This article is part of our DraftKings League of Legends series.
DraftKings LoL LCS: Saturday Cheat Sheet
The playoffs are upon us and after a two week break I'm ready for more LCS action. There's two good matchups on Saturday including Fnatic vs. Vitality in Europe and Team SoloMid vs. Cloud9 in North America. Vitality and Cloud9 are the favorites, but don't discredit Fnatic's innate ability to fare well in best-of series. Fnatic's coach Deilor will likely devise a solid game, and as a whole the team is good enough to upset Vitality. That being said, I think this series may not be that high scoring for fantasy purposes.
Cloud9 is favored over a TSM squad that has thrown multiple games this season. It makes my stomach turn just thinking about possibly trusting TSM, but I'd be remiss if I didn't tell you that this is a roster with really good individual talent. Can they succeed as a cohesive unit? That's where their problem has been all split and against Cloud9 I think they should lose this series. I wouldn't necessarily shy away from using TSM, but it is a risky proposition.
Today's Cheat Sheet is different from the regular season versions. With little variance, I'll be ranking players in the order I'd prefer to use them along with their DraftKing's prices. It'll be pretty much impossible to start all of my favorites, so a little fiddling with your roster will likely be in order.
Daily Player Recommendations:
Top Lane: Cabochard (VIT vs. FNC, $6,800), Gamsu (FNC vs. VIT, $5,700), Hauntzer (TSM vs. C9, $5,300), Balls (C9 vs. TSM, $7,100)
Cabochard and Gamsu have both carried at times for their respective teams. Cabochard is one of the best carry top laners in Europe and is probably the best pick in terms of fantasy upside. Gamsu has shown he can carry, but he's been mostly relegated to tanks in the past. The assist upside is still very real however. Balls is last based more on his price than anything else. I'm not willing to pay over $7,000 for a guy who very rarely carries. Balls is a better real life asset than a fantasy one.
Jungle: Rush (C9 vs. TSM, $6,800), Spirit (FNC vs. VIT, $5,400), Shook (VIT vs. FNC, $6,600), Svenskeren (TSM vs. C9, $5,000)
Rush, Spirit, and Shook are all viable targets today. They're all aggressive junglers who tend to score well in fantasy. They farm well early and look to snowball their lanes throughout the early game. I think with the savings, Spirit is a good target to fill a flex role in order to pay up elsewhere. Svenskeren is an easy fade if you've been watching him play lately -- he's mistake prone and not worth using even at such a low salary.
Middle Lane: Febiven (FNC vs. VIT, $6,300), Nukeduck (VIT vs. FNC, $7,500), Jensen (C9 vs. TSM, $7,700) , Bjergsen (TSM vs. C9, $5,900)
I think Febiven, when on his game, is probably the best mid laner in the West. If it's not Febiven, then the argument would generally lean towards Bjergsen. You never see Bjergsen this low and as a result, he looks to be a pretty good bargain. Even in a loss, he could score a respectable amount of points. The reason he's last is based on TSM as a team being unable to close out games. Nukeduck and Jensen are coming off of very good seasons and are also very good picks. I could honestly see using any of the four mid laners in your lineups today as I don't think there's a real standout avoid in this group.
ADC: Sneaky (C9 vs. TSM, $7,800), Hjarnan (VIT vs. FNC, $7,600), Rekkles (FNC vs. VIT, $6,400), Doublelift (TSM vs. C9, $6,000)
Like the mid laners I don't think there's a real obvious avoid in this group either. Doublelift is my last ranked ADC for Saturday, but we all know he can have standout performances. It's possible he can put TSM on his back and have a huge series, but it's also possible he could try to carry too hard and have a terrible series. Sneaky, Hjarnan, and Rekkles are all a bit safer -- particularly Hjarnan, who has played particularly well in the last few weeks of the season for Vitality.
Support: Hai (C9 vs. TSM, $6,000), kaSing (VIT vs. FNC, $5,800), YellOwStaR (TSM vs. C9, $4,300), Klaj (FNC vs. VIT, $4,700)
I usually don't pay up for supports, but based on the way I built my lineups I was actually able to fit Hai in. If you want to go cheap at support, however, I'd recommend Yellowstar over Klaj. Not just because he is cheaper, but also because Klaj has been prone to sloppy play and high death totals at times. Yellowstar and TSM certainly have been sloppy themselves, but the TSM support is a great veteran player who won't be nervous about being in the LCS playoffs.
Team: C9 ($5,500), Fnatic ($4,000), Vitality ($5,200), TSM (3,600)
Similar to my support, I had enough money to pay up for C9 in most of my lineups. The surprising thing here may be that I have Fnatic second. The reason behind the thought process strictly falls on the fact that I think Vitality has a chance to win the series, giving you a good chunk of change which you can use to pay for carries in other roles. TSM could certainly beat Cloud9 and have enough talent on their roster to do so. But can they come together as a team and avoid throwing if they have the lead? I'm not so sure.
