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