Jatt explains how you beat a team with five Dragons
One of the biggest changes heading into the 2015 competitive season was the concept of a stacking Dragon buff. The idea of it being to give teams an alternate way to win the game. By stacking five Dragons, the cumulative buff would be so powerful that victory would be all but assured. Just as a refresher, here is exactly what each Dragon buff grants.
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The important thing to note, insofar as combat effectiveness is concerned, is that Dragon buffs No. 1, No. 3, and No. 5 hold the most importance.
Now, with nearly a full year of games under our belt, it’s time to look back at Aspect of the Dragon. We analyzed 951 games (every game from EU LCS, NA LCS, LCK, and LMS) to find these statistics. Of those 951 games, five Dragons were achieved 123 times, a 12.9% occurrence rate. Within those 123 games where Aspect of the Dragon was achieved, the team won 110 times (89.4% win rate).
This means that 13 times out of 951 games (1.37%), a team achieved Aspect of the Dragon and lost. This article is about those games, the 1%. What does it take for a team to overcome an opponent with five Dragons? Let’s find out.
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As you can see there is a relatively even spread of teams overcoming Aspect of the Dragon. First I wanted to compare some baseline statistics of the five Dragon games where the Aspect team won vs. when the Aspect team lost.
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It’s clear that in order for a team to overcome Aspect of the Dragon, they need to drag out the game to late game. Even more evident, if a team can get Dragons and Barons of their own, their chances of winning rise GREATLY.
From looking at the 13 games in which it happened, I was able to distil four conditions that increase the chances of a team losing despite achieving Aspect of the Dragon.
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All of the comebacks had a combination of these factors that led to the upset. In only 2 out of 13 games, a team was able to win without picking up a single Dragon of their own. In both of those instances that team had AP Kog’maw, which allowed them great hyperscaling and also allowed them to win fights before they began. Additionally, there are only 2 games out of 13 in which a team won without Baron. Baron gives a large amount of gold and also denies the team with Aspect of the Dragon the ability to push their ever-growing advantage. As an example of the value of even one dragon, let’s take a closer look at CJ Entus’s victory over SKT.
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Late game, “Dragon denial” becomes incredibly important thanks to the straight stat gain you can get from just the first Dragon. In a recent upset win by CJ Entus over SK Telecom, CJ was gaining 2450 gold worth of stats just from their first dragon. That, combined with their hyper-scaling composition, allowed them to beat SKT in a pivotal fight around the Dragon pit and rush to end the game. I looked at all 13 games in depth and placed each of them into a category:
- Giving up gold advantages for Dragon trades
- Vs. a strong poke composition that violates your engagement ranges
- Getting caught with five Dragons, or getting hyper-scaled on by the opponent
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These four games are all examples of the team achieving five Dragons in spite of their disadvantages in the game. Instead of acting as a win condition, Dragon acted as a way for them to stall out the game and remain competitive. In the end, five Dragons cannot always overcome large gold deficits.
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These four games are examples of poke compositions negating some of the strengths of a five Dragon team. Early in the spring split Jin Air was known for playing extremely long games that were devoid of meaningful team fights. In their incredibly long and drawn out games, the three minutes of power that aspect of the Dragon granted was simply not enough to push a meaningful advantage. This group also contains both of the AP Kog’Maw games where a team won without getting a single dragon. This also displays the raw power of a late game AP Kog.
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And here are the rest. These games are excellent examples of either the straight up power of a late-game team composition (in CJ vs. SKT and KT vs. KOO), or how the element of chaos can drastically alter the results of a game.
With huge gold totals on both sides and most people sitting at max items, anyone can die at any time. Even with the power of Aspect of the Dragon, since it offers no defensive stats, being caught out of position can still lead to defeat. That was the main cause of these games outcomes.
While a team losing with Aspect of the Dragon is an incredibly rare occurrence, it’s fascinating to me the ways in which the Dragon buff can be defeated. Draw out the game, keep your farm up, sneak objectives, and stay calm and collected in the late game. Anything is possible. Even if it only happens 1.37% of the time.
