LoL: A guide to LTA Fantasy

Ahead of the LTA Split 2 opening, Riot made a historic announcement: the launch of a custom League of Legends esports fantasy app, being beta tested with Americas fans. The new system is a significant departure from the official Sleeper fantasy leagues of seasons past and requires a completely different strategic approach. Beyond bragging rights, top scorers can win free skins — either Spirit Blossom Yasuo or Spirit Blossom Yone — at the end of the split.

Since optimal play in the new fantasy app requires refining your team week-to-week, this guide will show you how to make those decisions and take advantage of the scoring system. When you play, you compete against everyone — not just people in one league. If you play correctly, you can win it all.

In Fantasy, players are given a cost — determined by a hidden algorithmic assessment of their performance — which updates every week. Everyone receives a $50 budget the first time they play and must select their roster based on perceived "market" value. After the weekend of play ends, player values will update, and your budget will change with them.

This system, unlike traditional fantasy drafting, allows everyone to compete against each other on a global leaderboard, since everyone started on a level playing field. Every week, you can choose to "sell" your players back to the market to recoup your budget and reassess your roster, or stick with your current players regardless of their updated value.

There are two key concepts to keep in mind for those looking to increase their budgets week-to-week: Always assess a team's upcoming matchups and always search for undervalued players.

Since the scoring algorithm is based on individual performance, the key is to look for the most asymmetrical matchups on the week's slate, and then assess which players are likely to perform the best. Some players, like LYON midlaner Kang "Saint" Sung-in and 100T midlaner Lim "Quid" Hyeon-seung, are consistent supercarries for their teams. Without them, their teams simply can't win. If 100T or LYON are set to face weaker teams, these two are among the best picks in Fantasy.

On the other hand, building a roster on a minimal budget — or with players as undervalued as possible, generally — is the best way to increase your long-term budget. With C9's somewhat shaky Week 1 performance, the team's entire topside was available for only 28.0 coins. Considering they would face two far weaker teams, Dignitas and Disguised, in Week 2, it was an easy choice to pick them up.

Park "Thanatos" Seung-gyu, for example, was available for only 7.5 coins — nearly half of the cost of FlyQuest's Gabriël "Bwipo" Rau — and I built my team with 7.6 coins left over. If Thanatos's value increases by a mere 3 coins, putting him in the company of most upper-tier players, I'll have 10.6 coins of budget beyond my current roster value to play with next week.

Picking players with expected value growth, while keeping extra budget unspent, minimizes risk while opening avenues to significant reward, especially if you revise your roster with upcoming matchups in mind.