The NA LCS quarterfinals are upon us and there are a few players that could make or break things for their teams. From the volatility of Huni to the steadfast presence of Aphromoo, these are the players to watch this weekend.
WildTurtle
FlyQuest are big underdogs in their match against 100 Thieves and they’ll be counting on WildTurtle for the possible upset. He played great in the latter half of the split, but he’ll have to be amazing if he wants to take down Aphromoo and Cody Sun in the opposing bot lane. If he can’t pull that off, it’s hard to see a way for FlyQuest to win.
Aphromoo
Aphromoo is a rock. He’s the most consistent player in North America and one of the best supports this side of the world has ever seen. He’ll need to do two things to ensure 100 Thieves the victory over FlyQuest. First, he needs to help Cody Sun shut down WildTurtle. Santorin is likely going to be looking for early bot lane ganks to help snowball FlyQuest’s ADC and Aphromoo needs to be ready.
Second, Aphromoo needs to keep his primary damage dealers alive in late game team fights. FlyQuest have proven to be especially adept at winning base races and the easiest way to shut that down is to have more damage dealers alive than the other team.
Lost
The easiest way to shut down Echo Fox’s ADC is to ban Varus. He’s been unstoppable on the champion and mediocre on just about everyone else. Lost is likely to see constant Varus bans as a result, so he better have some other champions ready. Luckily, with a handful more ADCs entering the meta in 8.16, he won’t have a shortage of champs to choose from.
Bjergsen
Like Lost’s Varus, Bjergsen isn’t likely to get a chance to play on Akali. With or without Akali, Bjergsen has still been the best player on TSM for the last few weeks. He’ll have a favorable mid lane skill matchup against Echo Fox’s Damonte that he’ll need to take full advantage of. Unfortunately, he’ll probably have to do it without the help of his jungler, who’s in an unfavorable skill matchup against one of NA’s best, Dardoch.
Dardoch
Dardoch is certainly capable of being one of the best junglers in North America, but he’s prone to big mistakes. Still, he’ll be heavily favored in his matchup against a struggling Grig. If he can keep TSM’s jungler in check, that’ll make things much easier on both his mid and bot lanes, both of whom will have especially tough lane matchups.
Huni
It’ll be crucial for Huni to sustain himself in the top lane in Echo Fox’s matchup against TSM. Huni is wildly talented, but he hasn’t performed up to par this split. With difficult bot and mid lane matchups for his team, he’ll need to perform like the Huni of old if Fox wants to make it to the semifinals in Oakland.