Banner of Command - Analysis and Ideas for Change

The problem with Banner of Command is that it serves no purpose to players. In its current state of being Banner of Command is really just a toy for players to mess around with and ultimate adds little actual benefit to players.

Let's take a quick look at the stats. 

Banner of Command provides:

40 AP

30 Armor

10% CDR

10 HP/5

2360 Gold

Let's compare it to

Seekers Armguard:

20(35) AP

30(45) Armor

1160 Gold

Picking up Seekers Armguard gives up more armor after a few creep waves and almost the same AP, but that also leaves us with 1200 extra gold to spend. With that extra 1200 gold we could buy several items that would push us far above the base stats of Banner of Command.

Codex - 820G

30 AP

10% CDR

Emblem of Valor - 650G

20 Armor

7 HP/5

Hextech Revolver - 1200G

40 AP

12% Spell Vamp (Generally providing more regen than Banners HP/5)

Or one could just save up for a Needlessly Large Rod to build into Zhonya's for 400G more than Banner.

Banner of Command has comparatively weak base stats and bad defensive timing compared to the Seeker's Armguard at less than half the cost. On top of this, Banner of Command is a fully upgraded item, taking up a slot with very sub-par base stats. So, seeing that Banner of Commands gold cost is not within its base stats, there is a massive amount of weight being applied to both it's passive and active. Lets take a look at them and why they are ineffective in their current state.

Banner of Command Passive -

10 HP/5

15% Damage to Minions

Let's assume you have a full creep wave including a siege minion. And we'll place it at the 21 minute mark for creep damage calculations.

Combined Creep Damage - 3 Melee, 3 Ranged, 1 Siege

229 AD Damage

195 AD Damage to Champions

344 AD Damage to Turrets

With the Passive of Banner of Command

+34 263 AD Damage

+29 224 AD Damage to Champions

+51 395 AD Damage to Turrets

If we assume turrets are running around 70 armor and Champions around 100, then we get.

+15 AD Damage to Champions

+30 AD Damage to Turrets

These numbers aren't too bad, providing close to the worth of a Pickaxe to player in an optimal situation. However, very rarely does this occur. Creeps are easy to kill, often at this point getting instantly killed by AP mid or at least close to it. With each creep that dies, the value of this passive goes down and down. It's greatest use would be against a tower, during a split push, when left alone. In this case, that passive of Banner of Command would in handy. We can estimate that over the course of a full wave only being attacked by the tower, that the extra damage would be somewhere around 150-250 to a tower, a solid amount. Against champions this is much harder to determine, but we can assume it will be much less significant as the uptime of minions attacking creeps is normally pretty low and hard to predict outside of the early laning phase. Even if we consider it to contribute a healthy 100 damage (that's 6-7 attacks from each creep in the wave), the value of that passive compared to a pickaxe pickup (which would contribute guaranteed damage) is far far less.

As we can see, the value of Banner of Command's passive is fairly low, situation dependent, and unreliable. Personally, I'd value it around 200 gold, but that's just my opinion. So what accounts for the high Gold Cost of Banner compared to other similar items. It's Active. Let's take a look at it.

Banner of Command Active -

+500 HP

+.5 AS

+40 Armor

This is actually a very significant difference. The 500 hp and the 40 armor almost if not more than double the Effective HP of Siege Minions. Adding on the 30% less damage they receive from turrets and these beefed up Siege Minions can take a lot of tower hits. If left alone, a single minion wave with one of these in it can deal 1/4 to 1/3 of a towers HP. With the right timing this can be pretty significant. However, situations where the creeps are left alone like this do not happen too often. Let's look at two other situations and then at the most optimal.

Situation 1: 5 Man Sieges

There is not much to say about the active in this situation other than it is extremely sub par. Since it does not provide any MR, only the 500 HP affects casters, at the point of 5 man sieges this is roughly 2 extra spell casts. If one or two people would normally nuke down the creep wave, having 5 defending makes the impact of this HP increase less effective. Adding on top of that the ADC damage will further decrease the extra time the siege minion will be alive. At most, I'd wager that in a 5 man push situation, this active would allow your ADC 1-2 extra shots on the turret for that wave. At a 3 minute cooldown, this is pretty insignificant. During a 5 man dive, the benefit would be even less, as the minion will not take turret aggro, and the .5 AS increase is fairly negligible after armor/hero reductions.

Situation 2: Split Push

In a split push situation, the active becomes much more useful. The AS bonus and especially the Effective Health increase will allow a split pusher in a 1v1 situation to apply significantly more damage to a turret. This is especially true in tank vs tank split push situations due to the enemy being slower at killing the boosted minion, while be less true against more damage oriented split pushers. However, there is a large downside to this. By picking up Banner of Command you have dedicated a large amount of gold into this active, making you weaker personally than you could have been if you spent the gold differently. This most likely means, that if they opponent choose to fight you, you will lose, as the active is unlikely to help you in any significant or reliable manner against champions. Being able to be 1v1'ed easily, effectively cancels out your split pushing ability, so while Banner of Command's active is more significant in a split push, opting into Banner of Command is detrimental to your split pushing ability.

Optimal Situation:

In my opinion the optimal situation for using Banner of Command's active, is when you are able to prevent the enemy from being able to dedicate any resources to stop the buffed minion. For example, using the active from base, to send the minion down the lane opposite from the one your team will be pushing. This is the only situation in which the active has a chance of shining. Superbly timed, using it this way has to potential to result in a turret kill, in extreme cases, maybe even two. The major problem with this situation though, is the immense amount of logistics it requires. Let's take a look.

Creep Wave Timing - Using the active is limited to Siege Minions. Therefore your opportunities to employ this strategy and make effective use out of the active are limited to 1:30 intervals.

Split Pushers and Teleport - If even one champion is in the lane that you use this active on, its effectiveness drops drastically. If you cannot force the split pushing champion out of lane in time to react to your 5 man push in the opposite lane, then your creep split push attempt falls to pieces. This forces teams to HAVE to make a move even if one is not available, or having the opt in to Banner of Command be detrimental.

Positioning - you must be in the proper place at the proper time to effectively utilize. This makes your map movements predictable and any plan to use this active optimally dictates when the player(s) must be in position. Opportunities can rarely be reacted to and seized by this active.

While at first, it may not seem impossible, remember that the opposing team is going to unintentionally and possibly intentionally hampering your ability to pull of this optimal strategy. If your turret is being pushed, or you are currently pushing a turret, you cannot simply back out of your current action or required action to use the active. While you can time your own actions, you cannot time the actions of the other team. Even if you are able to manipulate them into the timing and situation that you want, the reward you will get from the amount of resources required seems hardly worth it.

So, as Banner of Command, in its current form, is a sub par item in terms of stats and the active is too lackluster to account for the stat gold sink that Banner of Command is. What can we do to improve its viability as an item and potentially as a strategy?

First, its gold cost and base stats need to be looked at. Making this item more appealing outside of its active would be the start of improving Banner of Command. How exactly, to make changes to its base stats though, will depend on how we want to define the purpose of its active. Split Push Power (alone or with champions)? Combat Related? Siege Power? Group effectiveness vs. Solo effectiveness. Here are my ideas.

Note - In all purpose I feel that requiring the siege minion should be removed. However, having one could provide extra benefit.

Creep Split Push -

Active: with this purpose in mind, it would best be suited to being a globally targeted ability X number of creeps near the target location would be either upgraded or buffed, priority falling onto siege minions. A small HP bonus could allow each creep buffed to take 1 more tower hit, and damage boosts would help take down turrets. Against an undefended turret (no creeps defending either) and with a siege minion, this active should increase the minions damage to the turret by 25-45%. So if they would have dealt 1/4 of the towers hp, a well timed use of this would increase it to 1/3. Gaining gold from buffed creeps kills could also remain.

In this role, Banner of Commands primary purpose would be to give your creeps a way to push without a Champion needing to be in the lane. As the item's purpose would be to cause an effect on the map without champion involvement, its base stats should most likely change to something more neutral/utility oriented. Having another HP/CDR item choice would be nice, especially if it came with a little bit of armor.

Siege Power -

Active: in this role, Banner of Command's active would provide a massive defensive bonus to your minions in a large area around you for a short period of time. In essence, using the active would made your minions nearly or completely invulnerable to champions (turrets would be unaffected) for 3-4 seconds. This would allow Banner of Command to provide a small window of siege power play for your team. Guaranteeing turret damage by preventing your minion wave from being instantly nuked down.

As for the base stats, they would stay relatively the same, but with higher values. AP/CDR/AR are a unique combination and provides a choice in item pickup. By increasing both the gold cost and AP value, Banner of Command could be turned into a more late game item, and further it's Siege Power Potential.

Split Push -

Passive/Active: turning Banner of Command into a split push would come in two parts in my opinion. Adding in a small passive to increase wave clear speed would be necessary. I would give it something like, [on hit, chain lighting will hit up to 3 other minions, dealing 10% of your AD]. As for the Active, there are two possibilities in my mind. The First would link you to X number of surrounding creeps, redirecting 15-20% of the damage dealt to you to those creeps for 3s. This would give you split push safety while being counter-able by being able to burst down the wave of creeps. The 2nd idea for the active would increase your AD/AP based on the number of nearby creeps, up to 5. This would give you some dueling potential while split pushing.

The base stats could be done in an AP or AD manner. For AP, I'd go with a solid amount, say 65-80 and some HP, potentially with some MP/5 thrown in as well. In and AD version, I'd run with AS/HP/CDR from to accentuate the split push power and safety.

Combat Oriented -

Active: This one I think would be neat, though it might not be as viable as the others. In this version, using the active would give you "control" of all nearby minions. For 5-7 seconds all nearby creeps would gain a damage boost and would attack the target you attack with your AA's (like Champion creatures). This would run with the minion central theme of Banner of Commands active, and give the player reliable combat potential from its use. The minions would also grant gold for their kills while under this effect.

As for base stats, this version would be AD oriented, primarily ADC/Fighters. AD primarily followed by AS and potentially some Armor. Useful for going toe to toe with other champions in 1v1 or skirmish situations.

And, I'm finally done! I always love unique ideas and Banner of Command is one of them. I'd like to keep its minion oriented active, but switch it into a more viable place while increasing the base stats of Banner of Command to stop it from being a sub-par buy.

LoLByTheNumbers - A Look at Worlds

Greetings fellow Summoners,

The World Championship is upon us with the first of the group stage matches underway. So what can we expect during the course of the World's, and what can we expect from each team? After having watched all 92 regionals matches and doing some stat taking, I'd like the share with you a few things I noticed.

Sorry its a bit late as the Group stages have started, wanted this to be up yesterday, but life got in the way.

Combined Regional Stats

For those of you interested in the statistics of the regional qualifiers, all of the data I've collected can be found here.

Regional Spreadsheets

.ODS files up currently, Excel will be up shortly.

Champion List – Contains Pick/Ban, Win/Loss percentage, KDA and avg KDA as well as Champion Picks and KDA/avg KDA of each player.

Items – Contains (primarily) finished/intermediate items picked by X role for each game as well as the total pick-up percentage per game. Broken down into individual games, teams, and champions.

Objective Control – Contains a few major objective points found in most/each match, the times they were taken, and the win rates associated with controlling that objective.

Things to watch for

Outside of the normal, high-skilled play that is associated with the professional teams. There are a few things to watch out for. If you regularly watch the LCS and the professional scene you probably already know these, but if you are a bit newer to the scene, here are a few things to keep your eye on.

Trinity Force

Just a small note, its back and in full force. Expect to see it, and Trinity Force champions making a huge showing. With only two of the Regional Qualifiers being played on the buffed Trinity Force patch, several new champions for the various regions teams may be coming out.

Contested Champs

Even though a total of 81 champions were picked/banned throughout the course of the Regional Qualifiers, there are some very highly contested champions among all the regions.

Champion – Pick/Ban Rates

Shen – 81 – 88.04%

Thresh – 77 – 83.70%

Jarvan – 73 – 79.35%

Zed – 70 – 76.09%

Ahri – 66 – 71.74%

Sona – 63 – 68.48%

Zac – 63 – 68.48%

Zyra – 57 – 61.96%

Elise – 54 – 61.96%

Ezreal – 53 – 57.61%

Lee Sin – 52 – 56.52%

Caitlyn – 51 – 55.43%

Orianna – 48 – 52.17%

During the regionals, these were the champions that were either picked or banned in over half the matches. With the exception of Sona and Zyra (rarely banned but picked a lot due to being the primary supports currently), these champions are very highly contested and often banned out or taken as first or second picks. You can expect to see a lot of decision making and mindgames happening during the pick and ban phases in an attempt to secure these champions for their own team or deny them from the opposing team.

Fast tower pushes/trades

During the beginning of the summer split, we saw a lot of very fast tower pushing with the first outer tower falling around 3:30 and sometimes the following inner turret by 5:30. Since the buff to the outer towers though, this has become a lot less likely. But, it does still happen, especially in the Asian scene. Anytime you see a 2v1 lane at the start of the match (especially with Caitlyn), there is going to be a high chance of the jungler moving to the 2v1 lane and fast pushing towers. Most teams have seen this kind of play before, and will most likely react appropriately by doing the same in the opposing lane, but with this type of strategy having mostly died out over a month ago, it may be possible that a team gets caught of guard by this. Regardless, in the event of extremely fast turret pushes/trades, expect to see the rest of the game accelerated and laning phases ending shortly after.

Champion Combos

Some very potent champion combinations have cropped up over the past few weeks or months and we can be sure to expect them during the World Championship. If you see them picked up, be prepared to watch some pretty destructive plays coming from the combos.

+ Ashe + Zyra: Probably the most well known combo and made popular by Cloud 9, the Ashe/Zyra combination brings a ton of control from the bot lane, a rarely known for the control they bring. Inside of the lane, the long poke range provide good harassment, as well as the ability to both engage and disengage with 4 different types of CC (Stun, Knock-up, Snare, and Slow) provide this combo with a lot of safety and kill potential. Outside of the lane, the CC that Ashe/Zyra provide allow for more pure damage champions to come from the other lanes. With high pick potential from Ashe's ultimate and the CC/Protection/Zone Potential of Zyra, this bot lane combo allows teams to almost always choose how and when to fight.

Variations of this combination include replacing Ashe with Varus, or Zyra with Sona. Though not as effective, they still provide a large amount of control from the bottom lane.

+ Vi + Ahri/Shen: Recently picking up steam, particularly in the Korean scene, Vi + Ahri/Shen have been causing huge amounts of problems for the opposing team. Vi's ultimate is guaranteed to hit here target and with the extra range she can get from her Q Dash, she can almost always reach the high priority targets in any fight. This long range, guaranteed crowd control allows Vi to setup her teammates. This is hugely effective with Ahri and Shen. Ahri, with her ult, is able to easily follow Vi to her target. With her targeted CC'ed Ahri is guaranteed to land her charm on her target, resulting in her entire combo hitting on top of Vi's damage. 99% of the time this will result in the targets death. Shen, as the other combo with Vi, is also extremely effective. Shen will Ult onto Vi as she is dashing in. The result is having Shen teleported into the opposing teams back line and following up Vi's CC with even more CC.

+ Ori + Delivery System: Another well known combo and seen time and time again throughout the world, is the Ball Delivery System. Basically it consists of Orianna + any champion that can cover a very large distance quickly while holding onto Orianna's ball. This allows fast and easy positioning of Orianna's ball into the middle of the opposing team for her Ultimate. Many champions work well for this, though some of the more notable ones are Jarvan, Zac, Vi, and Nocturne with their long range engages.

Regions, Teams, and Differences

China

The Chinese League of Legends scene can be summarized in one word, aggresion.

+ See Kill, Get Kill Mentality - If there is any chance for a kill, the Chinese players will go for it, even if it means committing themselves to their own death. This often puts the players in very high risk situations. Rarely faced with defensive teams in their region, Teams OMG and Royal may potentially set themselves up to get their aggression countered. However, if they are able to draw other teams into their style of play, they will most certainly come out on top.

+ Low Warding – The Chinese region seems plagued by low warding, especially when you compare them to NA/EU regions in which often times you will see 7+ wards out per team at one time.

+ Teir 2 Turret Trades – A common tactic in China, often times in 2v1 lanes, not only will the outer turrets be traded by 3:30, often times the inner turrets will fall by 5:30 as well. Beyond that, on a rare occasion even the Inhibitors have been traded during that first turret push and have fallen before the 9 minute mark. No other region has ever done this, so they need to be prepared for the Chinese teams to not back off from the intial pushes.

+ Hectic Play – While controlled and understood by the teams, most of the games from the Chinese region feel extremly Hectic. More often than not a fight resulting in a kill is going on, someone is out getting caught, a tower is being pushed, or a gank set up. Things are always happening in the games, but just as often as this accomplishes beneficial goals, it also causes teams to put themselves into bad positions and be punished for it.

Team OMG -

+ Yorick Jungle – Team OMG love to play Yorick Jungle. A very unique pick-up, he does extremely well at early turret/objective pressure. He is also a very strong duelist in the jungle, potentially the strongest and is played with a very strong counter jungle preference. If Yorick makes it way into the hands of OMG, expect their jungler to bully the opposing teams jungler and to have high presence in objective play. However, do not expect him to be ganking very often, as his ganks have little effectiveness. Team OMG love to combo this with Renekton Top so that they can use Yoricks ultimate on Renekton after he has used his Ultimate, so that there are two lizards running around with the AOE damage.

+ Very Strong Orianna – If Team OMG's mid laner gets his hands on Orianna, be prepared to see some extremely strong play out of him. His Orianna is one of the best in the world and though I would love to see it played, I would prioritize target banning this champion against them.

+ Mundo Top – Picking up a little bit of steam lately, Team OMG will run Mundo as a top laner. Only seen in the Korean scene as well, most region's teams will not have played against this. Watch out for this pickup and enjoy watching something most unplayed to great effect.

Team Royal -

+ Support Annie – Team Royal's support player loves to play Annie and is highly respected at it by his region. More often than not, Annie draws a ban from the opposing teams and when she does not, Royal will pick her up immediately. If Royal gets their hands on Annie, you can expect to see the ADC/Support combo run in the mid lane. This allows Annie to have the greatest zone of influence and you will see her participating in counter jungling, objective control, and running off to gank both top and bottom lanes. You will also see Team Royal going very aggressive during the pre-minion spawn time.

+ Very, Very Strong Fizz – Ban Fizz versus Team Royal. Their mid laner absolutely loves to play Fizz and is extremely good at him. Even when shutdown in 2v1 lanes, he still manages to come back and carry extremely hard on this champion. Expect to see him banned versus Royal, or to see some amazing play out of their mid laner on Fizz.

Europe -

During the Summer Season, Europe had the highest amount of competition for the top spots of the region. The teams are very used to playing in high pressure situations and the practice under the stress of every game having large implications for them may provide the EU teams with a small edge in that area.

+ Objective Control Focus - Recognizing the value of objectives over kills, the teams from this region place a high value on controlling objectives. Expect to see fights break out around turrets and dragon and expect to see objectives pushed after every teamfight. NA/EU/KR are the only regions to place a huge priority on getting objectives after won teamfights. They feel that if you don't get an objective after each won teamfight, then you did not properly use the advantage you gained.

+ Variety of Strategies – The EU teams know how employ and deal with a large variety of strategies, team comps, and play styles. Expect to see the likes of Split Pushing, Team Fight Oriented, Skirmishes, Pick, and more Comps will come from this region's teams.

+ Mercury Treads – EU teams have the most willingness of any region to pick up Mercury Treads on any of their champions. Just as often as their carries will pick up Sorcerer's Boots or Berserker Greaves, they will pick up Mercury Treads. Opposing teams need to recognize this and be prepared for EU's carries to be less susceptible to CC.

+ ADC's as Casters – EU love to play their ADC's as casters. With a heavy focus on their mid laners, the EU use their ADC's for upfront damage. Expect to see EU's ADC's building Bloodthirster, Last Whisper, and Infinity Edge before they pick up Attack Speed outside of Berserker Greaves.

+ Mid Lane Focused – EU focuses a lot of their effort and attention into the mid lane. Their mid lane players are some of the best and you can expect junglers to be providing a lot of support to get their mid laners rolling into the play makers they love to be.

Team Lemondogs -

The new team on the scene, but holding the number 1 spot in EU for the longest time, the Lemondogs are a strong team. During the EU Regionals, they seemed to be playing a little lackluster, but I believe this is due to them being satisfied with just making it to the EU Regionals. With the time since them, I believe they will have picked up their desire and effort as being in the World's after their first season in professional play sets in.

+ Twisted Fate – One of the few teams to still employ Twisted Fate since the nerfs, the Lemondogs actually feel he is stronger since his passive change. Expect to see him banned or played, and to have a very large effect on the outcome of the games he is in.

Team Fanatic -

Taking the number one spot from Lemondogs during the EU Regional Qualifiers, Fanatic is most likely EU's strongest team. Constantly keeping control of games and forcing them to played at their pace. Breaking their flow will be key for other teams.

+ Aatrox – Both Fanatic and Gambit really love to play Aatrox and they are the only teams in the Worlds that put priority on him. Aatrox is a big pick in EU and no where else. Teams from the other regions need to be prepared to see him played both in the Jungle and Top lane. Whichever lane he is in, Aatrox will be a bully and in any duel situation players cannot forget about the massive leach that he has.

+ Yorick – The only team to play Yorick outside of China. Fanatic prefer to play him top lane though as a lane bully.

Team Gambit Gaming -

EU's most aggressive team, Gambit Gaming are definitely a favorite in the EU scene. Their play style is very aggressive and if they can get even a small lead in the early stages of the game they will turn it into a huge win.

+ Aatrox – Both Fanatic and Gambit really love to play Aatrox and they are the only teams in the Worlds that put priority on him. Aatrox is a big pick in EU and no where else. Teams from the other regions need to be prepared to see him played both in the Jungle and Top lane. Whichever lane he is in, Aatrox will be a bully and in any duel situation players cannot forget about the massive leach that he has.

+ Miss Fortune – Gambit's ADC loves Miss Fortune and will pick her up almost anytime she is available. Teams need to be prepared for his very aggressive lane presence on his favorite champion. I wouldn't be surprised to see him pick up the new Trinity Force on Miss Fortune, but we will have to wait and see.

+ Eve Jungle – Gambit's Jungler's favorite champion to play, Eve creates a lot of pressure around the map just by being Eve. The constant invisibility causes her to be in the back of the opposing teams mind at all times. Gambit also know how to make great use out of Eve to creat teamfights and during them as well.

Korea -

The region hailed as having the strongest teams of all, we can expect big things from all three teams from this region. Interestingly enough, the Korean teams are the ones that play most like the current NA/EU LCS teams and the same strengths can be seen from them as well.

+ Objective Control Focus - Recognizing the value of objectives over kills, the teams from this region place a high value on controlling objectives. Expect to see fights break out around turrets and dragon and expect to see objectives pushed after every teamfight. NA/EU/KR are the only regions to place a huge priority on getting objectives after won teamfights. They feel that if you don't get an objective after each won teamfight, then you did not properly use the advantage you gained.

+ Variety of Strategies – As top of the top professional teams, the Korean teams know how employ and deal with a large variety of strategies, team comps, and play styles. Expect to see the likes of Split Pushing, Team Fight Oriented, Skirmishes, Pick, and more Comps will come from this region's teams.

Team Najin Black Sword and Team Samsung Ozone -

Unfortunately, these two teams were not a part of the regionals, having bypassed them with the amount of League points they have accumulated. Both will be extremely strong teams and from what games I was able to find and watch, play very much the same as most of the region. We can expect very strong play, very objective controlled styles, and a large variety of team comps. Analysts and casters of the Korean region however, are toting SK Telecom as Korea's currently strongest team, not the 1^st place Najin or the 2^nd place Ozone. This is due to the play styles and champion choices of SK Telecom in relation to patch 3.10 and 3.11.

Team SK Telecom -

A favorite to take first in the World's, they are an extremely strong team right now. The changes in patch 3.10 and 3.11 have vastly increased SK's chances with how well the patches have fit into their champ picks and playstyles.

+ Extremely Strong Mid Laner – Faker of Team SK is a very large portion of the team. His ability to make plays, carry, and keep his team strong in bad situations is greater than even most of the professional Mid laners. Shutting him down will be hard, and potentially necessary for opposing teams.

+ Elise Top – Used to be a very popular pick, playing Elise top is rarely seen as of late. Team SK however, will still pull her out. Other teams top laners need to remember her strengths.

North America -

Constantly poked at as being the lesser of the regions, this year may be the year that NA teams prove the world wrong. With strong showings from all three qualified teams, the NA region is out to prove that they deserve to be fighting for the top spots.

+ Objective Control Focus - Recognizing the value of objectives over kills, the teams from this region place a high value on controlling objectives. Expect to see fights break out around turrets and dragon and expect to see objectives pushed after every teamfight. NA/EU/KR are the only regions to place a huge priority on getting objectives after won teamfights. They feel that if you don't get an objective after each won teamfight, then you did not properly use the advantage you gained.

+ Variety of Strategies – The EU teams know how employ and deal with a large variety of strategies, team comps, and play styles. Expect to see the likes of Split Pushing, Team Fight Oriented, Skirmishes, Pick, and more Comps will come from this region's teams.

Team Cloud 9 -

Cloud 9 has been dominating the NA scene. Having one of the best seasons in any region and showing their strength time and time again, Cloud 9 is a favorite, at least in NA, to take the World Championship. With extremely coordinated team fights and probably the highest objective focus of any team, Cloud 9 are going to be a massive threat.

+ Dragon Fights – Cloud 9 love the dragon. More specifically, they love the fight that dragon creates. Cloud 9 excels at fight at or near dragon and many of their games are won at the first dragon fight. Teams need to be aware of how strong Cloud 9 are at dragon and be prepared to let it go and take other objectives, or to come in to the dragon fight with a very strong teamfight.

+ Ashe/Zyra Combo – Cloud 9 popularized this combo and they play it to great effect. I expect to see it either banned or picked out. Cloud 9 need to be ready for the amount of priority that other regions put on Zyra as a support, even outside of the Ashe/Zyra combo. No doubt Cloud 9 are just as solid without this comp, but if they get it, expect great things.

+ Metoes' Jungle Style – Metoes his highly acclaimed as the most efficient jungler and possibly the best jungler. His style of play is maximizing his time. He will rarely go for a gank unless he knows that he has a kill, preferring to get the guaranteed gold from the jungle, than spend a minute or more trying to make a gank happen. However, his positioning sense and presence are uncanny and rarely is he not where he needs to be. Opposing teams junglers will need to be able to keep up with Meteos or the presence he provides will be their undoing.

+ Rumble – C9's top laner is extremely potent on Rumble. Often times he will turn a 2v1 into a double kill for himself while on this champion. His ultimates are always spot on, providing huge impact in any fight. While not the highest priority for other teams, I still feel that Rumble deserves a targeted ban when it comes to Cloud 9.

Team TSM -

A fan favorite in NA and a long standing team that has been to Worlds before. TSM are expecting a lot out of themselves and put a lot of pressure on doing well in the worlds. They may be the team putting the most pressure on themselves in the Worlds.

+ Long Standing – One of the teams that have been around the longest, TSM is comfortable playing in the large scenes with lots on the line. Their best performances happen in high pressure situations and I expect their play during the worlds to be a step above their play during the LCS.

+ Mid-laner Reginald – Owner, Shot caller, and Play maker for TSM, Reginald puts a lot of weight on his shoulders. A very strong player, expect to see a large portion of TSM's ability to win games centering around Reginald. The downside however, is that when Reginald gets shutdown, he frustrates easily. Get Reginald frustrated and TSM falls apart.

Team Vulcun -

NA's second strongest team during the LCS, Vulcun have made just as strong a showing throughout the season as Cloud 9, being the only team to really give Cloud 9 a challenge in the season.

+ Large Champion Pool – Vulcun have one of the largest champion pools out of any team in World's. Every player has played a wide berth of champions over the course of the Regional Qualifiers and the season itself. Their pick/ban phase is one of the strongest, because it is near impossible to ban any of them out.

Southeast Asia – Team Mineski

Playing similarly to the Chinese scene, Team Mineski very much prescribes to the see kill, get kill philosophy. Capitalized by very high aggression, large kill/death counts, and a willingness to fight to the last hit, be prepared for some high action games coming from Team Mineski.

+ Good Bans – Expect this teams research to be done. The pick/ban phase will be highly effective for Team Mineski, as in the Regionals they seemed 100% ready for every team they fought.

+ Very Strong Mid and ADC – Be warned, these two will carry the games. Team Mineski's mid lander and ADC are highly skilled and if not shut down early, will be huge problems for other teams.

+ Scattered Teamfights – Team Mineski love spread out teamfights. They are very skilled at exiting and entering battles at the right time, maximizing the effect they can have on teamfights. They will attempt to separate opposing teams, catching out high priority targets if any mistakes are made.

+ High Kill Counts – With the see kill, get kill mentality prevalent in their region, Team Mineski's games have very high kill/death counts, often ending with over 50+ kills between the two teams. This play-style accelerates player builds. It may be possible to throw a wrench into their game by not allowing Team Mineski to pick up so many kills. The lack of accelerated builds could potentially throw off their game timing.

+ Ryze and Top Lane Jarvan - While most other regions and teams have dropped Ryze, Team Mineski's mid laner still plays him, and to devastating effect. The rest of the World's teams will need to be prepared for this. The other quirk, is that they like to play Jarvan top lane as a Burst Damage dealer. Rarely seen in other regions, teams need to be ready to face a very high damage Jarvan and not be caught off guard by it.

TW_HW_MO – Gamania Bears

Though only having a few games to go on from the Regional Qualifiers, there are a few things to note coming from this team. Playing much like the Chinese scene, here are a few things you can expect from the Gamania Bears.

+ Extended Engages – Generally starting engages in small skirmishes, the Gamania Bears are quick to rotate and collapse from all lanes to join any fight. This often results in engages that last for a minute or longer as each new person joins the fight.

+ Fighting with Low HP – Expect the Gamania Bears to fight even with HP so low that a soft breeze will kill them. They are very good at knowing just how much damage they can take (especially from towers) and will stick around until the last moment. Though this is high skill play, it also gets them in to trouble as sticking around so low has gotten them killed unnecessarily.

+ Lots of Roaming – Gamania Bears almost play without a lane. With their preference for extended engages and desire to chase down any fight, Champions are constantly moving from one lane to the other, clearing out a wave of creeps and then running off again.

+ Unimpressive CS - With their priority on fighting and roaming, the Gamania Bears CS is not very impressive compared to other regions. Often times, by the 30 minute mark, only one champion would be above 200 CS, and rarely by much.

+ Always Carriers Red Pots – An interesting tactic, every player on the Gamania Bears will generally have a red pot on them throughout the game. With their preference for extended fights, even one pot can be the difference between a win and a loss. The extra hp it provides for its low cost is a huge benefit to them

+ Very Aggressive – Gamania Bears like to fight, and they will almost always seek them out or be harassing in lanes. The downside to this though, is that they put themselves into a lot of danger by doing this. Their aggression is not often backed by a safety net and can be easily punished.

Wildcard – Gaming Gear

Though having a strong showing during the Wildcard tournament, Gaming Gear are the underdogs of the tournament. Having the least experience at this competitive level, it will be unlikely that they make it out of the group stages, however, I would not count them out completely. Being the team that others will have focused on the least, they have a great opportunity to prove themselves a threat, especially if we assume that they have been training with EU's professional teams lately.

+ Good Berth of Champions – Over the course of their Qualifiers, Gaming Gear showed the largest variety of played Champions. With only one loss during the Qualifiers, they also know how to play all of their Champions. It will be difficult to shut them down through picks/bans.

+ Solid Gameplay – For the most part, Gaming Gear's play was very solid, following primarily the NA/EU styles. However, their biggest weakness was knowing when they were ahead and how to take advantage of it. Opting into the slow burn style of winning, other teams in the World's will be able to take advantage of that.

+ Weaker Team Cordination – While far above most teams still, the coordination of Gaming Gear's team play, both in team fights and map control, is lacking compared to the more experienced teams.

Twitter: @SnowSpotsGaming

LoLByTheNumbers - EU Regionals

Greetings Summoners,

I'm Heydon aka Snowspots and welcome to the first posting of LoLbyTheNumbers. For some formal metric practice I'v decided to watch all of the Regionals while taking stats on a whole host of parameters throughout the games. It will be a long process but luckily most the games are enjoyable to watch. I'd like to share with you the stats that I gathered so far and some (hopefully) quick analysis. These are by no means completely conclusive and I'm sure I've made some mistakes. I hope you find these as interesting as I have.

Mostly, these Regional wrap-ups will just be sharing of the statistics spreadsheets. I will give some small insight into a few noticableable trends, but these smaller posts will be leading up to a breakdown post of the trends we can see from each region, going into the World's.

Spreadsheets for the EU Regionals can be found here:

EU Regionals Spreadsheets

Spreadsheets for all regions can be found here, as I complete them.

Road to Worlds - Regional Spreadsheets

Champion List – Contains Pick/Ban, Win/Loss percentage, KDA and avg KDA as well as Champion Picks and KDA/avg KDA of each player.

Items – Contains (primarily) finished/intermediate items picked by X role for each game as well as the total pick-up percentage per game. Broken down into individual games, teams, and champions.

Objective Control – Contains a few major objective points found in most/each match, the times they were taken, and the win rates associated with controlling that objective.

There is an Excel and an OpenOffice file for each spreadsheet. Spreadsheets were compiled in OpenOffice so their may be a few quirks (most likely not) in the Excel files. If there are I apologize.

For a more detailed analysis of the patch 3.10 effects, see my simliar postion on the EU/NA LCS Superweeks:

http://snowspotsgamedesign.blogspot.com/2013/08/league-of-legends-lcs-super-week.html

Champion Selection -

There has only been one major change since the EU super week, and that is the vast drop in Elise's pick/ban %.

Superweek: Elise drew 16 pick/ban out of 26 games.

Regionals: Elise drew 1 pick/ban out of 19 games.

Even though it took an extra week, it seems that, even as a favorite champion, Elise has been too damaged by the patch 3.10 nerfs to still be a high value pick.

Other than that, Aatrox and Fizz are still holding high value in EU at 17 P/B and 12 P/B out of 19 games, respectively.

Zac and Shen are holding the highest priority at 18 picks/bans out of 19 games each.

Zyra is by far the most popular support at the EU regionals, being played 17 games, though generating no bans. The next closest was Sona at 11 games played and 0 bans.

Caitlyn has jumped in popularity, reaching 13 games out of 19.

Ashe, Ahri, and Zac have had the most success at

Ashe: 5 plays 4 wins

Ahri: 9 plays 7 wins

Zac: 7 plays 5 wins

As well as drawing additional bans themselves.

Dragon's Folly -

In my previous article I talked a little bit about how the tower change in 3.10 has affected the importance of dragon, and how it seems that prioritizing the first/early dragon over other objectives actually has a negative impact. The same trend is still following, I've just taken a few more details on the early dragon objective.

Win Percentage from:

First Turret – 68.42%

First Blood – 63.16%

First Dragon – 52. 63%

Taking the first dragon is still trending as the least successful early objective. Here are some more details:

Taking the first dragon as your first objective: 3 wins to 5 losses – 37.5% win rate

Taking the first dragon after taking another first objective beforehand: 7 wins to 4 losses – 63.6%

Taking the first dragon but not the first turret: 4 wins to 7 losses – 36.4%

Taking the first dragon and the first turret: 6 wins to 1 loss – 85.7%

Though 19 games is not a very large pool to get statistics from, the trend in the EU regionals is continuing along the lines of the NA/EU LCS games as well. By the end of the regionals, hopefully there will be enough data to make some good informed analysis about early dragon control vs turret control.

That's it for this posting of LoLbyTheNumbers, mostly just sharing. Stay tuned for each region and the final wrap-up before World's hits.

League of Legends LCS Super Week Analysis - With Spreadsheets!

Greetings Fellow Summoners,

I'm Heydon aka Snowspots. For some formal metric practice I decided to watch all 47 Super Week LCS games while taking stats on a whole host of parameters throughout the games. It was a long process but luckily most the games were enjoyable to watch. I'd like to share with you the stats that I gathered and some (hopefully) quick analysis of the professional scene and the effects patch 3.10 has had on it. These are by no means completely conclusive and I'm sure I've made some mistakes, but there's only so much one person can try to do. I hope you find these as interesting as I have.

Spreadsheets can be found here:

LCS Super Week Spreadsheets

Champion List – Contains Pick/Ban rates as well as Win/Loss percentage for each champion.

Items – Contains (primarily) finished/intermediate items picked by X role for each game as well as the total pick-up percentage per game.

Objective Control – Contains a few major objective points found in most/each match and the win rates associated with controlling that objective.

There is an Excel and an OpenOffice file for each spreadsheet. Spreadsheets were compiled in OpenOffice so their may be a few quirks (most likely not) in the Excel files. If there are I apologize.

Onto the analysis!

Objective Control -

The biggest thing to talk about in objective control change is the recent turret buff in 3.10. With the increased tower protection, there was a lot of talk during Super Week about the increased importance of dragon. This may be misguided though. While its true that taking the most dragons is a high indicator of who will win the game, the team with the most dragons having a 70.21% win rate, there was only a 57.69% win rate for the first dragon (42.86% in NA). That is the lowest of what can be considered the first 3 primary objectives

First Blood – 68.09% win rate.

First Tower – 61.70% win rate.

First Dragon – 57.69% win rate.

To make sense of this, we also need to look at what objective normally in between the 1^st and 2^nd dragons. That is taking down all 3 Outer Turrets. This is the second best early game indicator as to which team will be taking the in (behind First Teamfight Win – 91.49% win rate).

First Outer Turrets – 85.11% win rate.

So what does this mean? Why does taking the first dragon have such a low win rate? I believe the answer comes in map control. While trading dragon for another objective nets you extra gold that the other team cannot gain, there are several things that you lose out on when putting such an early game emphasis on dragon.

1 – You lose out in lane CS. Early dragons take longer to kill (even if not by much). This causes more minions in the lanes to be killed by turrets or minions than if dragon was taken at a later time.

2 – Your lanes take a lot of pressure. While you are prioritizing the dragon, it allows the other team to push to your towers and potentially kill them. With early game being harder to deal, this is important, especially because at this time mark the tower armor has usually started to decay.

3 – You may lose a tower. Even with the extra tower armor, an undefended turret can go down really fast. While gaining more gold for dragon, and still able to take turret gold, you give up map control by losing a turret. This puts the champions in that lane, as well as the nearby buff objectives at greater risk for the rest of the game.

Going for an early dragon can be easily punished. In a worst case scenario, the gold you gain from dragon will be countered by the gold lost from CS and a tower kill by the other team. This will cause you to be on even footing in terms of gold (until you take a tower in response) while being at a disadvantage in terms of map control. In the LCS, this is often the case.

So in a nutshell, while yes Dragon has a large importance in 3.10, it is extremely easy to punish a team going for an early dragon and gain an advantage over them. Dragon is best left to be taken after another early game objective and/or at a time when the opposing team is unable to punish you for it. Dragon should not be prioritized over the other early game objectives otherwise you will most likely put yourself at a disadvantage for claiming the first Dragon.

All of the other major objectives have stayed the same this patch as through the rest of the Season. Taking all 3 of the Outer/Inner Turrets is still holding strong at 85.11/93.48% win rates when taken respectively. First teamfight win is also holding strong at 91.49% win rate.

Champions -

First, the 3.10 effect:

More interesting than the Objective Control changes, 3.10 has had an even bigger effect on Champion selection. With the tower change, laning phases have generally been extended. This has lead to what I like to call,

The Rise of the Assassin.

Ahri – 74.47% Pick/Ban, 55.56% win rate

Fizz – 36.17% Pick/Ban, 100% win rate

Kass – 53.19% Pick/Ban, 50% win rate

Zed – 76.60% Pick/Ban, 58.33% win rate

With the extended laning phase, assassin champions (with escapes) have risen in popularity. Ahri and Zed in particular have extremely high rates of pick or bans, and win rates over half. They've been very high priority picks and both NA and EU and have performed extremely well even in the games they have lost. With more time in lane, and roaming be less punished, assassins have become more effective, able to get to their high burst items while the lanes or most lanes are still in tact, instead of picking them up just as teamfights begin. This change increases their strength, being that they perform best in small fights and skirmishes, not large teamfights.

Elise's Downfall

The other major effect that 3.10 has had is on Elise. From the looks of it, this patch has severely hindered her, perhaps to the point of no longer being viable. Let me give you the stats, and then explain why I believe she has been so hurt.

Elise

34 games Picked/Banned – 72.34%

14 games Banned

20 games Picked

4 games won – 20% win rate.

For the priority that was placed on Elise for Picks and Bans, her win rate is an abysmal 20%. The other champions with similar priority having win rates around 50% to as high as over 75%. 3.10 seems to have taken Elise out of the picture. Why is this?

Elise has been consistently nerfed most patches, but the spiderling change in this one is the straw that broke the camels back. As each of her skills took a hit, more and more of her damage percent was being found in her spiderlings. They were keeping her afloat by providing her much needed sustained damage that the rest of her kit is lacking. Now however, the spiderlings are a lot easier to kill. So much easier in fact that they simply die to incidental AoE damage. They rarely survive the enemy teams burst damage in a teamfight and cause Elise to lose a huge chunk of her damage.

Spiderling Effective Health Changes, parentheses are versus AoE

Vs. AD – 715(1001) to 494(593)

Vs. AP – 825(1155) to 546(682)

The changes in their health are massive. And the loss of DPS Elise gets when they are gone is just as big, even though killing the spiderlings is almost always completely incidental. Because of this large loss of DPS to Elise with extra work required by the enemy, she has taken a massive hit to her potential. To counter this, I'd suggest a buff to her spiderlings, allowing Elise's spider form W to provide damage resistance to her spiderlings, or to cause them to heal on each hit. This would allow Elise to protect her spiderlings with good skill usage.

LCS Super Week Champion Choices

Just quickly some interesting numbers and a few whys. First on the list is Shen

Shen – 100% Pick/Ban rate, 68.75% win rate.

While always a very solid pick, with the extended laning phase, Shen now gets more use out of Stand United before team grouping begins. He is also punished less for using it leave lane early, because his tower can better survive when he is gone.

Zac comes in 2^nd with an 85.11% Pick/Ban rate while Zed, Ahri, Elise, and Thresh are all over 70% Pick/Ban.

Shen (31), Zed (24),Kassadin (20), and Ahri (19) hold the highest number of bans, with the next few closest champs running at 14 or lower.

Zyra holds the highest games played at 26 with a 0% ban rate, and a 57.69% win rate.

Twitch is the most popular ADC, at 29 Picks/Bans with Vayne 2^nd at 21 Picks/Bans.

Zac holds the most games won (19) along with the best win rate (76%) for the amount of games played (25).

Twisted Fate, Sona, Attrox, Kennen, and Zac all have win rates over 70% while having at least 5 games played.

The least successful champions have been

Nunu – 5 games, 5 losses, 0% win rate.

Vi – 5 games, 5 losses, 0% win rate.

Karma – 4 games, 4 losses, 0% win rate.

Fiddlesticks – 8 games, 7 losses, 12.50% win rate.

Renekton – 7 games, 5 losses, 28.57% win rate.

Orianna – 8 games, 5 losses, 37.50% win rate.

Vayne – 16 games, 10 losses, 37.50% win rate.

The most successful champions have been.

MF – 4 Bans, 4 Wins, 100% win rate.

Fizz – 14 Bans, 3 Wins, 100% win rate.

Amumu – 3 Wins, 100% win rate.

Ryze also was hit hard by the 3.10 patch it seems. Having a 0% pick/ban rate over the course of both NA and EU super weeks.

NA vs EU Champion Choices -

The biggest note here is Fizz. In EU Fizz was Picked/Banned 17 times, a 65.38% rate, while having a 100% win rate. In NA however, Fizz was never picked or banned.

Fiddlesticks/Attrox are also more popular in EU having 13/9 to 4/0 pick/ban rates in NA.

NA places more priority on Tristana at 6 games in NA to 0 in EU, while Rumble is 6 games to 1.

Thresh and Varus have higher popularity in EU, being picked/banned 92.31% and 50% of the time respectively, while in NA they have a 47.62% and 19.05% rates.

Item Choices -

The biggest item to look at this week, as of 3.10, is the removal of the Runic Bulwark and the changes to Locket of the Iron Solari.

NA

Locket – 47.62% pickup rate per game

Aegis – 9.52% pickup rate per game

Total – 57.14% pickup rate per game

This means that in NA the new Locket is being picked up by only 1 team, in roughly half of the games. This is down from an almost 200% pickup rate of the Runic Bulwark in previous weeks, each team having 1 almost every game.

EU

Locket – 103.85% pickup rate per game

Aegis – 23.08% pickup rate per game

Total – 127.93% pickup rate per game

In EU there was a more than double pickup rate, but still a huge drop from the near 200% of Runic Bulwark. This change has given more choice to players. Locket of the Iron Solari being a viable option, but no longer necessary like Runic Bulwark was.

BotRK vs IE vs BT on ADCs

NA

BotRK – 23 over 21 games

IE – 18 over 21 games

BT – 6 over 21 games

EU

BotRK – 24 over 26 games

IE – 17 over 26 games

BT – 23 over 26 games

BotRK is a far more popular item in NA for ADCs. NA players love the auto attack damage and the utility of the on use way more than the pure damage that BT offers. With an almost 400% higher pickup rate, NA players are thinking that BotRK is the far superior item for ADCs. However over in EU this is not the case, BT is picked up just as often. In NA, the IE is normally the counter choice to BotRK, one or the other being picked up and followed by attack speed. In EU however, IE is generally built immediately after BT or BotRK. EU players seem to prefer the high AD rates on their ADCs, for both the on hit damage and the physical spell damage. NA, however, is putting more emphasis on Attack Speed, paring their one AD item with an AS item immediately. This is a difference in ADC play that both regions should note.

AP Carry Item Choices

Zhonya's – 114.89% pickup rate per game

DeathCap – 112.77% pickup rate per game

Voidstaff – 78.72% pickup rate per game

While AP item choices are generally very champion specific, there is a common trend among them. Zhonya's Hourglass is the most popular choice. It's raw power and the utility it offers in protection and baiting is unmatched by most other AP choices and thus it is primarilly the first major AP item picked up by AP champions.

Deathcap comes in second, above Voidstaff. This shows that players are preferring the raw numbers than Deathcap provides over the % penetration that Voidstaff offers. There is a little bit of discrepancy between NA and EU in this though.

NA prefers penetration over raw power.

Deathcap – 95.24% pickup rate

H.Guise – 95.24% pickup rate

Lissandries – 28.57% pickup rate

Voidstaff – 95.24% pickup rate

Where as EU is preferring the power over the penetration.

Deathcap – 126.29% pickup rate

H.Guise – 73.08% pickup rate

Liandry's– 19.23% pickup rate

Voidstaff – 65.38% pickup rate

One other interesting stat that the above numbers show, is the low pickup rate of Liandry's compared to the pickup rate of Haunting Guise. Liandry's is an extremely expensive item for what the upgrade offers, and this is showcased but the poor numbers of it being finished in games.

NA vs EU Doran's Popularity

304.76% - Doran's Blade – 457.69%

157.14% - Doran's Ring – 296.15%

119.05% - Doran's Shield – 157.69%

As we can see, in EU Doran's items are vastly more popular, so what does this mean? EU likes the early potential that they offer. They feel that by filling up your slots for maximum power early on is better play than the gold you save by not buying 2-3 Doran's items. NA will have to realize that this is an early power spike for EU and make sure to wait till they complete their first major item before overly engaging. The downfall of this for EU though, is the lack of item space. Carrying a ward, or that 1 red pot that can save your life in a fight or from a gank are now harder to carry. Larger items must also be completed in full, rather than pieces, making their power curve more spiky, and less consistent.

A Small Boots Note

Just a quick note, EU puts less priority on finishing boots over other items than NA does. Boots of speed (never upgraded) had a 157.69% pickup rate in EU while NA was about 2.5 times lower at 66.67%. EU is also a lot more likely to pick up Mercury Treads on their carries, opting for the tenacity over the damage increase offered

All Done.

While there is certainly more that can be talked about, these I feel are the most important differences in item changes and in NA vs EU choices and should be looked at by both regions as World Championship is coming up.

Thanks for reading and hope you find the statistics interesting. Think I missed something? Want some other statistics? Please let me know. I plan to be continuing this for the Regionals and World, perhaps beyond.