LPL Slate March 2nd, 2021

Bilibili Gaming v Invictus Gaming

Suning v ThuderTalk Gaming

Two sets of 2-0 sweeps made up our Monday games as EDG and FPX both started to right the ship after both found losses in their last games. On this slate we have a possible resurgent Suning who made quick work of IG in their last match but every other team playing is coming off of a loss. These matches have the make up to be relatively close and possible upsets for some! So let's break down these players and teams for this March 1st slate! Let’s get after it! 

Game #1 Bilibili Gaming v Invictus Gaming

Cann’s Pick: Invictus Gaming

Game #2: Suning v ThuderTalk Gaming

Cann’s Pick: Suning

Fantasy Value Breakdown

Captain

Favorite: huanfeng (SUN: $11,700) This is the carry for Suning. Every facet of the Suning gameplan revolves around getting huanfeng into the best position to carry in the late game. He has a whopping 35.5% team kill share and second most kills for the slate at 90 kills. If Suning performs at the level they are expected to, huanfeng will make a lot of points for you along the way. 

Value Pick: XUN (IG: $10,800) Even with a really poor performance against Suning this is still the highest performing jungler. He has the most kills of ANY player on this slate with 102 and 6th most assists with 130. He is a point scoring machine and into an explosive matchup like IG v BLG, there will be more than enough points for XUN to make here. AT $10,800, you can also break the banks throughout your whole lineup as well. Love this pick personally.

Top Lane

Favorite: TheShy (IG: $6,000) TheShy just wins lane. With 55 kills this split and a gold average at 10 minutes of +72 (Biubiu is at -28) you can count on two things with TheShy. The first being is in a series you can expect one magnificent play that blows your mind. The next is that he will make such an atrocious play you question how he won the World Championships. It is very feast or famine and if you this IG win this match, then double down on the feast here. 

Value Pick: Biubiu (BLG: $5,800) Like I noted with TheShy, this will be an absolute bloodbath of a lane. Both players are completely willing to take any fight regardless of how much of an advantage (or disadvantage) they are. I think the extra $200 could be useful if you have a bigger ticket pick elsewhere you want to pick up, even if you think IG will win the match. Biubiu has only a 2.0 KDA but that comes with the highest kill number from all top laners with 65. Even with him being a little more death prone, this is pretty good value here. 

Jungle

Favorite: Meteor (BLG: $6,600) Meteor will have his hands full with XUN but I like Meteor here because of how safe he plays with only 39 deaths through 23 games. He is 24% of his team’s kills which makes him an enticing pick up to pull those big kill points. If IG comes out flat like they had against Suning, the Meteor pick will pay dividends. 

Value Pick: Xiaopeng (TT: $6,200) In the recipe for how to beat Suning, you have to have a juggler who will punish SofM. IG’s XUN failed to put him away early and SofM was able to help facilitate his team to a late game win. Statistically XIaopeng is not as good as XUN but still significantly better than SofM. Xiaopeng has 52 kills, 45 deaths, 92 assists, and is part of 70% of TT’s kills. Both junglers play from a deficit which means it really boils down to what impact they will have in their lanes.

Mid Lane

Favorite: Angel ($7,600) Tried and true Angel. He is to his team as garlic powder is to the bulk of my cooking, always there but hardly ever the centerpiece of the dish. Angel has good numbers (54 kills, 33 deaths, 113 assists, with a 5.1 KDA) but he is relatively low in team kill participation (66.5%). I don’t think Twila (TT Midlaner) will punish Angel in the laning phase so I would expect this to be a relatively safe pick for tomorrow. 

Value Pick: Rookie (IG: $7,400) This is the kill leader among mid laners for this slate with 65 and he is top three among all LPL mid laners in terms of assists with 156. Rookie is the security blanket for this team and there is a pretty wide gap between him and the BLG mid laner (Zeka) especially in the laning phase where Rookie is especially dominant (Gold: +234 and Experience: +135). IG will need Rookie to have a stand out performance to bounce back from their lackluster performance on Sunday.   

ADC

Favorite: SamD (TT: $7,200) I am going to sound crazy for saying this but there is an angle for TT to win this matchup. The first was discussed with Xiaopeng but the second is SamD. huanfeng is the carry for Suning. Sure Angel has good numbers but he is a game manager and if Suning needs someone to take over a game it most likely needs to be their bot laner. For TT to win this match they need SamD to shut him down and outpace him. SamD has 77 kills and 95 assists and has a team kill share percentage of 32%. 

Value Pick: Aiming (BLG: $7,000) In terms of bot lane players Aiming has turned out to be just… ok. He has respectable numbers (85 kills, 88 assists, 3.1 KDA) but he isn’t a game changer. He will rarely be the reason they lose games but you don’t really see him as that either early game force who will win lane or that scary late game insurance policy. He just is. So he should be safe points for you, just probably not explosive ones. 

Support

Favorite: Lucas (IG: $5,400) I pout a big asterisk on this pick. IG has two different bot lanes and Lucas was part of the duo who was ran out the gym by Suning a few days ago. Even with that tough performance he still has a 3.0 KDA and 72 assists in 9 games.If he and Puff (ADC) play at the level they did against EDG, this pick will be well worth the investment. 

Value Pick: Mark (BLG: $5,000) This is the other half of the hot and cold bot lane. At the beginning of Spring this was one of the highest performing bot lanes but has cooled off since. I think with the uncertainty of who will play for IG in the bot lane and how close I think this series is, I think Mark will still be a decent value pick. With 130+ assists and an almost 30% first blood rate in the bottom lane, you should still get your points in here. 

Team

Favorite: Suning ($5,400) If Suning can get through the early game, they will cruise in the late game. TT has a better early game rating compared to Suning (though both of them are near the bottom) but in the mid to late game they swap and TT becomes the second worst team and Suning find themselves in the top half. A lot of this match will hinge on whether or not SofM will play like he did in the first half of the split or how he played against IG a few days ago. Hope for the latter if you make this pick.   

Value Pick: Bilibili Gaming ($4,600) I think to pto bottom BLG is not as good of a team as IG is. That being said both are wildly unpredictable and can make it difficult to figure out which version of them you are going to get on that day. This could be a 2-0 sweep by IG, or a 2-1 win by BLG. Both of these teams are relatively close in all statistics such as barono take rate, early game rating, and tower take rate so there is a good chance that this could be an upset on Tuesday morning.

Cann’s Example Lineup

DraftKings Classic 

$50,000 Salary Cap

Captain (x1.5): XUN ($10,800)

Alternate: SamD($10,800)

Top: Biubiu ($5,800)

Jungle: Xiaopeng ($6,200)

Alternate: Meteor ($6,600)
Mid: Rookie ($7,400)

ADC: huanfeng ($7,800)

Alternate: Puff ($7,600)

Support: ON ($5,600)

Team: Invictus Gaming ($5,200)