The Recall: What we learned from Week 1 of LCS Summer 2023

Cloud9 still looked great, and Team Liquid showed massive signs of improvement — here's what we learned from the first week of the 2023 League of Legends Championship Series (LCS) Summer Split at Riot Games Arena in Santa Monica, Calif., United States.

The TL;DW for Week 1

• TL top laner Park "Summit" Woo-tae won the Player of the Week award and two Player of the Game awards. His lane play was dominant, as evidenced by his CS difference at 10 minutes, 23.7, which leads all players.
• On Day 1 versus Dignitas, Immortals top laner Colin “Solo” Earnest became the first 30-year-old to play in an LCS game and went 1/0/4 on Sion.
• Also on Day 1 versus NRG, Evil Geniuses achieved the eighth perfect game in LCS history, and the fourth of in the franchise era.
• On Day 3 versus IMT, TL secured a 10.8k gold lead at 14 minutes, the biggest in LCS history.
• Fastest game: 21:09, TL vs. IMT on Day 3.
• Longest game: 41:00, NRG vs. IMT on Day 2.

TL led all teams in a litany of stats, including kills (49), deaths (15), kill-death ratio (3.27), gold spent percentage (69.3%), gold difference at 15 minutes (4,558), as well as 100% of first bloods, first towers, first three towers, and Baron Nashors. The squad also leads in Rift Herald percentage (83%) and their 73% drake percentage ranks second best in the league.

Fellow 3-0 squad C9 lead in lane and jungle percentage, with 51.5% and 60.1% respectively, and their average game time of 27.8 minutes is the shortest of any team.

C9 bot laner Kim "Berserker" Min-cheol leads in KDA (13/1/15, or 28) and has the fewest deaths of any player, while his jungler Robert "Blaber" Huang and mid laner Jang “EMENES” Min-soo lead in death share with each accounting for 30.4% or seven of C9's 23 deaths.

NRG bot laner Ian Victor "FBI" Huang leads all players in average damage per minute (817), kill share (48.8%), and kills (20). Of those kills, 15 came from NRG's Day 2 loss to IMT. FBI also tied for the most deaths (11) with GG mid laner Kim "Gori" Tae-woo, DIG support David “Diamond” Bérubé, and FLY's bot laner Lee "Prince" Chae-hwan and mid laner Lee "VicLa" Dae-kwang.

His support, Lee “IgNar” Dong-geun, leads all players in assists (37) and kill participation (95.1%).

Other notable stats

• FLY's average game time of 33.7 minutes is the highest of any team.
• Four players currently possess an average CS per minute of 10 or more: 100 bot laner Yiliang "Doublelift” Peng (10.9), C9 Berserker (10.3), FLY Prince (10.1), and EG bot laner William “UNF0RGIVEN” Nieminen (10.1).
• EG mid laner Joseph Joon "jojopyun" Pyun leads all players in gold difference (696) and XP difference (706) at 10 minutes.
• Milio, K'Sante, Vi, and Neeko each have a 100% pick-ban rate; Neeko is the only champ with a 100% ban rate.
• Aphelios was the most picked champion of the 15-game Week 1, with 13 games played, one ban, and just one game with no presence.

All stats from Leaguepedia and Oracle's Elixir. Featured photos courtesy of Stefan Wisnoski/Shannon Cottrell/Riot Games.