BOL Plat Week 5 of Cheong Chiming In

Good evening everyone, this week with it being at the midway point of our season I am changing the content up just a little bit. Hopefully you all enjoy!

Here is how I would break down the teams at this current point in the season. I think we have at least 1 clear cut finalist team, but I think there is a clear top 5 of who we can expect 2 of those teams to be making finals. I think that at least a couple teams in the bottom half can surprise people and make a late season surge to make it into the playoffs. I think the playoffs for Piltover are more clear cut than what teams can make it in from Zaun. The next couple weeks will be very fun to watch!

Piltover -

Conduit Crashout vs Imperial Gaming - This game is a big one for both of these teams, as Conduit needs to win out to make it into playoffs while IG needs to win to help keep themselves in the playoffs as they are now. IG has been looking better over the last couple of weeks, with ParadigmShift and Azure looking great last week specifically. I think that if IG plays to enable Paradigm and get him a beneficially match up he can help carry this team to the finish line in this series. For Conduit, even though I love these guys, they have been struggling this season. I think the roster change they made last week is the right idea, but I still think this team will struggle with Hedge playing support for them. If Conduit wants to win this week, Hedge needs to die less while Glada and Cyclone win their 2v2 mid/jungle matchup. It will not be easy for Conduit but it is possible.

TPO Reformed vs SG Proton - TPO has made a lot of roster changes for this week but I do not know if it will be enough to get them a win. Barolo joins this roster and he is one of the better supports in Plat so I am going to be keeping my eye on him. TPO is in a must win situation to try to make it into playoffs, but I think stacked up against SG they won’t be able to make that happen. They need to try to shut down Yomi in bot, Fenbach in top and tilt Alf out of the game all at the same time which is easier said than done. SG will need to play their normal style of getting Yomi ahead and they will be fine in this match up, as I think all their roles outclass their opponents. SG needs to win this game against a bottom half team, not for playoff reasons but for mental state, because if they lose Alf will crash out.

Maelstrom Platinum vs Monkeys Construction - Monkeys has looked very good with everyone playing the correct roles for the team. Monkeys bot lane should be the focal point for this week as they need to keep God of Chaos down as he has been a carry factor for the team over the last couple of weeks. Gopamie and Concrete(Ivar) are a solid duo that will not lose your team the game, but they haven’t shown me that they have the power to hard carry games themselves and this would be the week to do so. For Maelstrom, if they get either Forty or God of Chaos ahead their game plan is very clear cut, as those are they carries for their team. I think that Maelstrom top and jungle are weaker but if they get their carries ahead they can match up well into what the Monkeys aim to do in games.

The High Council vs Monkeys Knights - Monkeys Knights should just play how they always have and be able to get an easy 2-0 tonight but that doesn’t mean that The High Council is a team that you can take likely. The High Council team that is an enigma to me, as they have take games off our top half teams, but also gotten smashed by them. They looked very good in Week 1, but maybe that was just the match up. For tonight THC needs to play to get Alberio ahead and get a good jungle matchup for Lokrakil to have a chance into the Knights.

Zaun -

Monkeys Sharks vs Conduit Kraken - This is one of the most important matches of the season for both of these teams, as they will be competing against each other for the final playoff spot in Zaun. Kraken needs to play for Chrome and Raven, as they are the win condition on this team. Coach should be looking to get a gank heavy jungler and just spam ganks bot to get Chrome kill after kill so he can take over the game and 1v9. The Sharks will be looking to get LEC player Yukino a strong mid matchup where he can get 20 kills and carry for the team. Archer needs to deal with the barrage that can come bot lane this week and make sure Chrome doesn’t get ahead to help his team win this week. This is my matchup for the week and I am very excited to see who comes out on top.

Contingent Purple vs Conduit Flux - Contingent Purple is a team that has to swing up this week against a strong team if they want their first series win. The issue with Contingent for me is that no one player on the team stands out as a carry and causes them to struggle in the game. Flux, if kind of a a similar team to me where no one player stands out over the other but it is their strong macro, teamfighting and game sense that makes them a strong top half team and one that is hard to beat. Mid in this series will be a focus as if Socks can get on his champs he can hard carry a game, so Drakkenrich will need to neutralize and look to play a strong macro focused game with their team.

Monkeys Inc vs Dorado Lambda - Another big pivotal series with potential playoff seeding implications. Monkeys Inc have looked great so far this season, playing their style and always finding ways to make it work. Grim Dafyre and FoxStepBro is a scary bot lane duo to deal with as you will be fighting double ranged every lane and one small misstep and you will lose everything in laning phase. Weez will have a hard time this week going up against Gabe Leo in the mid lane who is a solid laner and a factor in team fights. For top, Ultimice will have his hands full with the unmovable rock that is Feathers, who plays a similar style to Ultimice but has more tanks in his pool. This top matchup should be very fun this week. These teams are very evenly matched and there's no one stand out way for either team to win so it just comes down to who shows up better on the night.

Eclipse Valkyries vs TPO Redemption - I once again need to apologize to TOP Redemption, I wasn’t familiar with your game.

TPO Redemption has looked great this season, when I wasn’t super high on the coming into the year. Fini has looked great so far this season and with them LordJK it gives them a 3rd way to play and win the game. This series I think the look to play through Fini and Kittens and give Edojun a good top lane match up to let him do his thing. For the Valkyries they made some roster changes but it seems that they aren’t clicking just yet. Sadly with that group that they are in I do not think playoffs will be possible for them, but if they get the upset this week and something’s fall their way it can happen. They should look to play through Solram as I think he is their most consistent player, but that is easier said than done.