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.
Watch Tim’s picks for Game of the Week:
Keaiduo, Mid, TSM Academy
Keaiduo seems to have found his footing in Academy. He had an incredible week, pairing with V1per to lead TSM Academy to a 4-2 record and generating some real momentum going into Proving Grounds. His 9/1/11 Corki game against EG Academy was explosive, his LeBlanc against TL Academy was dominant, and he posted 8 kills on Viktor against DIG Academy, too. This was the kind of Academy performance you expect out of a player of Keaiduo’s calibre. Now we have to wait and see whether that puts pressure on the TSM management to incorporate him back into the LCS squad.
V1per, Top, TSM Academy
Like I said, Keaiduo and V1per paired up for TSMA this week, and V1per definitely deserves his own shoutout. He played two games each of Gnar and Camille and one Akali, before flexing Corki into the top lane for the final game and posting 763 DPM on it. He had solo kills in every series, though in fairness one of them was a mutual solo kill. He made roaming plays, flanked for team fights, and was a source of chaos for his opponents at every turn.
Dhokla, Top, CLG Academy
Finally, another top laner put together a strong super week. CLG’s Dhokla ended the regular season on a high note. He won games on Fiora, Irelia, Jayce, and Renekton. His Fiora game was especially impressive, generating kills in outnumbered situations and taking over despite receiving a lot of enemy attention. By the way, you can ignore the final game, where CLGA role-swapped all their players so they could walk a mile in each others’ shoes. In the games that mattered, Dhokla continued to advance his claim as the best performing top laner in Academy right now.
Additional Standouts
The following players also stood out.
- Armao, Jungle, Team Liquid Academy
- Chime, Support, Golden Guardians Academy
- Copy, Mid, Cloud9 Academy
- DarkWings, Mid, Dignitas Academy
- Haeri, Mid, Team Liquid Academy
- RoseThorn, Jungle, CLG Academy
- Yeon, Bot, Team Liquid Academy
Photos courtesy lolesports.com