DFS LoL LCS Summer Split Playoffs Round 1 Day 1 Picks for August 7, 2021

The LCS playoffs are finally here. This split was one of the closest splits in LCS history with no team definitively pulling ahead of the pack at any point during the season. 100 Thieves looked like the best team for the first half but seems to have lost their strong early game which was the reason for their downfall during the spring split. TSM fluctuated between first and second for most of the season but finished first due to 100 Thieves shortcomings. Evil Geniuses were the best team in the second half of the split with a 12-3 record over the last 15 games and are arguably the best looking team right now. Cloud9 had their struggles early on the in the split after a surprise benching of Zven but finished strong with dominant wins over 100 Thieves and Team Liquid at the end of it all. The trophy is up for grabs and it’s anyone’s for the taking.

Here’s a core lineup of two players who came on strong at the end of the split for DraftKings on August 7

No matter how a season might look for whatever team he’s on, Impact ($12,000 FD, $6,800 DK)always will be one of the best top laners entering playoffs and is difficult to get an edge over. Impact had a rough start to the split with plenty of high death games and struggling against some of the weaker top laners. As the season went on you could see Impact’s improvements week over week and dominating on his patented engage/utility role. Their matchup against Dignitas involves opposing solo laners FakeGod and Yusui who have been some of the weakest players in their role this split. Evil Geniuses is the only team that implements solo lane swaps into their drafts and gameplan meaning neither pose a threat to Impact should they whip out a lane swap.

Blaber (N/A FD, $7,000 DK) is always the most important player in a Cloud9 versus Team Liquid series. With every single lane almost equal in terms of individual skill jungle becomes the most important player in the game who can influence every lane. In the three best-of-five series between Cloud9 and Team Liquid in the spring split (Lock-in final and two times in the summer playoffs) Blaber consistently smashed Team Liquid in most of the early games resulting in huge Cloud9 early game leads. With Santorin playing less than half of total games for the summer split Team Liquid won’t be one hundred percent with their early game coordination which will give Blaber the opening he needs to blow the game wide open.

DraftKings includes players from Saturday and Sunday’s playoff matches where as FanDuel only includes players from Saturday’s match. Additionally, DraftKings follows the showdown/series line up format which includes, one MVP players (1.5x points), one player from each role, plus a TEAM pick. Whereas FanDuel follows the single game format which includes on MVP player (2x points), one STAR player (1.5x points), and three utility picks.

Jiizuke ($14,500 FD, $11,100 [MVP] DK) has been the primary reason for Evil Geniuses improvements this split. At the start it seemed like we were going to see the same old Jiizuke who could get advantages in his lane but couldn’t be trusted to transition that lead to other areas of the map. As the split finished Jiizuke has become an MVP candidate, first team all-pro, and a reliable late game carry. He’s become much more patient in the side lane which has limited his deaths in the mid game which has unlocked him as a threat in the mid to late game and snowball his gold leads.

Fudge (N/A FD, $9,900 [MVP] DK) has become Cloud9 most consistent player and right now their best player as the rest of the lineup hasn’t returned to their spring split form. Fudge has become even better than what he was in spring split which was proven by his first team all-pro selection and MVP consideration. During the spring playoffs Fudge worked perfectly with Blaber to shutdown Alphari’s strong lane phase and turn Cloud9’s perceived disadvantage into a massive advantage.

Jensen (N/A FD, $7,000 DK) has had an up and down season due to the mid lane meta shift at the start of summer. At the beginning of the split mid lane was all about AD bruiser/marksman champions like Viego, Lee Sin, Lucian, Tristana, and Nocturne. Throughout Jensen’s career he has never been one to quickly pick up new champions and playstyles which has hurt him in the past. Jensen always looked uncomfortable on these champions as opposed to his assassins and control mages. Towards the tail end of the season the meta flipped back to Jensen’s preferred style due to repeated nerfs to all the AD champions which he was clearly more comfortable on. Moving into playoffs we should see Jensen back to his normal self on some of his best champions like Twisted Fate, Orianna, LeBlanc, and Azir.

After the whole Dardoch situation with Dignitas it just seemed like they were going to coast to a bottom playoff spot with no hope. Akaadian ($11,500 FD, $6,400 DK) gave Dignitas some life after a 1-7 stretch at the beginning of summer and has been the bright spot of their lackluster summer split. Akaadian seems to have finally found his role in the team and paired with his unique jungle picks like Kayn lead Dignitas to a 4-1 finish on the season. While they have a very difficult matchup against Evil Geniuses, Akaadian will be the spark for Dignitas if they have any chance of winning.

Gameplan

Evil Geniuses versus Dignitas could be the most one sided match up of the entire playoffs. Evil Geniuses was tied for the best record in summer at 18-9 with Dignitas having the second worse record among playoff teams at 12-15. Many people view Evil Geniuses as the number one team entering playoffs due to their second half surge during the season and their head-to-head records against the other top teams (2-1 against all of TSM, 100 Thieves, and Cloud9). With the additional uncertainty of Dignitas’ mid lane, it’s hard to find any possible edge that Dignitas could have over EG, individual or team. Loading up on EG players is the obvious decision but picking out the correct Dignitas players will lead you to a higher scoring finish.

It’s possible that we could see substitutions from both Dignitas and Evil Geniuses during the series. Early in the split DIG made the decision to swap Soligo for Yusui with the idea that they would come back to Soligo during the playoffs. While there has been no word from Dignitas if they have any plans to use Soligo it’s still a possibility that he comes in after one or two losses. Similarly, Evil Geniuses have played with both Svenskeren and Contractz during the summer split and could see Contractz come in if EG feels desperate for a win. Potentially avoid those picks as there’s a change all of those players won’t be playing every game.

Let us know about your wins on Twitter (@FantasyDFSX). We love to hear from you. Best of luck and have fun!