What to buy on an eco

A Sheriff, a Ghost with shields, a Stinger, or nothing at all: every eco round starts with the same argument. We measured what each choice does to the round, what the same amount of credits buys best, and what the team held one round later.

Data: n/a ranked matches, n/a rounds, n/a eco player-rounds Regions: NA, EU, AP, KR, BR, LATAM Generated: n/a

TL;DR

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What we compared

Every competitive round records what each player held when the round started: weapon, shields, loadout value, what they spent and what they had left. A round is an eco when the team's average loadout was under 1,500 credits, a half buy between 1,500 and 2,999, a full buy at 3,900 or more; pistol rounds (rounds 1 and 13) are their own group. Rounds are grouped by the team that made the decision, so a Sheriff on an eco is a Sheriff bought by a team that was, on average, broke.

Two things make this different from a plain kill table. First, the same wallet section holds the player's credits fixed (spent plus leftover) and compares the choices people made with that money, so the Sheriff is not credited for being bought by richer players. Second, every row carries the next round of the same half: whether the team won it and whether the player held a real gun (Bulldog or better) in it. Round 13 and overtime reset the economy and never count as a next round.

Which weapon wins eco rounds

Eco rounds only, every player-round, grouped by the weapon in hand at the start. The round win rate is a team result; kills, survival, damage and first kills are the player's own. The last column is how many of the player's kills came from the gun they started with rather than one picked up off the floor.

Cheap guns are bought in different situations: a Classic is what a team holds when it is saving for a full buy, a Stinger is bought when the credits allowed it. Read the win rates with the next two sections, which hold the wallet and the enemy buy fixed.

Same wallet, different choice

Players are grouped by the credits they had available at the buy, then by what they chose. Within a band the money is the same, so the differences are about the choice, not the bank balance. Bands with fewer than two comparable weapons are left out.

Pistol rounds

Everyone starts a half with 800 credits, so the pistol round is the one true same-wallet comparison in the game. Each row is a weapon plus shields combination held at the start of round 1 or 13.

Does the team's shield count matter?

The same pistol rounds, grouped by how many of the five bought any shields.

Force buys

Half-buy rounds (team average loadout 1,500 to 2,999): the Spectre, Bulldog, Guardian, Marshal, Judge and friends, compared with each other and with the same gun on a full buy.

The next round

This is the argument against upgrading on an eco: the Sheriff you bought is credits you do not have for the full buy. Every eco player-round here is followed by the next round of the same half, split by whether the eco itself was won. The second chart is the share of players who held a real gun (Bulldog or better) in that next round, after a lost eco.

What the team did

The buy is a team decision, so here is the round by the whole team's eco style: a full save (five Classics), pistols upgraded but no gun, exactly one gun (Bucky or better) with the rest on pistols, or two or more guns.

And the round after that

The same styles, followed into the next round of the half. After a lost eco, the question is whether the team could afford a full buy.

Shields on an eco

Eco team-rounds grouped by how many of the five bought shields of any kind.

Attack vs defense

Eco weapons by the side the player was on. Defenders on an eco can hold close angles for a Shorty or a Judge; attackers on an eco have to cross open ground into rifles.

Against what the enemy bought

An eco against a full buy and an eco against a half buy are different fights. Eco weapons split by the enemy team's average loadout that round.

Across ranks

Every rank, eco rounds, for the three most common choices. Each row is that rank and above (Gold+ = Gold through Radiant). Use the rank filter above to drill into any one of them.

Caveats

Selection. Players choose what to buy, and the choice carries information about the situation: a team that can put five Sheriffs down is not a team that is truly broke. The same-wallet section and the enemy-buy split remove the biggest confounders, not all of them.
Round wins are shared. One player's weapon is one fifth of a team's round. The per-player outcomes (kills, survival, first kills) are the cleaner signal for an individual choice; the team-style section is the cleaner signal for the team's.
Loadout snapshots. Riot records the loadout at round start. A rifle picked up thirty seconds in counts as a Classic round, which is why the kills-with-own-gun column exists.
The next round is not only the buy. Winning an eco brings 3,000 credits and a broken enemy economy; losing it brings the loss bonus. That is why every next-round number is split by the result of the eco itself.
Sample window. Rounds come from the matches held by the OTPStats collector at generation time, across all regions, so patch-specific balance changes apply.