Welcome back RotoBallers to my League of Legends DFS column! We will continue to extend our analysis for LoL DFS across different leagues and sites, bringing you the insight you need to succeed. Thanks once again for the outpouring of support from the DFS and eSports communities. I can't thank you enough for the kind words on Twitter, and your support has afforded me the opportunity to write about something I love every day.
Draftkings is digging deep to continue bringing us League of Legends contests, and as long as they do, we'll be here for it. The Spring season is over, but there are still some massive contests posted in the FanDuel, and DraftKings lobbies, including the 10-dollar Titan's Fury that pays 10K to first place!
Today, I'll be providing my League of Legends advice, analysis, and lineup picks for the BRCC slate on DraftKings that locks at 5:00 PM ET on Monday, May 11th, 2020. Make sure you are following me on Twitter @Mr_Malmanger as I often post starting lineups when I see them and other useful info for the slate.
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Monday 5/11 - 5:00 PM: Santos Esports (-375) vs. Falkol
In our first match, which takes place on Monday, we've got the regular-season champions in Santos versus Falkol who managed to squeak into the playoffs at 8-7. Santos, as the regular-season champions, is favored in this match, but with Falkol winning the regular-season series, I'm surprised to see them be this big of a favorite. The winner of these playoffs auto qualifies into the CBLOL for split two, and the second-place team will face INTZ with the winner qualifying as well. Even though this promises to be some messy low tier league of legends, this matchup will feature three players with World Championship experience. Tierwulf has made it to World's twice and MSI once while a member of Kaos Latin Gamers. Buggax went to World's and MSI both last season as a member of Isurus Gaming. Rainbow also was at Worlds in 2019 with AHQ, although he and Buggax didn't face each other there. With Falkol holding the season series lead, they should be very popular on DK Monday.
I think both sides have what it takes to win this matchup, but I will buck the trend here and side with the favorites. Santos is better early in the game they have a 70% rift herald take on the season, and translate that into a 67% first turret rate. Santos also holds the gold generation stats, and a gold differential at 15 minutes of +980 bears that out. Santos also has better Baron and Drake percentages than does Falkol, but the vision stats between the two teams are relatively equal. The outcome of the matchup will come down to the top half of the map vs. the bottom half. I think that Santos has the advantage on the top side, and Falkol on the bottom. Santos has the fastest game time in the BRCC, Falkol, the longest, and this too plays to the top/bottom narrative. Both teams are in play on Monday, and this match should be the bloodier one of the two on the slate. Especially if Falkol win as the two games that they took in the regular season ended with 43 and 28 kills, while the one that Santos took was a 12 kill affair. I still like Santos to take this 3-2 or 3-1.
Hyoga - SAN - JNG ($6,800 DraftKings)
The Jungler for Santos is second on the team in both kill participation, and kill share. He will be looking to match Tierwulf early and get his powerful solo laners ahead. He is 4-1 on the year with Sedjuani, a pick I like for safety due to its tanky nature, but he is also able to play Graves or Trundle. With Santos starting on the blue side, they could look to first pick either of those two power picks for their stud jungler.
Rainbow - SAN - MID ($7,600 DraftKings)
The mid-laner for Santos should be the most expensive player on Draftkings, but is second to his ADC. Rainbow leads the team in both kill participation and kill share. Rainbow is a Korean import, and before reaching Worlds with the LMS team AHQ he previously played with APK Prince in Challengers Korea. He is a very talented player and is versatile as well, having played 11 champions in 15 games this split. If Santos wins this match, he should be the highest-scoring player for them Draftkings wise.
JackPot - SAN - TOP ($6,400 DraftKings)
His opposite number Buggax is a focal point for the side of Falkol, and JackPot will be there to oppose him. He is second on the team to Rainbow in kill share, and at 57.1% kill participation is high for a top-laner. Both top-laners tend to play more carry oriented champions, and in their latest matchup JackPot went 5-0-5 on Aatrox while Buggax was 0-7-0 on Irelia.
Buggax - FLK - TOP ($5,800 DraftKings)
Buggax had two huge performances in the regular season versus Santos scoring 39.64 and 49.4 DK points. He leads the slate in kill share, not just among top-laners, but overall outpacing ADCs and MIDs for both teams as well. He will be a spicy captain option for Monday's contests if you're taking FLK, and even if you're on Santos with me, he can still be a great one-off option due to his output in wins.
Tierwulf - FLK - JNG ($6,200 DraftKings)
Tierwulf, as I've already mentioned, has experience on the World Championship stage and will not be intimidated in the playoffs. He is another carry style player preferring Lee Sin, Graves, or Ekko. He is fourth on his team in kill share and kill percentage, but both his mid-laner and ADC are less than three percentage points ahead of him in either stat.
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Tuesday 5/12 - 5:00 PM: Havan Liberty vs. Team One (-165)
Our second match starts on Tuesday, and this one too carries curious odds. Both teams finished the regular season at 9-7, but HLG won the season series 3-0. Because of that, I find it odd that Team One is favored here by any margin. The team statistics support HLG as well. They have leads in all aspects of the game, except for CSM and DPM where Team One holds slight edges. The upside for Team One is they should be the lowest owned of any team by a fair margin for Monday's contests, and even with all the marks against them, they could still win here. First, we're dealing with some low-end teams, and in two of the three games they lost to HLG they were even or ahead at the 15-minute mark.
Like the EU Masters proved, a lot of this will come down to drafting, and I like HLG a bit better there. They have a deeper coaching staff, and have favored a simpler front to back style for their drafts. Team One opts into more difficult to pull off split pushing team compositions more often than I would like to see. Not to be outdone by the first match this series too has its own former World's player in HLG's mid-laner dyNequeo giving them an experienced cool leader. For those reasons, I will be on the side of HLG for everything except a few large field GPP shots with TO. I wouldn't be surprised if HLG sweep here or take a comfortable 3-1.
Cariok - JNG ($6,400 DraftKings)
The jungler for Havan Liberty leads his team in both kill participation and kill share. Yet another carry jungler he favors Lee Sin and Olaf to get himself ahead early and snowball that all the way to a game win. Strangely Graves, who is the second-highest priority jungler across all regions in patch 10.8 has not been played or banned by HLG. Interestingly enough, they surrendered that pick to Ryuzaki in the last match between these teams and still won.
Flare- ADC ($7,400 DraftKings)
Flare has a nice matchup versus pbO on Monday, and he is second on his team in kill share to Cariok. He favors late-game carries like Aphelios and Varus, and with the changes in patch 10.8 I wouldn't be surprised to see him pull out a Xayah or even Kaisa pick. With Cariok going nuts in the early game, the ADC gets to spend a lot of time acquiring gold and XP until he can bring that to bear as a late-game insurance policy.
Summary
- We're all pretty familiar with two-game slates by now, so anything goes. I like the first match to be the bloodier one and more fantasy-friendly, especially on the side of Falkol, as they tend to go very late when they win.
- Best of five is in effect, and with that, I doubt a game stack where all your players come from one match will be the way to go.
- These matches will be another good GPP slate as both matches could swing either way, even though I like Santos and Havan Liberty to win
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Looking Forward
The League of Legends DFS action never stops, and we here at Rotoballer have got you covered. DraftKings keeps finding new tournaments to cover, and soon it will be summer split before you know it.
Be sure to check back throughout the week as we'll be publishing daily eSports DFS articles, analysis and lineup picks for Call of Duty, League Of Legends, Counter Strike, Rocket League and eNASCAR. Thanks for reading, and good luck RotoBallers!
RotoBaller Testimonials
Readers of RotoBaller's eSports DFS articles have been winning money on DraftKings and FanDuel regularly. Some of them are winning contests daily and bringing in some serious cheddar. Check one out below and lots more here!
Did you read a RotoBaller article and win too? Send us your screenshots on Twitter @RotoBaller and we'll add it to our winners Hall Of Fame!
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— "Thunder Dan" Palyo (@ThunderDanDFS) April 16, 2020