League of Legends European Championships (LEC): Aug. 1

Game #1: Rogue versus SK Gaming

Cann’s Pick: Rogue

Game #2: Misfits versus Excel Esports

Cann’s Pick: Misfits

Game #3: Team Vitality versus MAD Lions

Cann’s Pick and lock of the week: MAD Lions 

Game #4: Origen versus Schalke 04

Cann’s Pick: Schalke 04

Game #5: G2 Esports versus Fnatic

Cann’s Pick: G2 Esports

Fantasy Value Breakdown

Captain (1.5x Points)

Tier 1: Carzzy (MAD Lions/$12,300): Carzzy is the best ADC in the LEC through 14 games. He is at a 6.7 KDA and has 50 total kills. This is also on the back of having a support who constantly roams the map and will leave him in alone in his lane. The most remarkable thing about watching Carzzy play is his ability to turn on his aggression when he needs to. He will play the first 10-15 minutes quietly farming and then in the blink of the eye he can get 3 kills in a team fight and he is grabbing you massive amounts of points. Well worth being the most expensive captain picked for the day.

Value Pick: Hans sama (Rogue/$11,400): Hans sama may not be the second best ADC statistically, he is a solid performer on the 1st/2nd best team in the league. Hans sama has a fantastic KDA of 6.4 and has a league leading 62 total kills. The hardest part about Hans sama’s game is that it feels very feast or famine in terms of his FPPG. He is averaging 28.5 and at just a hair above $11,000, he is a solid pick up for the captain role.

Top

Value Pick: Odoamne (Schalke 04/$5,800): Schalke seem to have figured it out. With their new jungler (Gilius) they have split their last 8 games which is pretty on par with the rest of the LEC. Previously, they were a solid 0% win percentage so there are definitely big improvements happening. One wrinkle to their game plan as of late has been the focus on giving Odoamne some agency in the top lane with both more jungle presence and better picks as well. Add some pressure into the top lane and I think Odoamne can hold his own through the laning phase and make it into the team fight phase where he shines.

Jungle

Tier 1: Inspired (Rogue/$6,600): This is still the best jungler bar none. You can always make your argument for Shad0w on MAD Lions but in terms of overall KDA, team death percentage, and early game gold/experience leads there is no one better. Inspired has very few deaths (12) and contributes a ton to early dragon control. Look for Rogue to push SK Gaming off of objectives and Inspired to make early leads happen.

Value Pick: Gilius (Schalke 04/$6,000): Grab this value before it is gone. Gilius is the sole reason for Schalke having its rebirth and quickly turning heads in the LEC. They went from a winless group of broken players to now only 2 games out of playoffs and it is because of the proactive play from Gilius. While he may be known more for his flashier picks of the Lee Sin or the Nocturne, he still was aggressive today on the much tankier Sejuani. I don’t trust Origen and how much they lack any sort of direction, which leaves a real possibility of Schalke to be one game out of playoffs with only a few more matches left in the split.

Mid

Tier 1: Humanoid (MAD Lions/$8,000): This is a very expensive pick but you get what you pay for in Humanoid. While Humanoid has had a rough couple of game stretches (including almost being the sole reason for the MAD Lions loss to Misfits) he still is one of the top mid laners in the league. HE is 4th in KDA with a 3.7 KDA but a lot of that stems from the fact that he is one of the most targeted players in the league. With that said he is still part of 70% of all of MAD Lions kills and continues to have one of the most impressive Orianna’s in the league. Safe pick into a flailing Team Vitality who seems like they could not get a win to save their life at the moment.

Value Pick: FEBIVEN (Misfits/$7,000): I think $7,000 is a pretty cheap price for a mid laner, and picking up Febi at this price is pretty solid. Is this the player who won LEC with Fnatic?

Nope. But is he serviceable at the Mid lane role? Absolutely! He has a KDA of 2.9 but what is the biggest hurdle for him is his deaths. He has 35 kills (6th) but has 32 deaths (5th) which dilutes out all of the positives that he creates in laning phase. His biggest issue is the lack of awareness at times in teamfights where he will get caught out. Excel is a much slower developing team and I think we will see less opportunities for bad plays out of Febi in this match up.

ADC

Tier 1: Carzzy (MAD Lions/$8,200): If you didn’t read the captain section… go do so and if you didn’t pick him there, pick him here. It is that simple. On top of that, his opponent (Comp) ranks 8th amongst all ADC’s in FPPG and there is a more than 3 point KDA difference between the two ADCs. Lock it in.

Value Pick: Patrik (Excel Esports/$7,000): I think the one avenue for Excel to win their match against Misfits will be if they can get Patrik online. He has been fairly consistent with a 3.4 KDA and a whopping 78% kill participation for this split. I think you can feel even more comfortable if his support (Tore) can find himself onto an aggressive support like Nautilus or Thresh.

SUP

Tier 1: Kaiser (MAD Lions/$6,000): There really isn’t a second option for the support spot. He is the top rated support and has a FPPG of TWENTY FOUR. That is 10 more than the next support. It is worth shuffling pieces around to get him into the lineup.

Value Pick: denyk (Misfits/$4,600): This is your Ed Cann’s spicy pick of the week. If Kaiser wasn’t such a no brainer in the support role, I would definitely be shifting denyk in. He was an absolute force to be reckoned with in Spring but Misfits (much to the push back of their fans) subbed him out for the flashier support in Doss. Misfits have dropped too many games this split that should have been easy wins if they just played smart and closed out matches they were winning. He was a huge factor in their win over SK Gaming, even though he had a 1 KDA and I expect some of the hiccups to be worked out over the next few weeks. Cheap pick up in a match they should win.

TEAM

Tier 1: MAD Lions ($6,000): They are the best team in Europe. They are in the discussion for best three teams in the world right now. I love how this team plays fast and with purpose. They always seem to be making enemy teams react to them and they force the fights that they want to fight. Team Vitality gets lost in the early game a lot so this should be pretty easy pickings for the Lions.

Value Pick: Schalke 04 ($4,400): This is a story of teams going in two different directions really. Origen hasn’t won since July 18th while Schalke have won 3 straight. It seemed like the Jactroll swap did very little for Origen but the Gilius swap has made all the difference for Schalke. While I do feel like this is a coin flip-esq game, I would call Schalke 9 out of 10 times at this point. Cheap pick and you can spend your money elsewhere.

Value Combos:

*Kaiser and Carzzy (Support and ADC/MAD Lions/$14,200): If you want the best, you need to pay for it. The KDA difference in this lane is absurd (Especially with labrov from Vitality having a 3.1 KDA) and the ability to smoothly transition into skirmishes and team fights leaves this to be a heavy favorite for the MAD Lions bot lane.