Earlier this week, Riot announced the return of Fantasy LCS, leaving fantasy league organizers scrambling to set things up. Drafts have to happen in the coming week as people set up their leagues ahead of the LCS' return. Not much has changed in the scoring perspective, but there are some differences when it comes to format and rosters for teams. As such, the Fantasy LCS landscape has changed considerably, allowing for a difference in what to pick, when, and why.

When looking at best performers for Fantasy LCS, you want to primarily look at Kills/Deaths/Assists average (KDA) and Creep Score (CS) numbers because that’s what you get points based on. Numbers related to vision or kill participation are extraneous factors to the contribution of the aforementioned statistics.

For the EU players, keep in mind that their value is significantly reduced in situations where you use the “First Two Games” system, to the point that I would never recommend EU players beyond a substitute position. For example, G2 players only have weeks with two games in two out of the nine weeks in which Fantasy LCS is active. Those two weeks are times in which I would consider those players as substitutes, but beyond that they seem like wasted slots for your team.

Best performers

Top Lane: Kevin "Hauntzer" Yarnell, Team SoloMid

With the advent of an NA LCS that has an abundance of top lane talent, It’s interesting but shouldn’t be at all surprising that Hauntzer tops our fantasy rankings. When it comes to fantasy scoring, the main thing that you want from your lineups is consistency as one bad week from a player can be the difference between a win and a loss. Despite the talent coming from impending imports like Echo Fox's Jang "Looper" Hyeong-seok and Team Dignitas' Kim "Ssumday" Chan-ho, consistency is exactly what you get with Hauntzer.

A stalwart laner with the ability to improve, Hauntzer sits on a team that has seen minimal changes and has retained the synergy of his accompanying solo lane and jungle for early game stability. Furthermore, his champion pool has shown to include a diversity of playstyles, allowing him to rack up assists as the team's tank or get kills as a dependable top lane carry. He has high KDA numbers and comparably good CSD@10, leading the NA LCS in the former last year. We’ve also seen him perform in the international spotlight, meaning we shouldn’t expect the region's new imports to stomp all over him.

Honorable Mentions: Jung "Impact" Eon-yeong, Andrei "Odoamne" Pascu (in Best Game formats), Tamás "Vizicsacsi" Kiss (in Best Game formats)

Jungle: Kim "Reignover" Yeu-jin, Team Liquid

Only one player supplanted a TSM member from the NA LCS 1st-team last summer, as Reignover's impeccable summer split play earned him high praise. Far and away the region's best jungler, Reignover should continue to dominate his competition from a fantasy perspective. One thing to note is that the jungle pool is especially deep this year, so while Reignover should be expected to continue his monstrous form, it is not imperative that he be drafted with your first-round pick in smaller league formats, as you might be able to secure him with the snake wrap-around.

Honorable Mention: Dennis "Svenskeren" Johnsen, Kim "Trick" Gang-yun (In Best Game formats), Joshua "Dardoch" Hartnett

Mid Lane: Søren "Bjergsen" Bjerg, Team SoloMid

The best player in the west is the obvious top choice for the mid lane and probably the most obvious choice for your draft's first pick. Bjergsen had a sort of renaissance last summer, with a team behind him that supported his aggressive playstyle. He and Svenskeren carved out an efficient Mid/Jungle 2v2 that netted Bjergsen high first blood rates, high CSD@10 numbers, and an insane KDA that actually seems repeatable in comparison to those above him.

Honorable Mention: Eugene "Pobelter" Park, Nicolaj "Jensen" Jensen, Chres "Sencux" Laursen (in Best Game formats)

AD carry: Chae "Piglet" Gwang-jin, Team Liquid

Even through Piglet’s most volatile times, he was still a steady force in keeping Team Liquid competitive, as his remarkable laning and teamfight positioning proved fruitful despite the fact that his team was falling apart around him. Now, in a stable environment with the region's best jungler, a resurgence for Piglet is not only possible, but highly likely. Beyond that, Piglet is the most capable carry player amongst his team and you can be sure that he'll produce regardless with how his team performs.

Honorable Mention: Zachary "Sneaky" Scuderi, Jesper "Zven" Svenningsen (in Best Game formats), Kasper "Kobbe" Kobberup (in Best Game formats)

Support: Andy "Smoothie" Ta, Cloud9

Smoothie spent part of the summer season splitting time with Michael "Bunny FuFuu" Kurylo, a move that even Doublelift found perplexing. An interesting thing to note is that the extrapolation of Smoothie’s stats (if he were a full season starter) would have him with a stats projection similar to Zaqueri "Aphromoo" Black with way less deaths. Given the fact that he now has full control of the starting spot, he is able to gel more with his teammates and has a fairly safe and punishing laning phase. The latter is especially true now that bot lanes in the NA LCS will not be able to go toe to toe with this experienced one as readily as they could last year, as most bot lanes including TSM are considered weaker than they were last year.

Honorable Mention: Alfonso "Mithy" Rodríguez (in Best Game formats), Zaqueri "Aphromoo" Black, Mihael "Mikyx" Mehle (in Best Game formats)

Gabriel Zoltan-Johan is a News Editor at theScore esports and the head analyst for the University of Toronto League of Legends team. His (public) musings can be found on his Twitter.