Fnatical Impulses: NA and EU LCS Early-Game Kills, Deaths, and Gold Differentials

TL;DR – Key Highlights

FIGHT FREQUENCY
Team Impulse fights the most in the first 15 minutes in the NA LCS.
Fnatic fights the most in the first 15 minutes in the EU LCS.

COMBAT +/-
Dignitas has the best early-game combat +/- in the NA LCS.
Fnatic has the best early-game combat +/- in the EU LCS.

GOLD +/-
Team SoloMid has the best 15-minute gold +/- in the NA LCS.
Fnatic has the best 15-minute gold +/- in the EU LCS.

Bonus: See the end of the article for each team’s target selection and death distribution in the first 15 minutes.

Introduction

The first 15 minutes of a game can make or break the outcome, whether a team is trying to build a snowballing gold lead or just buy themselves time to scale up for team fights. Some teams are more willing to fight in the early game, and some come out of the first 15 minutes stronger than others.

The tables below show team plus/minuses for pre-15-minute kills and deaths, alongside average 15-minute gold differentials. I’ve highlighted some of the strongest and weakest performances within each region.

Following the summary tables, you’ll find charts that show the breakdown of pre-15-minute kills (by target) and deaths for each NA and EU LCS team.

All numbers are based on Weeks 1 to 5 of the 2015 Summer split, which includes 10 games played for each team. Similar data for the LCK and LMS is available as well, if enough people are interested in seeing it.

More stats on teams, players, and champions are available at OraclesElixir.com.

Plus/Minus and Gold Differential

North American LCS

Dignitas is dominating early fights, with +11 KD at 15 minutes, but it hasn’t translated into the most meaningful gold leads: they have only the fourth-best gold +/- at 15 minutes. Team SoloMid and Team Liquid have been much more efficient about using their +5 KDs to generate average 15-minute gold leads of over 1,000.

Counter Logic Gaming has been slipping in their early-game execution of late, and has an even KD +/- at 15 minutes, though they’re maintaining a modest gold +/-.

Team Impulse does the most fighting in the early game, with 66 kills+deaths in the first 15 minutes of their first 10 games, taking 36 of those kills for themselves.

Cloud9 is really struggling to keep themselves alive in the early going, but one way or another they’re holding their gold deficits to relatively reasonable levels, especially when compared to the massive holes Team 8 and Enemy are finding themselves in.

European LCS

Fnatic were having a rougher go in the first few weeks, but they’re back to their old patterns of running rough-shod all over their opponents in the laning phase. Their +15 KD at 15 minutes is the highest in NA or EU, and it comes on the back of a whopping 45 per-15-minute kills. Those kills are translating into average gold leads of nearly 1,600.

H2K is doing their best to keep pace with Fnatic, with a +14 KD and +1,176 gold at 15 minutes.

Gambit Gaming and SK Gaming are two different sides of a very interesting coin. GMB has a -9 KD at 15 minutes, but is averaging a fairly respectable 388 gold. Meanwhile, SK has a +2 KD at 15 minutes, but the third-worst average gold differential in the league.

Copenhagen Wolves and Elements sit at the low of end of early-game performance.

Bonus: Target Selection and Death Distribution

The charts below count a) the number of kills for each team in the first 15 minutes, separated out by the target of each kill, and b) the number of deaths for each team in the first 15 minutes, separated out by who died.

Note that kills represent the victim, not the killer. (In other words, the first chart doesn’t say that Balls has earned 6 kills; it says that Cloud9 has killed the opposing Top laner 6 times.)

NA LCS

Highlights:

• CLG has killed the opposing Top laner 12 times in the first 15 minutes of their games, but has only killed the opposing Mid laner once.
• TSM has targeted the opposing Mid laner with 9 of their 23 pre-15 kills, which is 39%. Yes, this team is Bjergsen-centric.
• Of NME‘s 32 pre-15 deaths, 23 of those were Flaresz and Bodydrop.
• Keane has surrendered 8 of Gravity‘s 21 pre-15 deaths so far, which is 38%.
• Quas is by far the favourite target of Team Liquid‘s opponents in the first 15 minutes.
• Santorin has never died in the first 15 minutes of a game so far this split.

EU LCS

Highlights:

• Gambit has the fewest pre-15 kills in the EU LCS, and 42% of their kills have targeted the opposing Top laner. Copenhagen Wolves and Elements follow a similar pattern.
• H2K gets a lot more of their kills on the opposing duo lane than most other teams.
• Origen loves killing opposing Junglers, targeting 28% of their pre-15 kills at that position.
• Fnatic‘s duo lane has only given up a combined 4 deaths in the first 15 minutes of games, or 13% of the team’s total. That represents a +14 KD at 15 minutes for Rekkles and YellOwStaR.