Rift Rivals Asia - Day 4
This has been a surprisingly entertaining tournament outside of Saturday mornings smashing of the VCS/LMS. The LCK and LPL have both brought it more than I thought they would. I'm going with the LCK here for a few reasons. I think top to bottom they've looked a lot cleaner and more disciplined. Their execution has also been excellent. DAMWON are perhaps looking like the weak link but their individual players are playing so well that even when they misplay I'm always confident in them to win. Korea looks like they're back and I don't just want to declare that based on this tournament but watching the region as intently as anybody I know the younger teams have done wonders for the development of every team in the region. They've also learned from the struggles of the past year of international play and aren't just rolling over early against international foes.
To me this mostly boils down to JDG just being the weakest team by a good margain of the eight teams here and that I don't think IG outclass everyone. I think Griffin and IG look like the two best teams but I think either could win. To help visualize this I'll just power rank the level I have these teams at specifically for this tournament going into this match (this doesn't mean I necessarily believe this to be true the rest of the year):
1) Griffin
2) Invictus
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3) FunPlus
4) Kingzone
5) SK Telecom
6) DAMWON
7) TOP eSports
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8) JDG
I think the teams in the middle of the pack can all beat each other but I'd generally say this is how I'd rank these teams right now meaning I think only two of the LPL representatives should be favored over any non-Griffin LCK team. For this reason I'm going with the LCK. Would it surprise me to see the LPL win this? Not particularly, these are all great teams (besides JDG). Picture this series as a best of five with the LCK getting spotted a game to start.
Moneyline: LCK -147 (3 units)
Spread: LCK -1.5 maps @ +137 (1.5 units)
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NA LCS - Week 5 Day 2
I'm betting basically anything remotely close against Echo Fox the rest of the way. This team is just lost. I didn't even think FlyQuest looked particularly great (we'll get back to that later) but Echo Fox are just in shambles. I'm actually going to lay -244 here (this line has moved down for some reason). I don't think GG are particularly great either but they're typically pretty smart so I think their macro alone could probably get there. Regardless of the starting bottom lane for GGs I'm firing here.
Moneyline: Golden Guardians -244 (3 units)
Clutch have looked just ok. Sometimes good, sometimes bad. They're not Echo Fox but this team is definitely not good either. Cloud 9 looked really sharp yesterday and completely abused a Team Liquid's arrogance in not taking cleanse against Veigar. Kumo also looked pretty good, although I'd argue not nearly as good as the casters hyped him up to look. The heavy lifting was done by Nisqy and Svenskeren yesterday. I think if Cloud 9 can look look even a fraction as clean and crisp as they did yesterday against Liquid they'll have an easy time with Clutch.
Moneyline: Cloud 9 -250 (3 units)
No wager on the Liquid / 100 T game because I don't like the o/u totals and the -500 is too rich.
No wager
I'm firing for a unit on CLG here. I don't think CLG are a great team but they're a good team and they've been surprisingly consistent this season. TSM didn't look too clean against 100 Thieves yesterday despite the very clean looking score line. There were a lot of minor miscues that I think they might not get away with against other teams. I don't think CLG are a better team than TSM but I do like the line value we're getting here so we'll take a chance on it for one unit.
Moneyline: CLG +166 (1 unit)
I initially liked FlyQuest but even in their win against Echo Fox they weren't really as impressive as Echo Fox was awful. OpTic on the other hand took care of business rather cleanly against the sub bottom lane of GGs. As I said before the break, I actually think OpTic aren't just a flukey hot start. This team is actually pretty good and look like a playoff team to me. Perhaps the fourth best team in NA. I like OpTic to beat FlyQuest even though I liked the confidence and vibes in the interviews from FlyQuest yesterday and I don't always ignore that sort of thing. I just think OpTic are actually good.
Moneyline: OpTic -169 (1.5 units)
Moneyline: Golden Guardians -244 (3 units)
Clutch have looked just ok. Sometimes good, sometimes bad. They're not Echo Fox but this team is definitely not good either. Cloud 9 looked really sharp yesterday and completely abused a Team Liquid's arrogance in not taking cleanse against Veigar. Kumo also looked pretty good, although I'd argue not nearly as good as the casters hyped him up to look. The heavy lifting was done by Nisqy and Svenskeren yesterday. I think if Cloud 9 can look look even a fraction as clean and crisp as they did yesterday against Liquid they'll have an easy time with Clutch.
Moneyline: Cloud 9 -250 (3 units)
No wager on the Liquid / 100 T game because I don't like the o/u totals and the -500 is too rich.
No wager
I'm firing for a unit on CLG here. I don't think CLG are a great team but they're a good team and they've been surprisingly consistent this season. TSM didn't look too clean against 100 Thieves yesterday despite the very clean looking score line. There were a lot of minor miscues that I think they might not get away with against other teams. I don't think CLG are a better team than TSM but I do like the line value we're getting here so we'll take a chance on it for one unit.
Moneyline: CLG +166 (1 unit)
I initially liked FlyQuest but even in their win against Echo Fox they weren't really as impressive as Echo Fox was awful. OpTic on the other hand took care of business rather cleanly against the sub bottom lane of GGs. As I said before the break, I actually think OpTic aren't just a flukey hot start. This team is actually pretty good and look like a playoff team to me. Perhaps the fourth best team in NA. I like OpTic to beat FlyQuest even though I liked the confidence and vibes in the interviews from FlyQuest yesterday and I don't always ignore that sort of thing. I just think OpTic are actually good.
Moneyline: OpTic -169 (1.5 units)
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