My favourite sports writer always starts his weekly Love/Hate with an anecdote about events in his life. Sometimes they’re funny, sometimes they’re heart warming, other times they’re just a story about the man’s life, his wife, or his kids, but you find yourself nodding along because ultimately it’s a story about something that most of us have at some point in our life experienced or encountered.
Sadly; unlike Matthew Berry, I have no such story or anecdote for you, I’m afraid you’ll just have to settle for fantasy advice this week, but who knows. Maybe next week I’ll have a hilarious story come to mind that I can reminisce about. Although, probably not.
Players I Love In Week 4
Febiven – Mid – Fnatic
A substantially mediocre showing for Fnatic and Febiven in week 3, however he should be able to rebound nicely in week 4, facing off against two bottom of the table teams. The first game will see Fnatic face the winless Giants gaming, pitting Febiven head to head with Xpepii; who had a dismal showing this week with a combined 3 kills while amassing 6 deaths. The Sunday game seems Fnatic coming up against a similarly weak opponent, Roccat; who have only won 1 game so far. The ROC mid laner – Betsy – had a decent enough showing in week 3, totalling a scoreline of 5/3/10 for the week. Even with this in mind Febiven is a clear cut above Betsy, and should have no problem putting up big numbers in both his games this week.
Bjergsen – Mid – TSM
It’s hard not to love the guy who’s considered by many to be the best mid-lane player on the North American circuit right now, however this week he garners a bit more love because of what should be two very easy matchups. As the season continues to shake out, certain facts are coming to light, the primary of which is this: if you play in the NA LCS, and get to face Renegades and Echo Fox in the same week, you’re fantasy gold.
This week TSM will be facing the two bottom teams in the NA standings, with Fox and Renegades both having just a single win so far. In terms of who he’s facing, Bjergsen will tee off against what I presume will be Goldenglue, owing to the continued visa issues with Froggen who opened the season at mid for Fox. After subbing in just last week Goldenglue has been the better of the lane opponents this week, but still hasn’t been great; in fact through his last 3 games he’s managed only 2 kills. Sunday squares old school staple Alex Ich up against TSM, and sadly this isn’t the Alex we all remember. In week 3 Alex Ich put up 1 kill and died 8 times, not the scoreline you’re used to. Bjergsen meanwhile continues to roll along and should have no problem rolling you all the way to some serious fantasy points this week.
Mithy – Support – Origen
Right now Mithy is the #3 support in overall fantasy scoring, and he’s slated for one tough game this week against G2. He will then get to face last place Giants in the Sunday game which should more than make up for it. I’m not really expecting a dominating performance against G2; after all they’re an exceptional team, and their ADC / Support combo of Emperor and Hybrid is a pretty even matchup for Mithy and his ADC Zven. However the fact that OG will then face the winless GIA, means I more than expect a top tier performance from OG’s bot lane who completely over match their counterparts on Giants, Adryh and Godfred.
Players I Hate In Week 4
Mrrallez – ADC – Elements
Before I go any further with this I want to be clear, Mrrallez is having a great fantasy season, right now he’s the 7th highest scoring ADC throughout the split, and has a better fantasy production than some bigger names such as Doublelift and Rekkles. However this week sees Elements – who are coming off a 0-2 week, with losses to UOL and OG – taking on Vitality and H2K which look to be another couple of tough games. EL will open the week against VIT, meaning Mrrallez comes out of the gate facing the veteran duo of Hjarnan and Kasing, both of whom have been playing solid games so far, and while they may not win outright, they stand a good chance of limiting production in game 1. The second game will be the tough matchup as Elements take on H2K,; leading the charge at ADC is Forg1vengre, who despite having played in all 6 games so far, has only died 3 times. Given how good he’s been you’re not likely to be able to find a free agent better than Mrrallez, but I wouldn’t be expecting a 50 point showing from him this week either.
HuHi – Mid – CLG
Another player having a pretty good season, who I believe won’t have a great outing this week due to matchups. While there are definitely worse people to be starting, outside of them I’m not expecting HuHi to have a great week. Despite being fairly productive the past couple of weeks HuHi will be facing two players who are playing lights out thus far. CLG’s first game is against Immortals, which really says it all.
Pobelter has been on fire all split and shows no sign of slowing down. For the split Pobelter has only 9 deaths to his name, and has racked up 27 total kills, he’s not someone I want to start anyone against. To add to what is almost certain to be a disappointing week for HuHi he’ll be facing Pirean of TIP on the second game, granted this is likely to be one that could go either way and may well save your scoring for the week. TIP haven’t looked terrible in recent weeks and their roster now appears to be somewhat settled. Pirean comes in to this week having played only 3 games but averaging 3.66 kills and 1.66 deaths per game. This week is likely to be closer to boom or bust for HuHi rather than the reliable numbers you’ve been able to count on.
Keith – ADC – Echo Fox
This has not been the start to the season team Fox were hoping for, plagued by roster issues, losing in a heart breaker to Liquid and being firmly seated at the bottom of the table 2 weeks running. I wish I could say this week it gets better, I have a huge amount of admiration for Rick Fox, he seems like a genuinely nice guy and by all accounts is an excellent team owner. Did I mention the fact he has 3 NBA championship rings? That in itself is impressive.
Unfortunately, the aforementioned visa issues have all but devastated the starting roster for the time being, and the two staple members in Keith and Big have their work cut out for them this week. Game 1 for Fox has them facing off against TSM’s bottom lane of ADC Doublelift and Yellowstar at support, who put up a combined 7 kills 17 assists in week 3. They should have an easier time in their 2nd game against Dignitas, who after a hot start appear to be struggling a bit. Despite the unimpressive stat lines, Apollo and Kikikid have still looked good, and at times have shown the potential to be a formidable ADC/Support combination. Regardless of the tilt that Dignitas find themselves on, I think they’ll be able to overcome it. For Keith and Big I believe the roster issues will prove too much again this week, inspite of how much I’d personally like to see Echo Fox on an upward trend.