Fantasy Love/Hate: Spring 2016 Week 7

You thought we were safe from roster changes now that we're in Week 7? Think again, buddy!

LCS squads are constantly looking to improve their positions as we head into Playoff season, and they're doing everything they can to keep us Fantasy LCS owners on our toes!

The roster changes also mean that there's new talent available for pickup on the Free Agent list. So if you're hurting at a particular spot, look there first!

For Fantasy Week 7, We Love...

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NRG's LOD (vs. REN, TIP)

The first big roster announcement this week was that Altec decided to step down from his position as NRG's starting ADC -- at least for this week. Normally, I'd be worried about starting a new sub ADC in his first week with the team, but LOD's in a pretty unique situation.

First, he's already played 3 games in the LCS this Split -- one game with Echo Fox and two games with Renegades while they had holes in their own rosters. He scored quite well across those games (15 points/game average) despite all of them being losses, and ended with a combined KDA of 11/11/12.

Second, I think LOD has a good chance of snagging two wins this week against the two teams at the bottom of NA's standings (with a combined record of 5-19). ADCs playing against Renegades and Team Impulse last week averaged 21 points/game, which leaves a lot of potential for LOD to score big.

If you can stomach the very obvious risk of a new starter on a shaky team clearly having some internal issues, LOD should be the best pickup on the Trade list this week in big leagues.

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VIT's Shook (vs. GIA, EL)

Cabochard has gotten all the hype on Vitality (and he deserves it, his fantasy scores are insane for a top laner). But the #2 scorer on Vitality for the past two weeks hasn't been their ADC or mid laner, which is the typical hierarchy for LCS teams. It's actually been their jungler Shook, who scored 33.6 and 43.9 points.

I'm particularly excited about his potential this week. He should be free to throw his weight around early and often against GIA, whose jungler has the lowest points average of any jungler still starting in the LCS (7.97 points/game). And EL's Gilius is not much better, with an awful 9.5 point average.

Shook's current 14.5 points/game average should get a small bump up this week.

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C9's Sneaky (vs. DIG, CLG)

The numbers actually don't look great for Sneaky this week, and the CLG matchup in particular might scare some owners away. But I'm confident in telling you that the numbers actually do lie in this case!

Let's take a look at those foreboding numbers first. Last week, DIG only let opposing ADCs score 14.8 points/game. CLG only let them score 7.6 points. That's a measly 22 combined points in a position where we expect double that before we even begin to crack a smile. CLG went 2-0 last week while DIG went 1-1, but took down TSM.

On the other hand, here's a happy stat: In the past three weeks, Sneaky has scored 51, 40, and 65 points!

C9 was Fantasy LCS's hottest commodity last week, outpacing even Immortals.

G2's Emperor was actually the only person to score higher than any C9 player (and even he only beat out Rush by 0.19 points). I wouldn't count on that same level of domination this week, but Sneaky is still a must-start while C9 is hot.

But We Hate...

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FOX's kfo(vs. TSM, IMT)

It's not you, kfo. It's me. I know you've scored great in fantasy for the past two weeks (37 and 43 points). I know that a lot of fantasy owners are diving headfirst into FOX players this week after the new roster's back-to-back 2-0 weeks. But I'm just a little scared of commitment with this tough schedule ahead of you.

TSM looks like one of the best teams in the league at times, and IMT looks like the best team in the league all of the time. And FOX is still a bit untested. The new roster has beaten TIP, TL, and REN -- all of whom are in the bottom half of the standings with them. Their lone top-team win was against a slumping NRG that hardly put on their best performance.

FOX could continue to surprise this week and defeat TSM, but banking on an upset win against IMT is a bit too optimistic for my scaredy-cat pants.

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OG's Zven (vs. G2, SPY)

Zven owners have been living a nightmare this Split. It's hard to bench Zven because he was your first draft pick and he always has the potential to explode and hard-carry your fantasy team, but his up-and-down points have made me cry as often as cheer.

My heart can't take it anymore. Zven has now gone three weeks in a row with roughly 25 points per week and this G2 matchup looks like a condemnation to another low week. Zven scored 27 combined points against these two teams the last time they faced, but you're almost certainly going to want more than that in your ADC spot.

Josh Augustine's favorite champion is whatever WildTurtle plays, 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 at Daybreak Games. He’d love to talk with you on Twitter.