At an international event like the League of Legends World Championships, there are usually some obvious power imbalances, but there are always a few key group stage matchups that could go either way, unpredictable games that will have huge effects on the later stages of the tournament.
At Worlds 2015, two of those key matchups are Counter Logic Gaming vs. the KOO Tigers in Group A, and KT Rolster vs. Origen in Group D. Both are scheduled for their first meetings on Sunday, October 4.
Let’s get ready for the matches with some head-to-head comparisons of the teams. I also ran a reader poll to get some popular opinion on these two matchups, and I’ll share the results below.
Today I’m launching a pair of new statistics that measure teams’ performances in the “early game” and the “mid/late game”. These stats use complex modeling to assign an “early-game rating” (EGR) and a “mid/late rating” (MLR) to each team, which lets us quickly compare teams’ performances using single, straightforward numbers. The higher a team’s EGR, the better they have performed in the early game. The higher their MLR, the better they have done in the mid and late game. It’s that simple!
These stats will start showing up on the OraclesElixir.com team stats tables soon.
Keep reading to learn about how EGR and MLR are produced and what they represent, or skip halfway down for lists of team ratings along with some discussion and interpretation. Continue reading EGR and MLR: New Team Ratings→
On August 19, Riot Games announced that the 2015 League of Legends World Championships would be played on patch 5.18. This was literally game-changing, because every competitive region but China had wrapped up its professional play on either 5.14 or 5.15, just before patch 5.16’s “Juggernauts” changes ushered in a sweeping set of item additions and champion reworks, noticeably shifting the metagame.
How will patch 5.18 affect the Worlds landscape? How do teams adapt? Does a brand new meta narrow the gap between top and bottom teams, or widen it? Who will benefit most from patch 5.18, and who will suffer?
Here are some thoughts to chew on as we await the full answers to those questions.
