League of Legends Where Are They Now? 2015 EU LCS Summer Final – Fnatic vs. Origen by Ben Holsgrove

This Saturday TSM will face off versus Team Liquid for the 2019 spring League of Legends LCS finals. Today we are looking at 5 League of Legends champions that could be X-factors in the finals.

Every playoff series in League of Legends is defined by the critical champion matchups and this weekend’s LCS finals will likely be no different. From pocket picks to meta stompers, which champions do we expect to see heavily prioritized in the pick and ban in the LCS finals?

Akali

Akali was a huge pick for TSM in their semifinals vs Cloud 9 this past weekend. The pick went 1-1 in both games she was picked, but still Akali looked very strong.

Akali is a crucial pick because TSM is also able to flex this pick between their 3rd team all pro team top laner Sergen “Broken Blade” Çelik and 1st team all pro team mid laner Søren “Bjergsen” Bjerg. In the Game 3 of the TSM vs Cloud9 series when TSM was down 0-2 in the series, Bjergsen put on a monster performance going 9/0/6 on Akali and hard-carried a game that seemed out of reach for TSM. Team Liquid (“TL”) has not shown any impressive games on the pick, so I expect them to ban this champion every single game.

Rek’sai

Another champion that has been pivotal in TSM’s success is Rek’sai because their jungler Matthew “Akaadian” Higginbotham is 4-0 on the champion in this year’s playoffs. By contrast, Akaadian‘s record this playoffs on champions not named Rek’sai is 2-3.

Team Liquid should look to push Akaadian off of this champion. TL’s own all-pro jungler Jake “Xmithie” Puchero has also shown strong performances on Rek’sai along with other early-game focused junglers as well. Both teams will definitely have Rek’sai on their mind come this Saturday.

Kindred

Another jungle champion whose stock has been on the rise is Kindred. Kindred has a good matchup into most popular junglers at the moment and has thus risen in priority in recent LCS matches.

TSM has banned Kindred in six games this playoff and seems to match up very well against TSM’s dive compositions. It is also well known that the Zilean plus Kindred combo is a nasty team composition that really warps the way the other team can play the game. I expect Kindred to receive bans from TSM or TL each game this series, but as the series goes on Kindred might drop off the bans if a team gets desperate.

Zoe

Zoe is another champion whose stock has been on the rise as of late. Both TSM’s mid laner Bjergsen and Liquid’s 2nd team all-pro mid laner Nicolaj “Jensen” Jensen has popped off on Zoe this year in the LCS playoffs. Team Liquid even chose Zoe in their first three picks multiple times in their drafts vs FlyQuest.

I always say that Zoe is a champion that gives a team another win condition because she is able to send champions back to the fountain, by death or by forcing a recall, allowing her team to gain free objectives or kills. With Jensen and Bjergsen’s mastery of Zoe being so high, both teams will be looking to pick her up in the first stage of picks. I wouldn’t even be surprised if Zoe turned into a 1st rotation ban throughout the series.

Jayce

Jayce has been a longstanding meme in the LCS due to the poor track record of NA teams using the pick effectively. But Jayce has managed to re-write the meme this season by being banned multiple times in the first rotation of bans and was picked twice in TL’s 3-0 victory over FlyQuest.

TL and TSM have been able to get wins flexing the pick to both mid lane and top lane, but what makes Jayce an X-factor is his past history of teams not being able to play around the pick correctly. Jayce could end up winning the series for the lucky team able to pick him up early in the draft or he might bring make the NA-Jayce memes of old.

Honorable mentions

Sylas – 100% chance of being banned every game.

Lissandra – Almost 100% chance of being banned every game.

Irelia – Almost 100% chance of being banned every game.

Have any other League of Legends champions you think could be critical in the upcoming LCS finals? Let us know in the comments!