DISCLAIMER: The opinoins represented in this article are entirely my own and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Team Dignitas as a whole.

Despite the fact that it is in the middle of the week, we can still examine what has happened on the fantasy front now that the Europeans have duked it out on the Rift.

First Pick

Fnatic (team): Fnatic looked like the dominant force that everyone expected them to be. Whether they have finally shaken whatever malaise has stricken them since the All Star event in Paris or they were merely sleeping for the first 6 weeks of the LCS, Fnatic appears to be back. They averaged 2.4 kills per death this week. In their first game, Rekkles alone had more kills than the entire Roccat team. And those kills led to objectives. The converted on 3 out of 4 first bloods, took out 39 towers, secured 18 dragons and successfully danced away 5 Barons. If you hadn’t been before, it is time to start Fnatic week in and week out. They are back.

Fnatic (players): Unsurprisingly, Rekkles performed. He has been one of the best AD Carries all split, out of both Europe and North America. Going 24-4-24 with 1421 CS for a total of 94.52 points, Rekkles solidified himself as the top AD Carry option for your fantasy team. Furthermore, sOAZ, xPeke and YellOwStaR were in the top two scorers at their respective positions in the EU. As if that wasn’t enough, Cyanide has turned out to be the number one jungler in fantasy LCS. He is in the top 3 in per game average and of those 3 is by far the most consistent with only 4 sub-10 point games.

SELFIE: As Supa Hot Crew goes, so does SELFIE. In SHC’s 3 wins SELFIE went 13-4-36 with 1339 CS. Against Alliance, their only loss, he still managed a respectable 14 points. And he didn’t have an easy time either, going against Kerp, Froggen and Jesiz. Furthermore, he established himself as one of the most consistent fantasy mid laners. He has only scored fewer than 10 points in 4 games and fewer than 20 points in 6.

Xaxus: Previously a middling fantasy option, Xaxus hugely out performed his expected value. He had been averaging a mere 9.5 points per game, but on the strength of this week alone brought his average up nearly 3 points, and he did so in uninspiring fashion. He never led his team in kills and was constantly near the middle in deaths. However, he was able to take advantage of his team’s lead and converted Roccat wins into a successful fantasy week. However, even in the game Roccat lost (to Fnatic), Xaxus still put out a decent 16.45 points. I wouldn’t rush out to start him every week, but against other lower table teams Xaxus represents a good option.

Last Pick

Kottenx: There was nobody who was more two-faced than Kottenx. When he was good, he was really good scoring more than 60 points in Millenium’s games against Roccat and Gambit Gaming, but against Fnatic, his Kha’zix just never found the mark. Kottenx’s week is encapsulated in his two Lee Sin games.

Versus Gambit Gaming, Kottenx was everywhere, going 10-4-11 in the victory, but against Supa Hot Crew, he never got anything going, finishing with a 1-5-4 record. This has been symptomatic of his fantasy performances this split. He is close to the top in terms of points per game average at 17.72, yet is near the bottom in terms of standard deviation at 11.86 points per game. That means that he is equally likely to have a 6 point game as a 28 point game.

Shook: Not all of Shook’s fantasy woes are his own fault. He had a game cut short at 20 minutes when Millenium surrendered at 20 miuntes. However, nothing seemed to work against the Copenhagen Wolves. Alliance seemed to take the Wolves for granted, and the Wolves showed that the truly belong in the EU LCS.

The whole team had an off game. In Alliance’s other games, Shook took advantage of early ganking champions that played to his strengths, but Fnatic’s superior team fighting comp and YellOwStaR’s Nami (who seemed to always have a bubble ready for Shook) came out of top in the end. Shook had a rare off week. Look for him to turn it around next week when they play two bottom table teams in Millenium and Roccat.

EDward: Nothing went Gambit’s way this week. Trying to get out of the bottom of the table and position themselves for a second half push, Gambit stumbled coming out of the gates and never really recovered. And as with any support player, as his team goes so does he. EDward’s fantasy performance this split has suffered from a lack of team chemistry stemming from Alex Ich’s departure. However, not all hope is lost. When he gets Thresh, EDward looks like he is at home. It is clearly a comfort pick for him.

To start off the week, Gambit chose a late game scaling team composition that got beat out by SK’s aggressive Lee Sin and CandyPanda’s superb Caitlyn positioning (aided by nRated’s on point Black Shields). Gambit tried to couterpick nRated’s Morgana with a Sona, probably assuming that the additional sustain would allow Twitch to take some poke, but stay in lane. However, the Black Shield and Dark Bindings proved too much for the Gambit bot lane as they finished the game a combined 0-8-0.

Against Millenium, Gambit opted to ban the Morgana and try for a more traditional pick comp with Lulu and Thresh, Diamond even played Skarner, which should have been a superb pick for what they were trying to achieve. However, the early game of Jree’s Leona and Creaton’s Corki pulled ahead as they caught EDward out of position at level 3. EDward did not seem to respect the all-in power of an early game Leona. Again at level 5, Jree was able to flash stun EDward as Kottenx came in to help Creaton secure the kill.

In their third game, Gambit allowed Morgana through again, which let Rekkles on Vayne move around almost unhindered. This was another instance of Gambit was playing against a safe bottom lane which enabled the opposing jungler to camp top and mid. After Fnatic first picked Ziggs, Gambit had the option to get Lee Sin for Diamond, but instead opted for Lucian and Twisted Fate. It seems like Gambit wasn’t respecting the early game power of both Lee Sin and Elise. Both of those champions allow the jungler to gank early and often, whereas Diamond’s repeated attempts at playing Skarner lull him into playing a more farm heavy champion.

Finally, against Roccat it looked like Gambit was finally starting to put everything together. Importantly, Gambit banned Lee Sin and Elise, got Evelynn for Diamond and Thresh for EDward. As Evelynn, Diamond ganked mid (which resulted in first blood) and top (which popped Xaxus’s Bloodwell) before 4 minutes. This was a far cry from the farm heavy style that Diamond was playing when he had Skarner (against Millenium when Kottenx was 2-0-0 as Lee Sin, Diamond had farmed up twice Kottenx’s CS).

Gambit as a whole has always been better when they “see champion, kill champion” and it seemed like that was the case against Roccat. Gambit took a 6k gold lead into the 48th minute when Gambit tried to pressure Roccat away from Baron instead of backing up their own super minions in Roccat’s base. After Roccat took Baron and killed 4 of members of Gambit outside the Baron pit, they swiftly moved down top lane and took the game. Gambit needs to turn things around, and EDward’s voice needs to be at the forefront of this turnaround.