All posts by Tim Sevenhuysen

Tim Sevenhuysen is the founder and sole developer of Oracle's Elixir and provides a variety of consulting and contracting services throughout the esports industry. He is the former Director of Esports Analytics for 100 Thieves, served as Head of Data Science for Esports One, led Shadow.gg from 2017 to 2019, and was Statistical Consultant for Fnatic in 2015. Follow Tim on Twitter at @TimSevenhuysen.
Analysis and Opinion

Snapshot Challenge 11:30

The challenge: look at a screenshot of a specific point in a game of League of Legends and use the available information to recommend their next move.

Today we’re looking at the 11:30 mark of a game that pits Nautilus, Lee Sin, Syndra, Varus, and Karma against Renekton, Rengar, Ahri, Ashe, Lulu.

Things aren’t looking so great for our red team. They’re down in gold and Renekton is about to get hit with a 3v1 tower dive, with his Flash already used before making it back to the safety of his tower. Mid lane outer tower is down; Syndra is fed.

But giving up is for giver-uppers: there’s always something worth trying.

Virtually every answer I received on Twitter pointed to pressing the bottom side of the map, typically with the goal of using the ultimates from Rengar, Ashe, and Lulu to lane gank and/or tower dive and thereby trade towers. Continue reading Snapshot Challenge 11:30 →

Analysis and Opinion

Snapshot Challenge 15:33

The challenge is simple: look at a screenshot that shows one team’s perspective on the game, and use the available information to recommend their next move. It’s a technique for testing and training analysts, and it’s a good discipline for improving game knowledge.

Let’s give it a try.


Click for larger image

I posted this example to Twitter and got a lot of responses, with a variety of rationales. Responses to the tweet included different ideas in various levels of detail, but I also received many DMs, including some experienced professionals. Some of their answers are below, as well as the video and a breakdown of what actually happened. Continue reading Snapshot Challenge 15:33 →