The Recall: What we learned from LCS Week 5

Golden Guardians are for real and FlyQuest are still the realest — here's what we learned from the fifth week of the 2023 League of Legends Championship Series (LCS) Spring Split.

Despite GG mid laner Kim "Gori" Tae-woo winning Player of the Game awards against Evil Geniuses and Cloud9 this week, GG jungler Kim "River" Dong-woo was named Player of the Week for his 5/2/6 Vi and 2/1/11 Sejuani. River's stock has been rising, and wins against the league's two top junglers, C9's Robert "Blaber" Huang and EG's Kacper "Inspired" Słoma, should do even more for his profile.

Support huhi led all players this week with a KDA of 2/1/23, or 25.

The 10-1 FLY is not to be forgotten, though: their 10.5% gold spent difference is over twice as high as the next closest team (C9, with 5.2%). With starting support Bill "Eyla" Nguyen finally by his side, bot laner Lee "Prince" Chae-hwan continues to reign over the LCS from his statistical throne. His 76/10/45 (or 12.1) KDA is second-best in the league; he leads in kills with 76 (19 more than the next player, GG bot laner Trevor "Stixxay" Hayes); he leads in CS per minute (CSPM) with 10.4; and he led in kills this week with a KDA of 18/2/6, or 12.

FLY jungler Mingyi "Spica" Lu also has a league-leading first blood percentage (55%) and share of jungle CS (54.1%).

C9 wavered with a 1-1 week that saw the debut of mid laner Jang “EMENES” Min-soo, but support Jesper "Zven" Svenningsen still leads in assists with 118, and Kim "Berserker" Min-cheol's KDA of 51/9/65 (or 12.9) leads all players. The bot laner is also the only player who's played all of his team's games with less than 10 deaths, and is one of two players (along with 100 Thieves bot laner Yiliang "Doublelift” Peng) tied for 2nd in CSPM with 10.

C9 Blaber's surprise Rengar game on Feb. 24 gave him the highest gold difference at 10 (957), CS difference at 10 (24), and jungle percentage (55%) of all players this week.

Fifth-place Counter Logic Gaming went 2-0 this week, and mid laner Cristian "Palafox" Palafox (8/1/15, or 23 KDA) was one of two players with only one death, along with former CLG mid laner Choi "huhi" Jae-hyun.

The 5-6 100 Thieves lost to FLY, but found a comeback victory against fellow bottom-halfer Team Liquid. While 100 mid laner Søren "Bjergsen" Bjerg is typically known for a passive play style, this week he led in damage per minute with 1,336; damage percentage with 40.3%; and damage percentage post-15 minutes with 42%.

In a disappointing 2-0 week that saw the team lose to the 0-9 Dignitas, EG Inspired assisted on all 12 of his team's kills.

Other notable stats

• FLY's average gold difference this week was 3,768, which led all teams.
• Ashe still has the highest pick-ban percentage in the league: 94.5%.
• The only two champions with 100% win rates and more than three games played are Yone (14/7/25, or 5.6 KDA) and Ezreal (23/0/11, or 34 KDA), who are both 4-0.
• Zeri 5.36 kills per game lead all champs with over three games played.
• Nautilus found 19 deaths in three games this week.

All stats from Leaguepedia and Oracle's Elixir. Featured photos courtesy of Robert Paul/Riot Games.