Power Rankings - Week 19

Welcome to Week 19 of Lolesports Power Rankings. 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.

1. Samsung Galaxy Blue ( - )
2. Najin White Shield ( - )
3. Samsung Galaxy Ozone ( - )
4. CJ Entus Blaze ( - )
5. SK Telecom T1 K ( - )
6. KT Rolster Arrows ( - )
7. CJ Entus Frost ( - )
8. Edward Gaming (+1)
9. OMG (+2)
10. SK Telecom T1 S(+2)
11. Alliance (+3)
12. SK Gaming (+5)
13. Invictus Gaming ( - )
14. Cloud 9 (+4)
15. Dignitas (NEW)
16. LMQ ( - )
17. Counter Logic Gaming (+3)
18. Team WE (+1)

Najin Black Sword (???) KT Rolster Bullets (???) Current league record in parenthesis. Number of first place votes in brackets

1. ( - ) Samsung Galaxy Blue - [9] - OGN Reigning Champions Samsung Galaxy Blue beat rivals CJ Entus Frost twice during the second round of the SK Telecom LTE-A LoL Masters tournament during the past week, cementing their position as a top Korean squad, and one of the most innovative teams in the world. Though they remain the team to beat in OGN, they will face a tough test when they face SK Telecom in the LoL Masters finals on Sunday. Written by Thomas Watts
2. ( - ) Najin White Shield - OGN
3. ( - ) Samsung Galaxy Ozone - OGN Samsung Ozone held up their end of the sweep of CJ Entus by beating Blaze in both of their matches during the LoL Masters tournament. The Samsung Galaxy sweep has set the organization on a collision course with SK Telecom in the Masters finals. Ozone has proven themselves to be a team to contend with, but they’ll have to be ready for any strategies that SKT has come up with during their nearly month-long downtime. Written by Thomas Watts
4. ( - ) CJ Entus Blaze - OGN
5. ( - ) SK Telecom T1 K - OGN
6. ( - ) KT Rolster Arrows - OGN
7. ( - ) CJ Entus Frost - OGN
8. (+1) Edward Gaming - LPL Though every LPL team is trying to find ways to increase the competition, it's hard to shake off hot flashes from Edward Gaming's staggering performance in the playoffs. While every other LPL team works to perfect their rosters, EDG rests on their laurels with the knowledge that their team is fine-tuned and ready to take the Demacia Cup by storm. Jungler ClearLove has tightened his early game, and there's very little that will stop him with his laners to back him up. Written by Kelsey Moser
9. (+2) OMG - LPL Several Chinese players have confirmed that Cool will be coming back to the mid lane and Allen returning to the jungle. With hints from Sicca, the much-lauded support player from 2013 Summer's Positive Energy, that he may be stepping in, OMG could be the team we imagined as soon as Sicca's acquisition was made this year. Even without Sicca, OMG will once again be starting a split with Allen swapping roles. Add to that the fact that Cool and Sicca took Spring off from competitive play, and OMG could be in for a rocky start. Every time they've made drastic changes in the past, however, OMG has found ways to stay on top. This split could be the first flop OMG sees since they've joined LPL, but for now we trust in their emerging star-quality lineup. Written by Kelsey Moser
10. (+2) SK Telecom T1 S - OGN
11. (+3) Alliance - EU LCS - (5-1)
Alliance has shaped up into being a dominant European team, with talented players in every position and a growing synergy resulting from the influence of their analysts and coaching staff. They have started to bring advanced minion mechanics to Europe, and look firmly in control of the region after taking down their rivals, SK Gaming. Written by Mattias “Gentleman Gustaf” Lehman
12. (+5) SK Gaming - EU LCS - (4-2) SK Gaming still has some weak links to iron out. Their synergy is fantastic, but the individual skill of their top laner Fredy122 and jungler Svenskeren leaves some to be desired. Still, the veteran influence of nRated has made them a solid team, but as shown in their Week 2 game vs Alliance, something isn’t quite there, and it seems to be talent. Written by Mattias "Gentleman Gustaf" Lehman
13. ( - ) Invictus Gaming - LPL Like EDG, it appears as if Invictus Gaming's roster will remain unchanged going into the Demacia Cup. Their team has exhibited moments of brilliance that could easily seat them as the best in China - that is, if they could just work out their consistency. During the playoffs, EDG exposed some of iG's additional weaknesses, but they remain one of the strongest early game teams in the world when they're on point. If they can harness that momentum, they could rise this coming season. Written by Kelsey Moser
14. (+4) Cloud9 - NA LCS - (4-2) Despite a 2-0 finish in Week 2, Cloud9 is in an unfamiliar position: Tied for No. 2 with two other teams. What this says is that the competition in NA is steadily increasing and C9 must work even harder now to stand out. Compared to their dismal Super Week performance, C9 has slowly regained their swagger and continue to demonstrate correct team fight decisions and a unified response to those calls. While team captain Hai shoulders most of the burden to return to his spring split form after his lung collapsed in the offseason, he has shown impressive signs of recovery. Even when put into a difficult early game as Kha'Zix vs LeBlanc, Hai knows exactly how to play out the mid/late game and make an impact for his team. Written by Jack "NeoIllusions" Ho
15. (NEW) Team Dignitas - NA LCS (5-1) In sole possession of the No. 1 spot in the NA LCS, Dignitas has been the most impressive out of the many teams who have adjusted their rosters at the start of the summer split. Shiphtur and ZionSpartan both excel individually during the laning phase, allowing their jungler Crumbzz to attack the part of the map that needs his attention the most. After taking out both LMQ and TSM last week, will CLG or Evil Geniuses be able to stop the ever-improving Dignitas? Written by Jack “NeoIllusions” Ho
16. ( - ) LMQ - NA LCS - (4-2) After a much impressive 4-0 start during Super Week, LMQ faced a challenging schedule in Week 2 against Dignitas and Cloud9 but came up short against both. While Dignitas exploited LMQ at level 1 and never let go of their early game advantage, LMQ misplayed a number of team fights against C9 and saw their early lead evaporate. However, the split is still young and LMQ can still recover from their mistakes and losses thus far. This will they face TSM and coL this week, necessary wins for LMQ if they want to stay in the top four. Written by Jack “NeoIllusions” Ho
17. (+3) Counter Logic Gaming - NA LCS - (4-2) Against their long time rivals TSM last week, CLG displayed decisive map movements that resulted in very quick wins. And that’s not even mentioning their decisive victory over coL. Seraph has been meshing well with the team, but all eyes are on the bot lane duo of Aphromoo and Doublelift, nicknamed Rush Hour. As the biggest star on the team, Doublelift has yet to disappoint and pushes himself to be better this split. However, it is Aphromoo who has been making strides in the support position. Even on the rarely seen Alistar, Aphromoo made jaw-dropping plays that sets up CLG for easy teamfight victories. Written by Jack "NeoIllusions" Ho
18. (+1) Team WE - LPL The ex-Rising Star jungler Ruo will likely be parting ways with World Elite, and support player Conan has said he'll be replaced by an unknown Chinese solo queue jungler. Considering how fundamental Ruo and Conan were in the strong wins WE found in the playoffs, it's hard to imagine the team without him. Still, it took the split for WE to find a foundation, and with Hiro to provide not just strategy, but emotional coaching, the team has positive prospects. If they can pick up the slack and find the wiggle room in their new strategies, WE can still make waves this LPL Summer. Written by Kelsey Moser

??? Najin Black Sword - OGN | ??? KT Rolster Bullets - OGN This may be the largest cop out in the history of journalism, but let’s be honest - no one has any idea how good either of these teams are. We had different opinions on each from all our panelists. Do they belong in the Top 10? Should they be out of the Top 25? There are so many questions about each team regarding their new rosters, inexperienced players, and role swaps - and both these teams were trending downwards regardless. Pick their rank. Your guess is as good as ours. Written by Frank ‘Riot Mirhi’ Fields Falling - Team SoloMid - NA LCS (3-3) Dropping out of the power rankings this week, TSM struggles to adapt to their new lineup. Many of their opposing teams have been focusing directly on TSM's new jungler, Amazing, by throwing multiple jungle bans at him at the onset of champion select. What is most daunting for TSM has been their inability to work around this weakness. In their match against Dignitas, TSM's pick phase was highly suspect when they revealed a surprise jungle Volibear pick too early. This allowed Dignitas to build a highly mobile and kite-focused team composition which made Amazing a complete non-factor in the game. Written by Jack “NeoIllusions” Ho Others Receiving Votes: TPA, Fnatic, TSM, Supa Hot Crew, Jin Air Stealths, Millenium The Panel: Alex Manisier - Team Liquid 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. Christopher "MonteCristo" Mykles - OGN Analyst and Commentator. Season 3 World Championship Analyst, esports veteran. Frank "Mirhi" Fields - Web Content Editor for lolesports.com. Esports veteran, follows all five major leagues. Jack "NeoIllusions" Ho - TeamLiquid staff writer. Has covered OGN, NA and EU LCS for TL and lolesports.com. Regularly watches most of the 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 "Chexx" Kiefer - German born, Korean resident. TeamLiquid staff writer and Esports veteran. Expert on all things Korea. Regularly watches all five major leagues. Michael Mooridian - Freelance esports journalist. Specializes in NA & EU LCS and Challenger leagues and follows all five major leagues. Taylor Cocke - Web Content Coordinator for lolesports.com Watches EU/NA with a passion, follows all other leagues. Team Inven - Esports veterans and OGN experts. Regularly watch every game of 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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