Fantasy Love/Hate: Week 8
For Fantasy Week 8, We Love...
ZionSpartan (vs. Team Dignitas, Team SoloMid)
When evaluating the difficulty of your players' schedule each week to decide who to start, use the Goldilocks strategy. You don't want a schedule that looks too easy -- or too hard. You want it to be juuust right.
Why you want to avoid absurdly difficult schedules is simple: your players won't get as many points if they lose. But a schedule that's too easy could also mean fast games, few team fights, or (the worst of all Fantasy LCS sins) a surrender that cuts the beatdown short.
CLG's schedule is in a happy middle ground this week. Dignitas is the ideal opposing team for fantasy points: CLG has a great chance of winning, but Dignitas doesn't avoid fights or surrender early like Team Coast sometimes does.
Team SoloMid is going to be a challenge, but CLG has proven they can hang with them -- and put up plenty of point-giving teamfights along the way, win or lose.
Darshan "ZionSpartan" Upadhyaha is my favorite pick in these particular matchups. He scored a combined 41 points against these two teams the last time he faced them (24 against Dignitas, 17 against TSM), and both teams have recently shown they're capable of giving carry tops like ZionSpartan big points. In Week 6, Dignitas gave Steven "CaliTrlolz" Kim 28 points and TSM gave Jung "Impact" Eon-yeong 31 points.
Odoamne (vs. Elements, Meet Your Makers)
H2K has been a reliable source of fantasy points in the second half of the split, and this should be another surefire starter week for Andrei "Odoamne" Pascu and friends.
Odoamne is a particularly tasty pick thanks to the wavering top laners on both of the opposing teams he faces this week. Jesper "Jwaow" Strandgren and Mike "Wickd" Petersen only managed a combined record of 7/21/18 in their four games last week. And that includes a dominant win by MYM, where Jwaow accrued half of their combined kills and assists for the entire week.
Yet the opposing top laners only averaged 23 points per game -- a total that a star top laner like Odoamne is certainly capable of matching or even surpassing. Start him with confidence.
Slooshi (vs. Cloud9, Winterfox)
I know the LCS took a week off, but you didn't forget how good Team 8 are looking recently, did you? Team 8 has won four of their last five games, and were happy to teamfight often in those games -- making Fantasy LCS owners on both sides smile big.
The revamped Winterfox were even more bloodthirsty in their two games last week, which should mean the upcoming head-to-head this week against Team 8 is stuffed with the point piñatas we call teamfights.
Andrew "Slooshi" Pham faces hit-or-miss talent in the mid lane, but it's nothing he can't handle. Just look at how he handled TSM and Gravity last week, earning 39 points and netting the #7 overall mid spot for Fantasy LCS. He should show up again this week.
But We Hate...
H0r0 (vs. Gambit Gaming, H2K)
Don't get me wrong. I was happy to see Meet Your Makers add another win to their record last week and their victory over Giants Gaming was the sort of bloodbath fantasy managers dream about. Cho "H0R0" Jae-hwan even had the highest points on his team, showing just how exciting it is to have carry junglers on our Fantasy LCS rosters.
But this week is not going to be fun. Gambit and H2K are tough opponents, closer to Fnatic (who held H0r0 to four points last week) than Giants (who let him score 40 points). If this bandwagon is ever going to be worth getting on, it won't be this week.
Balls (vs. Team Liquid, Team 8)
Okay, this one comes with a disclaimer: it's based on my opinion that Chae "Piglet" Gwang-jin will finally start to live up to his preseason hype this week. If you don't agree with that, you likely won't agree with this pick either.
When Cloud9 gets behind, Balls' fantasy points take a sudden dive. Across Cloud9's five losses this split, Balls has accrued a sad KDA of 7/20/19, averaging only 13 points per game.
It's good for Cloud9 that Balls tries to make plays to get his team back in the game, but that often makes a bad fantasy game worse. When they fell behind against GE Tigers at IEM Katowice last week (you did your homework and watched those VODs, right?), that play-making spirit left him with a depressing 1/9/7 record.
For me, the deciding factor is how low the likely fantasy-point ceiling is here. Even if Cloud9 beats Team Liquid or Team 8, it'll probably be through objective control and strong rotations -- neither of which stack points onto Balls for us.
And don't forget: while Cloud9 was busy flying around Europe for IEM Katowice, Team Liquid and Team 8 have done nothing but prepare for this week's LCS matches. This bet has too much risk for my taste.
Josh Augustine's favorite champion is Sion, 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.
