Week 6: Predictions for the NA LCS

Who will come out on top at the end of week 6?  Will Team Liquid be able to take down Gravity and Counter Logic Gaming?  Can Cloud 9 keep up their momentum?  Is this the week that all is thrown to the wind and Team Coast go 2 - 0?  Let's look at what we have in store for us in week 6.

Matches to Watch:

1.  The rematch between Team Liquid and Gravity.  The former Team Curse and Curse Academy will face off again this week.  Last time they met Gravity had a convincing win over Liquid; now that Liquid has brought back KEITH to replace Piglet, will TL be able to come out on top?

When: Saturday at 2:00 PM Pacific Time.

2.  Team Liquid against Counter Logic Gaming.  CLG might be the clear choice for voters online, but the last time these two team met Team Liquid had the same squad they have now and put down CLG.  Will Zion Spartan be enough to put CLG on top?  Or will Team Liquid keep up their momentum from their win over SoloMid and take down CLG a second time?

When: Sunday at 3:00 PM Pacific Time.

3.  Cloud 9 and Winterfox.  Last time they met in Week 4, Winterfox was able to secure a convincing win over Cloud 9, only giving up 3 towers the whole match.  However, since their last meeting, Cloud 9 brought down Counter Logic Gaming, who proved to be a difficult match up for Winterfox back in Week 3.  Can Cloud 9 use their momentum to take down Winterfox, or will Winterfox out maneuver Cloud 9 again?

When: Sunday at 1:00 PM Pacific Time.

Clear Winners this Week:

1.  Team SoloMid.  They have a pretty easy schedule this week (Dignitas on Saturday and Impulse on Sunday).  Assuming that they've worked out the kinks from their game against Team Liquid, Team SoloMid should be able to pull off two repeat wins.

Potential Upsets:

1.  Counter Logic Gaming.  Last week wasn't their best showing, and they're going against two teams this week with a whole lot of steam.  Winterfox (Saturday 4:00 PM PST) won their match against Team Liquid, and is looking much more crisp now that they've settled in.  Team Liquid (Sunday 3:00 PM PST) is looking much stronger now that they've brought back KEITH and the rest of the team is starting to capitalize on their strengths.

Full Schedule and Predictions:

Saturday:

12:00 PM - Team Coast vs Cloud 9

Last Match: Cloud 9.  3 - 10 towers, 4 - 6 kills.  Match time: 30:18.  Week 3.

Prediction: Cloud 9.  Team Coast has had a really rough season, and replacing Jesiz with mancloud hasn't shown much sign for improvement.

1:00 PM - Team 8 vs Team Impulse

Last Match: Team Impulse.  8 - 8 towers, 14 - 20 kills.  Match time: 39:47.  Week 2.

Prediction: Team Impulse.  Both teams had a 1 - 1 week last week; Team 8 lost to Gravity and beat Team Coast, while Team Impulse lost to Cloud 9 and beat Gravity.  Both teams have struggled so far this season, but Team 8 is looking a bit worse for wear.

2:00 PM - Team Liquid vs Gravity

Last Match: Gravity.  4 - 11 towers, 11 - 24 kills.  Match time: 47:27.  Week 4.

Prediction: Team Liquid.  Team Liquid with their current roster has been the only team to take down both TSM and CLG; although there's still room for improvement (TL vs Winterfox last week would be a good example), they're looking a lot stronger going into this match than before.

3:00 PM - Team SoloMid vs Team Dignitas

Last Match: Team SoloMid.  10 - 5 towers, 18 - 6 kills.  Match time: 35:50.  Week 3.

Prediction: Team SoloMid.  Team Dignitas has been doing a little better in the last two weeks since they met, but with recent losses to both CLG and Cloud 9, it'll be rough for Dignitas to pull off an upset.

4:00 PM - Counter Logic Gaming vs Winterfox

Last Match: Counter Logic Gaming.  9 - 2 towers, 21 - 10 kills.  Match time: 31:12.  Week 3.

Prediction: Counter Logic Gaming.  Winterfox did look pretty good in their victory last week (against Team Liquid), but with a few hard lessons and redoubled efforts, Counter Logic Gaming should have a better showing this week.

Sunday:

12:00 PM - Gravity vs Team Coast

Last Match: Gravity.  8 - 4 towers, 19 -15 kills.  Match time: 38:58.  Week 2.

Prediction: Gravity.  As mentioned before, Team Coast has had a rough season; although, of their two matches this week Gravity is the one they're more likely to beat.  Gravity has been a little inconsistent in their victories, sometimes steamrolling their opponents, and sometimes giving over easy victories.

1:00 PM - Cloud 9 vs Winterfox

Last Match: Winterfox.  3 - 9 towers, 8 - 16 kills.  Match time: 36:09.  Week 4.

Prediction: Cloud 9.  This is a rough match to call.  Winterfox has been looking great in their last few appearances (except against Team Dignitas), but Cloud 9 learned from their last encounter and took home 2 wins last week, including one against Counter Logic Gaming.  Either way, the match could be pretty close.

2:00 PM - Team Impulse vs Team SoloMid

Last Match: Team SoloMid.  10 -2 towers, 18 - 4 kills.  Match time: 29:15.  Week 3.

Prediction: Team SoloMid.  Team Impulse has been improving over the last few weeks, but they're still probably not up to the task of taking down Team SoloMid.

3:00 PM - Counter Logic Gaming vs Team Liquid

Last Match: Team Liquid.  11 - 5 towers, 27 - 12 kills.  Match time: 42:13.  Week 1.

Prediction: Team Liquid.  There has been a lot of time between their last match up, but we've seen a lot of good things out of Team Liquid with this current roster. Their loss against Winterfox was more of a fluke, and Counter Logic Gaming looks like they're losing steam with the loss against Cloud 9.  The only difference between this and their last match up is the addition of Zion Spartan on Counter Logic Gaming--but will it be enough?

4:00 PM - Team 8 vs Team Dignitas

Last Match: Team Dignitas.  6 - 9 towers, 15 - 27 kills.  Match time: 38:29.  Week 4.

Prediction: Team Dignitas.  This match might be a little too close to call.  Both Team 8 and Team Dignitas have had a rough time in the last few weeks.  Both teams have managed to secure wins over Winterfox and Team Coast, but Team 8 has had quite a rough time since their week 1 victory against TSM.

Gambit Gaming vs ROCCAT: By the Numbers

Gambit is the sleeper powerhouse of the European LCS.  Their latest win now puts them on a 7-0 winning streak--just one victory shy of SK's season opening streak.

Gambit has worked out a style that works for them.  It starts in champion select.  They plan for the mid-late game, choosing champions that become powerhouses later and mix them with champions who have the ability to lock down (Morgana) or disengage (Janna).  In game, they make early, calculated concessions--perhaps first blood, perhaps a dragon--and steadily apply the pressure.  By the time late game rolls around, their steady give and take becomes a whole lot more take than give, and eventually they break their way into the base.

Will the strategy continue to work?  So far it's brought down the likes of Fnatic and Elements--perhaps they will even be able to take down SK with this explosive late game style.

Edward gives up first blood--not exactly planned, but not enough to throw them off.

1.  The early concessions.  Cabochard said it best in his post game interview yesterday, "We just had to give up pressure early on to win later."  Even though they gave up Diamond's typical early game pressure with the Sejuani pick, they decided that the trade off for later team fights was well worth it.  Teams know during pick and bans what sort of game they're setting themselves up for, but you don't often hear teams expecting to lose early as part of their strategy.

Betsy accepts the nice blue buff donation.

2.  The split push.  Betsy (Zed) and P1noy (Tristana) were always pushing back a minion wave somewhere.  They aren't quite as timed in their rotations as SK, but they keep up the pressure nonetheless.  It also helps when Betsy is able to take a free blue buff just for being in the neighborhood.

Nothing scarier than a poro-riding viking.

3.  Deterrence.  A dive in the early game--even if it seems like a good idea--could cost a player dearly with Diamond riding around the jungle.  Gambit has a play style that keeps their opponents second guessing themselves for ganks.  One particular occasion was noteworthy in the mid game, when three members of ROCCAT had a lower health Betsy in their sights, but because of his aggressive jaunt through their jungle they did little more than trade a little damage back and forth, for fear that Gambit would collapse on them from the fog of war.

A sliver of health?  No problem--Betsy can probably get another kill out of it.

4.  Quick capitalization.  Once Gambit secures a team fight, they don't lose any time returning to base.  It's not uncommon for Gambit to take advantage of a little lead in the moment, and give a little push wherever they can make it count.  Granted, this strategy ended in Betsy's death on more than one occasion, but in the end they traded a death for a valuable objective.

Yes, that tower lost over half its health that quickly.

5.  Late game powerhouses.  By late game, there's really no one you want to engage directly.  Gambit's frontline--Diamond and Cabochard--makes the choice a tough one.  Tanky enough that he can take a bit of beating, Diamond is a CC machine that can slow, knock up, or freeze a clumped group of enemies.  On the other hand, unless you can guarantee a shut down jumping on Cabochard is likely to result in a Dark Binding and Soul Shackles, if there's enough commitment.  Betsy on Zed is mobile enough that jumping on him almost guarantees a Death Mark on your back line, and P1noy on Tristana is going to Rocket Jump his way to more resets.  If the fight goes awry, no worries--Edward is there with Janna to reset the whole encounter.

ROCCAT pushes into Gambit's base while they limp back after Baron.

6.  Although, a mirror could be their weakness.  After Gambit took control at around 17 minutes, they kept in control for the rest of the game--except for that brief respite around 30 minutes when they took Baron.  ROCCAT, seizing an opportunity, decided not to engage Gambit directly, but instead pushed to secure three towers, an inhibitor, and a Dragon.  Perhaps the strategy's undoing is the strategy itself.

Other interesting statistics:

• Diamond really absorbed the damage.  It took an average of 24.2k damage to take down this monstrous poro-riding beast.  Next was P1noy at 19.2k, and then Edward at 15.6k.

• Nukeduck continued to dish out a lot of damage than he took with a ratio of 1.9.  P1noy was next with 1.6, followed by Cabochard at 1.4.

• Vander pulled his weight in the team fight category, netting 100% Kill Participation.  Next was a two way tie between P1noy and Edward at 80%.

• Gambit was also effective with their damage, averaging 5.5k damage for each kill.  ROCCAT had to commit an average of 8k for each kill.

Unicorns of Love vs. SK Gaming: By the Numbers

Now that Fnatic found the weakness in SK's play style, it seems everyone has the formula.  That said, Unicorns of Love leveled the European leaders with an effectiveness all their own.

UOL set the game on tracks from Champion Select.  They took only a few seconds to make their bans and team composition decisions before they put it back over into SK's court.  Anticipating a low mobility composition, SK locked in Leona, but even her CC abilities would prove fruitless against UOL's onslaught.

UOL took early control of the lanes, taking down Forg1ven for First Blood.  Kikis constantly invaded the enemy jungle, keeping tabs on Svenskeren and looking for members of SK out of position.  This translated well into the midgame, with UOL looking to trade objectives and keeping up their momentum.

Once UOL got started, they kept up the tempo and never gave SK a break.  In the end, they plowed through every SK tower before 30 minutes.

Svenskeren thought Kikis would be an easy catch under turret.  Not so easy after all.

1.  High mobility in a low mobility composition.  Unicorns of Love were able to compensate for their lack of mobility (especially on Cassiopeia and Annie) by compensating with explosive mobility on their other picks.  Kikis (Nidalee) was all over the map the whole game, constantly poking lanes with spears and catching Svenskeren (Rek'sai) in his own jungle.  Vizicsacsi (Gnar) used anything he could to get the extra hop, bouncing around in teamfights only to unleash MegaGnar at the crucial moment.  Meanwhile, Vardags (Sivir) had his finger on the trigger to ensure UOL would always be able to out-maneuver SK.

Taking down Forg1ven for First Blood.

2.  Temper the SK cannon.  UOL was very intentional with their early game focus on Forg1ven (Lucian).  They made sure that he couldn't pull as far ahead as he would normally--in fact, up until the 10 minute mark, he and Vardags were very close in CS.  In team fights, they'd put a solid line between Forg1ven and the squishiest parts of their team so that he'd have little to pick off before UOL could tear a hole through their team.

The first of many fredy self-ults.

3.  Force the CC early.  The damage output from UOL was so strong that it naturally forced out all the CC SK had early in the engage--nearly every encounter featured fredy (Lissandra) using his ultimate to protect himself, and nRated (Leona) going down before his stuns could be fully utilized.  What little they could pull off did rack up 10 kills between their carries (5 each for Forg1ven and Fox), but it'd prove to be too little too late, as UOL would follow up with their explosive damage and mobility.

UOL occupies SK in the bottom jungle while Vardags pushes his way through a turret up top.

4.  Objective control and worthwhile trades.  In the early stages of the game, it looked as though Kiki's exuberance to invade the enemy jungle would cost them their early lead; he was caught out twice in the early part of the game and gave over a kill each time.  However, UOL was quick to take advantage of the focus and push lanes elsewhere on the map, taking their first dragon around 12 minutes.  They brought down the first tier of towers around 16 minutes, and closed out the game (with 3 dragons and 2 barons) in the next 14 minutes.

Sneak in a baron because SK doesn't have vision?  Done.

5.  Vision control.  SK dropped 68 wards over the game, compared to 93 from UOL.  Overall, UOL dropped around 3.1 wards per minute, while SK only placed 2.2 wards every minute.  UOL was also more efficient at vision denial, destroying 26% of SK's wards; SK only cleared 16%.

Forg1ven likes to take them down from afar.

6.  Still, you really can't keep the Forg1ven cannon down.  Despite the troubles his team faced, he still managed to farm the most gold (13466, 417 more gold than Vardags, who had the most gold on UOL).  He had an average of 450 GPM, and 9.95 CS per minute.

Other interesting statistics:

• Fox gave much more damage than he received, hitting a 1.8.  2nd was Forg1ven at 1.3, and 3rd PowerOfEvil at 1.2.

• Vizicsacsi soaked up the damage, averaging 14.5k damage per death.  2nd was Vardags at 11.8k, and 3rd Kikis at 8.3k.

• Unicorns had an average of 3.6 players at each kill; SK only had an average of 2.6.

• Unicorns were also extremely efficient with their damage, averaging 3.5k damage per kill.  SK, on the other hand, committed 5.5k damage to secure each kill.

• Hylissang and Kikis were the primary enablers for the Unicorns, each securing a 90% Kill Participation.  Vizicsacsi was next with 80%, and then Fox at 75%.

Week 5: Champion Popularity Contest

After 5 weeks of the NA LCS, let's look at the relative popularity of Champions (and their performance) in LCS matches.

1.  Most Picked Champions.

1st: Jarvan IV, appeared in 31 games.
2nd: Janna, appeared in 29 games.
3rd: Sivir, appeared in 26 games.

2.  Most Banned Champions.

1st: Lissandra, banned in 70% of games.
2nd: Kassadin, banned in 58% of games.
3rd: Rumble, banned in 48% of games.

3.  Most Popular All-Around (Picked + Banned).

1st: Lissandra, picked or banned in 96% of games.
2nd: Jarvan IV, picked or banned in 92% of games.
3rd: Kassadin, picked or banned in 84% of games.

4.  Most Likely to Go on a Rampage (Most Kills).

1st: Jinx, averaging 5.9 kills per game.
2nd: Nidalee, averaging 5.2 kills per game.
3rd: Graves, averaging 5.15 kills per game.

5.  Most Likely to Bite It (Most Deaths).

1st: Orianna, averaging 6.25 deaths per game.
2nd: Swain, averaging 5 deaths per game.
3rd: Azir, averaging 4.125 deaths per game.

6.  Most Likely to Donate to the Cause (Most Assists).

1st: Braum, averaging 10.5 assists per game.
2nd: Renekton, averaging 10.4 assists per game.
3rd: Alistar, averaging 10 assists per game.

7.  One-Hit Wonders.

All these champions have appeared only once on Summoner's Rift in the NA LCS: Alistar, Draven, Elise, Malphite, Nocturne, Swain, Veigar, and Yasuo.

8.  They Should be Banned.

These champions have only appeared as bans: Kennen and Pantheon.

9.  Most Total Kills.

1st: Sivir (115)
2nd: Graves (98)
3rd: Corki and Ahri (87)

10.  Most Total Deaths.

1st: Jarvan IV (97)
2nd: Rek'sai (78)
3rd: Maokai (67)

11.  Most Total Assists.

1st: Jarvan IV (299)
2nd: Janna (272)
3rd: Morgana (214)

12.  Win Rates (the Top Ten Most Valuable Champions).

1.  Nidalee (4 games, 100% win rate)
2.  Jax (2 games, 100% win rate)
3.  Alistar, Nocturne, Veigar (1 game each, 100% win rate)
6.  Lissandra (13 games, 92% win rate)
7.  Zed (10 games, 80% win rate)
8.  Renekton (5 games, 80% win rate)
9.  Jinx (8 games, 75% win rate)
10.  Vi (20 games, 70% win rate)

Week 5: The NA Top Lane

This week, we're going to analyze how things have been going in the NA Top Lane.

I've always found the top lane intriguing, probably because it's the one lane that I understand conceptually but rarely excel at in practice.  The top lane provides that necessary missing component that makes the team composition work, and yet top lane is usually that quiet lane and unsung hero that did a whole lot, but doesn't get much credit for it.  Today, let's look at the impact (or the lack thereof) that the top lane has had on games this last week.

1.  Kill participators, kill enablers, those least likely to share, and the notably absent.  Two players this week had an extraordinary 100% kill participation: Cris from Team Coast (against Team SoloMid on Kassadin), and Impact from Team Impulse (against Gravity on Morgana).  Cris also gave over all those (2) kills, while Impact gave 86% (12 kills).  Across the two games, Impact had the highest KP (89%), followed by a two way tie between Hauntzer and Zion Spartan (80%); Balls was close behind them at 79%.

Avalon stood out as the one most likely to help and least likely to take the kill, taking an assist in 93% of the 14 kills he was involved in.  Dyrus was next, handing 89% of the 9; then Balls, who handed over 83% of the 23.

Impact, back in his SKT T1 regalia, now on Team Impulse.

Impact also took all three kills he was involved in against Cloud 9 on Dr. Mundo, and Quas didn't share too well in the game against Winterfox on Fizz, only giving over 1 kill he was participated in.  Overall, Quas was least likely to give over a kill (61% of his KP was assist--he went 7/7/11 this week).

Dyrus was notably absent in team fights, only participating in 29% of his team's 31 kills.  The next lowest participation was Quas, who was involved in 60% of his team's kills.

Gamsu, from Team Dignitas.

2.  Damage dealers.  Three top laners this week gave more damage than they took: Gamsu on Rumble against CLG, Balls on Rumble against CLG (noticing a trend?), and Impact on Morgana against Gravity.  Overall, Impact was the most likely champion to give as much damage has he took across his two games.

Balls, from Cloud 9.

3.  Indestructible tanks.  In individual performance, Balls took the cake by eating 34.5k damage without dying (against Team Impulse on Maokai); he was followed by Zion Spartan, who endured 18.3k against Team Dignitas.  Overall, the most indestructible tank was Balls (13.2k damage/death), followed by Zion Spartan (11.6k), and Gamsu (10.9k).

Dyrus, from Team SoloMid.

4.  Farmers.  Dyrus overall had the best farm (no doubt due to the waves of super minions in their game against Team Liquid) at 7.7 CSM.  Next was Gamsu at 7 CSM, and then Quas at 6.8.  In individual performance, Gamsu had the highest CSM numbers with 8.8 CSM against Winterfox on Renekton.  Gamsu was also the most likely to take a jungle camp while traveling from sides of the map, netting 5.6% of his CS from the jungle.  Next was Quas at 4.96%, and then Balls at 4.3%.

Haunzter, from Gravity.

5.  Damage mitigators.  Part of staying alive is mitigating the damage that you take; one way this is accomplished is by looking at overall damage healed.  Hauntzer stands out, with an overall 38% mitigated (on Dr. Mundo and Maokai).  Next was Avalon at 31% (on Maokai and Sion--although, well over half of that came from his game on Sion, where he died 5 times), and finally Impact at 28% (on Morgana and Dr. Mundo).

Zion Spartan, from Counter Logic Gaming.

6.  Warders.  Some top laners stand out because of the vision control that they contribute to the team--and with the new buffs to the Greater Stealth Totem, it's much easier for top laners to contribute to the vision war.  Zion Spartan leads this category, with .76 wards per minute.  2nd was Quas with .75, and 3rd Gamsu with .66.  Zion Spartan is especially good at utilizing the trinket ward, since he spent around 4.6% of his total gold on trinkets, but managed to place an average of 30 wards per game.

Team Liquid vs Team SoloMid: By the Numbers

NA, like Europe, likes to bring down its leaders quickly.

Team Liquid learned from their Saturday game and put it all into action in their game against TSM.  Team Liquid was able to secure objectives early, controlling Dragon for the entire game and bringing down the outer layer of towers by 15 minutes.  TSM kept making little mistakes, and Team Liquid would capitalize on them.  However, once Team Liquid finally cracked into TSM's base just before 39 minutes, the game took an interesting turn.

With most of their turrets down and their base wide open, TSM rallied and fought off wave after wave of super minions for the next 14 minutes.  It was as though things started to click for them.  However, in the end the damage Team Liquid (and the minions) had managed to exact from TSM's base proved too much to bear.

Dyrus has a really rough start.

1.  What's up with Dyrus?  This isn't the first game in the last few weeks that we've seen Dyrus struggle in the early game.  Granted, the pressure Quas brought to the table was impressive (more on that later), but Quas cannot be blamed for those missed Equalizers.  He struggled to catch up, and was really only starting to bring Rumble to bear after Team Liquid had already broken through the Inhibitors.  Dyrus has managed to perform quite well on tanky top laners in the past (Maokai, Sion, even Rumble), but he's been having a rough time with these recent picks.  Perhaps Santorin needs to spend a little less time helping Bjergsen get rolling, and a little more time helping Dyrus.

The cleanse followed up by the stun that set up the Pentakill.

2.  Bjergsen's cleanse.  This is a point for both teams--Team Liquid identified and thoroughly focused one of the major damage threats of TSM, and TSM had a backup plan.  The Summoner Spell proved invaluable in a number of late game team fights that allowed TSM to lay down a massive amount of damage (typically in the form of WildTurtle).  However, on the other side of the coin, Team Liquid was consistent with their initiation--lock down Bjergsen, then focus on the rest of the team.  This strategy gained them victories at Dragon, and later again at Baron.

Now that's a smite steal.

3.  IWDominate is a real threat.  He did well in his game against Winterfox, but he did even better initiating in this game (not to mention his Baron steal).  Again, he averaged over 12k damage per death.  He's going to be a jungler to watch over this next year.

Quas will let none escape.

4.  Quas is bringing something new to the top lane.  Season 4 ended with the rise of the tank top laner.   Dyrus exemplifies this sort of top laner, one who plays a pretty passive lane and brings a solid front line later for team fights.  Quas, though, likes to get into the fray and do a healthy bit of damage besides.  In this match, he took more damage than IWDominate and returned about 45% of the damage he took.

Don't let the triple kill fool you--this is the rocket that secures the Pentakill.

5.  WildTurtle proves, again, that he's ridiculous on an ADC.  If WildTurtle had started rolling a bit earlier in the game, we would have seen a dynamically different game.  Between him and Bjergsen, TSM has a solid damage component.  Like many other teams, Team Liquid underestimated WildTurtle's ability to turn around a fight (but probably never again after that Pentakill).  This balance is what gives TSM such an edge over other teams--whenever you shut down one (either Bjergsen or WildTurtle), you've always got the other to worry about.

Team Liquid storms the enemy base with the borrowed Baron buff.

6.  Team Liquid's got the objective control.  At least, up to the Nexus towers.  In this game, they completely controlled objectives from the beginning.  They took all 11 towers, 7 dragons, and 2 barons.  TSM was completely throttled and was only able to take the outer ring of towers.  Up until breaking into TSM's base, Team Liquid was looking exceptional in their rotations.  This play style is the sort that will lend itself well to competing on the global level.

We could always use seeing that Pentakill again.

What could have been done differently?  TSM really needs to extend the support to Dyrus in the top lane.  They rely heavily on getting Bjergsen and WildTurtle rolling, but pushing so heavily for their carries while leaving their frontline to fend for himself will ensure this happens again and again.  Team Liquid, on the other hand, has done wonderful things with their focus.  If they want to win again, they'll need to keep up the pressure on Bjergsen, and make sure to introduce some focus on WildTurtle.

Other interesting statistics:

• Team Liquid hunted more as a team, averaging 3.9 teammates at every kill.  TSM didn't do too badly either, with 3.1 present at every kill.

• Santorin had a ridiculous 100% Kill Participation throughout the match.  2nd place was Lustboy with 95%, and 3rd KEITH with 87%.

• IWDominate was a really effective tank in this match, earning himself a 1.7 on the scale.  2nd place at 1.14 was Santorin, followed by Quas at 1.11.

• WildTurtle gave much more hurt than he took with 1.94.  2nd place was KEITH at 1.7, and 3rd Bjergsen at .99.

Team Liquid vs Winterfox: By the Numbers

Winterfox showed us on Saturday when the enemy team gives you an inch, take a mile.

Winterfox storms the Team Liquid base.

Coming into the Spring Split, both of these teams showed a lot of potential.  Team Liquid was the only team to come out of Week 1 unscathed with a 2-0 record (no small thanks to KEITH's big plays, but more on him later), and Winterfox headlined Pobelter, the solo queue god who played musical chairs with WildTurtle for the top few spots all of Season 4.

Team Liquid started the game off strong, pushing the bottom lane hard with Quas and establishing a head and shoulders foothold over Avalon.  On the other side of the map, Winterfox set up a buffer zone around Altec, who they focused on gaining a clear early CS lead.  Winterfox kept up control on dragons--securing their second dragon before 13 minutes; meanwhile Team Liquid focused their efforts on systematically taking down towers, bringing down the last tier 1 tower right just after 14 minutes.  The global gold proved invaluable for Team Liquid, allowing them to push their way to Winterfox's tier 2 towers, and affording them a pair of dragons and the Baron just before 30 minutes.

And then hubris set in.  A pair of crucial encounters swung the pendulum back to Winterfox, and allowed them to close out the game nicely at 39 minutes.

Quas chomps up a tree for First Blood.

1. The new Fizz is awfully scary.  When Deathfire Grasp was removed in 5.2, Fizz saw a complete overhaul that changed his game play significantly.  Quas, though, showed us that at least in the top lane Fizz is just as scary as he's always been.  After solo killing Avalon with only a Doran's Blade, Winterfox was forced to play tentatively around him.  His ability to dive into the back line and escape unscathed makes him an awfully scary threat, especially in the side lanes where he has the ability to suddenly flank a team fight.  Overall, Quas had nearly a 100 CS lead over Avalon, and really dominated the split push the whole game.

IWDominate draws fire from Winterfox.

2.  IWDominate doesn't go down easily.  IWDominate took an impressive 25.9 damage and only managed to die twice--averaging almost 13k damage per death (incidentally, FeniX, KEITH, and Xpecial combined took 25.9k damage, which resulted in 6 deaths between them).  Avalon could afford to take a few lessons on tanking from him.

Here comes the ROCKET!

3.  And Team Liquid agrees: KEITH is a better fit.  Don't get me wrong, Piglet can hold up his end, even when he forgets his masteries.  However, I think Piglet fits best in that meticulous Korean style that relies on clockwork precision and objective control.  KEITH, on the other hand, is used to the rough-and-tumble, everyone's a hero play style more common in NA and EU.  He also has a way of playing ADC with style.

Imagine flashes in to stun Team Liquid.

4.  Imagine the possibilities.  Imagine started this week in Gleeb's old position, playing a pretty good Annie.  Yes, he did miss that Tibbers, but he has a way of slinging spells around team fights that earned him a lot of focus from Team Liquid.  He's adjusting pretty nicely to LCS level play (unlike a few other new recruits across NA/EU), dropping 43 wards at an average of 1.1 wards a minute.  He'll have a little bit more practice today with Team Dignitas to perfect that vision game.

The pack collapses on their prey.

5.  Winterfox lives up to their pack name.  Aside from Avalon's first death in the laning phase, Winterfox both killed and died with the pack.  When all was said and done, Winterfox averaged 3.9 players at every kill--pretty impressive for the 10-7 kill lead over Team Liquid.  I'd also say the "protect and feed Altec" strategy did manage to pay off a bit--aside from FeniX, he had the most Damage to Champions all game.

What could we expect from a rematch?  It'd be tough to say with two players getting their feet wet in their first week (well, sort of with KEITH).  Team Liquid is now back to that Week 1 team that had a strong foothold early on.  Winterfox has been looking better and better as they pick up experience against more established teams.  Team Liquid needs a solid contingency plan for how they can recover should a team fight not go as expected (especially twice in a row).  Winterfox could use a little more focus on playing strong from the early game so they don't have to rely on two great catches to swing the tide of the game around.

Other interesting statistics:

• IWDominate's tanking ability really shined in numerous statistics.  For taking nearly 40% of all the damage Team Liquid took, he only had 20% of the deaths (for a factor of 1.9).  2nd place was Pobelter with 1.3, and 3rd Quas with 1.1.

• Winterfox was extremely efficient with their kills, averaging 3.86k damage per kill--compare that to Team Liquid's 6.46k.

• FeniX wins the award for most damage spread for least amount of return, doing a total of 15.3k damage (the most in the match) for a total of a 1 kill and 1 assist (or about 7.65k per credit).  2nd place was IWDominate at 3.6, followed by Quas at 2.48.

• In the end, Winterfox really won the CS war.  Altec had an average of 10.1 CS/minute.  2nd place was Pobelter with 8.97, followed by FeniX at 8.4. 

ROCCAT vs Elements: By the Numbers

What happened to the wonder team?  I remember all the hype at the beginning of the Spring season for the powerhouse that Elements was supposed to be.  After all, they were Alliance--who took the first place spot in the European LCS last year--combined with the ADC from Fnatic that many considered the best Europe had to offer (remember Rekkles consoling SSB's Deft after their only loss in the Group Stage?).

Their original meeting in Week 2 resulted in a loss for ROCCAT after a lengthy 60 minute match, which definitely looked a little sloppy on Elements' part.  Now, armed with a little more experience, 4-5 Elements was favored to win over the 3-6 ROCCAT.

What happened, though, was another story.  ROCCAT honed in early on Elements' weaknesses, landing 3 kills on Kev1n (who joined earlier this week to replace Wickd, who honestly had been having a rough time in previous games) by 14 minutes.  After a few more kills and unchecked pushing (especially that push in the bottom lane that went unchecked until after the Tier 2 tower, after which Elements handed ROCCAT two nice kills, the bot inhibitor tower, and the inhibitor--all around 23 minutes), ROCCAT had pressure on all three lanes, 3 Dragons, and a Baron buff besides.  ROCCAT managed to close out the game at around 31 minutes, with 13 kills on the board.

Things started off badly for Kev1n.  They ended badly too.

1. Wickd was having a rough time, but Kev1n's got it worse.  It's not uncommon for teams to punish a new player to the LCS in their first few games (think of Piglet's opening week in the NA LCS, when he wasn't forgetting his masteries), but Kev1n isn't playing with that in mind.  He's making poor decisions that cost him valuable summoner spells.  He also fell easily, only taking 3.7k damage per death (compare that to Rekkles, who took 5.7k, or Froggen, who took 12.9k).  He also averaged less than 5 CS / minute.  He's definitely going to need a little more practice off the stage.

Here comes Elements only to bring Vander down to half health before losing two.

2. Strict AD comps are hard to pull off.  They definitely enjoy the early advantage of (typically) a CS lead, and have the ability to push towers harder early.  However, they require early snowballing to make the strategy viable, which takes a level of aggression that Elements isn't known for.  It doesn't help either that the majority of their Magic Damage (which would become much more relevant end game) would come from an Annie support whose only AP item was a Spellthief's Edge.  Although strong in theory, Elements might want to run one of their more typical line ups when they bring a new player on board.

Arcane Barrage is not enough to stop 5 members of ROCCAT.

3. ROCCAT took advantage of every misstep.  On Elements' side, it looked they they were playing in solo queue--sticking primarily to their own lanes, pushing the objectives they were responsible for during the laning phase.  In fact, at the end of the game, Elements had really only accomplished that--taking down ROCCAT's tier 1 towers (the last of which was taken moments before/after ROCCAT took their first inhibitor).  Time and time again, Elements misappropriated their focus and were punished for it.

And there goes Nyph's health.

4.  Nukeduck.  In previous games, his name has seemed a little ironic when he was melted by enemy mid laners.  However, in this game he really lived up to his name, melting HP bars right and left with LeBlanc combos.  He didn't even bother building a Zhonya's Hourglass, instead finishing the game off with a Void Staff.  In the end he was only 3/0/2, but that doesn't take into account the times he took huge chunks out of the enemy team.  He stood out at the end with a 3.2 Damage to Champions to Damage Taken ratio.

Jankos just about walked away from the dive.  That'd be Froggen's only kill.

5.  +10 Armor Penetration is not going to cut it.  This is harking a back to the AD comp, but Elements didn't really put any effort into neutralizing their obvious counter: armor.  Overpow had 195 Armor from items alone at the end of the game; Jankos was a handful of gold away from getting Randuin's; even VandeR had 50 armor from his Zhonya's at the end of the game.  That's a front line that's going to barely feel the damage that Elements would be able to dish out.

I can't stress enough that this didn't look like a fair match.  ROCCAT decimated Elements, destroying every tower, securing every Dragon, and taking the only Baron of the game.  If Elements wants to pay any homage to the hype, they're going to need to pull together as a team and pick strategies and compositions that allow them to play their passive early game.  It also would help if they file their paperwork in time.

Other interesting statistics:

• Nukeduck's damage output can't be overstated at 3.2.  2nd place was Woolite with 1.2, and 3rd Vander at .7.

• Shook put up with a lot of damage--20.1k average per death.  2nd place was Froggen with 12.9k, and 3rd Woolite with 12.7k.

• Froggen still kept the CS up, despite the loss, with 9.8/minute.  2nd place was Nukeduck with 9.3, and 3rd Rekkles with 8.7.

• GPM was pretty one-sided, with Woolite 1st at 408, Nukeduck 2nd at 403, and Overpow 3rd at 401.  

Fnatic vs. SK Gaming: By the Numbers

Fnatic showed us Thursday how to pick apart a European giant by systematically punishing them for their consistency.

SK Gaming is best known for their tried and true strategy: rely heavily on each lane to establish dominance (in the form of CS rather than kills) and secure objectives to earn global gold.  For SK, they play League against the computer: they see the enemy team as sort of an annoyance that occasionally needs to be dealt with en route to the enemy Nexus.

Fnatic, on the other hand, are out for blood.  They secured their first kill at 4:12 by punishing Fredy for his over-aggression.  At the 10 minute mark, the death count was 4 - 0 in favor of Fnatic; at 20 minutes it was 10 - 5.  Fnatic let things die down a bit between 20 and 30 minutes while they focused on objectives (dragon and 3 towers--and another 2 kills), and then revved up the kills again, securing 13 more kills between 30-40 minutes, to SK's 6 kills.  Let's look at what tore down the previously undefeated SK Gaming.

Fnatic collapsing on the top lane.

1.  Fnatic's pack mentality.  Even though SK Gaming had more players at every kill (3.9 to Fnatic's 3.3), when Fnatic was on the hunt they found a kill (and usually a few more besides).  This also allowed them to push lanes harder than SK, taking their first Tier 2 tower at 16:12 (SK wouldn't take down their first Tier 2 until 33:10).

There is no such thing as an easy kill on Forg1ven.

2.  Forg1ven is a beast.  With 100% kill participation and 396 CS (roughly 9 CS/minute), Forg1ven was only 690 gold behind Steeelback when Fnatic took the Nexus.  That might not seem like much, unless you consider that Fnatic had a 16,065 gold lead on SK--an average of 3,213 per player.  He's clearly a step above the other ADC's in the European LCS.  However, Forg1ven's "immortal" nature often puts him far at the back line, ready to escape should things turn sour for his team.

They can see EVERYTHING in the jungle--the map is showing the fog of war for Fnatic.

3.  Fnatic have figured out how to reveal the map.  Have you looked at Fnatic's vision control lately?  They're dropping nearly 4 wards a minute, with 168 total wards over the course of the game--compare that to SK's 99.  They also denied 34% of SK's vision (1 of every 3 wards placed), compared to 25% from SK (1 of every 4).  Both YellOwStaR and Reignover had over 1 ward a minute (1.7 and 1.1 respectively), and Huni wasn't far behind at .7.

His hooks--this one on Svenskeren--truly were a death sentence.

4.  YellOwStaR's hooks.  Fnatic didn't have a lot of hard engage in this fight.  Huni could provide zoning with his Equalizer, Reignover could do a Flash knock up every 5 minutes (4 minutes after he bought Distortion for his boots at 28:24), but Fnatic's composition really lacked the power of a Tibbers or Cataclysm.  Not that it mattered much, though, because YellOwStaR's hooks were on point, consistently pulling a target out to push a fight.  This is most evident in the fact that Fnatic dealt 50% more damage to Champions than SK.

That ace in the mid lane, nearly followed by another ace two minutes later.

5.  SK can't help dying.  It took less than 5000 damage to kill three members of SK, and 7000 to kill any of them (nRated was lowest with 3.7k, followed by Svenskeren at 4k, Fox at 4.7k, Forg1ven at 6.6k, and Fredy at 6.7k).  On the other side of the board, the squishiest teammate was YellOwStaR, who fell after an average of 6.8k damage.

That said, SK is still a tough nut to crack.  The game lasted nearly 45 minutes with a 6k gold lead for Fnatic for just over half the game.  SK didn't lose their first Inhibitor until 36 minutes (when they were 10k gold behind), which was later than it took CLG to break into TSM's base (with only a 5k gold lead at that point).

What about the rematch?  SK will need to have an answer for Fnatic's hunting pack style that doesn't leave their team vulnerable to ganks.  Their objective control is still excellent, but Fnatic's push for kills threw off their regular strategy.  If Fnatic wants to keep the wins rolling, they'll need to focus a bit more on shutting down Forg1ven.

Other interesting statistics:

• Fox dishes a lot of damage to Champions, averaging 2k damage for each kill and assist.  2nd place was Forg1ven with 1.886k, and 3rd Steeelback with 1.878k.

• Steeelback gave significantly more hurt than he took, with a 3.05 Damage Done to Damage Taken ratio.  2nd place was Huni at 1.52, and 3rd Forg1ven at 1.34.

• The top half of the map was the place to fight with 23 deaths in the top lane / Baron region, compared to 12 in bot lane / Dragon (4 / 8 respectively).

• Forg1ven had the best kill participation in the match (100%).  2nd place was Huni (83%), and 3rd nRated (79%). 

Counter Logic Gaming vs. Team SoloMid: By the Numbers

For many CLG fans, the game last Sunday was a heartbreaker.  It looked like it was in the bag right up to the 36 minute mark, when CLG made a couple of tactical errors that cost them the game.

Link jumps in the middle of TSM to . . . ult himself.

After this point, the only objective CLG was able to secure was a Baron kill, and the game ended a little less than 10 minutes later.  What led to the reversal?  Here are some interesting statistics that tell us a lot more about happened between the top NA LCS teams.

1.  TSM only had a gold lead for 4 minutes of game.  There was a brief window at around 19 minutes that TSM out-rotated CLG and took the mid tier 1 and bot tier 1 towers.  However, the gold advantage swung back in CLG's favor after they took the top tier 1 and killed Dyrus (again).  They wouldn't have the gold lead again until they cracked the mid inhibitor tower at 44:19.

Look who's coming up to party in the mid lane again!

2.  Link CLG is afraid of Bjergsen.  With good reason, too.  The three last team fights of the game started with CLG's attempt to lock down Bjergsen.  The result each time?  Not so hot.  Bjergsen picked up 5 more kills, 5 more assists, and only 1 more death (the only successful "lockdown" of Bjerg--he still managed to get two assists in the team fight, though).  Before that, kills had been wildly in favor CLG, with a 10 - 7 lead.  Even though Bjergsen had played a rather passive game prior to that point--only netting 3 kills and using his ult primarily to escape ganks--Link played a very tentative laning phase against him considering all the attention Xmithie and Aphromoo gave to the mid lane.  In the end, Bjergsen had clearly the highest Damage Taken to Damage Done to Champions Ratio (1.9); compare that to WildTurtle (1.7), Doublelift (1.2), and Link (1.1).

WildTurtle goes for broke on Aphromoo.

3.  WildTurtle is not afraid to die.  We all knew from 2014 Worlds that WildTurtle prefers to fight rather than run, but what makes him such a threat is how he keeps his head when he knows he's going to die.

4.  CLG is much better at establishing vision.  When all was said and done, CLG had laid out 145 wards to TSM's 113.  Aphromoo alone set out 65 of those wards, with another 48 from Xmithie--compare that to 60 from Lustboy and 22 from Santorin.  Both teams were effective though at denying vision--about 37% of all wards placed were found and destroyed.

It's a full line up on those kills.

5.  TSM gets everyone a piece of the pie.  With 61 assists for their 20 kills, TSM averaged 4.05 players at every kill, to CLG's 2.87.  That's a great deal of extra gold to go around.

6.  CLG gets buffs and times them.  In addition to the two Barons and four Dragons, CLG secured 15 blue/red buffs over the course of the game, to TSM's 8.  Red buff for Xmithie / Doublelift was like clockwork, with 5 secured red buffs in the first 30 minutes--in contrast, WildTurtle got his first red buff at 25:52.

Who will win the rematch?  It'd be tough to say.  Despite Dyrus's elated cheers at the end of the match, CLG had a much stronger performance for most of the game.  However, TSM has proven that even falling behind almost 7k gold is not enough to keep them down.

If CLG wants to win the rematch, they need to determine how to lock down Bjergsen effectively, and make sure that WildTurtle stays dead.  On the other hand, if TSM doesn't want to leave their victory to chance, they'll need to work on their objective and vision control.

Other interesting statistics:

• For survivability, Zion Spartan took the cake with an average of 12.6k damage per death.  2nd place was Bjergsen (8.7), and 3rd Xmithie (8.55).
• WildTurtle was the money maker with the best GPM at 410 gold per minute.  2nd place was Doubelift (378), and 3rd Bjergsen (370).
• Aphromoo gets the sniper award with an average of 1.8k damage done to champions per kill.  2nd place was Xmithie (3.3), and 3rd WildTurtle (4.1).
• Zion Spartan also had the most effective farm for his last hits (1.68).  2nd place was Bjergsen (1.66), and 3rd Link (1.4).