NA LCS Summer Promotion Preview

Photo courtesy of Riot Esports

by Patrick Garren

First up in the NA LCS promotion matches are Dignitas and Team Fusion. Dignitas had a less-than-optimal split, losing their Top Laner and AD Carry before the season began and benching their long-time Jungler and team captain, Alberto “Crumbz” Rengifo, three weeks in. Things began to come together for them as newcomers Jo “Core JJ” Yong-in and Yeong-Jin “Gamsu” Noh started to get more comfortable in their roles, but Dignitas failed to ignite anything exceptional and they limp into the promotion tournament as the 9th seed. They look to retain their previously-firm grip on their spot in the LCS against Team Fusion Gaming, a scary looking Challenger Series team full of former LCS ringers. While Fusion failed to make it into the LCS last split, losing their promotional matches to Team Coast, I personally believe they’re the favorites in this match-up.

Pick/Ban Breakdown

The strategy is pretty simple for Fusion. Keeping Danny “Shiphtur” Le out of his comfort zone and giving Jae-hyun “Huhi” Choi a good matchup can only increase your chances of victory. Meanwhile, Dignitas has to focus on Fusion’s bottom lane. Zach “Nien” Malhas was a monster throughout the entire Challenger Series, and keeping him down is critical to Dignitas’s chances of remaining an LCS team. Expect to see both junglers make several appearances early in whichever lane Nien finds himself in almost every game.

Players to Watch 

Most importantly, I believe Nien controls the outcome of this game. If Dignitas can keep him from popping off, they definitely have a better than average shot at keeping their LCS position. However, Fusion’s best chance of beating a struggling Dignitas team is for Huhi or Top Laner Joshua “Chunkyfresh” Kesrawani to make their presences felt.

Prediction

I see Fusion winning the grind, 3-2. Both teams are evenly matched and have the obvious baskets they put their carry eggs in. Seeing which team can execute under the pressure of relegation/promotion will likely be the deciding factor.

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The second and final match-up of the day is Winterfox versus TDK. Winterfox had an incredibly interesting split, seeing Nicolas “Gleeb” Haddad replaced as their support by Korean import Jang “Imagine” Hyeon-su. When Imagine failed to produce, Winterfox pulled out one of the most unprecedented moves in LCS history by having their brightest star, Johnny “Altec” Ru, move to support while head coach Choi “Paragon” Hyun-il moved to AD Carry. This move produced similarly lackluster results, and now we have a Winterfox team entering the promotion tournament with the same roster they came into the split with. On the other side of the coin is Team Dragon Knights, or as I like to call them, That Team That Seraph Went To, hoping to enter the LCS as the last bastion of the true Top Lane Carry strategy.

Pick/Ban Breakdown

I think the most important thing going in for Winterfox is banning out Shin “Seraph” Woo-yeong, as he presents the biggest threat and highest mechanical skill level on all of TDK’s roster. Seraph has become a much stronger LAN presence since his days with CLG, so Winterfox jungler Shin “Helios” Dong-jin can’t expect to camp his lane and make him a non-threat as so many teams did to Seraph last split. TDK, however, have a much harder road in champion select. They match-up poorly across most of the lanes, and Winterfox will likely attempt to initiate lane-swaps, as they certainly don’t want Shin “Avalon” Dong-hyeon in a 1v1 scenario with Seraph. Getting Altec and Pobelter onto comfort champs, and getting them ahead early, are Winterfox’s keys to success.

Players to Watch

Winterfox’s young talented duo of Pobelter and Altec are basically the core of their team, and the successes and failures of the team often coincide with how well the two perform. TDK put most of their eggs in the Seraph basket, but as I said about Team Fusion, TDK will likely need performances from mid-laner Seo “Kyle” Ji-sun and AD Carry Lee “LouisXGeeGee” Sung-jin if they have any hope of advancing to the LCS.

Prediction

This one seems handily in favor of Winterfox. If any semblance of their peak performance shows up on Sunday, TDK almost certainly face another split in the Challenger Series. Winterfox wins 3-1.

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Photo courtesy of Riot Esports

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