* Courtesy of Riot Games

The job of an analyst is to give their professional opinion on the topic of their expertise. Whether this is an NFL commentator talking about who their pick is for the Super Bowl or an analyst’s pick of choosing Mayweather over McGregor because he’s an actual boxer. The opinion of these professionals is important because they live and breathe these matches, having watched more matches and seen more data than the average fan. These broadcasters and analysts also give the breath of life to the scene and allow for more than just statistics and hard analytics to be prevalent. Here’s where the idea of bias comes in and why fans shouldn’t hate a commentator or analyst for being human and wanting to give a truthful opinion.

The Cloud 9 narrative has been pushed a ton, specifically about Nicolaj “Jensen” Jensen, let’s not lie about that fact, but there’s a reason for that. Jensen has had one of the best splits he’s ever had, with phenomenal statistics and a clear advantage against most of his opposition. When we look at the complaints that were made during the C9 vs Team Dignitas match, many of the comments were looking from a results-based point of view. “Jensen lost, but it’s funny how he’s voted All-Pro mid laner”. If that’s your argument, it’s weak, in that, firstly, MVP votes aren’t holistically based on team play, but on the specific player, their contribution to the team and their individual skill within the season. Good players ≠ good team play (i.e. KT Rolster, Lira). One can assume this isn’t what many people are arguing, since it’s inherently a poor thought process and indicative of simple trash talk in post-game threads, which is what it should be taken for, banter. The crucial thing to discuss is exactly why there was a C9 narrative before the DIG match started.

* Courtesy of Riot Games

C9 were expected to do well against DIG because of multiple reasons. They had beaten TSM in Week 5 and also beaten DIG in Week 7, two very tough opponents. The current meta of tanks being a viable top lane pick for Jung ”Impact” Eon-Yeong also comes into play when considering if C9 can win the match up against DIG. Impact was known to have done exceptional last split on tank top laners and with his experience in high-pressure matches and the form he showed in last playoffs, it’s not irrational to think he could stand up to the All-Pro top laner of Kim “Ssumday” Chan-ho. Couple that with Jensen doing well this split and against Lae-Young “Keane” Jang, a mismatch that was thought to go heavily in C9’s favor and be one of the key conditions to blow open the game against DIG, all the while having a stable veteran bot lane of Zachary “Sneaky” Scuderi and Andy “Smoothie” Ta to not get destroyed by DIG’s rising bot lane, one can see there’s a recipe for success amongst this quarterfinal match up. Not only should we judge this narrative from the quarterfinal predictions, but the amount of buzz that’s been given to C9 this season.

Fans may be overwhelmed by the fact that C9 has been talked about quite a bit during this split, but what might be often forgotten is that the narrative is coming from multiple sources. Casters, analysts, journalists and even fans can push a specific narrative and when it all gets convoluted with one another, it can become difficult to separate these ideas after a long split spanning 9 weeks. Along with this, emotions can escalate for fans that are having their favorite pros “challenged for the throne” with Jensen vs Bjergsen. This story line is relevant as it includes a player which has had a spectacular split and another who has won the most MVP votes of all-time in the NA LCS, meanwhile both play the same position and are from long-time rival organizations. As one can see, there’s a lot for fans to be passionate about. All of these conditions add to the irrational thought that such a narrative is solely coming from the broadcast team.

If a group of players have been statistically proven to play at a high level, it’s not an unhealthy bias to push that they are expected to perform well. If fans are truly looking for an unbiased and untruthful opinion from these analysts, then maybe that’s what Riot, their casters, analysts and entire journalist scene should give. Maybe everyone should follow in Mark Zimmerman’s footsteps and play devil’s advocate by saying CLG will take the series against IMT, even though truly believing otherwise. This type of analysis appeals to a wider audience and is used to appease fans from both sides, which is an excellent approach when thinking from a business standpoint. When someone gives a devil’s advocate view, it allows fans some hope that the match will be entertaining and not simply lopsided. One has a reason to watch the match because they don’t necessarily know the result, and those that aren’t particular fans of those teams might have more reason to watch because it will be an entertaining match. When playing devil’s advocate, it’s a loss for the one presenting such a false opinion, because they lose credibility with their opinions for future predictions and analysis. In one sense, this is fantastic for the business because it draws more eyes, more hype, but it is essentially spelling the undoing of the analyst if done frequently. I would also say that playing devil’s advocate is another bias, but can be done situational to appear as if it’s offsetting bias. So, if fans want an analyst to provide a devil’s advocate constantly, then maybe casters, analysts and journalists should be replaced with liars. If they want pure unbiased opinions, then maybe replace the staff with robots.