Alliance and Millenium closed out the Summer Split of the League Championship Series with what was essentially an exhibition match, racking up kills in an action-packed and utterly meaningless match. It was a fun endeavour for fans, but a nightmare for statisticians.
Now that the match has entered official LCS ledger, dozens of records will never be the same. That’s a shame for those interested in the integrity of all-time records in the LCS.
Performances like Martin “Rekkles” Larsson’s 18 kill extravaganza against Copenhagen Wolves two weeks ago are made all the more exciting thanks to him chasing the all-time single game kill record of 19 held by William “Scarra” Li. Larsson fell short of tying the tally, but did manage to tie the record for kills in a single LCS split, 167, also held by Zachary “Mancloud” Allan Hoschar.
But we wouldn’t get the drama and storyline of a record chase, that connection League of Legends history, if those records didn’t exist. And thanks to the Alliance and Millenium farce, many now don’t. At least in a meaningful form.
The Alliance and Millenium match featured a ridiculous 92 kills combined for both teams. To put that into perspective and show just how huge an outlier this game was, the previous record was 69 kills, set by Counter Logic Gaming and Dignitas in the first week of the Season 3 Summer Split. The next two highest matches featured 64 and 59 kills, also in Season 3.
The NBA All-Star game this year ended with a score of 163-155, point totals almost double the 80-110 points usually scored in a typical NBA game. That’s not surprising of a showmatch designed to please fans, where the all-stars typically play no defense.
The Alliance and Millenium match had more in common with that kind of show than a real LCS bout. Heck, the match had more kills than any of the three exhibitions at the All-Star Invitational in Paris, and some of those games were played in URF and Hexakill modes, where kills are common.
It was a meaningless game for Alliance; they had already clinched the top spot in the standings and the playoff bye that goes with it. Millenium too was locked into fifth place and a first round match against SK Gaming.
So both teams picked crazy team compositions featuring little used champions. Quinn, Warwick, and Zac appeared in an LCS match for the first time this split. Alliance players off-classed, with marksman Erik “TabzZ” Van Helvert playing the mage assassin Fizz.
It’s a miracle that in such an environment Li’s kill record still stands. Van Helvert managed 17 kills, ranking him third all-time, but quick deaths in the final two team fights stopped him from breaking Li’s record.
Many other records were not as lucky.
The single-game assist record is now the property of Patrick “Nyph” Funke. His 45 assists on Braum makes the previous record of 31, set by old school Counter Logic Gaming stalwart Michael “bigfatlp” Tang, obsolete. Funke previously held the second highest tally, 28, but his Alliance teammate Ilyas “Shook” Hartsema has inserted himself just above that spot with 29 assists against Millenium.
Fantasy players wept as Alliance either decimated them or gave them the victory. The highest point total by a player in a match prior to this game was Fnatic’s marksman Larsson, who put up 55.51 points in week four of this season. But against Millenium, every single player on Alliance broke 60 points.
In addition to combined kills, the match obliterated a number of other combined records. 234 assists dominated the previous top three tallies of 205, 170, and 169. The 532.7 fantasy points scored in this game topped the previous best mark of 352.7, Curse Gaming against Cloud9 in week nine of this season, by nearly 200 points.
Team marks for individual games were also destroyed. Alliance now has the most kills ever in an LCS match, 51, and Millenium is third overall with 41, just one kill behind previous record holder SK Gaming.
Alliance’s 142 assists were a whopping 34 more than the next highest team.
The record-breaking game may have been a spectacle, but it was a spectacle that destroyed the integrity of many coveted LCS records. That isn’t necessarily the team’s fault, as they were just putting on a show in a meaningless match. But in many ways it really is too bad.
