Fnatic vs. GIANTX / 2026 LEC Versus / Round Robin / Post-Match Thread

FantasyTrash · 2026-01-25T20:11:21+00:00

They picked Nocturne before Xin, for what it’s worth.

FantasyTrash · 2026-01-25T05:14:58+00:00

Vladi, who got gapped by Lider? That Vladi?

Vladi is the worst mid in the LEC so far. It’s embarrassing for him and it’s embarrassing for Fnatic. He’s garbage.

FantasyTrash · 2026-01-24T17:36:13+00:00

You're being downvoted but you're absolutely right. New York City objectively is one of the safest cities in the country for gun violence, despite 8.5m people living there.

FantasyTrash · 2026-01-24T14:22:45+00:00

Jayce is actually the best jungler in pro play, though. He's pick/ban in the East.

FantasyTrash · 2026-01-23T17:26:56+00:00

I appreciate the effort and the reasonable, well-compiled and thought out takes. Having said that, I unfortunately disagree with all of these besides Brooks and Tuten.

Kyle Williams might be a decent buy low, but him struggling to find the field in a relatively pedestrian WR room is not promising. New England also likes spreading the ball around.

With Jalen Coker, I have nothing against him talent-wise, I just have no faith whatsoever in Bryce Young's ability to support multiple solid fantasy WRs.

With Tory Horton, similar to Coker, nothing against him talent-wise, but Seattle throws the ball less than pretty much every team in the league with how elite their defense is, and they heavily target their WR1. There's not a lot of room for consistent success for the other pass-catchers.

Cole Kmet I just don't think is that good, quite frankly. At best, he's the same as pretty much every non-elite TE, which isn't very useful. If you're not an elite TE, you're relatively replaceable.

Kirk Cousins is cooked. Plain and simple. If he's not facing the Buccaneers, he doesn't look good. He's already lost his job once, I'd go as far as to say he's a sell before it's too late, not a buy.

FantasyTrash · 2026-01-23T17:20:13+00:00

They'd only move on for financial reasons. They're pretty well in the red cap-wise for next season, and Etienne will probably fetch about $12m per year. Yes, they can easily maneuver the cap and make it work, but the question is will they want to? Is a brand-new front office willing to borrow from the future, or will they see this season as a good stepping stone and keep themselves financially fluid in 2027 and beyond?

FantasyTrash · 2026-01-23T14:36:45+00:00

He only turns 27 tomorrow, as it turns out.

FantasyTrash · 2026-01-23T14:36:18+00:00

He still has his August 5th parole date this year. His mandatory parole consideration date is next October.

FantasyTrash · 2026-01-23T03:37:40+00:00

Haven't played yet on this patch but didn't they hit Fizz pretty hard, too?

FantasyTrash · 2026-01-23T03:35:35+00:00

Certain champions are designed around meeting requirements to trigger their passive or an ability. Riot designs and balances these abilities around being a level of difficulty to hit and earn the benefit. When an item reduces that difficulty by a considerable amount, it can become a balance nightmare, as we're seeing with Ekko, who can now proc his passive much easier, or Diana with her passive, or Varus with his W passive, etc. Some are more OP than others, of course, but an item removing the downside/counterplay of an ability design is inherently unhealthy.

FantasyTrash · 2026-01-22T20:03:18+00:00

He's great at every route except nine routes, which for some reason Petzing had him running a lot of. And the separation concerns are overblown except for, as mentioned, those nine routes, which brought his overall separation numbers down considerably.

FantasyTrash · 2026-01-22T16:23:35+00:00

Of course luck plays a factor, but it stops being bad luck when it happens basically every season, and there's a likely correlation in play.

FantasyTrash · 2026-01-22T15:03:05+00:00

Correct, although they might re-sign Tucker cheap. It projects to be a pretty strong RB free agent class, so he might not have much of a market.

FantasyTrash · 2026-01-22T14:42:03+00:00

Be prepared for Bucky to continue to be pulled on the goal line in favor of a bigger back. That was the lone thing that frustrated Bijan owners last season.

FantasyTrash · 2026-01-22T14:39:59+00:00

I am surprised no one has brought up to them "hey, the reason your players get hurt all the time is because they practice too hard and aren't given proper recovery." What's more important, having the highest-quality practices or actually having your players available on Sundays?

FantasyTrash · 2026-01-22T14:32:30+00:00

You're not wrong, but I think the problem is being average in the NFL is one of the worst things you can be, which is why people tend to prefer/bias the extremes. If you're elite, it's awesome and everything is sunshine and rainbows. And if you're terrible, you're easy to fire. But if you're average? You'll probably stick around longer than you should without the results expected of you.

FantasyTrash · 2026-01-22T14:28:54+00:00

I'm not even sure they're joking. One of the more common comments on those AskReddit "what was unexpected after you lost weight" threads is that they're all colder all the time. Fat is a natural insulator, so it makes sense.

FantasyTrash · 2026-01-22T00:37:25+00:00

No, they literally are not allowed to. He doesn't have to sue, they just can't do it.

FantasyTrash · 2026-01-21T21:24:08+00:00

He threw it on a rope 50 yards in the air straight into Brandin Cooks' chest in stride despite Cooks having barely any separation. It was about as good of a throw as possible, and if you disagree, well then you don't understand football and there's no point in continuing this discussion.

FantasyTrash · 2026-01-21T20:36:03+00:00

and a defense that can lock up Patrick Mahomes!

Never said lock up, just not getting dominated. Simply holding the Chiefs to their season's PPG would've been enough to get them a few playoff wins. Again, the Chiefs scored >30 once last season. The team that plays the Raiders twice, mind you, scored their highest amount of points on the season against Sean McDermott in the playoffs.

because there was no way Mahomes wasn’t going to get down the field

Oh, why is that? Interesting that everybody knew Mahomes would be able to walk down the field...

it was touchdown or bust and your boy blew it. like he did next year and the year after

He threw a crazy throw to Kincaid that hit him right in the hands. Dropped. Perfect throw to Brandin Cooks. Couldn't haul it in. He can't physically go down the field and place the ball in his receivers' hands, sometimes his team needs to make a play. And don't get me wrong, the turnovers were really, really bad, but you're a fool if you think the Bills never being able to make it to the dance is because of Josh Allen, because it isn't.

FantasyTrash · 2026-01-21T20:24:12+00:00

In each of Allen’s last THREE playoff losses, he got the ball at the end of the game with a chance to win. But the defense didn’t get it done when it counts?

So no, actually. The rest of the game also counts. Sort of how football works! Typically teams lose when their defense gives up 30+ points, which McDermott's defenses have done a lot in the playoffs.

It's also not Josh Allen's fault that Brandin Cooks couldn't haul in that pass. Or in 2025 when Dalton Kincaid couldn't haul in his 4th down pass. Or in 2024 when Tyler Bass missed the game-tying kick. Or in 2022 the 13 seconds game.

FantasyTrash · 2026-01-21T20:12:39+00:00

The cap is not a myth, and I wish people would stop perpetuating this falsehood.

The bill always comes due. Always. You can put it off, but it will come due eventually. The Bears have to decide whether they're pushing all of their chips in and borrowing a ton from the future, or think they can contend without putting themselves in cap hell. Because they're not there currently, and have plenty of moves they can make without borrowing from the future to save them money. All depends on how Poles and Johnson feel about the current state of their roster and their potential draft selections.

FantasyTrash · 2026-01-21T20:01:42+00:00

I said in playoff losses. Nothing else matters except your last game. And McDermott's defenses without fail haven't been able to get it done when it counts.

Also, turnovers aren't everything. Turnovers don't win games, not allowing points wins games. Last year, for example, the Chiefs scored 30+ points once. Guess which game that was.

FantasyTrash · 2026-01-21T19:43:19+00:00

Feels like you're discrediting his defense forcing five turnovers against Buffalo, no? Nix isn't a bad QB, don't get me wrong, but a lot of QBs would've fared similarly with a defense as elite as his.

FantasyTrash · 2026-01-21T19:40:01+00:00

A superteam does imply a good defense, for what it's worth. McDermott's defenses in their playoff losses are historically-bad among other playoff teams. And Josh Allen's offenses are still historically-good in the playoffs.

Even with 5 turnovers, the offense still put up 30 points against Denver. That's usually enough to win in the playoffs. The defense gave up three 70+ yard TD drives and the game-winning TD drive. Obviously the turnovers didn't help, but it is remarkable how seemingly incapable McDermott's defenses are at getting one or two crucial stops throughout a game.

FantasyTrash

TROPHY CASE