Much like their European counterparts, the North American Challenger Series took a backseat while the LCS had their Super Week last week. The week off is more preparation time for XDG, Frank Fang Gaming, Team Lolpro and Area of Effect. XDG's new roster will look to prove itself against Frank Fang Gaming, while the Team Lolpro and Area of Effect will be dotted with former members of Team Curse. The two matches will be best-of-three and broadcast at the end of the day's NA LCS games.
XDG vs Frank Fang Gaming
When: Saturday, May 31 shortly after Cloud9 vs Team Curse
How they got here
XDG was knocked out of the LCS by LMQ during the Summer Promotion Tournament.
Frank Fang Gaming beat Girlfriends in the first round of NA CS Play-In, and followed that victory with a win over XDG Virtus
What to expect
XDG's forgettable spring split ended at the hands of LMQ, and the team changed their roster in response. They signed sam and vsepr, two brothers, to fill the top lane and support role while moving Benny to middle lane to replace the departed Mancloud. Xmithie and Zuna remained in their jungle and AD carry roles. The key for XDG is can they break out of the strategic funk that plagued them throughout the spring split?
Frank Fang Gaming parallels XDG in that the current roster hasn't been together very long, but some of the constituent parts have been competing for months as members of Team Tempest. The biggest name on the team is former CLG top laner Nien. Stylistically, this team is still developing, but one interesting point to note from their round-of-ten victory is that even when the most contested AD (Twitch) was available, Lattman eschewed the Plague Rat in favor of Corki, a more fringe AD pick.
Team Lolpro vs Area of Effect
When: Sunday, June 1 shortly after Team Dignitas vs Team SoloMid
How they got here
Team Lolpro beat both Kubiko and Everfrag during NA CS Play-In.
Area of Effect beat Gamstergear in the first round, and then Necrofantasian in the second round of the Play-In round.
What to expect
Team Lolpro is dealing with a role swap. Their former AD carry Ben "LOD" deMunck has changed to the middle lane, and that is a potential vulnerability for the team, particularly in champion select. Targeted bans against the middle lane on the part of Area of Effect could have an outsized effect due to the role swap. Luckily for Lolpro, three other members of the roster, support Derek "LoH" Abrams, jungler Simon "heavenTime" Jeon, and top laner Kevin "Hauntzer" Yarnell have all been playing for the team in their respective roles since late in 2013, so even if LOD stumbles, the other parts of the roster will be able to pick him up.
Area of Effect is paced by former Team Curse player Elementz in the support role, and this matchup will mean a lot to him since Team Lolpro is under the Curse banner. There is some recent history between these two teams in the weekly ROCCAT King of the Hill tournament, so they will certainly be familiar with each other. Due to their top laner ChumpJohn's enormous 11/0/11 performance on Shyvana in the round-of-ten against Necrofantasian, it is possible that Shyvana becomes a must-ban, or a first pick, and it heightens the threat of a lane swap to come out of Team Lolpro. The 2v1 is one of the most difficult concepts to pull off since there are so many iterations, so how Area of Effect chooses to handle that situation should it arise will go a long way toward deciding who emerges victorious from this series.
What's Next?
The North American Challenger Series quarterfinals kick off on Saturday, May 31 with a best-of-three series between XDG and Frank Fang Gaming. The games will be broadcast live at
Lolesports.com shortly after the final game of the day in the NA LCS.
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