League of Legends LCS 2019 Summer Playoffs runner up game preview: Clutch vs. CLG

Jungle

Raymond “Wiggily” Griffin vs Nam “Lira” Tae-yoo

I have long been on the “Lira is sneaky good” hype train for a while and in the playoffs he has made me look like a very smart man. Lira has been a driving force behind Clutch’s strong early gameplay, positing the best or second-best gold, XP, and CS differences at 10 minutes among playoff junglers. His KDA (3.7) is closer to the two best junglers in the league (Xmithie at 4.2 and Svenskeren at 4.3) than the man he’ll be facing, Wiggily (2.9 KDA in the playoffs).

Lira’s also bested Wiggily in terms of kill participation, death shares, and vision score per minute in the playoffs. These strong numbers show why I rated him the third-best jungler at the end of the LCS summer split.

However, the same cannot be said for the man I rated as the second-best jungler at the end of the split, Wiggily. Easily the biggest improving player from spring to summer, Wiggily got decimated by Svenskeren in their series last week. His KDA fell, his gold/XP/CS differences at 10 all plummeted to being the worst among playoff junglers (yes, that includes rookie TSM jungler Spica, although Wiggily at least has a better CS differential).

Now, yes, that did happen due to Wiggily needing to face the LCS MVP last week, but the question is whether nerves in his first playoff could be affecting Wiggily. Given this inconsistency and Lira playing well, I’m not as confident in Wiggily to be a solid contributor as I would otherwise be.

Advantage: Clutch