2022 Worlds Prep — Beyond Gaming (BYG — PCS Seed 2)
Analyzing one of the Play-In teams ahead of the 2022 League of Legends World Championship — by Tom Searfoss
Top Takeaways
- Unexpected representatives — finished 6th in Regular Season and pulled off 3 “upsets” over higher ranked teams to qualify for Worlds
- Nonexplosive starts — do not jump out to large early leads, nor do they have high first objective rates
- Lovers, not fighters — low CK/M and DMG/M stats as a team
- Patrons of Baron Nashor — rely on Barons to win games, undefeated if they secure Baron
- They don’t skip leg day — rely on Bot Laner Wako to deal most of their damage in games
- Favortism — have their clear favored picks, with much more success on them comapred to other picks
TL;DR — Team History & Summer Split
- Organizational staff has deep roots in League of Legends — Dinter, MiSTakE and Stanley from TPA, as well as Benny (ahq/MAD) and Qulala (HKA/GRX).
- This is the 2nd Worlds Appearance for Beyond Gaming (BYG), the first being 2021 where they were eliminated from Play-Ins 0–3 by HLE
- Only two members return from last year’s roster, Jungler HuSha and Support Kino
- Last year had controversy surrounding Mid Laner Maoan, who was match fixing/gambling
- Lost star player Doggo this year, filling his spot with long time PCS player Wako
- Finished 6th in the Regular Season, securing the last Upper Bracket spot of the Playoffs
- Upset J Team (3–1) and Deep Cross Gaming (3–0) and MSI representatives PSG Talon (3–2) to secure their Worlds spot
- Lost to eventual winners CTBC Flying Oyster twice (1–3 in Upper Finals, 0–3 in Grand Finals)
Overview of Team Play
Early Game Gold
BYG’s early game gold numbers are a bit of a concern — as with RNG taken out of the rankings, there are only 11 teams to compare them to. Being a lower seed during the Regular Season as well as fighting through 5 Best of 5 series gave them a larger sample size of games to look at compared to other teams that crushed their Region(s) — but also speaks to how hard they fought to get the Worlds in the first place. Hard fought or not though, BYG does not seem to capture early game gold leads, which will be a big concern against stronger Regions such as LPL, LCK, LEC, LCS and VCS.
Early Game First Objectives
Glancing at BYG’s early game objective focus, we learn a few things:
- They are again, below the average for the other Play-In teams
- First Blood and First Tower are their best first objective stats
- They take the first mid lane tower more than half the time (still lower than average though)
With a below 50% First Herald Rate (FH%), it’s feasible to say that BYG are not always relying on Herald to break their first tower. While their FT% is one of their best stats, it’s still below the Play-In average. I do not anticipate this team securing the early objectives against non-Emerging Region teams. When they do take them, I would take a look at Mid Lane for the area they play around. Between a lower First Dragon Rate (FD%) and a high FT Mid Rate (FT Mid), I would assume they attempt to get leads through Mid Lane first, and spread it across the map later.
It’s a dead-even split at 10 teams each (with data) when you look at which First Objective they prioritize. While teams can still take both of these in a game, it’s often a trading of one for the other. Teams with a higher FD% can be seen as more bottom-side focused, while teams with higher FH% can be seen as more top-side focused. There’s always the risk that teams with higher FH% have so because they trade for First Drake. BYG’s case however, is that they tend to focus Mid Lane Tower more than other lanes, so they can be seen as slightly bottom-side skewed (even before looking at resource distribution)
Later Game Objectives
As the game goes later, BYG doesn’t look too much better when it comes to how they approach fighting. They’re second to last in Kills per Game (KILL/G), but temper that with a low Deaths per Game (DTH/G). Their Kill-Death Ratio (K/D) is still below average, so the fewer deaths aren’t convincing me that they pick and choose fights carefully. In addition to this, their “Bloodiness” (Combined Kills per Minute, CK/M) is also on the low end — while their Team Damage per Minute (DMG/M) is the lowest of the Play-In teams. BYG is not a fighting team, and the scrappy nature of Emerging Region teams may challenge them if they fail to find early leads like the above stats suggest.
Confirming the above statements about a weak early game, BYG’s Plates per Game (PLATES/G) is the lowest for Play-In team stats that we have. Their lack of early game assertion (and gold deficit on average at 15 minutes) leads to them having weaker Dragon and Baron control, securing those objectives less.
The one area BYG improves in as the game goes on is taking the second Rift Herald. Their lowest First Objective was their FH% — so this goes to show their Herald priority on second spawn is much better. This, combined with taking the first mid lane tower early, is an advantage they need to attempt to pressure later on in the game and attempt to deny their opponents from stacking up an early Dragon Soul. It seems to work for BYG as they were able to make Worlds, and additionally it keeps their average Game Time (GT) above average (although still bottom half of Play-In teams).
Deep Dive — Baron Stats
The normal Objective Stats tell us that BYG isn’t the best team at securing them, but it doesn’t tell us how they win games. By delving a bit deeper into the usual Stats and associating them with Objectives, we can look to pinpoint a way that teams like BYG actually look to close out their games. In this specific example, BYG likes to end using Baron — and I’ll explain how it is important to them.
BYG come into Worlds with a 20–16 Record, tied with MAD Lions for 2nd lowest. In those 20 wins, 18 of them were when they secured Baron and only 2 were games where they did not take Baron. They also have a 100.00% WIN% when they secure Baron, meaning that they are 18–0 with Baron and 2–14 without Baron.
Teams that crush their opponents often take Baron anyway on their way to victory, and you can see on the above chart that favorites like Fnatic (FNC), Royal Never Give Up (RNG) and Evil Geniuses (EG) also have high WIN% w/ Baron. However, BYG have a below average amount of Games with Baron, clocking in at just half their games compared to the Play-In average of 68.76%. Couple with the fact their WIN% is closely correlated at 55.56%, we can deduce that BYG rely on securing Baron to win more often than other teams with high WIN% w/ Baron. BYG also clock in just slightly above the Multi-Baron games average of 4.92 with 5 multi-Baron games of their own — meaning that in those 18 wins with Baron, 5 of them took more than one to finish.
With low early gold stats, low damage stats, lower CK/M stats, and middling objective stats — it might be hard for BYG to secure the Barons they are accustomed to winning with if they fall too far behind. I predict them struggling against Major Region competition, even during Play-In stage.
Overview of Players
Lane Phase Stats
No player particularly stands out during the lane phase as a dominant pillar BYG plays around, or can play around in the early game. Jungler HuSha and Bot Laner Wako are the only ones that hold on to their small leads between 10 and 15 minutes. Despite their FT Mid being one of their higher first objective stats, their Mid Laner Minji is often behind.
HuSha is the main driver of early game action, with 100.00% of the team’s First Bloods being through his hands. A lot of them have the assistance of Minji, but the leads translate to the Jungler more than the Mid Laner. To note — Likai actually has 0 First Blood Deaths, where as Kino has the most with 6.
Late Game Stats
The early duo of HuSha and Minji keep up their Kill Participation (KP) all game long, with Minji actually having the highest on the team. On the flip side, Wako is second lowest as the Bot Lane carry player —but he is still getting most of the team’s resources. Looking at Minji and Kikai less than 1% apart, it’s on Wako to really use the gold he gets well. And, well — he kind of does just that!
Wako has the highest DMG% and 3rd highest EGOLD% of all Play-In Players, and his DMG% is the highest at Worlds even when you include Main Stage teams! To say he is their late game insurance plan would be an understatement, which means I expect to see him on more hyper carry type picks rather than going for Lucian or Kalista.
Overview of Champions
Pick/Ban Stats
BYG does not want Poppy coming through Champion select — it is something HuSha has not played all Summer, and they have only played 2 games of Trundle. His Champion pool is much more catered to early aggression, and BYG needs him to be their early game catalyst.
Teams have banned away Sylas from Minji, which is his most successful Champion when it gets through with a 85.7% WIN%. They also tend to ban away Lucian and Kalista, although Wako’s resource share on the team points towards later game carries like Zeri, Sivir, or Jinx as the Champions he wants to play anyway.
Picks to Watch
HuSha’s Wukong
One of the game’s most popular Junglers, but also probably a large part as to why they do not want to see Poppy in their games. HuSha has more games on Wukong than any 2 of his other Champions combined.
Wako’s Bot Lane Duo
Although a losing record on Zeri, Wako has an impressive 6.4 KDA pointing towards him at least being good at the Champion — even if he doesn’t win all the time. However, a 70.0% WIN% on Sivir is quite impressive, and makes sense as to why his damage numbers look so large compared to the rest of his team.
Likai’s Top Lane Trio
Gnar is a common top lane pick now, but the Gwen fell out of favor in most Regions — so it’s surprising to see Likai still playing it (and winning two-thirds of his games on it). The Fiora is the pick that stands out here — both the 66.7% WIN% and the 8.3 KDA that Likai has on the pick. She also touts his highest DMG/M (712) and CS/M (10.1) in a single game.
Minji’s Sylas
Not his most played thanks to a lot of bans, but his most consistently successful pick. Minji’s 85.7% WIN% and 5.6 KDA on Sylas is the highest for any of his Champions with more than 1 game on them.
Kino’s Initiators
Kino’s tied-for-most-played picks are a pair of tanky fight starters. Looking at his team’s stats in the late game, they’re not really ones to be searching for fights to begin with. With Likai’s preferred picks being more damage-oriented and open to split pushing, Kino is left on “go in” duty it looks like. At the very least, he’s good at the role for the team — a 75.0% and 62.5% WIN% is something to be proud of.
Conclusion
I would have to say before doing this analysis that I was surprised that BYG made it to Worlds over PSG Talon — and I’m still left feeling that way. BYG have some clear holes in their game play stemming from an inactive early game outside of HuSha’s play, reminding me of ex-PSG River’s game play at World’s last year (and Spring Dignitas). Without real advantages gained in their lanes and with sub par Objective Stats, BYG is going to have a hard time fighting against lane-centric teams (and just better players overall).
It seems like the formula for a PCS team’s success is to have a Bot Laner they can funnel resources into and eventually carry the game. BYG showcase this strategy with Wako — but I’m not a big fan of their choice of carry player. Wako has had a long career and hopped between both teams and positions (playing Mid Lane a few Splits) and I haven’t really been impressed by him as a carry player. I’m sure BYG will look great as long as they can secure him Sivir (or if his Kai’Sa play is good enough…) — but his low WIN%, high games played on Zeri has me concerned for BYG making it past Play-Ins.
In general, BYG seems like they have their favorite Champions to play, and struggle more when they do not get them. It would be real easy to say BYG’s draft will always attempt to get them: Gnar, Wukong, Sylas, Sivir and Leona — and there are some changes you can make to those picks if some are contested. Gnar can be Gwen, or Fiora (which I would love to see) and Leona can be Nautilus as well, and the team will most likely be fine against all Emerging Region teams. But if they can not fix their lack of an early game, they will not be able to rely on the Baron plays they did in PCS against Major Region comeptition.
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