Dev Diary: Changes to Proximity
Kicking off 2023 with updates to proximity
For all you stat-keeping fans out there, we're making some changes! We don’t often adjust metric definitions, but as LoL Esports continues to evolve, old definitions aren't serving us well and can make measuring certain statistics confusing. To kick off 2023, we are making updates to the definition of "proximity" and expanding how we track proximity throughout the game.
**Standardizing All Proximity to 2000 Range**
One of the most-used metrics we reference to help understand the early game is Jungle Proximity, which is defined as the percentage of time that a player is within 2000 range of their Jungler after the three-minute mark. We also use the same concept of proximity in other metrics, such as:
- Duo Proximity (1000 range): the percentage of time the bot laner and support are in proximity to each other; and,
- Isolated Death (1500 range): when a player dies, all alone, not in proximity to any teammates… you catch our drift
These metrics used different range units for proximity. So, we're going to make it simple and use **2000 range** across all our metrics! It's not easy to define a range because it's all about measuring the range where another team member can have an impact, which can be tricky.
After some research, we found out that using 1000 range to measure Duo Proximity was too low. There were situations where a support player would be in the river brush and over 1000 units away from their bot laner, but were still close enough to reasonably make plays or have an impact on the current state of the game.
Tracking game impact in the numbers between 1500 and 2000 range wasn't too different, so we landed on 2000 preferring to potentially over measure than under measure. With the above visualization, you can see the ranges at different points on the map, and 2000 range felt like it struck the right balance for a player’s ability to have an impact from these common gank locations.
For reference:
2000 range: level 1 Shadow Surge (Vex Ult)
1595 range: fully charged Piercing Arrow (Varus Q)
1100 range: Bandage Toss (Amumu Q)
**Tracking More Proximities**
Tracking jungle proximity and duo proximity helps us understand a player's movements and how they're exerting pressure in the early game. Previously, we've only tracked these two proximities to understand Jungler pressure and support roaming. In order to get a more nuanced understanding of the early game, we are going to track a player's proximity to all other members in the game. It'll now be possible to track things like "Hylissang's high proximity to Nisqy," or "Faker's proximity to Zeus.” We also will track a player's proximity to all players on the enemy team, which will be abbreviated as PROX OPP J to show the proximity to the enemy Jungler, for example.
On a LoL Esports broadcast, you might see the following stats:
T Prox - % of time in proximity to your top laner
J Prox - % of time in proximity to your jungler (replacing the previous abbreviation JP)
M Prox - % of time in proximity to your mid laner
B Prox - % of time in proximity to your bot laner
S Prox - % of time in proximity to your support
Team Prox - % of time in proximity to anyone on your team
We are retiring "DUO PROX" and instead will use "B Prox" or "S Prox" where appropriate. Ultimately, these new stats will be more useful as competitive play continues to evolve.
Keep an eye out for future Dev Diaries, and tune into lolesports.com to catch all the action!
