You can feel the pressure mounting for teams as we are in week 7 of 10 and looking down the barrel of Spring Playoffs. Team WE and Rare Atom are neck and neck at 4th and 5th place in the LPL while LGD and eStar are trying to find their footing and make a push to close the 3 game gap between them and Spring Playoffs. Today looks a bit chalky but let’s dive in and take a look at the plays you have today!

Game #1 eStar v Rare Atom

Cann’s Pick: Rare Atom

Game #2 LGD Gaming v Team WE

Cann’s Pick: Team WE

 

Captain

Favorite: Jiumeng (WE: $11,700) This feels like the only pick for captain in my mind. He is the slate kill leader by 13 kills (103 total) and he has a KDA of 4.4.The captain position matters a little more in the death category so looking at Jiumeng he is averaging just a touch over 2 deaths a game which is a decent average in terms of limiting lost points. LGD is a much lower team and will struggle against the refocused Team WE who is on a 2 game win streak. 

Value Pick: irma (ES: $10,500) Irma is not my favorite mid in any way shape or form. He is on par for a middle of the pack split with a KDA just a touch above 3 and 56 total kills. I think in a different environment, irma could definitely see an uptick in performance but on this current roster, his average of 54.9 FPPG is about as high as I would expect it to be.  

Top Lane

Favorite: Breathe (WE: $6,600) Work hard to get Breathe in your lineup. He is averaging 63.8 FPPG and has a KDA of 6.0. Among top laners he has the highest team kill share percentage with 16% and a total of 53 kills in 22 games. Think of Breathe in terms of being a safer version of TheShy with the same level pressure created with less stupid deaths. He is pretty expensive in terms of average costs for top laners but you can’t really go wrong with him playing into LGD’s top laner Cult. 

Value Pick: Cube (RA: $6,400) If you need to save some money to spread the wealth elsewhere, Cube may not be a terrible idea. You save $200 to get the second highest KDA for top laners on the slate (3.0) and positive gold (+28) and experience (+38) at ten minutes. He is less than 20% of his team’s death total (17%) which is more than you can ask for when talking about a solo laner because it means he is not weighing down his team. He is averaging 50.1 FPPG while his opponent (zs) is only averaging 43.8. You can feel pretty confident with this pick and know that Cube won’t be a liability for you.

Jungle

Favorite: beishang (WE: $7,000) I actually think there is a real case to make for beishang as the captain for your slate. He has a 5.7 KDA, 79 kills, and only 15% of Team WE’s deaths. One of the biggest strengths for beishang is his ability to set his lanes ahead through ganks (he participates in 27% of all Team WE first blood kills) and keep up his own farming (gold difference at 10 min: +85, experience difference at 10 min: +159). So very worth the investment and can really pay dividends if Team WE show out as they are expected to.

Value Pick: H4cker (ES: $6,600) I think that in terms of upsets, there is a chance for eStar. I really don’t think they are as bad as their record shows and I think (while they have had some quality wins) Rare Atom is not as good as their record states either. Rare Atom gets huge leads in lane and can snowball it into the late game. Their jungle position was such a liability they needed to make a roster swap and while Leyan is marginally better than Aki, he still only has a 2.6 KDA while H4cker has a 3.4 and averaging almost a whole death less compared to Leyan. 

Mid Lane

Favorite: FoFo (RA: $7,800) This is the team average gold lead for RA right here. FoFo has a 5.8 KDA, which is more of a reflection of how little he dies (30 deaths in 19 games) rather than his actual kills/assists (58/116), he is still your mid lane kill leader on the slate. Even in the Rare Atom losses, you didn’t see FoFo walked out the gym by players like Knight or Yagao. He holds his own and looks to make plays in the mid game. If you watch the game, be patient. His points come in the later stages of the game. 

Value Pick: Uniboy (LGD: $6,800) For being on such a terrible team, I was shocked to see how decent (I say this very kindly here... don’t “@” me on Twitter over this take) Uniboy’s numbers are. He has a 3.0 KDA and team kill participation that is actually more than Shanks at 68%. How I would definitely not push you towards this pick you have other options. With him only having 33 kills and 34 deaths but his cost could allow you to pick up someone like Jiumeng at captain. 

ADC

Favorite: iBoy (RA: $7,600) The once heralded second coming of Uzi, iBoy has never reached his full potential. In the Spring Split he has 64 kills (third among ADCs on this slate) and a respectable 26% team kill share percentage. His biggest strength is his ability to win lane without too much of an intervention from his jungler. This is more of a benefit when you look at how much of a wet noodle the RA jungler situation is and you could imagine what iBoy’s numbers could be if he had a jungler like beishang or H4cker.   

Value Pick: rat (ES: $7,200) This pick can seem like you’re playing yourself with him playing against Jiumeng but in terms of production he is the second highest performing bot laner on the slate. While a little death prone (68 deaths), he does have quite a few kills (90). He also has one of the higher kill participation rates (70%) and team kill share rate (32%). His ability to produce points is a partial reason you see his cost being fairly comparable to iBoy. 

Support

Favorite: Hang (RA: $5,800) Much like his ADC (iBoy), Hang is middle of the road. He doesn’t really cost Rare Atom games but you also don’t see him as the reason they win games either. He is third on the slate of supports in terms of assist numbers (155), first blood participation rate (26%), but has the lowest number of deaths (53). He has a great team kill participation percentage rate (72.5%) and does a great job peeling for iBoy. If consistency is what you want out of your picks, Hang should be a look for you. 

Value Pick: Missing (WE: $5,400) Supporting Jiumeng has some perks, including having a metric ton worth of assists (177) and a first blood participation rate north of 30%.Missing really excells in the meta supports are in now with tanky and engage focused who are there to create openings for the rest of the team. Even with his playstyle he isn’t a huge liability with only 80 deaths in 22 games played. Playing into the LGD bot lane is a pretty safe way to pick up points on this slate as well as not having too expensive of a price tag comparatively to someone like Hang. 

Team

Favorite: Rare Atom ($5,400) Rare Atom is the best performing early game team on the slate. They are averaging a whopping +1076 at 15 minutes and almost 20 point advantage in early game rating over eStar. They are a huge turret focused team (they take the first three turrets in 69% of their games). If eStar cannot stop the bleeding early, this series could get out of hand quickly. 

Value Pick: eStar ($4,400) Here is the other side of the coin. I think there is a clear path to victory for eStar. Putting my previous coaching hat, I see the gap for eStar is in the jungle. Get H4cker online and putting pressure in the side lanes and ignore the irma v FoFo matchup. Cube can be put behind and zs is a great team fighter and rat is a legitimate late game insurance policy. Another edge that eStar has is in their fighting ability. While they have more deaths they have a significant number of kills over Rare Atom. While I do think Rare Atom can win this series 2-0, they are prone to having absolute duds of games. 

 

Cann’s Example Lineup

The Example Lineup is meant to show lineup construction with players used in the Playbook. It is not meant for plug-and-play.

Captain (x1.5): beishang ($10,500)

     Alternate: rat ($10,800)

Top: Breathe ($6,600)

Jungle: Leyan ($7,200)

     Alternate: H4cker ($6,600)

Mid: Shanks ($7,400)

ADC: Jiumeng ($7,800)

     Alternate: iBoy ($7,600)

Support: ShiauC ($5,000)

Team: Rare Atom ($5,200)