DFSGhost 
As we await the beginning of the 2021 splits, there is some League of Legends (LoL) action in the DraftKings lobby as LPL teams face off in the NEST tournament. For those that haven’t realized already, this tournament is unranked, meaning teams have been mixing in new starting lineups, using plenty of substitutes, and players we have no seen before – what this means is normal favorites, such as, say, any team versus BLG, is not as automatic in this tournament considering these are scrims; scrims are when these teams get together for unranked matches to prepare for the upcoming split – think of it as not only NBA or NFL preseason, rather it is more as if two teams got together just to play a scrimmage for fun before preseason even begins. There are still big prizes to be won, so let’s get to it:
LoL Matchup #1: Vici Gaming (-450) vs Suning (+300)
| Position | VG | SN |
| TOP | Cube | luuuck |
| JNG | Aix | View |
| MID | Forge | forse |
| ADC | iBoy | Assum |
| SUP | Hang | owo |
The first of two matches is pretty set to me; on a traditional two-game LoL slate, there is always the option to hedge both matches to ensure that at least one of your lineups has the winning combination of series winners. However, if we’re taking a stand, it starts right here with VG defeating the reigning runner-up at the 2020 Worlds. Rolling out the lineup that we should see in this year’s upcoming splits versus a Suning squad that has no regular starters is pretty hard to pass up; Cube is the guy that interests me the most here, as he should have a field day with View in top lane.
Pick: VG (-450)
LoL Matchup #2: Rogue Warriors (+110) vs FunPlux Phoenix (-150)
| Position | RW | FPX |
| TOP | BoWen | Xiao7 |
| JNG | Youdang | Youxin |
| MID | Wuming | Insulator |
| ADC | ZWuji | Lwx |
| SUP | Ley | Shenyi |
The second of two matches is where we can get different. Despite being a favorite in this game, we’ve said it time and time again that Vegas odds for eSports are not necessarily as indicative as for traditional sports just yet, and while I thought RNG should not have been a favorite yesterday versus FPX, I don’t think they should be here versus RW. What we saw on Map 1 of 3 from FPX in their series yesterday versus RNG was truly was truly a remarkable comeback – but RW plays much more aggressively than RNG and won’t let that occur versus them here. ZWuji will have his hands full with Lwx, but with Crisp projected to be out with an illness, the bot lane duo of will be able to hold their own and ride out lane advantages in the mid and jungle to victory here. If you’re hedging a game, it’s this one, which should also be your 4-man stack.
Pick: RW (+110)
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