This is Why I Started Blogging

     I think this is very misleading, it's not based on evidence or research but based on opinion. I do not know this writer and whether he wrote other posts similar to this that ruined my first fantasy team, but this post will be dealing with this page written on Lolesports.com. If the hyperlink in the title does not work use the url: http://na.lolesports.com/articles/fantasy-lcs-draft-guide-2015-summer-split to see what I am talking about. And yes, I am spending my time criticizing another writer's advice about fantasy esports. This may mean nothing to anyone but me, but I found it extremely annoying to find this site's inaccuracies and so I'm hoping others reading this may have had the same feeling. My criticisms of this page include an overall lack of useful information and in-depth analysis, clumping NME and TDK together as one and many of their picks along with the explanations.

     I have learned there is a very indirect science to predicting player scores based on data that most definitely does exist. Almost all of the explanations on this page include a vague reasoning that almost sums up to "why not". The writer includes Freeze as an avoid pick despite having the same reliable carry centric roster and scoring in the top three of all ADCs in the last split. The reason why he later explains is because he believes, despite no evidence besides the replacement of MYM with Origen that EU is now a dominion of high level teams in which the Copenhagen Wolves cannot be expected to compete with, much less score fantasy points against. 

     The writer's player jusification for Jwaow as a value pick for cheap is the fact that he played poorly and stuggled to hold onto a starting position for a MYM team that could not find the wins to avoid immediate relegation at the end of the split. This would probably land Jwaow around my top 19 or 20 pick for the top lane, something I have not put thought into for the reason that it does not matter. In any league, mid lane and ADC flex pick options are favored for high projected points and so you can assume everyone should have two of each by the end of the draft. This means that, along with starters in every role, by the time the tenth pick roles around in an eight team league there should be anywhere from 5-12 top laners left on the board. (5 being the unlucky number you are at when the 7 other players in your league all pick a top lane sub before you do and you still feel like it's a good idea.) The bottom five top laners for the week two matchup according to Lolesports.com include Dyrus, Flaresz, Youngbuck, Gamsu and Steve. If you added Jwaow to that mix I would advise you to pick him 5th/6 only because Elements management is notorious for replacing top laners who don't perform and he has no security over Gamsu and Flaresz and he is outright outclassed by Dyrus and Youngbuck. This begs the question how is this a value pick? 

     The writer says "If you can't grab Xpecial or Bora "YellOwStaR" Kim for your support",

which leads me to think he actually believes Xpecial is a better pick than the likes of Gosu Pepper or Lustboy, despite all evidence and data from the previous split suggesting otherwise. I mean, it's okay to believe anything and to take risks on someone but to tell people it is "the way to go" despite evidence that suggests otherwise. Now I would expect a reasonable person to take a risk and to stick their neck out on their own draft, but to tell others to based on a hunch that Liquid is a much different team than they've always been to the point where a Xpecial is able to outscore a Lustboy or Gosu Pepper over an entire split is just irresponsible. 

    Let's go over NME and TDK... "Enemy Esports (NA) and Team Dragon Knights (NA) looked strong in Challenger, but are mostly untested against tested LCS teams. Draft them with tempered expectations, and keep an eye on them for Week 1 pickups if they look strong"

Here the writer goes into teams that "looked strong in challenger" but any research or viewing of the NA challenger playoffs would tell you these two teams are on a completely different caliber of play. Even without knowing the Visa situation TDK is going through, any effort at all would lead the LCS fan to understand a distinct difference in the skill level of these teams. 

     I don't know this writer, and so I did not refer to him as Josh Augustine. I have nothing against him, I'm fairly certain we would have a lot in common, I've never come across his work in the past but I thought I'd go deeper into why I think this style of Esports article is misinformative to the casual fan looking to draft a team to beat his friends.