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Everything you wanted to know about Power Rankings

RiotMirhi·1/22/2015, 11:55:20 PM·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

RiotMirhi1/22/2015, 11:59:48 PM5 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 Chimpst1/22/2015, 11:58:32 PM4 votes

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

Pompus Papaya1/23/2015, 12:01:04 AM4 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!

Yima1/23/2015, 12:05:43 AM3 votes

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

Minotaur1/23/2015, 12:23:48 AM3 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.

SK OceIot1/23/2015, 12:04:53 AM3 votes

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

Alexkarino1/23/2015, 12:11:36 AM2 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.

Vitrix1/23/2015, 12:00:09 AM2 votes

Do you regret not puting CJ Entus on the list?

Tempest1381/23/2015, 12:01:46 AM2 votes

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

CLG Factor2/5/2015, 3:05:53 PM2 votes

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

TheGrandAlliance1/29/2015, 11:23:06 PM1 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.

MLOS2/5/2015, 2:47:00 PM1 votes

Annie Annie Annie Annie

THE KILLER GUY5/18/2015, 7:26:25 PM1 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.

Wick3d12/25/2015, 11:36:53 AM1 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 :)

10sai1/23/2015, 12:29:57 AM1 votes

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