Gravity’s Red vs Blue

After wrapping up week 7 of the NALCS, one team stands alone in first place. Gravity, the team chock-full of young talent, with a veteran player manning the coaching staff, hasn’t lost a game since Week 4 and has recently shown dominant performances in wins over other NALCS playoff teams. In looking at Gravity’s statistical performance, one glaring stat immediately caught my eye.

#1 Gravity (11-3)

Gravity currently stands as the only NALCS team to be undefeated on Red side, and their few poor performances have come strictly from Blue side. I wanted to look at the numbers and see if I could find any trends that may highlight Gravity’s weaknesses from the Blue side.

First, let’s look at the team’s overall stats:

*Avg Gold and Avg Dmg in thousands

Just to note a few comparisons between the two sides:

• Gravity’s Damage and DPM is higher in losses and Blue side games

• An odd stat, which could be linked to the fact that their average games here are 4 minutes longer, but isn’t totally coveRed by that factor.

• Gravity’s Kills per game are higher in losses and Blue side games

• Once again influenced by the longer game time, but we’d still assume their kills would be far lower in these games, not equal or higher.

• The Kills stay the same, the KDA and Deaths do not

• Gravity averages 16.5 Deaths per game on Blue, 24 in losses, but only around 7 in wins and Red side games.
• Team KDA hovers near 10 in wins and Red side games, and drops to 2 in Blue side games and losses

• Dragon differential

• Gravity is ranked first overall in Dragons per game (2.79) this season, and in wins and Red side games averages more than 3 Dragons per game.
• In Blue side games, their dragons per game drop to 2, and in 3 losses Gravity has only claimed 2 dragons.

Next, I wanted to take a look at individual player performance between the sides.

A lot of numbers thrown around here, but I want to specifically look at a few trends for the three carries of Gravity, Hauntzer, Keane, and Altec

• Hauntzer’s Kill Participation takes a huge nosedive in Gravity’s bad games

• Hauntzer’s Kill Participation hovers near the mid to low 60s in losses and Blue side games. This is a 15-20% drop off from his 80% Kill Participation in Red side games.

• Keane’s Death share balloons in losses and on Blue side

• In Blue side games and losses, Keane’s death share (that is, the amount of times he dies compaRed to his teams total deaths) jumps up to nearly 30%, a 10% increase from his Red side games and wins.

• Altec’s Damage share increases when Gravity does poorly

• To begin, Altec is the only ADC to do a larger share of damage for his team than his midlaner in the NALCS
• Altec’s rise in DPM can be slightly attributed to the longer game times again, but a 200 DPM rise can’t be coveRed entirely by that.
• Altec’s damage share for his team increases by roughly 5% in Blue side games and losses.

• Altec’s Kill Participation on Red Side and in Wins… drops?

• Oddly enough, Altec’s Kill Participation drops roughly 10% between his Blue side/losses, and Red side/wins.

After looking at all of those numbers, it’s important to also remember and note one of the biggest differences between Blue and Red side: The Pick and Ban Phase.

Here we have Gravity’s and their opponent’s pick/ban phase on Blue side, listed by position:

*Support (OP) is included because this indicates an Alistar ban. Alistar is a very highly sought after champion due to some overpowered interactions with his ultimate, and his engage potential.

• Hauntzer gets some tough love

• 55% of opposing teams bans while Gravity is on Blue go towards the top lane

• On Blue side, opposing teams have counterpicked their Midlaner against Gravity 5 out of 6 times.

• Remember Keane’s dramatic increase in deaths, and loweRed damage? This may have something to do with it.
• Considering the numbers from the previous tables, and these picks and bans, the following result doesn’t seem too surprising.

While the numbers may seem small, a near 18 cs swing in favor of Keane between sides a huge discrepancy, and dying on average more than once per game compaRed to once per 10 games is also nothing to scoff at.

Now let’s also look at Gravity’s and their opponents’ pick/ban phase from Red side

• Once again, the mid focus is real

• Gravity have counterpicked their midlaner on Red side in every game. The only game in which Gravity did not select mid last, they chose Hecarim as a first pick, and then flexed him into the mid position.
• Opponents have attempted to keep their mid pick safe, but even with a last-pick mid in every game, Red side grants Keane the opportunity to know what he’s up against.

• Gravity have banned Ryze in their last 5 Red side games

• Likely has more to do with the trading of power picks, considering Hauntzer has both played and had the champion banned against him

So what have we learned?

Well, we can’t assume that the numbers definitively prove everything, but the common trends we have seen based on picks and bans, player, and team performance indicate that Gravity like to be efficient. They’re not a team that wants to fight constantly, they want to secure advantages and then press those once they know they’ll win a fight. Altec seems to be the main carry, and Hauntzer is utilized heavily when the team does well. When the team doesn’t do well, Keane struggles mightily, Hauntzer dies less but also doesn’t contribute as much to the team, and Altec is forced into trying to carry even harder for the team. Teams that have beaten Gravity have taken it to Keane early, by avoiding his unconventional counter picks and killing him often, and forced Gravity into longer, more chaotic games on average.