Fantasy Love/Hate: Week 7
For now, let's take a look at some of our on-the-fence Fantasy options this week and see if we can't help get you one win closer to that league trophy!
For Fantasy Week 7, We Love...
FORG1VENGRE (vs. Fnatic, ROCCAT)
At the start of the split, no one on SK Gaming showed more promise than their AD carry Konstantinos "Forgiven" Tzortziou. Fantasy owners remember those first awesome weeks, when he was consistently one of the top ADCs in EU. But now he's been the #11 ADC two weeks in a row.
With that in mind, it may seem odd that I'm getting excited for him to face off against the dominant Fnatic roster this week, but hear me out. Fnatic doesn't stomp out enemy ADCs as strongly as you might think. Opposing ADCs haven't ever gotten close to scoring negative points, and have even averaged 17 points per game in the last three weeks. Compare that to ROCCAT, who should be SK's easier match that week: they've allowed an average of 12 points per game to opposing ADCs in that same time.
And, historically, things look good for Forgiven. The last time he fought these two teams, his combined stats were 12/3/14 and 823 CS. That's 54.73 fantasy points -- a score that would've earned him the #2 ADC spot last week.
The best part, however, is that those points were earned while losing to Fnatic -- which could very likely be the outcome of this week's matches as well. I don't think he'll hit quite those exact numbers, but anywhere close would be plenty to justify a flex pick.
Meteos (vs. Team Impulse, Team Dignitas)
Cloud9 never scores as many fantasy points as we'd like during their wins. They force objectives and make smart plays instead of constantly team fighting.
But Cloud9 members are still earning better points than most just because of how often they're winning lately. With that in mind, which player is best to pick up this week? Their mid laner, Hai "Hai" Du Lam, looked solid in Week 6 (38 points), but I'm not ready to bet on him against Team Impulse's insanely talented Yu "XiaoWeiXiao" Xian, who just limited TSM's usually reliable Søren "Bjergsen" Bjerg to only 16 points.
For my money, C9’s jungler William "Meteos" Hartman is the safest bet that's likely to be available for pickup. He's the quiet fantasy hero of the resurging Cloud9, scoring an impressive 38 points last week -- just below his mid laner (38.3 points) and ADC (39.4 points).
Even better, Team Impulse and Team Dignitas seem to have a blind spot for opposing junglers. Last week, they failed to kill junglers at all in half of their games. In the other two matches, they only killed the opposing jungler a combined three times.
All together, they gave opposing junglers, on average, 25 points per game last week! That's a higher average than they allowed ADCs and mid laners in those same games.
Vizicsacsi (vs. ROCCAT, Elements)
This pick is more for the risk-takers that need a go-big-or-go-home pick if they hope to defeat their stacked Fantasy LCS opponent this week. But let's take a look at some promising facts about Unicorn of Love's top laner Tamás "Vizicsacsi" Kiss this week:
- He's coming off a super hot week, where he racked up 50 points and was the #3 top laner.
- First, he faces the struggling Remigiusz "Overpow" Pusch, who hasn't shut down an opposing top laner since he stumped Giant's Gaming's Jorge "Werlyb" Casanovas in Week 3.
- The next day, Vizicsacsi duels the newly returned Mike "Wickd" Petersen, who's sure to be a little rusty (and perhaps a bit salty) after his two week benching.
Wickd is a bit of a wildcard but, for my money, it's more likely that Elements continues to have growing pains than Wickd suddenly destroys the unpredictable Vizicsacsi in top lane.
But We Hate...
Team 8 (vs. Team Solomid, Team Liquid)
The surprise of NA's week was Team 8's upset over Team Impulse, which bumped their team position stats up to 18 destroyed towers, among other nice totals. That surprise win, combined with their beat-down on Dignitas netted them the #5 fantasy team spot, plus a few more fans eager to see if they can improve enough before Playoffs start.
And they're not a terrible long-term team prospect, either. They're hovering at the #10 fantasy team spot overall, despite one truly awful score in Week 4 that's dragging that average down.
Still, thrill-seekers should look elsewhere for their bragging-rights pick of the week. Team 8 has a brutal schedule against Team SoloMid and Team Liquid this week, and if things don’t go well, the team position will suffer most in Fantasy scoring.
Rekkles (vs. Copenhagen Wolves, Unicorns of Love)
Well, I didn't expect it to come to this, but I don't think I have a choice. The #1 draft pick in almost every Fantasy LCS league this split was the #60 fantasy player last week. Martin "Rekkles" Larsson's 28 point total left him sitting just below Giant's Gaming's jungler on the fantasy charts -- not a good place to be.
Copenhagen Wolves may give them a legitimate chance to recover, but I don't think I'm even ready to bet a flex spot on it. I know it's painful to bench your top draft pick, but don't be afraid to if you have a more consistent option ready in the wings.
Josh Augustine's favorite champion is Soraka, he's never enjoyed a Darius, and he will always go for the kill, even when he knows he shouldn't. He currently works as a game designer on EverQuest Next at Daybreak Games. He’d love to talk with you on Twitter.
