Bduhmana & VampiricNarwhal’s Bot Lane Banter Presents: BOL Gold Week 3

Power Rankings

Top Tier Teams

Jolly Rogers Ghost Crew

Jolly Rogers remains the favorite to win this all, and the addition of NoName makes this even scarier. Honestly they are kind of just tearing teams apart and it’s yet to be seen exactly how you beat them.

Glacial Void

Void is a strong team, especially with their mid lane–this guy is consistently performing. If I need to be nitpicky, I would say they could improve on how they use their early advantages in order to create stronger, more reliable leads in the mid game, but overall I think I am more confused about their roster changes for their support. I understand it isn’t happening this week, but it does make me wonder what is happening behind the scenes and my player to watch this week is NOOCHE because of the talks of roster swaps alone.

CB Phreaks

Phreaks is a team I could put higher with some good performances but stumbling against OSG is costing them, Dean had some rough games last week but this team is still strong and has a lot of carry threats and is a dark horse to win it all.

What I really like about this CG team is their ability to draft in a way that really does unlock each player’s win conditions in game. And although they lost a game last week to OSG, they definitely won the series and their evolution in drafting and translating that into their in game execution went pretty smoothly. 

Mid Tier Teams

CB Impulse

Narwhal and I had quite the discussion about where Phreaks and Impulse belong in the tier list, and we compromised with Impulse being top of the mid tier. 

For me, I do think Impulse has everything they need to be a top tier team and they showed a lot of that against Hyperion last week. I think that Traumeri entering into the split does change up things for them, but Hyperion has shown a lot of in-game miscommunication that doesn’t give too much confidence that Impulse beat them because of Impulse gameplay so my player to watch this week is the botlane. I want to see how Traumeri and Sword work together in lane and outside of lane before I push back on them being a top tier team over Phreaks.

OSG Tactical Freeze

It makes sense that Tactical Freeze is currently chillin in the middle of the pack after two weeks. They showed a strong performance week one, and took a game off of Impulse last week. That being said, they could have won that series and Feldroth is looking really strong for their team and I would love to see them play around that win condition more. Feldroth doesn’t need to be on an obvious carry to be played around, and I will be looking to see how they work this week to clean up some of that execution. 

Fools Five Squires

It is really hard for me to say much about week 2’s performance, because they played Jolly Roger. With them playing Mercs (who have had a lot roster swaps and changes–including the day of split start lol) and then losing to arguably the best team in the league, there isn’t too much that I can say except they do seem like a middle of the pack team. They did make some roster changes, so I'll be on the lookout for how their sub is going to play into Glacial (which is another top tier team). 

Hyperion White Rabbits

After watching both weeks of gameplay, we both thought this is where Hyp currently belongs. Now while they did play against Jolly Rogers and Impulse (both top tier teams), the question mark I have personally is their communication. There seems to be good looks and executions lost because of it and I don't know the who or where or why to pinpoint it, but I do think that is a fundamental important thing to clean up if they want to be able to reach their potential. They have some solid players on their team, so it is just about learning how to work together to actualize the win conditions they draft for themselves. It is doable and my people to watch this week are Viyella and Chubby. They really have to work together to make their midgame fights more seamless so that they can start dominating on some of the leads they create for themselves in laning phase.

Lower Tier Teams

LE Prime

For now, we have LE Prime in the lower tier. They lost to a top tier team week one and beat a lower tier team week two, so their win/loss record kinda cancels out when you look at the team's LE Prime played against. I do really like the roster swaps and changes they made, and think this new roster has a lot of potential to move up in tiers as a result. The player to watch this week is going to be PizzaPastaMafia, because their in game decision making is what can really create win conditions for this team and the stronger their lane phase, the more opportunity for PizzaPastaMafia to do just that in midgame brawls.

Fool’s Five Mercenaries

With last week’s tough loss against Glacial, the team has been doing some roster shuffling in order to prepare for the coming weeks. I think the player to watch is still Moon, as I am noticing there is a need for their jungle to be more proactive around the win conditions, so that their team can be strong enough to get to a late game. Maybe with this pickup of Qball as support, they will have another voice that helps with creating cohesion around how they want to play. Only time, scrims and gameday will tell though if this move is what they needed or if they gotta try something else before they get stuck in lower tier.

Stop dying on side lanes, please for the love of god. Actually wait, we play you today… Nevermind proceed.

Nefarious Demons

I know big secrets but if I speak I am in big trouble… big big trouble…

Week 3 Matchups

Jolly Rogers Ghost Crew v CB Impulse: 2-1

Ghost Crew has been consistently steamrolling but Impulse is a team that loves to cause problems - I’m a known Puffin glazer and that will continue, so I think impulse can take a game but pulling off more than that seems like a tall task given Ghost Crews dominance.

This is my game of the week to watch, and for good reason. While Glacial Void has shown a lot of consistency in their wins and Jolly Rogers steamrolling their competition, Impulse has a chance to make a statement this week. I do believe they can create an upset here, but it will come down to the botlane and intentionally drafting to ensure Impulse has a better botlane going into lane phase. I notice that hasn’t been a priority for previous teams, but I think it is wise for Impulse to do it this week, because stopping the scaling/utility picks early and often for Dolo and HardStuckBrotha is necessary if they want to compete with them late game.

LE Prime v CB Phreaks: 2-0

Phreaks to be frank, looks a lot stronger right now, I think the best chance of LE Prime winning to try to exploit Dean’s role inexperience and then win the macro game, but that’s a pretty tall ask against a team like Phreaks and a player like Dean

I know there has been a lot of behind the scenes for LE Prime, and I think an upset actually could happen this week against Phreaks. Thinking about stats aside,their LE Prime roster swaps last week really worked well for this team and more time with those changes can really clean up some of the in-game issues. That being said, Prime is up against probably one of the best botlane duo in this league (statistically and synergly), and I think that might be where they struggle and lose this series.

Fools Five Squires v Glacial Void: 0-2

I don’t know why my support wants to hype Squires and would personally like whatever they are taking, this has the makings of a stomp with an unknown quality mid against one of the best mids in the series only making this feel a bit more hopeless.

I want to hype up an upset for Squires, but I seriously don’t know why they removed their midlaner for this week’s gameplay and that puts a sense of unease for me around how they beat a consistent and solid top tier team. Because if the issue wasn’t stats or gameplay, then it was something internal and I would need to see how that plays out this week because their sub doesn’t seem to be a midlaner. So unless they have some sort of esub at the last minute, then I am not sure what they are cooking with the roster as is.

Fools Five Mercs v Nefarious Demons: 2-0

Everything is on fire, I play what I’m told and auto enemy champions :3 (hoodie will carry me)

While my team spends a lot of time talking about how bad they are, I spend a lot of time talking with the coaches about where are strengths are and how to capitalize on them. Maybe that is because I have been a professional athlete, teacher and a coach IRL… or maybe it is because I refuse to give up on the potential for Nefarious and that is my bias. I like to blend them, so if there is to be an upset, it will be looking towards the changes made and how ND uses them in game. (which is still a big surprise–just don’t check roster changes lol). I personally think we win this series but I'll leave the series placement up to Narwhal since on paper we don’t look like we will. I do agree, however, that Hoodie can and probably will carry us this week lol

OSG Tactical-HYP White Rabbit: 2-1

One of the most interesting matches for this week, this will be Hyperion’s chance to prove they aren’t bottom tier - they don’t necessarily need to win for that (though for playoffs I’d imagine they want to), but a lot rests on ShinyMewLife - he’s been having a rough time and he looked subpar on mid last week, he needs to step up if this team wants to get back into things. Stop dying on side lanes, stop getting caught, stop dying in lane, and it’s easy game.

I actually think Narwhal did the upset for this matchup, so I want to double down on why Tactical wins this series. First–Feldroth. This is my toplaner to watch this series, as I think he really has a chance to shine against LostHavock. IF that happens, then their botlane can get the attention they deserve. TrainerGain and thisdudeiknow are consistently dominating stats and I would like to see the team play around them more. That would just make them stronger, though, and right now they already have clear win conditions outside of that possibility.