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This is a guest article by Denis “Peaches18” Beausoleil. He is a professional League of Legends data analyst working with uLOL and NACS teams. Denis is from Vancouver, Canada.

Whenever the League community talks about the best AD-carries, Bang, PraY, Zven, and Doublelift (along with Deft and Uzi – unfortunately the LPL does not provide match histories, so the stats for them are not available) are mentioned in the same breath. So it should come as no surprise that they are statistically similar. That said, I got curious how far the statistical similarities go. Importantly, I wanted to see just how efficient they are at dealing damage on various champions.

Recently, League of Analytics proposed the use of a new damage stat they termed Average Damage per Minute Difference (DPM-D). At the end of the article they produced the graph below, where they plotted Average Damage per Minute Difference against Average Gold per Minute Difference (GPM-D). Looking at Graph 1, what stands out right away are the high ratings in both DPM-D and GPM-D for Bang, PraY, Zven, and Doublelift, four of the best ADCs in League of Legends.

In this article I will look at Sivir, a meta champion they all four have in common. I will discuss how these four ADCs choose their builds, how the patch changes have affected those build paths, and their overall damage and gold statistics. We will start with their overall damage and gold statistics.

Zven = beastly Sivir?

Below, Table 1 shows various statistics regarding Sivir, sorted in rank by the D%/G% column. All stats are from the Summer Split all the way through Playoffs.

Table 1: Our pros’ average performance Player GP W% TEAM GPM G% DPM D% D%/G% GPM-D DPM-D DPM-D/

GPM-D Zven 16 81 1,931 24.4 694 32.4 1.32 90.2 203.9 2.7 Bang 14 50 1,812 24.1 731 29.9 1.23 41.8 167.5 4.0 PraY 9 78 1,863 22.8 654 26.7 1.16 64.2 220.6 3,4 Doublelift 14 93 1,930 23.7 602 27.2 1.14 103.2 164.9 1,6 Below Average Average Above Average

(Conditional formatting is done for just these four pros. I did it this way on purpose because I wanted to see, out of these four only, who is the best/worst. If you conditional format every ADC, these four are mostly above average and would therefore rate as various shades of green, which in my opinion, is less useful for this particular article.)

GP: games played

W%: winning percentage

Team GPM: average team gold per minute

G%: average percentage of team gold

DPM: average damage per minute

D%: average percentage of team damage

GPM-D: average gold per minute difference

DPM-D: average damage per minute difference

As you can see, Zven is a beast on Sivir. He is almost all dark-green across the board and leads everyone in D%/G% as well as DPM-D/GPM-D. Bang is rated second in D%/G% but he deals the most damage per minute when playing Sivir. He also has a high percentage of his team’s overall damage to champions as well as generating consistent gold regardless of his teammates’ picks or in-game calls. Lastly, compared to those top two, both PraY and Doublelift have lower D%/G% and seem to deal damage on Sivir less efficiently. However, it is curious that PraY has the highest DPM-D (220.6) out of these four ADCs and an above average DPM-D/GPM-D (2.0).

Several questions came to my mind when I compared these players: Is Zven an efficient damage dealer on Sivir? Do Bang’s stats vary significantly every game? Is PraY a bully? Why are Doublelift’s values so low? It is one thing to look at these season-long statistics to draw conclusions but I wanted to know what was happening from game-to-game, patch-to-patch. So I calculated all of the above stats game-by-game for each person to see just how much their individual performance fluctuated. Moreover, I looked at build pathways and patch changes, tracked teammate champions and opponent champions, and I asked for the advice from a few insiders who know the finer details better than myself.

Sivir 101 – Her typical build paths

Before I dump all of the game-by-game stats on you, I wanted to explain the typical Sivir build path. Because the pros will build their champion based on the most viable items from patch-to-patch, we need to know about the current typical Sivir build path in order to understand if Bang, PraY, Zven, or Doublelift have changed their priorities with the patches (and if those items have changed the ADCs statistical performance, which I discuss later).

I asked Massacre, an ADC who played in the NA Challenger scene this past year and a longtime #1 rank on the NA ladder, to give me a typical Sivir build path and explain why each item is chosen and in which order. Here is a pictorial representation of what he said regarding the first three items, read below for his explanation.

Table 2: Typical Sivir build paths Boots 1st Item 2nd Item 3rd Item Berserker’s Greaves Essence Reaver Phantom Dancer or Statikk Shiv or Rapid Firecannon Infinity Edge Massacre’s comments about Sivir’s build path “It is pretty simple. Just Essence Reaver[1]>Statikk Shiv or Phantom Dancer[2]>Infinity Edge[3]>Bloodthirster[4]>Last Whisper[5]. Essence Reaver is the better 1st item on Sivir (because of the +10% CDR) than Infinity Edge, and you need Infinity Edge as your 3rd item because you need the damage. As for the second item, some people say the choice between Statikk Shiv or Phantom Dancer is situational but I think it is a matter of overall preference. A lot of pros build Rapid Firecannon 2nd but I think it is troll.”

It sounds as though the Sivir build path is straightforward and simple with the only major difference being a preference in that 2nd item. Furthermore, the great thing about itemizing for Sivir is the flexibility in choice because all of those 2nd items build out of Zeal. ADCs can rush the build of Berserker’s Greaves>Essence Reaver>Zeal and then choose which completed 2nd item they want based on the situation.

Sivir build pro-edition

Next, I think it is important to show how each pro builds Sivir and see how it compares to what we heard from Massacre. What you will see below is the most common and most recent build path(s) by these four ADCs.

Table 3: Common recent build paths Zven PraY Bang Doublelift

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Regardless of which 2nd item (crit item) is chosen, the typical Sivir build will produce these main upgrades and passives when it includes Essence Reaver and Infinity Edge:

+65%-80% Attack Speed (65% for RF, 70% for SS, 85% for PD)

+45 Movement Speed

+5% Movement Speed

+140 Attack Damage

+70% Critical Strike Chance

+10% Cooldown Reduction

(ER) Passive: Gain increasingly more Cooldown Reduction from Critical Strike Chance provided by other sources (maximum +20% additional Cooldown Reduction at 30% Critical Strike Chance).

(ER) Passive: Critical strikes restore 3% of your maximum Mana pool.

(IE) Passive: Critical strike bonus damage is increased by 50%.

Furthermore, each of those 2nd items has an additional unique passive to go with the above. But some pros consistently flip-flop with their choice in crit item while others are more firm. This means that some prefer the passives of one item while others choose their 2nd item for its unique passives based on the situation. I asked Brokenshard, former LCS jungler and current professional League of Legends coach, to give his perspective on that 2nd item. I find Brokenshard to be quite thoughtful about itemization, especially with respect to team composition. He says some items are certainly the preferred choice whereas others are situational. Below is a breakdown of his thoughts to go along with each item’s unique passive.

Table 4: Logic behind each crit item Item Logic behind chosing 2nd item Phantom Dancer Unique Passives: Phantom Dancer increases movement speed near enemies, creates the ability to move through units, and reduces damage taken from the last champion you have hit.Brokenshard says, “Choose PD if you’re going to find yourself dueling or fighting people needing to reduce the damage, it is by far IMO the best for Sivir since it shores up her weaker 1V1”. Statikk Shiv Unique Passives: If you choose Statikk Shiv, moving and attacking will make an attack Energized, and those Energized attacks deal bonus magic damage on hit as well as dealing bonus damage to minions to help with wave clear.Brokenshard says, “Shiv is relatively weak on Sivir. You do not need the extra wave clear but it is a good option if that is your only job”. Rapid Firecannon Unique Passives: If you choose Rapid Firecannon, moving and attacking will make an attack Energized, and those Energized attacks gain 35% bonus range as well as dealing bonus magic damage on hit.Brokenshard says, “Firecannon is in situations where you need the extra range to run your burst combo. It is good if you find yourself kiting back a lot and not under direct pressure from divers and if you need the extra range to hit a squishy in the backline.

So there we have it. Sivir seems to have a pretty straightforward build path and the choice in 2nd item is really dependent on the person. Some players prefer Phantom Dancer, other players like to mix it up with Shiv or Firecannon based on the situation. For me, I am curious to see how every ADC builds Sivir at Worlds. The combination of Phantom Dancer and Infinity Edge are always chosen because in Patch 6.12 both of those items got a small but much needed +5 attack damage buff. Due to those buffs, the Patch 6.4 buff to her crit scaling, and the Patch 6.11 buff to Berserker’s Greaves, she has become an important champion in the current meta that has incredible wave clear to go along with great late-game damage. She certainly has the tools to carry a game or two, and as I said with the season-to-date stats, I am most curious to watch Zven get his hands on this champion.

Pro performance on Sivir through Summer Split 2016

Speaking of Zven and the other top ADCs, we have reached the point where it is important to finally discuss those game-by-game statistics. To do this I will introduce those game-by-game statistics for each ADC, highlight the highs and lows of the season and see if those highs/lows are based on patch changes or just standard ups and downs that everyone gets in every season.

Table 5: Bang in the 2016 Summer Split GP W% TEAM GPM G% DPM D% D%/G% GPM-D DPM-D DPM-D/

GPM-D Season 14 50 1,812 24.1 731 29.9 1.23 41.8 167.5 4.0 Opponent Date W/L TEAM GPM G% DPM D% D%/G% GPM-D DPM-D DPM-D/

GPM-D KT Aug 12 L 1,623 26.3 894 32.7 1.24 10.6 -323.2 -30.6 KT Aug 12 L 1,564 22.6 503 26.6 1.18 -56.5 -81.0 1.4 KT Aug 12 L 1,574 24.0 719 33.1 1.38 -54.4 81.6 -1.5 KT Aug 12 W 1,936 24.2 892 33.5 1.39 73.1 280.4 3.8 CJE July 25 L 1,674 24.5 516 29.0 1.19 -13.7 -23.9 1.8 CJE July 25 W 1,981 25.0 808 38.8 1.55 129.1 239.4 1.9 AFs July 22 L 1,636 22.8 494 19.9 0.87 -80.8 31.7 -0.4 AFs July 22 L 1,732 24.7 988 39.2 1.59 -21.7 323.7 -14.9 MVP July 11 W 2,096 25.0 897 34.0 1.36 172.2 599.3 3.5 ESC June 29 W 1,871 22.3 572 24.6 1.10 27.2 266.4 9.8 AFs June 22 L 1,441 23.2 303 16.9 0.73 -117.6 -98.6 0.8 MVP June 13 W 2,229 23.9 378 19.6 0.82 246.2 86.6 0.4 ROX June 6 W 1,971 24.5 1,197 35.6 1.45 108.8 531.7 4.9 ROX June 6 W 2,040 24.6 1,067 35.1 1.43 163.2 431.3 2.6

Note: the conditional formatting for the season is the same as in Table 1 and the conditional formatting for the game-by-game statistics is based on that ADC only.

It looks as though Bang’s D%/G% has leveled off as the season progressed, his best and worst damage efficiency Sivir games occurred earlier in the Summer Split. In that KT Rolster match during Playoffs, Bang played 4 games of Sivir while Arrow played 3 games of Jhin and 1 game of Kog’Maw for KT. It looks as though Bang had some below average performances in those final two games, but Jhin does the most damage of any meta ADC and therefore skews the overall damage data whenever he is selected by either team. In terms of DPM-D, Jhin is to ADC as Varus is to MID.

As for itemization, Bang will either go the “Bang Build” with Rapid Firecannon as his 2nd item or he will do the “PraY Build” with Infinity Edge as his 2nd item and Phantom Dancer as his 3rd item. Individually, Bang’s D%/G% stats are about the same from game to game. The reason that he has highs and lows is because of Faker’s champion choice. If Faker plays a utility mid laner, Bang has highly efficient D%/G% stats and vice versa if Faker chooses a damage mid laner. Additionally, Bang’s DPM-D is based on his opponent ADC champion. If Bang is playing Sivir and his opposing ADC is playing Jhin, Bang’s DPM-D will likely be lower. But as I just mentioned, this is a bit misrepresented because of Jhin’s current state.

Table 6: PraY in the 2016 Summer Split GP W% TEAM GPM G% DPM D% D%/G% GPM-D DPM-D DPM-D/

GPM-D Season 9 78 1,863 22.8 654 26.7 1.16 64.2 220.6 3.43 Opponent Date W/L TEAM GPM G% DPM D% D%/G% GPM-D DPM-D DPM-D/

GPM-D KT Aug 20 W 1,910 21.5 630 26.7 1.24 55.3 257.4 4.7 KT Aug 20 W 2,049 21.7 647 23.1 1.07 130.5 80.1 0.6 LZ July 18 W 2,049 21.7 911 33.4 1.46 92.0 596.9 6.5 SSG July 15 W 1,926 24.0 733 27.2 1.13 143.5 357.1 2.5 SSG July 15 W 1,930 22.2 598 21.9 0.99 96.0 210.6 2.2 KT July 13 W 1,839 22.6 651 28.3 1.25 37.6 115.2 3.1 JAG July 9 L 1,559 22.5 373 22.5 1.00 -82.0 -3.7 0.0 CJE June 15 L 1,676 25.5 754 34.8 1.36 -7.7 35.9 -4.7 KT June 8 W 1,922 22.8 586 22.1 0.97 113.0 336.2 3.0

On that July 18th game vs Longzhu, PraY had one of the legendary Sivir games of 2016. But what stands out the most is that PraY’s worst DPM-D game, July 9<supth vs Jin Air Green Wings, was still far better than any of these other four ADCs’. This shows that not only is PraY a lane bully versus the opposing ADC, he is a consistent bully.

Over the past two months, PraY has always gone Infinity Edge as his 2nd item and Phantom Dancer as his 3rd item. By doing this he loses out on some early game utility from Phantom Dancer’s unique passive but he makes up for it in overall damage dealt. PraY opts for this early game damage build, which can be punishing for his opposing ADC when they have less health. However, PraY only played nine Sivir games overall. We have less data on him playing Sivir than we do for the others.

Table 7: Doublelift in the 2016 Summer Split GP W% TEAM GPM G% DPM D% D%/G% GPM-D DPM-D DPM-D/

GPM-D Season 14 93 1,930 23.7 602 27.2 1.14 103.2 164.9 1.6 Opponent Date W/L TEAM GPM G% DPM D% D%/G% GPM-D DPM-D DPM-D/

GPM-D CLG Aug 21 W 2,003 20.8 508 18.8 0.91 36.8 -388.2 -10.6 CLG Aug 21 W 1,937 23.1 478 26.0 1.13 67.3 -49.4 -0.7 IMT July 29 W 1,965 25.6 945 34.5 1.35 153.6 3.7 P1 July 23 L 1,695 24.7 604 30.4 1.23 -13.1 91.5 -7.0 P1 July 23 W 1,952 22.6 275 22.8 1.01 116.2 -3.9 0.0 TL July 17 W 1,921 21.9 474 23.0 1.05 102.5 171.6 1.7 FOX July 16 W 1,988 25.4 796 33.4 1.31 182.3 543.5 3.0 FOX July 16 W 1,842 27.4 1,006 45.0 1.64 169.9 581.4 3.4 APX July 10 W 1,915 24.7 889 34.9 1.41 113.1 568.2 5.0 APX July 10 W 1,977 23.0 588 27.6 1.20 148.7 199.3 1.3 CLG July 3 W 1,922 23.6 554 23.3 0.99 67.0 -191.9 -2.9 CLG July 3/td> W 1,964 23.8 434 22.1 0.93 125.1 242.8 1.9 NV June 26 W 1,883 23.3 365 18.7 0.80 102.7 -42.8 -0.4 TL June 5 W 2,055 21.4 505 20.9 0.98 72.2 22.0 0.3

Of these top ADCs, Doublelift is the only one who flip-flops between Statikk Shiv and Phantom Dancer for his crit item. I assume he does this for the utility of either’s unique passive. One of Doublelift’s roles on TSM is to shot call lane assignments, so in those games where he chooses Statikk Shiv, my assumption is that the team needs better overall waveclear. Similarly, when Doublelift goes Phantom Dancer he does this when the team has enough waveclear, freeing him up to build more damage and improved skirmishing.

In the end though, Doublelift’s Sivir is still better than most pros, so his lowest rating on Sivir out of these four AD carries may be a reflection of his role within TSM and not necessarily his lack of ability. As we saw that July 29th game vs Immortals, Doublelift can carry with Sivir.

Table 8: Zven in the 2016 Summer Split GP W% TEAM GPM G% DPM D% D%/G% GPM-D DPM-D DPM-D/

GPM-D Season 16 81 1,931 24.4 694 32.4 1.32 90.2 203.9 2.3 Opponent Date W/L TEAM GPM G% DPM D% D%/G% GPM-D DPM-D DPM-D/

GPM-D SPY Aug 28 W 2,036 23.8 591 24.5 1.03 152.1 162.4 1.1 UOL Aug 21 W 1,985 22.4 745 27.5 1.23 63.0 -45.8 -0.7 UOL July 29 L 1,775 26.0 833 39.3 1.51 -19.9 -37.4 1.9 FNC July 31 W 1,913 26.1 786 29.3 1.12 60.4 -23.7 -0.4 VIT July 30 W 1,872 23.9 606 31.8 1.33 72.2 344.4 4.8 S04 July 22 W 2,011 24.6 426 24.2 0.98 111.9 155.2 1.4 H2K July 15 W 2,047 22.7 484 25.5 1.13 126.2 191.3 1.5 H2K July 15 W 2,008 23.8 993 30.8 1.30 95.8 418.1 4.4 SPY July 14 W 1,993 21.6 393 21.0 0.97 86.2 175.6 2.0 OG July 1 W 2,062 23.9 608/td> 24.9 1.04 131.7 39.5 0.3 OG July 1 L 1,687 30.4 1,115 46.6 1.53 80.9 545.7 6.7 VIT June 24 W 2,002 25.0 656 46.8 1.87 164.8 431.3 2.6 S04 June 23 W 1,942 24.0 1,138 50.0 2.08 84.3 548.1 6.5 UOL June 17 W 1,919 23.9 522 29.1 1.22 101.7 141.1 1.4 H2K June 16 L 1,578 26.6 689 46.8 1.76 24.2 250.9 10.4 SPY June 10 W 2,074 22.3 517 21.1 0.94 107.1 -34.4 -0.3

Zven almost always builds Sivir the same way, with Phantom Dancer as his 2nd item. That said, his most damage efficient games, from June 16 vs H2K to July 1 vs OG, came when he built Rapid Firecannon as his 2nd item. It was that stretch of games where he generated his best-in-the-world D%/G% efficiency on Sivir. The rest of his games were consistently good as well, except when he played Splyce. His Sivir versus Splyce games were underwhelming because Splyce did a masterful job selecting a lane-bully botlane of Lucian/Caitlyn paired with Karma/Zyra to play into the Sivir pick.

Lastly, he has not been doing this lately but if he builds Rapid Firecannon in playoffs I will get unreasonably excited as only a stats nerd would. Sure it is a small sample size of Regular Season games against varied competition but it is certainly worth pointing out. And most importantly, it is directly because of those Rapid Firecannon games that he rates so highly on this champion and why when it comes to Sivir, Zven = Beast.

Will Worlds see Zven return to beast-mode?

When compared to the entire World, all four of these ADCs are above average at dealing efficient damage on Sivir. But Zven is the absolute be(a)st on Sivir because regardless of his build, he will always deal efficient damage. As Massacre said, the standard Sivir build path is Berserker’s Greaves>Essence Reaver>Phantom Dancer>Infinity Edge. But as Brokenshard stated, some pros may slightly diverge from this standard build path because Phantom Dancer’s utility is not as suitable as the utility from Statikk Shiv or Rapid Firecannon. The ADCs can choose how they want to proceed, and each of them builds Sivir in a slightly different way.

Bang usually builds Rapid Firecannon 2nd and statistically he is the second most efficient damage dealer on Sivir. PraY rushes Infinity Edge and completes Phantom Dancer 3rd, therefore dealing more 1v1 damage but sacrificing early utility. Doublelift consistently flip-flops between Statikk Shiv and Phantom Dancer, depending on Team SoloMid’s needs.

But all that said, Zven has the best(greenest) damage statistics. Pay attention how Zven builds Sivir with his various item choices. He mostly chooses the standard Sivir build of Berserker’s Greaves>Essence Reaver>Phantom Dancer>Infinity Edge. When he chooses this build his damage efficiency statistics are only slightly better than the other fours’, but not exactly beastly’. Earlier in the season, however, Zven chose to build Rapid Firecannon as his 2nd item and it was precisely that five game stretch that improved his season-to-date Sivir statistics from ‘better than everyone else’ to ‘beast-mode activated’.

Correction: In an earlier version of this article, we made a mistake in the calculation of DPM-D/GPM-D. We also realised that we need to improve upon our formula for the metric in general and are currently working to resolve it. In the meantime, we have removed the formatting for each pros’ overall DPM-D/GPM-D in this article. Check back for updates on our new and improved damage efficiency stat.

Check out Denis’ article on the ROX Tigers as part of our Worlds coverage. If you want to know when we publish new work or update our stats, you can follow us on twitter.

Player images are taken from here.