Most League of Legends fans will remember Kramer as the Flash Wolves AD carry that began a CLG comeback when he was caught by an Elise cocoon under tower, or even for his weak performances with Young Boss in the 2015 KeSPA cup. Swift judgements were made out for Kramer -- Most seemed to insinuate the player was straight-up awful despite a relatively small body of information. 2016 has been a great year for Kramer so far, carrying the majority of CJ Entus’ wins and being a more than suitable AD carry while the organization waits for underage prospect, Ghost, to turn 17. The tutelage and protection of Madlife, in combination with a Korean speaking team, are no doubt key factors to Kramer’s spike in performance, but CJ Entus as a whole sets the perfect stage for Kramer to shine.

In order to properly contextualize Kramer’s current success in CJ, it is important to brief his time on the Flash Wolves and how exactly he fit -- or more appropriately, didn’t, fit into their system. Kramer was scouted by Flash Wolves support SwordArT in high Elo Korean solo queue, after playing with and against him numerous times. Kramer was eventually brought over to Flash Wolves as a mechanical upgrade over NL and would play the second half of the 2015 Summer Split. However, he never really fit into the team, as he demanded more resources than Flash Wolves were willing to devote to him.

Kramer received 29.2% of his team’s gold, putting a huge emphasis on farming both sidewaves as they came along -- Maple had the next highest gold percentage at 24.3% leading to a stark 5% difference between their two carries. Despite this intense gold focus, Maple still did more damage than Kramer and was the true carry of the team. Karsa often had mid-lane focused pathing and littered the area with wards consistently, while giving less attention to the lower side of the map. SwordArT and Steak played for Maple’s success in teamfights much more than Kramer’s -- a big reason for the differentiation in damage percentage totals.

Kramer hardly received attention from the Flash Wolves apart from Gold totals, often being left to fend for himself in teamfights. There was a clear disconnect between the two parties with communication being an obvious factor. Kramer did manage to keep SwordArT on a leash for much of the earlier stages on the game so that he could safely farm, but SwordArT is no lane dominant support and that only complicated matters further. Kramer had his moments of mechanical grandeur and surely showed his potential as a primary carry, but Flash Wolves was not the place for him to grow. Kramer received main carry gold totals, but could not deliver without the full focus of his team -- His first competitive League experience had him distanced in both language and true carry priority.

Fast-forwarding to the present day, CJ Entus has given Kramer everything the Flash Wolves simply could not -- they have committed to Kramer as their main carry and primary win condition. Considering that CJ was projected by many to be a bottom feeder merely praying for the arrival of BDD and Ghost, it is safe to say that the system has paid dividends. Kramer receives just about every resource CJ can afford to give him, including lane pressure, jungle pressure, and numerous team comps built around him being the primary damage source, with the belief that he will deliver.

Kramer receives similar levels of gold priority on CJ compared to his time on Flash Wolves, currently maintaining a 5% gold margin over new mid laner, BDD, at 27.5%. While the number is lower, his CSPM of 9.7 is nearly identical to his CSPM at Flash Wolves, so the gold percentage difference can be chalked up to more available gold. CJ has allowed Kramer just about any side wave he can get his hands on and the trend doesn’t seem to be changing, even with BDD on the team.

More importantly, CJ actually puts all their eggs into the Kramer basket instead of strictly raw resources -- Kramer has averaged 34.5% of his team’s damage thus far and shows no signs of slowing down. Kramer has been fairly successful in lane thanks to Madlife’s presence (it also helps that the support is having a career year) and follows everything that his lane partner does. This relative hand-holding, and the fact that Madlife speaks Korean, has clearly shown itself to aid Kramer in his efforts toward scaling toward a strong mid-late game. In addition, top laner, Untara, has played chosen near-exclusivity in tanks and has been adept at creating distance for Kramer in fights, along with Madlife. BDD, with his Azir and Lulu, has also excelled in this area, as they all effectively play for Kramer’s damage in their teamfights.

Kramer is still quite similar to the carry that played a short time for Flash Wolves, but is shining on this CJ team as they find themselves at 4th place and finds himself as the best performing AD carry. While it can be said that he engages nearly all of CJ’s attention and gameplan, he still delivers with all the expectations on his shoulders, which many players in the past and present are still unable to do. Kramer is not an insane carry nor a bad one, but finds himself nestled in between -- he performs sufficiently with little focus, but superbly when given the tools. It is questionable if Kramer will ever develop into a superb carry without such funneled focus, but considering his short time as a professional player, anything is possible.

All stats used from OraclesElixir! Be sure to check out http://oracleselixir.com/ for consistently updated stat databases!

Photocredits: Garena eSports, CJ Entus, and Nohyu