Above image shows actual matchups for week 2 and 3. Champions in a crew are shown in pick order.
Prevailing Themes
Raith continued his place as a ubiquitous champion no matter the scenario. Despite this, he managed a perfect 50% win rate through his 14 games. More important than choosing the popular champion, choosing to draft second was a more reliable way of taking a crown in the draft format.
But this too, was not at all totally indicative. Different champions, different pick orders, and different play styles. Players showed everything was viable, and however you wanted to play you could bring your kind of game to the table.
Mixing it up
Every single champion was picked over the course of the event, each more than once except the bemoaned Morrigan. Raith and Mourneblade proved to be a clear popular pair; but everyone else had a very even distribution - a sign of the communities view of a balanced champion pool. Mourneblade’s popularity could also largely be due to the scenarios in the event: Quest and to a lesser extent Knowledge are both seen as good scenarios for the long-ranged claimer, making him a common choice.
Every champion save Grimgut (my vomity boi!) and Morrigan was able to take a win in the event; and the majority multiple. Eyeballing the win chart; the more popular champions do appear to be slightly more successful than the less popular ones. Mourneblade marks an exception to this in the negative, while Sneaky Pete and Rhodri both slightly over-performed their (relative) lack of picks.
Rangosh was perhaps the secret of the event - winning six of his seven appearances - the most dominant performance of any single champion. Knowing the Godtear community I do; I expect many people to try to turn many of these stories on their head on the future: Finding ways to break down Rangosh, and lifting up the lower picked champions to show their worth. I look forward to seeing this in the future.
Who To Pick
Raith wasn’t just overwhelmingly picked in games, he was overwhelmingly picked extremely early; going first or second in over 50% of all matchups. This trend makes the matchups where he didn’t show up at all seem even more like “protest” matchups; denying the Raith pick out of spite for the lizard’s power.
Outside of Raith and Mourneblade, many Slayers, Maelstroms, and Guardian’s also saw their share of foundational picks in the draft. The most notable trend is that no Maelstrom was picked 1st/2nd in the entire inaugural Slam Jam. The community does seem to value Maelstroms - my personal view is they are very fairly powerful. My theory is that Maelstrom’s relative parity with each other (they are all of a similar power level, and thus replaceable with one another) combined with their relative matchups vs other champions (depending on what you are up against, different Maelstrom’s shine especially bright) made people push their yellow picks towards the back half of the draft. Doing this allowed players to pick Maelstroms after seeing more of their opponent’s choices.
Looking at the last pick; we see much more Yellows (nearly 50%, adding credence to above theory), and overall a diverse selection of picks. Raith avoids the sixth pick entirely. Again, a protest, I would stipulate.
Matchup Highlight
For the final highlight of the event, I am going to take a look at the picks from Round 3 - Sam Hill vs Adrien Boulanger (Life).
The first pick was by Adrien, who took the safe pick with Raith’Marid. A common and safe pick, not much needs to be said. Sam countered with Rangosh. Rangosh is also an extremely powerful pick; with the most dominant win rate of the event. Rangosh is capable of planting in round 1 on life, as well as pressuring Raith in a way that Sam wrote about in a great article that you should check out.
Adrien followed with Jeen. Jeen has a couple of advantages here: An effective plot-phase killing kit can help clean out Bandits before Rangosh can eat them in the Clash phase. Additionally; with Adrien going first in the round, he has the option of opening up with a Jeen ult which lets him control the center square that makes up the Life scenario.
Sam followed with Titus; a personal favorite. Titus has a kit capable of taking down resilient Shrikes as well as having high enough accuracy to pressure splashlings. Further, his more vulnerable statline versus Slayer’s hasn’t doesn’t yet have any picks from the opposing side to exploit.
Adrien rounded up his crew with Mourneblade. With Splashling’s pushes and the Shrike’s ability to move followers, Mourneblade can find openings to place his Knightshades or Banners in ways that are highly detrimental to the opponent. In some cases; Raith’s ult can combo with the knight’s to make especially difficult situations to get out of.
Titus puts some pressure on Mourneblade to begin with (with the ability to move all the knights, Roar of battle stuck champions out, or simply kill Knightshades), but Sam wanted to put the dagger in. Finishing with Lorsann, Sam added a champion that could reliably one shot Mourneblade. Again; without a slayer on the opposing side, a relatively squishy champion goes unpunished on Sam’s side. In the event, Sam’s picks took him to the victory in the matchup.
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