Hello! Welcome to the LCS preview of Week 2! You may notice that we skipped Week 1. That was not a mistake. Week 1 is always weird and boring and… Can I be honest? I had a lot of King Cake last week, and it really affected my ability to start this article. Plus, Week 1 was such a cluster, I’m glad I didn’t try to write about it. Being wrong about everything! It would have been hilarious. Of course, we picked it perfectly (which is a totally possible thing to happen in random events), but I promise our streak will end soon.
Another streak that won’t be ending soon though is TSM winning the split. They looked bad, but it’s Bjergsen here. He’s so unfair, and so is Hauntzer, the most boring player alive with great stats. He reminds me of Antawn Jamison except he wins the NA LCS and has better overall stats. What a guy. TSM is so unfair.
I don’t have anything else to say. I’m too mad at TSM.
Saturday’s Matches
1 CG (+105) vs CLG (-150)
In week two we see our first matchup between Clutch Gaming and Counter Logic Gaming, a veteran club Vs. a first-year franchise. However, these two squads look vastly different after week one. CLG came out hot in their match against C9 in week one but around the mid game they floundered around several calls and let C9 back into the game. It’s as almost if the loss of Aphromoo shattered their ability to make game changing decisions later on in the game and that is something to keep an eye on. On the contrary Clutch Gaming seemingly bodied The Golden Guardians and damn near had a perfect game minus 2 deaths from LirA and one air drake given up. Clutch would then turn around and be the victim next game and got waxed by a so far very impressive looking Echo Fox. In CLGs second match they again fell. However, this time it was to their former captain and shotcaller. Aphromoo seemed to know their every move and every single lane from CLG lost by a landslide. 100T dropped a nuke on CLG which is very concerning because they look out of sorts headed into week two. Going into this match I’m looking directly at the lane matchups and trying to see where the advantage is. In terms of results I’d say that CG is the favorite however I’m going against the grain. CLG is a veteran team that while yes looked shaky in week one simply has better talent in every single position and I see them rebounding convincingly and pulling out a large win over Clutch Gaming in week two. Look out from a big game by Huhi in this one, and maybe some Aurelion Sol action as well.
– TheStormSurge
2 TSM (-250) vs OPT (+170)
As a TSM fanboy I try not to be too biased and get my hopes too high but let’s face it, we got a big goose egg last week for the first time in NA LCS history, 60% of the roster is new, and a mitigation meta makes it very tough for our franchise player, Bjergsen, to get completely rolling. The legendary duo imported from Europe have a tough matchup again this week though they may be able to exploit some possible communication issues but Lemonnation is probably looking to wax that bot lane like he did when C9 entered the LCS. MikeYeung probably needs to stay off of assassins if he has hopes of helping since even though Hauntzer was statistically the best top laner in NA last year, he mainly eats when his team eats. I’ll rate this matchup 40 TSM – 60 OPT. I don’t think it’s a complete wash and we won’t see any record breaking game times, but we’ll probably see a methodical 40 minute game where a small lead is sequestered into a larger one over the course of the game until the bubble bursts.
– Flyamese Cat
3 C9 (-120) vs FOX (-120)
On paper I think Cloud 9 will have a pretty easy time in this matchup. My man Rick Fox decided that he’d start with a completely brand new team in this massive shakeup while facing Sneaky, who is in the running for best ADC in NA with his loyal support Smoothie. Echo Fox did acquire a strong squad and does have a lot of potential but the organization of Cloud 9 will probably overcome them. I’d personally tune into the mid lane stream if it’s available so I could watch Jensen slap FeniX all game long. Picks will be very important here however, Huni should never be underestimated regardless of what team he’s on and if he’s handed over Gnar or Ornn, look for him to put Echo Fox on his back. The caveat with that plan is that TSM decided to gift Cloud 9 Svenskeren because they hate having competent junglers so top lane has a high potential of becoming a bloodbath if my spidey senses are right. The matches Echo Fox had last week weren’t the hardest so they will need to play extra careful in this match or they could see Jensen and Sneaky take over very quickly. I’ll rate this match 65 C9 – 35 FOX.
– Flyamese Cat
4 100 (+105) vs TL (-150)
Rush Hour is long gone, as are the days of Aphromoo and DoubleLift being on traditional powers. TSM and CLG have moved on from these two and they have seemingly done the same. This is 100% the lane to watch in this matchup between 100T and Team Liquid. Both teams rocketed out to a 2-0 start last week and while Liquid lived up to the hype 100T came out of nowhere to get to 2-0. Liquid was supposed to have a tough matchup between them and TSM but aside from an essentially “garbage” kill by Bjergsen they were absolutely waxed by arguably the strongest team in LCS at the current moment. Impact looked incredible top and Xmithie seems to be carrying his success from last split into this one and the hype train is rolling for TL at the moment. However, with hype comes cockiness and Doublelift while yes winning the game, and then throwing shade to TSMs new bot lane looked somewhat subpar for the majority of the laning phase and that is something to keep an eye on. You know what they say, talk shit get hit. That is exactly what 100T is going to try and do here as well. They looked rocky in the first matchup against CG but they pulled it out on a game that damn near went for an hour. Then in game two Aphromoo and company absolutely bodied CLG. TL is certainly going to be the favorite in a ton of matchups the rest of the season. However, I think this game runs through top lane (even more so than the eye popping bot lane like I said earlier) and I like Ssumday more than Impact on this one. This game is a truly a toss up to me but I have a feeling this game is going to come down to a fight late game and I like Aphromoo making the right call late to put 100Thieves at 3-0 in a very close game.
– TheStormSurge
5 GGS (+120) vs FLY (-175)
As a C9 fanboy, watching TSM lose two times last week was great. One of those losses was to FlyQuest though, which was the biggest upset of the week. The line for that match was around +300 for FlyQuest. And after the first match, it seemed inevitable, where FlyQuest had a team KDA of .6. But then they beat TSM! Ha! GGS on the other hand… Boy, I had a little more hope for the Contractz-Hai combo, since Hai was the guy who introduced Contractz to the LCS to begin with. They had a difficult start with matches against C9 and Clutch, and I expect Hai to drag this team forward. That being said, I give the edge to FLY for now (and so do the esports books!).
– mandersxii
HAIKU OF THE WEEK
TSM’s Bjersen
Is a really great player
Never wins World’s though
Sunday’s Matches
6 FOX (Even) vs TSM (-145)
This is my vote for game of the week right here (editor’s note: really? lol), two major organizations that have leveled up in their minds duking it out with Svenskeren looking to get revenge on his old team. Heads up, I think mid lane is the only place that Echo Fox solidly loses. Like I said about the C9 matchup, picks and bans will be especially important here. Hauntzer is known for his Gnar (though it didn’t show up last week) and Huni can also carry from top. Bjergsen just flat out outclasses FeniX so there will probably be a ton of attention to the mid lane in this matchup. This will probably leave Zven and Mithy to do their thing bot lane and shut it down until Svenskeren decides to show up which even still will require some better communication. Hopefully Bjergsen doesn’t forget that he can missing ping this week and Zven can actually carry. I’ll rank this match 50 – 50, no real prediction here.
– Flyamese Cat
7 C9 (-145) vs 100 (Even)
Is Svenskeren actually good? He looked shaky last week, but he was timely in their two wins. That core is still really consistent. I liked that they were able to pull off a late game comp in game one against CLG, fall behind, and still pull out the victory. Licorice seemed confident. Whatever, I’m a homer. 100 was also a surprise last week, but it always seemed like that roster was going to be good with talented veterans or bad with washed up veterans. Meteos might never be the world-class jungler he used to be, but with such a pedigreed roster he should be in a great position to succeed. That being said, I like C9 a little more here, but I wouldn’t bet it since I’m so biased.
– mandersxii
8 OPT (-120) vs FLY (-120)
Damn, how’d I pull two FLY games? I swear to Gawd, the fact that they won a match against TSM while building a team around WILDTURTLE (WILDTURTLE! A team! Built around him! Wow!) is so amazing that I can’t believe anything they do the rest of this season will beat that. OPT, on the other hand, doesn’t have a signature win for the entire season yet, and I’m sure their last loss to TSM (yeah, that’s right, I don’t share my colleague’s confidence in OPT to beat TSM) doesn’t help them here. That being said, I like OPT’s roster and LemonNation’s beard. PoE and Arrow shouldn’t lose four in a row. And the fact that OPT survived against a Kog’Maw with Ezreal against 100 is encouraging. I’ll take OPT here.
– mandersxii
9 GGS (+190) vs CLG (-300)
Ah now is where things get interesting to me. We have CLG Vs. The Golden Guardians. If CLG somehow does not when this game hit the fucking panic button because Golden Guardians is not a good team plain and simple. CLG after adding Biofrost and Reignover were expected to be one of the best teams on paper and that just hasn’t happened yet. A loss to GGS would be absolutely catastrophic to this team that I’m picking to rebound this week to get back to 2-2. Not to discredit GGS though, they have arguably the best shot caller in LCS in Hai, however the problem is that once again, Hai doesn’t have a team around him. Hai held his own against Jensen in the C9 match and showed he can play a pretty mean Zoe. However, the bot lane of Matt and Deftly just looked lost and Contractz couldn’t get anything going in the jungle. In their other game against clutch is was more so the same. No one posted a KDA above .500 and the team just looked out of sync. CLG wins this game quickly and by a landslide. Look for a competitive matchup in the mid lane but keeps your eyes on bot as this can be a game where Shanghai Noon could post a massive game.
– TheStormSurge
10 TL (-300) vs CG (+190)
This line seems broken as hell. TL looked hella good last week, with wins over TSM and OPT, but it was TSM and OPT? Like TSM looked bad, and OPT was gonna be competitive, not a world beater. Sure, CG’s one win last week was over GGS, but they played FOX close. I like CG to get TL closer to Earth with a win here, even though they employ 60% of Envy from the Spring 2017. I’ll never trust Apollo ever. I watched him lose so much for Team Coast that I still have nightmares. Fate is not so easily shirked, and this feels like a very early disappointment game for TL.
– mandersxii
SHAKESPEAREAN INSULT OF THE WEEK
“His very hair is of the dissembling colour.” – As You Like It
Pretty sure this is a straight up dismissal of someone’s hair. Like go wash it or something.
Enjoy the games, and make sure you dunk on someone’s hair.