Well, that wasn’t how most people were expecting the first day of the LCS Lock In Tournament to play out. The first game saw 100 Thieves dismantle TSM in twenty-seven minutes in what most people though was going to be the most competitive match of the day. Cloud9 looked lost and couldn’t find their timings with Perkz’s debut into the LCS spoiled by Impact and EG. Impact’s Renekton was vital in Evil Geniuses’ upset with over Cloud9, the team that most people pegged the favorite to win the Lock In after hearing that Team Liquid was having visa issues with one of their players. Impact managed to shutdown both Fudge and Perkz in the side lane which prevented Cloud9’s new star mid laner to even get going. With CLG subbing in two new players due to visa issues it was no surprise that they struggled against Team Liquid in their first match, but they looked just as poor against Golden Guardians. The same can be said for FlyQuest who were upset by Dignitas with strong performances coming from FakeGod and Soligo.
Here’s the makeup of a lineup with two strong carries and the team who had the best performance of the first day for January 16 on FanDuel
MVP FBI $9,700 FD
Top Lane _________ $
Jungle _________ $
Mid Lane _________ $
AD Carry Zven $9,900 FD
Support _________ $
TEAM 100T $7,500 FD
It seems that the ceiling for FBI (N/A DK, $9,700 FD) just keeps getting higher and higher. FBI had Lost and SwordArt’s number from the get-go. He jumped out to a quick 20 cs lead in less than seven minutes and dominated the entire lane. After the first day of the tournament the meta seems to be picking a strong late game AD carry and playing through him. On the first day all winning AD carries had a KDA of 8.0 or higher so making FBI the MVP for your team is essential for winning. 100 Thieves has the biggest mismatch of the day against CLG and should dominate them just as hard as they did TSM.
Although Cloud9 struggled against EG, Zven’s ($7,800 DK, $9,900 FD) Lucian was one of the main reason they were able to stay in the game and hold out for forty-four minutes. Cloud9 has a much easier matchup against FlyQuest and Zven should get back on track and look to punish FlyQuest’s bot lane of Johnsun and Diamond who struggled in their first match of the year.
100 Thieves (N/A DK, $7,500 FD) looked like the strongest team after the first day and CLG looked like the weakest. It’s unfortunate that CLG was unable get their full roster set for the start of the Lock In tournament but their current roster doesn’t seem to be on the same page. CLG was constantly making mistakes in both of their games with players not following each other or players going in by themselves. Whereas 100 Thieves looked like the sharpest and most decisive team. They perfectly executed their comp to early dive top lane and snowball the game through top. It will be very difficult for 100 Thieves to be stopped by CLG of all teams.
- Now what do you get if you sign up for $99?
- Full lineups for both DraftKings and FanDuel
- Which two teams whose players you should stack up on
- Which player who heavily underperformed will bounce back
- Who to pick for MVP
- Two teams to avoid unless you are looking for high risk high reward
One thing to note, the matches for the DraftKings and FanDuel fantasy games are different. DraftKings has a two separate game sets with the first three games (EG vs IMT, GG vs TSM, and C9 vs FLY) in the earlier set and the last two games (IMT vs DIG and CLG vs 100T) in the later set. Whereas FanDuel has only one game set which excludes the first game of the day, EG versus IMT. For DraftKings users we will stick to the earlier three game set.
Additionally, please note that several LCS teams are experiencing visa issues with their international/import players and will be fielding substitute players for the first week of the LCS Lock In Tournament. The starting players missing are: CLG’s starting top and jungle, Finn and Broxah, LCS newcomer and Latin America Superstar Josedeodo for FlyQuest, Immortal’s new OCE bot lane duo Raes and Destiny, and huge free agent signing Santorin for Team Liquid. Each of these players are confirmed to be out for week one of the tournament, so be very careful when choosing your lineup. Additionally, FanDuel’s list of players does not yet reflect these players’ absence and does not include their replacements.
DraftKings Lineup for January 16
MVP Perkz $11,400
Top Lane Impact $6,000
Jungle Svenskeren $6,800
Mid Lane Jiizuke $7,200
AD Carry Zven $7,800
Support IgNar $5,600
TEAM Cloud9 $5,200
Remaining Salary $0
I don’t think we will see anymore Yone from Perkz ($11,400 DK [MVP], $9,100 FD) this tournament. Perkz’s lackluster debut in North America left him with a KDA of 4/7/2. Perkz struggled to get pressure in mid lane and therefore couldn’t do much to assist his jungler or team in the early game. He was then shutdown in the sidelane by Impact’s Renekton, constantly getting his flash and ultimate blown whenever he would step up to the wave. I expect Perkz to be on a much more lane dominant champion for Cloud9’s next game and able to pressure and affect the map much more. Therefore, selecting him as MVP has the potential for the highest points yield.
Cloud9 ($5,200 DK, $7,300 FD) shouldn’t struggle as hard as they did against Evil Geniuses. FlyQuest is fielding a much weaker roster including one substitute. FlyQuest’s sole substitute player is at the most important role in the game, jungle. Cloud9 has almost all the fastest dragon soul timers, accruing all the dragons and quickly. This commonly results in a large snowball with an early baron and dropping all the towers on the map.
Like 100 Thieves on the first day, all Evil Geniuses is being undervalued. Of the games included in the DraftKings set EG vs IMT is almost as big of a mismatch as CLG vs 100T. All EG’s players are the fourth cheapest options and rounding out your remaining roster with Evil Geniuses players gives you the best chance to select a few premium players and fill it out with great low priced high value players. Impact ($6,000 DK, N/A FD), Svenskeren ($6,800 DK, N/A FD), Jiizuke ($7,200 DK, N/A FD), and IgNar ($5,600 DK, N/A FD) are great players to make up a strong high value roster.
FanDuel Lineup for January 16
MVP FBI $9,700
Top Lane Ssumday $8,300
Jungle Closer $8,600
Mid Lane Damonte $8,900
AD Carry Zven $9,900
Support Vulcan $7,000
TEAM 100T $7,500
Remaining Salary $100
Like Zven, Vulcan ($6,000 DK, $7,000 FD) should look to bounce back against a bot lane who struggled in their first match. While Zven and Vulcan held their own against EG’s botlane, FlyQuest’s bot lane Johnsun and Diamond couldn’t find their footing against Dignitas. They struggle to find angles in teamfights and provided little to no value in the late game. Vulcan has been performing as a top two support in North America since season nine and will be crucial for Cloud9 to get back on the right track.
As the FanDuel game set doesn’t include the Evil Geniuses versus IMT match, implementing the same strategy with 100 Thieves players works just as well. Ssumday (N/A DK, $8,300 FD), Closer (N/A DK, $8,600 FD), and Damonte (N/A DK, $8,900 FD) are all high value relatively low priced options to fill out your roster if you’ve selected a few top tier players.
I would stay away from any players in the TSM versus Golden Guardians match. It’s very difficult to judge both teams after the first day of the Lock In tournament. Golden Guardians did look fantastic, albeit it was against a bottom half team playing with substitutes. Even though TSM lost to a perceived top team in 100 Thieves, they weren’t even competitive in the twenty-seven minute slapping that 100 Thieves gave them. If you are feeling risky and think that TSM will bounce back right away or think Golden Guardians will beat up on a dysfunctional TSM, taking either Spica ($7,000 DK, $8,000 FD) or Iconic ($6,000 DK, $7,500 FD) gives you the best player on their respective team.
Best of luck and have fun!
