LGD's Rise and Decline
Riot·4/9/2014, 9:44:58 PM·0 votes·604 views
LGD Gaming has become something of an anomaly in LPL. While a team’s consistency is often a sign of great things, LGD consistently loses to Energy Pacemaker, the team currently in seventh place in the standings. Aside from their losses to EP, LGD started the new LPL season on a rise. They found a win against second place Edward Gaming, crushed then-favorites World Elite and Invictus Gaming, and looked more impressive against the nearly unshakeable OMG, than any other team in LPL at the time of their match.
Over the past couple weeks, however, LGD has fallen. Since their second series against EP, where they managed to split even, LGD has failed to win a game. They lost both games to EDG and iG, a team LGD stomped thoroughly the first time they met.
So the question everyone is asking now is just how good is LGD? What lets them challenge the first and second place teams, but drop games to seventh place EP and the extremely inconsistent iG? We took a look at some of LGD's statistics to find out what makes them tick.
Few can argue that this lizard has cost nearly as many games as its giant purple cousin across the map. With a retooling of the gold reward in the 2014 season, emphasis has shifted away from early dragons and towards acquiring the objective later in the game. This hasn’t stopped LGD from honing in on acquiring that early gold lead.
Of the 20 games LGD has played, they’ve gotten the first dragon in 13 of them; more first dragons than any other team has managed in LPL this season. Beyond just getting the first dragon, LGD seems to be on top of dragon control in general. They’ve acquired the second largest portion of dragons in their games at 85%, bested only by the incontestable OMG at 89%.
Even when they don't manage to get the last hit, LGD has had vision of 100% of dragons in their games either directly before—with pesky sweeping lenses clearing out vision as the dragon’s HP is melted down—or while it is being taken. With vision changes in place, this seems a near impossible feat, but it’s clear LGD prioritizes this objective highly, and it’s a strategy they execute well.
Individual Skill
A lot of what makes LGD’s successful early games possible is the amount of individual skill the roster contains. LGD’s bottom lane has been touted as one of the best in LPL. At the very least, Styz has proven he can excel under almost any circumstances. He’s even garnered three Caitlyn bans in an LPL climate where most AD carries have champion pools too deep to bother considering. Much of LGD’s strategy revolves around getting Styz fed, and though his split-push farming has gotten his team into trouble, he and Pyl rarely lose their lane.
The jungler, Quan, is a massive part of what makes this possible. Bottom lane is the focus for the first gank of many LPL junglers, and regardless of the stakes, Quan often comes out ahead to secure an advantage for Styz. He makes strong use of early game powerhouse jungle champions with execute abilities to make LGD’s dragon control possible. Jungle bans are far and away the most popular against LGD, with 15 Elise bans and 12 Lee Sin bans used to keep those champions from Quan’s grasp.
Despite the success and limelight Quan, Styz, and Pyl have accumulated, Rena in the mid lane is the solid rock of the team. He has played a wide variety of lane bully champions and is too versatile to ban out. He also boasts the team’s highest KDA ratio at 3.7. Rena was our player to watch on LGD at the beginning of the season, and that hasn’t changed.
As stated before, jungle bans are the most common bans against LGD, but that wasn't always the case. Though LPL has now caught up to Patch 4.4, it started considerably behind the rest of the competitive world on Patch 3.16, which meant one key champion was a powerful asset for LGD in particular. Riven didn't receive any of her important early-game damage tweaks until Patch 4.1, and until that patch hit LPL servers, Riven was banned in all but two games against LGD, and in those games, the reason was clear.
In the initial set against iG, Star's Riven was let through in both games. In the first, he steamrolled the 1v1 which left iG's PDD with a score of 0/3/0 by the time the team surrendered, and in the second game, an attempt to force Star to fall behind in a 2v1 failed when he managed to 1v3 the bottom lane just before a second surrender. The third time Star played Riven was after the Patch 4.1 and 4.2 changes went through, and that game also resulted in a surrender—this time, on the part of LGD.
Without Riven and on the more common tanky top laners like Shyvana, Star hasn't had the same impact. To put this in some perspective, his KDA ratio on Riven is 12.5, but his overall KDA ratio is only 2.8. His failure to peel successfully is likely one of the reasons Styz favors the self-sufficiency of Caitlyn and Ezreal so heavily. Yet this isn't the only reason the Riven nerf is so fundamental in understanding LGD's recent decline.
The champion pool
IG chooses to only ban strong early junglers to win against LGD.
For LGD, you'll see four champions more often than any others: Lee Sin, Caitlyn, Thresh, and Shyvana. Shyvana, as discussed, has been Star's champion of choice after Riven's decline. LGD favors lane swap strategies that make Caitlyn's fast-pushing powerful. Pyl has had his best moments on Thresh, and Quan's Lee Sin would terrify any opponent.
This, however, is a problem. Without Lee Sin or Vi, Quan will fall back on Olaf, which has failed to impress without high mobility or the strong early game power that his other junglers bring. Without Caitlyn, LGD's favorite lane swap and fast-pushing strategy lacks some of the force it typically has. These factors are further exacerbated by the Riven, Kassadin, and Elise changes in recent patches. Before these alterations, LGD had more freedom to get the picks they wanted. With Riven and Kassadin as automatic bans, Quan, Styz, and Pyl found their comfort champions in their hands more often than not.
While iG were destroyed by Star's Riven the first time they met LGD, this time around they were able to ban Lee Sin and Vi, effectively crippling two members of LGD with no Riven pick to worry about. The previous week, EP found a win against LGD after a Lee Sin and Elise ban. Indeed, some might argue that Quan receives the most target bans from LGD not because he's one of their most devastating players, but because he's so pick-dependent. The strategy of banning out Quan will likely continue to pick up steam, now that teams see that Riven changes can put more than just Star out of commission. LGD has only three weeks remaining to adapt and avoid falling to the bottom half of the standings.
After qualifying through the Tencent Games Arena Grand Prix, LGD has not failed to impress. They rose to third place, won the early game against OMG, and managed to take a game off EDG. The team seems to have the strongest early dragon control in LPL, and Styz's rising talent cannot be denied even in a region where powerful AD carries seem easy to come by. It appears, however, that their weaknesses lie in late game teamfight coordination and a dependency on getting specific champion picks. If they can fix these factors, LGD is more than capable of rising to overtake even OMG. In the meantime, they still have much they can learn from the top teams.
HARDER, BETTER, FASTER, STRONGER
When LGD are at their best, they rush through a game. LGD has the shortest average game length in their wins in LPL at about 32 minutes, suggesting that the early game is where they excel. Two factors make this possible: their dominant dragon control and the skill of their individual players. Dragon Control
Few can argue that this lizard has cost nearly as many games as its giant purple cousin across the map. With a retooling of the gold reward in the 2014 season, emphasis has shifted away from early dragons and towards acquiring the objective later in the game. This hasn’t stopped LGD from honing in on acquiring that early gold lead.
Of the 20 games LGD has played, they’ve gotten the first dragon in 13 of them; more first dragons than any other team has managed in LPL this season. Beyond just getting the first dragon, LGD seems to be on top of dragon control in general. They’ve acquired the second largest portion of dragons in their games at 85%, bested only by the incontestable OMG at 89%.
Even when they don't manage to get the last hit, LGD has had vision of 100% of dragons in their games either directly before—with pesky sweeping lenses clearing out vision as the dragon’s HP is melted down—or while it is being taken. With vision changes in place, this seems a near impossible feat, but it’s clear LGD prioritizes this objective highly, and it’s a strategy they execute well.
Individual Skill
A lot of what makes LGD’s successful early games possible is the amount of individual skill the roster contains. LGD’s bottom lane has been touted as one of the best in LPL. At the very least, Styz has proven he can excel under almost any circumstances. He’s even garnered three Caitlyn bans in an LPL climate where most AD carries have champion pools too deep to bother considering. Much of LGD’s strategy revolves around getting Styz fed, and though his split-push farming has gotten his team into trouble, he and Pyl rarely lose their lane.
The jungler, Quan, is a massive part of what makes this possible. Bottom lane is the focus for the first gank of many LPL junglers, and regardless of the stakes, Quan often comes out ahead to secure an advantage for Styz. He makes strong use of early game powerhouse jungle champions with execute abilities to make LGD’s dragon control possible. Jungle bans are far and away the most popular against LGD, with 15 Elise bans and 12 Lee Sin bans used to keep those champions from Quan’s grasp.
Despite the success and limelight Quan, Styz, and Pyl have accumulated, Rena in the mid lane is the solid rock of the team. He has played a wide variety of lane bully champions and is too versatile to ban out. He also boasts the team’s highest KDA ratio at 3.7. Rena was our player to watch on LGD at the beginning of the season, and that hasn’t changed.
NOT EXACTLY PLANNED
If LGD has a vice grip on the early game, the question is how they’ve managed to go wrong. The answer lies in their teamfight coordination, which is typically a staple of Chinese teams. When LGD has had successful late games, it's through split-pushing and skirmishes, but few top teams will let that slide, as OMG and Edward Gaming are both praised for their 5v5 coordination and group early to prevent disadvantageous catches. Then, even if LGD does split push, poor vision control in later stages of a game will see Styz caught out time and again. But why did LGD start losing now and not earlier? The answer lies in patch changes. What is Broken Can Be Reforged
As stated before, jungle bans are the most common bans against LGD, but that wasn't always the case. Though LPL has now caught up to Patch 4.4, it started considerably behind the rest of the competitive world on Patch 3.16, which meant one key champion was a powerful asset for LGD in particular. Riven didn't receive any of her important early-game damage tweaks until Patch 4.1, and until that patch hit LPL servers, Riven was banned in all but two games against LGD, and in those games, the reason was clear.
In the initial set against iG, Star's Riven was let through in both games. In the first, he steamrolled the 1v1 which left iG's PDD with a score of 0/3/0 by the time the team surrendered, and in the second game, an attempt to force Star to fall behind in a 2v1 failed when he managed to 1v3 the bottom lane just before a second surrender. The third time Star played Riven was after the Patch 4.1 and 4.2 changes went through, and that game also resulted in a surrender—this time, on the part of LGD.
Without Riven and on the more common tanky top laners like Shyvana, Star hasn't had the same impact. To put this in some perspective, his KDA ratio on Riven is 12.5, but his overall KDA ratio is only 2.8. His failure to peel successfully is likely one of the reasons Styz favors the self-sufficiency of Caitlyn and Ezreal so heavily. Yet this isn't the only reason the Riven nerf is so fundamental in understanding LGD's recent decline.
The champion pool
After qualifying through the Tencent Games Arena Grand Prix, LGD has not failed to impress. They rose to third place, won the early game against OMG, and managed to take a game off EDG. The team seems to have the strongest early dragon control in LPL, and Styz's rising talent cannot be denied even in a region where powerful AD carries seem easy to come by. It appears, however, that their weaknesses lie in late game teamfight coordination and a dependency on getting specific champion picks. If they can fix these factors, LGD is more than capable of rising to overtake even OMG. In the meantime, they still have much they can learn from the top teams.