If you haven’t watched any of the previous Vainglory tournaments, this is the perfect time to start. This winter season is bringing together a explosive mixture of world champion teams, previous NA champions, and brand new teams who are proving to be rising stars. To make sure you don’t need to go into this completely blind, here’s the key details.

Note: Due to the one-sidedness of matches during the rounds of 64 and 32, all of the following data is from round of 16 and later during the second qualifier.

Rage Pingers (8)

Team Overview

Average Game Length: 21.8 minutes

Average K/D Ratio: 1.29

Average gold per minute: 1079

Player Overview

TheBigDog (lane/jungle)

Hero History: Adagio, Fortress (x2), Skaarf (x2), Vox

Average gold per minute: 504

12Tacos12 (jungle/roam)

Hero History: Ardan, Catherine, Blackfeather, Kestrel, Koshka, Skye

Average gold per minute: 311

al3x (roam/lane)

Hero History: Catherine, Fortress (x2), SAW

Average gold per minute: 347

Other Details

TheBigDog and 12tacos12 are familiar names among high Elo players, but their team, Rage Pingers, is brand new. In fact, it’s so new that it didn’t even exist in the first qualifier. That means they entered the second qualifier with 0 points and still managed to secure a place in the live finals, which is an impressive feat, albeit as eighth seed. One of the more interesting details about this team is that all three players switch roles on a regular basis, making it more difficult for opponents to guess what they’re going to do during the draft. Other than that single observation, they are still largely an unknown variable among the championship teams and have the potential to cause some upsets among some of the better-known incumbents, which should make for an exciting tournament.

Vertigo Black (7)

Team Overview

Average Game Length: 17.7 minutes

Average K/D Ratio: 1.06

Average gold per minute: 1049

Player Overview

Bestchuckna (lane/jungle)

Hero History: Adagio (x2), Ringo, Vox

Average gold per minute: 427

Riikzz (jungle/lane)

Hero History: Krul, Taka, Vox

Average gold per minute: 292

Vikson (jungle substitute)

Hero History: Skye

Average gold per minute: 353

xBEOWUFL11x (roam)

Hero History: Ardan (x2), Catherine (x2)

Average gold per minute: 300

Other Details

Vertigo is a longstanding fixture in Vainglory eSports, who is now expanding into other competitive mobile games. Although their flagship team, Vertigo Black, was bullied by the first seed team, Alliance, in the second qualifier, they have a lot more to offer in the upcoming championship series. Both BestChuckNA and RiiKzZ are known to be Krul players, so if any team is going to take advantage of the revisions to Krul in 1.15 and maybe bring a CP Krul into the competitive play, it will be Vertigo Black.

Liberation X (6)

Team Overview

Average Game Length: 20.9 minutes

Average K/D Ratio: 1.56

Average gold per minute: 1128

Player Overview

ttigers (lane)

Hero History: Blackfeather, Ringo (x5), Skaarf, Vox

Average gold per minute: 504

Statusbaked (jungle)

Hero History: Blackfeather, Kestrel, Koshka, Skye

Average gold per minute: 311

e36 (roam)

Recent roster change. No history

Other Details

Don’t let their seed number fool you, Liberation X was the victor of last season’s Live Championship and are looking very strong this season as well. Liberation X is one of the teams who has the best chance of preventing the first and second seed teams, Alliance and GankStars Sirius, from completely dominating this upcoming weekend. Their star laner, ttigers, is potentially the best laner in North America and a farming god, having the highest average gold per minute out of any player entering the Live Championships. As a final note, they had a recent roster change and e36 is now their starting roam player. It will be exciting to see what dynamic he adds to the team.

Halcyon Hammers Kinetic (5)

Team Overview

Average Game Length: 18.8 minutes

Average K/D Ratio: 0.83

Average gold per minute: 1059

Player Overview

Fearposeidon (lane)

Hero History: Adagio, Skye

Average gold per minute: 334

Chrisssy (lane substitute)

Hero History: Ringo (x2)

Average gold per minute: 468

Baunfire (jungle)

Hero History: Blackfeather, Kestrel, Koshka, Skye

Average gold per minute: 311

suijeneris (roam)

Hero History: Catherine, Fortress (x2), SAW

Average gold per minute: 347

Other Details

As a rookie Halcyon Hammers team, Kinetic has shaken things up in the North American competitive scene. Coming out of nowhere, they secured a spot in the Live Championship, displacing the incumbent team, VON Menace. Adding insult to injury, VON Menace’s star jungler, VONC, will now be joining Halcyon Hammers in the next season. Even though they were eliminated in the quarter finals by NA powerhouses, GankStars Sirius, they still managed to give GSS a run for their money using an unorthodox “SAWport” team comp, with their roam player, SuiJeneris, acting as tanky minigun, shredding opponents.

Nemesis Hydra (4)

Team Overview

Average Game Length: 20.0 minutes

Average K/D Ratio: 1.19

Average gold per minute: 1167

Player Overview

HardeK (lane)

Hero History: Blackfeather, Ringo

Average gold per minute: 392

Gibbs (lane substitute)

Hero History: Blackfeather, Glaive

Average gold per minute: 490

Chicken123 (jungle)

Hero History: Adagio (x2), Koshka, Skye

Average gold per minute: 339

LostBoyToph (roam)

Hero History: Ardan (x3), Fortress

Average gold per minute: 387

Other Details

Nemesis is one of the longest standing fixtures in the Vainglory competitive scene and even though they successfully made it into Live Championship series, Hydra’s longevity in the second qualifier was cut short in the quarterfinals by the third seed, HH Velocity. However, this can be used to their advantage, providing their opposition very little competitive data on preferred heroes and team comps, as well as giving them a larger amount of time to secretly develop new strategies for the Live Championships. As a final note, their starting laner, Hardek, is one of the most tenured players in North America and has a seemingly bottomless hero pool.

Halcyon Hammers Velocity (3)

Team Overview

Average Game Length: 21.1 minutes

Average K/D Ratio: 1.58

Average gold per minute: 1089

Player Overview

Aloh4 (lane/jungle)

Hero History: Adagio, Blackfeather (x3), Fortress, Koshka, Ringo (x2)

Average gold per minute: 386

DNZio (jungle/lane)

Hero History: Fortress (x2), Koshka, Ringo, Skaarf, Skye, Vox (x2)

Average gold per minute: 376

Vains (roam)

Hero History: Adagio, Ardan, Catherine (x6)

Average gold per minute: 327

Other Details

HH Velocity are rising stars with mechanical prowess and are hungry for a top spot in the Live Championship. By pushing the first seed, Alliance, to a full three-game series in the semifinals, it shows they are force to be reckoned with. In fact, Alliance team captain, FlashX, gave props to them:

They’re a tight knit group of guys. The synergize really well and have a good understanding of the game. They should focus on deepening their hero pools and strategy preparation.

On that note, if you look at the number of heroes played between the three players, there’s a lot of overlap, making it so a savvy opponent can get the upper hand during the draft.

GankStars Sirius (2)

Team Overview

Average Game Length: 18.7 minutes

Average K/D Ratio: 1.53

Average gold per minute: 1179

Player Overview

IraqiZorro (lane)

Hero History: Blackfeather, Ringo (x5), Skaarf (x2), Vox

Average gold per minute: 477

FooJee (jungle)

Hero History: Blackfeather, Fortress (x2), Koshka (x2), Petal (x3), Reim, Skye

Average gold per minute: 355

gabevizzle (roam)

Hero History: Adagio (x3), Catherine (x6), Fortress

Average gold per minute: 347

Other Details

With a team of highly skilled players and a team of reputable analysts to back them, GankStars Sirius has both mechanical and cerebral strength. Since all of these players have very deep hero pools they can pull from, it’s nearly impossible to effectively “ban out” a player. However, IraqiZorro tends to find comfort in mechanic-heavy heroes like Ringo and Vox, so expect to see a few targeted bans from opponents. Also, FooJee is one of the first players to successfully resurrect Petal in competitive play and with additional improvements to her kit in 1.15, expect GankStars to give her some gameplay.

Team SoloMid – formerly Alliance (1)

Team Overview

Average Game Length: 18.6 minutes

Average K/D Ratio: 1.3

Average gold per minute: 1262

Player Overview

MICSHE (lane/jungle)

Hero History: Blackfeather, Koshka (x2), SAW (x3), Vox (x5)

Average gold per minute: 495

CullTheMeek (jungle/lane)

Hero History: Adagio (x4), Blackfeather, Joule, Ringo (x3), Skye (x2)

Average gold per minute: 383

FlashX (roam)

Hero History: Adagio, Ardan (x4), Catherine (x5), Fortress

Average gold per minute: 384

Other Details

The team formerly known as Alliance was recently acquired by Team SoloMid and will enter into this tournament with the TSM tag. Currently the top team in North America and always getting better, they are best known for being a cerebral team who are masters of the draft and competitive strategy. Any opponents who face them need to create a response to their two signature moves:

Rush Fountain of Renewal. Their roam player, FlashX, tends to go extremely light on vision in the early-game and rush a Fountain of Renewal by the five-minute mark. This strategy gives a huge power spike to the whole team, enabling them to engage confidently and bully opponents.

Their roam player, FlashX, tends to go extremely light on vision in the early-game and rush a Fountain of Renewal by the five-minute mark. This strategy gives a huge power spike to the whole team, enabling them to engage confidently and bully opponents. Team-wide double infusion + kraken push. More often than not, around the 15-minute mark – but sometimes later in the game – the entire Alliance team (including roam) will double infuse and force a team fight, usually resulting in bad team fight for their opponents, releasing the kraken, and pushing to end the game within 60-90 seconds later.

In the most recent qualifier, GankStars Sirius attempted to counter the latter strategy with double infusions of their own, but still fell prey. Their opposition should have this on their mind – if they don’t already.

The first of the Live Championship matches will begin on March 11 at 5pm PST and will be streamed on Twitch. You won’t want to miss this! As additional recommended reading, Roam wrote a fantastic preview of the first day’s matches.