Group A had a mix of team dynamics and styles. That will likely hold true for teams in Group B, though perhaps with more expected emphasis on jungle given the presence of Reginover, KaKAO, Hai, and Mountain. Group B teams might look for more ways to find advantages outside top lane, and gold distribution can tell us which teams might be better suited to getting an edge in bottom, jungle, or mid.

Group B

The orange line represents the World Championship average gold distribution for each role. The blue line represents the team's gold distribution in that role. All scales are relative to other differences in gold distribution from the average within that team and are meant to give a visual representation for how that team distributes gold.

Fnatic was expectedly focused on distributing more gold to top, support, and jungle than the average team. Invictus Gaming are heavily focused on top and jungle compared to other teams at Worlds. AHQ appears to be jungle and bottom lane centric, while Cloud9 focuses more resources on jungle, less resources on top, and appears to be otherwise well-rounded.

Role Group B Avg. Worlds Avg. Difference Top 20.86 20.83 +.03 Jungle 18.16 17.30 +.86 Mid 24.90 25.39 -.49 ADC 25.45 25.83 -.38 Support 10.65 10.52 +.15

As anticipated, the largest difference from average is in the jungle role. KaKAO, Reignover, and Hai are all top five gold distribution junglers at the World Championship. Mountain is number six with 17.87% of AHQ's gold. On paper, this is the group of carry junglers, but the difference in how these junglers acquire their gold is significant.

The high gold allocation for junglers seems to be at the expense primarily of mid and AD carry. Only Cloud9 has a mid laner receiving a percentage of team gold marginally above the World Championship average.

Fnatic

Role %Team gold Group Avg. Worlds Avg. Region Avg. Global Avg. Top 21.58 20.86 20.83 21.27 21.04 Jungle 17.97 18.16 17.30 16.70 17.17 Mid 24.03 24.90 25.39 25.71 25.73 ADC 24.96 25.45 25.83 26.14 26.07 Support 11.52 10.65 10.52 10.16 10.00

As expected, Huni is above average in his group, at the World Championship, within the European region, and internationally for percentage of his team gold as a top laner. Most consider Huni the damage carry of Fnatic, and a patch of carry top laners should suit him as long as he can get over his past difficulty with learning new champions quickly.

Despite being in the top five for percentage of team gold at the World Championship, Reignover is below average in gold distribution in this group. Reignover's high gold values come somewhat from the Olaf-centric compositions Fnatic ran this summer, but also since he is a heavy farm jungler. Reignover is in the top 10 of junglers for cs per minute in professional teams around the world.

Since MSI, one might not think of Reignover as an extremely proactive ganker next to the likes of Mountain or KaKAO, but Fnatic prioritizes his farm with invades and vision. In Europe, Reignover relies on high gold values to be effective in team fights, as he likes to play high damage picks like Elise, but with other high gold jungle monsters in this group, that's less of an easy advantage.

Febiven and Rekkles receive below average percentage of team gold, even in a group of teams that prioritize jungle allocation, but AHQ and Cloud9 are much more mid and AD carry oriented. Fnatic's carries are used to having impact in Europe, where mid laners and ADCs tend to receive even more of their team's resources.

Perhaps the biggest standout is YellOwStaR. With nearly 1% of team gold over the group average, YellOwStaR is known to use his extra gold for vision. Expect Fnatic's map to be lit.

Invictus Gaming

Role %Team gold Group Avg. Worlds Avg. Region Avg. Global Avg. Top 22.04 20.86 20.83 21.11 21.04 Jungle 18.31 18.16 17.30 17.78 17.17 Mid 24.99 24.90 25.39 25.12 25.73 ADC 24.87 25.45 25.83 25.82 26.07 Support 9.79 10.65 10.52 10.16 10.00

Perhaps the most surprising thing about Invictus Gaming for those expecting the KaKAO-and-Rookie show is the allocation of gold between top lane and mid. A lot of Invictus Gaming's consistencies this summer could be attributed to the team playing inexplicably passively. When iG excel, Rookie and KaKAO provide a lot of pressure, but when they fail, they passively farm and sometimes give up kills.

At times, a lot of the work of exerting early game pressure fell to Zzitai. While he wasn't always successful, iG had their best games when he could get gold and levels on his opponent. This allowed Rookie to farm easily and have a late game impact despite his and KaKAO's tendency to play more passive early games. Zzitai has also been more effective split-pushing, often acquiring free farm lanes on iG. As a result, a lot of gold resources went to Zzitai. In LPL, only looper, Flandre, and Loong received more of their team's gold than Zzitai.

As for KaKAO, Clearlove, Spirit, and Swift all had higher gold priority than KaKAO within the LPL, but only Clearlove and Hai receive more of their team's gold than he does of junglers at Worlds. He attained his gold either by farming or ganking and acquiring a lot of kills, but he has lower cs per minute values than either Hai or Reignover and more kills per game than Hai and Mountain (even kills per game with Reignover), suggesting that within this group he is more kill-oriented.

Rookie not only has below average percentage of team gold for mid laners at Worlds, but also for mid laners in LPL (but only just barely; he's ranked 7th). Rookie does receive gank and farm priority, but given iG's split-pushing, early top pressure style, he will receive less of his team's gold than the average mid. He still receives above average gold in Group B, and he and Incarnati0n may be the most carry-oriented mids in the group.

iG's bottom lane, as one may expect, are very low resource. Often, iG will bring their disengage and engage tools in their bottom lane, using them for utility. They are not expected to lane well, but Kid can sometimes carry in the late game in situations where no lanes have performed well early.

AHQ eSports Club

Role %Team gold Group Avg. Worlds Avg. Region Avg. Global Avg. Top 20.20 20.86 20.83 21.11 21.04 Jungle 17.87 18.16 17.30 17.78 17.17 Mid 25.08 24.90 25.39 25.12 25.73 ADC 26.07 25.45 25.83 25.82 26.07 Support 10.80 10.65 10.52 10.16 10.00

While AHQ has become somewhat synonymous with the name "westdoor," more gold resources are funneled toward AD carry AN relative to the average. Even within their region, AN receives a higher percentage of team gold than the average, and westdoor takes a back seat, though marginally.

Even so, westdoor receives a high percentage of team gold relative to other mid laners in the group. While Fnatic and iG use their top laner to execute 1-4 split pushes, AHQ put westdoor into a split-pushing role so he can look for duels on assassins safe from the skirmishing and stalling of the rest of the team.

If team fights do occur, Ziv is the crown jewel of Taiwanese top laners, known primarily for his pressure on Gnar and Maokai. He's able to do a lot with few resources, like many other utility tops. If westdoor is AHQ's answer to split-push, Ziv need only worry about the early game against Huni and Zzitai.

AN's strong play usually means gold for his support, Albis, who gains high passive gold through laning. He has a tendency to ward frequently, compensating for efficiency issues.

Mountain has relatively high kills per game, though still fewer than KaKAO and Reignover. He's the jungler with the lowest percentage of team gold in the group and also tends to have lower cs per minute than the others but would be considered a high gold jungler in any other group.

Cloud9

Role %Team gold Group Avg. Worlds Avg. Region Avg. Global Avg. Top 19.64 20.86 20.83 20.62 21.04 Jungle 18.51 18.16 17.30 17.30 17.17 Mid 25.50 24.90 25.39 25.49 25.73 ADC 25.91 25.45 25.83 26.58 26.07 Support 10.44 10.65 10.52 9.98 10.00

Like AHQ, Cloud9 has more mid and AD carry focus relative to Fnatic and Invictus Gaming. Incarnati0n and Sneaky are often heralded as the hard carries of the team, especially toward the end of the season when Cloud9 made their miracle run through the gauntlet.

Balls is the top laner who receives the least gold relative to his team within Group B. He's widely considered the most vulnerable. Unfortunately for Balls, he hasn't had success on very many styles at all lately, and even his signature Rumble has struggled. Whether he's not used to playing with fewer gold resources or less jungle pressure this year is hard to say, but he's been a pain point since 2015 began.

The most surprising thing about Cloud9's gold distribution is likely the high amount of gold they give to their jungler. One might expect this to be a remnant of the weighted average, given Meteos' reputation as a carry style jungler, but statistically speaking, Hai is the larger gold hog. During the regular season, Meteos only averaged 18% of his team's gold in the 10 games he played. Hai averaged 19.4% in 9 games and 18.3% in the 14 game Gauntlet run.

Hai has the third highest value for cs per minute of professional junglers in the world, just behind LPL's Spirit and the single game where BliSS played jungle Fizz (which may as well not count), but he's relatively low on average assists and kills per game of junglers internationally. Hai spends a lot of time farming on champions like Shyvana, and his early game impact is sometimes lacking as a result. It will be more difficult for him to invade teams that ward better or duel more aggressively.

One problem with Cloud9's dynamic could be that they allocate a lot of gold to their jungler in exchange for minimal pressure. Their team fighting style has always valued a jungler with a lot of gold resources, but Hai's team fight presence is also lacking. This is something for the team to consider as they go into Worlds.

Bottom Line

High gold resource junglers in this group could make the high team fight impact they're used to experiencing late game more negligible. Reignover and Hai's high values—especially Hai's—come from farming relative to KaKAO's, which seems to be more kill oriented. KaKAO's aggression could give him a higher impact and more gold early on.

As for vision, YellOwStaR's tendency to place many wards and the fact that he leads this group's supports in gold distribution could give Fnatic a vision advantage. Small percentages matter much more in terms of cheaper items like wards.

Huni and Zzitai will likely be the focal matchup of the group in the current meta with high gold distributions on both players. iG's higher top side focus could make a significant difference, but Rekkles only just barely receives more team gold than Kid.

Cloud9's awkward gold distribution could give them a distinct disadvantage in this group with junglers whose higher gold values translate into additional pressure.

All non-LPL data are taken from OraclesElixir.com. LPL gold distribution data are found the PLU website.

Kelsey Moser is a staff writer for theScore eSports. You can follow her on Twitter.