And then, there were eight. Only eight teams remain at Worlds 2021 vying for a chance to hoist the Summoners Cup. As the quarterfinal round kicks off, all eight teams have high hopes that they will be the ones to emerge victorious, but only four will remain. A best-of-5 series is all that separates each of these teams from a shot at the semifinals, and interested observers are placing their bets on who will win. As the quarterfinals kick off, here are two numbers that are important for fans to know for each of the four series.

T1 vs. Hanwha Life Esports

14 and 12.3

Those are the KDAs of T1’s support Keria and ADC Gumayusi, respectively, at Worlds. Although it’s only been six games for each of the two, they have combined to die a total of seven times all series. Along with ShowMaker, the T1 bot lakers are the only players in this tournament with a KDA over 10.

This bot lane duo has been lights out for T1 all Worlds, winning lanes hard (Keria is #1 at Worlds in terms of gold difference at 15 minutes, and Gumayusi is third among ADCs). Opposite them this series will be the duo of Deft and Vsta, who have not been bad but have been exceptionally mediocre (comparatively) at Worlds. If T1 wants to win this series, it will probably be through the bot lane.

4.8 and 16.9

The deaths per game for T1 and kills per game for Hanwha Life. The third-bloodiest team in terms of kills per game is facing the team that has the least deaths by a large margin (number two at Worlds is DWG KIA at 8 deaths per game). Look for Hanwha Life to try and push the tempo and put down pressure on T1 to fight, while Faker and company keep to their strategy of building early leads and choking out other teams.

RNG vs. EDG

49.4%

That’s RNG GALA’s kill participation, which is second-lowest among all ADCs and all players overall remaining in the tournament. However, this is one of those instances where a single stat can be deceiving, because GALA has put in absolute work at Worlds. Averaging 5.1 kills and 5.4 assists per game, and outputting 553 damage per minute, it’s hard to argue that GALA hasn’t held up his part of the bargain. This is a great example of how kill participation isn’t a particularly meaningful stat, as it’s largely a function of luck (are you able to get assists) and you’re held back by having good teammates creating plays away from you.

2.7

The number of kills per game averaged by EDG AD Carry Viper. Although he was lauded as perhaps the best ADC in the world coming into Worlds 2021, Viper hasn’t played like it. He has a solid KDA thanks to minimizing deaths (1.3 per game), but he’s also towards the bottom of the pack in terms of ADCs by damage output (429 DPM). While his damage share and gold per minute are both middle of the pack, Viper is probably coming into this matchup against GALA a bit more hyped up than he should be. Expect this to be a relatively even match.

DWG KIA vs. MAD Lions

2,979

That’s the difference between DWG KIA’s average gold differential at 15 (+2858) and MAD Lions (-121), easily the biggest gap between any two teams. In fact, MAD Lions are worst of all the remaining teams by this metric and the only remaining team with a negative gold differential at 15. DWG KIA is second among all teams in gold difference at 15, behind only T1, but they had the unfortunate luck to be facing HLE in the first round, who are ranked third in this stat.

It’s not as though MAD Lions are sacrificing gold for objectives early, either. They are worst among all teams remaining in first tower percentage, second worst in first blood percentage, and worst in dragons taken at 15 minutes. DWG KIA is best at Worlds in all those categories. If MAD doesn’t get absolutely smashed in the early game against DWG, consider it a miracle.

4

The number of solo kills Humanoid has gotten this Worlds, the most among mid laners. It’s truly a small consolation, as MAD Lions really don’t have any matchup where any of their players outclass their counterparts, so maybe MAD can hang their hat on Humanoid being able to pop off and hold them up long enough for Carzzy to carry later in the game. Or at least, that would be the hope...if he wasn’t facing maybe the best mid in the world in Showmaker.

Gen.G vs. Cloud9

50% and 42.9%

The first blood participation percentages of Clid and Blaber at Worlds, making them among the most active early game junglers. What is especially interesting is how the two junglers play and how they get their leads. Whereas Clid is fully willing to sacrifice early farm to get pressure (which is why he has the higher participation percentage), Blaber is able to maintain a high participation rate despite also being able to take care of his own early farm.

With a +12 CSD, +357 gold differential, and +428 XPD at the 15-minute mark, Blaber ranks top-two in all early game statistics for his role. He is one of the most efficient early game junglers, while also managing to be one of the most aggressive, which could be the key to helping C9 win.

1

The number of shared champions that Bdd and Perkz played during the Worlds main event. That shared champion was Sylas, who each player picked only once during Worlds. Now, that being said, if we include the games Perkz played during Play-Ins the champion pool expands to three (he played one game on Syndra and Zoe each), but this goes to show that there is not a ton of overlap between the two.

Whereas Perkz prefers heavy-pressure champions who can roam like Ryze, TF, and Leblanc, Bdd prefers to stick with the control mages like Azir, Zoe, and Syndra. That’s not to say that these two cannot dip into the other’s champion pools. At least at Worlds, it seems the two mids are leaning into very different styles.

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