Notes for Tomorrow’s BRCC 2-game 2 day slate.
This slate will focus on the first playoff round for the BRCC. These games will be Bo5 and play over two days. SAN vs FKL will be tomorrow (Monday) and ONE vs HL will be Tuesday. This is the Brazilian Challenger Circuit so the level of play is quite low. Keep that in mind when making lineups because I feel that all four teams are in play with one being slightly less viable than the others (FKL). I did write on the first BRCC match yesterday so my thoughts on that are repeated here. Personally a good strategy in my opinion is taking Santos and splitting the 2nd game. If you are going more contrarian or are making many lineups then take your chances with FKL.
BRCC
I am not going to act like I have watched every single game of the BRCC, because that would be false information. However, I have gone back and watched all 3 meetings between the teams competing and looked through quite a few of their other games as well.
SAN (-375) vs FKL (+255)
Santos Esports are the #1 ranked team in the BRCC and had a record of 11-4 in the regular season. They enter the playoffs on a 4 game win streak and are large favourites in this matchup. Falklol are the 4th ranked team in the BRCC with a record of 8-7, and snuck into the playoffs with a one game lead over 5th place. SAN and FKL have played 3 games against each other this season, with the first 2 going FKL’s way while SAN won the last one. Prior to winning their last game to sneak into playoffs, FKL were on a 3 loss streak and did not look great.
Santos are led by the BRCC MVP Rainbow and MVP runner up Hyoga. Mid and jungle are two of the most important roles in the game right now, and SAN have the best combo in the BRCC. In the 3 games that these two teams played throughout the regular season, Rainbow was a consistent performer in all 3 games, despite losing 2 of them. This duo is very talented for the BRCC and will look to dominate FKL just as they had dominated every other team in the regular season. Jackpot (top laner) plays a lot of carry style champions, so the match up against Buggax can become very volatile depending on who gets ahead early.
FKL have a couple notable names that have been around the scene for a long time. Their best player and main carry is actually Buggax, their top laner. He deals over 30% of the teams damage in a game, which is very high for a top laner. He also gets the most gold income put towards him, so if using FKL make sure to have Buggax. Besides him FKL also have the veteran Tierwulf. He has been around a long time and has even played in Europe’s challenger scene before. These two are the focal points for FKL and they will need to have big games in order to upset Santos in this series. In their 2 wins against Santos, Buggax and Tierwulf were able to get extremely fed alongside Matsu their ADC, and this allowed them to overcome potential deficits in the mid lane.
Out of 4 losses during the entire season, FKL handed Santos 2 of them. I do not think this well repeat itself again in a playoff scenario, but since this is very low level professional LOL, anything can happen. I do like Santos to win this series off the back of Rainbow, but if Buggax can snowball top lane then FKL can win. The top lane will be a very important key to who wins this series.When FKL won their games Buggax got massively ahead. When SAN won their game, JackPot was massively ahead and Buggax went 0/7. Two carry top laners fighting it out often ends up with one being far ahead of the other, so keep an eye out for that one.
Players to watch (SAN): Rainbow, Hyoga, JackPoT
Players to watch (FKL): Buggax, Tierwulf, Matsu
ONE (-165) vs HL (+120)
ONE and HL finished the BRCC regular split with an equal 9-6 record. These teams also played each other 3 times in the regular season, with HL winning ALL 3 games. This is why it surprises me that ONE are the slight favourites in this game, because in their head to head meetings this season HL took all 3 in convincing fashion. None of the games were really close at all and it seems like HL has ONE’s number. It may have something to do with ONE being in slightly better recent form, but I would expect HL to be the favourite after watching their 3 previous games. I am not saying that HL will sweep ONE, but I think they should be favoured to come out on top.
ONE relies heavily on their solo lanes and their jungler to win games. Their ADC pbO has a very low damage output and they seem to leave him as more of a utility player rather than a carry. This team uses their jungler Ryuzaki to focus on top and mid as their main game plan. Their top laner SkyBart plays a lot of carry champions, which seems common in the BRCC. This means that his games can be more volatile but he outputs more damage and is a carry threat. Mid lane is probably their biggest carry spot as Brucer plays a lot of high damage champions as well. If ONE are to win this match, then their Top, Mid and Jungle will have to outperform their counterparts. ONE has been slightly better in recent weeks, so maybe their recent victory over Santos helps sway the odds in their favour.
HL are a pretty solid team as well, with their losses coming only to SAN, FKL, and one loss to RED (ONE also lost to RED once). They have a very good 3-0 record against ONE however. As mentioned above in ONE’s section, ONE need to win top, mid, and jungle to win the game. If ONE relies on their bot lane to carry a series, it probably won’t work too well for them based upon what they have been doing all season. The problem is that in all 3 games against HL, at least 2 of those 3 went in favour of HL every time. HL also plays a heavily jungle focused game, but their jungler Cariok will focus Mid and Bot. They often leave their top laner by himself on a tank or another safe champion and work elsewhere. HL’s bot lane is a big threat especially compared to ONE’s. They place their ADC flare on high damage carries and their support is known for his engage champions. They will be key for HL in abusing ONE’s weakest point to win the game. dyNquedo is also a very solid mid laner who has had good matches against Brucer this season.
If ONE are able to play their top/mid heavy style and abuse Hidan (HL’s Top) or dyNquedo (HL’s mid), then there is a win condition for them. They have tried it in 3 games against HL before but never succeeded. Cariok outjungled Ryuzaki in all 3 previous meetings and mid went in favour of HL every time too. flare and esA are the better bot lane and HL have shown they can play through them as well. I like HL to win but playing both sides is definitely the safest move with lower level teams.
Players to watch (ONE): SkyBart, Ryuzaki, Brucer
Players to watch (HL): Cariok, dyNquedo, flare, esA