What G2 analysts do and how we got here

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Background on the analyst role:

For ERL’s most teams only have 1 analyst, however for LEC they expand their coaching staff and most staff have 1 in-house analyst as well as remote analysts too. However this varies between orgs. There are many types or specialities of analysts, and their roles vary however all complement each other.

The Analyst structure at G2:

Head Analyst - Duffman - In-House. Covers the roles of both Assistant Coach and Head Analyst. My main Analytical role is to make sure everyone (players + staff) has access to all of the information they need in the easiest way possible. I collect the information together and work out how we will present and work with it. My Coaching role is then using that information to think about how we use it in our day to day practice by helping set the training goals for the week alongside the Head Coach.

Scout - Luci - Remote - Luci’s main role is to provide weekly Scouting Reports on our upcoming opponents. This involves scouting the play of the team as a whole, the players individually as well the tendencies / patterns that emerge from that. Additionally she provides us with the specific things in scrims that we need to work on in scrims in order to prepare for each opponent so that we can set up our training in the best possible way to be ready for the week ahead.

Data Analyst - TBC - Remote. Responsible for collecting data manually from our scrims in order to let us track our progress on the Coaching Staff’s weekly goals as well as the goals from Luci’s Scouting Reports.

Luci - My esports career and how I got here

Previous Teams:
June 2017 - May 2018 = Excel (Remote analyst)
May 2018 - December 2018 = BIG (Remote analyst)
January 2019 - September 2019 = Excel LEC (Remote Analyst - In-House Player Manager)
December 2019 - Present = G2 (Remote Analyst)

Esports for me was something I purely stumbled across. I got into League through school friends and wanted to become as good as them at the game (They were Plat elo LEL) and imagined a world of playing video games for a living. So I researched competitive league and stumbled across the UK league and eventually LCS. I knew my mechanics were no good and I had no chance of becoming a player so I looked into other ways of being involved in esports - and came across coaching and analysing. My friend at the time was involved in UK esports and helped me build a portfolio to show to teams and get some trials to get a taste of how scrims and teams worked etc. It was very clear to me that I was not confident enough to be a coach,and decided that becoming an analyst was a better fit for me instead.

I was with Enclave for about a month or so learning from their academy team before joining Excel as their remote analyst. Looking back I feel like I really had 0 game knowledge and idea of what esports truly was and the work that went behind league teams. I had never done coding or computing at school, and I still haven’t to this day. I am a 3rd year pharmacy student which is about as far as you can get from gaming.

However, I was a fast learner and had tremendous help at the start from the coaches I was working with, people I had contacted and also the players themselves. They helped me build a basis for my analytical work which mostly consisted of very basic stuff to start off with (yes - op.gg scouting) before adding things such as Lvl 1’s, warding tendencies, draftings and jungle pathing.

Between XL and BIG was a weird time for me, having been a relatively new analyst with no real experience out of the UK, I applied for the TSM remote analyst at an opening position (meaning no experience was needed). I worked for 3 days straight on my application and finally sent it off. I was then interviewed, however hard choked when it mattered and never heard from them again. It was only until recently I found out the position ended up going to Duffman :)). I then joined BIG before going back to Excel.

Many people ask about how I got into LEC and if I could describe it in one word, it would be luck. I was very lucky that I had worked with Excel before they made LEC and they liked my work, so were happy to take me back on board. Honestly joining LEC was the biggest reality shock for me in my life. It was my dream, however accomplishing it so soon after starting from nothing, was also a big scare for me. I was surrounded by so many amazing people with years of experience and expertise and I felt like a little inexperienced child. That being said, I had tremendous help from the coaching staff, in particular Jarge (And OG Kayys) who really helped me evolve my analytical work from something relatively basic, that every analyst in ERL league can do, to something really LEC worthy. This is when I considered I had fully specialised into a Scouting Analyst.

Excel to G2 was again… luck. Having taken a split off to be in-House player manager for Excel, I was afraid my portfolio as an analyst was out-dated and no longer up to standard. Therefore I went to other people for feedback and reassurance before I messaged every team in the LEC to ask if they had any positions open. G2 were the team that responded to me the fastest as they had wanted to expand their analyst team for a while but hadn’t publicly announced it yet and seemed very happy with my work and attitude. And here I am today :)

For people wondering how to kick start their analyst career, it will be hard to start off with but once you get into it, things will get easier for you. Analysts are lucky because they can have portfolios and they can use that as proof of their skills and what they can bring to a team when applying and trialing. It is important to network and keep good relations with co-workers because you will never know when you will work with them again in the future, or when they may recommend you for a job. It is a time consuming job and may be draining for you but seeing your team use the work you provide and affect how they think about a game is what makes it all worthwhile.

Duffman - My esports career and how I got here

Previous Teams:
2015 - Copenhagen Wolves (LCS) - “Data” Analyst
2016 - G2 Esports - Remote Head Analyst
2017- G2 Esports - Remote Head Analyst (Spring) // InHouse Manager (Summer)
2018 Spring - TSM - Remote Analyst
2018 Summer-Present - G2 Esports - InHouse Assistant Coach + Head Analyst

Before Esports
Before Esports, I went to University to study Computer Games Technology (the programming and tech around the games industry). I fell ill in the 4th year of the degree and had to resit exams and defer my final dissertation and graduation. By the time I had surgery and recovered from that - I had managed to scrape to a 2:2 degree, but with virtually no work or portfolio to show for it, finding a job with it would be difficult.

During my 4th year, I used League of Legends as my escape. The Esports side of things was starting to really take off, and I was like everyone else dreaming of getting into it. Since I needed to work on my programming and to build up a portfolio, I started messing around with creating small programs and spreadsheets to work on League of Legends related stuff. Very simple things like making match reports from Match History Data and eventually from the RiotAPI.

By the end of 2014, Riot made it mandatory for teams to have a Head Coach on stage and teams in general were looking for more and more staff to assist their players. I saw a post from Copenhagen Wolves looking for a new coach and analyst so I set up my work into a portfolio and sent in an application.

After a few weeks of back and forth asking questions about my API work, they asked me to do a review of one of their series from the previous season. I sent that in and they invited me to participate in a block of scrims. Well I really bombed it. I’d never done a live vod review of games so I was really out of my depth. When I’d helped teams it was usually via text or through a recording.

In the end, I deservedly didn’t get the spot - but apparently the owner really liked my data work and saw potential in it. So they made a new position for me to essentially be a Data Analyst (with no guide on what that meant - they just offered a small amount per split).

CW->G2
At the end of 2015, CW sort of imploded with most of the players leaving. This is when their Head Analyst [Laurynas ‘Angelas’ Brovka] came in and took over a bit and discovered my work. We started working together for the last few weeks of the split and I got a proper chance to show what I could do.

Going into 2016, I was at essentially my last chance. If I couldn’t make a sustainable career out of Esports this off-season, I was going to have to give it up and get back to real life. I was applying for positions at multiple teams. Follow Esports (which became Splyce) and Fnatic were both looking for Analysts. I didn’t hear anything back from Splyce, but Fnatic replied to me saying that they liked my portfolio but needed more work on the Review side of things as I’d rushed it.

Later the same evening I got a message on skype from Youngbuck who had started working as a Coach since leaving Copenhagen Wolves. He straight up offered me a position as his Head Analyst of the other team joining the LCS, Gamers2. I had to choose between continuing to work on the review and potentially having a chance of working with Fnatic OR I had a guaranteed LCS spot.

I wasn’t really in the position to be a chooser though, and I appreciated Joey coming to me directly. I told Fnatic I was going to withdraw my application, accepted Joey’s offer and apart from a single unfortunate split at TSM (sorry Luci XD), have been the Head Analyst here since.

[I later found out that it was the Head Analyst of CW that had told Joey to pick me up after he’d approached him. So I really do owe Lauris a huge thanks for pretty much saving my Esports career.]

Advice for Analysts
My advice to those wanting to work in esports is to think about where they would bring value. Think about what you can offer an organisation - and work towards finding your way of displaying that value. Whether that be through creating content, building a portfolio or some other way - It’s about giving the organisation a taste of what you are looking to offer. This is especially true if you aren’t answering a direct job advertisement.

For example in my scenario - I was looking to provide information and data to help teams prepare. So I built my portfolio around that and showed that although my knowledge was weak in my tryout, I still had something that the organisation saw value in. Another example in Luci’s scenario - she was sending her portfolio to teams, which featured her notes on Scouting opponents. I saw enough information there that I had used in preparing our team for the LEC Finals a month or so earlier that I knew she was someone who would bring value to the team.

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