Karma was played a total of nine games between rounds two and three of the Play-In stage at Mid-Season Invitational. She was played eight times as a support in the bottom lane and once in the mid lane. Seeing as Karma has become a contested support champion, and support players are often overlooked, it is important to see which pros are contributing most with The Enlightened One.
1. SwordArt (Flash Wolves)
Judging Hu “SwordArt” Shuo-Jie off of one game seems unfair, but against Supermassive he played much better than any other support Karma listed below. He ended with a 19.0 KDA, 76% kill participation, and 326 damage per minute – far ahead of everyone else.
What truly sets SwordArt apart, though, is his positioning. SwordArt positions himself in ways that enable his teammates to play aggressively, engage, and escape. He was one of few Karma supports to choose Exhaust as a summoner spell, which he utilized beautifully against Lee Sin and Fizz to reduce damage and speed. Finally, Redemption placement allowed Flash Wolves to consistently turn fights back in their favor.
2. Biofrost (TSM)
TSM’s support played Karma in their three wins to reverse sweep Gigabyte Marines. Vincent “Biofrost” Wang plays teamfights exceptionally with Karma. He consistently damages, roots, and shields the correct champions to make the best of situations. Biofrost gets into Ignite range several times to finish off low-health enemies. He outplays several of GAM’s players throughout the series. However, GAM baits and outplays Biofrost a couple of times, too.
There were a handful of times during the series that WildTurtle and Biofrost seemed to be out of sync. WildTurtle mispositions, gets caught out, which forces Biofrost to run or die. A 4.4 KDA, 67.4% kill participation, and 266 gold ahead at 10 minutes are solid statistics. However, Biofrost averaged 22.6% of TSM’s death share on Karma.
3. Dumbledoge (Supermassive)
As a veteran of international competition, it is not surprising that Mustafa Kemal “Dumbledoge” Gökseloğlu plays over-aggressively. One of Karma’s strengths as a champion is her acceleration and shielding, which tend to give support players a false sense of security for roaming, face-checking, and engaging fights. Gigabyte Marines punished Dumbledoge’s tendency to overextend less frequently, but it was blatantly obvious against Flash Wolves. Watching the highlights, notice the moments where he gets chunked and survives against GAM, but locked down and deleted against FW.
There are several moments where Dumbledoge decides to shield himself rather than primary carries. His average numbers on Karma are middling to low: 2.6 KDA, 60.5% kill participation, 22% death share, and 106 experience ahead at 10 minutes. Flash Wolves’ routing of Supermassive skews the statistics, which is not entirely Dumbledoge’s fault, but his gameplay overall was not great on Karma.
4. Archie (Gigabyte Marines)
Gigabyte Marines had firm showings against TSM and Supermassive last weekend. However, Minh “Archie” Nhựt Trần did not play very well on Karma. His positioning and decision-making were not the best. And even though he was present during key fights, he did not contribute much with the champion. Flashing directly into high damage, overstaying fights instead of fleeing, hesitating to peel, and other misplays are in the highlights.
While Archie maintained a decent KDA on Karma throughout the tournament, 5.0, he averaged a 25% share of Gigabyte Marines’ deaths. Archie also averaged 62.5% kill participation, 164 damage per minute, and 7.6% of his team’s damage – all very low for support Karma. Finally, Archie started out 206 experience behind at 10 minutes, which is significantly worse than the other supports listed above.
MSI Player-Champion Statistics: http://oracleselixir.com/statistics/champions/2017-spring-players-by-champion/
Conqueror Karma Splash Image: http://www.surrenderat20.net/2017/04/411-pbe-update.html
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