League of Legends has a simple goal, destroy the enemy's’ nexus. However, achieving that goal isn’t as easy as it sounds.

In the competitive scene, there are teams that play aggressively to secure leads as fast as possible. On the other hand, there are some teams that start slow only to make a big comeback in the later stages of the game. But in 2017, the effects of ‘snowballing’ became much deadlier, especially with the addition of the Rift Herald in patch 7.9. Now, securing the “lead” has become more important than ever.

There are many factors that contribute to securing a lead which include getting first blood, first tower, Rift Herald, dragon, and gold advantage.

In an online Korean League forum, some interesting statistics from the LCK was discovered. The statistics revealed information that early 2,000 gold leads directly correlate to a team’s winrate. Simply put, the first team that is ahead by at least 2k gold, is highly likely to win that matchup.

Can the same thing be said for NA LCS? By pulling out similar data from NA, we were able to determine each and every team’s playstyle and weaknesses.

◎ The relationship between an early 2k gold lead and winning

As seen from the chart above, most teams have a high winrate upon securing an early 2k gold lead. But we can also see that some teams struggle to fully utilize their leads. A majority of the bottom teams in the LCS: Team Liquid, FlyQuest, and Echo Fox, rarely took early-game advantages over their foes, and on top of it, they struggled to utilize their lead even when they did so.

However, there is an exception to this. Phoenix1, the last place team in the NA LCS, actually has a decent winrate once taking an early gold lead. But the problem of P1 is that the team has the lowest rate of actually taking a lead in the first place. Comparing P1 to FlyQuest, a team that has a 32% win-rate despite giving up an early gold lead, we can see why P1 is struggling as of now.

On the other hand, Immortals, the current 1st place team in the NA LCS, not only has a high rate of taking an early gold lead, but they also know how to fully take advantage of it to take over a game.

If establishing a 2k gold lead truly helps a team in winning a game, the process of getting to that point can differentiate a strong team to a weak one.

◎ The ability to ‘snowball’ and the ability to prevent it

Assuming that the early stage of a game is before the Baron spawns(before 20 minutes), the most common ways to establishing a gold lead in the early-game is through securing towers and kills. First blood and first tower are both especially important due to the larger gold income and their ability to put a player behind.

Rift Herald is very beneficial for all teams for this reason; as he is capable of removing almost half of a tower’s HP almost instantly. He can be utilized to either take tower advantages or even out the tower count if a team is behind.

Let’s assume that a team has an early-game “lead” if they are successful in taking at least 2 of the 3 big early-game objectives: first blood, first tower, and Rift Herald. How does this help a team establish a 2k gold lead?

On the chart above, we can see how teams snowball their leads into victory. But at the same time, we can also see how some teams prevent their enemies from starting to snowball.

Despite being a top contender in the NA LCS, TSM’s rate of taking an "initiative" is on the low side compared to the other teams. As a matter of fact, they have only secured all of the 3 major early-game objectives 2 times throughout the entire split; putting them in the last place in that regard. It’s almost astounding to see that TSM is competing with Immortals, a team that has accomplished this 12 times this split, putting them in 1st place.

Dignitas, Immortals, and Envyus are the 3 teams that still establish a gold lead despite giving away one or more of the 3 major objectives. Through evening out the gold differential by trading objectives, they are extremely skilled in preventing the enemy from snowballing. The same goes for TSM, and is most likely the reason why they are so consistent in the LCS.

[Conclusion - Each team’s characteristics based on given data]

Immortals - Very consistent in taking early game leads and snowballing it.

TSM - Although they give up many important objectives early on, they are able to always catch up, or remain even by utilizing flexible macro plays. They’re also very consistent in completely turning the tides of a game with teamfights. 

CLG - They take early-game objectives safely after securing gold leads. They are also able to win games despite losing the lead early on.

Dignitas - Although they are very strong in widening the gap between their enemies gold-wise, they’re actually relatively weak in comparison to the other teams on taking early-game advantages.

C9 - Same as CLG

EnvyUs - Their ability in capturing early objectives is average, but when they do, they are great in snowballing the lead to a victory. They however rarely make comebacks when behind.

Echo Fox - They are average in taking down objectives and securing early gold leads. But their ability to push leads into victory or making comebacks when behind, are very weak.

FlyQuest - Their ability to take early leads are weak. They, however, make rather frequent comebacks when behind through great macro management.

Team Liquid - They make frequent attempts at taking early objectives. But even when they are successful, it rarely results in a gold lead.

Phoenix1 - Similar to TL. But they are worse in taking early advantages. And if they fail to take early objectives, they almost always fall off.

There are still many other factors outside of the given information that can affect a team regarding securing leads, as even something as small as burning flash can end up terribly in terms of getting snowballed early on. But the given statistics still put light on how and why some teams are performing as they are.