A casual glance at OraclesElixir.com reinforces the notion that League of Legends games in the EU LCS’ Group A have felt longer, more back-and-forth, and simply dragged. Misfits started the split unable to close. The average game time of every team in Group A is longer than the average game time of every team in Group B. G2 Esports and Fnatic made an exhausting statement in their first match. Splyce have either won or lost spectacularly, and everyone knows what happens to H2K when they don’t acquire a definitive lead.

When the conference format first came to the League of Legends Pro League in China, a year before it arrived in the EU LCS, EDward Gaming Coach Ji “Aaron” Xing noted that he believed two different styles defined LPL groups in 2016. This wasn’t always the case, but the top teams in each group had coincidentally similar stylistic peculiarities, like increased Ezreal priority or more focus on lane swaps.

With the conference format launched in the EU LCS, this has happened in Europe’s league as well. Longer average game times and a less diverse top lane champion pool signal that the EU LCS Group A has focused much more on teamfights, while Group B’s top teams are much better known for 1-3-1 play. During the cross-conference stage, this should create an interesting interaction that could impact which teams benefit the most.

A casual glance at average game times doesn’t tell the full story. High averages in a group can be driven by one or two teams or even individual matches. The overall average game time in the EU LCS is 36.7 minutes, with 9 games one standard deviation above the average and 11 games one standard deviation below (all game lengths are within two standard deviations).

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It seems likely that Fnatic, G2, and Misfits (ranked fourth after removing games outside one standard deviation from the mean) drive up Group A’s average, but as they’re also the three teams ranked at the top of the group, they will be most relevant when we talk about the league going forward for the next two weeks of cross-conference.G2 Esports and Fnatic played in three games one standard deviation above the average, but even removing these three games, they have the longest average game times in the EU LCS. Removing H2K-Gaming’s series with Splyce where they played two 20 minute games, they shoot up to third in longest average game time.

Meanwhile, Group B’s Splyce played in four of the shortest games in the EU LCS so far, and Team Vitality and H2K-Gaming have participated in three matches with game lengths one standard deviation below average. Fnatic has three short outlier games, but even including the short games in the average and removing their three long games instead, they remain among the top four longest average game time teams.

The top teams in Group B show a preference for 1-3-1 that has made them stand out, at least in 2016. H2K-Gaming’s love of macro play and avoiding fights made them gravitate toward splitting pressure across the map. Splyce’s reliance on their solo laners made them much more likely to push out side lanes and look for flank opportunities later.

Unicorns of Love’s core players, Kiss “Vizicsacsi” Tamás and Zdravets “Hylissang” Iliev Galabov, have strong communication that makes them gravitate toward splitting the map. Even Team Vitality’s Lucas “Cabochard ” Simon-Meslet is a noted split-pusher.

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