Even though we are a big pool, we are still very much affected by luck. And it shows even more because of how information is displayed. Our average block time for LTC is around an hour. Which means we can go (pretty regularly) a few hours without finding a block. And that is if we mined LTC the whole time, but we don't. So instead of "bad luck" being 3 hours of 0 income, its 6 hours (assuming 50/50 mining on another coin/ltc). During that time, profit is constantly dropping, and sometimes we end a day without recouping that bad luck.
Just something that happens. Does it suck? Sure. But every pool will have those days. Our "vs LTC %" is assuming perfect conditions. It assumes you can mine at 100% efficiency (no rejects), propagate 100% efficiently (no orphans), with a 0% fee, and at 100% luck (no good/bad days). You could very easily have an 80% LTC day on a LTC pool.
Edit: I also just realized our "vs LTC" includes the 2% fee we charge. It is based on what is actually earned by user accounts (and thus affected by our fee). I don't know which I feel is better for that column, and I'd like some input if possible. Essentially if we had a perfect (see conditions above) of mining only LTC, we would show 98% of LTC in that column (100% - 2% fee). Showing it with the fee included is more accurate, where "this is what you actually get", then again, if people are factoring the 2% into the calculation afterwards (since it isn't mentioned), it looks worse than it actually is.
Input?