The Lolesports Fantasy League Week 3
Following up on our draft, we now bring you the results of Week 3 in the Lolesports Fantasy League. What are some of the key takeaways that our fantasy journalists learned? Read more to find out.
Full standings can be found here.
The Results
Match 1
Andrew Whitmore - Rainbow Unicorns (3-0)
Rainbow Unicorns are racking up wins like a Korean team at an international tournament! This week I dominated the entire draft in overall points as well as my matchup, largely due to XiaoWeiXiao absolutely stomping in both of his games. Next week is the ultimate matchup between the two undefeated teams, mine and Gustaf's Gentlemen, and I will probably wipe the floor with him. Lucky for me, my key scorers, Doublelift, Aphromoo, and XiaoWeiXiao have fairly easy matchups while my others have difficult matchups. My flex pick in Altec has proven to be an amazing pickup, scoring tons of points even with a 2-6 record, and with Helios joining up, it could be even more. Things are looking great for the Rainbow Unicorns.
Ferguson Mitchell - FergSquad (0-3)
With three straight losses, and the last place spot in the league, it's getting a little tough to call this "fantasy." Rather, the genre I am beginning to think I have dipped into is "survival horror." Everyone is out to beat me, and the only chance I have of staying alive is to grab a crowbar and start whacking. Luckily, the other freelancers are all hundreds of miles away from me, which means that the only thing I'm likely to destroy is my laptop. At this point, this would be a welcome sight with a 0-3 record staring back at me.
Team time: Crumbzz, you're fired. I don't have a backup, so welcome back, but let that be a lesson to you. Don't disappoint Daddy Ferg again. I actually didn't do too poorly last week; I would've beaten three other teams. We'll call it a missed opportunity and move forward. My big problem this week is that sOAZ, who was on my bench, elevated his play and actually did well last week. Innox, you done good kid, but it's time to let the big boys play. That's my only change going into Week 4—let's all hope, for my laptops sake, that it's enough to get me my first win.
Match 2
Mattias Lehman - Gustaf's Gentlemen (3-0)
I’ve been worrying about the weaknesses of my team for a bit now. Overall, I’ve got an entirely mediocre team, where everybody pulls in 30 points, and I’m relying on Kerp and Shiphtur to put down the huge points. And this week they failed. Shiphtur just barely eked over 30, and Kerp went negative in his first game, only to get 40+ in his second game. I went into the last game down almost 20 points, and luckily, WildTurtle answered the call, netting me a 2 point victory. One more kill and some random cs and I’d have lost this week. And while I did pull out a win, I was No. 6 in overall points. It’s good to know I can win without Kerp and Shiphtur, but I’ll be relying on their godlike stats week in and week out until Cloud9 and TSM show any semblance of consistency.
Next week, I face off against the other undefeated team, Rainbow Unicorns, and the prognosis is grim: my team's schedule strength of 59-53, while his is only 50-62. CLG plays against Complexity and EG, so his Aphromoo/Doublelift/CLG combo should be running wild, and I'll be hoping for yet another NA reset - or an errant Shiphtur/Kerp penta - to have a chance at a win.
Trent Murray - This is My Smurf (1-2)
It's far better to get blown out than to lose a nail-biter in fantasy. All IWillDominate needed was one more reset with Kha'Zix and my week would have been triumphant rather than full of failure. My lineup decisions were correct, it just wasn't enough. As a general rule, I try not to panic before Week 4, but Seraph is right on the borderline of a colossal disappointment. Hopefully his matchups with compLexity and EG will give him the time to finally figure out how to kill enemy champions for a change.
Match 3
Jack Ho - Dragonslayer Teemo (2-1)
After dropping Amazing for Svenskeren, I return to my rightful place in the winner's column. My European players continue to perform better than expected but I still have two concerns. First, I am very dependent on SK Gaming continuing to perform well in the EU LCS (one bad week spells doom). My second worry is that teams can end games too decisively. While obviously good for the team themselves to dominate their opposition, this is detrimental for me as a fantasy owner. SK might prove to be the stronger team on paper compared to SHC or CW, but the lower ranked teams still have players who can possibly score more points due to longer games that result in more kills. My only hope is that SK continues to win but at a slower pace.
Josh Augustine - Yordle Ascension (1-2)
I finally started the correct Top lane player this week (netting me a whopping 0.85 point gain), but I was completely undone by my huge mistakes in my Mid and Flex spots. If I'd put my faith in the Copenhagen Wolves and started Cowtard and Airwaks over Link and MrRalleZ, I would've won my match. It's still hard to believe that my two starters scored 30 points less than the unlikely CW bros.
Now that they're winning, CLG's curse of never reaching their potential seems to have shifted to fantasy. I expected CLG to win, so I drafted their players because we knew that winning teams earn more points. What I didn't know is that it's possible to win too hard -- CLG closes their matches faster than anyone else, and that cuts their fantasy-point-farming time short.
I don't think I need different players on my team. I need to get better at starting the right ones each week.
Match 4
Thomas Watts - Code Monkeys (1-2)
The Code Monkeys scored a 241.71-219.25 victory in Week 3! Extra Fritos and Mountain Dew for all the loyal Monkeys out there. Substituting Woolite in for Overpow proved to be a masterstroke, and last week's 51 points have cemented him as a flex starter. The Support role is still problematic with Jree and Gleeb there, and who I choose to start is purely a matchup decision. One spot I need to think about my Team slot. Fnatic's production bears watching, but for now, I'll wake up, eat a coffee cake, take bath, take nap and wait until next week!
Kelsey Moser - Diana Fire (1-2)
I only narrowly lost this week. Celaver continues to be a bit of a thorn in my side, and I should consider replacing him with xPeke for now. Fnatic has a rough week looking forward, however, so that won't happen. Toward the end of the split, I hope at least one of these two players will prove their worth. I have a few days to decide whether putting a Top laner (Fredy) in Flex is good move in the meantime. I'm still pleased with my team all things considered, but I'm not going to expect a sudden shoot to the top of the standings, rather a slow plod to overtake the competition. My time will come. My time will come.
