A CS differential – A look at CS’ing at the World Championship (1/7)

With the Season 5 League of Legends World Championship in our sights, it might be interesting to take a brief look at the cs numbers across the different regions and see what this entails for the matches coming up. Why? Because being able to cs in high level games is what will give us some factual data to compare teams by despite them not having played each other yet. The optimal cs’ing numbers are generaly seen as 10 cs per minute, with the exception of 10 minutes, where 90 cs is considered optimal (due to minions only spawning at 01:30). When taking a look at these numbers it is important to compare the lane matchups and if a lane swap goes through, because free farm lanes obviously should mean a near perfect cs score. Melee champions in a matchup versus ranged champions generaly have a harder time, the vice versa is quite obvious. Why else is cs’ing important? Because it points out to a mechanical aspect of the game, people being able to pressure their opponent and fight while still maintaining a high cs number will have an edge, and since cs are the only non-certain source of gold in League (Champions respawn, jungle camps do too, turrets give a predetermined amount of gold to the team, so does baron) missing a cs means u miss gold, and the discrepancy between laners can be measured in the difference in cs since, outside of fighting, this is their main income.

For easy reading, the list will only take a look at the first placed team from each region. And for the fun, we’ll also add in the wildcards.

The first article will go into NA and EU LCS 1st place teams, Fnatic and CLG.

The other comparisons and general conclusion will follow in the coming weeks.

North America: CLG (and TSM)

Data taken from NA LCS Finals versus Team Solo Mid.

GAME 1 Data: Game Duration: 39:09 – Winner: CLG

Killscore: 17 – 3*

(*colors indicate side)

In the early game it’s clear that the focus of CLG’s laneswap is on Doublelift, making his 12 cs difference a very real and tangible effect of the laneswap. Dyrus however, succeeded in stabilising his cs, dispite being put against the Yasuo counter pick later on. The only one creeping up ahead is Bjergsen, who, with the relative calm in the midlane during the laneswap was able to get a 16 cs lead on Pobelter. 

After reswapping and going to standard lanes, the cs difference between Pobelter and Bjergsen disappears, Dyrus manages to keep up his cs’ing against Zion, and the bottom lane difference is swapped to the TSM botlane. Both junglers are farming evenly all through the early and mid game.

The midgame means a clear mismatch in power for the toplane, where Zion manages to snowball the pressure difference into cs difference and gets 20+ creeps ahead of Dyrus. Santorins nidalee makes is easier for him to farm compared to the gragas from Xmithie, their cs difference is real but neglectable compared to what they bring to their teams. A tank will almost never need the same amount of gold to be usefull, which isn’t true for a glasscannon AP Nidalee. Bjergsen and Pobelter keep on top of the cs list, and stay relatively even throughout the whole game up untill the end. Turtle still maintains his cs difference compared to Doublelift, but this won’t last. 

After 20 minutes the toplane from CLG snowballs out of hand, resulting in a clear difference of cs of 37 by 30 minutes. Both jungle and mid stays pretty even, but doublelift manages to increase his cs’ing and overtakes Turtle for the first time since the early game. At the end of the game, 39:09 minutes in, neighter of the teams reaches close to the 400 cs mark, and some players havn’t even crossed the 300 cs mark.

GAME 2 Data: Game Duration: 31:47  – Winner: CLG

Killscore: 15 – 27

The laneswap once again goes pretty even for the toplaners, although Xmithie and Pobelter manage to get ahead just a little bit. The botlanes are pretty even overall and there is no significant difference anywhere yet.

The midgame is where the differences in cs start mounting, Dyrus is starting to fall behind in the unfavourable matchup, and Bjergsen on a meele champion (Yasuo) is having problems against Viktor’s range. Turtle and doublelift are still going even, but Xmithie is a bit more efficient at clearing then the Gragas of Santorin.

After 15 minutes Dyrus is still behind at around 10 cs, Bjergsen is a full 39 cs behind on Pobelter and only Wildturtle is out-cs’ing his opponent.

Near the end of the game, all lanes of TSM are behind on cs,  notable Bjergsen is running 66 cs behind on Pobelter, and only turtle is doing ok with a 2 cs discrepancy. Only one person (Pobelter) is nearing 300 cs at 30 minutes, the rest are far away from this.

GAME 3 Data: Game Duration 34:18 – Winner: CLG

Killscore 25 – 9

This is the first game where there is no laneswap, and also the first game where Dyrus manages to outfarm his opponent consistently. Bjergsen again in troubles against the ranged Viktor of Pobelter, falls behind with 10 cs by 10 minutes. Wildturtle falls behind 8 cs. The junglers remain pretty much even early in the game.

At the start of midgame Dyrus is 33 cs up on Zion, and Bjergsen has managed to keep up with Pobelter, who maintains a 10 cs lead. Turtle has fallen behind a little more, from 8 cs down to 13, both the junglers are pretty much even.

At 20 minutes, Dyrus has increased his lead to almost 50 cs, where as the rest of his team consistently falls behind, -25 cs for Bjergsen, -5 cs for Wildturtle, Xmithie and Santorin are dead even.

Nearing the end of the game, Dyrus has 77 cs more then Zion, Xmithie has a small 10 cs lead, and Bjergsen has maintained his 10 cs discrepancy in the negative sense. Doublelift is 22 cs up on Wildturtle.

At the end of the game, only Dyrus (249 cs) is anywhere near the 300 cs cap, No one else is even near it. 

Series Average CS – Average game time:

35: 45

Conclusions:

Overall, Dyrus and Zion are pretty close in cs’ing, both of them having a very good game, and both having minor games. Consistency is lost here. Both junglers maintain a pretty solid and consistent farming pattern, and are evenly matched. Bjergsen is doing fine in lane, but after the laning phase ends, he seems to lose the capacity of farming and falls behind relatively quickly and averages a 24 cs differency over the 3 series at the end of the game compared to Pobelter, who does keep up his cs out of the lane. Both Wildturtle and Doublelift are cs’ing ok, but neighter of them are at the perfect expected cs score.

Overall, the NA scene seems to be lacking the appreciation for cs and the capacity of farming during the rotations and objective dances. For worlds this might spell troubles, because fighting with a lower income and playing at lower economy is not good when facing (mostly) better teams.

Let’s hope the bootcamps in Korea pay of and the mechanical skills from both of these teams are improved when  they get to Paris for the gauntlet.