League of Legends DFS: North American LCS - Saturday
Friday’s games gave us a miraculous turnaround in levels of excitement and fantasy output as the winning team had at least 17 kills in all but one game. We can only hope that this weekend’s NA LCS games can manage to come somewhere close to this kind of output. And I certainly will be hoping for that as Friday was the most entertaining day of the season so far.
On Saturday for the start of Week Four in North America, the anticipated game of the day will be CLG’s chance to try to knock off still undefeated Immortals. Playing as flawlessly as any team in LCS history, Immortals have already managed two wins of fewer than 20 minutes. It’s an incredibly impressive start for a team that played its first official games just a few weeks ago. Still, an undefeated season is a rare accomplishment and that means their opponents won’t always be off-limits.
Odds & Matchups
Team Liquid (-195) vs. Team Dignitas (+159)
Cloud9 (-311) vs. Renegades (+244)
Immortals (-230) vs. Counter Logic Gaming (+185)
Team SoloMid (-323) vs. Echo Fox (+252)
NRG eSports (-252) vs. Team Impulse (+201)
Top
Lourlo, TL ($6,600) – After sputtering to begin the season, Lourlo showed signs of improvement along with the rest of Team Liquid as they swept the week 2-0. Dignitas on the other hand began to show who they really are, with deficiencies all over the map. BillyBoss just isn’t playing at an LCS level and is tied for second in most deaths among top laners despite having played two less games than most everyone else. Full disclosure, Lourlo is the only one with more deaths, but BillyBoss should take the lead this week.
Impact, NRG ($6,500) – NRG finally showed what they are capable of, and in a big way, against TSM last Sunday. The 19-0 shutout was the most impressive non-Immortals victory of the season. Impact’s 3/0/12 line was a huge result, but more importantly, NRG look like a contender now. Impact’s 80.9% KP is by far the highest for top laners and he’s probably unlucky to only have nine kills so far. Underpriced given the floor and upside at only $6,500.
Jungle
Reignover, IMT ($6,000) – The only player in the league to have participated in 100% of his games First Bloods, meaning the first player to die is always someone on the other team and Reignover is always in on it. Having died only three times, Reignover’s ability to avoid unnecessary deaths is an underrated talent. Most other junglers with six games played have died well over 10 times. The Immortals jungler was a beast for Fnatic and continues to be for Immortals. The team’s domination of their opponents in all three lanes may be the only thing keeping his KP% as low as it is. CLG provides stiff enough competition that further jungler involvement may be required to gain the early lead Immortals typically does.
Dardoch, TL ($6,000) – Only getting better with each game, Dardoch is living up to the hype Liquid gave him coming out of their academy team. When a player has a KP of 86% they become uniquely valuable in that even should their team lose, they have more capability of still posting an acceptable fantasy result despite the loss. Dignitas have kept the dying to a minimum in their games, but there’s only so much that can be done against aggressive opponents like Dardoch.
Mid
GBM, NRG ($7,400) – An out of nowhere Zilean pick from GBM had TSM off their game from the moment the teams hit the Rift. The element of surprise, along with some torturous ultimates, was a big part of NRG’s stunning win. We knew coming into the season that GBM would likely be one of North America’s top mid laners, but he might be even better than expected if he has any other secret champions that he’s yet to show off. GBM leads NRG with 39% of their damage share, which is significantly more than any other mids. That kind of damage on a mid laner of GBM’s style will pay serious dividends in fantasy points.
Bjergsen, TSM ($8,000) – Bjergsen finally hit the $8,000 threshold, but is still one of the strongest mid plays of the day. Echo Fox is a disaster and remains without Froggen, who was their only proven player to begin with. Bjerg can be expected to be ahead early in this game and he loves to take advantage of early leads as soon as possible. Games against Echo Fox are always a threat to be played out as objective battles where the opposing team simply outmaneuvers them into a huge gold lead and a disappointing total kill count, but it’s the nature of the game. That possibility doesn’t devalue Bjergsen enough to not consider him an excellent option.
ADC
Freeze, REN ($6,700) – Okay, hear me out. First and foremost, Cloud9 isn’t particularly good. Hai does give C9 a dimension that they don’t seem to have when he isn’t in the lineup, but the team is simply middle of the road at best. Renegades have arguably been the worst team in the NA LCS and that hasn’t changed, although a new support could be a boost. Although Freeze has only had a few days to practice with new lane partner Hakuho, possibility of improvement is certainly there. The team around Freeze will need to be better, but all it takes is competitive play around him and he can turn in a huge score and an upset win.
WildTurtle, IMT ($8,000) – In games where Immortals doesn’t win in under 20 minutes, WildTurtle has yet to fall below 28 DraftKings points. Immortals are not going to be CLG in under 20 minutes. Beyond that, it’s simply extremely difficult to fade Turtle in cash when he has already gone north of 45 points twice this season. $8,000 is a bargain, really.
Team
The favorite: Team SoloMid ($5,100) – It wouldn’t surprise anyone if Echo Fox was perfect gamed here by TSM. It’d nearly be a surprise if they aren’t.
The upset: Renegades ($3,500) – This is easily the most contrarian upset pick I’ve chosen thus far. Not for the faint of heart and only for multi entering GPPs. That said, it’s not here by accident. Legitimate chance to beat Cloud9.