Fantasy Love/Hate: Week 9
Riot·3/25/2015, 9:10:33 PM·0 votes·5,766 views
This is it. The final week of this split's Fantasy LCS has arrived, and it's almost time to crown your league's champion!
So here we are for one last round of calculated predictions and (with the way the EU is playing right now) completely wild guessing of who to start and who to bench this week before the LCS kicks into playoffs. Good luck!
David "Cop" Roberson and his light-hearted teammates on Gravity have been inconsistent in fantasy this split. But, when Cop is good, he's great -- and Cop is on a hot streak right now -- and I want to be a part of it.
Cop almost topped a 30 points-per-game average last week as the leather jacket pack tore the touted Team SoloMid to shreds before trouncing Team Dignitas in another expected win. This week, he faces Cloud9 and Team 8 -- two more rising teams that will put up a great fight.
Like I mentioned in last week's column, I've learned to embrace good players with just-less-than-even matchups for fantasy value. Neither of these matches will be a stomp, but Gravity has every chance of winning both. And they should give Cop plenty of time to farm up and lay down the pain for those sweet, sweet fantasy points.
If you're still not sold, how about the fact that he earned a combined 75 points against these two teams the last time they faced off? Yes, please.
Freeze (vs. ROCCAT, Giants)
Aleš "Freeze" Kněžínek struggled last week, but he'll be back to full power this week against the embattered ROCCAT and Giants.
Let me assure you with a few fun facts:
There's no reason to keep your team if you don't think they'll win both games this week. More than any other position, fantasy points for the team spot are heavily influenced by whether or not they win games.
Since this is our last week of Fantasy LCS this split, we can completely ignore long-term ramifications and just focus on predicting two games. If your usual team has a tough schedule this week (Cloud9, CLG, H2K, Gambit), look for an unclaimed team with an easy schedule.
After Meet Your Makers' resurgence last week, Team Coast and Team Dignitas are the closest thing to an "obvious" win left in the LCS. Winterfox and Team Liquid play both of them on Saturday, and then each other on Sunday.
Both Team Liquid and Winterfox are likely available for pick-up, so figure out who you think will win that head-to-head matchup, and use them as your team spot if you need a replacement. I'm going with Team Liquid based on their past success and clean play this week. For me, Winterfox is still too much a wild card to trust over most current starting teams.
H2K faltered last week, dropping Andrei "Odoamne" Pascu to his lowest position-ranking in fantasy since Week 3. I don't know if he'll get stuck at the No. 14 top laner spot again this week, but I do know that I want nothing to do with a team playing against the on-fire Fnatic and Unicorns of Love this week.
This week, more than ever, we need reliable players that'll get us solid points. H2K's schedule is too tough this week for me to trust them, and both Fnatic and Unicorns of love have a solid history of shutting down opposing top laners.
Thanks for the good weeks, Odoamne. But it's time to say goodbye until next split.
Dyrus (vs. Team Coast, Cloud9)
"I'd like the opportunity to play League of Legends." Marcus "Dyrus" Hill didn't hide his frustration when he complained dryly in his post-match interview about getting camped all weekend long by opponents.
I want you to play LoL too, Dyrus. But, after waiting all split for you to develop into that scary carry that showed up at the end of last year, I think we both have to admit that it's not going to happen this split.
This is finally the week that I (and any other remaining holdouts out there) cut the cord. It's clear that LCS teams are eager to use the "stomp Dyrus" strategy to try to slow down TSM -- he was 0/6/0 in his first game last week. Whether or not the strategy succeeds at shutting down TSM (the results are sketchy at best), we can all agree that it's succeeding at killing Dyrus' fantasy points.
Team Coast should be a pushover, with Søren "Bjergsen" Bjerg and Jason "WildTurtle" Tran racking up lane kills on their way to a quick finish that won't leave Dyrus with much more than scraps unless something goes horribly wrong. And, if they want to, Cloud9 is certainly capable of playing the "camp Dyrus" game to perfection. I don't care who is available for pick-up in your league -- there are definitely safer top lane picks this week.
Fill-in-the-Blank From EU (vs. who knows, it doesn't matter)
It only seems fitting to end this last Love/Hate list with an official acknowledgement that trying to predict anything in EU this split was a short path to madness. Every week was filled with off-the-wall champion picks, amazing upsets, and more surprises than Fiddlesticks with a party blower.
But for all the fantasy headaches it gave, the European LCS also gave us some of the most entertaining matches to watch of all time. Best of luck this week, and see you next split!
Josh Augustine's favorite champion is Nunu, 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.
For Fantasy Week 9, We Love...
Cop (vs. Cloud9, Team 8)
David "Cop" Roberson and his light-hearted teammates on Gravity have been inconsistent in fantasy this split. But, when Cop is good, he's great -- and Cop is on a hot streak right now -- and I want to be a part of it.
Cop almost topped a 30 points-per-game average last week as the leather jacket pack tore the touted Team SoloMid to shreds before trouncing Team Dignitas in another expected win. This week, he faces Cloud9 and Team 8 -- two more rising teams that will put up a great fight.
Like I mentioned in last week's column, I've learned to embrace good players with just-less-than-even matchups for fantasy value. Neither of these matches will be a stomp, but Gravity has every chance of winning both. And they should give Cop plenty of time to farm up and lay down the pain for those sweet, sweet fantasy points.
If you're still not sold, how about the fact that he earned a combined 75 points against these two teams the last time they faced off? Yes, please.
Freeze (vs. ROCCAT, Giants)
Aleš "Freeze" Kněžínek struggled last week, but he'll be back to full power this week against the embattered ROCCAT and Giants.
Let me assure you with a few fun facts:
- ROCCAT has only killed opposing ADCs a combined 9 times in all 10 of their losses. That's less than 1 kill per game!
- Freeze scored 22 points against ROCCAT the last time they faced off.
- Giants is on a six-game losing streak and showing no signs of a rebound.
- Giants have let opposing ADCs score 27 points, on average, over the past 3 weeks.
There's no reason to keep your team if you don't think they'll win both games this week. More than any other position, fantasy points for the team spot are heavily influenced by whether or not they win games.
Since this is our last week of Fantasy LCS this split, we can completely ignore long-term ramifications and just focus on predicting two games. If your usual team has a tough schedule this week (Cloud9, CLG, H2K, Gambit), look for an unclaimed team with an easy schedule.
After Meet Your Makers' resurgence last week, Team Coast and Team Dignitas are the closest thing to an "obvious" win left in the LCS. Winterfox and Team Liquid play both of them on Saturday, and then each other on Sunday.
Both Team Liquid and Winterfox are likely available for pick-up, so figure out who you think will win that head-to-head matchup, and use them as your team spot if you need a replacement. I'm going with Team Liquid based on their past success and clean play this week. For me, Winterfox is still too much a wild card to trust over most current starting teams.
But We Hate...
Odoamne (vs. Fnatic, Unicorns of Love)
H2K faltered last week, dropping Andrei "Odoamne" Pascu to his lowest position-ranking in fantasy since Week 3. I don't know if he'll get stuck at the No. 14 top laner spot again this week, but I do know that I want nothing to do with a team playing against the on-fire Fnatic and Unicorns of Love this week.
This week, more than ever, we need reliable players that'll get us solid points. H2K's schedule is too tough this week for me to trust them, and both Fnatic and Unicorns of love have a solid history of shutting down opposing top laners.
Thanks for the good weeks, Odoamne. But it's time to say goodbye until next split.
Dyrus (vs. Team Coast, Cloud9)
"I'd like the opportunity to play League of Legends." Marcus "Dyrus" Hill didn't hide his frustration when he complained dryly in his post-match interview about getting camped all weekend long by opponents.
I want you to play LoL too, Dyrus. But, after waiting all split for you to develop into that scary carry that showed up at the end of last year, I think we both have to admit that it's not going to happen this split.
This is finally the week that I (and any other remaining holdouts out there) cut the cord. It's clear that LCS teams are eager to use the "stomp Dyrus" strategy to try to slow down TSM -- he was 0/6/0 in his first game last week. Whether or not the strategy succeeds at shutting down TSM (the results are sketchy at best), we can all agree that it's succeeding at killing Dyrus' fantasy points.
Team Coast should be a pushover, with Søren "Bjergsen" Bjerg and Jason "WildTurtle" Tran racking up lane kills on their way to a quick finish that won't leave Dyrus with much more than scraps unless something goes horribly wrong. And, if they want to, Cloud9 is certainly capable of playing the "camp Dyrus" game to perfection. I don't care who is available for pick-up in your league -- there are definitely safer top lane picks this week.
Fill-in-the-Blank From EU (vs. who knows, it doesn't matter)
It only seems fitting to end this last Love/Hate list with an official acknowledgement that trying to predict anything in EU this split was a short path to madness. Every week was filled with off-the-wall champion picks, amazing upsets, and more surprises than Fiddlesticks with a party blower.
But for all the fantasy headaches it gave, the European LCS also gave us some of the most entertaining matches to watch of all time. Best of luck this week, and see you next split!
Josh Augustine's favorite champion is Nunu, 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.
