Power Rankings - 6/2/2015
Riot··1 votes·93,805 views
After weeks of waiting, all five of the major leagues have begun.
Asian leagues had a few weeks head start on the LCS regions, but the picture is still murky in China where substitutions, experimentation, and general unrest is preventing us from being able to analyze the region.
Similarly, with only two games of data we can't make firm determinations on the LCS regions, but there's still plenty to discuss. One thing is constant in all regions however: new teams have proven they aren't to be taken for granted.
Find out who moved up and down this week...
Edward Gaming and Invictus Gaming are not giving up their stranglehold on China. They are however letting the rest of the region maintain their crazy ways.
In an inexplicable move, Vici Gaming shuffled its roster around in what should have been a marquee matchup against Invictus. Why? Zu-Jing "Carry" Wang was unable to play and they didn't want to use a sub. They get a bit of a pass, but not much of one by virtue of the 22-match regular season not letting this one have too much impact. Still, it would have been nice of them to try to win.
Snake and Qiao Gu continue their improvement and their ascension up the rankings, giving LGD and Masters 3 the role of gatekeeper between the lower and upper tiers of the league.
Before you crucify us for putting Counter Logic Gaming 2nd behind Team SoloMid, let us explain. It's too early in the season to really stack rank these teams, especially because Cloud9 out teamplayed TSM, but then inexcusably lost to Team Dignitas. CLG looked great against Team Impulse, but we think it was more CLG's strengths naturally exploiting TiP's flaws than a statement game. I would fully expect this to change in the coming weeks. If CLG is able to keep up their impressive performance, they will most assuredly be 1st Place. However, this isn't the standings, it's a Power Ranking. We have to wait and see if all the top teams are as consistent as we hope they will be.
Enemy Esports is the big winner of the week. As one of the new teams in NA, it was unlikely they'd come out with much fire, but they managed to defeat Gravity in their debut. Look for them to continue improving as the Split continues.
Martin "Rekkles" Larsson isn't cursed after all! We didn't expect Fnatic to have any chemistry problems considering that the AD carry and Bora "YellOwStaR" Kim played a full year together, but it was still a possibility. They managed to close out Unicorns of Love and SK Gaming pretty convincingly in Week 1, leading us to believe Fnatic will be a better team in the long term than they are now.
However, Origen also showed to be a contender with an impressive win over H2K -- a team many thought to be No. 2 in Europe.
Elements seems to have recovered from their hangover from last Split as well. They completely dismantled Gambit and then lost a close game to Unicorns of Love. You can only penalize the top teams for playing each other so much, so even though the records don't align with rankings too heavily, we do expect things to level out in the coming weeks.
Unfortunately for fans of the LMS, there seem to only be two contenders in LMS. The region still appears to be very deep, but more top heavy lately. Machi Esports has been on the rise, but the Taipei Assassins, Assassin Sniper, and Hong Kong Esports have not looked as solid as they once did.
The teams have all had troubles adapting, and anemic play in the past week lead us to believe this may be a Flash Wolves vs. ahq race once again.
Order was somewhat restored in Brazil this past week, although ranking teams past the top two is still fairly difficult. Returning to form this week was paiN Gaming, who swept CNB e-Sports Club in a hard-fought set that was far closer than the final 2-0 score suggests. Top team Keyd Stars swept g3nerationx -- formerly their sister team, Keyd Warriors -- but looked shaky in the second game as g3nerationx was a few mistakes away from the upset.
INTZ's coordination was much improved in Week 2, and Gabriel "Tockers" Claumann overcame six consecutive mid lane bans to boast an impressive combined 30 KDA in their 2-0 victory over INTZ Red. Lastly, KaBuM! Orange was the more focused of the two KaBuM! teams this week, as Black played surprisingly passively throughout their mid game, giving Orange the 2-0.
The 2015 Latin American Cup’s closing Split has officially started and while we are still waiting for LAS to play their games later today, yesterday we were able to watch all six LAN teams in action.
Regional champion Lyon Gaming was able to defeat their arch rivals Dash9 Gaming in a convincing display of authority against a team that has three new players. The boys from Gaming Gaming were in charge of welcoming MYM to the LATAM region in a very close fight that had the audience comparing it to a basketball game. Finally Havoks Gaming made their Latin American Cup debut by defeating Peru’s Revenge eSports in another back and forth match.
Later today we get to see LAS in action when Latin American champions KLG face off against Furious Gaming, Last Kings vs. Bencheados, and Rebirth vs. Isurus Gaming.
Written by Erick “Skyshock” Gonzalez
Panel: Erick "Skyshock" Gonzalez
You might be surprised to see the only 2-0 team ranked 4th, but the games Ozone Rampage played have left something to be desired: close, unpolished wins over equally unpolished teams. Meanwhile, the team they barely edged out a victory over last week, Rabbit Five, took out the reigning champs DetonatioN FocusMe while playing with a sub. FM seemed to lack all the decisiveness that made them so scary last week, and Rabbit Five -- led by a spectacular Gnar performance from Yuta "Yutorimoyashi" Noguchi – took full advantage, leading them on a merry chase all over the map. It's close, but the all-Japanese Rabbit Five moves up to No. 3 this week.
On the other hand, 7th Heaven finally showed off their best stuff against ApeX. Their lane dominance and effective followup showed that their loss last week may have been more to FocusMe's credit than their own weakness, leading the top two to stay as is. It'll be this weekend, in 7th Heaven's match against Rabbit Five, where we see how much credit they truly deserve.
In the third week of the Turkish Championship League, teams continued to tinker with rosters. Most notably, ex-Giants support Fernando "Rydle" Soria joined up with Dark Passage, and arguably the best Turkish ADC Anıl "HolyPhoenix" Işık teamed up with HWA.Gamesatış.
Beşiktaş on the other hand is still performing below their peak, though they won a crucial match against HWA after falling behind 8-1 in kills. HWA enjoyed success with their new ADC -- HolyPhoenix managed to record a KDA of 10.3 throughout the week. Even though Oyun Hizmetleri lost their first game against TT, they managed to bounce back and beat DP to retain 3rd Place. Team Turquality, who weren’t able to get a victory yet, had an outstanding third-week performance as they beat both Atlas and Dark Passage. New jungle addition Robin "Rawbin" Eggenberger worked together perfectly with top laner Gustav "Xyraz" Blomkvist. The synergy between the Swedes combined with the mid and bot lane big plays will surely make them a threat for the remaining weeks.
First week of StarSeries gave the fans more questions than answers. On the one hand, last Split champions Hard Random continue to show the rotational play that keeps everyone else way behind, but their problem has been sustaining their form throughout the season and Playoffs. Just.MSI continued playing well, but were relatively untested this week. RoX at last acquired an AD Carry they needed to diversify their passive playstyle -- they look like they could be a serious threat to the leaders.
In case of three other teams, all of whom who made roster changes, it's really hard to say whether substitutions helped or not. Dolphins are trying to find a way around their careful carries and Lasagna's all-in aggressive initiations. Dragon are still trying to build synergy with their new botlane and Carpe Diem has expressed a lack of motivation, not playing with their main roster.
Newcomers Solar Wind and Your Exit are showing some potential but they have a long road to playoffs in front of them and the main goal is not to get relegated.
Written by Michael "Olsior" Zverev
Panel: Michael "Olsior" Zverev
We're one and a half weeks into the Oceanic Pro League, and there have been a few shuffles around the middle bracket as some teams have come out stronger than expected, while others still suffer from roster issues. Chiefs and Legacy lead the pack, and the stronger of the two is likely to be decided in their upcoming clash -- in which one undefeated record will be put to an end.
Dire Wolves and Avant Garde still need time to build familiarity with their new rosters, but we've already seen glimpses of their potential strengths in their wins. Meanwhile, Team Immunity are seriously struggling, plagued by availability issues in the jungle position. There is no doubt that they have a higher upside than Absolute, but as long as they remain winless, Immunity will have to earn a higher ranking.
Written by Alex Manisier
Panel: Alex Manisier
There are many new and returning teams to the rankings, but most notably is Origen, who looked like a veteran team after only a week. That's probably because they basically are a veteran team, with Jesper "Niels" Svenningsen being the only player without World Championship experience. This is a potentially scary team to the rest of Europe and even internationally.
OMG, LGD, and Samsung have shown marked improvement in the past week, and it's possible that they may be able to start turning things around. Meanwhile, North America leaves us unsure what to make of them as a region. This early in the season I'd expect even more upheaval in coming weeks.
Let us know your thoughts on the Power Rankings on Twitter or in the comments below.
Korea
- ( - ) SKTelecom T1 (2-0) [4-0]
- ( - ) CJ Entus (3-0) [6-2]
- ( - ) KT Rolster (2-1) [5-2]
- (+2) Jin Air Green Wings (2-1) [4-2]
- (-1) Najin e-mFire (1-2) [3-5]
- (-1) KOO Tigers (1-1) [3-3]
- (+1) Samsung (1-2) [3-4]
- (+1) Incredible Miracle (1-1) [2-3]
- (-2) Anarchy (1-3) [4-7]
- ( - ) SBENU Sonicboom (0-3) [0-6]
China
- ( - ) Edward Gaming (2-0-1)
- ( - ) Invictus Gaming (3-1-0)
- (+1) Qiao Gu (2-0-1)
- (+1) Snake (2-1-1)
- (+2) OMG (1-0-3)
- (-3) Vici Gaming (0-1-3)
- (+1) LGD Gaming (0-1-3)
- (-2) Masters 3 (1-0-3)
- (+1) Royal Never Give Up (1-1-3)
- (-1) Unlimited Potential (0-1-4)
- (+1) Team WE (0-2-2)
- (-1) Team King (0-4-0)
Edward Gaming and Invictus Gaming are not giving up their stranglehold on China. They are however letting the rest of the region maintain their crazy ways.
In an inexplicable move, Vici Gaming shuffled its roster around in what should have been a marquee matchup against Invictus. Why? Zu-Jing "Carry" Wang was unable to play and they didn't want to use a sub. They get a bit of a pass, but not much of one by virtue of the 22-match regular season not letting this one have too much impact. Still, it would have been nice of them to try to win.
Snake and Qiao Gu continue their improvement and their ascension up the rankings, giving LGD and Masters 3 the role of gatekeeper between the lower and upper tiers of the league.
Panel: Barento "Raz" Mohammed, Michale "Drexxin" Lalor, and Carlos "H0tsawce" Bravo.
North America
- ( - ) Team SoloMid (1-1)
- (+3) Counter Logic Gaming (2-0)
- ( - ) Team Liquid (2-0)
- (-2) Cloud9 (1-1)
- (-1) Team Impulse (1-1)
- (+2) Enemy Esports (1-1)
- (-1) Gravity (1-1)
- (+2) Team Dignitas (1-1)
- (-2) Team8 (0-2)
- (-1) Team Dragon Knights (0-2)
Before you crucify us for putting Counter Logic Gaming 2nd behind Team SoloMid, let us explain. It's too early in the season to really stack rank these teams, especially because Cloud9 out teamplayed TSM, but then inexcusably lost to Team Dignitas. CLG looked great against Team Impulse, but we think it was more CLG's strengths naturally exploiting TiP's flaws than a statement game. I would fully expect this to change in the coming weeks. If CLG is able to keep up their impressive performance, they will most assuredly be 1st Place. However, this isn't the standings, it's a Power Ranking. We have to wait and see if all the top teams are as consistent as we hope they will be.
Enemy Esports is the big winner of the week. As one of the new teams in NA, it was unlikely they'd come out with much fire, but they managed to defeat Gravity in their debut. Look for them to continue improving as the Split continues.
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
- ( - ) Fnatic (2-0)
- (+2) Origen (2-0)
- ( - ) Unicorns of Love (1-1)
- (-2) H2K (1-1)
- (+1) Elements (1-1)
- (+2) Copenhagen Wolves (1-1)
- ( - ) SK Gaming (0-2)
- (+1) ROCCAT (1-1)
- (+1) Giants Gaming (1-1)
- (-5) Gambit Gaming (0-2)
Martin "Rekkles" Larsson isn't cursed after all! We didn't expect Fnatic to have any chemistry problems considering that the AD carry and Bora "YellOwStaR" Kim played a full year together, but it was still a possibility. They managed to close out Unicorns of Love and SK Gaming pretty convincingly in Week 1, leading us to believe Fnatic will be a better team in the long term than they are now.
However, Origen also showed to be a contender with an impressive win over H2K -- a team many thought to be No. 2 in Europe.
Elements seems to have recovered from their hangover from last Split as well. They completely dismantled Gambit and then lost a close game to Unicorns of Love. You can only penalize the top teams for playing each other so much, so even though the records don't align with rankings too heavily, we do expect things to level out in the coming weeks.
Panel: Devin "PiraTechnics" Young, Mattias "Gentleman Gustaf" Lehman, Taylor "Riot RoboTayCo" Cocke, Jason "Riot Jayway" Wai, and Frank "Riot Mirhi" Fields.
Taiwan
- ( - ) ahq e-Sports Club (3-0-0)
- ( - ) yoe Flash Wolves (2-0-1)
- (+4) Machi Esports (1-1-1)
- ( - ) Taipei Assassins (1-1-1)
- (+1) Midnight Sun (0-1-2)
- (-2) Hong Kong Esports (0-1-2)
- (+1) Logitech Snipers (0-1-2)
- (-3) Assassin Sniper (0-2-1)
Unfortunately for fans of the LMS, there seem to only be two contenders in LMS. The region still appears to be very deep, but more top heavy lately. Machi Esports has been on the rise, but the Taipei Assassins, Assassin Sniper, and Hong Kong Esports have not looked as solid as they once did.
The teams have all had troubles adapting, and anemic play in the past week lead us to believe this may be a Flash Wolves vs. ahq race once again.
Panel: James "Obscurica" Chen and Chia "Reazony" Yu.
Brazil
- ( - ) Keyd Stars (2-0-0)
- ( - ) paIN Gaming (1-0-1)
- ( - ) INTZ e-Sports (1-1-0)
- ( - ) CNB e-Sports Club (0-1-1)
- ( - ) g3nerationX (1-0-1)
- (+2) KaBuM! Orange (1-0-1)
- (-1) INTZ e-Sports Red (0-1-1)
- (-1) KaBuM! Black (0-1-1)
Order was somewhat restored in Brazil this past week, although ranking teams past the top two is still fairly difficult. Returning to form this week was paiN Gaming, who swept CNB e-Sports Club in a hard-fought set that was far closer than the final 2-0 score suggests. Top team Keyd Stars swept g3nerationx -- formerly their sister team, Keyd Warriors -- but looked shaky in the second game as g3nerationx was a few mistakes away from the upset.
INTZ's coordination was much improved in Week 2, and Gabriel "Tockers" Claumann overcame six consecutive mid lane bans to boast an impressive combined 30 KDA in their 2-0 victory over INTZ Red. Lastly, KaBuM! Orange was the more focused of the two KaBuM! teams this week, as Black played surprisingly passively throughout their mid game, giving Orange the 2-0.
Written by Emily Rand
Panel: Emily Rand
Latin America
- KLG (0-0)
- Lyon Gaming (1-0)
- Last Kings (0-0)
- Dash9 Gaming (0-1)
- Furious Gaming (0-0)
- Gaming Gaming (1-0)
- Havoks Gaming (1-0)
- Isurus Gaming (0-0)
The 2015 Latin American Cup’s closing Split has officially started and while we are still waiting for LAS to play their games later today, yesterday we were able to watch all six LAN teams in action.
Regional champion Lyon Gaming was able to defeat their arch rivals Dash9 Gaming in a convincing display of authority against a team that has three new players. The boys from Gaming Gaming were in charge of welcoming MYM to the LATAM region in a very close fight that had the audience comparing it to a basketball game. Finally Havoks Gaming made their Latin American Cup debut by defeating Peru’s Revenge eSports in another back and forth match.
Later today we get to see LAS in action when Latin American champions KLG face off against Furious Gaming, Last Kings vs. Bencheados, and Rebirth vs. Isurus Gaming.
Written by Erick “Skyshock” Gonzalez
Panel: Erick "Skyshock" Gonzalez
Japan
- ( - ) DetonatioN FocusMe (1-1)
- ( - ) 7th Heaven (1-1)
- (+1) RabbitFive (1-1)
- (-1) Ozone Rampage (2-0)
- ( - ) Rascal Jester (1-1)
- ( - ) ApeX R Gaming (0-2)
You might be surprised to see the only 2-0 team ranked 4th, but the games Ozone Rampage played have left something to be desired: close, unpolished wins over equally unpolished teams. Meanwhile, the team they barely edged out a victory over last week, Rabbit Five, took out the reigning champs DetonatioN FocusMe while playing with a sub. FM seemed to lack all the decisiveness that made them so scary last week, and Rabbit Five -- led by a spectacular Gnar performance from Yuta "Yutorimoyashi" Noguchi – took full advantage, leading them on a merry chase all over the map. It's close, but the all-Japanese Rabbit Five moves up to No. 3 this week.
On the other hand, 7th Heaven finally showed off their best stuff against ApeX. Their lane dominance and effective followup showed that their loss last week may have been more to FocusMe's credit than their own weakness, leading the top two to stay as is. It'll be this weekend, in 7th Heaven's match against Rabbit Five, where we see how much credit they truly deserve.
Written by Cameron Gilbert
Panel: Cameron Gilbert
Turkey
- ( - ) Beşiktaş (6-0)
- ( - ) HWA.Gamesatış (4-2)
- ( - ) Oyun Hizmetleri (4-2)
- ( - ) Dark Passage (3-3)
- (+3) Team Turquality (2-4)
- (-1) NumberOne eSports Club (2-4)
- ( - ) Atlas (2-4)
- (-2) CREW (1-5)
In the third week of the Turkish Championship League, teams continued to tinker with rosters. Most notably, ex-Giants support Fernando "Rydle" Soria joined up with Dark Passage, and arguably the best Turkish ADC Anıl "HolyPhoenix" Işık teamed up with HWA.Gamesatış.
Beşiktaş on the other hand is still performing below their peak, though they won a crucial match against HWA after falling behind 8-1 in kills. HWA enjoyed success with their new ADC -- HolyPhoenix managed to record a KDA of 10.3 throughout the week. Even though Oyun Hizmetleri lost their first game against TT, they managed to bounce back and beat DP to retain 3rd Place. Team Turquality, who weren’t able to get a victory yet, had an outstanding third-week performance as they beat both Atlas and Dark Passage. New jungle addition Robin "Rawbin" Eggenberger worked together perfectly with top laner Gustav "Xyraz" Blomkvist. The synergy between the Swedes combined with the mid and bot lane big plays will surely make them a threat for the remaining weeks.
Written by Kursad Demirer
Panel: Kursad Demirer, Christopher Willekens
CIS
- Hard Random (3-0)
- Team Just.MSI (2-0)
- Tornado RoX (2-0)
- Dolphins of Wall Street (1-1)
- Dragon (1-2)
- Solar Wind (1-2)
- Carpe Diem (0-2)
- Your Exit (0-3)
First week of StarSeries gave the fans more questions than answers. On the one hand, last Split champions Hard Random continue to show the rotational play that keeps everyone else way behind, but their problem has been sustaining their form throughout the season and Playoffs. Just.MSI continued playing well, but were relatively untested this week. RoX at last acquired an AD Carry they needed to diversify their passive playstyle -- they look like they could be a serious threat to the leaders.
In case of three other teams, all of whom who made roster changes, it's really hard to say whether substitutions helped or not. Dolphins are trying to find a way around their careful carries and Lasagna's all-in aggressive initiations. Dragon are still trying to build synergy with their new botlane and Carpe Diem has expressed a lack of motivation, not playing with their main roster.
Newcomers Solar Wind and Your Exit are showing some potential but they have a long road to playoffs in front of them and the main goal is not to get relegated.
Written by Michael "Olsior" Zverev
Panel: Michael "Olsior" Zverev
Oceania
- Chiefs eSports Club (3-0)
- Legacy eSports (3-0)
- Dire Wolves (2-1)
- Avant Gaming (1-1)
- Sin Gaming (1-1)
- Absolute (1-2)
- Team Immunity (0-3)
- Sudden Fear (0-3)
We're one and a half weeks into the Oceanic Pro League, and there have been a few shuffles around the middle bracket as some teams have come out stronger than expected, while others still suffer from roster issues. Chiefs and Legacy lead the pack, and the stronger of the two is likely to be decided in their upcoming clash -- in which one undefeated record will be put to an end.
Dire Wolves and Avant Garde still need time to build familiarity with their new rosters, but we've already seen glimpses of their potential strengths in their wins. Meanwhile, Team Immunity are seriously struggling, plagued by availability issues in the jungle position. There is no doubt that they have a higher upside than Absolute, but as long as they remain winless, Immunity will have to earn a higher ranking.
Written by Alex Manisier
Panel: Alex Manisier
International
- ( - ) Edward Gaming (2-0-1)
- ( - ) SKTelecom T1 (2-0)
- ( - ) Invictus Gaming (3-1-0)
- ( - ) CJ Entus (3-0)
- (+2) KT Rolster (2-1)
- (+3) Qiao Gu (2-0-1)
- (-2) ahq e-Sports Club (3-0-0)
- (-2) Fnatic (2-0)
- ( - ) yoe Flash Wolves (2-0-1)
- (+8) Jin Air Green Wings (2-1)
- (+3) Snake (2-1-1)
- (-1) Najin e-mFire (1-2)
- (NEW) Origen (2-0)
- (-1) KOO Tigers (1-1)
- (NEW) OMG (1-0-3)
- (-8) Vici Gaming (0-1-3)
- (NEW) LGD (0-1-3)
- (-5) Team SoloMid (1-1)
- (-2) Unicorns of Love (1-1)
- (NEW) Samsung (1-2)
There are many new and returning teams to the rankings, but most notably is Origen, who looked like a veteran team after only a week. That's probably because they basically are a veteran team, with Jesper "Niels" Svenningsen being the only player without World Championship experience. This is a potentially scary team to the rest of Europe and even internationally.
OMG, LGD, and Samsung have shown marked improvement in the past week, and it's possible that they may be able to start turning things around. Meanwhile, North America leaves us unsure what to make of them as a region. This early in the season I'd expect even more upheaval in coming weeks.
Let us know your thoughts on the Power Rankings on Twitter or in the comments below.
Images courtesy of Inven, Garena, SANKO, and paiN Gaming
Frank Fields is a Senior Editor for Riot Games' Esports Web Content team. You'll find him rewinding time in Zaun or on Twitter where he'd love to talk to you about esports.
