With BIG League just over half way through their tournament with just one series left before playoffs, I thought it was time to go into the statistics we have from Risen Esports Champions League. Using the almighty Oracles Elixir, in this article I am going to take a look at the stats at face value. While this means we do not get the context of the games which may skew the numbers, hopefully we can find some hidden gems of stand out players from lower teams; diamonds in the rough. For this reason, I have ignored any data from Playoffs.
Like any player in Solo Queue who wants to check their team-mates, the only thing to look at is the KDA’s. Straight away, Barrage.NA’s Gorica and APA make a statement, with a 12.9 and a 12.7 KDA in Risen Esports’ Champions League regular season; in the eight games played, they each only died ten times. Those eight games are wins, so it is clear that when Barrage.NA win, they get absolute stomps and it comes from their Mid lane and Bot lane. G2 anyone?
(I will be fair and say that this performance wasn’t kept up during Playoffs, which was plagued with a 40% win rate after losing 2-3 against SolaFide)
Stats like these can tell us a lot, impressive on the surface with a 71/10/58 scoreline for Gorica from the eight games, but dive deeper and we can learn more.
Lets look at APA again, even with a high KDA, the scoreline is a lot more supportive at 19/10/108. We look at the stats at 10 minutes and they’re all in the negative; -313 Gold Difference at 10 minutes, -277 Experience Difference at 10 minutes, -7 CS Difference at 10 minutes. Just from looking at stats like this, we can start to learn play styles. Looks like APA is sacrificing lane and getting a large amount of assists, whilst their ADC is getting ahead in kills, so must be roaming to Bot lane a lot? One quick look at picks, and we have 2 Galios, 3 Karmas, and an Ori and Ziggs; playing supportive Mid laners to make sure the superstar-carry Gorica is put in a place to succeed.
Lets run through the positions, and see who else we can find!
Top Lane
As you might expect, the top four players, specifically when looking at KDA, are from the top four teams. Evil Geniuses Prodigies’ Srtty leads the stats with a 4.88 KDA. Drop down a few places, and we meet HyBriDZz with the fifth best KDA.
HyBriDZz spent the last couple of years playing with Maryville University, before Winthrop University’s roster. Whilst not always getting the best results, HyBriDZz has been in the Amateur scene since 2018; even taking part in the Scouting Grounds Open Qualifier in 2019.
Winthrop performed well last year, with high placings in Collegiate events, but with an 8th place finish in the Risen Esports Champions League, are they simply outmatched by the higher non-collegiate teams?
Overall, HyBriDZz joins (former) ConViction Top laner Faisal and Mirage Esports’ Dragoon in topping the KDA leaderboard for Top laners, above Dhokla I might add.
Jungle
With one of the highest amount of Kills in the Risen Champions League, Wildcard Gaming’s Trixter sits with the fifth best KDA amongst Junglers, and one of the highest average Kills too. Also recently joining Wildcard Gaming is Jozy, who was playing for Sign Us Please during the Risen Champions League, another player high on the list; sitting just behind AnDa.
Wildcard Gaming has been in the scene for a while, placing towards the top but struggling to take that top spot. They did, however, take a series off of SolaFide in the Risen Esports Champions League; the team that would then go on to win. Can Wildcard continue to be an upset team throughout the rest of the Tier 2 Tournaments? Even more, can they turn from upset team into winning team, add substance to their wins more than it just being an upset?
Mid
Whilst Freeze is not playing in the BIG League, and it looks like his team (Sign Us Please) will has disbanded, this Mid laner needs an honorable mention. In their game against BLACKLIST, this guy picked Vayne Mid and went on a rampage; ending the game 15/1/4. During this game, the Vayne achieved a Pentakill! Not exactly something you see every day. Though it was a bit of a stomp from them, Freeze took 62.5% of the teams kills in the 23 minute game.
Freeze has hopped between teams since 2017, and earned meritable results through 2020; this is definitely a player to watch out for in the future.
Next on the list, however, is playing in the BIG League. Strompest sits with one of the highest KDA’s, as well as one of the highest Kill Participation. Just from the stats, the Supernova Mid laner has an impressive early game; high First Blood percentage, decent CS and Experience lead at 10 minutes, and the highest share of his team’s CS at 15 minutes.
Strompest has played games on wave clear champions, like Corki and Azir, but with an 8/2/15 performance on his only game of Twisted Fate and decent stats across the board regardless of what he’s playing, it is clear why this Mid laner has played on Academy teams. He has also attended Scouting Grounds events in the past too.
ADC
You want to know who gained the most kills in Risen Esports Champions League? Meet Mirage Esports' Meech, with 97 kills in the 16 games played; a 4.3 KDA.
Meech is another player who has spent years in the scene, but seems to fall short of the top spot. Their tournament results is filled with third and fourth place finishes. Meech has proven himself as a strong player, and its these type of players that are looking to prove their worth through the Proving Grounds Circuit.
Another player of note is Instinct from 100 Thieves Next. One of the higher KDA’s, but more importantly is the fact that this is with a negative win record. Winning less than half of the games in the Risen Esports Champions League, whilst retaining a standout KDA and the third least deaths of ADC’s; this isn’t something to be snuffed at.
Some may argue that this is a sign of a KDA player, sitting too reserved and therefore not putting in damage to help the team. I say nay. A relatively high Kill Participation coupled with strong stats from the Laning Phase leads me to believe that Instinct is another strong player. Like Meech, Instinct is likely here to grow and gain experience; potentially moving on to bigger things if he doesn’t want to stick with the developmental 100X.
Support
Support is an odd one to look at when looking at stats, but I think Srkenji leads the way from Risen Esports Champions League. The Winthrop University Support had the most Assists to his name, one of the top KDA’s (second only to Zeyzal), involved in over 70% of his teams’ kills, and very low in terms of his share of Winthrop’s deaths. Whilst the meta is currently favoring those playmaking Supports, Srkenji has embraced them; multiple games on Leona, Thresh, Galio, Alistar, while also having one of the best vision games statistically.
Srkenji is a player to watch, and having placed well with his teams recently, this is his time to shine once more. Having already attended the Scouting Grounds back in 2018, Srkenji is looking to return and make an Academy or LCS team.
BIG League
I’ve talked a lot about the stats, which have been focused on Risen Esports Champions League which is a thing of the past. It is so two weeks ago. Let’s talk BIG League.
Reminder that we have four Groups, every team plays a Best of 3 against all other teams in their Group, top two teams make it out.
Group A is likely going the way we expected, with ANEW Esports sitting at the top of the table; having beaten the only real competition in Mirage, this is likely looking like a lossless Group stage now.
Group B, not so telegraphed. Barrage.NA is leading as expected, but I don’t think ANEW Genesis was expected to be joining Revival in second place. Both teams should get wins in their games tonight, so we could be looking at a tiebreaker situation here,
Group C, another ANEW team is towards the top, with ANEW Blaze 3-1 with only Wichita Wolves left to play. We should expect them to join the (currently) 4-0 Evil Geniuses Prodigies in moving on from Groups.
Group D has some other surprises. SolaFide has taken a loss from Maryville, meaning that the University team are topping it undefeated and are likely to continue the lossless Groups too. SolaFide are likely to join them, especially since Wildcard couldn’t get another upset win against them.
Make sure to catch the final round of Groups at 8pm EST tonight, and keep an eye out for the Playoffs starting! I suggest following the Unofficial Proving Grounds Circuit Twitter account to keep up to date with everything, and get links to the relevant streams!
But just who is Maryville University?
Running into the BIG League, this team is seen as a favorite to win. But just who are they?
Their name pops up all the time, hearing it on podcasts and mentions in Twitter, now they're sitting 4-0 and have beaten SolaFide; in a 2-0 I might add.
Maryville joined the scene in 2015, and their Varsity Program has seen a a large amount of success. Whilst this is mostly in League of Legends, they also have a top four Overwatch Team! In 2019, they claimed their third Collegiate Championship, having won in 2016, 2017, and 2019.
Not only have they found a lot of success as teams, they have a lot of support in the background. Something that is often overlooked, and yet needed, in the scene. With Tanner Deegan as their Coach, who you might recognize as 'Zeu', the former Assistant Coach for Golden Guardians and Head Coach for the Academy team, there is no doubt they have adequate support to help them find success.
What's more, Golden Guardians players Niles and Iconic, came from Maryville. Together, they led Maryville University to victory, with five first places at tournaments in the last five months of 2020 alone.
With a record of success, as well as supplying the LCS with players, this is a team to watch; and these are players that you are likely to see beyond the Proving Grounds Circuit.
