Counter Logic Gaming vs Dignitas
Counter Logic Gaming have been holding on well this season, albeit have slowed down a bit as of late with a 1-3 run across the last two weeks. In Week 4, CLG lost to Cloud9 and Team SoloMid, to which they added a loss to Team Liquid and a win against the struggling Evil Geniuses.
Although their win against EG was narrow, much like their loss to TSM, CLG deserve some praise for going well beyond everyone’s expectations this split. It remains to be seen, however, if this team is ready for playoffs.
The biggest problem with CLG is their poor bottom lane. Stixxay and Smoothie are arguably the worst laning bottom lane tandem in the league and while Stixxay manages to hold his own in teamfights and in mid-late game, their lane strength is nowhere to be seen.
Exploiting CLG weak bottom side will be crucial for Dignitas, who look very solid bottom-side team. What’s more, Dignitas’ mid laner FeniX looked surprisingly strong in Dignitas’ recent two wins against FlyQuest and Immortals, however, it remains to be seen how solid he will be on other champions rather than Azir. Another thing to note with Dignitas is the incredible performances from Dardoch, who has played a pivotal role in his team’s recent success.
CLG might have shown a lot more throughout this split, but in our book, Dignitas are far better prepared for this bout. FeniX, Dardoch and even Aprhromoo have improved a lot throughout the recent week and even though Dignitas are still far from being considered a mid-table team, their performances against FlyQuest and Immortals have been near-flawless and we expect to see much of the same from them heading into this bout.
Prediction: Dignitas over 9.5 kills – 1.970 – Best Bet
Prediction: Dignitas to win – 2.22
Cloud9 vs Evil Geniuses
Evil Geniuses have show slight improvement in their match against Team Liquid, but they’re not playing anywhere near the level needed to defeat Cloud9. Yes, Cloud9 have stumbled a bit and lost against 100 Thieves last week, but in all honesty, that loss doesn’t mean much.
Against 100 Thieves, it was obvious C9 opted for an experimental draft with Wukong and Senna in the bottom lane, which made it seem like C9 underestimated 100T and drafted a composition to close out the game fast, which as we know backfired badly.
Even though Cloud9 could underestimate EG, they’re now closely followed by Team Liquid in the race for the LCS regular split title, so it’s safe to say they won’t test their luck again, or at least until they’re far ahead of the pack.
Comparing the two sides, the quality gap is just massive, which especially holds true with C9’s superior vision and objective control, as well as their higher tempo of play. EG are still trying to find their rhythm and considering how poorly they performed against TL yesterday (one drake to four, zero Barons to two), we have no hope they can outplay C9.
Prediction: Cloud9 – 7.5 kills – 1.714
FlyQuest vs Team SoloMid
FlyQuest have been playing extremely poorly as of late and their losses to 100T and Dignitas last week make it hard to think otherwise. Even if we look further back, FlyQuest only managed to defeat the shaky EG, but lost to Liquid and Golden Guardians, which is not exactly what you would expect to see from LCS Spring grand finalists.
Team SoloMid, on the other side, did not impress us either. Last week they lost to C9 and Immortals, but managed to bounce back with a narrow win against 100T this Friday. Even though they won, they had a couple of moments that showcased just how poor their decision making (can) be.
As talked about before, I’m not too excited about TSM and their future. This team only proves how having talent on the roster does not mean anything if the decision making and overall sense of how to approach the game are terrible.
Even though FlyQuest look to be in bad form, they always perform better when faced against tough opposition, which suggests this game could turn out to be a complete coin-toss. FlyQuest might have struggled as of late, but after what TSM’s game against 100T, I have to side with the underdogs to put Doublelift and co. in their place.
Prediction: FlyQuest to win – 1.990
Golden Guardians vs Immortals
Immortals improved a lot since they brought on their academy roster, however, they are still very inconsistent with their performances. Last week they lost to Dignitas and defeated TSM, while Immortals lost both bouts of Week 4 against Team Liquid and Evil Geniuses. Golden Guardians, on the other side, managed to take down 100T and EG, but lost to Liquid and TSM which puts their record across the last two weeks at 2-2.
The last time Immortals and GG met was during Week 3 when Immortals came away with a convincing win (16-5, 1.5k gold lead). While it’s true this time Immortals will field a different roster, it’s also worth mentioning again that the current IMT roster is playing much better than their previous one, albeit they’re still very consistent.
Throughout the last two weeks Immortals managed 8.75 kills and 12.25 deaths, whereas Golden Guardians produced 13.25 kills and 12 deaths. This suggests we are in for a bloody match since both sides like to fight. Having said that, it’s likely Immortals will have one of those games where they underperform and produce little to nothing in terms of kills, which makes siding with Golden Guardians to pick up at least 13 kills throughout the match the safest bet.
Prediction: Golden Guardians over 12.5 kills – 1.826
