My Fantasy LCS Picks AKA Rambling no One Else Gets or Cares About

As most of the people that read this blog know, I am pretty big into esports, particularly the League of Legends scene, and one of the things I really enjoy is the Fantasy LCS. It is essentially like Fantasy Football, but for the League of Legends Championship Series. (LCS) Players enter into a league and at the beginning of the season/split draft a team and compete with each other on a week to week basis. Each team consists of six players (one for each position in a team and an additional "Flex" pick) and one team on a starting roster and there are three sub positions available for players to draft in additional players to shore up potential weaknesses in their team. Participants in the fantasy league are also limited to picking only two players for each position since certain positions are worth more points. It would be like trying to draft a team in fantasy football made entirely of quarterbacks. It just doesn't make sense. Now that you have a general idea of what Fantasy LCS is you are ready to have my overwhelmingly intelligent picks explained to you. I'll start from the top (lol wordplay) and go down the list giving brief (hopefully) explanations of why I choose them for my team. The full team list can be found here if you want to put faces to the names I'm throwing out.

For my Top lane pick (get the wordplay thing now?) I've chosen Quas of Team Liquid. Quas is a versatile top laner who is capable of fitting into whatever role his team needs him to play. Quas can play team fight oriented mages like Lissandra, Rumble or Lulu that rack up the kills or beefy tanks such as Gnar, Renekton, and Sion that distract the opponents while his Korean carries clean up the fight. He has intelligent teleport play, but with Piglet's tendency to split push himself it shouldn't be seen as a surprise if Quas is often found grouped up with his team ready to get into the mix. I expect that for the most part Quas will be providing a healthy stream of assists to keep his fantasy score high.

Moving into the jungle I've got myself Jankos of team Roccat, who just might be the best jungler in all of Europe with Svenskernen of SK gaming being his only real competition. (Shook is simply not consistent enough to be the best.) Pair that talent with with one of the rising stars of Europe in Nukeduck and you have one of the strongest mid/jungle pairings in Europe. I expect early kills with smart snowballing from the Polish jungler.

Whether you want to admit it or not TSM fans, your team lives or dies based almost entirely on the performance of the Danish superstar Bjergsen. While this might be considered a weakness by some, I wouldn't worry to much about it yet since Bjergsen is one of, if not the best players in North America currently, and there is actually an argument to be made that he is just THE best in NA right now. The Dane is famed for his incredibly strong laning that has netted him many solo kills on his opponents and his ability to almost always get ahead of the enemy allows him to make plenty of big plays which mean plenty of fantasy points for me. Bjergsen is so good I planned my entire fantasy draft around him and Forg1ven who I will touch on next.

Forg1ven (yes it's spelt with a 1 and not an i, just pronounce it Forgiven) as I mentioned just now was a pick I planned my entire draft around. A couple of people in the draft with me suggested that this was my "Sleeper" pick. I don't really understand how anyone can really think he is a sleeper though, Forg1ven was the shining light on an otherwise dismal looking Copenhagen Wolves last year, and this year he's been put into a much better team with SK gaming. Forg1ven has just as much talent for League as Rekkles who is very often stated as being the best AD carry in all of Europe, but Forg1ven has something that Rekkles simply does not. An aggressive playstyle, and to top it all off he is now paired with one of the best minds in the game in nRated. These two together have both the brawn AND the brains to back it up. Forg1ven is going to lead the charge for both SK and myself all the way to the top of the standings.

Last year I refused to pick any players from Team Solo Mid (TSM) on the simple reason that I didn't like the team. Now that I've moved on from that childish mentality I've gone ahead and picked two players from their roster. Really that's all I have to say about Lustboy though, I picked him up pretty late into my draft, but he is a very good support player playing for what I think will be a very successful team. What could go wrong?

The sixth slot is designated for fantasy players to have a "Flex" pick where they can but a player from any position in allowing a fantasy team to play two tops, two mids etc etc. However since Mid laners and AD carries get the lions share of points almost everyone just picks one of those two to double up on. For myself this is where I've taken a bit more of a risk by picking up Keane of Gravity. Keane is a risk not because I don't know how good he is, I know that Keane is a very good player. What I don't know is if Gravity is all that good as a team and with the way fantasy points are earned you need players to be on winning teams if you want to succeed. Keane is my riskiest pick-up and even then I'm not that worried. Gravity can't fail completely can they?

The seventh and final starting spot on a fantasy roster belongs to a team and I've picked up the boys in blue, Team Liquid. This team has an insane amount of hype around them right now, and I won't lie, I've bought right into it. Liquid looks incredibly solid with nearly every player on their roster having been a proven player in some aspect or another. The only unproven player is Fenix, their mid laner. While Fenix doesn't have too much experience on the bigger stages of play nearly every other pro in the scene has spoken highly of his skill so I wouldn't consider it anything to be worried about. Everything points to Liquid having a very successful season, and to top it all off their playstyle is very methodical taking every objective possible as to not allow an opponent they've gained an advantage over the chance to get back into the game. This play style will convert into lots of fantasy points for me. WHOOO!

This is already an incredibly long post so I'll try and get through the subs part of the team quickly. My subs are picked with the intention of being solid players that I can put in if some of my starters are facing difficult teams that particular week. Wickd of team Elements is ready to sub in for Quas and Helios of Winterfox can replace Jankos if needed. I also have team Fnatic on my bench just in case they actually turn out to be as good as they played in the first week.

I think it should go without saying that I think I've drafted a good fantasy team, and more importantly that my team is better than my opponents. My picks should show my superior knowledge of the League of Legends pro scene and I hope I win this Fantasy league convincingly. If you actually made it to the end of all this rambling let it be known that I love you and hope you had a great day today. Peace buds.

Obligatory picture of my Team Liquid shirt to show my support!

New Research Shows Fundamental Flaw in 1-10 Scaling!

Recent statistical analysis of the classic 1-10 scale of attractiveness has revealed a potentially game changing idea. Chief researcher of made up things and known truth speaker Jonathan Tollestrup made a shocking discovery while trying to pay attention to a particularly dry lecture last week. The discovery that absolutely no one uses the numbers one, two or three when asked to describe the attractiveness of a particular person. "It's baffling to think that absolutely no one seems to think of people as drop dead ugly." Eilidh Ward of shamanistic fame told The Critical Canuck. "Like come on, some people just don't got it, you know?"

With this new revelation Mr. Tollestrup has announced that a new system will be put into place to replace the fundamentally broken arbitrary system of describing attractiveness to your bros. The proposed changes would remove the numbers one, two and three from the system but leave the rest of scale intact. The alteration will take effect precisely 26 days from today in order to secure a smooth transition between the two distinctly different systems.

During an exclusive interview yesterday with the famed Chief researcher, it was revealed to The Critical Canuck that even with the delay the transition may be difficult for some. "Beginning the scale at four and ending at ten will completely alter our understanding of who is and is not a total bombshell. Those who thought they were reasonably attractive at a seven will have to learn to live with the fact that they are actually just  an average looking person now." After finishing the press conference researcher Tollestrup was greeted by hundreds of grateful people who were looking forward to being objectified in a more accurate manner.

Several critics of this new system have already noted that with these changes that there would be a forty percent decrease in available options for people to describe how good-looking another person is. Resident expert on rating people Kim Passey expressed her faith in the creative nature of those who use simple numbers to describe the attractiveness of a person. She even went on the record to state, "They are the most original and clever people I've ever met, I'm sure they will think of something. Maybe decimals?" Critics would quickly reply to Ms. Passey's comment noting how it made a lot of sense and that they had no further concerns.

Analysts of human attractiveness are anticipating a surge in reports of attractiveness as the new archaic and pointless system replaces the old archaic and pointless system.

My Night seeing Take Me to the Tempo and Going Nowhere

Last night I had the great privilege of attending a Young Single Adult (YSA) event in Edmonton which featured many talented musicians in Edmonton and I thought that I could take some time and write down my thoughts about the event. First and foremost it should be mentioned that I thoroughly enjoyed myself at this event as you can see in the picture below. There is something about going to see live music that just brings a lot more energy out of me. I don't know why I don't see more live shows or things of a similar vein because it's just so much fun! It should also be noted that all of the groups that performed were doing covers exclusively, and while I would have preferred to hear a few original pieces it isn't something one should expect when you know going in that they are cover bands.

That is me drenched in sweat. NO REGRETS

The night began with a group that I never actually got the name of so I will be forced to call them Those Three Guys that did Acoustic Stuff or TTGTDA (Pronounced teh-guh-da if you wondering.) Now there is no doubt in my mind that these guys were quite good, I couldn't help but feel that their set really didn't match up with the rest of the night all that well. Even at YSA dance events were slow dancing is pretty common five songs or so straight of it doesn't really match up as well as one might hope. Their front man for all I could tell was shining though, as much as the slick pants he wore to the event I'd go as far as saying. That's really all there is to say about this group though, very talented, but might have been better suited for another event. Nothing you could really fault them for. 

Cover band Going Nowhere took the stage next and almost immediately made their mark. Fast-paced and high-energy defined most of the set list which I personally felt was the most well chosen of all the groups. Joe Kastendieck shredded the guitar throughout the set in what I thought of as one of the best performances of the night. The bands cover of Fix You by Coldplay showed some great versatility but Beverly Hills would be my personal favorite song of their set. Overall this group was fun, energetic and I hope to see many more performances from them and even though there were times I couldn't really hear the vocals over the rest of the band it didn't really matter since I was too busy having a blast to care. 

Closing out the night was Take me to the Tempo and while they kept with the high energy theme Going Nowhere brought one couldn't help but feel a bit more of a professional sense here. Coregraphed dancing from Front-woman Shawni Tolman and Zachary Ayers displayed a more invested effort and it paid off in spades. I loved the energy this group brought especially from all those they had perform with them that were not part of the core group. Special shout-out to Brother Mandin who made me deeply regret having stopped playing saxophone for a short time before getting back to the dancing. The token slow song Take me to the Tempo was Aerosmith's Don't Want to Miss a Thing, and this song might have shown just how much darn fun this group was as myself and the girl I was dancing with couldn't help but continue to belt along with the song, something that would never had happened back in the awkward days of Junior High that most people remember that song for. If I were to launch a complaint it would be that like Going Nowhere there would be occasional issues with vocals being drowned out, primarily the back up singers seemed to be largely unheard for me. That is an incredibly small smudge on a otherwise brilliant performance. 

Now it's much easier for someone to really shine when they are surrounded by performers that just aren't as talented as those around them. The real test of a performer is to shine even when you are surrounded by people who are also very talented and Kris Strangeland and Shawni Tolman passed this test with flying colours. Kris brought an superb level of play that took several of the bands numbers to the next level. Shawni brought an energy that simply would not be matched. Her presence on stage was one that was totally unafraid of what could happen on stage and that was most noticeable with the bands rendition of Jamiroquai's Canned Heat from Napoleon Dynamite fame. Jamiroquai is a voice that I would under normal circumstances advise people from trying to cover but Ms. Tolman pulled it off without a hitch and even looked like she was having more fun with it than the crowd. 

All the groups that performed gave splendid performances and I want to personally thank them for giving me one of the most fun nights I have had in quite a while. Unfortunately Going Nowhere and Take me to the Tempo do not have Social Media pages for me to link you to, but if you ever hear about these groups giving a performance somewhere make sure to do yourself a favor and check it out! Peace buds.