Everything you wanted to know about Power Rankings

RiotMirhi·Jan 22, 2015·9 votes·24,345 views

Hey everyone!

We first came up with the idea for a universal Power Rankings at the start of last season. We thought it would be a good catalyst for discussion about teams' relative strengths internationally.

We honestly didn't comprehend the passion that people had about something like this. It's been both one of our most popular article series, and most controversial because of the order of the teams.

We acknowledge that it's impossible to get everything right, and that a lot of people will always disagree with individual placements of teams. Even among Rioters, there is never agreement, sometimes we yell, sometimes we cry. It's not perfect.

What we want to do is generate as high quality a list as we can, and so that's where the idea for a panel came from.

We have some of the people on the panel, as well as some Rioters who work on the Power Rankings, here to answer questions about the process, our views on the global landscape, and what we want to do with Power Rankings in the future.

We're hoping by welcoming discussion, you can better understand the process by which we create Power Rankings, and we can understand your thoughts about it. What do you like, what don't you like?

Here are a list of people who have made themselves available:

For reference, here is the Pre-Season Power Rankings that we made before teams played any regular season matches.

80 Comments

RiotMirhiJan 22, 20155 votes

I actually wanted to address something in a comment that I imagine there will be questions about.

We wanted to do a Pre-Season Power Rankings this season as a way to bring anticipation for the season. However, the slow rollout was something that didn't work particularly well for this particular article series since Asian leagues started during the rollout. We will do our best not to make a mistake like that again.

Thanks for understanding.

Du ChimpstJan 22, 20154 votes

On what basis did you think Unicorns of Love are the 16th best team in the world?

RiotMirhiJan 23, 20152 votes

{quoted}

On what basis did you think Unicorns of Love are the 16th best team in the world?

Our general process for determining teams went like this:

Korean experts ranked Korea, China experts ranked China, etc.

Among people who were thinking of Europe, we decided that EU went like this:

Elements
SK Gaming
Unicorns of Love
ROCCAT

We compared international teams like the following:

SKT vs EDG vs Elements vs Cloud9 vs AHQ -- who's better? SKT Najin vs EDG vs Elements vs Cloud9 vs AHQ -- who's better? EDG etc

When we got to #16, this was the discussion: Unicorns of Love vs TSM vs Vici vs AHQ vs KR (I honestly can't remember Korea at this point)

The panel felt that based on TSM's poor performance at IEM, what we felt was a downgrade from Amazing to Santorin, Vici having potential synergy issues, and us never seeing them, and AHQ not being quite up to par, that UOL was deserving of the spot. Especially after UOL's great performance in Challenger at IEM vs TSM, and in their loss vs C9.

Admittedly, Vici was a conservative estimate, and they have looked both good and inconsistent so far.

Where we'll rank them going forward we don't know yet, but we'll have a new list out next week.

Logic and FactsJan 23, 20153 votes

I want to have EXTENSIVE conversations with your European experts.

Du ChimpstJan 23, 20152 votes

same here m8

Pompus PapayaJan 23, 20154 votes

I say well done, and the controversy will always be there, but that actually adds to the popularity. People will tell others about the rankings and check it out for themselves and then have tier own opinions as to whether they agree with it or not. Like I said great job and I really enjoy the listings Vladimir :The rivers will run red!

RiotTayTay BotJan 23, 20152 votes

:) Thanks, Pompus! We have a lot of fun putting these together, and definitely love the amount of discussion that surrounds them.

MinotaurJan 23, 20153 votes

To add to this, my comment further down may have ripped the power rankings a part some what, but I do enjoy the power rankings. I do wish they made more sense at times, since they are kind of baffling, but its always fun to discuss them nonetheless.

SK OceIotJan 23, 20153 votes

What would you adjust now after after EU,LCK,LPL have already played games?

ObscuricaJan 23, 20152 votes

[{quoted}](name=Lazlo Panaflex,realm=EUW,application-id=9hBQwnEU,discussion-id=w9I9xPii,comment-id=0007,timestamp=2015-01-23T00:04:53.712+0000)

What would you adjust now after after EU,LCK,LPL have already played games?

I'd definitely drop SKT a few levels, and boot CJ Entus and GE Tigers further up the list. EL's on watch: if they drop the game against UOL as well, they gotta go down a slot on my list, at least.

Also, swapping AHQ for TPA. Preseason AHQ was great; in-season AHQ is getting picked apart by Hong Kong and Wolves. TPA's disgustingly consistent-still #1, still undefeated. It'd be boring if their games weren't so damn close.

(This is me unashamedly plugging the LMS. IT'S WORTH WATCHING, ALRIGHT)

DefinitelyNotDoAJan 23, 20151 votes

When SKT starts feeling like beating everyone I think they will. They're still #1 on my Korea list. Right now 2nd place is a tie between GE Tigers and CJ, which will be broken tomorrow when they play each other. After that Najin is a comfortable 4th.

ObscuricaJan 23, 20151 votes

{quoted}

When SKT starts feeling like beating everyone I think they will. They're still #1 on my Korea list. Right now 2nd place is a tie between GE Tigers and CJ, which will be broken tomorrow when they play each other. After that Najin is a comfortable 4th.

Honestly not sure if I can share that confidence. It's not even Faker being inconsistent lately (that mid switchoff strategy really isn't working, Kkoma). It's that Bengi's reverted to his late S4 state after an otherwise stellar preseason. It's already hard to claim that he's on par with Ambition and Score, and they're rookie junglers.

DefinitelyNotDoAJan 23, 20151 votes

Faker losing a couple games doesn't make him anything near inconsistent. He's Faker, but he does have off weeks once a year or so if you remember previous seasons. Bengi's never been a top jungler so that really isn't cause for concern. Ambition's had a good 7 days or so after a month of poor preseason so we'll see how it turns out in the end and Score (returning to his original role as a jungler) is definitely not performing as well as Bengi right now. I personally think Lee on the GE Tigers is the best Jungler at the moment in Korea. Score needs to help dig KT out of the hole they're in. Ambition needs to prove he can be good for more than a week or so. Bengi is still mediocre Bengi and yet SKT keeps marching on as usual.

Bramble BerryJan 23, 20151 votes

Is there any teams to watch out for in LMS or are interesting? Currently the only games I particularly care for are HKE.

ObscuricaJan 23, 20151 votes

[{quoted}](name=Bramble Berry,realm=NA,application-id=9hBQwnEU,discussion-id=w9I9xPii,comment-id=000700000001,timestamp=2015-01-23T00:25:49.471+0000)

Is there any teams to watch out for in LMS or are interesting? Currently the only games I particularly care for are HKE.

Top four teams are TPA, HKES, Yoe Flash Wolves and AHQ, roughly in that order. (YFW is looking freaking solid with new jungler Karsa, so might switch off with HKES on a week-to-week basis). That's the veteran squads, of course, so the rankings come as no surprise, but watch out for Midnight Sun as well. They're still rough around the edges, but they're sweeping their rookie peers aside pretty easily.

Bramble BerryJan 23, 20151 votes

A jungler named Karsa? Damn, I hope his name is a Malazan reference. I'll check out some vods while waiting for OGN tonight, thanks!

RiotMirhiJan 23, 20152 votes

HKE has been my favorite team to watch in the whole world. In my opinion they've been the best team fighting team overall. Granted that doesn't mean they are the best team in the world, but I would expect rapid improvement.

ObscuricaJan 23, 20151 votes

[{quoted}](name=Riot Mirhi,realm=NA,application-id=9hBQwnEU,discussion-id=w9I9xPii,comment-id=0007000000010001,timestamp=2015-01-23T00:45:46.252+0000)

HKE has been my favorite team to watch in the whole world. In my opinion they've been the best team fighting team overall. Granted that doesn't mean they are the best team in the world, but I would expect rapid improvement.

OLLEH IS THE BEST

YimaJan 23, 20153 votes

look more towards historical trends and previous results rather than blindly hyping up teams with no context or merit.

FoilCageJan 23, 20152 votes

I think we rather overrated immediate results and placed teams low because they had a recent poor performance or an unproven roster. BLind hyping may have turned out more accurately. --Kelsey

RiotTayTay BotJan 23, 20152 votes

We do our best to look at both historical trends and recent results, weighing them fairly equally. The preseason can be a bit, well, interesting because of the huge amount of roster changes and players jumping around teams. As a result, this time around, recent results may have been weighed a bit more heavily in the panel's collective minds. As the season progresses, historical trends will certainly be weighed more heavily.

MinotaurJan 23, 20153 votes

What made you guys decide to do a staggered released? Hindsight is 20/20 but its pretty obvious how flawed this decision was, since you essentially waited two weeks to put it out. Now we have multiple teams in the rankings where its almost impossible to imagine why they are even included at the moment. Most notably being King, KT, WE, SSG, etc. I mean you are looking at close to ten teams who won't be in next weeks list and who shouldn't have been in this list.

As for some of the picks, Why is Unicorns of Love and Gambit included in this list? Yes Gambit won IEM, but lets be honest, they didn't look like a top 20 team. That was easily one of the most poorly played Finals we have had in recent memory.

I don't understand why WE was included in the list either as this team looked pretty bad. Spirit can only do so much when everyone else is bad around him. Styz has his moments sure, but he has his fair share of bad ones as well. I have to feel like they were pretty overrated coming into their LPL games ranked this high.

Elements over GE Tigerss? That honestly makes little sense to me.

This one I feel is a little more debatable so I would like to hear the panelists opinion of GE vs KT. Obviously we know who should be ahead of who now, but I felt pretty confident after preseason saying GE was better. They played two less games and looked overrall more impressive from my eyes, but maybe you saw something I didn't see.

Cloud 9 is rank 6. Please explain this one for me. I'm trying to wrap my head around it, but I still don't see it. We're putting a team who has never won a series against a top tier KR/CN team in the top 6. Even if you do the eye test, there is no way you can possibly say they are better than some teams like GE, CJ, LGD, IG. SHRC is debatable without NaMei. Any other team listed is debatable. Next week when King inevitably drops out, it would be absolutely baffling to see C9 somehow climb their way into the top 5.

Honestly I could have a deeper discussion about this list, but its completely outdated due to the delayed release, I'm ignoring a lot of picks since they most likely won't be included in next weeks.

RiotTayTay BotJan 23, 20152 votes

I can speak to your first issue about the staggered release. I'll leave the rankings discussions up to the panel members themselves.

We decided to do the staggered release because we really wanted to blow out the first Power Rankings of the season. Normally, we do one post with short paragraphs for teams, but this time around, we wanted to write full articles for each squad on the list. As such, we decided to release them over two weeks. Obviously, this would have gone a bit better if we had done it a couple weeks earlier and got them all out before LCK/LPL/etc. got going. We'll be looking at doing this differently in the future.

Hey, you live and you learn, right?

FoilCageJan 23, 20151 votes

I'll speak for WE.

EDG has had a dominant year in China. WE took them to 3 games in Demacia Cup Finals in the offseason. On paper, their glaring flaws have places where they're compensated for. Styz is a great self sufficient snowballer. Spirit is a great babysitter. Ninja doesn't throw away lane leads if he can get going. Aluka can't convert lane wins, but he's able to handle himself and not feed relentlessly.

Then Sivir exploded. Styz can't play non-escape ADCs. Spirit probably freaked out and tried to carry. A promising WE roster couldn't handle a meta change. Again.

VitrixJan 23, 20152 votes

Do you regret not puting CJ Entus on the list?

DefinitelyNotDoAJan 23, 20154 votes

Since the first list is based on the preseason, no. They were terrible in the preseason.

I should also add that they look legit now, but I'm still having a hard time believing that it'll last. Too many heartbreaks...

RiotTayTay BotJan 23, 20153 votes

Well, I can say there's a strong likelihood that CJ will be included in the coming weeks.

In preseason, however, they didn't look great. As a result, they were considered lower down on the tier list. Now, however, it's obviously a bit different. That Space hype, though.

VitrixJan 23, 20151 votes

completely forgot the list was made in the preseason. Space prison now is Space heaven

Tempest138Jan 23, 20152 votes

Do you think a non- Korean team could take the number one spot on the list anytime soon?

ObscuricaJan 23, 20152 votes

{quoted}

Do you think a non- Korean team could take the number one spot on the list anytime soon?

China's making a convincing case for it already, especially EDG. Admittedly, when you steal the very top region's S- and A-tier players, it does rather make the poached region look kinda bad afterward. Korea's really suffering in the spring, and it's of some contention whether GE Tigers and CJ Entus have really powered up, or if they're simply no longer hindered by better rivals.

DefinitelyNotDoAJan 23, 20151 votes

I really don't think you can watch the top LPL games right now and the top Korean games and not say that Korea is better on an objective level when it comes to map movement and decision making. Also consider that Korea just had their entire scene blown up over the off season and they already look this good. In a couple months it'll be like nobody left as far as team skill goes.

ObscuricaJan 23, 20151 votes

{quoted}

I really don't think you can watch the top LPL games right now and the top Korean games and not say that Korea is better on an objective level when it comes to map movement and decision making. Also consider that Korea just had their entire scene blown up over the off season and they already look this good. In a couple months it'll be like nobody left as far as team skill goes.

The criteria wasn't on a scene-by-scene basis, though, but for the #1 spot. If I were to have Korea hypothetically nab slots 2-5 in the next rankings, and have either EDG or OMG as #1? That's not me claiming that the Chinese scene's stronger. That's me claiming that there's one stand-out team at the end of January that isn't Korean. The top-level Korean scene is still inarguably stronger.

That said, end-of-month would more likely go to CJ Entus if they keep up their current performance. And it weirds me out that I'm maybe voting Space into that position.

AlexkarinoJan 23, 20152 votes

I love just about everybody on the panel a lot and I can't seriously believe that this list is something people on this panel came up with or decided upon. What's with Vici Gaming at 19th ,despite when they were put on they hadn't even played yet and they had 2 players who are arguably the best players at that role, and somehow TSM is at 17th? A TSM who had just lost their jungler somehow out-ranks a team that just got 2 of the best players in the world and on top of that we then put Team Liquid who HASN'T played at ALL for the last 4 months competitively just because they a Korean ADC who wasn't even best at his role? Come on.. I'm sorry if they sounded condescending or rude in anyway, but this list was an embarrassment for the most part.

ObscuricaJan 23, 20152 votes

{quoted}

I love just about everybody on the panel a lot and I can't seriously believe that this list is something people on this panel came up with or decided upon. What's with Vici Gaming at 19th ,despite when they were put on they hadn't even played yet and they had 2 players who are arguably the best players at that role, and somehow TSM is at 17th? A TSM who had just lost their jungler somehow out-ranks a team that just got 2 of the best players in the world and on top of that we then put Team Liquid who HASN'T played at ALL for the last 4 months competitively just because they a Korean ADC who wasn't even best at his role? Come on.. I'm sorry if they sounded condescending or rude in anyway, but this list was an embarrassment for the most part.

Ah, let me see if I recall the conversation correctly.

According to our China-specific panelists, Vici was basically two star players and three pieces of furniture. Given their total lack of preseason activity, and our experts' lack of confidence that even their Koreans could consistently carry the load, we decided to be conservative in our estimates regarding the team.

And to be fair, their recent games went some ways towards justifying that decision! Even DanDy hasn't been looking as sharp as he did back in October.

FoilCageJan 23, 20152 votes

I knew Dandy and Mata and Carry are good. HeTong and Vasilii were not jumping out at me given their histories and skill. I rated them conservatively without games played. That said, I liked what I saw oF them despite their losses and expet a better showing. HeTong grew since his LSPL days. Carry is even more impressive than anticipated.

Vasilii still... has a small champion pool.

But as a team they played better than iG.

At this point, this is no longer about power rankings.

I put VG where they are expecting them to prove themselves worthy of a higher rating. Curse still only changed two members, as opposed to VG getting 4 new players. So they had more of a track record.

--Kelsey

CLG FactorFeb 5, 20152 votes

Why did you guys rank Team Liquid (2-2) over Gravity (3-1)?

10saiJan 23, 20151 votes

Which placement/ranking did you personally disagree with the most when the rankings were finished.

FoilCageJan 23, 20152 votes

UoL.

DreXxiNJan 23, 20152 votes

UoL by a pretty large margin. Probably Cloud 9 as well.

RiotMirhiJan 23, 20151 votes

SKT. I thought OMG and EDG should both be ahead of them. I also thought Elements was too high.

RiotTayTay BotJan 23, 20151 votes

At first glance, I thought SSG was too high.

ObscuricaJan 23, 20151 votes

{quoted}

Which placement/ranking did you personally disagree with the most when the rankings were finished.

If I had it my way, TPA'd be somewhere in the bottom five, and not last place or off the chart entirely. I damn near convinced a couple other panelists too.

You'll see. Winds is a god. A divine wind. A kamika- wait, no that, has negative connotations...

TheGrandAllianceJan 29, 20151 votes

I hate to burst the RIOT bubble... but alas power rankings in ANY context/sport are trash. Where were the Power Rankings that said Seattle Seahawks go for 2 superbowel(or the first)?

Futhermore rating teams based upon W/L like how RIOT appears to do are meaningless. The reason they are 2-0 is because they faced 2 loser teams and won easily. Whereas in Fnatic vs Elemetents or TSM vs C9 you had the 2 best teams facing each other in game 1.

The only "power ratings" that matter are who win seeds into World LCS series... everything else is just joke of a conversation.

MLOSFeb 5, 20151 votes

Annie Annie Annie Annie

Wick3d1Feb 25, 20151 votes

Europe and the North American divisions are not getting their fair shake. A new year, new players, a new season, new LOL Pros, new teammates and teams- a fresh start so to speak. SK Gaming the perfect example of that. SK Gaming surely worked hard, and having a perfect season, dominating any and all opponents must be very rewarding. (Referencing this Link) SK Gaming has the best record in THE WORLD and bragging rights to perfect, 8-0 start. No other team in the WORLD can say that. So how disheartening and confusing it must be to be ranked 8th Internationally behind a 5-3 and two 4-3 teams.

In any other sports leagues with divisions (like West, South) just because one division is highly competitive and skilled, doesn't mean the 3rd or last place team in that division is ranked above first place teams in other divisions. It is my thought this current way would be like giving a wildcard seed to a championship to a 5-5 team and not inviting a 9-1 team. The team with a lot of skill and talent, yet 4-3 record, should be ranked below a 8-0 or or for that matter a 5-3 team. It's their own fault they are not preforming. I don't think it's fair to the players or the sport for us to take into account bad luck, tough schedules and divisions, or past performances. I hope this gets attention and corrected. Riot, lets reward teams for excellence instead of putting teams who have preformed well in the past, just not so much in this 2015 season.

My suggestion is to rank these teams on gaming stats, objectives, GPM, kills, deaths. A curve can be applied to a losing/winning teams stats to account the hit teams take when on the losing side, but over all, I think would lead to great accuracy and fairness.

Riot you're awesome and thank you for a fantastic game and all its depth and the time taken to read this suggestion.

I believe the LOL eSports fans would agree this approach would promote fairness through real and measurable statistics, making us fans satisfied as well as the professional players and teams their fair shake in International Rankings.

I'd be glad to come work for you. Will work for skins :)

Wick3d1Feb 25, 20151 votes

bump it

THE KILLER GUYMay 18, 20151 votes

Why would we use Regional statistics to create International Power Rankings? I think it's fair to say that when the top teams in one region are clearly better than the top teams in another region, that the 2nd or 3rd place teams in the top region could be better than the 1st place team in the lower region as well. If competition is better in certain regions than others, then that sort of thing happens. The first place team of each region isn't going to be put in the top 5 international teams just because there are 5 regions. It doesn't work that way. Also, look at what happened to SK. They ended up falling to 4th place in EU, and the first place EU team (Fnatic) still lost to the first place LCK team (SKT). So looks like SK is actually much lower in international rankings than that article suggested, and LCK (which is now considered 2nd to LPL) is the better region, which means some of it's lower seeds are better than EU's higher seeds and so forth.

THE KILLER GUYMay 18, 20151 votes

You guys shouldn't have even made this post. These comments are all so unappreciative and they show no understanding towards the real purpose of Power Rankings. POWER RANKINGS ARE MADE TO PROVOKE DISCUSSION; OBVIOUSLY NO ONE KNOWS WHO THE BEST 20 TEAMS IN THE WORLD ARE IN ORDER BEFORE THE REGULAR SEASON EVEN STARTS.

To all of the hating comments: Stop acting all high and mighty now that we actually have a good idea of who the best 20 teams are. You couldn't have done a better job. You wouldn't have done a better job if you had tried to make predictions.

If they didn't release the Pre-Season Power Rankings article, you'd all probably be pissed off because they didn't try to make/post any predictions.