EU LCS gold distribution and resource allocation - A closer look by Krepo!

Hard to believe we're past the half-way point in the 2016 EU LCS Spring Split. With each team having now played each other once, we can take a clean look back at some of their stylistic tendencies as well as how they distribute their gold.

The above chart depicts the gold distribution per role compared to the league average. Sounds difficult? Take a look at the table below and the corresponding gold distribution graphic.

As you can see, this spider-graphic does not give you the raw gold distribution, but it shows how the team compares to the EU LCS average. So, in the above graphic Spirit isn’t getting more gold than Febiven, but he’s getting way more than the average jungler, while Febiven is near par with the EU LCS average.

This article will touch upon five teams, with the focus placed on certain players and their impact. Feel free to leave your analysis or feelings on the remaining teams’ gold graphics in the comment section below, or hit me up on Twitter.

OG is a shade of their former self, except Zven.

Origen has the most distorted gold distribution out of all the current LCS teams, with Zven literally being off the charts. It is a product of their resource allocation, playstyle, and drafting -- but most of all of their individual performances. Zven is a consistent performer on a very inconsistent team. The 2015 Summer Split rookie award winner looked impressive immediately and never really regressed. He currently tops the charts league-wide in damage/minute (755, versus the 573 ADC average), and the Danish prodigy also ranks above all the EU LCS players in damage share, at 36% of Origen's total output.Zven has claimed 45 kills in his first 9 games, highest in the league and outpacing his closest rival, Perkz, by five.

While this picture tells a story of Zven’s dominance, it also highlights some key issues with Origen that I can no longer ignore. Some members are simply not pulling their weight.

PowerOfEvil is being given the exact average amount of resources but fails to translate it into pressure. He’s failing at key moments in addition to often overvaluing his flash and not using it to escape imminent death. Mithy and Amazing are less consistent and feel like a weaker version of their 2015 selves.

But the biggest outlier is Soaz. He is generating the second least gold per minute, surrounded in that statistic by players like Roccat's Freddy122 and Giants' Atom. His failure to find consistent footing is reflected in his champion picks. Soaz has played eight champions in nine games. It's a peculiar situation, however, because when looking at his damage/minute, the Frenchman ranks middle of the pack -- which is to say, he at least uses the gold he gathers to decent effect

The biggest problem I see with him isn’t in the stats. It’s in the gameplay. The Soaz of old would have answers to questions people weren’t even ready to ask -- he would innovate, surprise, and demolish with creative plays. Right now he looks lost, be it in the lane-swaps and roams, or simply being uncharacteristically picked off in rotations. But let’s not forget, regular season Soaz is nothing compared to playoffs Soaz.

The stark contrast in performance is forcing OG to play a style heavily dependent on Zven’s ability to carry. Often the mid-game resources get put into his hands and he’s responsible for dealing the majority of damage in teamfights. When OG can unlock Zven, they’re a top tier team; if he’s kept down, they struggle. xPeke’s squad needs to find out where the lackluster performance is coming from and whether they need to distribute their resources in different ways. Enabling PoE with more sidelane farm perhaps? Camping for Soaz? Or do they just need to fix their mid-game shotcalling? A lot of questions, and with Spring Playoffs on the horizon, and very little time to find the answers.

G2’s interesting jungle style.

Very often when G2 is mentioned, people’s first instinct is to start talking about Perkz’s domination in the mid lane. While his stats are very impressive (No. 1 in gold/minute and damage/minute; No. 2 in kills), it’s not the reason I wanted to highlight this graphic. It’s because of Trick. The former CJ Entus jungler has a rather unique style, and it has had a big impact on G2’s overall strategy and performance.

Many people refer to Trick as a farm-heavy, high-impact jungler, and this graphic shows just how far his style deviates from other junglers in the league. Interestingly enough, the other Korean jungler, Spirit, is also an outlier. Spirit and Trick are very similar in style, focusing a lot on farm and getting the most jungle camps throughout the game. No pesky carries trying to steal their jungle. Spirit and Trick are big leaders in jungle creeps/game (105 vs. 102). Keep in mind that G2’s games are five and a half a minutes quicker than those of FNC. Trick has the 2nd highest KDA and highest Wards Per Minute league wide (of players that played all 9 matches). He performs consistently and efficiently, relying on counterjungling and leaving deep vision.

G2 doesn’t follow the mid, adc, and top three-carry norm. They look to Trick to make use of the gold he generates. This forces toplaner Kikis to consistently opt for tanks and soak up the minimum of resources, enabling his teammates where possible. I have to question the longevity of this playstyle, however. G2’s resource allocation is dependant on the lanes being incredibly self sufficient. Hybrid and Emperor are fantastic at playing weak 2v2 matchups without falling too far behind. Perkz is destroying mid without jungler interaction already. I wonder if Trick will shift his playstyle when his lanes need him more than they do now.

Splyce is struggling in the midgame.

Whenever I hear the word Splyce, an image of Sencux desperately trying to snowball a lead gets into my head. Surprisingly the gold distribution graphic doesn’t compare to that at all. Wunderwear is either given or soaking up an enormous amounts of resources. Regardless of the reasoning, he’s failing to deliver and has shown a lackluster performance. The Danish top laner will either need to step up his gameplay or Splyce needs to drastically adjust their resource allocation.

After doing additional research, it seems to be a product of Splyce’s poor midgame. Very often, you'll see the team group as four while Wunderwear is sent to a side lane to do an emergency clear. Sencux will desperately try to push his lead forward, but he’s fighting his team for farm after the early game. Sencux puts a high priority on going for kills and has the worst CS at both 10 and 20 minutes. If he doesn’t start with a lead the lack of additional resources will render him unable to carry.

But he’s not the only one starving. Trashy is the jungler with the second least jungle camps claimed in the entire EU LCS (72 jungle cs), the next jungler in that list starts at 81. If he doesn’t start the game off well, he will slowly become as invisible as Splyce’s botlane.

Only 10% of Splyce’s kills do not involve Sencux. For a team that relies so heavily on their midlaner, I have to question their resource allocation.

Is H2K average?

This is likely the only time this year we can rightfully call H2K average -- no massive outliers in terms of league averages here. One important thing to keep in mind is that this does not mean H2K plays the same way every game. Different players step up in different games. We’ve seen the Forgiven split-push show; we've seen Selfie put on a clinic as Corki; we've seen some games where Odoamne selflessly use cannon barrages to get his team ahead while being at a CS deficit while in others straight-up hard-carrying from his own lane. But it all relies on a foundation of vision, built by Jankos and Vander. The Polish jungler and support duo rank 2nd highest in combined wards placed, narrowly beaten by Vitality’s KaSing and Shook.

The graphic is an accurate reflection of H2K’s flexibility and it confirms that H2K pull ahead because of their understanding of the game and teamwork, rather than being carried by an individual player. With Ryu returning to the roster this week, their macro-oriented gameplay will become frightening for any team hoping to take the No. 1 spot off them.

Betsy, a remarkable improvement.

Instead of focusing on the negatives, as I often do with Bottom Tier teams, it’s time to applaud Betsy for a marked improvement. If we compare 2015 Betsy in Gambit to 2016 Roccat Betsy, we’re looking at a different player. In a roster that had three carries in need of jungle assistance, Betsy found himself drawing the shortest straw time and time again. Cabochard was the beneficiary of Diamondprox’ early game attention. Now that he reliably gets Jungler attention from Airwaks, he seems to have added an extra element of bravado to his play. The new Betsy is putting a lot more pressure in lane.

Betsy now has the highest CS differential at 10 and 20, in addition to being Top 3 in Kills as well as Kill participation. He’s spearheading Roccat’s surprisingly good early game, accelerated by Airwaks who spends 22.9% of his time within 2000 range of his mid laner in the early game (highest of all jungler/mid combinations). Hopefully Betsy can keep up this performance while Roccat desperately tries to fix their mid-game shotcalling and macro play, with a stable roster.

Closing note

The one thing that pleases me the most is that EU has top teams with all incredibly different styles and approaches to the game. Stylistic discrepancies make for interesting league, rather than seeing which team can perfect the one style.

I only expanded on some of the outliers that will undoubtedly catch your eye. I look forward to hearing your analysis and feedback on some of these anomalies soon.