against the eighth place team was nothing to write home about, scoring only 26 points in their first meeting. The Origen laners will struggle against Fnatic and that leaves kaSing out of the loop and unable to score many points as the games progress by. That all spells for a bad situation for those that were looking to start the british support.
Joshua “Dardoch” Hartnett: Team Liquid Jungler, matches against Immortals and Echo Fox – $4,900 on Saturday on DraftKings, Sunday prices not released, check back for updates.
Dardoch faces a tough matchup against Immortals, a team that held him to his worst fantasy performance of the split bringing home just over seven points, and things do not look much better when you look at the other match. While it is against Echo Fox, a team who currently sit ninth in the standings, they gave Liquid a run for their fantasy points the last time around, holding Dardoch to just 25 points. Even if Liquid manage to improve their performance against Echo Fox, the Immortals match will still most likely stand as this team’s biggest challenge, and the main reason why people would consider benching Team Liquid players. If they play anything like they did the first time around against Immortals, you would need a 50 point performance in the Echo Fox match to make the week a decent one, which I do not see happening.
All images graciosuly provided by Riot via their official Flickr page.
