League of Legends DFS: NA LCS - Sunday
Saturday’s opening day of the North American LCS was quite a ride. There were a couple of big upsets, several huge fantasy performances and a game that lasted over an hour. As a whole, it was a great day of games both from the standpoint of fantasy as well as a genuinely exciting start to the 2016 season.
Immortals were the team of the day after they crushed Cloud9 with a 27:06 win. WildTurtle turned up huge with his 11/1/4 and was definitely the MVP of the day.
The good news for C9 and the other four 0-1 teams is that we’re at it again today with five more games and all new matchups.
Odds
NRG Esports (-201) vs. Renegades (+163)
Counter Logic Gaming (-350) vs. Team Dignitas (+271)
Team SoloMid (-230) vs. Team Liquid (+185)
Cloud9 (-280) vs. Echo Fox (+222)
Immortals (-390) vs. Team Impulse (+297)
Top
Huni, IMT ($7,100) – Salaries are very close at the top range on Sunday’s slate which leaves us with some very difficult decisions. It’s going to be wise to spread our exposure where possible, but looking to the safest matchups(such as Team Impulse) are our easiest bet for nearly guaranteed fantasy production. Huni may have taken a back seat to WildTurtle yesterday, but he remains a high upside option on every slate coming off an 88 kill 2015 summer.
kfo, FOX ($5,200) – Echo Fox will almost certainly not reach the level that Immortals is capable of at any point this season, but Cloud9 appeared disjointed coming out of the offseason and are far too heavily favored than I’m willing to buy into. Given the immensely cheap price kfo won’t come as low owned as we would like, but is just too good of an option to ignore.
Jungle
Svenskeren, TSM ($6,200) – One of the many European imports this offseason; Svenskeren is going to be one of North America’s best junglers. An aggressive jungler who has the pleasure of ganking into lanes with superstars in each of them awaiting his assistance. There’s little reason to think that TSM won’t get into the win column despite the loss to CLG yesterday. Svenskeren’s KP% and damage numbers have always been fairly reliable and that will almost certainly lead to big box scores throughout the season with the likes of Bjerg and Doublelift devouring opponents for him.
Reignover, IMT ($6,400) – Reignover’s 2/0/10 in his first game in the NA LCS made it look easy. Reignover’s KP% was shockingly low at 63.3 last year in Europe, but he will be expected to do more here in North America. A 70.6% with a KDA of 12 is a good start. Jungle exposure against weak teams like Impulse is rarely a bad idea as their likelihood of a total bust is rather low given the that League often revolves around when and where the jungler rotates to.
Mid
GBM, NRG ($7,200) – The standout moment of Saturday came courtesy of GBM on Viktor. Fleeing near the Dignitas base with DIG jungler Kirei in pursuit, GBM stunned the NA LCS studio when he simply turned around and zapped Kirei into nothingness and proceeded to escape certain death and rejoin his team in pushing down the top lane. It was a small moment in a long day of League of Legends, but it was a glimpse of what GBM is going to be capable of when playing in a professional league outside of Korea. These types of highlight moments could be a regular occurrence for GBM this season and, if nothing else, he’s sure to be an entertaining player to roster.
Bjergsen, TSM ($7,700) – Win, lose, rain or shine; we will continue to play Bjergsen at under $8,000 in almost any matchup. Bjergsen was still Bjergsen despite the loss, posting positive @10 numbers against HuHi and coming away with a respectable 1/3/9. Keep playing him and hope others find a reason to be off of him.
ADC
Stixxay, CLG ($8,700) – Who would have thought that after just one game in the LCS that Stixxay would ascend to being the most expensive ADC on the board? That fact does give pause as by no means has Stixxay done anything to prove he’s worthy of being priced higher than players like Doublelift, regardless of matchup. However, it’s not a crippling amount higher and CLG is unlikely to regress from their big win on Saturday. Stixxay certainly looked the part and Dignitas remains a targetable opponent.
KEITH, FOX ($6,500) – To the surprise of no one, Keith came up big in his debut with Echo Fox. A 7/0/5 start as Fox wiped the board with TIP. Of course, most teams are going to handle TIP in similar fashion this split given that they are simply not a strong team, but it was great to see such a strong debut from him. The competition gets much stiffer against Sneaky on Sunday who is a proven North American professional, unlike anyone on Impulse. That said, I like Echo Fox here. Outside of their truly Aaron Rodgers like trip through the gauntlet last year, C9 have been overrated for almost a year. The books favor C9 in a big way, but I’m not buying them being even remotely close to that kind of favorite over Rick Fox’s team.
Team
The favorite: NRG eSports ($4,400) – Certainly there are a few teams who can be trusted to win today, but I’m more than fine with saving a few hundred and taking a more affordable option in NRG.
The upset: Echo Fox ($3,300) – It was Immortals yesterday and now it’s Echo Fox. I’m not necessarily trying to pick on C9, but their opening weekend opponents are both difficult and capable of defeating the LCS mainstays.