League of Legends: LCS match spring Week 4 – 100 Thieves vs. FlyQuest
By Josh Tyler
Matchup to watch: Bang vs. WildTurtle
Bae “Bang” Jun-sik was the 100 for the Thieves during the offseason. A former, two-time World Champion with SK Telecom, his addition looked like it could elevate the Thieves to become true contenders for the crown.
Unfortunately, Bang has not lived up to the hype, posting the worst gold difference at the 10 and 15-minute marks, and has the lowest gold share of any LCS ADC. Part of this is due to the falterings of Zaqueri “Aphromoo” Black (rated our second-worst LCS support), part is due to his abnormally bad CS numbers (he has the worst CSD at 10 of all ADCs, and has yet to have a game with a CS lead at that point in the game), and part is just plain due to Ssumday popping off and drawing a ton of attention and pressure to the top lane.
On the other side, Jason “WildTurtle” Tran is the worst-rated ADC in the LCS this split. Unsurprisingly, he leads all ADCs in percent of team’s deaths by a wide margin and is third-worst in terms of total deaths. While that hyper-aggression has given him one of the highest kill shares among ADCs it’s also likely kept his damage numbers lower than one would expect.
The big question is which of these two ADCs will get ahead in the early game. Both have negative gold, experience, and CS differentials in the early game, but someone will have to get ahead.
For me, the determining factor will be their supports. Not only does Juan “JayJ” Guibert have a positive gold difference at 10 and 15 minutes, but he also has one of the highest first-blood contribution rates among LCS supports.
WildTurtle might not be great, but he’s a better early-game ADC than Bang has been, and with JayJ I’d expect him to take the lead early. If he can do so, and keep that lead without throwing due to aggressive misplays, it could determine this LCS match.
Prediction
With all that said, do I think FlyQuest will be able to translate that early lead in the bottom to a victory? Ehrm, probably not.
You see, the other key matchup in this game takes place on the top-side of the map between Kim “Ssumday” Chan-ho and Omran “V1per” Shoura. Ssumday has been running roughshod through top laners in the LCS like Jason Voorhees cutting through overly sexual camp counselors.
He leads all League of Legends top laners in NA in gold per minute, gold share, and damage share, while posting the second-best DPM, kills, deaths, and KDA numbers. He’s not just the highest-rated top laner by our metrics, he’s the highest rated player in the LCS. If I was voting for spring MVP after three weeks, right now it would be Ssumday.
On the other hand, the rookie V1per has been…well not great. A KDA under 3.0, worst gold difference at 10 and 15 minutes, bottom half damage and KDA numbers. It’s not as though V1per is holding FlyQuest back, but in this game, he’s just outmatched.
While bot and mid lane can both swing one way or the other, it’s very likely that we will see Ssumday get ahead early. So it will be incumbent on V1per to see if he can prevent Ssumday from running the game over.
That’s the question that will determine the outcome of this game: can V1per keep Ssumday in check and hope his other lanes manage to swing their matchups in their favor. I’m inclined to think not and the best player in the league will be the difference.
Prediction: 100 Thieves win our LCS match of the week.
Disagree with our prediction for this marquee LCS match? Let us know who you think will win this weekend’s slate of LCS League of Legends games in the comments below!