LCS Fantasy Draft Strategy

Drafting your team is scary, especially if it's your first time ever; there are many factors to account for so we're going to give you a few pointers today to avoid getting caught like a deer in the headlights when Draft Day arrives.

Carries Don't Win LCS Fantasy Alone

Simple things first, 1.5: this is a critical number because it's the difference of the average projected points per week for AD carries (12.8) and the lowest position, Top lane (11.3). In other words, just a kill and a half; you're going to have to dispel the illusion that even though carries such as Doublelift can take over LCS matches, they won't single-handily win you Fantasy LCS games. You're going to need a balanced team to ultimately come out ahead.

The Extremes

8 of the top 10 projected players are non-carries, but only 2 of the following 15 are non-carries. What this means is that the top tier supports, junglers, and teams should be valued higher compared to the other positions. The average jungler will score 11.6 points per week; with Meteos hanging out at 15.6 points per week, this is one the largest gaps (4.0) between the highest rated player and his position's average. The same can be said about the teams such as Cloud 9 (15.1), who is ahead of the average (10.3) by nearly 5 points. Meanwhile, you can pick up relatively equal AD carries, Mids, and Top laners since the difference between the extremes and the averages are much smaller. Here's an potential draft scenario after Round 1 in an 8-team league, and you are pick #11; (Meteos, Xpecial, C9, Rekkles, FNC, Jankos, Yellowstar, TSM, xPeke, GMB). Although taking a carry here such as Bjergsen or Doublelift may be tempting, these two are only 2 points ahead of the average AD or mid. Meanwhile, you can dig deeper down the list and find ROCCAT, who sits at 13.5, still 3.2 points ahead of the average team. And even if every carry is drafted for the next 11 picks, you'll still find yourself at Hai (13.0) or Sneaky (13.0) for pick #22, both respectable picks for their position. Meanwhile, you just denied ROCCAT from all of your opponents and after Dignitas, the remaining teams are below the average projected points.

Overall Strategy

So what have we learned? Don't tunnel in on carries, and prioritize drafting the extremes for each role. How does this translate into the real thing? You'll want to prepare a priority chart before Draft Day about which players are your top picks for each position and write down their respective projected points (or your own projections; if you value WildTurtle (13.8) higher than Doublelift (14.4), you should write in at least 14.5 for WildTurtle). Then, write down these numbers ADC - 12.8, Jun - 11.6, Mid - 12.6, Support - 11.5, Team - 10.3, Top - 11.3; these are lolesports' averages for every position. As you begin to draft, you'll be taking the highest player on your personal list, subtracting his position's average from his projection to find the difference and whoever has the highest disparity, should be your pick for that round. However, keep in mind of the drop-off between players in the same position. Say you have the option to take Diamond (14.4) or Dignitas (12.7), even though Diamond has a 2.8 gap between him and his position's average and Dignitas' gap is smaller at 2.4, dropping from Dig to Crs (9.9) is 2.6 while Diamond to Cyanide (13.3) is only a 1.3 point difference. You might want to take Dignitas in this case, especially if you think Dig will be taken by one of your opponents before the turn comes back to you. Lastly, let's quickly address the flex spot because this may cause some confusion for new players. This spot can be filled by any position, so we just want the highest scoring player here. This can be your argument for drafting 2 players of the same role in the early rounds since you can insert the extra player (or team) into the flex. Hopefully, these tips were helpful in constructing your draft strategy as you build out your own dynasty. I wish you the best of luck in crushing your opposition.