From EU to NA: The Amazing Jungler

Riot·6/5/2014, 11:00:32 PM·0 votes·7,367 views

Amazing might just have been the best jungler to grace the European LCS last season. While the Copenhagen Wolves came in 6th place with a record of 13-15, Amazing lit up the highlight reel for Europe play after play. This split, he has made the jump across the ocean to North America to play for the dynasty of TSM, leading many to think TSM would rise to a new level of dominance. However, since then, TSM have only managed to go 3-3, losing to Dignitas, CLG, and Cloud 9. What is it about Amazing that makes him so strong a jungler, how is he affecting the playstyle of TSM, and what should we expect to see as he grows more and more comfortable?

The Amazing Playmaker

Amazing dominated in Europe, with his play earning 2 consecutive MVP prizes and sweeping accolades. It would be unfair to boil his play down to one champion, but the champion he swiftly became noted for was Lee Sin, on whom he went 7-3 with a 7.57 KDA, pulling off amazing kick after amazing pick. But looking at his stats, we can see what Amazing was focused on.

There are many ways of carrying from the jungle. Some players win by farming, others win by counter-jungling, and still others win by ganking. Amazing distinguished himself by making plays and getting kills, with the most kills per game of any European jungler (2.96). Overall, he didn’t farm much, nor did he get that much gold. But when his team did win, it was largely due to his efforts, and he earned a larger percentage of his team’s gold in wins than any other jungler in Europe. On the other hand, when his team lost, his kill involvement did not suffer, and he was among the top junglers in Europe in kills, deaths, and assists.

A New General

Amazing stepped into big shoes when he replaced TheOddOne, the long-time jungler for TSM. He is certainly talented enough to replace TheOddOne - nobody would dispute that - but he has a much different play style, one we can again see from looking at Season 3 stats.

In TheOddOne’s wins, he was much more focused on snowballing his team. He got a lot of assists, and in TSM’s wins, he actually did not pick up a number of kills, giving up his life on many occasions to net his carries kills. The change in junglers caused large shift in the playstyle of both TSM and Amazing. Bjergsen has been playing more support-focused mids recently, with 2 games on Lulu and 1 game on Soraka. On the other hand, he has also returned to his roots, with two games on Syndra.

The Best of Both Worlds

Farm Minions and Champions Amazing is still the kill-amassing jungler he has always been. He is tied with Meteos for first place in kills/game (2.83), and tied at #1 with Snoopeh for kills/win (5.00). However, unlike last season, where he farmed minimally, TSM Amazing is second only to Meteos in total CS.

However, there are still strong European influences to his playstyle. European junglers tend to spend more time killing minions, because they will hold mid to allow their mid laner to gank more consistently. This is not strictly a European strategy (Meteos shows similar tendencies at times), but it is certainly a tendency more common in Europe. Amazing does not disappoint, tying Meteos for the highest minion count, and actually surpassing him in minion count in TSM’s wins.

The Amazing Spiderman

If there was a champion Amazing struggled on last season, it was Elise. He only went 1-5 with a 2.56 KDA. This season, however, on TSM, Elise is becoming a regular - and dominant - pick for him, with two wins and an 11-2-25 showing. And when he has played Elise, it has not been with the Magic Penetration build of old, but the support-oriented, CDR-heavy build popularized by Meteos.

European Champion Pool

The biggest difference between Amazing and other North American junglers - and especially TheOddOne - is his champion pool. TheOddOne preferred support-heavy junglers, true to his style. Amazing, on the other hand, has a champion pool that is distinctly European.

His signature champion - Lee Sin - was played 44 times in the EU LCS last split, while only being played 21 times in the NA LCS. Moreover, 10 (nearly half!) of those NA Lee Sin games (and all 9 NA LCS Lee Sin wins!) came from Dexter and Meteos. Hopefully, Amazing will port one of the strongest junglers over to NA, so that NA junglers can have more experience against one of the most consistently internationally dominant junglers!

Unfortunately, Amazing has suffered from one major weakness: a small champion pool. He really only plays the power 4 junglers: Lee Sin, Kha’Zix, Elise, Evelynn. Teams have targeted bans at him, forcing him to play on Xin Zhao and Volibear, champions who ended up not working well for him, with a combined 2-6-5 in two losses, to Cloud 9 and Dignitas.

Against Dignitas, he pulled out Volibear, a jungle pick that was common in Season 3, and almost entirely in Europe. While it did not work well, it speaks to the new mindset of TSM. They are not concerned with sticking to a North American style of play; they are committed to improving and winning, and Amazing is at the forefront of their changing and evolving style.

Mattias "Gentleman Gustaf" Lehman is a League of Legends math-crafter turned esports journalist who spends his spare time staring at mountains of League of Legends data. Follow him @GentlemanGustaf on Twitter.