Fantasy Love/Hate: Week 6
For Fantasy LCS Week 6, We Love...
kaSing (vs. ROCCAT, Giants Gaming)
Gambit Gaming got a lot of hype this week as they extended their win streak to five, but they're not the only team in EU that should be popping up on your fantasy radar. Members of H2K Gaming have been steadily climbing the fantasy charts as well.
The most valuable fantasy position on their team is support. Since Raymond "kaSing" Tsang joined the team two weeks ago, he's maintained an average fantasy score of 35 points per week, the fifth highest for supports overall.
In that time, H2K beat Elements, ROCCAT, Unicorns of Love, and SK Gaming -- a hearty lineup that they knocked down without dropping a game. This week, kaSing and crew face ROCCAT again and Giants Gaming. An easy gauntlet that should give him plenty of assist points.
Balls (vs. Team Coast, Winterfox)
They're back! Probably? Maybe. Sorta. LCS analysts seem split on whether or not you should trust Cloud9's better showing this week as a sign of things to come. But for the short-term, I'm more than willing to believe the resurging C9 can take out Team Coast and put up a good fight against Winterfox, who beat them last week but struggled in their followup match.
In Fantasy LCS, though, there's only one player on the team not named Zachary "Sneaky" Scuderi I'm willing to trust this week: their top laner, An "BalIs" Van Le. Balls earned 40 points last week on his way to putting up the fourth most points for top laners.
To drive the point home, let's look at how Team Liquid's Diego "Quas" Ruiz had absolutely no problem getting early advantage against Winterfox's top laner Deongyheon "Avalon" Shin last week. Quas was ahead 60 creep score at one point and even grabbed a solo kill in lane.
Quas and Liquid couldn't transition that lane lead into teamfights, so his fantasy points sputtered out, but teamfights used to be C9's specialty. If they're really back in fighting shape, Balls will have no problem milking more Fantasy LCS points out of an early lead.
KEITH (vs. Gravity Gaming, Counter Logic Gaming)
Team Liquid looks like they're mostly back on track and shouldn't be subbing out Yuri "KEITH" Jew anytime soon. He's only played two weeks, but Keith is technically the most valuable fantasy player of the split according to average points per game. Despite only winning one of his games, he's still the #6 ADC this week.
TL has also made it pretty clear that Keith is an important part of their game plan and will pick team comps that keep him safe and scoring kills. That's great news for fantasy owners. This week's match-ups should be a good test (and fantasy proposition) for Keith. Both Gravity and CLG stumbled last week, but are still formidable opponents. Keith should get plenty of opportunities to score points in these games.
Check your Add/Drop list immediately, and snatch him up if you can!
But We Hate...
Krepo (vs. Meet Your Maker, SK Gaming)
I thought my friend was crazy to drop Elements' support Patrick "Nyph" Funke in our league after his stumble in Week 4. I immediately dropped Daerek "LemonNation" Hart (sorry, Lemon!) to pick him up. What a fool I was.
After two weeks in a row of being the lowest fantasy point-scoring support in EU, Nyph has been benched by Elements (so I guess he's technically on this hate list too). Taking his place is old CLG.EU teammate Mitch "Krepo" Voorspoels, who played on Evil Geniuses in the NA LCS last year.
I'm happy to gamble a bench slot on Krepo for now, just in case Elements do recover before the end of the split. But I want to see some reliability before I risk a starting slot. The Meet Your Makers matchup will tempt you to move Krepo to your starting roster but don't give in! Instead be patient and focus on that scary followup face-off with SK Gaming.
Really this decision ties into a larger fantasy lesson: don't be afraid to miss a new or struggling player's first big week. If they do step up and start giving owners huge points, there'll be plenty of time to take advantage it. And if the EU LCS has taught us anything this split, it's that there are no guarantees and everything could change next week. Don't buy back in until they've proved it's a good investment.
Shiphtur (vs. Team SoloMid, Team 8)
Over the past five weeks, Fantasy LCS owners have rightfully grown wary of any player attached to the troubled Team Dignitas. Consider this a friendly PSA that anyone on Team Dignitas is still a very scary starting prospect for your Fantasy LCS team. Yes, they looked surprisingly coordinated in their win over Winterfox in Week 5. Yes, Shiphtur was the #4 fantasy mid laner last week. But you know who also has a good mid laner? Team SoloMid.
This week Shiphtur is facing off against TSM's Søren "Bjergsen" Bjerg, the undisputed best mid laner in the NA LCS. Only one mid laner has ever finished a match with more kills than deaths when facing off him this split (bonus points if you guessed it was Andrew "Slooshi" Pham, who melted TSM's collective face with Orianna ults in Week 1).
Mid laners facing Bjergsen average 13.5 fantasy points per game, and Shiphtur has no business being on the high end of that spectrum. The last time they faced off, Shiphtur went 0-3-0, narrowly escaping negative fantasy points for owners. Don't let Shiphtur's success last week blind you of this week's hurdles -- Bjergsen is still Bjergsen.
Josh Augustine's favorite champion is Jinx, 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.
Why Krepo hated?