Fantasy League of Legends guide 2016: how to play, the new format and who to pick

The LCS seasons in both Europe and North America are just around the corner, which means your fantasy League of Legends season is starting soon, too. In fact, you can start up your league right now if you want, with rosters finally completed in both North America and Europe.

You can play fantasy League here, on Riot's website. Each week, we'll have advice on who you should start, sit and pick up, so stay tuned! But first, here's a guide on how it works, with some advice on who to draft in your league.

The scoring

Each team will have seven starters and three substitutes, for a total of 10 roster spots. There is one starting slot for each position (top, jungle, mid, AD Carry, support), one starting flex spot (any player can be played here) and one starting LCS team.

Each week, your team will face off head-to-head against another player in your league.

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 Nashor 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

The new format

Well, the LCS format has changed, so it makes sense that the fantasy format would change, too. With North America now moving from best-of-ones to best-of-threes and Europe moving from best-of-ones to best-of-twos, it wouldn't be fair to just measure what NA and EU players did each weekend -- NA players would naturally score more by nature of sometimes having three-game series.

So there are now two options for scoring for your league: 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 an NA series happens to go that far. Best Game will measure each player's best game of each series, no matter when it happens (this option will still slightly favor NA players).

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 big 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.

You can find the full starting rosters for NA and EU at those links. For the draft phase, however, here are some top picks to keep in mind at each position, plus some sleepers below:

Top

1. Huni, Immortals

2. Cabochard, Vitality

3. Darshan, Counter Logic Gaming

4. Impact, Cloud9

5. Odoamne, H2K

Jungle

1. Reignover, Immortals

2. Trick, G2

3. Jankos, H2K

4. Spirit, Fnatic

5. Xmithie, Counter Logic Gaming

Mid

1. Jensen, Cloud9

2. Perkz, G2

3. Bjergsen, TSM

4. Febiven, Fnatic

5. GBM, NRG

AD Carry

1. Zven, G2

2. Piglet, Liquid

3. Stixxay, CLG

4. Freeze, H2K

5. Doublelift, TSM

Support

1. Mithy, G2

2. Aphromoo, CLG

3. YellowStar, Fnatic

4. Matt, Liquid

5. KaSing, Vitality

Team

1. Immortals

2. G2

3. H2K

4. CLG

5. Liquid

Sleepers

Top: kfo, Echo Fox and Wunder, Splyce

Jungle: Procxin, Team Envy and Gilius, FC Schalke

Mid: Keane, Apex and Betsy, ROCCAT

AD Carry: Keith, Echo Fox and Steelback, ROCCAT

Support: Xpecial, Apex and Hylissang, Unicorns of Love

Team: Echo Fox and ROCCAT