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.
It was widely agreed, coming into the World Championships, that we would be playing in a “carry Top laner” meta. That has absolutely proven to be the case, as champions like Darius, Fiora, Olaf, and Riven have surged to the forefront.
Both Semifinal matchups will feature key showdowns in the Top lane, with MaRin vs. Soaz and Huni vs. Smeb. The table below presents some interesting stats to help draw comparisons across the four Semifinalist Top laners. Continue reading Worlds Semifinals: Top Laner Combat Stats→
To win games, it’s vitally important to control the neutral parts of the map. There’s no single number that measures “map control”, but we can paint a pretty solid picture by looking at four different components:
Dragon control
Baron control
Jungle control
Vision control
Each of the four components is presented below for the eight teams that made it into the World Championships Quarterfinals. We’ll look at how well they controlled the map in their domestic play* during the Summer, and how well they have transitioned that into their Worlds group stage performances. Continue reading Seizing the Reins: How the Worlds Quarterfinalists Control the Map→
Since the first day of the World Championships, I’ve been itching for the knockout stage to begin. A best-of-five series brings out so much more strategic nuance, as teams and players focus their preparation on one another and look for ways to counter and adapt from game to game.
Eight strong teams have fought their way into the Quarterfinals, but only four will advance by the time the dust settles on Sunday. Here’s what you should expect going into each matchup, with win conditions for each team and my predictions of the results.
