If we only looked at the stats for this matchup, it seems like a one-sided slaughter. Chovy is first among mid laners in every laning stat at 10 minutes and every damage stats. On the other hand, Faker has only middling numbers for laning stats, and surprisingly, his damage stats are at the bottom among mid laners, a far cry from his previous performances at Worlds. However, we should note that Faker is last in terms of gold share among mid laners, while Chovy is sitting at the top of the table.
These stats speak volumes about the role of each player in their team. Since T1’s resurgence in the summer split, Faker has been outspoken about playing a facilitating role for the younger players on the team. On champions like Twisted Fate and Orianna, Faker continues to play for his team by setting up plays across the map with globals or teamfights with huge ults at the expense of his stats.
Conversely, there is a reason why HLE is often dubbed Chovy Life Esports. While his teammates have stepped up, Chovy is still the primary carry of the team. Even on a champion like Twisted Fate, he looks to dominate his lane opponent and use his lead to establish autonomy in side lanes and win teamfights. At times, this method is enough for Chovy to brute force carry games, but we saw the downsides of this playstyle as well, most prominently in HLE’s tiebreaker match against RNG. Despite playing a champion like Twisted Fate, we saw Chovy taking priority over Deft’s Aphelios in taking mid-lane farm, which led to Deft falling excessively behind despite the team being ahead overall.
