Fantasy Love/Hate: Week 3

It's time for another edition of, who to start and who to bench for Week 3. To find these players, one must look at statistics and trends. A great player in a hard matchup could potentially do worse than an average player on your bench with a fantastic matchup. The importance of starting a player in a good matchup could be the difference between winning and losing. So, let's start the winning process.

For Fantasy LCS Week 3, We Love…

Tabzz (vs. ROC/SHC) - Alliance wins with more team-oriented actions instead of individual statistics with one exception: their ADC, Erik "Tabzz" van Helvert. Despite a dominating 5-1 record, the other members of Alliance boast modest fantasy numbers and statistics (Mid Froggen with 27.84 points was only one point above Support Nyph, in Week 2). Tabzz, on the other hand, scored 39.16 points with a healthy 12 kills against only 3 deaths. This week, Alliance gets Supa Hot Crew and cellar-dwelling ROCCAT, a team that gave up a total of 16 kills to opposing ADCs last week. If Tabzz dominates against ROCCAT, he's already worth the start as ADC on your team, don't miss out.

nRated (vs. Mil/GMB) - Supports in fantasy could be viewed as interchangeable, but SK Gaming's Christoph "nRated" Seitz is underrated. A strong fantasy score of 97.37 over the first two weeks (No. 2 overall for Supports) is enough to propel him into the fantasy relevancy radar. The schedule indicates another strong week. SK Gaming gets the unproven Millenium (0-2 last week) and the inconsistent Gambit Gaming, two teams that do not have their team identity set. It could be another assists-heavy week for nRated and owners should reap the benefits of it.

XiaoWeiXiao (vs. TSM/COL) - Don't hop off the LMQ bandwagon just yet! After a mediocre 0-2 follow-up to their LCS debut, LMQ lost a little of its luster. But taking a closer look into the numbers, however, and one can point out several reasons why the team failed to record a victory. Last week's schedule was especially tough against two opponents with a combined record of 9-3. Despite the losses, Yu "XiaoWeiXiao" Xian still managed a manageable fantasy score of 23.37, only 4 points behind Alliance's Froggen (who went 2-0 last week). His Week 3 schedule is easier with a date against 1-5 compLexity and 3-3 Team SoloMid, so expect a return to dominant numbers.

But We Hate…

Evil Geniuses (vs. C9/DIG) - This bench recommendation had little to do with the team's record (1-5) and more to do with the strength of their opponents. If fantasy darlings, LMQ (17 total pts in Week 2), couldn't muster respectable numbers against the duo of Cloud9 and Team Dignitas, how can the underperforming and underwhelming Evil Geniuses do it?

Selfie (vs. FNC/ALL) - SHC's mid player, Marcin "Selfie" Wolski, is on fire. He's been a steal for savvy owners that predicted his rise. However, the schedule does not bode well for a repeat in fantasy dominance. Despite being the highest scorer so far, Selfie will run into two of the best teams against Mids. Fnatic harassed the budding Kerp last week and forced him to play their style; the end result? 14.94 fantasy points, about half his Week 1 pts/game average. And Alliance, EU LCS's leader in the standings, stopped Kerp even more effectively (5.43 points) and grinded out EU powerhouse, SK Gaming. If there are better options (with a softer schedule) than Selfie, start them instead.

Seraph (vs. DIG/C9) - Counter Logic Gaming (CLG) shined in Week 2, but Shin "Seraph" Wooyeong, was still scoring average fantasy points. He was mediocre in his LCS debut during Super Week (his 37.83 total pts was 4th worst among Top laners) and the trend continued through Week 2 (11.54 pts/game). There's little reason to believe that Seraph will break the trend against Team Dignitas and Cloud9 for Week 3. Stay on the safe side: Seraph should be on all fantasy benches.