LEC begins its fifth week on Friday: G2 finally gets their free win against Astralis, and FNC against Vitality. S04 looks to clamber some sort of consistency together against SK, Rogue should smack MSF, with MAD vs XL looking to be a promising, and hotly contested match-up. Let’s get into the picks.

Captain

Larssen ($10,800)

I can’t say enough good things about Larssen and his performance so far; while Rogue got blue shelled by S04 (to be fair, so did G2) and was beat by G2, Larssen himself is still likely the best middle laner in the league over all; his KDA is an insane 8.9 over 9 games, the highest CSPM, and he’s an overall juggernaut. Astralis’ Magifelix appears solid at first, but over a low sample size of 2 games, it’s hard to be sure for certain. Larssen is a surefire bet, and comes in very cheap too; but if you want the best of the best and the advantage of capitalizing on AST’s weak support, grab Rekkles, although he comes at a steep cost.

Alternatives to consider: Rekkles ($12,300)

Top Lane

Odoamne ($6,400)

Odoamne has shown up massively this season, and proves that he really was the consistent strong link on S04 last year despite their extremely rocky record. This split, he looks like a top 3 at the bare minimum top laner, and has a fantastic level of consistency against teams that are not S04. He’s a fantastic player, but is still on a bit of the expensive side; if you want to go even cheaper, I’d recommend either Broken Blade or Kryze for the top lane option, who both have relatively easy match-ups for themselves.

Alternatives to consider: Broken Blade ($6,200)

Jungle

Selfmade ($7,400)

Vitality’s mid jungle is a complete dumpster fire, whereas Selfmade has pursued the same jungle style he has throughout his career: extremely resource intensive, with the highest gold share of all LEC junglers at 20.7%. Selfmade is a fantastic choice for jungle, since his high resource share allows him to demolish the impoverished junglers he faces, and Skeanz is about as “impoverished” as they come. If you favor a more solid 2v2 over a strongarm jungler, I’d recommend Gilius who combines with Abbedagge for an interesting mid-jungle dynamic.

Alternatives to consider: Gilius ($6,600)

Mid Lane

Abbedagge ($6,800)

S04’s mid laner has been an underrated hit this season, and is solid by all accounts: he played brilliantly against both Larssen and Caps, and has maintained mostly consistent even in S04’s off games. Abbedagge likely isn’t the second coming of Faker, but he is an upper tier mid laner with significant staying power throughout the game, which makes him an ideal choice into Blue, who’s been a weaker point on SK despite his high gold share. If you haven’t picked him up though, and you still have the money to spend, I’d still recommend Larssen here, however.

Alternatives to consider: Larssen ($7,200)

ADC

Upset ($8,000)

Between Rekkles, Upset, and Hans sama, a definitive choice is hard to make. Although, I do prefer Rekkles or Upset courtesy of their solid match-up, whereas Hans Sama versus the Misfit’s bottom lane just isn’t as smashingly favorable. Vitality is more difficult than Astralis, but still isn’t difficult. Between the two, I slightly favor Upset due to his lower price point, but either one of them is fantastic. No shame in picking Hans either, since he’s cheaper than Rekkles and Upset, and his performance against G2 and S04 shouldn’t discount him from being a fantastic pick up on Friday: any of these guys can pop off on the right circumstances.

Alternatives to consider: Hans sama ($7,800)

Support

Trymbi ($5,400)

The hardest role to choose on Friday is support; truthfully, losing supports tend to die a lot by virtue of picking for engage, so despite Trymbi not being a top tier support, Rogue’s good chances of winning makes him a prime candidate for pick-up, alongside Misfits’ easy-going nature in the bottom lane. It’s between Trymbi, LIMIT, and Mikyx. For my money, Trymbi will give you the most bang-for-your-buck, LIMIT is a good low cost option, but Mikyx will definitely rack up points against Astralis.

Alternatives to consider: Mikyx ($6,200)

Team

Rogue ($5,200)

Rogue hits a happy medium between low cost, reliability, and high point production against Misfits; a team who has looked underwhelming with occasional flashes of greatness. If you’re looking for an even cheaper team, I’d decidedly choose Excel since they have a good combination of fantastic highs and a healthy amount of volatility.

Alternatives to consider: Excel Esports ($4,400)

Stacks

Larssen & Odoamne

Rogue’s solo laners boast the highest KDA in the league in their respective roles, insanely solid CSDs across the board, and are overall point machines. Rogue’s bottom lane has been solid too alongside jungler Inspired, but Larssen and Odoamne are the ones to watch out for currently on Rogue.

Broken Blade & Abbedagge

S04’s solo laners, on the other hand, are in contrast to Rogue’s stability: they add much more volatility to your team, with a good degree of pop-off potential. SK’s solo laners have been weaker points on the roster, so S04’s big point winners may be that more effective on Friday.

Selfmade & Upset

Selfmade and Upset are the big gold earners on FNC, and are extremely effective at converting those gold leads into big points through earning kills and snowballing their advantage. Vitality’s weak mid jungle should allow Selfmade to run through Skeanz, while Upset should be capable of dominating the 2v2 bottom side courtesy of his strong laning and mechanics.

Top Picks: Rekkles, Mikyx, Larssen

Rekkles and Mikyx comprise the G2 bottom lane, the most likely location for G2 to completely squash Astralis, although they come in at a massive price point. Larssen however is much more economical, and he has an easy time against Vetheo too, who looks like a talent that’s a bit too raw for LEC.

Top Value: Patrik, Abbedagge, Kryze

Extremely low prices for each of these players: Abbedagge has been talked about enough, and adds a fair amount of coinflip into a roster to multiply points. Patrik and Kryze are extremely talented players on XL, Kryze having the 2nd highest KDA of all top laners and playing a carry focused style, whereas Patrik stands as one of the strongest ADCs in the league, just hardly out of the top 3 of Hans sama, Rekkles, and Upset.