Fantasy LCS guide 2017: player rankings, how to play and rules

Everything you need to know!

By Pete Volk@Pete_Volk Updated May 26, 2017, 11:33am EDT

The League of Legends seasons in both Europe and North America start next week, which means your fantasy LCS season is starting soon, too. In fact, you can start up your league Friday night if you want, with rosters finally completed in both North America and Europe.

On draft night (or day), you’ll pick your ten players. Each team will have seven starters and three substitutes. There is one starting slot for each position (top, jungle, mid, bot, support), one for a flex spot (any player can be played here) and one for a team (like TSM, G2, etc.). Your remaining three substitute slots are to do with what you choose, as long as you don’t have more than two players at any one position.

Each week, your team will face off head-to-head against another player’s team from your league. If your team finishes with more points, you win. If your team finishes with less, you lose.

You can play fantasy LCS right here, on Riot's website. First, here's how it works, with some advice on who to draft in your league.

The scoring

There are two different scoring formats your league can choose from before drafting: First Two Games or Best Game.

They are what they sound like. First Two Games will only measure scoring from each players' first two games, ignoring the third if a series happens to go that far. Best Game will measure each player's best game of each series, no matter when it happens.

LCS Players are scored accordingly:

2 points per kill
-0.5 points per death
1.5 points per assist
0.01 points per creep kill
2 points for a triple kill
5 points for a quadra kill (doesn't also count as a triple kill)
10 points for a penta kill (doesn't also count as a quadra kill)
2 points if a player attains 10 or more assists or kills in a game (this bonus only applies once)

LCS Teams are scored accordingly:

2 points per win
2 points per Baron killed
1 point per Dragon killed
2 points per First Blood earned
1 point per Tower destroyed
2 points if the team wins in less than 30 minutes

Changes to be aware of

During the spring, EU players scored much less on average compared to their NA counterparts, due to how many weeks EU teams only had one game. As a result, there’s a brand new rule this split: when an EU player only has one series that week, their points count double.

That should significantly help scoring for EU players, and fantasy fun for EU fans.

Who to pick and how to win

AD Carries and mid laners generally score the highest, so it's wise to try and prioritize them highly in your drafts (pick two AD Carries early if you can, so one can start at flex for you!).

Dependent on the size of your league, it's also good to be active throughout the season in roster moves. There's a gap between the top and bottom teams in each league, and any time you can grab a player playing a series against a much worse team, it's probably good for some easy points.

My power rankings:

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