Random Facts about the first week of the NA LCS

The first week of the NA LCS is over.  The season started off with a super week and 16 action packed games.  I watch every game and took a few notes.  After crunching a few numbers I notice a few interesting facts.

40 different champions were pick over the weekend and there were 21 unique bans.  Hecarim was the only champion to be banned but not picked.

Teams that earned First Blooded or got the first Dragon won 11 out of 16 times while the team that got the first Baron won 15 out of 16 times.  Coast was the only team to lose after getting the first Baron against Curse.

Elise and Kassadin were the only champions that were 100% picked or banned.  Annie and Shyvana were the next most used champions at 15 and 14 out of 16 games respectively.  Kassadin was also the most banned champion with 15 bans.  The next closest were Kha'Zix with 8 bans and Riven with 7.

The champions with the best win record and were picked at least 3 times were  Olaf, LeBlanc, Thresh and Caitlyn.  LeBlanc and Olaf had perfect records while Thresh won 82% of the time.  Caitlyn was not far behind with a 71% win record.  On the opposite end of the spectrum the champions with the worst records were Trundle, Lucian and Gragas.  Trundle went winless going O and 3.  Lucian was not much better with a win record of only 11%.  It makes Gragas 20% win rate look decent.

Teams choice for first picks were interesting.  There were 3 common first picks and 4 that were only first picked once.  The common picks were Elise with a 50% first pick win rate, which was better than her overall win rate; Olaf with 100% first pick win rate because Olaf never lost; and Annie with a 66% win rate, double her overall win rate of 33%.

Next I looked at the unique champions between the teams.  By unique I mean a champion that was only played by a single team.  Now this does not factor in bans i.e. one of EG's unique champs was Kassadin who was also banned in every other game.  XDG Gaming had the fewest unique champs with zero.  Cloud 9, Team Coast and Dignitas had 1 each.  C9 had Teemo, Coast had Varus and Dig had Katarina.  Team SoloMid had two unique with Nunu and Sivir.  Team Curse also had two unique; Akali and Pantheon, both of whom which were devastating against XDG.  Counter Logic Gaming had the most unique champions with four; Cassiopeia, Ezreal, Vayne and Zac.

The last bit of random information I gather from the LCS were the different champions used in each role.  Top and Jungler had each 10, Mid had the most at 15, Adc had 7 and support had the fewest at 4.  Annie, Leona, Lulu and Thresh were the only champions used as support.  While Adc had more, 4 Adc champions were unique to a single team; Varus for Coast, Sivir for TSM, Ezreal and Vayne for CLG.  That means there were only 3 Adcs used by all the teams; Caitlyn, Jinx and Lucian.  Taking the unique champions out of the other roles you get Top and Mid tied with the most at 9 and the Jungler with 8.

Outside the above, what surprised me the most going over the numbers was that Rengar and Orianna was neither picked or banned.  Now Rengar might still have been globally banned because of bugs.  I do not remember any of the casters mention it but I possibly could have just missed it.  Orianna on the other hand I do not understand why she was never picked.  Maybe because I have been watching a lot of Korean games lately with Orianna being a hotly contested pick over there but I could have sworn she was also pretty big over here at NA.  Maybe teams are waiting later in the split to bring her out.  If this week has anything to go on, with the exception of Scarra, maybe players should look towards playing her instead of Gragas!

New Year's Return

I never meant to be gone this long.  One thing lead to another and now I find myself months later without having done an update here.  So much has change for me in terms of interest and focus.  My initial instincts was to explain in detail all the reasons for the delay but after thinking it over I decide it would be better to just use the New Year as an opportunity to reset.

Flames of War - I have not touch the game since I wrote the second battle report.  My friend has also been working on other projects and played his first game of Flames of War since our game about two months ago.  So that video report I wanted to do will probably not happen any time soon if at all.

Showcase - The showcase will be on hiatus for a little longer.  I have more than a few models I want to put on the showcase but first I still need to pick up that carrying case.  Also I want to wait until it warms up first. 

GM Campaign - I have decide to scrap my plans to cover the campaign here.  The campaign is still going along with a few bumps and hiccups.  There are a few reasons I have come to this decision but I will only discuss one here.  The core issue was that the nature of the campaign and what I wanted to do here were at odds with each other.  The only public information in the GM campaign is the location of banners, special events and alliances.  The composition of those banners are secret, known only to the GM.  Writing up battle reports here would put my opponent and me at a disadvantage in that the other players will be privy to information they should not have.  Even the short stories I wanted to write would hint at elements in my army.  I tried to think of ways to get around this issue but I could not come up with an answer I was satisfy with.  I do not know what my gaming group has plan after the GM Campaign concludes, if anything.  However since we are still literally in the middle of the GM Campaign, the next adventure will not be happening anytime soon.

Battletech - What is most surprising to me is that Battletech is the area where I have the most news on.  I've played more games of Battletech than I have of Warhammer or any war game for that matter in the last six months.  I have also expanded my collection.  In addition to my Valiant, I now own a Goshawk, a Helepolis and a Neptune submarine (well two submarines as that is what came in the pack). While playing games at the shop, we had attracted a lot of attention from other gamers.  It seems there is enough players and interest in the area to start up a Battletech league or some other long term campaign.  Lastly I have plans to work with a friend to develop a show about Battletech.  Progress on the league and the show have stalled in the last few weeks but I am confident the show should be up and running in the next couple of months or less.  The same with the league though I have a little less confidence in it.  We shall see in the coming weeks and months.

League of Legends - It feels weird taking about League of Legends here but the game has been a major part of my life for almost two years now.  With the League  of Legends Championship Series just starting up I want a place to voice my thoughts on the pro scene.  I did have long term plans to kitbashing models to look like LoL champions.  Will probably be doing the LoL kitbashing sooner than I initial thought as it would go with my writing LoL articles here.

That is it for now.  Hopefully my next update won't take as long.