This weekend, the League of Legends Championship Series will crown champions in Europe and North America.
Unfortunately, there won’t be any fantasy champions because there aren’t any daily fantasy contests during the playoffs. The inconsistent number of games in best-of-five series and the schedule make it tough to do. But that doesn’t mean we can’t pretend.
Today, let’s conduct a little thought experiment and construct a fantasy lineup that would win this weekend, if the weekend was a daily fantasy contest.
We’re using Skrilla scoring and we’ll take salaries based on the last LCS data we have, the final day of week eight.
The first thing to consider when evaluating the matches is who you think will win them and which of those wins will produce big fantasy points. Winning teams tend to produce more kills and objectives, which award players points on the Skrilla platform.
On paper, Fnatic is the favorite over G2 Esports, but the 100 Thieves and Team Liquid match is too close to call. So which of those matches will produce the most points?
100 Thieves and Team Liquid have lower fantasy point production compared to Fnatic and G2 Esports, but the difference is that Fnatic and G2 Esports play more minutes on average. Therefore, we’ll focus on Fnatic as the core of our lineup.
Top Lane: Martin “Wunder” Hansen, G2 Esports
Wunder has an advantageous matchup against Bwipo and if G2 Esports wants to win this series, they’ll likely need to do it in the solo lanes. Plus, Wunder is the most consistent fantasy scorer in the LCS top lane this season.
Jungle: Mads “Broxah” Brock-Pedersen, Fnatic
Broxah has been performing well in the playoffs and should have the opportunity to continue against G2 Esports.
Mid: Rasmus “Caps” Winther, Fnatic
Caps may struggle in lane against Perkz, but he’ll make up for it later when Fnatic wins team fights. Perkz may also be a viable alternative.
ADC: Martin “Rekkles” Larsson, Fnatic
Rekkles is the fantasy god himself, consistently putting up huge numbers every single game. There’s no other real choice for the ADC slot.
Support: Zaqueri “aphromoo” Black, 100 Thieves
Aphromoo is a solid choice to fill the final spot in the lineup. With 100 Thieves’ bottom lane focus and Aphromoo’s knowledge of his former lane partner, he should perform well.
So we end up with a team of Wunder, Broxah, Caps, Rekkles, and Aphromoo. An LCS championship caliber squad if I do say so myself. Our salary clocks in at 95,800, well under the 100,000 limit.
For fantasy, they should produce big numbers this weekend. The biggest risk is Fnatic losing the series against G2 Esports, especially in a stomp. In that instance, G2 would likely post huge numbers and make our lineup look silly. If they play a close series, though, I’ll take our chances. It’s also possible the American matchup throws a wrench into things, with Doublelift playing exceptionally well. But we’ll have to hope for the best.
