On December 13, Team Liquid formally announced that Kim "Reignover" Yeu-jin would replace Joshua "Dardoch" Hartnett as its starting League of Legends jungler for the 2017 NA LCS Spring Split. For the upcoming season, Team Liquid will play Reignover alongside incumbents Samson "Lourlo" Jackson, Matthew "Matt" Elento, and Chae "Piglet"Gwang-jin with former Team Liquid Academy player Greyson "Goldenglue" Gilmer. With his Team Liquid debut at IEM Gyeonggi 2016, Reignover was greeted with mixed yet optimistic results following a 0-2 semifinal loss to the eventual tournament winners Samsung Galaxy.

While Team Liquid's play patterns can be criticized, it is worth lauding the team's initial chemistry as well as their potential moving forward. In an attempt to look forward to the future while tempering our expectations with the past, let's explore the anticipated influence of Team Liquid's newly prized acquisition and veteran in-game leader.

Reignover Self-Sufficiently Creates Near-Insurmountable Early-Game Advantages

There is no more better way to frame Reignover's introduction than by assessing his immediate influence on the Rift pre-10 minutes. For the 2016 NA LCS Summer Split, Reignover was first in average gold difference at 10 minutes (GDat10) and average creep score difference at 10 minutes (CSDat10) with 241 and 5.7 respectively. A look at his astonishing dominance in both statistical categories relative to his peers:

Figure 1. Photograph provided by flickr.com/photos/lolesports. Data provided by oracleselixer.com

Among qualified players, Reignover is anomalous and extraordinary in his position, as shown in Figure 1's box-and-whisker plot. With an attempt to visibly assess early-game jungle efficiency, box-and-whisker plots display the variation in statistical samples without making any distributional assumptions. With the majority of NA LCS junglers residing within or near the interquartile range (the difference between 75% and 25% of the data), box-and-whisker plots helps us grapple how much of a statistical outlier Reignover is-- as well as Echo Fox jungler Anthony "Hard" Barkhovtsev. Note that GDat10 doesn't mean Reignover accrues more gold than any other jungler at 10 minutes; it merely means he separates himself from his jungler by the widest margin. A look at the relationship between GDat10 and CSDat10 can reveal to us early-game jungling tendencies:

Figure 2. Data provided by oracleselixer.com

With a second spatial look at the data's relationship with one another, we can deduce the early-game play patterns of every jungler during the 2017 NA LCS Summer Regular Season. For example, while Rami "Inori" Charagh may be a rookie with the second lowest average creep score difference at 10 minutes, he maintains a healthy GDat10 due to his high success rate in early-game ganks. Reignover meanwhile is in a league of his own, putting him out of observable discernment. He separates himself in terms of gold more so than anyone else. His desire to sever equitable relevance between himself and his opponents is incessant and unsympathetic.

Reignover's Early-Game Play Patterns Encourage Calculated Counter-Jungling Opportunities

Obtaining a positive average creep score difference as a jungler isn't just about having efficient pathing within your own jungle; it is also about monitoring the enemy jungler and seizing moments to counter-jungle enemy camps. With Reignover's league-leading average creep score difference at 10 minutes (5.7), Reignover is the premier North American counter-jungling player. Figure 3 illustrates an example of Reignover's knowledge of jungle camp respawn timers as a means in maximizing his duration in the enemy jungle.

Figure 3. IMT vs. CLG Game 1 2016 NA LCS Summer W7D1 (1:40 - 3:40)

Upon his first camp, Reignover has the knowledge that Jake "Xmithie" Puchero's Rek'Sai started his own Krugs at 1:40, as Darshan "Darshan" Upadhyaha's Jax depleted his mana following a leash. Reconciling the fact that Choi "Huhi" Jae-hyun's Aurelion Sol and Zaqueri "aphromoo" Black's Bard obtained lane priority following a lane swap and faster lane minion clears, Reignover grants CLG jungle priority over IMT's red buff after a level 1 invade. Undeterred, Reignover makes his way to clear his three jungle camps in his blue quadrant, and then lunges to Xmithie's red jungle quadrant as IMT has top-lane priority via the lane swap. Because IMT is aware that Xmithie started his Krugs at 1:40, Reignover can infer that Xmithie's Krugs should respawn approximately 3:30 (1:50 clear time + 100 second respawn time). As shown in image 4 in Figure 3, Reignover ultimately maximizes his initial losses by counter-jungling Xmithie's respawned Krugs at 3:50 as Xmithie acquires Reignover's red buff.

Figure 4 is an even more apt example of Reignover maximizing jungle monster respawn timers in an effort to accrue early-game gold advantages.

Figure 4. IMT vs. CLG Game 3 2016 NA LCS Summer W7D1 (2:10 - 3:50)

Following a cheeky level 1 skirmish by CLG against Huni, Darshan and Xmithie opt to start their own wolf camp despite not having bottom-lane priority following a lane swap. Consequentially, Adrian "Adrian" Ma punishes CLG in image 2 by stealing one lesser wolf with Karma's Inner Flame (Q). In an attempt to salvage further loss, Xmithie approaches to Reignover's wolf camp given CLG's top-lane priority. Reignover could rebuttal Xmithie by simply trading blue buffs (as both realize neither of them acquired them as of 3:00); however, Reignover opts to take one additional step by also claiming Xmithie's respawning wolf camp. If you watch IMT vs. CLG Game 3 at 3:50, Reignover consciously waits two seconds in image 4 for Xmithie's wolf camp to respawn (2:10 clear time + 100 second respawn time), demonstrating his near-surgical counter-jungling playstyle determined by jungle respawn times.

Win or Lose, Reignover Makes His Presence Known Throughout All Stages of the Game

While Reignover may not be labeled as a traditional carry jungler, his unheralded average damage to champions per minute (DPM) during the 2016 Summer Split (374) demonstrates his unrelenting intent to face his opponents head-on. A look at his DPM throughout two seasons in the EU LCS with Fnatic and two seasons in the NA LCS with Immortals:

Figure 5. Photograph provided by LoL Esports. Data provided by oracleselixer.com

Reignover has been an above-average jungle threat throughout his career in the West. The spike in DPM between 2015 Summer and 2016 Spring is not an indication of the relative strength between European junglers and North American junglers, but a product of the new jungle meta. This is evident by the equidistant gap Reignover maintains above his league's average. Furthermore, to provide relative context among qualified players, Reignover's DPM was second to Dardoch (429) during 2016 Summer and league-leading during 2016 Spring (371) with Seyoung "Procxin" Kim (370) just behind. A premier jungle damage, many may argue that is a product of Immortals' win records and skirmish-heavy play style. Let us examine as a rebuttal Reignover's share of team damage (DMG%) relative to his teammates in wins versus losses:

Figure 6. Photograph provided by lolesports.com. Data provided by league-analytics.com

Instead of shying away from skirmishes or team fights, Reignover becomes even more fervent in overcoming insurmountable scenarios. When comparing junglers, Reignover has the highest differential between DMG% in losses and DMG% in wins (+6%). While we can also pinpoint IMT's losses to their side lanes' curtailed DMG%, nearly every other jungler has a dfferential of +1% or lower (the two exceptions being Cloud 9's William "Meteos" Hartman and Hard with +4.3% and +3% respectively). With these numbers in mind, it is incredibly difficult to shut Reignover down; he will fight back with more force relative to his team's predicament than any other jungler.

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