Any debate about the best player in the NA LCS tends to include Team Solo Mid’s Bjergsen, the Danish import who came over at the start of the 2014 season to replace TSM’s owner, Reginald.
But aside from being a flashy playmaker on North America’s most popular team, what claim can Bjergsen make to the “best player” title? Let’s take a look at his 2015 spring split statistics so far (weeks 1 to 7).
KDA Ratio
Bjergsen’s Kills/Deaths/Assists ratio of 7.4 is best in the NA LCSamong starters. (Team Liquid’s 17-year-old substitute, Keith, has a 7.8 KDA, but he has only played 6 games with the team.)
Bjergsen’s 82 kills are tied with CLG’s midlaner Link for second in NA, behind his TSM teammate WildTurtle’s 87.
Among players who have been in all 14 of their team’s games, Bjergsen’s 1.8 deaths per game is 5th best. (Mash, Sneaky, Meteos, and LemonNation are the only players to die less often than Bjergsen, and three of those players are on Cloud9, which has the lowest combined kills average in the league.)
| WIN/LOSS | KILLS | DEATHS | ASSISTS | KDA |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| OVERALL | 82 | 25 | 102 | 7.4 |
| Win | 72 | 16 | 80 | 9.5 |
| Loss | 10 | 9 | 22 | 3.6 |
In TSM wins, Bjergsen’s KDA skyrockets to 9.5, while in the team’s three losses, he’s taken home only a 3.6 KDA.
Kill Participation
Averaged across all of TSM’s games, Bjergsen is in on 80.2% of TSM’s kills, 6th-best in the NA LCS and 4th-best among starters. (WFX’s Imagine and Gleeb top the charts at 90.8% and 83.7%, respectively, but neither is currently on the roster.)
This is especially impressive considering that mid-laners average the second-lowest Kill Participation of all five positions, at 69.3%, higher only than the top-laners’ 64.3%. (For comparison, support players have the highest average kill participation at 75.0%.)
Laning Phase: Gold @ 10 Minutes
Bjergsen doesn’t lose lane. Ever.
On average, Bjergsen is up by more than 400 gold at 10 minutes. Even in TSM’s losses, Bjergsen generally wins his lane, being up by approximately 230 gold at 10 minutes, on average.
Bjergsen has never been behind in gold at 10 minutes, and there has only been one game where Bjergsen was going even in gold: the week 6 loss to Team Impulse, where he played Leblanc into XiaoWeiXiao’s Kassadin. Interestingly, as a team TSM was up 900 gold at 10 minutes in that game, thanks mostly to advantages on Santorin (400 up vs. Rush) and Lustboy (300 up vs. Adrian).
Gold per Minute
Using lolesports.com’s cumulative gold per minute, Bjergsen ranks 2nd in North America among mid laners and 7th overall, beaten out by five ADCs and XiaoWeiXiao.
However, when averaging gold per minute across games, Bjergsen moves up to 1st among mids and fourth overall, behind only DoubleLift, WildTurtle, and Keith.
| PLAYER | TOTAL GPM | AVERAGE GPM | AVERAGE GAME LENGTH |
|---|---|---|---|
| DoubleLift | 432.2 | 436.2 | 37.8 |
| WildTurtle | 427.1 | 426.3 | 37.6 |
| Keith | 416.1 | 414.6 | 43 |
| Bjergsen | 407.1 | 409.6 | 37.6 |
| Sneaky | 406.8 | 407.2 | 36.4 |
| Cop | 412.1 | 407 | 40.2 |
| XiaoWeiXiao | 407.9 | 406.1 | 36.9 |
| Link | 390.2 | 396.9 | 37.8 |
| Apollo | 376.1 | 374.5 | 36.9 |
| Altec | 374.0 | 373.8 | 37.3 |
Looking more closely at gold-per-minute differences between Bjergsen and XiaoWeiXiao, we see that XWX’s GPM varies widely between his wins (448.4 average GPM) and his losses (349.7 average GPM). Bjergsen’s average GPM in wins is lower than XWX’s (420.9), but in TSM losses it’s higher (368.2). This suggests that XWX has been more snowbally.
Gold Share
Bjergsen’s average gold share is 24.9%, tied for second among mid laners behind the farm-happy XiaoWeiXiao’s gargantuan 26.7% of team gold. Higher gold share generally means greater importance to the team’s success. Bjergsen’s high gold share shows that he isn’t just benefitting from team success; he’s playing a central role in those successes.
Damage-to-Champions Share
A significant burden for the team’s team-fight success is placed on Bjergsen’s shoulders. Bjergsen averages a whopping 35.3% of TSM’s damage to champions, highest in the NA LCS. In TSM’s wins, that number climbs to 36.8%, second only to Sneaky’s 40.2% share in Cloud9’s losses.
| WINS/LOSSES | DYRUS | SANTORIN | BJERGSEN | WILDTURTLE | LUSTBOY |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| OVERALL | 17.3% | 11.3% | 35.3% | 29.7% | 6.4% |
| Wins | 16.0% | 10.9% | 36.8% | 30.2% | 6.2% |
| Losses | 21.9% | 13.1% | 29.9% | 27.8% | 7.2% |
In the three losses TSM has suffered, Bjergsen contributed only 29.9% of team damage, only the 8th-highest damage share during losses in the NA LCS. These low contributions came while playing Leblanc and Cassiopeia, so the low damage can’t be attributed to playing supportive champions, either.
WildTurtle’s damage share also decreased in TSM losses (from 30.2% to 27.8%), with Dyrus’ and Santorin’s contributions accounting for larger shares.
Share of Damage Taken
On average, Bjergsen takes 17.3% of his team’s damage, third-lowest among starting mid laners. Compare that to FeniX’s 19.3% and Link’s 19.1%. Bjergsen clearly isn’t throwing himself into the fray needlessly and suffering hits he doesn’t need to take.
Summary / TL;DR
When we put together the statistics on Bjergsen’s incredible laning prowess, his central role in his team’s offensive output, his league-leading KDA, his high gold share, and his low share of damage taken, the stats definitely support the claim that Bjergsen may be North America’s best.
Of course, stats don’t tell the whole story, so feel free to continue the debate in the comments!
I also welcome requests for profiles of other players, teams, or statistics.
