El Clásico didn’t fail to deliver as we saw another close series between Cloud9 and TSM. Cloud9 didn’t seem practiced or coordinated when they busted out their dive composition in game one against TSM. After Cloud9 dropped game one, fans were ready to call Perkz a bust and meme Cloud9 for spending nearly five million dollars to acquire him from G2 Esports. However, all those worries were put to rest as they fixed their issues with their drafting and gameplay and took down TSM convincingly in the next two games. Spica’s baron stealing heroics weren’t enough to stop Cloud9 advancing to the semifinals. The other three quarterfinal matches saw stomps from start to finish. Despite all the substitutions and upsets during the Lock In Tournament thus far, it seems like we have the top four teams in the LCS moving into the final week of the tournament.
Here’s a partial lineup that includes two players who shine in both wins as losses for January 29
MVP _____
STAR Closer $12,500 FD
UTIL Zven $14,500 FD
UTIL _____
UTIL _____
Closer ($6,400 DK, $12,500 FD) has seemed to fly under the radar with the monster performances from FBI and Damonte. Even Ssumday and Huhi have been talked about with regards to 100 Thieves success, but Closer has slowly increased his level of play and had an insane quarterfinal performance against Immortals. Closer had a KDA of 17/4/15 in 100 Thieves’ 2-0 stomp of IMT, he shined on the early game aggressive junglers in Nidalee and Graves, two champions he has shown a high proficiency on over the past two years. Although FBI is dubbed as the carry of 100 Thieves, Closer only averages 3.5 less points per game than FBI and is a much cheaper option.
Zven ($7,800 DK, $14,500 FD) seems to be starting this spring season similar to Cloud9’s dominant spring season in 2020. He is second in the entire league in KDA with 9.3, as well as first in least death’s per game, and third in kills per game. Safe to say he is the most consistent AD carry in the league. Cloud9 has one more loss than all of the remaining teams left in the Lock In Tournament, regardless of wins and losses Zven manages to put up strong KDA’s and points.
Now what do you get if you sign up for $99 now?
• Full lineups for FanDuel and DraftKings
• An underpriced MVP who will free up your salary for your whole team
• Which support is making his case for the best in the league
• How to take advantage of the games not played bonus
• Which top laner has a big advantage against his opponent
FanDuel users will use the single game style. You will select a roster of five players for each of the semifinal matches, the first on Friday and second on Saturday. The five players on the roster will consist of one MVP (2x points), one STAR (1.5x points), and three UTIL picks (1x points, UTIL picks can be any player in any role and includes TEAM picks). DraftKings users will use the traditional classic game style. Seven players including one MVP (1.5x points), five players from each role, and one TEAM pick.
FanDuel Lineup for January 29
MVP Blaber $11,500 FD
STAR Closer $12,500 FD
UTIL Zven $14,500 FD
UTIL Huhi $9,000 FD
UTIL Ssumday $12,000 FD
Remaining Salary $500
Once again, Blaber ($7,000 DK, $11,500 FD) shows how important he is to the Cloud9 roster. Although he wasn’t the highest scorer in their series against TSM, he was the most impactful. Blaber was the key to the various versions of the dive comp that Cloud9 ran against TSM. He had a 8/5/32 KDA across their three game series and looked fantastic piloting two different roles in their heavy dive comps. In the first two games Blaber did all the hard engaging on Hecarim and in the third game swapped over to a much more aggressive and damage oriented role with Kindred. Blaber now owns an 8-1 all-time record on Kindred in his career and Jensen—Team Liquid mid laner and former teammate of Blaber—has said that he is, “the best mechanical Kindred in the world.”
The biggest advantage 100 Thieves have over Cloud9 is Ssumday ($5,800 DK, $12,000 FD) against Fudge in the top lane. Ssumday has looked great in all of 100 Thieves games so far in the Lock In Tournament, specifically on Renekton. Renekton seems to be the best top laner in the game right now due to it’s early game power and it’s healthier late game because of goredrinker. Fudge on the other hand has yet to play the Renekton once, opting for more late game picks in Camille, Aatrox, or Ornn. If Ssumday can get his hands on Renekton, he should be able to punish Fudge’s choice of late game scaling top laner.
After the first two weeks of the LCS Lock In Tournament, there is a legitimate argument that the top three players in the LCS right now are all supports. If Vulcan and CoreJJ weren’t playing as insanely well as they are now, in most other LCS seasons you would say that Huhi ($5,000 DK, $9,000 FD)looks like the best support in the league. His KDA across six games is actually insane, he has a score line of 4/12/80 and half of the deaths were in 100 Thieves only loss against CLG in the group stage. He is one of the few supports that has played multiple games of both tank engage supports and peeling supports. He’s able to adapt his playstyle to whatever fits the team composition of 100 Thieves and that’s what makes him so important to the team.
DraftKings Lineup for January 29
MVP Santorin $9,900 DK [MVP]
Top Lane Alphari $6,200 DK
Jungle Closer $6,400 DK
Mid Lane Jensen $7,600 DK
AD Carry Tactical $7,600 DK
Support CoreJJ $5,600 DK
TEAM Team Liquid $5,200 DK
Remaining Salary $1,500
As Team Liquid are large favorites over Evil Geniuses stacking up on Team Liquid players is the best option. I would be surprised if Team Liquid didn’t take down EG in a quick 3-0 sweep. Stacking up on Team Liquid players is the best way to take advantage of the games not played bonus which is a +20 point bonus given to players who don’t have to play the maximum number of games in a series. As 20 points is higher than the average points per player when their team loses it’s better to stack on players from a team that is more likely to win, than spread your lineup to multiple teams taking the highest scorers and risk poor performances as two teams have to lose.
Making Santorin ($9,900 DK [MVP], N/A FD) the MVP allows for you to choose the entire Team Liquid roster while still having plenty of remaining salary if you would prefer to take some higher scoring players from the Cloud9 versus 100 Thieves series. Santorin is only the tenth most expensive MVP player while averaging the highest points per game in the entire league.
Let us know about your wins on Twitter (@FantasyDFSX). We love to hear from you. Best of luck and have fun!
