Fantasy Love/Hate: Week 4
Riot·2/11/2015, 10:30:59 PM·0 votes·7,025 views
Things are beginning to look a bit more stable as classic region leaders like Fnatic and Team Solomid climb their way up the standings, and to the top of fantasy charts. As new challengers approach to threaten the traditional kings of the regions, we look for the rising stars and dimming lights in the fantasy scene this week.
Aphromoo (vs. Team Coast, Team SoloMid)
Mitch "Krepo" Voorspoels may have been stirring the pot when he said on Twitter that Yiliang "Doublelift" Peng isn't the best AD carry on Counter Logic Gaming, but as far as fantasy points are concerned, he may have a point. Although he hasn't played ADC professionally in years, CLG's support Zaqueri "Aphromoo" Black has accumulated more fantasy points (120) than his AD carry Doublelift (118).
Aphromoo's skill shots, such as Dark Binding, have been outrageously on point, and it wouldn't be hard to argue that his elevated play is the reason CLG is sitting at the top of the NA standings board right now. But what matters is his fantasy points, and he's second only to Bora "YellOwStaR" Kim (26.9 pts/game average to Aphromoo's 20.0) in the support category.
Still, Aphromoo could very well surpass his previous high marks this week. His schedule is the ideal mix of guaranteed points against last-place Team Coast and upside from a potentially epic slugfest against their longtime rivals, Team SoloMid.
Gravity Gaming (vs. Team SoloMid, Team Liquid)
The spell is broken. After their 0-2 week against Team Impulse and CLG, we should see Gravity Gaming for what they are: a low to mid-tier team that's struggling to find what makes them special in a sea of average.
Gravity has faced more bad teams than good so far, and I think this is the week that it finally catches up to them. Team Liquid certainly struggled this past weekend, but no more than Gravity did, and they have the personnel and experience to resolve the problems that hindered them.
If Liquid can fix any of their issues this week, the challenge of Team SoloMid and Team Liquid back-to-back is going to be daunting. And Gravity (the team position) does not score well in losing games.
Against Winterfox, Gravity grabbed 0 of 4 dragons and only downed 2 enemy towers before crumbling, leading to a lowly 2-point score. In their long 48-minute match against Team Impulse, they still only scraped out 7 points.
Gravity may score big in their wins, but they'll need some luck to win just one match this week, much less two. And, in my books, Gravity's already used up a lot of their matchup luck just getting Cloud9 and Liquid on down weeks.
Josh Augustine's favorite champion is Vladimir, 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.
For Fantasy Week TK, We Love...
Vardags (vs. ROCCAT, Meet Your Makers) Consistency is one of the most valuable attributes I look for in fantasy players. And Pontus "Vardags" Dahlblom has been delightfully consistent the past two weeks, staying firm at the No. 12 fantasy spot two weeks in a row. While the rest of his team bobbed up and down around him, Vardags stayed right there next to hype trains like FORG1VENGRE (No. 14 in Week 2) and Febiven (No. 13 in Week 3). Even more reassuring: Vardags earned those top-tier points while his team went 1-1 both weeks. You can't even distinguish which of his two KDAs last week (5/4/10 and 5/3/13) were from the winning game, and that's a very rare thing for an ADC. Both matches this week should be good, fight-heavy brawls. UoL will likely continue their win-one-lose-one trend for the week, but Vardags should have no problem getting his owners solid points for the third week in a row. P1noy (vs. Giants Gaming, Elements) Hear me out on this one. Kristoffer "P1noy" Albao Lund Pedersen looked great last week against H2K, a weak team that has trouble closing out games. He earned 47.9 points in that single match. And this week he plays against another weak team that has trouble closing out games: Giants Gaming. Giants -- who, like H2K, have a 2-4 record -- haven't won a match since Week 1 and have allowed enemy ADCs 25 points on average in their losses. That may not seem overwhelming at first glance, but all of those losses were to teams much better than Gambit who knew how to close out a winning match quickly. Gambit will be much messier, relying on teamfights and brute force to make their bid for victory. P1noy should have no problem matching or surpassing the 12 KDA average Giants have given enemy ADCs in the past two weeks. The downside is that we can't expect many points for P1noy when he plays against Elements, who have only allowed opposing ADCs on weaker teams an average KDA of 1.6. That keeps P1noy in the risky-pick category, but if you're searching for an available ADC that you can start, this looks like your best bet.
Aphromoo (vs. Team Coast, Team SoloMid)
Mitch "Krepo" Voorspoels may have been stirring the pot when he said on Twitter that Yiliang "Doublelift" Peng isn't the best AD carry on Counter Logic Gaming, but as far as fantasy points are concerned, he may have a point. Although he hasn't played ADC professionally in years, CLG's support Zaqueri "Aphromoo" Black has accumulated more fantasy points (120) than his AD carry Doublelift (118).
Aphromoo's skill shots, such as Dark Binding, have been outrageously on point, and it wouldn't be hard to argue that his elevated play is the reason CLG is sitting at the top of the NA standings board right now. But what matters is his fantasy points, and he's second only to Bora "YellOwStaR" Kim (26.9 pts/game average to Aphromoo's 20.0) in the support category.
Still, Aphromoo could very well surpass his previous high marks this week. His schedule is the ideal mix of guaranteed points against last-place Team Coast and upside from a potentially epic slugfest against their longtime rivals, Team SoloMid.
But We Hate...
Freeze (vs. Fnatic, SK Gaming) This is not a typo. I'm telling you to bench Aleš "Freeze" Kněžínek the week after he put up the highest single-week fantasy score of the year (93.8). He exploded on bench spots and add/drop lists all over the globe in Week 3, but there's no way that he comes close to a repeat performance this week. Copenhagen Wolves' superpower is being able to drag out games against teams they should've beaten half an hour ago. And that's an awesome superpower for fantasy team managers like us -- but it only works on some weeks. Against Gambit Gaming and Unicorns of Love last week, they brawled for over 100 combined minutes, letting Freeze rack up kills and assists in two winning games. But against Fnatic and SK Gaming this week, matches will give less time and more deaths to Freeze and crew. Fnatic and SK Gaming both won matches in close to 30 minutes last week, and I'd be surprised if the Wolves will be able to resist them for much longer than that.
Gravity Gaming (vs. Team SoloMid, Team Liquid)
The spell is broken. After their 0-2 week against Team Impulse and CLG, we should see Gravity Gaming for what they are: a low to mid-tier team that's struggling to find what makes them special in a sea of average.
Gravity has faced more bad teams than good so far, and I think this is the week that it finally catches up to them. Team Liquid certainly struggled this past weekend, but no more than Gravity did, and they have the personnel and experience to resolve the problems that hindered them.
If Liquid can fix any of their issues this week, the challenge of Team SoloMid and Team Liquid back-to-back is going to be daunting. And Gravity (the team position) does not score well in losing games.
Against Winterfox, Gravity grabbed 0 of 4 dragons and only downed 2 enemy towers before crumbling, leading to a lowly 2-point score. In their long 48-minute match against Team Impulse, they still only scraped out 7 points.
Gravity may score big in their wins, but they'll need some luck to win just one match this week, much less two. And, in my books, Gravity's already used up a lot of their matchup luck just getting Cloud9 and Liquid on down weeks.
Josh Augustine's favorite champion is Vladimir, 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.
