While Group A saw a high percentage of gold for AD carries, skewed by Doublelift's presence, and Group B was about high gold junglers, Group C features a huge split with very dynamic teams that lead Worlds averages in role gold distributions.

Group C

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.

There are very few trends for teams in Group C, but the highest percentage of team gold top laner, MaRin, and the highest percentage of team gold jungler, Clearlove, are mixed in with teams that tend to distribute low gold resources to top or jungler. Similarly, Kasing earns the highest percentage of team gold for supports attending Worlds, and G4 the highest percentage of team gold of mids in attendance. This will likely skew a lot of the group average results. It's also interesting to think about how these extremes will interact.

Role Group B Avg. Worlds Avg. Difference Top 20.82 20.83 -.01 Jungle 17.02 17.30 -.28 Mid 25.56 25.39 +.17 ADC 25.82 25.83 -.01 Support 10.73 10.52 +.21

It's a shame all teams in the group don't have similar skill level, as the interaction of extreme styles with different gold distributions would be interesting to witness. Even though the group features the top laner and jungler in the tournament with the highest percentage of team gold overall, the group average is below the average for the tournament in these roles.

In general, because of the interaction of extremes, this group looks extremely representative of the tournament numerically. In practice, the teams in Group C present a wide array of unique styles and should make for an entertaining group.

SKT Telecom T1

Role %Team gold Group Avg. Worlds Avg. Region Avg. Global Avg. Top 23.71 20.82 20.83 21.68 20.83 Jungle 16.35 17.02 17.30 17.12 17.17 Mid 25.44 25.55 25.39 26.08 25.73 ADC 23.92 25.82 25.83 25.83 26.07 Support 10.49 10.74 10.52 9.31 10.00

MaRin's percentage of team gold as a top laner is just .21% less than Bang's gold share as an AD carry. This is a trait entirely unique to SK Telecom T1. MaRin and Ssumday have gold values more than a full percentage point higher than Zzitai, the third highest top laner for percentage of team gold at Worlds.

For SK Telecom T1, that means MaRin is on the receiving end of a lot of ganks. bengi has a tendency to gank MaRin's lane before any other on SKT. In rare cases where SKT lost games this summer, interference from the opposing jungler caused MaRin to fall behind. He seems to be an all-or-nothing player who can pressure a lead well with one, but will have very minimal impact from behind. The jungle interaction between bengi and Clearlove on this front could control the game.

The surprising thing is the large impact mid laner Faker has with a limited percentage of his team's gold. Like Rookie on Invictus Gaming, however, an early pressure top laner doesn't mean Faker doesn't get gold. Of players who played more than ten games this season, MaRin and Faker had the highest cs and gold leads at ten minutes in the LCK. SKT as a team is held up by their solo laners receiving high gold values, even if a higher percentage of team gold goes to MaRin.

The two b's of the team, Bang and bengi, curb their resources the most for MaRin's success. bengi's percentage of team gold is only higher than loulex among junglers at Worlds, and Bang's is the lowest of all AD carries. In LCK, low gold junglers and supports often spend most of their resources on vision, which can be very punishing if a team falls behind and in team fight situations. SKT's ability to get leads with vision, however, mean they often crush through laning phase without incident.

Wolf has high gold distribution among supports in his region, which can help his overall survivability, but other supports in this group receive more gold overall.

Edward Gaming

Role %Team gold Group Avg. Worlds Avg. Region Avg. Global Avg. Top 20.51 20.82 20.83 21.11 20.83 Jungle 19.20 17.02 17.30 17.78 17.17 Mid 24.40 25.55 25.39 25.12 25.73 ADC 25.34 25.82 25.83 25.82 26.07 Support 10.56 10.74 10.52 10.16 10.00

It may be surprising that, of top laners in Group C, Edward Gaming's top laners receive the next highest percentage of team gold after MaRin at more than 3% less than his average. In general, in games where AmazingJ played, he received a higher percentage of team gold than Koro1, so depending on who will play in World Championship Group stages, EDG will have a slightly different dynamic.

In the past, a shift in dynamic to be more mid or top favored has caused problems for Edward Gaming. Though Deft has lower than average gold distribution for AD carries, he still is the primary focus of jungle ganks and has struggled more in lane when resources are allocated elsewhere. Yet without a shift in dynamic, EDG may become predictable or fall behind in the top-centric meta.

Clearlove's high percentage of team gold is a reflection of his tendency to acquire a lot of kills. He received more kills per game than any other jungler in his region and the highest of any attending the tournament. He has more than 2% of team gold than the group average for junglers, meaning it's likely most of his opposition will want to avoid invades or direct duels during mid and late game.

pawN is responsible for drawing pressure for Edward Gaming, which he does regardless of gold lead over his opposition. As a result, his gold percentage is very conservative within Edward Gaming.

Though meiko is below average in terms of percentage of team gold in the group, he's top six of supports for percentage of team gold in the tournament and has the second highest value in the group. Edward Gaming seems to allocate gold to meiko for increased warding, and at MSI he often outwarded enemy supports (Wolf) from behind.

H2K Gaming

Role %Team gold Group Avg. Worlds Avg. Region Avg. Global Avg. Top 20.06 20.82 20.83 21.27 20.83 Jungle 15.50 17.02 17.30 16.70 17.17 Mid 25.27 25.55 25.39 25.71 25.73 ADC 27.51 25.82 25.83 26.14 26.07 Support 11.56 10.74 10.52 10.16 10.00

H2K's gold distribution is heavily bottom lane-centric. Halfway through summer, more emphasis was placed on Odoamne than Ryu, but especially beginning in Playoffs, Ryu assumed more of a carry role. Some gold distribution may spill over to him at the World Championship with H2K's changing identity.

A lot of teleport and roam pressure is placed toward bottom lane on H2K, and both Hjarnan and Kasing have benefited. Kasing often plays a dive role for his team and uses his high gold values for more tanky items or incidentals on champions like Thresh. Hjarnan sometimes fills the playmaker void, but also will have kills gifted to him. A majority of team kills go to Hjarnan—even though Ryu gets all the pentas!

Odoamne is bottom two in the group for percentage of team gold among top laners. He often sacrifices success in his own laning phase for his team and supplements his value by finding the right time in a fight to back, heal, and re-engage with Teleport. As a result, H2K might not be as effective without extended team fights.

Because of the high gold values on bottom lane and increasing gold values on mid, loulex has taken the brunt of the hit. As the jungler with the lowest percentage of team gold at the World Championship, he's often punished in engagements and gets shredded easily with item disadvantages.

Bangkok Titans

Role %Team gold Group Avg. Worlds Avg. Region Avg. Global Avg. Top 19.00 20.82 20.83 20.87 20.83 Jungle 17.00 17.02 17.30 16.10 17.17 Mid 27.10 25.55 25.39 26.46 25.73 ADC 26.50 25.82 25.83 26.33 26.07 Support 10.40 10.74 10.52 10.24 10.00

It's hard to say whether Bangkok Titans have a plan for allocating their gold or if they just sort of run at the enemy team and take whatever sticks. The sample size, as with paiN gaming, is limited to the International Wildcard tournament, and BKT only has ten games from which to draw. As a result, conclusions should be taken lightly.

Lloyd has been a staple of BKT since before GPL split from LMS as one of the strong players from Thailand, so it seems likely he'll receive a high percentage of team gold. When BKT needs a trump card, it's usually Lloyd.

G4, however, has the highest percentage of team gold of any mid laner attending the World Championship. At Wildcard Turkey, he got massive gold leads by sometimes 1v2ing his opponent and opposing jungler. It's pretty safe to say this won't happen against Ryu, pawN, or Faker. This factor could significantly change the amount of gold G4 is allocated at Worlds.

Expectedly low gold allocation for support and top is in line with the idea that, in less developed regions, gold will be amassed on single damage dealers. 17% of team gold on 007x, the team's jungler, is a bit surprising, but he enjoyed a fair amount of free time to farm at the Turkish tournament while G4 1v2'd mid.

Bottom Line

This group provides an opportunity for very extreme interactions. Clearlove and MaRin in particular have an opportunity to abuse high gold distributions against their opposites who tend to receive lower percentages of their teams' resources and will have to do so to justify the investments.

If Koro1 can lane easily against MaRin with fewer resources as he did in MSI, this will seem like a waste of SKT's resources. Similarly, if Clearlove can't impact the game in team fights with many of his team's kills, Edward Gaming will have thrown that gold down the drain.

H2K's kaSing will look to throw himself more actively into team fights with high gold distributions and more defensive items in the support role. His values could mean the difference between an effective all-in or wasted cooldowns on the enemy team, especially with supports often looking like easy targets.

G4's high percentage of team gold is somewhat troubling, as it's unclear how BKT can fair without a massive lead on their mid laner.

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

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