Power Rankings - 1/27/2015

Riot·Jan 27, 2015·0 votes·54,281 views

I shed a tear for Unicorns of Love this week. I'll admit that the UOL hype probably inflated our rankings too much. After their dismantling at the hands of EU LCS reigning champion Elements, it appears as if this pony still has a few tricks to learn. But that's not all we learned after this past week's games. For one thing, the LCS is still a good bit behind its Asian counterparts. For example, consider how teams are handling new king of top lane, Gnar -- there isn't a single Gnar in the LCS that is at the level of even Taipei Assassins' top laner Morning. It's true that the Asian leagues have several weeks of competition under their belts, while the LCS has just begun, but it's worth watching to see whether the West can get back to the level they were during Worlds before the Mid Season Invitational. And with that, onto the regional rankings...

Korea

SKTelecom T1 (3-1) [6-3]
GE Tigers (4-0) [8-1]
Jin Air Green Wings (2-1) [5-3]
CJ Entus (3-1) [6-4]
Najin e-mFire (1-3) [4-6]
KT Rolster (1-3) [3-6]
Incredible Miracle (1-2) [2-4]
Samsung Galaxy (0-4) [1-8]

(Match Score) [Game Score]

SKTelecom takes the first regular season spot in Korea despite their loss against CJ Entus. While Najin holds a 1-3 record, their schedule has been brutal, having to face SKT, CJ and Jin Air. GE Tigers primarily is behind SKT because of their one-dimensional team fighting style compared to SKT's diversified strategies. We can only wonder what SKT would look like with a more consistent champion select from head coach kkOma and Faker playing more games. Panel: Alex Manisier, Erik "DoA" Lonnquist, Christopher "MonteCristo" Mykles, Tyler "Fionn" Erzberger, and Mike "Noctt" Huh

China

Edward Gaming (3-1)
OMG (4-0)
LGD Gaming (3-1)
Snake (3-0-1)
Team King (1-2-1)
Vici Gaming (1-2-1)
Invictus Gaming (3-1)
Star Horn Royal Club (2-2)
Master3 (2-2)
Gamtee (0-3-1)
Team WE (0-4)
Energy Pacemaker (0-4)

Record format is (W-L-T)

EDG tops China right now based on their ability to adapt and diversify their playstyle. OMG has mechanically outplayed all their opponents to an undefeated record, but has been sloppy in most of their wins and have played most of the bottom teams in the league. Meanwhile Snake has rampaged through the LPL until they lost to the much hyped, but until then maligned, Team King. IG, VG and M3 have all had good wins and bad losses leading us to think they will remain inconsistent until they fix some of their synergy issues. Panel: Kelsey Moser, Michale "Drexxin" Lalor, and Ryanne "Froskurinn" Mohr.

North America

Team Liquid (2-0)
Everyone else

We tried. Honestly we tried. Everyone beats everyone, top teams lose to new teams who got crushed by other teams... There is almost nothing to draw from here. Team Liquid is clearly excellent. With a solo queue stand in for world champion Piglet, Liquid was dominant in every aspect of both their games and looks to be the favorite in NA so far. However most other teams have some inconsistencies to shore up. We'll check back in on this next week. Panel: Cameron Gilbert, Mattias "Gentleman Gustaf" Lehman, Taylor "Riot RoboTayCo" Cocke, Jason "Riot Jayway" Wai, Joshua "Riot Jatt" Leesman, and Frank "Riot Mirhi" Fields.

Europe

SK Gaming (2-0)
Fnatic (2-0)
Elements (1-1)
Team ROCCAT (1-1)
Unicorns of Love (1-1)
Giants Gaming (2-0)
Copenhagen Wolves (1-1)
H2K (0-2)
Gambit Gaming (0-2)
MeetYourMakers (0-2)

I think all of us were a little surprised by SK Gaming and Fnatic. But it seems that El Clásico will be a marquee matchup for some time. However, SK Gaming needs to improve their ward control and Fnatic needs to prove themselves as consistent despite their Week 1 excellence. Meanwhile Elements had a good bounce back win against Unicorns of Love, derailing the hype train. Giants, while 2-0, need to prove themselves against better competition before we jump onto their bandwagon. However, through Week 1 EU looks to be competitive and exciting. Panel: Devin "PiraTechnics" Young, Mattias "Gentleman Gustaf" Lehman, Taylor "Riot RoboTayCo" Cocke, Jason "Riot Jayway" Wai, and Frank "Riot Mirhi" Fields.

Taiwan

Taipei Assassins (7-0)
Yoe Flash Wolves (6-1)
Hong Kong Esports (5-2)
AHQ e-Sports Club (5-3)
Never Give Up (3-4)
Logitech Snipers (3-5)
Midnight Sun Esports (1-6)
Dream or Reality (0-9)

Taiwan has been more exciting than ever, but fairly straight forward to rank. TPA has been flawless, including impressive wins over all the other top teams. Flash Wolves have been similar, except for their loss to TPA. HKE, as you might have guessed, have only lost to TPA and YFW. The teamfighting in this league has been exceptional from all the best squads, and we can only look forward to LMS's improvement over time as they play against top level competition. Panel: James "Obscurica" Chen and Chia "Reazony" Yu.

International

SKTelecom T1 (3-1)
GE Tigers (4-0)
Edward Gaming (3-1)
OMG (4-0)
LGD Gaming (3-1)
Jin Air Green Wings (2-1)
Snake (3-0-1)
CJ Entus (3-1)
Team King (1-2-1)
Najin e-mFire (1-3)
Vici Gaming (1-2-1)
SK Gaming (2-0)
Team Liquid (2-0)
Invictus Gaming (3-1)
Fnatic (2-0)
Taipei Assassins (7-0)
Yoe Flash Wolves (6-1)
Elements (1-1)
Star Horn Royal Club (2-2)
Hong Kong Esports (5-2)

Yes, that is in fact three LMS teams in the top 20. What you might be surprised to know is that they were almost unanimous choices by our panel. We think the Taiwanese teams have put forth good mechanical skill, average to good ward control and the best team fighting we've seen in the world. If their vision control and mechanics catch up to Korea, they will be scary to play in an international competition. Their new regional league has done a lot for them so far.

Cloud9 and TSM will have to do a lot more than lose to Gravity and Team8 if they hope to have international relevance. We weren't willing to give up on Elements after they lost to a very strong Fnatic team and came back against Unicorns of Love -- but consider them on watch. We halted our love for UOL for the moment, until they get more wins against great teams, or at least develop better consistency after their no-show performance against Elements.

The top of Korea maintains a slight edge over China on the backs of their consistency and vision control, but the gap is very small. As evident, a fairly similar number of Chinese and Korean teams litter the top 10. Let us know what you think of the rankings, write your own, and give us feedback on things to improve either on Twitter or in the comments below. Images courtesy of CGA and Garena

Pre-Season Power Rankings

51 Comments

ZeroAnarchyJan 28, 201510 votes

If we are basing this off the first week, Elements doesn't really deserve to be there along with TSM and C9, they got smashed by a completely new team and beat a reletively new team to the LCS.

MimiDivineJan 28, 20154 votes

Fnatic look real good with their new roster

ShadowLord300Jan 28, 20154 votes

Hai is the only reason that C9 is losing their games. Sneaky only died 3 times in their 2 losses, and balls had a positive kda coming out of the laning phase both times. If Meteos improves his picking and Hai drasticly improves performance, C9 will be back on top of the NA LCS. I also think their coach will get them back in form with lots of scrim time. RIP Sneaky and Meteos's stream :(

AyrtoneJan 28, 20154 votes

Although I agree that Hai was pretty terrible, there were some flaws involved with other players as well. Meteos had virtually no early pressure in either games and Balls played pretty badly in a lot of teamfights (Gnar ulting enemies into thin air for example) even though it may seem he did well do to a good laning phase. Besides that, I agree with you that C9 can be back on track fairly easily.

CyveJan 28, 20152 votes

hai has to make the calls he can´t concentrate on making plays like xiaoweixiao he is a good player so don+t hate it´s annoying

nicherJan 28, 20151 votes

If Hai can not concentrate in lane, he should 1. play passive and keep alive or 2. find another caller.

I think Meteos and LemonNation should help him, put too much pressure on Hai is bad idea, especially mid is so important this meta---u lose mid, u almost lose the game.

NeoDeimosJan 29, 20151 votes

Your point is made invalid by the fact that Bjerg is also a shot-caller, and still handled Hai in their matchup, despite Fizz being a supposed counter to Ahri.

turtlesparfaitJan 28, 20153 votes

[deleted]

Morior InvictisJan 28, 201522 votes

I don't think its your lack of sports knowledge that you have to worry about, but rather your reading skills.

There are many teams that aren't in places that their actual wins/losses account for. Although this isn't seen in the NA rankings, this is because one week of matches is hardly enough to figure out who are the "power-houses" aside from Team Liquid who was the only team to dominate both of their games.

Not sure what you are after, there have been few games all over the world to pull power-rankings from, so of course they are going to be more aligned with the actual rankings until some teams put together a larger body of work.

SmashKingDexJan 28, 20153 votes

How does a team that started their season 7-0 get ranked 16th?... summoner 3

College DebtsJan 28, 20152 votes

Well, it's LMS, a better question is how come there are 3 LMS teams but no NA teams

nicherJan 28, 20152 votes

One of the LMS teams won the world championship, NA teams never did that, why not 3 LMS teams?

ZeroAnarchyJan 28, 20153 votes

lol by that logic why is there chinese teams there too since they never won a world championship.

Divinicus1stJan 29, 20153 votes

If I remember correctly, China reached worlds finals twice, NA never made it this far.

NeoDeimosJan 29, 20152 votes

That team which you speak of, did so more than 2 years ago. Care to refresh us all on how that very same team did in the most recent World Championships? No? OK then, I'll tell you. They failed to even qualify in Season 3, and lost to the #1 NA qualifier.. TWICE.. in Season 4.

So are they REALLY that much better than NA? No, frankly, they're clearly worse.

ZeroAnarchyJan 29, 20153 votes

To be fair, no world champion has made it the following year. Fnatic didn't make it in S2, TPA didn't make it in S3, and SKT didn't make it in S4.

NeoDeimosJan 29, 20151 votes

"no world champion has made it the following year."

A trend that certainly looks to continue, with how poorly this revamped Samsung team is performing so far.

míkóJan 28, 20152 votes

C9 is officially the worst team NA XD...finally they show their true colors.

fsis1111Jan 28, 20152 votes

None of western team made to top 10.. GG

TarkamacskaJan 28, 20152 votes

I have dream when the Taiwan/Taipei hype will be over. Srsly, im not a LCS hyper but this ,,no Gnar is as good as Taipei Gnar. blah blah,, thing is a bit dumb. Very dumb. Taiwan isnt a strong region.

nicherJan 28, 20151 votes

Ya, Taiwan won a championship and not strong, how about the NEVER-WIN-ANY-TITLE EU?

0>1? #math101

Lucky AceJan 28, 20151 votes

except season 1 wish EU won and 2 semi finalist for season 2 and fnatic beating cloud9 season 3 also going to the semi finals. yes season 4 they sucked just hope EU and NA will step up there game, because i want the LCS teams to at least make semi finals this year. and i think only Liquid, SK, Fnatic and if they keep preforming now Elements have a small shot.

ZeroAnarchyJan 28, 20151 votes

The difference was that Taiwan won a championship with korean and chinese teams, they were also considered a weak region in S2, you never know they might surprise again.

NeoDeimosJan 29, 20151 votes

TPA doesn't even qualify for Worlds in Season 3; and finishes LAST in their group in Season 4. Please tell me how TPA is still this allegedly dominant team?

Keep living in the past, it's the only chance you have of seeing a SouthEast Asian team win anything for quite a long time.

TarkamacskaJan 29, 20151 votes

You`ve typed too much bllshit in your reply so i cant take you serious. Be salty and try to learn some math and logic in the school.

SimplyTiltedJan 28, 20151 votes

[deleted]

SaussBossJan 28, 20152 votes

True, but I think most of us (including Riot apparently) still expect this team that was the NA champions last year to still be very competitive will the other teams regardless of what happened in week 1. If they were a new team then sure, put them at the bottom, but they have too much positive history to base overall rankings on a single week of data.

SteadfastJan 28, 20154 votes

C9 was not the NA champ last year, TSM was. But They were certainly a close second, and I honestly think C9 is better. I have high hopes for them and I think C9 and TL are the top two this year, with TSM close behind if Santorin can perform.

The issues with C9 right now are Hai losing mid pretty hard and Meteos picking bad. His tank Elise can't do much against a huge impact jungler like J4 right now. The good news is that Balls and Sneaky are very capable of carrying if Hai can hold his own and shot call well. I'm looking forward to more safe picks like Orianna and for Meteos to pick up J4 and perhaps bring back his Lee Sin.

eabeJan 28, 20151 votes

Meteos doesn't pick his champ. And Hai had a bad champ choice in game two as well. I don't get the Ori pick. It should have been lulu. Why pick Ori into a super high mobile enemy team? Really I think C9 lost at champion select on both games. C9 would have been fare better off with a Jarven pick in game 1 vs TSM. And way better off with a lulu pick in game 2. I think the same thing about them at worlds last year. I really hope lemination stops picking all the champions for them. And they get a coach to do that instead.

DyviusJan 28, 20152 votes

C9 were runners-up in Summer Split 2014.

But everything else you said definitely holds.

juniorbean1234Jan 28, 20151 votes

yoe flash wolves... many of the "top teams" may be prevalent in their own region, but internationally are very poor in potential power and performance

Knightz TemplarJan 28, 20151 votes

PawN will pick up at the invitational where he left off last year at the last tournament he played, Worlds. Solo killing/dominating all mid laners, and being everywhere on the map. Also can't wait for the date to draw closer and Faker gets the full time start (unless the unlikely event that SKT is actually unsure who they want to start becomes reality).

Smart KittyJan 28, 20151 votes

Glad to see how much the Tiger's ranking has boosted, but I don't think TPA should've been higher than FNC

FusionskraftwerkJan 28, 20151 votes

Sk on first place in EU LCS? Based on the first week, FNC should be there. Sure, we don't know how they'll perfom later on, but from what I've seen, they're (unfortunately) at least just as good as SK. Although SK surely is one of the best European teams right now, a fact I really like :)

The CheesefryJan 28, 20151 votes

Team liquid is hands down the best team in NA right now and with the addition of Piglet next week im predicting a 2-0 over TSM and C9 as much as I love Cloud 9 when you put Xspecial with a godlike ADC like Piglet only good things will happen, also the supposed week link in their team is the one who carried them last week. All 5 members played ridiculously well and they are only going to get better.

EleshakaiJan 28, 20151 votes

There's a surprising lack of interesting insight in this week's power rankings. I hope that's due to the season being so new(which, honestly, is what I suspect the reason is) and is not an indication of what to expect from this series going forward.

The NA one didn't even have any discussion of what the teams were doing... just 'they're equal'. Don't get me wrong, I agree... the playing field in NA looks incredibly even, although I'd say Gravity is looking pretty bad overall, with their second game seeming more like a fluke than a sign of things to come, but we'll have to see... but just because they're all 'even' doesn't mean there isn't stuff you could have written about. But I guess with it being this early it's understandable for you guys to want to take the easy way out.

RuneWarpJan 29, 20151 votes

So… cloud 9 went from 6 to above 20? Please hire new people. Cloud 9 is not good enough to be 6 and not bad enough to be above 20.

Killer X 12Jan 29, 20151 votes

I dislike your NA rankings. As someone who did watch the games, and someone familiar with out rankings of this type works i am disappointed. At least half of the NA teams could beat Team Liquid under favorable conditions...and any of them can beat any other one under certain conditions. Your job when ranking isn't supposed to be "oh well anyone can beat anyone..because 80% of the teams are 1-1." Your job when ranking is taking those performances and analyzing the strengths of every single player and every single team and how those players work together and compare them to each other.

The any team can beat any team can apply to literally anything. Have we forgotten C9 and TSM in their games last year at worlds? They were certainly the worse team and could and WERE ranked lower than the Samsung teams...but they took a game. Just because some teams lost (c9) and some teams won (the rest of them) doesn't mean you couldn't actually make a list of the order of team strength. At the VERY LEAST you could of done the top 3 and then said "the rest."

All that being said, i dont' think Team Liquid should be above Fanatic. While i'm part of that NA>EU bullshit, i do think that Fanatic beat better teams.

While i think Elements (formerly Alliance) is going to be great, i don't think they are great right now. I was very unimpressed when watching their games...and again i'm surprised they are on your top 20 teams.

Finally...poor TA. 7-0 and still worse than most teams in the world. lol Dat weak region tho.

lemmefriendyouJan 29, 2015

I'm pretty positive these power rankings were put together with regard to the actual performances of these teams. You say you're have knowledge of how power ranking work. You should understand then, that NA showed mostly a lack of understanding the new meta and playing to the new map as well as other regions, with team Liquid being a single exception. I'm an NA fan through and through, but the first weekend of NA LCS was a disappointing sight putting it nicely.

lemmefriendyouJan 29, 20151 votes

poperofdeathJan 29, 20151 votes

WHAT TL 13?!?!?!?! Chogath eating that!

CentricJan 29, 20151 votes

http://fantasy.lolesports.com/share/join/league/644214/WpP4MX4sWxTULwEfWMFM 8 Teams, 1 spot remaining, draft today and tomorrow 5PM EST.

AbersJan 30, 20151 votes

I like this new ranking format!

Riot jaywayJan 30, 20151 votes

My personal NA LCS rankings (Note: this is not the NA panel's)

TL - Solid play from Dominate and Xpecial secure them the top spot. Keith filled in fine for Piglet (who returns Wk 2). Fenix on watch; had weak laning vs XWX, curious how he'll do against other lane-dominant mids (see Bjergsen)
CLG - Aphromoo almost carried them back into the game vs TL. More or less rolled T8. No zionspartan makes a rather large difference in opposing teams' gameplans. Could swap with TSM, but CLG > T8 > TSM.
TSM - Live and die by Bjergsen. This clearly showed in Week 1's games. Solo'd Hai in the c9 game and snowballed from there. Against T8, Santorin camped mid, but Slooshi8 fought through and crushed with Orianna. Giving them benefit of the doubt. Need other players to step up. Will be in trouble if it's just the Bjergsen Show.
TIP - Rush overextended in game against TL and had a few costly errors. He held back against Dignitas in a much cleaner game. Rhux/Apollo played well, team gets Impact back for Week 2. Rush, the primary shotcaller, is the big sleeper here.
Gravity - Dismal against WFX due to a really fed Fizz + camp on Keane in mid lane. Solid backline dives against C9 and took advantage of C9's immobility.
Cloud 9 - Solid leads in early game against both TSM/GV. Sneaky looks great, rest of roster appeared to have hit their ceilings. Going to err on side of caution and not underestimate them despite the 0-2. Could definitely drop next week pending performance.
Coast - Big lead against Dig thrown away ultimately during a poor Baron call. Impaler looks good, Cris played well. Smart ganks against Flaresz during WFX games. Want to put them over C9, but loss against Dig is a blemish.
Team 8 - Destroyed by Gnarvan wombo against CLG, stayed tough against TSM. Strength of schedule gives them the nod over WFX. If they can consistently repeat their Week 1 performance against TSM, will bump these guys up.
WFX - Rolled over Gravity but somewhat slow to close-out the game. Dropped to CST in equally convincing fashion. Needs more polish, will eventually get Avalon/Helios/Imagine in starting roster. I expect these guys to climb.
Dignitas - Barely scratched by CST, trampled by a very controlled TIP teamfight comp. Crumbzz needs to make a bigger impact next week to snowball his carries/solos.

GolthurnahlJan 28, 2015

Team Liquid is theoretically undefeatable.

If you take the results of the first ten matches that have been played, and you assume that if team A beat team B and team B beat team C, then team A should be able to beat team C, TL should win against every other NA LCS team based on the matches so far.

GolthurnahlJan 28, 2015

Team Liquid is theoretically undefeatable.

If you take the results of the first ten matches that have been played, and you assume that if team A beat team B and team B beat team C, then team A should be able to beat team C, TL should win against every other NA LCS team based on the matches so far.