Counter Logic Gaming’s First Blood Streak That Didn’t Matter During the 2021 Spring Split

For fourteen games during the 2021 Spring Split, Counter Logic Gaming did something pretty incredible: they secured fourteen straight first bloods. It was a feat that hadn’t been seen before in North America, a streak unlike any other. Because during that period of time, the team would only win three games. Doing the easy math, that means they lost eleven times.

Eleven.

First bloods are not by any means a binding statistic to early game and overall team excellence. But it should matter and play a decent role in creating a winning position…right?

First bloods provide the immediate bonus of gold but on average also provide an experience bonus and a map control bonus. Here’s the average performance of teams during the spring split when they secured first blood.

Counter Logic Gaming’s fourteen-period stretch was a little bit different.

How did they fumble this bad during this incredible stretch?

Here’s a breakdown of the first blood participation. There are a few things we can take from this brief statistic:

There’s a lot of action on the top side of the map with Jason “WildTurtle” Tran being the lone man out of the picture. It is somewhat understandable given his career trajectory — evolving from “hotshot carry” to “grizzled veteran.” He was one of two members of CLG to average gold leads at both ten (+185) and fifteen minutes (+57) during the stretch and was the only one to do so while playing all fourteen games.

The other man who averaged gold leads at ten (+188.2) and fifteen minutes (+198.2) was Eugene “Pobelter” Park. It just so happens that the mid-lane was involved a ton in first bloods. Pobelter would only be a part of five out of the fourteen games mentioned due to an early-season benching connected to disputes with the coaching staff. His counterpart, Alexey “rjs” Zatorski, would also be involved early in matches.

The junglers of Counter Logic Gaming also found themselves involved in the first blood conversation.

And then there is the top laner Finn “Finn” Wiestål. He had a 57% participation rate in first bloods. FlyQuest’s Eric “Licorice” Ritchie followed closely with a 43% participation rate. And then there is a steep drop-off among top-laners participating in first blood. He also wasn’t necessarily reaping the full reward — only securing three out of the eight kills he participated in.

Finn was an interesting prospect to follow in 2021. At the end of 2020, Rogue moved on from Finn in favor for a more established veteran in the space — despite Finn being their best member at the 2020 World Championship. He came to North America with a lot to prove but more importantly, wanted to prove he was still one of the better European top laners available.

He was involved early but his drop-off between ten and fifteen minutes was incredibly concerning. Most notably, while still establishing a strong experience lead, his opposition was able to find a way back into the game develop a pretty nice gold lead.

The team as a whole would follow a similar fate.

At ten minutes, the team was averaging a gold lead of +199 and an experience lead of 211.42 while averaging a creep score deficit of -8.5. In a five-minute period of time, they suddenly were down 416.7 gold, down 109.5 experience and down 9.6 in creeps. The bonus from first blood helps explains some of that.

The average time of a CLG first blood was roughly between six and seven minutes into the game. Only two times did CLG secure their first blood after ten minutes. Eight of their first bloods were secured before the start of typical second jungle clear — seven minutes into the game. While providing a clear advantage, it is relatively difficult for a team to take full advantage of what the kill offers. CLG would have a 57% first dragon rate and a terrible 35.7% first herald rate in fourteen games.

At ten minutes, CLG were out-slaying their opponents 17 to 14. Between ten and fifteen minutes, CLG is once again out-slaying their opponents but only to a margin of 14 to 13. In their losses, they would experience on average a deficit of -768 between minutes ten and fifteen. Only in three matches did they improve on their gold difference between minutes ten and fifteen. They did not win any of those matches.

Can we just blame everyone?

Can we just blame everyone for this?

During his time on the main roster, Griffin left a lot on the table. He set forth the idea that “any replacement may be better suited for this team.” In six games, he averaged a 64% kill participation, a 2.7 KDA, a -23 gold deficit at ten minutes, posted a respectable 300 damage per minute and averaged a less than respectable 199 earned gold per minute. Despite partnering well with Rjs for a period of time, it was known that CLG were just waiting for Broxah to arrive.

What was interesting though was how similar Broxah would perform when joining the team. Here’s a comparison.

Broxah was pinned as a player that could help address issues in snowballing the lead. A veteran often applauded for his professionalism and poise was going to help a group of primarily veterans in-game issues. Yeah, this argument really didn’t make a ton of sense in hindsight.

In the fourteen games, they averaged the longest average game time in losses (37. minutes) and the third quickest games in wins (32 minutes). It gives this appearance that the team was letting games slip out of their hands — which from the data, is true. The issue is that they were losing control of the game earlier than expected. CLG were actually pretty impressive at fighting from behind. They weren’t slowly bleeding out, they were trying to claw their way back into matches.

The team did not find its identity in 2021. They didn’t have a single figure to play through, they didn’t have the defined person you wanted to take the shot with three seconds to go, down by two. This would be fixed temporarily in the second half of the year with a very basic, “Bronze-zodia” team fighting strategy. But teams caught on.

That’s kind of the incredible thing about the streak, there was no logic behind how it kept happening. Counter Logic Gaming weren’t intentionally doing something to make it happen — it just happened. Vegas would still give you plus odds on Counter Logic Gaming to secure first blood because they couldn’t understand it either. I only know this because I bet on it eleven out of the fourteen matches.

CLG took advantage of mistakes. They took advantage of the errors teams made against them.  Jensen stepping out of place early. Palafox not respecting Pobelter’s kill pressure. Impact not respecting Finn’s kill pressure. Even in moments where they showed proactivity as a team, it didn’t necessarily feel like a team moment. It was the common theme for the spring — CLG weren’t winning games, the other team were losing games.

CLG’s 89% first blood rate for the spring split will likely last the test of time. It’s the highest in LCS history. Yet for the organization, it will just be a cool little trivia tidbit. It was a small detail in a season that featured massive confusion, disappointment and despair. It was a season that protected the player’s legacies as the management would embarrass themselves at separate points. And in hindsight, it was the perfect snapshot of an organization that completely needed their off-season re-build.

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