Academy Standouts: 2021 Summer, Week 5

Academy Standouts highlights the players who performed best in the most recent week of NA Academy play. I’ll discuss a few of the most noteworthy standouts, then list some other players whose performances caught my eye below.

k1ng, Bot, Cloud9 Academy

The king of Academy was back on top this week. Well actually, k1ng was in bot lane, but never let facts ruin a good tagline.

It was a pop-off kind of week for C9A’s star carry, with kill counts of 6, 6, 9, and 6 on 4 different champions and high damage output, despite some struggles getting going in lane, partly due to gank attention.

k1ng Stats

	KDA	KP	GXD10	DPM	CSPM
Week 5	7.7	70.8%	-402	637	8.7
Overall	4.1	64.2%	-193	518	9.3

C9 Academy aren’t looking as consistent or stable as we’re used to, but they still have players stepping up for big games, and k1ng is continuing to make a case for himself as a viable option for a sustained LCS stint in future in whichever org is ready to to pay for him.

Eyla, Support, Team Liquid Academy

Eyla’s team fight peeling and key Thresh hooks made a big difference for TLA this week. He had some struggles in lane with Yeon, but more than made up for it by controlling team fights, especially on Nautilus and Braum.

Despite playing mostly front-lining picks, Eyla never gave up more than 3 deaths, earning double-digit assists in each of TLA’s three wins.

Eyla Stats

	KDA	KP	DTH%	WPM	WCPM
Week 5	7.9	72.4%	14.9%	1.37	0.46
Overall	4.0	68.8%	19.7%	1.39	0.42

Diamond, Support, FlyQuest Academy

It’s been a rough year for Diamond, after promoting into the LCS with Palafox as part of a package sale to FlyQuest. Now that he’s back in Academy, replaced by Dreams on the FLY LCS lineup, he’s working to re-situate himself and reclaim some career momentum. Weeks like this one are going to put him back on track. He indexed into engage with two games on Sett, one Nautilus, and one Thresh, leading the way for FLYA to secure a 3-1 week.

Diamond Stats

	KDA	KP	DTH%	WPM	WCPM
Week 5	3.8	68.5%	31.7%	1.30	0.34
Overall	4.3	68.3%	23.2%	1.29	0.38

Additional Standouts

The following players also stood out.

• Darshan, Top, Cloud9 Academy
  • Mr. President is on the list again with good Akali team fighting,  a Gwen carry, and a solid Gangplank game.
• Haeri, Mid, Team Liquid Academy
  • Haeri racked up a 9.5 KDA playing three games on assassins and one on Karma. He’s sometimes a “forgotten face” on TLA, but he generally does his job well and occasionally steps up as a difference maker, which is always good to see. He put a few of those games together this week.
• Isles, Support, Cloud9 Academy
  • Very strong week from Isles on Thresh x2, Braum, and Karma. He had some very nice Thresh Flays in particular, but could have been a bit better in lane.
• Pretty, Mid, Immortals Academy
  • My appreciation of Pretty is well known at this point, but when he pulls off a 14/1/7 game on LeBlanc, and then goes 6/0/6 on Ryze in the next series, you can see where I’m coming from. His other LeBlanc game and a game on Karma didn’t work out as well, though.
• Thien, Top, Counter Logic Gaming Academy
  • Thien played Ornn in CLGA’s only win of the week, going 1/1/7 with 548 DPM. He also performed pretty well on Wukong, Lee Sin, and Gwen, from an individual standpoint, but the rest of the map is generally falling too far behind for Thien to be able to fully express himself, and his good decisions tend to get lost in the shuffle.
• Triple, Mid, FlyQuest Academy
  • A 10/1/10 game on Viktor and a 6/1/9 followup on LeBlanc against Evil Geniuses Academy highlighted Triple’s week. If he could only play at that level more consistently…
• V1per, Top, Immortals Academy
  • A win and a loss on Lucian and a 9/7/12 performance on Camille made for an interesting week from V1per. We can see games where he looks like the Spring split version of himself, the best-performing player in NA outside of the LCS, but the coin needs to land Heads a little more often.

Photos courtesy lolesports.com