League of Legends LCS Spring Playoff preview: FlyQuest vs. Golden Guardians

Mid lane

The mid lane matchup is going to be a fun one to watch between two wily veterans of League of Legends. On the one hand, maybe the comeback story of the Spring Split in Froggen, who has come off a year-long break to lead his team to greatness. On the other, Pobelter who was cast off by his former team and often decried as a big reason Liquid wasn’t able to translate domestic success on the Worlds stage.

Statistically, Froggen has been one of the top three mids in the LCS this split. Although his gold earnings aren’t incredibly impressive, Froggen has done the most damage per minute of any mid laner in the league while also getting one of the highest kill participation percentages. The one knock on him, unfortunately, is his putrid 3.0 KDA caused largely by his having the most deaths among mid laners.

Pobelter, on the other hand, has been his usual, steady, not-that-flashy-but-still impressive self. A respectable 4.4 KDA, kill participation over 70%, and the best vision control at his position, Pobelter continued to be the ultimate utility man this split, as he was for Liquid last year. Unfortunately, his low damage per minute indicates that the Notorious P.O.B. hasn’t been able to make that big impact you want from your mid laner.

This is despite the fact that Pobelter has played LeBlanc and Zoe eight times over the course of the split; both of these picks rank in the top 25 of mid laners in terms of damage per minute done. His other most-played champion – Lissandra – is still in the top 30, so it’s not as though Pobelter is being stuck on champions without any damage.

That represents another worry for FlyQuest going into the series. Pobelter has only played eight unique champions this split in 19 games, but 14 of those games were on the three champions we just listed. Compare that to Froggen, who has played twelve unique champions this split, and Pobelter could be at risk of having his champion pool pinched.