GemRune's Top 20 (A Power Ranking of sorts)

GeminiRune·3/6/2018, 7:33:36 PM·2 votes·608 views

tl:dr - This is a rant and personal power ranking in lieu of the recent ESPN power ranking for March 5. I'm not expecting much agreement with the way I see things but opinions are welcome nonetheless. If you're just here for my list and no I don't think about who beats whom or any of that overrate/underrate stuff:

A few weeks ago, I made a post about gauging power rankings - especially on a global scale. I'm aware of the kind of difficulties that come of it but it's always been something interesting that I would like to even go at attempting. Well now is that time to give it a shot.

Upon reading the recent ESPN power rankings (and partially wondering why I let that get to me), I just felt that it was a lot of fluff with very little fairness. For a ranking that is based on "how well teams are performing" it feels very weighted to factors that I believe power rankings shouldn't factor upon until relevant tournaments creep closer. Region bias, player bias, historical bias; it just makes it so controversial it's worth a laugh on the Reddit boards as to what bias shines more.

The way I do it is by how well they are performing NOW. Not 2017. Not upon historical relevance or by their number of highlight reels and star players. Not about who beats whom because not everything is an upset. No Bo3 vs Bo1 because rating 3 games isn't fair to a single crucial one game. I mean at this point in time in the season without weighing it too hard on the star players, region, game sample, and team history. A few considerable factors though.

I know that patches are differing between regions, especially last week where 8.2 through 8.4 were played. One of the sharpest things I looked at were how consistent teams were and how often a team's win strategy wasn't play to the 50-50 late game. This was a heavier observation for LCK and LPL on the bo3 format.
The bo3 format, I accounted the best average win/loss performance of a 2 or 3 game series. Example if a team looks good winning, it influences as much as a team looking bad losing.
The LMS is not factored into this. I have not watched any content of them (shocker from the one who will always sport a LMS icon) so it wouldn't feel right to put them in by score only.
Parity is good. Makes things harder but not worse.
Lastly, Monday and especially Tuesday's games this week aren't factored in whatsoever.

So heading back up to the tl:dr:

#The Definitive Ones: Kingzone Dragon X and Invictus Gaming My #1 and #2 are definitively Kingzone Dragon X and Invictus Gaming respectively. Kingzone to me is just cannot be debated right now even with the recent hiccup in performance. Outside of China, Kingzone was one of the only teams playing to an aggressive, "fear nothing" style that did not have some single narrow condition to win. All five players can look their own levels of amazing at any point and their vulnerabilities are just not as exploited as I would have feared in the very start. IG on the other hand serves their dominance with a pat of their hands as they leave a bloody trail in their path...following their opening loss of course. Like Kingzone, IG can make their opponents look just as silly but their fight feels a bit edgy at times. At once they were #1 but recent return to form had me let them back at the top especially given how equally ahead of their region they are. These two teams need MSI. I want to see this!

#The Debate for the Top 10 #3 and 4: KT Rolster and Afreeca Freecs - The Bar to Beat or Their Own Nightmares? In a back and forth I had the other day, I came to a conclusion that while KT is keeping to form and retaining it well despite their reputation, I'm just too hesitant to consider them anything above #3. Them and their direct opposition in Afreeca Freecs continue to impress and keep to the top of their region. But like my heading says for them: they are the level that teams just below them need to beat but even they can tear that apart themselves. Both teams have shown that they can slip and fall in the stands and they have yet to do so. It's only a matter of time though before that proactive style either keeps them as the bar or they just crumble. Speaking of which...

#5 and #6: Snake Esports and Echo Fox - Well I'm still waiting.... Two teams consisting of a unique synergy and track record based on their players. Snake...historically falls apart. This lineup of FOX has been expected to fall apart since week 2. Neither of those things have really happened yet and as long as they play an execution heavy or aggressive play style despite having more notable weaknesses they'll keep up and keep close to my top teams at the moment. On FOX's end, they seem more chaotic with the style but it hasn't necessarily been stopped similar to KZ.

Favorites to reach MSI? At least one of them is. You decide; I'm still on the expectation that one of them will crack under pressure.

#7: Rogue Warriors I got nothing on this one to headline. RW is like the team that makes the LPL bar and whether or not you're one of the promising MSI potential teams or underneath and thinking about your summer split. With recent surprise victories and a score differential that is relatively close to that of Snake, they are yet to roll over and far from disappointing.

#8 thru 10: Cloud 9, Fnatic, Royal - The Difficulty Begins So far, it's been about who seems to be keeping up to their identity and an aggressive play style in a passive meta. The three that wrap up my top 10 consist of some well known names. This came to no easy feat as I found myself wondering whether or not these teams are deserving of the spot for discussion. I know for a fact RNG wasn't before the return of Uzi (they actually were barely scraping top 20). Between Cloud 9 and Fnatic on the other hand; it wouldn't feel fair to discredit them for consistently strong enough team fighting. Between the two, they are fighting the trials of regional parity (and I'm one who likes parity) but their spot in the discussion can slip just as easily as any other Top 10.

#The 11 through 20: Where the issues rise but I guess they're still fine EDward Gaming (11) and ROX Tigers (12) - Figure something out will ya? These were two teams that were in my discussion for the top 10 over at least Fnatic and Royal. But from a few opinionated matters from single players and even team synergy and decisiveness. They're good enough to keep high as long as they keep playing to a standard expected for EDG and unexpected for ROX. Things I'm on the watch for: EDG bot lane and ROX team play On that note, I know ROX played this morning. I'll look into that series specifically later today.

Forever 13: Bilibili Gaming So I made my list yesterday and had BLG at #13. Then I looked at ESPN's rankings and saw that their last three entries had BLG at 13. The team formerly known as IMay do keep their spot but I do feel that their play is going down ever so slightly. There's little to mine about the team in recent record so their next series may determine if they stay at my 13 spot or go down - just slightly for now - in my standings.

#14 through 16: Clutch, G2, Suning - Bullet breakdown

Clutch is and has been climbing the ladder. Whether I can really allow them to go up higher honestly depends on BLG this week and how well they keep performing compared to direct standing opposition in Cloud 9.
G2 is probably the most overrated factor I have to my list. To an extent, I have referred to them as a partial under grade to that of Fnatic's performance. But in a league of parity, it's hard to pick out who can look good and bad on given days.
Suning was once higher on my list as one of the most aggressive teams among the major regions. But with recent slips in performance, they have fallen down to a sudden, but still playoff bound, stay in the standings.

#17: Team Vitality - The first ride of the momentum roller coaster experience Now don't get me wrong. Vitality did take a drop in the standings heavier than this. But following the previous week where it wasn't as disappointing as it could have well been, their drop wasn't the absolute worst that it could have turned out to be. It's comfortable to praise their individual skill. Where to shun them however comes from the team fighting and macro play that in recent weeks have been more or less absent, egos aside. This upcoming week really will be make or break because the teams below them are really close to consideration to overtake them.

#18: Team Liquid - The second ride of the momentum roller coaster experience Their position is just as much circumstance as that of Vitality. Where they shine with capable team fighting, they are able to show lapses with macro play and have more than enough in a weak link in their top laner from my eyes. Patch that, patch the team fighting, see you next week.

#19: SK Telecom T1 - The WTFM moment of the momentum roller coaster experience Yes I'm doing that to them. Actually when they were on that 5 series losing streak I had them lower. Like 30 low. And they are climbing...just not in the satisfying expectation I would think. This is one of those moments where I don't even know how to place them in the running but I'm willing to give a shed of confidence based on their players. Or I did that before their losing streak came out. Now they lay in a place where I find their individual skill slippery and their team fighting worse if not only brilliant in proper initiation. But their recent play does shed light, leaving them in the mention of my top 20. Here's to Kingzone (watching once i finish this post)

#20: Stolen by 100 Thieves - Shared in fifths This was a fight between 100T, WE, and MSF and who I felt had their play more identified after their momentous hiccups. For now, 100 Thieves takes it and as long as I see more of what they pulled out recently, they'll keep it and go up the ladder.

Collectively for those that account that, it makes 5 LCK teams, 5 NA teams, 3 EU teams (don't worry; 21-30 is a slight madhouse), and 7 LPL teams. A fair enough mix except for maybe EU; I like their competition so far but my god is it hard to establish something without definitive standings. So that's my list. Anything I should look at or consider if I decide to do this again would be appreciated.

[sg-zephyr]

GemRune's Top 20 (A Power Ranking of sorts)

So heading back up to the tl:dr:

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