Zirene · @LoLZirene
12th Aug 2016 from TwitLonger
RE: Thoorin.Reasoning for Hauntzer All-Pro Top Laner
This is long, but this is my full explanation for my All-Pro Top Laner pick.
There was much in the video posted by Thoorin today (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DQScBUktzM) about the NALCS All-Pro Team voting process that I agreed with: trolling on your ballot mocks the process, bias comes into play too often, and that the voting should be taken seriously.
I do, however, disagree with Thoorin about how TSM having 4/5 or even 3/5 of the best players in their roles, and one of them being Hauntzer, is ridiculous (https://youtu.be/2DQScBUktzM?t=756). For context my ballot was as follows:
Hauntzer, Reignover, Bjergsen, Doublelift, Aphromoo. 3/5ths of the 1st place roster.
I took this vote seriously and did my research. After watching a lot of vods and wrestling back and forth between Huni and Hauntzer for my top lane All-Pro vote, I eventually arrived at the conclusion that Hauntzer was the best top laner in the Summer 2016 Regular Season of the NALCS.
After seeing how much Thoorin disagreed with it, I felt it necessary to explain my reasoning behind my top lane selection of Hauntzer for the All-Pro Team.
League of Legends does make the winning team look good, there is no doubt about that. So when using stats and the eye test one has to parse through the noise like a padded KDA etc., in all but extreme cases, and use one's best judgement. LoL is also a team based game where your teammate's performances will directly, and indirectly influence the perception of your own performance. Taking all of this into consideration I still strongly believe that Hauntzer is the best performing top laner in the NALCS this split.
Because there was such a big emphasis on removing team performance from the equation (https://youtu.be/2DQScBUktzM?t=1208) I'll be using the stats I felt were most relevant when comparing Hauntzer and Huni's performances.
Hauntzer creates his own advantages:
-Hauntzer is number 1 in Pre-15 minute 1v1 solo kills. Huni is tied for 4th, but Huni is also 2nd in Pre-15 minute kills where he has a single assist on his kill (usually Reignover) which is indicative of receiving the majority of ganks/resources from his team. I used Pre-15 minute solo kills due to the fact solo kills later on in the game it becomes harder to separate your performance from your team's if they set you up accordingly to split push etc.
-Hauntzer is number 1 in CSDifferential@10 with +7.8, the next highest being Huni with +5.3. These guys are both absolutely smashing their top lane opposition, but to give more context on it +7.8 CSD@10 is the highest in the ENTIRE league. Hauntzer is beating his lane opponents in farm harder than anyone is beating their lane opponents in farm.
---Lane swaps by a superior team will always make their top laner look better due to proper execution and not 'fucking it up'. Sure you're right. So let's remove lane swaps from the question and only use standard lane statistics-> Hauntzer is still number 1 for top laners with +9 CSD@10 in standard lanes.... The next highest is Huni with +5 CSD@10. Hauntzer is doing even more work in standard lanes in straight up 1v1 match ups than Huni is doing with the help of Reignover!
Hauntzer's style is versatile:
-Having played 12 Irelia, 8 Swain, 6 Gnar, 5 Shen, 4 Trundle, 2 Maokai, 2 Ekko, 1 Fizz, and 1... Teemo.... Now other's definitions of "Tank" will vary but for me Shen, Trundle, Maokai, Ekko, and Gnar are all tanks here. So 19 out of 41, below half, of Hauntzer's games are on tanks. Compared to Huni's 8 out of 43 games.
---(https://youtu.be/2DQScBUktzM?t=935). Sure Hauntzer is a "role" player, but that shouldn't be a knock against him. If anything, being able to have the types of performances Hauntzer has while playing a diverse range of styles should absolutely be a point in his favor.
Did I mention Hauntzer creates his own advantages?:
-Not only is Hauntzer killing the most opponents in 1v1 match ups Pre-15 minutes and out farming his enemy laner more than any other player in the league... Hauntzer is doing it by himself. Hauntzer has the LOWEST. The jungle participation on Hauntzer's lane is the LOWEST out of all top laners in NA at 70.42% of his pre-15 minute kills having his jungler involved. On the flipside, Huni has the HIGHEST out of all top laners with 88.46%! This is literally the most assisted top laner, vs. the least assisted top laner in the league.
-Even if we just go by junglers being present around the top lane and putting their focus there, because sometimes ganks don't work etc. Immortals are number 1 AGAIN at 15.1% of Reingover's time in the early game being spent within 2000 range of Huni. Hauntzer is dead last in this category and only takes up 8.7% of Svenskeren's time in the early game in STANDARD lanes
Thoorin states "Accomplishments are for Role Players, Awards are for Star Players. I think the best top laner should be one of the primary carries on his team, the team is in some sense built around him, the team succeeds as a result of his incredible performance, not just because of his performances... it's because of his performances PRIMARILY, not his performances contributing to other bigger performances in his team, which are the main motivators for winning. This is how the best top laner should be decided".
You do not need to have your team built around you to be the best player for your role. These players will loook the best, but you do not need to build around them. If this were the case then Ray would be the All-Pro Top Lane, because the largest contributing factor in Apex's wins were PRIMARILY due to Ray's performances.
Hauntzer may not have to carry his team, but he can. He will take carry performances away from Bjergsen, and Doublelift sometimes. But he understands that versatility in style opens up his teammates to play different champions and create a better team overall. If we give Bjergsen credit for being able to play so many different things well, then we have to give the same credit to Hauntzer.
"Sometimes a top laner will put themselves in positions where they have to die for the team" that is no doubt true that play makers will always put themselves at risk when engaging a fight for their team. But consider this: Huni has 147 deaths vs. Hauntzer's 89. Okay that's not a fair comparison because Hauntzer's team absolutely crushes it in the late game. So let's not just compare them against each other. Let's compare them across Huni across the board to teams like Echo Fox, NRG, P1 etc. that were in the relegation tournament. Huni is #1 in deaths per game in the ENTIRE LEAGUE. Yes out of 50 players Huni is #1 with 3.42 deaths per game on average!!!!!
To the argument of separating team performance from individual performance: Taking Huni's performance without the context of Reignover helping him is much harder to do, if not almost impossible to do, than looking at Hauntzer's performance without the context of TSM helping him isn't. Because they don't.
If you're getting so much help from your jungler that you hold the stat for most jungle attention in the league for your role, and then you average the most deaths per game in the league?! How can I select Huni when Hauntzer has been creating his own advantages, versatile, and has been the best performing top laner in the league?
If you aren't convinced by statistics, go watch the games over again. The decisions that Huni engages in have cost him and his team so much in their games to the point he is dying more than anyone in the league. Huni may very well be the best top laner in the league. But he isn't playing like it, Hauntzer is.
Thank you for reading! These were my thoughts when casting my vote for the All-Pro NALCS Top Laner. I did not take this vote likely and I will value some categories higher than others (versatility etc.), but I feel the explanation and my reasoning is warranted.
TL;DR Huni vs. Hauntzer for number 1 All-Pro Top Laner. Huni dies the most per game in the league, while getting the most attention from his jungler, and hasn't been the main carry of his team this split (Pobelter & Reignover have done some crazy work). While Hauntzer is number 1 in CSD@10 in standard lanes, has the most early game 1v1 kills, is versatile, and has received the least amount of help out of all top laners. Huni may have a higher ceiling of potential than Hauntzer, but in the context of the 2016 NALCS Summer Split Hauntzer was the best performing top laner.