This article is part of our DraftKings League of Legends series.
LPL/LCK Games (EDT)
- 2:00 a.m. LGD Gaming vs. Royal Never Give Up (LPL)
- 4:00 a.m. SANDBOX Gaming vs. T1 (LCK)
- 4:00 a.m. LNG Esports vs. EDward Gaming (LPL)
- 5:30 a.m. Afreeca Freecs vs. Griffin (LCK)
- 5:30 a.m. JD Gaming vs. Invictus Gaming (LPL)
LGD (3-7) RNG (7-3)
LGD's last game was against WE, who threw the series in Game 3. LGD have an early-game style which relies heavily on Peanut to make the big plays and set up his team for success. Peanut has always been a good jungler, but fell off the last two years. There's a bit of a resurgence from him, though, particularly after coming into the LPL and seemingly finding players that want to play his style. The thing about this series is that Royal Never Give Up's objective control is about 15 percent better than its opposition. It's exactly why LGD struggles in the middle to late game; they might have an advantage in kills, but the gold lead is in favor of the other team. After losing a tough series against Invictus Gaming, RNG will look to come out and smash the next team they play, which is unfortunately LGD.
Prediction: RNG 2-0
Bets: N/A
RNG Players to target: LangX (TOP $7,200), Betty (ADC $8,000)
LNG (4-8) vs EDG (7-4)
So LNG Esports was en route to take a game off FunPlus Phoenix until they botched a big teamfight and then proceeded to lose within 25 minutes in Game 2. LNG is still the
LPL/LCK Games (EDT)
- 2:00 a.m. LGD Gaming vs. Royal Never Give Up (LPL)
- 4:00 a.m. SANDBOX Gaming vs. T1 (LCK)
- 4:00 a.m. LNG Esports vs. EDward Gaming (LPL)
- 5:30 a.m. Afreeca Freecs vs. Griffin (LCK)
- 5:30 a.m. JD Gaming vs. Invictus Gaming (LPL)
LGD (3-7) RNG (7-3)
LGD's last game was against WE, who threw the series in Game 3. LGD have an early-game style which relies heavily on Peanut to make the big plays and set up his team for success. Peanut has always been a good jungler, but fell off the last two years. There's a bit of a resurgence from him, though, particularly after coming into the LPL and seemingly finding players that want to play his style. The thing about this series is that Royal Never Give Up's objective control is about 15 percent better than its opposition. It's exactly why LGD struggles in the middle to late game; they might have an advantage in kills, but the gold lead is in favor of the other team. After losing a tough series against Invictus Gaming, RNG will look to come out and smash the next team they play, which is unfortunately LGD.
Prediction: RNG 2-0
Bets: N/A
RNG Players to target: LangX (TOP $7,200), Betty (ADC $8,000)
LNG (4-8) vs EDG (7-4)
So LNG Esports was en route to take a game off FunPlus Phoenix until they botched a big teamfight and then proceeded to lose within 25 minutes in Game 2. LNG is still the same team aside from maybe a slight improvement in their macroing. LNG has a 52 percent dragon rate while EDward Gaming is right behind them at 51 percent, but EDG has a massive gold-per-minute, kill/death and tower percentage advantage over LNG, entirely because every lane usually loses early besides Flandre. Flandre flanks every time to make a play, but this causes all his other lanes to lose and that's why they have one of the highest "towers taken" by opponents. EDG needs to win to compete for a top-three spot for playoffs and they will be coming out with whatever they can every day to secure a good seeding.
Prediction: EDG 2-0
Bets: N/A
EDG Players to target: Scout (MID $7,600), Hope (ADC $8,200), Meiko ($5,200)
JDG (8-4) vs IG (10-1)
JD Gaming beat Estar on Tuesday and it was pretty convincing how they did it as well. Zoom lived up to his namesake, roaming around the map freely, opening up a lot of lanes for their carries to focus on. There's only one win condition you need against Invictus Gaming --- out macro them and try to punish their crazy style of LoL. JDG can do this. Zoom has played TheShy very well in most games and he doesn't let him bully during the laning phase. If Zoom can keep that trend going, that means every other lane can get ahead, even Kanavi who is the most important player in this matchup. Kanavi is a jungler who is impossible to ban out, making him an elite player because of his pathing and the way he can set up plays early on. IG's win condition, as we saw, is TheShy. TheShy is the best top laner, a fact which we saw play out in IG's matchup against Royal Never Give Up on Sunday. I love IG as a team because they can outfight you anytime, but they are hiding Leyan very well since he has one less lane to worry about. This is a fantasy gold mine and I love both sides of the game.
Prediction: JDG 2-1
Bets: JDG ML (+195)
Players to target: Everybody in this game due to having the highest kill total on the slate.
LCK - T1 (12-3) vs SB (5-10)
T1 needs to win this game to be tied for first place with Gen.G. They have the head-to-head advantage against Gen.G and since they have a few games left, every match matters. SB is not good, and T1 should smash them here.
Prediction: T1 2-0
Bets: N/A
T1 Players to target: Teddy (ADC $7,600)
Griffin (4-12) vs AF (6-9)
This is a stay-away game for me due to the fact that Afreeca Freecs has looked real bad lately. Their kill percentage and objective control went down about 15 percent the last six games, while conversely, Griffin has improved with Sword in the lineup. Sword has been known to play well during tank metas, and this is why this Griffin team has looked better as of late. News came out that Mystic has been dealing with some external distractions, which might explain his poor performance as of late. The emotional toll on him has definitely impacted this team, as they need to win out to somehow get into the playoffs. I don't know who will start that game, but I am going to lay most of my marbles on Griffin as they are trending up, even though I think AF comes out with a solid gameplan to try and make playoffs.
Prediction: Griffin 2-1
Bets: Griffin ML (even)
Griffin players to target: Tarzan (JNG $5800), Viper (ADC $7000)
Stacks
Cash: IG/Griffin, IG/EDG, IG/RNG
GPP: JDG/EDG, JDG/RNG
