League of Legends DFS: NA LCS - Saturday
Opening weekend of the North American League Championship Series begins Saturday afternoon with a pair of big games and a host of question marks across the board. More so than any other region, North American teams saw significant changes to nearly every roster which leads to plenty of uncertainty, even amongst the top teams.
Still, we can expect the likes of Team SoloMid and Cloud9 to find their way to the top of the standings, but it wouldn’t be a surprise if one of the newly formed teams like NRG eSports made some real noise throughout the season.
The first two games of the day should tell us a lot about where the four biggest NA teams are at coming out of the offseason. C9 has the most continuity going into the 2016 season of the four and big early season wins are going to be important for them as the other teams develop chemistry.
Odds
Team SoloMid (-170) vs. Counter Logic Gaming (+139)
Cloud9 (-135) vs. Immortals (+111)
NRG eSports (-192) vs. Team Dignitas (+156)
Team Liquid (-210) vs. Renegades (+170)
Echo Fox (-177) vs. Team Impulse (+145)
Top
kfo, Echo ($6,300) – Newly formed Echo Fox draws a TiP team that was stripped of all of its talent during the offseason. Impact and Rush are both gone and what remains is a team with very little upside. It’s likely to be a long season for TiP and new professional kfo will want to impress in his debut. It’s always difficult to know how a player will respond when they sit on the LCS stage for the first time, but his price is affordable and the opportunity against TiP is tough to pass up.
Huni, IMT ($6,000) – If Immortals is going to knock off C9 then Huni building an advantage over Balls in the top lane seems like an obvious outcome. Huni is simply a much better player than Balls and while solo kills are tough to come by at the LCS level, Huni should still build a lead over his opponent barring significant interference from Rush out of the jungle.
Jungle
IWillDominate, TL ($6,500) – Liquid have a 10 player roster and it’s expected that we’ll occasionally see some different looks from them, but IWD should be a mainstay throughout the season. He’s the most expensive jungler today, but not by a crippling amount. Renegades should be a capable team this season, but the jump from the Challenger Series to the LCS is extremely difficult. Alex Ich and Crumbzz are veterans of the scene, but it won’t be enough to keep them from being significant underdogs until they prove they can carry Renegades.
Reignover, IMT ($5,500) – Huni’s Fnatic teammate and fellow Immortal star Reignover is perhaps the least expensive jungler who plays for a team that I believe has a very good chance to win and also be a big part of the game plan. Reignover was one of the top performing junglers at the World Championship and a big part of the reason that Fnatic made a run to the semifinals
Mid
Bjergsen, TSM ($7,400) – This could very well be the cheapest price you can get the TSM star at all season. CLG is certainly capable of beating this brand new TSM roster, but Bjergsen is an $8,000+ player being offered at a pretty good discount. Despite TSM’s struggles in the Summer Split, Bjergsen still lead all mid laners with an 8.2 CSD@10. He’s simply the best at the position in North America.
GBM, NRG ($7,700) – It’s not a secret that the Korean league is quite a bit better than the leagues of the west. GBM makes the move to NRG from Jin Air Green Wings who finished in the middle of the pack in the 2015 LCK Summer Split. There’s no reason to think that a starting mid lane from the LCK won’t instantly be one of the top tier players in North America. Bjergsen is the only player I’d rank ahead of him at present.
ADC
KEITH, Echo ($7,700) – No longer a mercenary, KEITHMCBRIEF has finally found himself a permanent spot on a professional team. Keith played for four different professional organizations in 2015, but was finally picked up by Rick Fox’s team for the 2016 season. In limited work during the 2015 season Keith continually posted strong performances that left many wondering how he wasn’t a full time ADC for a team in North America. Keith just may be the player that comes out the most hungry this season in an effort to prove that teams were wrong to pass him up and let him sign with Echo Fox rather than one of the larger teams.
Sneaky, C9 ($7,600) – Lane opponent WildTurtle did not fare well against Sneaky in their 2015 meetings. Sneaky posted lines of 5/1/9 and 7/1/5 against TSM last season when WildTurtle was their ADC. Sneaky gets what is a likely upgrade in Bunny FuFuu as his support. C9 will be relying heavily on their bottom lane to come out ahead on a consistent basis and Sneaky has already proven in the past that he can win lanes against WildTurtle.
Team
The favorite: Echo Fox ($4,400) – Impulse are the team we’ll likely be picking on a healthy amount this LCS season and it begins with Echo Fox’s first ever LCS game.
The upset: Immortals, ($4,000) – If Huni can win his lane unassisted it frees Reignover to focus heavily on the bottom lane to try to swing it into WIldturtle and Adrian’s favor. That would be a huge boost to Immortals beating a top tier team in its debut game.