BOL Gold’s Dean’s List

Hello everybody and welcome to the midseason edition of BOL Gold’s Dean’s List! Instead of doing my usual match-by-match rundown, I’m going to just outright cover a league power ranking! There’s a lot to unpack and a lot to discuss, so let’s jump right into it!

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1. Glacial Void (5-0 series, 10-0 games) - 30 points

Despite the trend set by the Glacial organization of old, Void has truly set out to become the top team in the league. It’s very easy to get behind the hype of this roster, but I wanna go into a bit of depth as to why this team is so good.

For starters, Jel and Tremmie are setting out to be the best mid/jungle duo in the league. Both have shown a large amount of carry potential and willingness to play setup, with the both of them having more than their fair share of pop off games so far.

The carry power doesn’t start and stop at these two, however. Xiaobao and N00CHE are a damn good bot lane, and Bear is quietly having a fantastic split. Both side lanes are more than content to pick for the team and be a background dancer, but they can both step up when needed and take the spotlight.

This Glacial roster is simply strong, folks. They aren’t infallible in the early game, but they currently sit at a much higher level than a majority of the field. They’re the top team for a reason, and it’ll be exciting to see them continue that energy into the playoffs.

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2. Jolly Rogers Ghost Crew (5-0 series, 10-1 games) - 29 points

The reigning champions have the same series score as the Glacial roster above them, but dropping one game to CB Impulse does (slightly) blemish their otherwise spotless record.

Ghost Crew looks to have incredible strengths in this league. Hardstuck is a strong contender for best ADC in the league, as is Dolo for support and Cracen for mid. 

One thing I was not expecting from this roster, however, is how much of a carousel the other two roles have been. Top has seen two different players in the lane (NasGhost, TDD), and jungle has seen no less than three (NoNameX, TDD, Samurai). All of these players are consistently playing very well, mind you, but the lack of a definitive roster may prove to be a weakness going forward.

Despite this hypothetical weakness, Ghost Crew is still a top 2 team in the league and a favorite to win it all. Let’s not forget that this team went to the playoffs last split as the 1 seed and took the title in their debut to the league. They have a fairly easy end of schedule as well, so their chances are all but locked at this point. Here’s hoping everybody continues to show up and show out!

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3. Legacy Esports Prime (3-2 series, 6-4 games) - 22 points

From the ashes of TD Harmony rose a very strong team that has surprised more than a few people. Despite losing to Ghost Crew in week 5, they have a 3-1 record since the rebrand, and look to take out their direct rivals in coming weeks for a shot at playoffs.

The biggest thing that surprised me about LEP was how solid Complex looked in the jungle. The former top laner-turned-jungler has taken to the role like Tarzan to a vine, though he maybe relies a bit too much on the ever-popular ganking bruisers. 1Hand and PizzaPastaMafia have also been impressive players on an individual level that have been holding their own quite nicely in this league.

LEP needs to have a strong end to the season to convince some of the doubters that they do deserve playoffs. They still have to play both of the Fools Five teams as well as CB Impulse and OSG. Winning all four locks playoffs, but losing all four almost guarantees they miss out. No pressure boys.

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4. OSG Tactical Freeze (3-2 series, 7-5 games) - 22 points

OSG Tactical Freeze are good. They’re also technically tied for third with LEP, though with a slightly harder strength of schedule (week 9 Glacial go brr).

The way that OSG plays is fairly standard for this elo, though I must compliment M8TRICKS for being brave enough to lock in Ambessa in IBSG. Everybody else on the roster is also solid as hell, though I think there is a small flaw in this roster when it comes to X-factor.

Basically, in a super chaotic game, I don’t think there’s ever a way for any of the individuals on this roster to massively punch above their weight class. Especially if teams realize how to draft against them (a magician never reveals his secrets), OSG will have a way harder time in the final weeks of their season.

Still, without relying on hypotheticals, I have to say that OSG are a low-key spooky team. I wouldn’t be surprised to see them win out weeks 6 to 8, and then take Glacial to their limit. Hopefully they can continue to step up and improve in coming weeks, but only time will truly tell.

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5. Fools Five Mercenaries (3-2 series, 6-6 games) - 20 points

Previously a bottom 2 team in the league, Fools Five Mercenaries made some big roster changes that have still not fully settled down. One thing that has been consistent with this newest iteration of their roster, however, is that CurryMunch3r is a really good mid.

With how FFM currently look, a lot of the carry power will have to come from mid and bot (the IBSG classic tbh) in a big way. This isn’t to say that The Moon and Temu1Zeus aren’t good players, they certainly are, but the best way for this team to end the game seems to be by enabling the hyper carry roles to truly hyper carry. I like QBall on picks like Janna and Braum to enable this.

Like the two teams above them, FFM have a fairly challenging strength of schedule, with a date against Jolly Rogers Ghost Crew set for week 6. They currently sit as a sort of gatekeeper into playoffs, which will be exciting to see going forward.

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6. CB Impulse (2-3 series, 6-7 games) - 19 points

What was previously considered to be a pre-tournament favorite has had a very rough split vs their players’ pedigree. Despite being the only team to take a game off of JRGC so far, they sit as the current 6th place team with seemingly only harder teams left to play.*

Impulse has found a few strong ways to play the game that rely on ace mid laner BuhRock and jungler BillyWillard getting ahead to start and carry a snowball. Around them are two very strong facilitating side laners and a pedigreed IBSG support in LswordIV.

So why, then, has this team struggled to find success? Maybe it’s the typical mid-season slump, maybe there’s more going on behind the scenes, or maybe Accel is just washed, but this roster is one you can never count out. Taking both OSG and JRGC to 3 games is a good look for this roster moving forward, but they need to make good on that look sooner rather than later.

They have two middle of the pack teams left, as well as a date with Glacial and Nefarious. If they can score some big wins, then playoffs will be all but assured, but they do have a bit of an uphill climb to get there.

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7. CB Phreaks (2-3 series, 5-7 games) - 18 points

Man.

There’s no way for me to not sound biased here, but CB Phreaks are far from the best team in the league as well as being far from the worst team. Despite this and despite the clear talent in several roles, they currently are on the tail end of a 3 match losing streak. So, what gives?

To put it simply, the Phreaks are struggling. Moving TheDean0 to jungle didn’t look to have the desired effect on the team as they were hoping, so a role swap back between top and jungle has been issued. If Dean0 can resume being a stable top laner that simply doesn’t lose, it should hopefully enable Typhoon to play to better enable mid and bot (the IBSG classic baby).

Luckily for the lower CB squad, they have the easiest strength of schedule remaining. They play against Nefarious Demons in week 6, Fools Five Squires in week 7, Hyperion white rabbit in week 8, and… Jolly Rogers in week 9. So based on standings, it’s a 3-1 prediction, though depending on how the team is able to look in weeks 6-8, maybe we can push JR to the limit? I dunno man, I’m reaching here.

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8. Fools Five Squires (1-4 series, 4-8 games) - 16 points

At one point, FFS looked like a serious contender, but this team has had arguably an even greater fall in the standings than CBP above them. The worst part is I don’t think it’s their fault.

Ace jungler Qwerthe5 has been a consistent and strong point on the team ever since week 1, but he hasn’t been alone on this roster. GoogleMop has really came into their own in the mid lane, and Fugitive has quietly been a rock solid ADC for the team.

I just cannot place why this team is currently 1-4. Maybe other teams around them have just leveled up and brought the tide too far above them, maybe their coach is pulling a CvMax, I dunno, and I don’t wanna assume.

The good news for this squad is that they have a few weeks left to try to put together big wins, all of which are against teams that they should at least be able to contend with. They aren’t out yet, but the clock is ticking.

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9. Nefarious Demons (1-4 series, 3-9 games) - 14 points

They did it, they won a match! Not last baby, woo!

Jokes aside, Nefarious earned a much needed win against FFS last week. All they had to do was make a deal with the devil and move Hoodie to his 3rd role of the season in order to make it happen.

Trashy has been a consistent strong point for the roster, but the addition of Pandorum mid gives this team both another strong carry threat as well as a massive X-factor. Speaking from experience playing against him, Pando can both 1v9 a series and be the reason the enemy team plays a 5v4. We saw a little bit of that last week with three different classes of champion played (Hwei, Sion, Trist), but that’s what makes him so dangerous.

The team looks reinvigorated with this additional card in the deck, which makes them quietly very strong going forward. Not a moment too soon, it would seem, as they have one of the trickier schedules left to conquer. If they can somehow manage to 4-0, then I think they’ll be one of the most fun Cinderella stories in the history of BOL. If not, then it was still fun seeing them get some wins.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m gonna go wash my mouth out for publicly complimenting Pando.

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10. Hyperion White Rabbit (0-5 series, 0-10 games) - 10 points

I’m gonna avoid being overtly mean to Hyperion since dozens of people have already said their piece about this roster, but White Rabbit really is just struggling in a big way.

I don’t have any strong feelings about how this roster should play, nor do I have any pre-season expectations vs reality that I want to dive into, all I can say is that this roster needs to make something happen. Be it a roster change or a playstyle shift, it needs to be big, loud, and messy.

They’ve all but fallen into the “play spoiler to someone else” category, which I honestly think makes them even scarier if they can put something together. They’re all but mathematically eliminated, but they still have a shot, and in IBSG, never say never.

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That’s all for this week! I’ll be back next week with some playoff scenarios and games rundown, but keep an eye out for all of the other content around the league in the meantime. Until then, good luck, have fun, and we’ll see you on the rift!