ESPORTS
League of Legends Daily Fantasy Helper: Mid-Season Cup, Thursday 5/28/20

FanDuel is offering League of Legends daily fantasy, and look, if you don't know what that is, it's okay.

I have you covered with a detailed but straightforward primer to get you all set up, whether you're a DFS player looking to dig into the new sport, or a League of Legends fan ready to take your action over to FanDuel.

Mid-Season Cup

Normally, we be getting set for the Mid-Season Invitational (MSI) at this point in the season and ready to watch all of the regions compete in top-tier League of Legends. With no teams traveling right now, we have The Mid-Season Cup and it will feature the top four teams from Korea (LCK) and China (LPL) -- arguably, the two best regions in the world. This will take place online and will be a round-robin format, with each team playing three games on each slate.

Let's take a look at the six matchups on the slate and the win probabilities for each team.

SeriesImplied Win ProbabilityImplied Win Probability
T1 vs FunPlus Phoenix60.6%47.6%
DAMWON Gaming vs Top Esports36.4%71.4%
T1 vs DAMWON Gaming74.1%33.9%
FunPlus Phoenix vs Top Esports48.8%58.8%
FunPlus Phoenix vs DAMWON Gaming66.7%41.7%
T1 vs Top Esports54.1%54.1%

We see T1 coming in as the favorite in two of their three matches -- with a push in the third against Top Esports. Top Esports are also the favorite in two of their three -- and a push with T1. FunPlus Phoenix are a favorite in just one of their matchups -- against DAMWON -- which leaves DAMWON Gaming as an underdog in all three of matchups.

There is a very clear hierarchy in this group, T1 and Top Esports as the favorites, then FunPlus, then DAMWON at the bottom. You should anticipate that ownership will follow along with this hierarchy.

T1

T1 won the LCK Spring Split and come in as the outright favorite to win the Mid-Season Cup. We see their players come in as the most expensive option at Top, Jungle, and Mid -- making them a clear option to pay up for. It has to be reminded, but the teams are playing three games today and you are rostering a team for all of their matchups.

Faker ($9,000) is the most expensive Mid-Laner on the slate and the fourth-most expensive player overall. He ended the LCK Spring Split with the third-highest third-highest KDA, the third-fewest average deaths per game, and the third-highest average assists per game.

Crisp ($7,000) is the absolute cheapest player on the entire slate and brings that sweet, sweet salary relief to your lineups. Pairing him with Lwx in the bot lane brings strong correlation for KP% and should allow you to pay up for one of the higher-priced stacks.

Khan ($7,800) played fewer games in the top lane for FunPlus compared to GimGoon ($8,200), but Khan played their final series in the playoffs, where they won 3-0. There is no indication as of now who will be the starter, but if its Khan, his price tag makes him interesting.

DAMWON Gaming

As noted a few times, DAMWON Gaming are the underdogs in all three of their games, and thus, a riskier play compared to the rest. This isn't to say you can't/shouldn't be rostering, you just have to know going in that they are expected to be on the losing side of things, which will cause them to have fewer fantasy points.

Players from DAMWON can be used in a one-off type situation if you are stacking two of the top teams and you need to find some value elsewhere. A player like ShowMaker ($8,000), the Mid-Laner for DAMWON, is truly interesting on this slate. He is the cheapest Mid on the slate, and if you roster him in the Mid spot, you can roster another Mid-Laner (Faker or knight) in the MVP spot.

This is an interesting strategy when it comes to actual roster construction, since you take a player from a higher scoring position like Mid lane -- but you know he is going to be on the losing team. Essentially, you are taking the best option from the worst team, hoping he can still manage his way to solid fantasy points across the three games.

The same can be said for Ghost ($,9000), who is the ADC for DAMWON Gaming. We know that ADCs have a high floor and high ceiling of fantasy points, so take the savings with him and roster him in the ADC spot, then spend up for JackeyLove in the MVP spot to round out a Top Esports stack.

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