By the Numbers: ADCs at Worlds
Riot·10/2/2014, 6:15:29 PM·2 votes·21,193 views
Protect the Doublelift. Raise the Puppy (Uzi). The Tristana and three supports deathball. Split push Vayne. AD Carries and marksmen champions are often included in any sort of team composition because they deal heavy amounts of consistent damage. While shoutcasters and analysts can look at a player's general gameplay to determine his effectiveness, we've decided to look at something more concrete, damage dealt to champions.
Meanwhile, poke is essential for whittling down defenders' health bars and forcing them off objectives. If your poke is effective, then teamfights generally start with your team healthier than your opposition. And lastly, teamfights are one aspect of the game where ADC's shine since they're the main damage dealers after all the upfront burst damage. The most effective ADC's seem to always kill everything and come out alive at the end of the fight.
So which ADC's have performed the best so far at Worlds? We decided to examine a few examples of key outliers.
Note: We're going to try our best to control for game length and measure damage dealt to champions per minute (DPM), otherwise longer games give players more opportunities to deal damage to champions!
Those above the line have DPM values greater than DTM values. Each point is an individual game.
Not only is his Kog'Maw at the top of the DPM pairings, but his Corki is no slouch either. Deft’s Corki owns the single highest game differential with his beatdown of LMQ: a 698 differential between DPM and DTM, and a Worlds game-high of 1204 DPM. If he can dominate on a late-game monster like Kog’Maw, who takes some time to ramp up, it makes sense why he can be so good on a mid-game champion like Corki. Between Phosphorous Bomb and Missile Barrage, Deft has even more skillshots to abuse his opponents with.
Who dealt the least damage at Worlds? The two wildcard ADC’s were expected to be at the bottom of the totem pole in DPM, but the key notable here is actually Tabzz. Despite being on a better performing team than Candy's SK Gaming, Tabzz’ DPM is only 431; the upside is that he has the lowest DTM out of the ADC's (362).
However, Royal Club's Uzi is the complete opposite; he eats a ton of damage because he plays hyper-aggressive. Uzi's 491 DTM is the worst of all ADC's except for CandyPanda, but he deals so much damage that he ranks third, behind only Deft and Imp, for differential between DPM and DTM. So was Tabzz playing too passively? Or was he simply dying before he could deal any damage?
Let's try to answer the question right here. Positioning well so you don't get immediately killed off is about treading a line between calculated aggression and recklessness. Looking at DTM compared with deaths, we find that Uzi's DTM per death is 61.4 compared to Tabzz at 36.3. This means Uzi is able to handle roughly 75% more DTM before dying compared to Tabzz, a combination of fearless positioning and great support from his team (how else are you going to stay alive without some heals and shields?).
Uzi also had fewer deaths than Tabzz, so despite all the damage taken, he came out alive more often than not. This suggests that Tabzz was indeed playing passively, either not expecting or receiving support from his teammates. And if we look at the weakest ADC's in the graph, we find the three Group A ADC's not named Imp. Samsung White massacred their group, which means the high amount of deaths will significantly decrease DTM values; so it’s not like Tabzz was dying instantly either.
We've now examined a few of the best carries and a couple underperformers, but there's still one name we haven't mentioned. EDG's Namei was one of the most hyped carries coming into Worlds, but did he live up to expectations? Some fans were disappointed by his gameplay, but 4th highest DPM says otherwise. We'll take a more in-depth look next week in By the Numbers.
Defining Damage Dealt to Champions
How does LoL calculate damage dealt to champion? It comes in a few forms: trading attacks in lane, poking out enemies with ranged abilities, and attacking while kiting in teamfights (and the occasional glancing hit of Ezreal's Arcane Barrage while at your fountain). If you trade well in lane, the opponent is forced to last-hit under his own tower and may even be forced to recall depending on his health, which leads to more missed creeps. Hindering your opponent's development can be just as important as farming yourself up to key items.
Meanwhile, poke is essential for whittling down defenders' health bars and forcing them off objectives. If your poke is effective, then teamfights generally start with your team healthier than your opposition. And lastly, teamfights are one aspect of the game where ADC's shine since they're the main damage dealers after all the upfront burst damage. The most effective ADC's seem to always kill everything and come out alive at the end of the fight.
So which ADC's have performed the best so far at Worlds? We decided to examine a few examples of key outliers.
Note: We're going to try our best to control for game length and measure damage dealt to champions per minute (DPM), otherwise longer games give players more opportunities to deal damage to champions!
Tons of Damage
Every player has a particular signature champion. Some dominate on a multitude of them. While some fans were wowed by Uzi’s aggressive Tristana play (978 DPM over 2 games), there was one other notable performance from the group stage that deserves mention as well. The Uzi-Tristana pairing eclipsed every other player-champion duo except one, Deft's Kog'Maw (990 DPM over 2 games). Deft is not considered as the strongest player in lane, but he makes up for it everywhere else in spades. Deft’s accuracy with skillshots is impeccable (he is well-known for being an adept Ezreal player). And his solid positioning in teamfights is backed up by his insane damage output
Damage where?
Who dealt the least damage at Worlds? The two wildcard ADC’s were expected to be at the bottom of the totem pole in DPM, but the key notable here is actually Tabzz. Despite being on a better performing team than Candy's SK Gaming, Tabzz’ DPM is only 431; the upside is that he has the lowest DTM out of the ADC's (362).
However, Royal Club's Uzi is the complete opposite; he eats a ton of damage because he plays hyper-aggressive. Uzi's 491 DTM is the worst of all ADC's except for CandyPanda, but he deals so much damage that he ranks third, behind only Deft and Imp, for differential between DPM and DTM. So was Tabzz playing too passively? Or was he simply dying before he could deal any damage?
Let's try to answer the question right here. Positioning well so you don't get immediately killed off is about treading a line between calculated aggression and recklessness. Looking at DTM compared with deaths, we find that Uzi's DTM per death is 61.4 compared to Tabzz at 36.3. This means Uzi is able to handle roughly 75% more DTM before dying compared to Tabzz, a combination of fearless positioning and great support from his team (how else are you going to stay alive without some heals and shields?).
Uzi also had fewer deaths than Tabzz, so despite all the damage taken, he came out alive more often than not. This suggests that Tabzz was indeed playing passively, either not expecting or receiving support from his teammates. And if we look at the weakest ADC's in the graph, we find the three Group A ADC's not named Imp. Samsung White massacred their group, which means the high amount of deaths will significantly decrease DTM values; so it’s not like Tabzz was dying instantly either.
We've now examined a few of the best carries and a couple underperformers, but there's still one name we haven't mentioned. EDG's Namei was one of the most hyped carries coming into Worlds, but did he live up to expectations? Some fans were disappointed by his gameplay, but 4th highest DPM says otherwise. We'll take a more in-depth look next week in By the Numbers.
