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.
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On An Island: Top Lane Play in LCS and LCK

Each region has its own flavor, and part of that flavor is how teams prioritize the contributions of each position. Generally speaking, AD Carries receive the biggest share of the resource pie, with Mid laners following close behind and Top laners coming in third. But there is variety in how this hierarchy plays out: in North America, for example, AD Carries are placed on a higher pedestal than anywhere else, while Europe’s Mid laners enjoy larger shares than their counterparts in other regions.

Then we have Korea. In a somewhat surprising twist, it is the Top laners who receive special treatment in the LCK. Compared to North America and Europe, Top laners in Korea pocket more of their teams’ gold, are allowed to absorb more late-game farm, do more of their teams’ damage, and generally influence the games in a different way. (Data from China’s LPL is not available.)

In this article, we’re going to explore what Korea’s Top lane priority looks like, both in the early game and the late game, where that priority comes from, and finally its effects on how LCK games play out.

Continue reading on Unikrn →

Dive into the numbers in the Oracle’s Elixir companion post

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Positional Priority: Regional Comparisons

PosPosition
GPGames played
AGTAverage game time
WWins
W%Win percentage
AGLAverage game length
LLosses
G LenAverage game length
P%Percentage of games champion was picked in the given role
B%Percentage of games in which the champion was banned (not role-specific)
P+B%Percentage of games in which the champion was either picked or banned (not role-specific)
KTotal kills
DTotal deaths
ATotal assists
KPGKills per game
DPGDeaths per game
APGAssists per game
Team KPGKills per game
Team DPGDeaths per game
KDATotal kill/death/assist ratio
K:DKill-to-death ratio
CKPMCombined kills per minute (team kills + opposing team kills)
XPD@10Average experience difference at 10 minutes
XPD10Average experience difference at 10 minutes
GD@10Average gold difference at 10 minutes
GD@15Average gold difference at 15 minutes
GD10Average gold difference at 10 minutes
GD15Average gold difference at 15 minutes
Team GD@15Average team gold difference at 15 minutes
GPRGold Percent Rating: Average amount of the game's total gold held, centered around 50% and multiplied by 100 (e.g. +1.00 represents 51.00%)
GSPDAverage gold spent percentage difference
EGREarly-Game Rating
MLRMid/Late Rating
TWLProportion of time spent with a gold lead (holding more than 52% of the gold in the game). Developed by league-analytics.com.
TWDProportion of time spent with a gold deficit (holding less than 48% of the gold in the game). Developed by league-analytics.com.
FBP%First Blood participation rate (FB kills+assists / games played)
FBPFirst Blood participation rate (FB kills+assists / games played)
FBD%First Blood death rate (FB deaths / games played)
K+A@15Average kills+assists at 15 minutes
K@15Average kills at 15 minutes
A@15Average assists at 15 minutes
D@15Average deaths at 15 minutes
FB%First Blood rate (for players, includes both kills and assists)
FD%First dragon rate
FT%First tower rate
F3T%First to kill three towers rate
HLD%Percentage of games in which the team acquired Rift Herald
FBN%First Baron rate
BN%Baron control rate
FT TimeAverage first tower kill time
FTTAverage first tower kill time
DrPGDragons killed per game
DRG%Dragon control rate (if ELD% is also reported, this only reflects elemental drakes
ELD%Elder dragon control rate
TPGTowers killed per game
KPKill participation
aKPAverage kill participation
D%Share of team's deaths
DTH%Share of team's deaths
CSD@10Average creep score difference at 10 minutes
CSD10Average creep score difference at 10 minutes
CSPMAverage monsters + minions killed per minute
CS%P15Average share of team's post-15-minute minion and monster kills
DPMAverage damage to champions per minute
Team DPMAverage team damage to champions per minute
Team DTPMAverage team-wide damage taken from champions per minute
DTPMAverage damage taken from champions per minute
DPDAverage damage to champions percentage difference
Dmg%Average share of team's total damage to champions
EGPMAverage earned gold per minute (excludes starting gold and inherent gold generation)
Gold%Average share of team's total gold earned (excludes starting gold and inherent gold generation)
Gold% Post-15Average share of team's gold earned post-15 minutes (excludes starting gold and inherent gold generation)
LNE%Lane control: average share of game's total lane CS
JNG%Jungle control: average share of game's total jungle CS
WPMAverage wards placed per minute
CWPMAverage control wards purchased per minute
WCPMAverage wards cleared per minute
WC%Average percentage of opponent wards cleared
VWCAverage percentage of opponent visible wards cleared
IWCAverage percentage of opponent invisible wards cleared
CS% Post-15Average share of team's creep score after 15 minutes
Minion% Post-15Average share of team's minion kills after 15 minutes
Monster% Post-15Average share of team's monster kills after 15 minutes

Different regions tend to give more or less priority to the different positions on their rosters. The table below provides comparisons between the NA LCS, EU LCS, LMS, and LCK.

The statistics included measure how much priority, and consequently how much contribution, each position receives in each league. In general, the four leagues give relatively high priority to the following positions:

  • NA LCS: ADC priority
  • EU LCS: Mid priority
  • LCK: Top priority
  • LMS: Jungle priority

For an exploration of what these stats mean specifically for Top laner usage in the LCK, compared to NA and EU, read “On An Island: Top Lane Play in LCS and LCK” at Unikrn.

Note: To compare a specific position, type the name of the position in the “Search” box. Or type the name of the league to compare roles within a league.

LeaguePosGold%Dmg%KPD%K@15A@15D@15G@15CS@15XP@15G% Post-15CS% Post-15CSPM
NALCSTop20.4%20.0%69.3%21.5%0.530.760.64435598.1603720.4%23.6%6.5
EULCSTop21.1%20.7%68.1%23.9%0.730.920.82454399.6611321.0%24.7%6.7
LCKTop21.7%21.2%66.5%21.0%0.480.650.574494109.9667021.4%25.3%7.2
LMSTop20.4%20.0%65.9%19.5%0.580.890.69436298.5619620.4%23.7%6.5
NALCSJungle17.4%13.1%73.2%18.9%0.611.160.43442652.3487016.6%10.9%3.2
EULCSJungle16.8%13.8%68.6%22.5%0.751.310.64442251.3484216.1%10.4%3.1
LCKJungle17.1%12.8%71.6%19.9%0.641.060.48430252.0490316.5%10.8%3.2
LMSJungle17.7%14.3%71.4%20.3%0.851.330.56442452.4489516.9%11.5%3.3
NALCSMiddle25.4%32.1%71.0%18.5%0.450.540.364977132.9713224.5%30.4%8.5
EULCSMiddle25.7%32.0%65.8%17.0%0.510.490.385068134.0712424.8%30.9%8.6
LCKMiddle26.0%30.1%70.1%19.3%0.540.560.454971133.8723825.0%30.6%8.8
LMSMiddle25.9%30.4%67.1%18.9%0.660.710.554977129.3704025.0%31.0%8.5
NALCSADC26.7%28.2%75.1%17.5%0.530.790.424922123.2532226.2%31.9%8.5
EULCSADC26.1%27.0%69.2%15.9%0.560.770.414988124.2527425.5%31.0%8.4
LCKADC25.8%28.8%70.0%16.9%0.420.570.344791127.4543125.3%30.0%8.5
LMSADC25.7%27.5%71.0%19.2%0.750.980.584846117.8514125.2%30.5%8.1
NALCSSupport10.1%6.7%74.7%23.7%0.231.340.51301411.3371512.2%3.2%0.8
EULCSSupport10.3%6.4%72.2%20.7%0.241.360.5430579.9369712.7%3.0%0.8
LCKSupport9.3%7.1%72.0%22.9%0.201.130.43286211.1366511.8%3.2%0.8
LMSSupport10.3%7.8%74.2%22.1%0.271.740.73302011.3378212.5%3.4%0.9
Includes NA LCS, EU LCS, LCK, and LMS regular season, tiebreakers, and playoffs, 2015 Summer. Does not include LPL.