Evelynn, the Widowmaker.
Because of her invisibility, she can be one of the most terrifying spectres in all of League of Legends. Did she just walk over my ward? Is she following me through my jungle? Is shestanding right behind me!?! Every moment becomes a nightmare (as CLG’s Pobelter will tell you).
Evelynn was rarely seen in pro play in the 2015 Spring Split, but after some small changes in patch 5.6 (earlier stealth entry at later levels, and spell hits lower Dark Frenzy’s cooldown instead of giving her move speed), then a 10-damage buff to her Hate Spikes in patch 5.7, she made an appearance in the hands of EDG’s jungler, Clearlove, in Game 5 of the MSI Finals. That led to an international trophy, and Evelynn has seen a surge in popularity since.
But popularity isn’t the same as success. This split, Evelynn’s bark has been worse than her Hate Spikes. Evelynn only has a 38% win rate in the Summer Split, thanks partly to poor use in some players’ hands–we can’t all be Clearlove–and partly to good countering by her opponents.
This article explores Evelynn’s performances during the Summer Split so far. We’ll look at how Evelynn is used, break down her results, and run some in-depth statistical analysis on her early-game win conditions, comparing her to some other common jungle picks to see if and how she is unique.
We’ll see that Evelynn’s biggest keys to success are ganking more, farming less, and valuing the first Tower above the first Dragon. This is not the case for every jungler: Sejuani, for example, benefits more from hard farming early, while Rek’Sai gets more benefit than others from taking the first Dragon. (More about that on page 3!)
The statistics in this article shouldn’t change your fundamental idea of who Evelynn is and what she needs to do to win, but they might demonstrate just how binary Evelynn’s play style is:either she ganks a lot, or she loses.
Read on if you’re ready to tumble down the rabbit hole with me!
