Here are my top lane rankings for week five of the NA and EU LCS.
No. 1 – Jung “Impact” Eon-yeong (Cloud9 – NA LCS)
Last Week
- Best Game: 44.09
- First Two Games: 52.52
Projections For This Week
- Best Game: 50-65
- First Two Games: 65-90
Despite having his worst week of the season, Impact was still the best scoring top laner in the league. Look for him to bounce back this week against Team SoloMid and Phoenix1.
No. 2 – Jang “Looper” Hyeong-seok (Echo Fox – NA LCS)
Last Week
- Best Game: 67.13
- First Two Games: 103.62
Projections For This Week
- Best Game: 45-60
- First Two Games: 55-75
Looper really asserted himself this past week as a force in the top lane. He has always performed well in lane, but we saw his team play continue to develop and improve. Expect him to continue getting better this week against Team EnVyUs and Immortals.
No. 3 – Martin “Wunder” Hansen (Splyce – EU LCS)
Last Week*
- Best Game: 12.15
- First Two Games: 18.68
Projections For This Week
- Best Game: 40-55
- First Two Games: 55-65
Splyce has had some struggles this year, but so have their opponents this week. Fnatic is by no means unbeatable, and Team ROCCAT has not won a series this season. Wunder should be able to take advantage of this and put up big points.
No. 4 – An “BalIs” Van Le (FlyQuest – NA LCS)
Last Week
- Best Game: 31.36
- First Two Games: 57.69
Projections For This Week
- Best Game: 40-55
- First Two Games: 55-65
Dignitas and Team SoloMid are teams that people should expect FlyQuest to beat after their performance last week that showed they are right up there with Cloud9 at the top of the standings. What may have been even more impressive is the fact that Balls was not taken advantage of by Impact as much as people thought he would be.
No. 5 – Paul “sOAZ” Boyer (Fnatic – EU LCS)
Last Week*
- Best Game: 27.68
- First Two Games: 24.94
Predictions For This Week
- Best Game: 40-55
- First Two Games: 55-65
The series between Splyce and Fnatic will be a close one, more than likely going to three games, but sOAZ gets the benefit of playing Origen this week, which massively boosts his potential scoring.
No. 6 – Kevin “Hauntzer” Yarnell (Team SoloMid – NA LCS)
Last Week
- Best Game: 32.98
- First Two Games: 64.17
Predictions For This Week
- Best Game: 35-50
- First Two Games: 45-60
C9 and FlyQuest are absolute nightmares for TSM this week, though I do expect some of the games to be close. TSM could have two good days and play well, which would make these series very close, and that means big points for Hauntzer.
No. 7 – Kim “Ssumday” Chan-ho (Team Dignitas – NA LCS)
Last Week
- Best Game: 24.74
- First Two Games: 38.18
Predictions For This Week
- Best Game: 35-50
- First Two Games: 45-60
FlyQuest should handle DIG relatively easily in their first series, but DIG then gets a crack at Team Liquid. Between Lourlo and Ssumday, it really comes down to this series. I think personally that DIG will be the better team, but you never know.
No. 8 – Samson “Lourlo” Jackson (Team Liquid – NA LCS)
Last Week
- Best Game: 26.82
- First Two Games: 40.74
Predictions For This Week
- Best Game: 30-45
- First Two Games: 45-60
TL takes on Counter Logic Gaming and DIG this week, two teams that they have reasonable chances at beating, and they have to beat them if they want to progress higher up the standings. Do I think they will beat them? Probably not, but they could.
FeelsRiskyMan Starts of The Week
- Lee “Flame” Ho-jong (Immortals – NA LCS)
Flame is a high risk play, with a possible high reward. We saw this last week when he had by far his best performances of the split so far, but he could easily regress this week. I need another good week out of Immortals before I trust their players enough to put them higher up on any rankings.
- Derek “zig” Shao (Phoenix1 – NA LCS)
Zig has been very solid all year, but has never put up huge numbers. He is essentially a lock to score a decent amount of points, but he will not carry your fantasy team to a victory.
- Darshan “Darshan” Upadhyaya (CLG – NA LCS)
Just like Flame, Darshan really had a good week last week. Also like Flame, though, I want to see him do it again before I really trust that he will perform.
*These players only played one series last week because of the EU LCS format
Who is starting in your top lane this week? Let us know by tweeting us @GAMURScom.
