Boards›Esports

Power Rankings - Week 32

Riot·9/3/2014, 11:00:59 PM·1 votes·30,735 views
We use a system similar to the Associated Press power rankings for College Football or Basketball - a panel of writers vote on who they think should be listed, and an aggregate is produced from combining their rankings. Our panel votes on these criteria, in this order:
  • Recent results
  • Predicted future performance
  • Historical trends (as they pertain to future results and present form)
  • The "eye" test (How good does a team look, relative to the rest of the world)
Our panel is available at the footer of this article, with each of their credentials and specialties. It is important to note that all our voters follow all five major professional leagues (LPL, OGN, GPL, NA/EU LCS) on a weekly basis. Make sure to tweet @Lolesports with your Power Rankings or let us know in the comments below. Bolded teams have qualified for Worlds.
  1. Samsung Galaxy Blue (+1)
  2. Samsung Galaxy White (+1)
  3. Najin White Shield (+5)
  4. Edward Gaming ( - )
  5. KT Rolster Arrows (-4)
  6. SK Telecom T1 K (-1)
  7. OMG (-1)
  8. Alliance (-1)
  9. Najin Black Sword ( - )
  10. Fnatic (+4)
  11. Cloud9 ( - )
  12. Team SoloMid (+7)
  13. StarHorn Royal Club (-3)
  14. Jin Air Stealths (-2)
  15. CJ Entus Blaze ( - )
  16. SK Telecom T1 S ( - )
  17. LMQ (-4)
  18. SK Gaming (-1)
  19. LGD ( - )
  20. Taipei Assassins ( - )
Number of first place votes in brackets.
  1. (+1) Samsung Galaxy Blue - Korea - Qualified for Worlds - 223pts - [7]
  2. (+1) Samsung Galaxy White - Korea - Qualified for Worlds - 218pts - [2]
  3. (+5) Najin White Shield - #5 Korea Regionals - 204pts In what may have been their best week of League of Legends ever, NaJin White Shield have locked in their spot at Worlds by winning Korea's Regional Finals. Shield looked to be a completely revitalized team, retaining their solo lane-focused playstyle while injecting a new-found aggression into their play. Under the leadership of Worlds veteran Cho "Watch" Jae-gol, Shield will follow in the footsteps of sister team Sword as they mount an international campaign. Written by Alex Manisier
  4. ( - ) Edward Gaming - China - Qualified for Worlds - 191pts
  5. (-4) KT Rolster Arrows - #3 Korea Regionals - 189pts The KT Rolster Arrows went from favorites to win the Korean Regional Qualifier to unceremonious destruction at the hands of NaJin White Shield. The Arrows inconsistencies were on display during the 3-0 loss to NJWS in Regionals. While the team has one of the highest talent ceilings in professional League of Legends, they have to button up a disturbing tendency to perform poorly at certain moments. Written by Thomas Watts
  6. (-1) SK Telecom T1 K - #1 Korea Regionals - 172pts SK Telecom T1 K was NaJin White Shield's final victim in the Korean Regional Qualifier. They did manage to take a game off of Shield before losing the final best-of-five, but their fall from world #1 all the way to their loss against Shield is stunning. The team has the entire offseason to ruminate on their fall, and try to fix the missteps they made in both champion select and action on Summoner's Rift. Written by Thomas Watts
  7. (-1) OMG - Qualified for China Regionals - 170pts
  8. (-1) Alliance - Europe - Qualified for Worlds - 155pts
  9. ( - ) Najin Black Sword - OGN - 146pts
  10. (+4) Fnatic - Europe - Qualified for Worlds - 123pts
  11. ( - ) Cloud9 - North America - Qualified for Worlds - 119pts While Cloud9 was easily able to dispatch Team Curse in the Semifinals, they dropped a game in the playoffs for the first time in LCS history. They had a fairly even series against Team SoloMid, but in the end, clutch plays from Bjergsen and WildTurtle ended the game in TSM’s favor. While it’s clear that Cloud9 are no longer the kings of North America, they still look poised to make a deep run in the World Championship. Written by Frank “Riot Mirhi” Fields
  12. (+7) Team SoloMid - North America - Qualified for Worlds - 116pts Team SoloMid are the kings of North America! They escaped the NA LCS playoffs after narrowly defeating LMQ and Cloud9 3-2 in the semifinals and finals respectively. The key figure in their ascension in North America was Dyrus, who previously had played consistently but unremarkably in previous matches. It seems that their roster of varying nationalities has found their synergy at the perfect time. Now with a confidence boost, TSM will be among the favorites to emerge from their group at Worlds. Written by Frank “Riot Mirhi” Fields
  13. (-3) StarHorn Royal Club - Qualified for China Regionals - 109pts
  14. (-2) Jin Air Stealths - OGN - 106pts
  15. ( - ) CJ Entus Blaze - OGN - 107pts
  16. ( - ) SK Telecom T1 S - OGN - 83pts
  17. (-4) LMQ - North America - Qualified for Worlds - 82pts LMQ looked to be a shadow of themselves throughout the NA LCS playoffs. After dropping 2-3 to Team SoloMid, they fell to an 0-2 start against underdogs Curse before rallying to win the series 3-2. Their third place victory secured their trip to Worlds, but it gives serious doubts to the long-term strength of the team. MVP and Rookie of the Split XiaoWeiXiao did not dominate as he did all season, NoName looked like a liability and the rest of the team was similarly lackluster. Written by Frank “Riot Mirhi” Fields
  18. (-1) SK Gaming - Europe - Qualified for Worlds - 72pts
  19. ( - ) LGD - Qualified for China Regionals - 58pts
  20. ( - ) Taipei Assassins - SEA - Qualified for Worlds - 55pts Written by James Chen
Others Receiving Votes: CJ Entus Frost, Team Curse, Jin Air Flacons, AHQ, KT Bullets, ROCCAT The Panel: Alex Manisier - ggChronicle staff writer, OGN expert and President of UTS LoLSoc in Sydney, Australia. Regularly watches all five major leagues. Andrew "Glyceroll" Whitmore - Covers NA and EU LCS as well as Challenger for lolesports.com and surrenderat20.net. Regularly watches the five major leagues. Frank "Mirhi" Fields - Senior Web Content Coordinator for lolesports.com. Esports veteran, follows all five major leagues. James "Obscurica" Chen - GPL and SEA expert. Covers GPL for lolesports.com and watches all five major leagues regularly. Jason "Jayway" Wai - Web Content Coordinator and stats aficionado for lolesports.com. Watches OGN religiously and regularly watches all five major leagues. Kelsey Moser - GosuGamers senior editor and LPL expert. Covers LPL for lolesports.com. Regularly watches all five major leagues. Joshua "Jatt" Leesman - Riot Games LCS Analyst and Commentator. Veteran commentator of both Season 2 and Season 3 World Championships. Mattias "Gentleman Gustaf" Lehman - League of Legends theorycrafter and statistics nerd turned esports journalist, watches NA/EU religiously and all five major leagues regularly. Michael Mooridian - Freelance esports journalist. Specializes in NA & EU LCS and Challenger leagues and follows all five major leagues. Thomas Watts - OGN expert and freelancer for lolesports.com. Veteran college football reporter. Regularly watches most of the five major leagues. Tyler "Fionn" Erzberger - TeamLiquid staff writer and OGN expert. Esports veteran and Freelancer for lolesports.com. Regularly watches all five major leagues.

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66 Comments

ElfenLied Lucy9/3/2014, 11:33:38 PM14 votes

Give me a solid reason why Fnatic gained 4 ranks, without even playing in this week. Fnatic Fanboys are omnipresent.

AnbuItachi9/4/2014, 12:40:08 AM5 votes

Monte left the panel? :(

Xtrbacklash9/4/2014, 12:51:51 AM5 votes

Velkoz TSM? Above Royal? epic memes guys Velkoz

Kingphil639/4/2014, 11:43:27 AM4 votes

Let me just say that because C9 did not live up to expectations and loss the finals to TSM the same way Finatic loss to Alliance, you see FNC above C9. I love C9 and their team fight to win games but history has shown FNC one tiny step ahead. S4 Worlds will tell all and to be honest I hope I get a group with C9 and FNC to fight in two more times :)

Jathiel9/4/2014, 1:31:41 AM3 votes

Fnatic does not deserve their spot at all. Did not even play. Played poorly in weeks past. Still rise +4. LOGIC.

Runellieb9/3/2014, 11:50:14 PM3 votes

Wait... So TSM beats Cloud 9 3-2... Gains 7 spots in the power rankings... But then is still below Cloud 9? I would maybe understand if the series was extremely close in TSM's 3 wins and super in favor in Cloud 9's 2 wins, but that isn't how it happened at all. All 5 games were at least somewhat close, with only game 1 coming close to a true stomp, but even then game 1 was still winnable for TSM.

Another thing that would've helped make sense of C9 being ahead of TSM was if the article stated that it thinks that C9 would match up better against international competition, which it didn't. In fact the only thing even close to that was the statement that "they still look poised to make a deep run in World Championship." (And maybe I'm a bit biased, but after that series TSM seemed pretty well matched up map control and general strategy wise, and definitely ahead in mechanics and skill) I get that there is still the eye test, and that of course is open to interpretation and all that, but if you are going to put a #1 seed in a region below the #2 seed, then you had better explain why.

ZachTea9/4/2014, 12:29:12 AM3 votes

These rankings are so fucking laughable every week. When Blue, White and Shield fucking slaughter every other team at Worlds maybe these power rankings will actually be changed to reflect the strength of Korea. Or Riot will continue to try and give off the image that NA / EU / China are even competitive with Korea

GODGIVEN9/5/2014, 12:50:20 PM2 votes

For those asking how FNC got higher. I'd like to tell you that it wasn't FNC playing and winning game, but other teams losing.

C9 lost to TSM, so they automaticlly lost some points, then TSM is not worth being higher than C9 due to lack of consistency.

Then we have Jin Air Stealths, which haven't playied any game in a while, and they didn't qualify to world as FNC did, and Starhorn Royal Club recently lost some games.

And speaking of all this thrash before worlds NA>EU, EU>NA. All I can say now is that NA LCS has been most competitive split ever in NA, and we remember when people were saying "EU is bad because 4 teams fight for 1st spot". Recently you had this situation in NA, and I can see people taking it differently than EU situation. In my opinion, NA should be scared of seeding against #1 EU, because Alliance showed dominance through split and in playoffs, but #2 EU shouldn't be scared of #1 NA, because TSM keep playing inconsistant. I think that Cloud 9 will be way more dangerous at worlds than TSM or LMQ (even when I like LMQ).

Why is FNC still a strong team, and have to be considered equal to Cloud 9.

  1. September/November 2013 - S3 Worlds - FNC Win
  2. March 2014 - IEM World - FNC Win
  3. May 2014 - AllStar - C9 Win

We see that last match between them was C9 winning. It was C9 with Link instead of way better Hai, which suggest that FNC struggles. And what we saw later in LCS, Fnatic did struggle in 1st half of the split going 7:7 (Weeks 1-6), but then, since July 1st they went onto 8 game winning streak. Finishing 2nd half (Weeks 7-11) of the split with impressive 12:2, FNC was best team of 2nd half by win:lose ratio, they showed consistency losing only to SK Gaming and Alliance.

I think that all people saying that FNC didn't deserve to get higher spot than C9, they don't consider facts, and team performance. They go with hype of NA LCS finishing later. I'd like to tell you that just because NA split finished later, this does not mean that NA teams deserve to get "free" points.

Even when matches were exciting, this was a very dirty game showing weaknesses of NA teams. NA 29 Games playied 37 Champions picked, with Tristana being considered the best pick going 13:4 overall. EU 26 Games playied 44 Champions picked, with Tristana being a mid tier pick finishing 8:9 overall. If NA doesn't change their "pick Tristana win games" strategy, then NA will get crushed by EU, OGN, LPL strategies of using KogMaw , Corki , Lucian , or just simple Tristana ban.

In NA Kassadin wasn't banned or picked at all. In EU he was banned 16 times, picked 6 (going only 1:5), but we remember what happened last time NA considered a champion weak and ignored it because it wasn't viable. EU picked it, playied it, and won a game. NA must work on their picks otherwise they will get outpicked by other regions. Koreans often leave something strong open, but they pick direct counter to "op" champion, as if they say "I dare you to pick it, I double dare you".

FlareCity9/4/2014, 1:24:42 AM2 votes

Explain how people think that EU is better than NA when in games that NA have a lead, they pretty much end asap and convincingly vs EU teams, but EU takes like 20 more minutes to close games VS NA

Galex9/4/2014, 12:51:22 PM2 votes

Dyrus? Bjergsen carried the shit out of TSM in playoffs what are you talking about lolesports...lol bjergsen finally plays good after months like he was playing at the start when he came to tsm and i've to read "DYRUS CARRIED", wtf lol