Oracle's Elixir

Academy Standouts: 2020 Spring Week 1

Tim Sevenhuysen

The NA Academy league is a place for players to show their potential and earn an opportunity to make it into–or back into–the LCS. Check back each week throughout 2020 as I highlight the Academy players who put up the best performances.

If you want to track your favourite team’s Academy performance throughout each split, you can also check out the Academy stats pages, starting with 2020 Spring regular season player stats and team stats.

Damonte, Mid, Dignitas

Right from the start, Damonte is shouting out loud and clear that he deserves to be in LCS, not Academy. He was assertive, using his laning advantages (+500 GD10 and +307 XPD10!) to control the river, getting himself fed through skirmishes, and working hard (sometimes a little too hard?) to make plays for his team.

Damonte Stats, 2020 Spring Week 1

KDA KP GXD10 DPM/DMG% CSPM
7.0 71.4% +807 720/32.4% 8.1

Together, Damonte and Akaadian look like the strongest mid/jungle duel in Academy by a wide margin, and Damonte seems ready to stomp all over this league, especially if he can overcome the little bit of cockiness that showed up when he started to build his leads.

JayJ, Support, FlyQuest

There’s  no doubt that JayJ wants to see himself back in the LCS, after being replaced in FlyQuest’s main roster by IgNar. Given the incredible showing IgNar put together for his first two games in the LCS, JayJ’s next chance is highly unlikely to come in a FlyQuest jersey, but if he continues playing the way he did in week 1, some other organizations might want to pay attention.

JayJ Stats, 2020 Spring Week 1

KDA KP DTH WPM WCPM
6.7 62.5% 25.0% 1.40 0.29

With games on Thresh and Blitzcrank, JayJ was playing highly visible champions, and he made the most of the spotlight. From the start, with a strong lvl 1 skirmish against CLG Academy, JayJ made his mark, later ganking mid lane and continuing to perform well in team fights. His tower dive execution as Blitzcrank very early in the Immortals game was a highlight, as he and Mash picked apart the bottom lane matchup with help from Fanatiik.

Allorim, Top, Immortals

Despite his team going 1-1 on the week, Allorim managed to stand out in both games. He took over on Urgot in a win over TSM, bullying the lane and using an early Teleport and some attention from Potluck and Gate to snowball. In the loss FlyQuest, Allorim’s Pantheon offered a bright point, winning the top side of the map early despite the struggles of IMT’s bot lane and using Pantheon’s ultimate pretty well later in the game.

Allorim Stats, 2020 Spring Week 1

KDA KP DTH GXD10 CSPM
5.0 65.2% 15.8% +37 8.2

If Allorim continues to play the way he did, then all he’ll need is a bit more stability from his bottom lane to allow him to shine more brightly.

Ablazeolive, Mid, Golden Guardians

I’ve written previously that Ablazeolive has been one of the Mids to watch in Academy for a while. In week 1, he stood out in wins over C9 Academy and 100 Academy.

Ablazeolive Stats, 2020 Spring Week 1

KDA KP GXD10 DPM/DMG% CSPM
13.5 90.0% +175 713/36.6% 8.7

Ablazeolive put in strong overall play, particularly with his out-of-lane movement as Ryze against 100 Thieves, and he pumped out damage in team fights, finishing second among all players in DPM (behind Damonte). There continues to be room for improvement in Ablazeolive’s 1v1 laning, but Hard provided some good help.

Additional Standouts

The following players, in alphabetical order, also performed well.

Photos courtesy flickr.com/lolesports