Feet on the Mountain, Head in the Clouds: Comprehensive measurement of elemental drake value

Tim Sevenhuysen is the founder of OraclesElixir.com and Head of Esports Data Science for Esports One. He led Shadow.gg from 2017-19 and was Statistical Consultant for Fnatic in 2015.


I’ve investigated the relative value of different elemental drake types in the past, and the topic has continued to fascinate me as LoL has evolved over time, with both direct and indirect changes to the elemental drake buffs. With the development of new, more comprehensive LoL win probability models, which I’ve been building for Esports One, there’s a better toolset than ever for diving deeper into the elemental drake question.

Since Riot recently revealed that the dragon system is getting a big overhaul for 2020, there will never be a better time to share some findings about the current iteration of the system! In future, this will give us a comparison point, so we can conduct similar analysis on the new dragon system and see how much has changed.

The analysis below extends my previous work on the statistical value of elemental drakes. I’ve come away with the following main findings:

  • Mountain drakes are the only drake type to gain in value as more game time passes.
  • Infernal drakes have the most direct value at almost all stages of the game.
  • Cloud drakes start out as the most directly valuable type, but their value falls off more compared to infernals.
  • Ocean drakes have the least overall value, from the very start of the game onwards.

Details and discussion below!
Continue reading Feet on the Mountain, Head in the Clouds: Comprehensive measurement of elemental drake value

Plug’s Breakdowns: The Quarterfinals

This article has been prepared by John “TheEsportsPlug” George, an esports daily fantasy player, bettor, and former professional poker player.

With the group stages completed, it’s time for us to take a look at the Quarterfinal matchups! It played out in a wild fashion but ended up with the result I had locked in on Pick ‘Ems, and we’ve found ourselves with arguably 7 of the top 8 teams in the tournament all headed to the knockout stage.

There’s no doubt for me that this is the highest quality of competition we’ve ever had at the World Championships, and we will really get to see how the different styles and strategies play out against one another given these quarterfinal draws. Continue reading Plug’s Breakdowns: The Quarterfinals

Worlds 2019 Journal: Clutch Gaming vs SK Telecom T1 – Draft Analysis

The Worlds 2019 Journal is an ongoing content series from former Clutch Gaming Head Coach, Brendan “mcscrag” McGee.

Each post will be an in-depth review of one of the North American teams’ games or series from the 2019 World Championships.


Day 4 of the worlds group stage delivered the most one-sided game so far in the tournament. SK Telecom not only displayed an enormous skill discrepancy, but also a masterful plan to counter Clutch’s style and comfort picks. I’m going to dive into this draft step by step to examine what both teams were thinking at various points along the way.

First Ban Phase

Continue reading Worlds 2019 Journal: Clutch Gaming vs SK Telecom T1 – Draft Analysis

The premier source for League of Legends esports data, analytics, and insights