Watch for these players in the LCS Finals and 3rd place matches
Both League Championship Series Finals are swiftly approaching. This weekend, the new Fnatic team will face an Origen roster full of veterans in Stockholm, Sweden, while the classic North American matchup of Team SoloMid against Counter Logic Gaming headlines Madison Square Garden. Meanwhile, the Unicorns of Love will be fighting H2K for the 3rd place spot in EU, and Team Liquid will face off against Team Impulse in the NA counterpart.
Before these high-profile matchups, let's take a look at a few key players from the Playoffs.
Team Impulse's Impact
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As the most experienced member on his team, Eon-yeong "Impact" Jung is often seen chatting animatedly with his fellow teammates both before and after matches. The former SK Telecom T1 K utility top laner has now become a genuine leader, especially following the departure of mid laner Xian "XiaoWeiXiao" Yu.
Not only is Impact a veteran presence on Team Impulse, but he makes the ideal teammate for solo queue phenom Yoon-jae "Rush" Lee. While Team Impulse went on to lose to Counter Logic Gaming in the Semifinals, this Quarterfinals sweep of Dignitas showcased how deadly the Impact/Rush duo could be. Impact ended the series with a 9.0 KDA, his Shen a perfect partner for Rush's aggressive Elise.
Unicorns of Love's H0R0
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Regardless of whether one chooses to believe in the Unicorns of Love's so-dubbed "chaos style," the departure of jungler Mateusz "Kikis" Szkudlarek necessitated some semblance of control over UOL's oft-disorganized approach. Quiet and contemplative with strong knowledge of slow and steady macro play -- he was a staple component of SK Telecom T1 S after all -- Jae-hwan "H0R0" Cho seemed the perfect fit. And for the EU LCS Quarterfinals, he was, bringing much-needed stability and decisive shot-calling to the skirmish-heavy UOL team.
With H0R0 at the helm of UOL's map play, their decision-making has newfound purpose and coordination. H0R0 provides a remarkably strong and dependable core for the Unicorns and is certainly worth examining as a more permanent solution following their postseason.
Team SoloMid's Dyrus
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A mainstay of North American competitive League of Legends, Marcus "Dyrus" Hill has alternatively been a jocular pillow-hugging mascot and -- thanks in large part to Team SoloMid's gold distribution as well as his inspiring quote, "I'd like the opportunity to play League of Legends" -- a veritable top lane punching bag.
With his self-admitted retirement on the horizon, 2015 Summer will likely mark the last North American Playoffs for Dyrus, and the 2015 World Championship his last tournament. Known for slouching lazily in his seat and a careless expression, Dyrus has a renewed intensity about him, as has his 2015 Playoff performance. Across the NA Quarterfinals and Semifinals, Dyrus boasted a 72% kill participation with monster performances on Olaf, Gnar, and Maokai. Now about to face erstwhile rival Counter Logic Gaming at Madison Square Garden, Team SoloMid will count on Dyrus to lead them to another domestic title.
Origen's Niels
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With the amount of veteran players on Origen, it may seem odd to single out their youngest player: AD carry Jesper "Niels" Svenningsen. What Niels lacks in experience, he makes up for in intensity, often staring daggers into his computer screen or eagerly celebrating after a win.
Origen's style relies heavily on gaining control of the jungle -- through the duo of jungler Maurice "Amazing" Stückenschneider and support Alfonso "Mithy" Aguirre Rodriguez -- and forcing their opponents to meet their impressively strong lanes. This includes Niels, who has proven that he can be as much of a threat as Origen's solo lane veterans, Enrique "xPeke" Cedeno-Martinez and top laner Paul "sOAZ" Boyer. Origen can trust him carry as well. They gave Niels just as much gold in the regular season (26.1%) as their star mid laner xPeke, and Niels repaid them with the third-highest KDA of all European players in addition to having the smallest share of his team's deaths.
Counter Logic Gaming's Pobelter
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No longer the plucky student splitting time between high school and professional gaming, mid laner Eugene "Pobelter" Park's arrival onto Counter Logic Gaming was met with cautious optimism from fans. Touted as a Solo Queue whiz kid, Pobelter's talents had yet to translate onto the professional scene. With CLG's current setup, it's difficult to cite Pobelter as the team's secondary threat next to AD carry Yiliang "Doublelift" Peng. Instead, those duties fall to top laner Darshan "ZionSpartan" Upadhyaha. In light of the year that both of those players, especially Doublelift, are having, it may seem odd to single out Pobelter.
Yet Pobelter's presence in the CLG mid-lane has been an immense boon to the team thanks to his steadiness and champion pool. He shores up the center of the map, able to go toe-to-toe with NA's best. Additionally, Pobelter still provided the lion's share of his team's total damage throughout the split at 31.9%, and did so with fewer resources than primary carry Doublelift. This is all while Pobelter's team still funnels most of their gold to Doublelift, with the CLG AD carry sitting at the highest proportional gold share of any player on any NA team throughout the regular season.
Fnatic's Reignover
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Much of Fnatic's success can be attributed to the leadership of their support player Bora "YellOwStaR" Kim, but this Fnatic team lives and dies in their jungle and the performance of Yeu-jin "Reignover" Kim. Initially, Reignover stood out due to his ability to communicate well with top laner -- and fellow Korean import -- Seung-hoon "Huni" Heo. In spite of a sloppy European Spring Final, Reignover diversified his jungle pathing a bit at the Mid-Season Invitational, and showed incremental improvement across the tournament.
While Reignover's pathing still needs a bit of work, his role on Fnatic has remained incredibly important. Together with YellOwStaR, the two blanket the map in vision. Depending on the way the lanes shake out, Reignover controls Huni's side of the map, while YellOwStaR aides him on the opposite side. With the jungle meta slowly shifting, Reignover additionally pulls out mobile pocket picks like Olaf to great success for his team.
Enjoy the Finals!
Finals loom on the horizon, and these players -- along with many others -- look to showcase their talent in both the third/fourth-place matches in addition to the Finals. As always, you can catch all the action right here on Lolesports.
