Why Mor Dies More

Hongwei “Mor” Zhang, LMQ iBuyPower’s support player, has received a lot of community flack for a high number of deaths. And in fact, if you look at the numbers, Mor did indeed have the highest number of deaths for a support during the Summer split. But in the context of his role on LMQ and the style they prefer to play, Mor’s large number of deaths aren’t surprising. Chinese teams tend to wrack up more deaths than those in other leagues, and given that supports often function as initiators in the North American LCS, Mor is going to bear the brunt of the death timer in LMQ’s hybrid style.

GREY WORLD

Complexity’s Jonathan “Westrice” Nguyen has died more than any other participant in the North American LCS during the 2014 Summer split at 102. Yet after Complexity’s frequently focused top laner, no one has seen the grey screen more often than LMQ iBuyPower’s Mor, at 94 deaths. In the context of the North American LCS, that might seem like a lot, but in the context of the average solo queue game, it only stacks up to an average of 3.57 deaths a pop. In the Chinese 2014 LoL Pro League, the average number of total deaths per game was 34.15, meaning that, all players created equally, the average number of deaths per player per game was 3.42. This number is just below Mor’s average and doesn’t even account for the high rollers in LPL. Hou “DianGun” Guoyu of Young Glory often placed himself in the line of fire for his team in order to get kills of his own and ended the split with a total of 150 deaths, amounting to 5.36 per game. Yet DianGun is often considered the bright spot of his team. In YG’s final best of two set against OMG, a team many thought would clinch the regular season first place since only the seventh place team stood in their way, DianGun outperformed Yu “Coo1” Jiajun. Coo1 has long had the reputation of a strong playmaker for his team with talents nearly unrivaled in the mid lane. Yet DianGun counter-picked his Twisted Fate with Veigar and used his Event Horizon to ruin Coo1’s destiny gates and win his team the game. DianGun ended the split not only with the most deaths in LPL, but also with the most MVP points for Young Glory. When LPL teams play, they favor high-risk, high-reward strategies focused on constant team fighting. They do not hesitate to pick fights around objectives and are willing to give up kill gold for a larger gain like a dragon or a tower. LMQ plays very similarly, given that they have their roots in LPL, and they’ve had a great deal of success with this style. It has taken many an LCS team by surprise and allowed them to force their way to second place this split.

SUPPORTS SUFFER IN SILENCE

When one considers Yu “XiaoWeiXiao” Xian’s paltry 53 deaths by comparison and the fact that the team’s jungler, Zhou “NoName” Qilin, has the second highest amount of deaths on the team at 79, the argument that Mor dies because he hails from the LPL tradition seems to fall short. While Mor dies more than any other support player in the North American LCS, XiaoWeiXiao has kept his death count to the middle of the pack for mid laners, and Noname, though he still has the most deaths of any NA LCS jungler, has 15 fewer total deaths than Mor. If one watched the LPL Summer Playoffs in which StarHorn Royal Club, OMG, and LGD Gaming represented three of four teams in attendance, it might seem as if LPL supports die frequently as well. Yet in LPL, Pyl of LGD Gaming and Zero of StarHorn Royal Club are the only support players on their teams that also have more deaths than any other player on their team (the sum total of deaths between OMG’s Dada7 and Cloud is equal to Drug’s total deaths at 98). Zero has died 91 times during the regular season, while Pyl, the fourth place LPL team’s support player, fell a whopping 133 times. In general, however, LPL supports die with a lower frequency. Edward Gaming’s Fzzf, for example, has the second lowest amount of deaths on EDG at 69 and has been given the nickname “KDA Curly” for his efforts. Koro1, the team’s top laner, leads EDG’s death count at 82. What it comes down to for LPL is that the player most often leading the charge in a fight picks up the most deaths. The roles with the highest deaths on LPL teams tend to be junglers who often force very early skirmishes, and they also favor the likes of Jarvan IV for his powerful area of effect initiation tool in the late game. Only two supports serve as the primary initiators for their teams in LPL, and it’s no coincidence that they also have the highest death counts for their teams. Yet in the NA LCS, a high death count on a support player is much more common. Half of LCS teams have a support player with the highest number of deaths on the team. This number increases to six of eight LCS teams if you consider that the sum total of deaths for Team SoloMid’s Gleebglarbu and Lustboy is equal to Dyrus’ 61 and that the sum of Aphromoo’s and Babyeator’s deaths is 73, greater than Seraph’s 68. When one considers who these support players are, it makes a lot more sense. Krepo, Xpecial, Mor, KiWiKiD, and Aphromoo especially all take the initiative for their teams to start fights over objectives. They are the masters of the Thresh hook, the lords of the Glacial Fissure; they know what it means to “take one for the team.” When a player starts a fight or, in many cases, places himself physically in harm’s way for the sake of his teammates, he’s going to die mor(e). On average, support players in the NA LCS are responsible for 23.59% of their team’s deaths. Mor’s 25.9% only amounts to a total of eight additional deaths for the entire split.

TWO WAYS CONVERGE

LMQ iBuyPower has made the role of a support initiator truly their own. During their LPL stint, Mor was already inclined toward this style, but in the North American LCS it’s fully embraced by nearly six of eight teams. This means he, like other NA support players, will be responsible for a higher proportion of his team’s deaths, and since LMQ iBuyPower dies a lot anyway - in addition to coming in second place in wins, LMQ also holds the second most deaths of the split - Mor will look much worse for wear. An in-game death isn’t always a bad thing if your team can achieve greater rewards for your sacrifice. LMQ isn’t afraid to drop casualties to secure larger leads, and that’s part of what makes them so potent. If you feel inclined to criticize them for their tendencies, remember that the KT Arrows, winners of the 2014 Champions Summer, averaged 12.69 deaths per game prior to the finals. LMQ’s 12.96 isn’t far off. A special thank you to Esportspedia for providing data on North American LCS player death count. LPL data are taken from TGA

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