Week three of the 2019 LCS Spring Split brought renewed vigor to some struggling teams, and sent successful teams back down to earth. The Fantastic Four recognizes four different players from different teams that exhibited different strengths in their gameplay. To review the qualifications for these awards, read week one’s piece.
The Thing – C9 Zeyzal
Cloud9 put up a 2-0 week three, and most fans will remember the Licorice’s Sylas and Sneaky’s Ezreal. However, Zeyzal put up huge performances on Shen and Braum to constantly enable the rest of the team. He endlessly protected Sneaky and piled on engage as Braum against TSM. Then Zeyzal piggy-backed as Shen with Svenskeren’s Nocturne to heavy dive versus Clutch Gaming.
Overall, Zeyzal has been a rock for C9 all three weeks. He really stood out in week three with high KDAs and kill participation, and Cloud9 won both matches. Against TSM, Smoothie even got to draft Zilean after seeing the Ezreal-Braum lane. All of Cloud9’s members showed up in week three, but Zeyzal totally exemplified the spirit of The Thing.
Mr. Fantastic – GGS Froggen
Golden Guardians also put up a 2-0 weekend, showing significantly better performances than the first two weeks of LCS. Froggen played a major role in their wins, drafting Karthus into Lissandra both matches. More importantly, OpTic Gaming and TSM’s strongest players are in the mid lane. Froggen was under a lot of pressure against Crown and Bjergsen, but pulled through, outputting giant damage numbers.
This is the Froggen that GGS will need to expect in the future. In week two, he pulled off some decent solo plays on Leblanc, but it felt very run-and-gun. Moving forward, Froggen should stabilize mid lane and coordinate with the rest of GGS to play to their win conditions. This week they opted for scaling, and it worked out. They may not get Sion-Karthus-Ezreal every game, though, so carrying over the improvement and teamwork is very important.
Human Torch – 100 Ssumday
Ssumday had a fire week three, showing why Urgot and Aatrox are first pick-worthy champions. 100 Thieves drafted Urgot first versus Clutch and Aatrox first versus CLG, and neither team had a good answer. Huni tried the Frostmancy Zilean top, while Darshan opted into Ornn. In both match-ups, Ssumday secured laning phase kills and snowballed his lead into top-side control.
Huni and LiRa tried to dive Ssumday around 10 minutes, but he expertly timed Urgot’s abilities to kill them both while Anda took Infernal Drake. Using Aatrox, Ssumday hunted down Darshan’s Ornn and straight up solo-killed him five minutes in. Overall, Ssumday showed widely varying performances in the first two weeks of LCS, but he certainly stood out in week three.
Invisible Woman – FLY V1per
FlyQuest dropped out of second place, due to their 0-2 week against Team Liquid and Echo Fox. Both games came down to mid and bot lane carries more than anything else, but V1per really held his own in these matches. His roam to mid around 12 minutes versus TL secured FlyQuest a kill and Rift Herald, which pulled them back into the game. V1per also pulled off a big play around mid at 22 minutes, nabbing a double kill.
V1per held up in FLY’s match versus FOX. He and Santorin blew up Solo with Kennen and Nocturne, then secured Rift Herald. They killed Solo again a few minutes later in top river, and shortly thereafter V1per knocked down the turret. From there, FlyQuest unraveled a bit and lost the game, but V1per had several key plays that kept them going. Even in the 0-2 week, FLY’s top laner should not go unnoticed.
CREDITS
Images from LoL Esports Flickr
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