Fantasy preview: Making sense of NA/EMEA's uncertain Stage 2 opener

Joe 'Cryptographer' Peters

Joe 'Cryptographer' Peters

— 4 min read
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Vega/FiXa on the cover of fantasy preview Week 2

NA/EMEA OWCS Fantasy is back! With Stage 2 kicking off in the West this weekend, it’s time to crack out the spreadsheets, scroll some OWTV match pages, and spend plenty of quality time with the OWTV Discord Fantasy crew.

Our goal with these articles is two-fold: to offer some thought-provoking options for your team, and help keep you up to date with any major developments that might affect fantasy. We will do this by looking at the fixtures for the week, players we think offer notably good value, and any other clever ideas we cook up! We’ll also play along each week with a team picked by our writing staff and try to do as well as we did in Stage 1!

Fixture review

If you’re looking to review the fixtures yourself, we’ve included a full Fixture Difficulty Rating (FDR) to help you visualise them and make your own decisions. We’ve pre-colored them according to our own opinions:

  • Green indicates what we think should be a favoured match
  • Yellow indicates a matchup that could go either way
  • Red indicates little upset potential

It’s difficult to go wrong picking your fixtures this week. Virtus.pro, Geekay Esports, and, to an extent, LuneX Gaming all have good fixtures for both Week 1 and Week 2. At the same time, Team Liquid, Dallas Fuel, Twisted Minds, and Al Qadsiah have really appealing Week 1 fixtures but only a single match in Week 2, so make sure you keep your eye on your transfer plan and look to mix multiple schedules in.

FDR for NA Stage 2
FDR for EMEA Stage 2

Fantasy metawatch

We have almost no idea what to expect going into Stage 2 in the West. The Cat/Bastion Comp that we saw a lot of during Champion’s Clash is still in play (however, that might change come Season 3). The Sigma/Mizuki anti-D. Va comp seems likely to see play, and we have heard rumors of more Symmetra play coming back. The issue is who plays what and in what matchups.

Because of this knowledge gap, our suggestion is to stick to what you do know and make educated guesses from there. 

A few examples to help kick off your team: 

  • Sigma is at worst very good, so who likes to play Sigma and is good at Sigma? Al Qadsiah’s Vestola. 
  • Might be best to avoid Lucio specialists who might be forced off their comfort onto Jetpack Cat, Mizuki, or Illari until proven otherwise. 
  • Grapes from The Kafe Esports has a NASTY Illari and could be a good anchor until the meta becomes clearer.

Focus on what you know, not on what you don’t know! 

Cost-effective players

Part of balancing your fantasy roster is recognising that you can’t just pick all top-cost players. You need to find some budget options to fill out your roster, and we’ve selected a player from each role to help highlight a few valid options.

Tank: Vestola, Al Qadsiah (cost: 19.5)

For long-time readers, you may remember that Vestola was our Week 1 tank pick for Stage 1. With Al Qadsiah coming off a Saudi eLeague win, Vestola’s 19.5 cost and skill on Sigma, and a great fixture, he’s a solid base to build your team from.

DPS: Ade, Al Qadsiah (cost: 21)

We’re breaking the unwritten rule of only 20 or below cost players here, but after a juggernaut performance in Stage 1, Ade has more than earned his spot. Additionally, many of the other more value-oriented DPS have strings attached around what the meta will end up being. Ade, however, will be clicking heads regardless.

Support: FiXa or Vega, Virtus.pro/Team Liquid (cost: 20)

FiXa and Vega are the cheapest ways to get LAN-quality players with good fixtures on your roster this week. FiXa has really great fixtures in both Week 1 and Week 2, while Vega has more immediate upside potential due to his greater flexibility on some of the more “shooty” supports like Kiriko and Illari, which could come into play if Lucio is on the sidelines.

Honourable mention: FiNN, Geekay Esports (cost: 20.5)

A case of too good to ignore. Between his competitive price, Geekay's back-to-back double gameweeks, and his excellent performances last stage, there are plenty of reasons to consider him for your roster. FiNN finished the previous stage as the 4th highest-scoring support overall, only behind Ultraviolet, Cjay, and Simple. This stage, he even gets Kellex to partner up with, which should, on paper, help him score even more points.

OWTV Fantasy staff team

  • Vestola - Tank (cost: 19.5)
  • LBBD7 - DPS (cost: 21)
  • Ade - DPS (cost: 21)
  • FiNN - Support (cost: 20.5)
  • scuffed - Support (cost: 18)

For our Stage 2 opener, we've taken a straightforward approach of maximizing games. Every player on our roster has a double this week. More importantly, LBBD7, FiNN, and scuffed all have back-to-back doubles, which gives us a strong foundation in the long run.

That leaves Vestola and Ade as our only players with a double this week, followed by a single fixture next week. Fortunately, that's a very manageable situation with two free transfers.

We're also banking on a bit of history repeating itself. Ade, FiNN, and scuffed were all standout value performers last stage, although we only fully capitalized on FiNN's good run. This time, we're hoping to benefit from all three.

Rounding out the roster are Vestola and LBBD7, two players who consistently deliver solid returns relative to their price. It's a simple strategy, but sometimes the simplest plans are the best ones. Now let's see if these doubles can give us the start we're looking for.

We will compete alongside you using this very team under the name Fantasy Watchpoint. So, as an extra challenge, see if you can beat the OWTV in-house fantasy masterminds, and we will see you on the leaderboards!

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