Oracle's Elixir

Academy Standouts: 2020 Summer Week 2

Tim Sevenhuysen

Academy Standouts highlights the players who performed best in the most recent week of NA Academy play. I’ll discuss three of the most noteworthy players, then list some of the other strong performers below.

Yusui, Mid, Team Liquid

As I said about Triple last week, there’s an opening for “best Mid in Academy” right now, and Yusui is another leading candidate. He asserted himself this week quite effectively with a pair of strong showings featuring very different play styles. His reduced shot calling burden, now that Grig has joined the team, appears to be freeing him up to perform that much better on a personal level, which is a good situation for his play style to really shine.

Yusui Stats, 2020 Summer Week 2

  KDA KP GXD10 DPM CS%P15
W2 4.7 56.0% +674 502 25.0%
Total 4.0 63.6% -39 446 23.8%

Yusui’s Jayce game against 100 Academy featured lots of lane pressure in a comfortable carry role, while his performance on Galio against EG Academy showed that he has been making good progress on diversifying himself (though his team’s macro had some pretty significant gaps, and his personal contributions weren’t enough to earn a win).

The partnership between Yusui and Grig has been bearing some fruit, though usually because Yusui is making plays that Grig is helping clean up. The actual coordination between the two has been imperfect, but Yusui’s individual play has created opportunities for positive plays regardless.

Lost, Bot, TSM

Lost is the best Bot laner in Academy, barring possibly Apollo, now that K1ng has been forced to sit out. He can carry hard, and he shows good reads of when a play should be followed through or called off, though his teammates haven’t always shared his reads. TSM need to improve some of the communication around when they’re going in or pulling back, and I recommend they listen to Lost’s voice to find that improvement.

Lost Stats, 2020 Summer Week 2

  KDA KP GXD10 DPM CS%P15
W2 5.7 73.9% -49 633 34.1%
Total 11.3 73.9% +149 554 33.1%

Additional Standouts

Several players had one strong game and one weaker performance, including Huni, Deus, Diamond, and Contractz, while others played at a decent, but not exceptional level.

Photos courtesy flickr.com/lolesports and watch.lolesports.com