H2K, The Playground of Jankos

To follow my last article about analyzing how dominant teams approach the game. I will present another team that is in contention to be Europe’s best. What seems crucial to me about H2K’s dominance is their jungler; Jankos. The polish player has excelled in the jungle statistically, mechanically and intellectually. Everyone wishes to have Jankos on his team as he successfully ganks his lanes while remaining cautious and stable. Only a few elite junglers in the world can maintain such pressure on the game without throwing by over-committing.

Photo credit H2k-Gaming.eu

This year two EULCS junglers have been particularly impressive and consistent; Jankos and Trick. Both topped the stat charts and made multiple plays while rarely doing mistakes. The so-called ‘First blood king’ hasn’t disappointed this year.  He was involved in first blood 63% of his games- while the second best is Airwaks at 50%.  Among junglers he has:

• The highest kill participation at 76.5%
• The second highest damage to champions per minute after Trick at 335.
• The most wards placed after Trick at 0.99 wards per minute.

Note that for all these stats I excluded players that only played a few games.

In competitive League of Legends, jungling is a supportive role even if they can sometimes carry. Despite some junglers denying or misunderstanding this fact, the optimal way of playing the role is to add a lot of pressure to his laners. To calculate a jungler’s impact, a lot of criterias are needed;

• Does he visit the right lanes at the right time?
• How much does he ward for his laners, objectives and game plan?
• How much does he farm?
• How often does he gank and how good are his ganks?
• How does he pressure the enemy jungler?
• How good are his mechanics and smiting?
• How good is his synergy with his teammates?

The jungler is linked to his laners, Therefore his laners are also playing a role in his success. Only a few junglers in the history of LoL managed to have teams with 3 outstanding lanes that allowed them to be free around the map. Once it happens, it’s something I call ‘the playground’.  Some notable teams like that are Spirit’s SSB, DanDy’s SSW, Bengi’s s5 SKT, Clearlove’s EDG and maybe one could consider Diamond’s M5. H2K are a team like that, none of their lanes are a clear ‘weak link’. In fact, at least within Europe, all their lanes are top-tier. This allows Jankos to obviously be more surprizing and effective.

 Photo credit polsatsport.pl/esport-news

Jankos can perform in any meta with plenty of champions. Unlike some players , he has no infamous .. unlucky champions and major flaws in his play style. H2k has a good macro game and good players mechanically but what’s giving them the extra edge and defines their power is Jankos. The dominating jungler ensures to bring their comps to success by protecting and empowering his teammates.

Thanks to Oracleselixir.com for stats