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

The New CLG: What We Learned at IEM San Jose

A month ago, when the unthinkable happened and Doublelift left Counter Logic Gaming for their archrivals, Team SoloMid, the esports world erupted with commentary. Beyond the drama and storylines, most of the analytical work focused on TSM’s prospects and the partnership between Doublelift and Bjergsen. CLG’s side of the transaction was thoroughly dissected for drama and mined for memes, but there was far less conversation about the roster that had been left behind, and what might become of it.

The CLG fanbase was rife with skepticism, some fans saying their loyalty would follow Doublelift to TSM, others simply bemoaning the team’s future. Significant questions were being raised: how might roster changes at AD Carry and Mid lane—where Huhi had already supplanted Pobelter—change the team’s dynamic? Who could possibly fill Doublelift’s shoes?

At Intel Extreme Masters San Jose, we got to watch the new CLG roster in action as they made a run to the Finals. During those games, some questions about the new CLG were answered; others were raised. It was clear that we were watching a different CLG, but how different? Let’s take a look.

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Check the Data

Mid Laner Play Styles in the Early Game

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The stats tables below show the average kills+assists, experience gained, and creep score for Mid laners from the NA LCS, EU LCS, and LCK during the 2015 Summer split, including regular season, playoffs, and regional tournaments.

NA Mid laners stats by 15

NA Mids were the least effective at balancing out early combat with farming. Only Cloud9’s Incarnati0n had a reasonably balanced mixture of K+As, XP, and CS.

Bjergsen and FeniX stand out as farming very effectively, but not getting involved in much combat. That’s partly a commentary on the non-aggressive NA LCS meta, but also speaks to how their teams played out the early game as a whole. Compare to Keane and Goldenglue, who were even less involved in combat but couldn’t keep their farming up to compensate.
EU Mids stats by 15In Europe, the standouts are Febiven, nukeduck, and Froggen. All three had decent early aggression, while also keeping up their farming numbers. Meanwhile, xPeke, PowerOfEvil, and Betsy lagged behind in both combat and farm during the first 15 minutes of games.
LCK Mid laners stats by 15

Has anyone ever told you that Faker is an aggressive player? Well… he is. His 1.91 kills+assists at 15 minutes is incredibly high, especially relative to his own region. But Faker still managed to keep his average CS up at 131.7, which would have put him fourth in the NA LCS, though it’s slightly below-average for the LCK. Check out Ggoong, Coco, Easyhoon, and Nagne, as well, for good balance of combat and farming.LMS Mids stats by 15

In the LMS, Maple stands head and shoulders above every other Mid laner in the early game, though westdoor kept his experience gain up and Toyz and Chawy had reasonably balance, as well.

What players or numbers stand out to you?

Analysis and Opinion

xPeke vs. PowerOfEvil: Origen’s New Two-Headed Mid-Lane Threat

Origen released a video today announcing that while the rumors were true that they had signed former Unicorns of Love Mid laner PowerOfEvil, it was not true that team owner xPeke was retiring as a player. Instead, Origen plans to use both xPeke and PowerOfEvil in the Mid lane to form a six-man roster, swapping the two players in and out of the lineup based on xPeke’s level of play and ability to practice on any given week.

The SK Telecom T1 model of having multiple strong players in one position worked out very well for the world champions, but can Origen make it work in the EU LCS? A similar approach was available to Counter Logic Gaming in North America in the 2015 Summer split, but they opted not to play Huhi, sticking with Pobelter for the full season instead.

Whether Origen does play both xPeke or PowerOfEvil, or decides to pick one horse and ride them all the way to the finish line, fans of the team will want to know what to expect from their new acquisition. Here’s a head-to-head comparison of how both players performed in Summer 2015.

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