2022 Worlds Prep —LOUD (LLL — CBLOL Seed 1)
Analyzing one of the Play-In teams ahead of the 2022 League of Legends World Championship — by Tom Searfoss
Top Takeaways
- New kids on the block — first time at Worlds for an Org that just entered League of Legends in 2021
- Highs and lows — win games where they are ahead early, lose games where they are behind early
- Top loader — Top Laner Robo has the best early game stats on the team, and highest KP for all Play-In Top laners
- Crazy is their game — high kill, death, and CK/M stats make for potentially bloody, and sloppy games
- Patrons of Lord Nashor — Have only won games where they have secured Baron
- Unexpected Picks — Top and Bot lane have some different picks unique to them
TL;DR — Team History & Summer Split
- Probably better known for their VALORANT team on the International Stage — LOUD was selected for CBLOL partnership at the start of 2021
- Made Playoffs every Split except for Spring 2022 — so Summer 2022 was a bounce back for them
- Made two roster changes between Spring and Summer, adding Jungler Croc and Bot Laner Brance
- Brance is a rookie from their Academy squad, while Robo and Tinowns are seasoned CBLOL vets
- Ended Summer Regular Season with a 12–6 record in 4th place (due to H2H vs paiN Gaming) securing an Upper Bracket start to Playoffs
- Lost in Upper Finals 3–2 to paiN Gaming, coming back from the Lower Bracket to 3–0 FURIA and later paiN in the Finals as well
Overview of Team Play
Gold Graphs
From the gold graph alone, you can tell that LLL’s games can be a bit all over the place — mostly losing games with early deficits and winning games with early leads.
Early Game Gold
On average, LOUD has less total gold at 10 and 15 minutes (GOLD@10/15) than the Play-In averages are — but their leads are ranked higher than the averages (GD@10/15). The worry for LOUD is that their gold lead growth between 10 and 15 minutes is not that large (only +383 gold, roughly a kill and some CS). The number of leads they have also does not increase from 10 to 15 minutes — although it doesn’t decrease either. This is consistent with their gold graphs above, where it looks like the win games when ahead, lose games when behind.
First Objectives
The big thing working against LOUD here isn’t the fact that their First Objective stats are lacking, in fact they are quite good and above the Play-In team averages. The biggest downside for LLL is that the teams that rank above them are also in the Play-In Group. That means that despite LOUD’s great numbers at securing the First Mid Tower (FT MID) or all 3 outer towers (F3T) — both DetonatioN FocusMe (DFM) and Chiefs Esports Club (CHF) are the two teams ranked above them.
Outside of their direct competition however, LOUD’s First Objectives focus around First Blood (FB%), First Tower (FT%), and hitting the mid/out towers first. Their First Dragon (FD%) and First Herald (FH%) are above average, but their Dragon control specifically is lower.
LOUD is a team with a higher FH% than their FD%, which can tell us that their early game is going to revolved a little more on the Top Side of the map. Whether they focus the objective themselves, or they are willing to trade Herald for Dragon early game — I anticipate LLL’s top side to be where their early leads come from.
Later Game Objectives
The Kill and Death stats are a little concerning to see from LOUD. With high kills and high deaths per game (KILL/G, DTH/G) that creates a chaotic fighting style that leads to bloody games. This is confirmed by two other stats on this table — their low Kill-Death Ratio (K/D) confirming they die quite a lot, and their high Combined Kills per Minute (CK/M) which tells us how bloody and fight-heavy their games will be on average. Despite liking to fight though, they hover 5th in Team Damage per Minute (DMG/M) with a just above-average 2,281.
This worries me for LLL at Worlds, because this speaks to me of a team that is willing to throw themselves at situations (such as Objective fights) whether or not they are in the lead. That could be game ending when facing Major Region teams — and could also cost them against other Emerging Region teams.
LOUD does have solid Objective Control in the late game — showing that their aggression does often yield them results. Their games do last longer than the Play-In average though, so that makes me think that these objectives are necessary in the case that they take a few bad fights.
Deep Dive — Baron Stats
The normal Objective Stats tell us that LLL has a higher DRAKE% than other teams on average — but that they themselves have a higher BARON%. That tells us that Baron may be the way they look to end games, but is that actually the case? If we look at a few additional stats in context to LOUD’s Baron Rate, we can find out more about how they use the buff in their games.
LLL have an above average percent of their games containing a Baron, and an above average number of multi-Baron games. This confirms some of my suspicions above, where LLL may need to use Barons to recover advantages their bloody fights may have thrown away.
Additionally, LOUD has 23 total wins — 23 of them they have a Baron secured. That means LLL has a 100.0% WIN% with Baron — and a 0.0% WIN% without. Loud aren’t always secured a win with Baron though — they still have lost 2 games where they’ve taken a Baron.
Overview of Players
Lane Phase Stats
Top Laner Robo is the focal point of LLL’s early game leads — as he is ahead in every single lane statistic tracked and has as many First Blood Kills and Assists (FBK+A) as their Bot Laner Brance. The early game tempo is really set by Croc, as LLL’s 2nd ranked First Blood Rate (FB%) comes a lot from him, as he has participation in 16 of the team’s 23 First Bloods.
Unimpressive CSD numbers from Bot Laner Brance are made up for by some positive GD values — but his fall off in GD@10 and 15, coupled with his deficit in XP at 10 growing larger at 15 — means that I will be looking at him as a weak spot for LOUD.
Late Game Stats
I did not expect tinowns to have such a high KDA after looking at LLL’s K/D and CK/M stats above — but he has the 2nd highest KDA for Play-In Mid Laners behind DFM Yaharong.
Aside from tinowns (and Brance, with a solid KDA himself) LLL has pretty decent Kill Participation (KP) stats across all roles — with Robo having the highest KP for Play-In Top Laners. Again, going back to their CK/M stats, LOUD is going to fight their way through their games, and the KP stats back up that the whole team is coming to brawl.
Their resource share skews towards the Top Laner Robo — which is unusual for teams. Often their second choice of carry (behind Bot Lane) is the Mid Laner, as they can provide an AP damage threat in most cases to balance out the AD carry Bot Lane.
Robo though is getting a lot of resources and dealing a lot of damage. He has the highest Damage Share (DMG%) of any Top Laner in the Play-In Stage, and is 4th overall in Damage per Earned Gold (DMG/EGOLD) with a 2.03 score. Teams will need to keep an eye top side if they want to take down LLL.
Overview of Champions
Pick/Ban Stats
Gwen is not something we see a lot of other Regions banning, so this is something specific to CBLOL and to LLL, as they are the one banning it and often doing so on Red side. This might look to prevent a counter pick they feel can shut down Robo.
LLL are also banning Trundle more often than not, which says they are more than happy picking Poppy as much as they can.
Teams do not want tinowns getting his hands on Ahri, nor do they want the pairing of Yuumi/Zeri (or either piece, to boot) getting through to LOUD’s side of the Rift.
Unlike what we’ve seen in other Regions, Ahri is a Blue Side ban against LLL — which means it’s not specifically a counter pick. Gnar also makes sense as a ban here, as a safe, fond-of-fighting, strong Top Lane pick seems perfect for a team that puts resources into Robo.
Robo’s Olaf
A pick that can not only get it’s own advantages (especially in melee match ups) but one that is able to deal a lot of damage if ahead. As Robo’s 3rd most played Champion in his pool, it’s not unreasonable to expect it at Worlds.
Croc’s Viego
Not the Poppy we expected, Croc’s Viego is his 2nd most played (behind Wukong) and has his 2nd highest KDA on a Champion with more than 1 play on it. Viego also has his Summer highest DMG/M, with 602 in a damge vs INTZ.
Tinowns’s Ahri & Taliyah
We saw how much teams don’t want to face tinowns’s Ahri, but the Taliyah is a surprise to see. Since LLL have Taliyah as one of their most banned Champions, it’s interesting to see it with a higher WIN% and a comparable KDA to his “must ban” Ahri.
Either way, both of these picks are mobile, and allow for tinowns to move quickly to aide his Jungler, or to move to a fight (which LOUD look to do a lot).
Brance’s Aphelios & Ezreal
Not the most impressive WIN% on his Ezreal, but his most played picks behind Zeri are different than what you would expect to see. With no Sivir or Lucian games to his name — Brance will have an interesting effect on Pick/Ban priority at Worlds.
Ceos’s Babysitters
Champions to protect carries such as Zeri and Aphelios in the fights that LOUD seeks to get in frequently are important to have in the team’s arsenal. Thankfully, Ceos looks to be adept in playing Champions that make his team hard to kill. The plus of Rakan being his most played is that it also gives him some agency to start fights, or keep teams locked down when Gnar-Wukong are on LOUD’s side.
Conclusion
LOUD are looking better than I first expected them to, after seeing them finish 4th and make a lower bracket run in Playoffs. However, I’m not sure if what I am seeing is enough to give me faith in them making 4th in the Play-In Group.
My concerns are that they are a very Top side playing team — more so than other teams in their Group. They also rely on some specific picks to get Robo the advantages he has — Gnar, a candidate for permanent pick/ban — and Olaf, which seems situational at best. His other most played picks of Sejuani and Gragas are more tanky than damage dealing, and would have to slightly shift how LLL prioritize map objectives. I fear that despite a shift in picks, LOUD will continue to throw themselves into fights like their K/D and CK/M stats suggest, falling behind in games.
Tinowns has a strong Ahri and Taliyah, but I’m not sure how powerful those picks will be on the Worlds patch. We’ve already seen a decline in Ahri play during other Region’s Playoffs, and only a 50.0% WIN% on the pick people ban against him the most doesn’t give me the best confidence in him or his team (despite high KDA numbers). I also feel like Brance has two big things working against him — being an Emerging Region Rookie, and an awkward Champion Pool.
I think LOUD could surprise us with some snowball-centric games against Emerging Region teams, and in a different Group I would feel better about their chances. However, every stat category that looks good for them, they trail the other two Emerging Region teams in their group. This, coupled with the fact that don’t seem to recover well from early deficits and require Baron to win their games, makes me think LOUD will actually go quietly in last place.
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