Golden Guardians vs Team SoloMid
Golden Guardians looked exceptionally strong against 100 Thieves and while I still don’t see them as legitimate LCS title contenders, GG are entering this bout after their best performance this split. Team SoloMid, on the other side, managed a perfect 2-0 run last week when they took down Evil Geniuses and 100 Thieves, however, we have to take into consideration how iffy TSM looked against 100T.
The match was a complete fiesta and had 100T not choked in the end, they would have won with a commanding lead. This performance from TSM makes me concerned, as they seemingly still haven’t reached their true potential – in fact, they are far from it.
Although TSM field far better quality players on their roster, I don’t believe they will manage a clean game here. They had way too many iffy performances this split and if they stumble here, I would not be surprised if Golden Guardians manage to come out ahead. Expect a close match with plenty of kills on the board.
Prediction: Over 21.5 kills – 1.877 – Best Bet
100 Thieves vs Dignitas
I’m not sure what to think about 100 Thieves. They might not be the worst team in the league, but they are not far from that. So far this split, 100T won only one game out of seven played and even that came against Immortals. This next match just might be their best chance to go 2-6, and while I was not impressed with how 100T played against Golden Guardians, defeating Dignitas should, in theory, be an easy task.
Dignitas have yet to win a single match this split, but they at least held on well against both EG and Team Liquid last week. I’m not ready to say Dignitas are overall a better team than 100T, but looking at how these two sides played recently, I am confident saying Dignitas just might win. 100T’s new jungler Contractz failed to impress me and the same can be said for their new support Poome.
The win condition for Dignitas is to get Johnsun ahead early and help Louro survive against Ssumday, and if they manage to execute that plan, I would not be shocked to see Dignitas claim their first win of the season.
Prediction: Dignitas: Over 7.5 kills
Longshot Bet: Dignitas to win – 2.76
FlyQuest vs Evil Geniuses
The last time these two sides met FlyQuest came out ahead, but from the looks of it, it will be Evil Geniuses who will walk away with the spoils this weekend. Looking back, Evil Geniuses lost to TSM and defeated Dignitas in Week 3, while FlyQuest managed to take down CLG, but lost to Golden Guardians.
Form wise neither team is in a great spot but when it comes to individual quality, we have to give it to EG. The problem, however, is that EG players can be very inconsistent, namely Jiizuke, Svenskeren and Kumo, whereas FlyQuest rarely deal with the same issues. Last week FlyQuest lost to GG, but I would not criticise them too much for that loss since GG played well that day.
I expect to see a close match and while EG tend to be very efficient in avoiding giving up too many kills (7.8 average deaths per game), FlyQuest should set a higher tempo here and force EG to be a bit more active.
Prediction: FlyQuest over 9.5 kills – 1.943