Draft Strategy

MattMode·Jan 7, 2016·1 votes·1,878 views

This will be my first LCS Fantasy Draft and was curious if some Veterans could chime in on some of their strategies and possible sleeper/new players that could be good pickups in later rounds.

23 Comments

youngbegoJan 7, 20162 votes

It's honestly very opinionated. Some people make think Doublelift isn't going to score as many points this split cause he might have to share the spotlight with so many stars on TSM. But others think that he will do just as good cause the spotlight won't be directly on him. Ahri

MattModeJan 7, 20161 votes

Yeah I am definitely looking at Niels. Honestly I have been kind of out of the loop as far as the LCS is concerned but with this fantasy league I am pretty pumped.

Looking at last years stats I see Rush had significantly more points from the jungle than most other junglers.

Would he be a good pickup?

Looks like the way to go is focus mostly ad ADC first as they seem to score the most and then from there I guess full up based off best available.

Does the fantasy league have any sort of pre draft rankings like in fantasy football or no?

Thanks!

youngbegoJan 7, 20161 votes

I would hope they would, for the 2015 Summer Split they posted a "Cheat Sheet" which listed players in their roles under tiers, S, A, etc.

MattModeJan 7, 20161 votes

Ahh gotcha, yeah I am looking at the stats from last year and feel like I could use that to a certain extent but obviously people have changed teams, and new teams have formed etc.

FNC MynameaboratJan 7, 20161 votes

Right. One good thing you may be able to rely on is Huni and Reignover on Immortals. They have a pretty good roster, only really shaky one is WT and Pobelter may not carry but he doesn't get smashed, which means more ganks/TP's from RO/Huni. The two Koreans may have changed teams but they're still together so they'll be dangerous for sure.

FNC MynameaboratJan 7, 20161 votes

Rush might be ok, I'd draft based on talent available though. For instance maybe there are only 4-5 really good junglers/mids/etc. Prioritize those first. Top lane may not have as good of players as mid/jung, but maybe the talent is overall more balanced than other positions.

Not saying any role is more or less stacked than other positions, everyone thinks differently. Just using positions as an example.

I wouldn't take Rush until like 4th or 5th pick. If you wanna get a jungler round 1 get Spirit. Top 3 of his position in the world, not just LCS.

FNC MynameaboratJan 7, 20162 votes

Pick Niels and win. My thing is finding a new rookie to put all my hopes and dreams on. Spring Split I gambled on Huni and he destroyed everyone, Summer split I picked up Niels and he trashed everyone. I could be cheap and do something like GBM but I don't consider him or anyone that only switched teams a rookie. Maybe I'll gamble on Kfo on Echo Fox or something, idk yet.

youngbegoJan 7, 20162 votes

I was definitely thinking KFO and also maybe Spirit? or even Stixxay from CLG what do you think?

FNC MynameaboratJan 7, 20161 votes

Idk about Stixxay, could be ok because Aphro is a god, but also depends on how Huhi does. If Huhi is trash then bot lane won't have pressure because enemy jungler has 2 lanes to focus on, so could end up hurting him.

As for Spirit, he's been a beast on any team he's been on. As I said I don't classify him as a rookie because he played in LCK and LPL and is considered at least top 3 in his position in the world so if you can snag him that's a no brainer, but careful on the new Fnatic. I'm super worried about shotcalling and the language barrier between Spirit/Gamsu and the rest of the team. Yellowstar was the shotcaller of the team and he's gone and Fnatic have drastically downgraded to Noxiak. As for the language thing with Gamsu/Spirit, it's much different than Huni/Reignover last year. Reignover had very good English and could translate for Huni while he was in the process of learning English. From what I've heard Gamsu's English was nearly nonexistent even when he was on DIG which is why his TP's were god awful. Spirit doesn't have very good English either so Spring split will be rough at the very least, but still rooting for my team!

HelkijoJan 7, 20162 votes

Well they could start using pings

Nyaruko ChanJan 7, 20161 votes

For strats this coming meta is looking to be very adc and mid-centric so grabbing a star mid laner or star adc is a must. As for sleeper pick ups/new players I recommend Keith, Hauntzer, Kfo, GBM, Altec, Shook, Jankos, Forgiven, and Spirit as all really good people to consider. As for the really risky pick ups. You can take a shot on Gamsu as he might really show up big this split, Kirei cause hes fucking good and a rookie, Lourlo, and Smoothie.

MattModeJan 7, 20161 votes

Awesome advice! Shamefully I don't even recognize a lot of the new names being brought up but it is good to have something to reflect on and have a few names out there when I am making some of my decisions.

MattModeJan 7, 20161 votes

Anyone have basic ranking of top Teams to pickup?

youngbegoJan 7, 20161 votes

I hate to admit it but Origen might be the strongest, then TSM. Cloud 9,Immortals, UOL are definitely maybes. Could be strong or could be very underwhelming. H2K looksto be a powerhouse imo.

SïnïsterJan 7, 20161 votes

No dont prioritize a midlaner. First pick a great adc like Doublelift (best performer 2015 summer) or Niels. There are too many good midlaners to firstpick one. There are very few top tier junglers in my opinion and someone like Rush will be pretty popular :)

Nyaruko ChanJan 7, 20161 votes

To be honest I dont think Rush will do very well this split. I have this nagging feeling that C9 is going to be woefully unimpressive. Hell they picked up a really damn good support and they wont ever use him because C9 doesnt exist without Hai. So they cant even use one of their best players. I see them being really swingy. If your going to pick up a star jungler early in the draft id rather go with somebody like Spirit, Sven, or even Kirei because I think hes going to go big this split.

FNC MynameaboratJan 7, 20162 votes

For sure. For Top I'd consider in no particular order: Huni (my fav <3), Impact, Soaz, Odoamne is solid and it low economy which means even if he falls behind or gets no help from his team he can still be impactful in teamfights, Cabochard if Vitality doesn't choke would also be good, and a sleeper I'd consider in later rounds is Kfo. I'd hold off on him till later cuz he's a rookie and you never know with them and how the team is gonna mesh.

Jungle as I've already said #1 priority for this position is Spirit. He was amazing last year on a WE team who almost got relegated, though his performance in summer dipped down because he couldn't communicate with his team effectively and since they couldn't make playoffs he kind of gave up. Plus it's common knowledge that the LPL teams didn't take scrims seriously and they got dumpstered at Worlds. Amazing would probably be the second best pick mainly because Origen got second last split and had only one roster change which most people see as an upgrade and everyone believes Origen will easily take first in Europe next split. RO and Rush would also be good picks, as well as Jankos from H2K. He brought his support from Roccat (Vander) over and has shiny new toys to play with in Forgiven and Ryu, which I'll cover below.

Mid I'd take Febiven first. He was underrated last year but ended up taking over when Huni was camped and carried games solo for Fnatic on picks like Viktor, Leblanc, and Azir. Bjergsen will probably be taken over Febiven first, and it's really a toss up because both are S++++++ tier, and there aren't really any mids in their respective regions that could challenge them. I feel like Bjergsen will have a harder time than Febiven with the acquisition of GBM by NRG and giving Jensen (Incarnati0n last split) another split to grow with his team will only help, the man was a beast near the end of the summer split after having a very disappointing first half of the split. And now onto Ryu if you can't get any of the above mentioned mid laners. Ryu was suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuper under the radar last split, but he consistently put up great numbers. He may not have the same "ceiling" as some of the above players, but he very rarely will be underwhelming, especially with possibly the #1 or #2 AD in the region joining his team.

AD I favor Neils because he was a rookie last year and he absolutely smashed. I'd put him ahead of Forgiven because Forgiven has proven that he has a hard time adapting to meta picks such as Kalista, and he likes the whole tea, to funnel resources into him instead of the rest of the team which really hurt Gambit last split when the meta was top centric. Forgiven hasn't really proved he can play around the team and hasn't shown the ability to carry when he isn't the main source of income on the team, where Niels has. That being said, it's looking like Lucian is unanimously considered the best all around ADC atm and Forgiven plays a meaaaaaaaaan Lucian so watch out for him if he's available. Rekkles also could be good but he has a new support that is substantially worse than Yellowstar does and usually prefers a more utility style AD champion such as Sivir or Kennen because Huni was the main carry with Febiven picking up the slack if Huni couldn't. The biggest question for Rekkles now iscan he revert to the carry style he played in Season 4 with Fnatic? He spoke out about how he prefers utility style champions which worked for Fnatic last season because Huni could really only effectively play carry champions such as Lissandra, Rumble, and Hecarim, though he did have a few good Gnar games sprinkled in there. With Gamsu coming in ,he plays carry champions like Huni did, but he doesn't carry as well on them. He can play tanks better than Huni for sure though, which may require Rekkles to go back to the carry champions such as Lucian, Vayne, etc or Fnatic risks falling off with damage from a one threat Febiven comp. I think NA's ADC position is far more stacked than EU's, though I think Niels and Forgiven would be #1 and #2 in NA if they went there. Doublelift could shine with Yellowstar coming over from Fnatic, but Aphromoo is a really great support and CLG didn't do much at Worlds because the other lanes got behind, but that problem may be solved on TSM. Hauntzer was a solid top laner in NA last year but got bodied by Soaz at IEM. Svenskeren also was picked up by TSM but I consider him a better Shook. He can carry his ass off at times but other times he falls on his face and is completely useless. TSM's success will depend on their new top laner and jungler's success. Freeze was great in Europe last year but came over to NA this year on Renegades. The verdict is still out on this team because we haven't seen them play together at all, although they were in Korea bootcamping together. Sneaky, Altec, and Piglet are also super solid. I wanna throw Apollo in there because he did well for TiP last year but he moved to DIG and I'm always super hesitant to throw any good praise DIG's way because just like a Baron, it can all be thrown away in an instant.

For support, you have to look at the god himself, Yellowstar. Doublelift is extremely aggressive which may take him a sec to get used to, but should work out great. F them for taking my support but damn Reginald (team owner of TSM) won TSM the offseason with that acquisition alone. Second I'd take Mithy. You actually might be able to take him #1 because we pretty much know what to expect from Origen. Adrian played great with Apollo on TiP last year, so I expect good things from him on Immortals this year, Aphromoo could still be great depending on how Huhi and Stixxay do on the team, Kasing could be great as well but as I've said before it all depends on how Vitality meshes together and performs, mainly looking at Shook here. Shook has shown flashes of brilliance but has also shown when he gets behind he'll try to afk farm the jungle and absolutely put zero pressure down on the map. Vander will also be good because he has some synergy with his jungler Jankos from when they played together last split.

That's basically all, I know it's a ton and don't really expect anyone to read it all, but think it'd be a good outline for beginners.

HelkijoJan 7, 20161 votes

For febiven i think might be challenger this split since team is diffrent so they have to synergise and EU got some good mid laners poe and ryu might be a challenger but we never know what can happen with this much of changes.

FNC MynameaboratJan 7, 20161 votes

Yeah but even having to get together he can 1v1 anyone by himself xD

MattModeJan 7, 20161 votes

Anyone know anywhere that has a list of top players at each position in the world? I am doing a 6 man league and just trying to get an idea at the top 6-10 players at each position in the world to get ready for my draft.

Nyaruko ChanJan 7, 20161 votes

You only need to know who the best western players are. Other then that the lists are pretty easy though a bit subjective. Me personally my list would go something like

Top: Soaz, Impact, Odoamne, Cabochard, and Hauntzer. (Huni is massively overrated)

Jung: Spirit, Rush, Sven, Jankos, and Kirei (so much potential)

Mid: Bjerg, Febiven, GBM, Froggen, and PoE

Adc: Doublelift, Sneaky, Niels, Freeze, and Altec

Sup: Mithy, Yellowstar, Adrian (he is so good), KaSing, and Aphromoo

Those are all really good players to look out for. Other honorary mentions who you should keep an eye out for are as listed.

Top: Kfo, Gamsu, SmittyJ, Darshan, and maybe Huni

Jung: K0u, Moon, Hard, and Shook.

Mid: Pepii, Nukeduck, Pobelter, Fenix, and Alex Ich

Adc: Forgiven, Hjarnan (he always puts up really good numbers), Wildturtle (new support, new team, new coaching staff, and new environment), Piglet, and definitely keep an eye out on Keith, he has a lot of potential.

Sup: Baby (rookie with chance of being potentially good), Konkwon (chance to really shine, a lot of pros have talked about how good he is), Remelia (has massive fucking potential, could very well become a top western support. Could just as likely become the new Kiwikid as well so its a gamble), Bunnyfufu (if he plays more then one game and C9 shows they can function without Hai), Vander, and Smoothie (Rookie who started showing some massive potential in the last two weeks on TDK).

Theres a very large change I missed some people. I'm just giving my opinions on who you should consider looking out for and who you should grab as soon as possible.

youngbegoJan 7, 20161 votes

Huni isn't that overrated and you would include Hauntzer over Darshan?

Nyaruko ChanJan 7, 20161 votes

Yes because Darshan has be around far longer and personally if he was ever going to become an international level top laner he would have by now. Hauntzer on the other hand, is still pretty much a rookie. On top of that if you look at the level of improvements he has gone through in such a short time span its pretty damn impressive. He was one of the worst top laners in the LCS during the spring split and then became one of the top NA top laners in the summer split. Thats fucking impressive.

On top of that he was on a team with far less infrastructure and resources then TSM. So far on TSM he solo killed both Acorn (a clearly not as good as he once was Acorn to be fair) and Flame (Who is still very fucking good and a stellar player). Thats really impressive. Sure you could argue that it was just cause of Sven but he still showed several instances of his skill. Even 1v1 killing Flame with an outplay. In all honesty, Hauntzer just has a much higher potential. He could become a top western top laner.