With the first round of the winner’s bracket in the wind, the inaugural loser’s bracket match ups take place this week. First up is Golden Guardians versus FlyQuest, who fell against Evil Geniuses. FlyQuest continued to shuffle in the top lane, with Solo subbing in for the final two games. Despite Solo’s previous success, V1per still started over him this weekend. It remains to be seen who will get the call this Tuesday. However, just like this weekend whoever starts might not be on the rift very long. Outside of the top lane, take a look at some other positions that could have a big impact on the matchup.
Jungle
Santorin has yet to return to his superstar 2019 spring performance. While he is far from the worst jungler in the league (he is on the third place All Pro team), he also has struggled to have the same level of impact as he did before. On the other hand, Closer has had a hot LCS debut. He was a playmaker all split for GG, and finished 2nd in All pro voting.
Based off of current form, this matchup is much closer than you would have expected coming into the split. In their bo5 against EG, Santorin was serviceable, but not exceptional. He did look good on Jarvan IV in the game that they won, but the other three matches were forgettable for him. Closer had a superb start to the tiebreaker match against Dignitas, and played well throughout the final weekend to get GG to the playoffs. If he can repeat that performance, the jungle pressure could be a tipping point in the series.
ADC
While the Week 9 matchup between these teams was fairly even at jungle, there was a big difference at ADC and Mid. FBI continued to show that Aphelios is one of his best champions. He finished with a 3/0/6 scoreline, highlighted by flashing into three enemies to clean up a triple kill. Wildturtle has had a slow split – he is at the bottom of the league in damage share, DPM and GD@15. On the other hand, FBI has been the carry in the majority of GG wins. If FBI gets champions that have good teamfighting DPS like Aphelios or Varus, the bottom lane could be a deciding factor.
Mid Lane
You can’t deny that PowerOfEvil is the main carry for FlyQuest. He had the number one damage share in the league with a whopping 35 percent, a full 5 percent higher than second place Froggen. That being said, with the team so reliant on him, when he falters so does FlyQuest. Take Week 9 Day 2 for example – a matchup against none other then Golden Guardians. Picking Viktor into Goldenglue’s Zoe, he died to an early roam from Huhi and Closer. After that, he was just permanently behind. Goldenglue was able to make several key picks, including a crucial one-shot onto POE around the dragon pit. Finishing at 3/0/6, Goldenglue had a much bigger impact on the game than POE, who had a scoreline of 1/4/1. Of course, a best of series is much different than a single regular season match. As the series goes on, there’s plenty of time for POE to play like he did for most of the split as well as for Goldenglue to play like he did in the last three games. PowerOfEvil may be more consistent, but Greyson showed he’s no pushover and can take over a game himself.
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James Clee
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