BOL Power Ranking 1 Winter 2023
Hello once again everyone! For those of you who do not know me my name is Storm or CTRL ULT ELITE. Last season I competed in BOL plat on the Basement Dwellers(a plat team who failed to make playoffs) and was the primary writer for our platinum league. This season I am unfortunately not back to play due to a change in my schedule but I am back to write! Please give me feedback on what you enjoy or want to see more of from my writing! This season we have 16 teams split into 2 groups of 8. The Divisions are Shurmia and Targon. The top 5 of every group advance to playoffs. Seeds 4 and 5 will be put into the wildcard round. The 1st seed from each division will receive a 1st round playoff bye.
For this article I am going to be going over every team briefly and ranking them. I will give a short run down on each team and every player on how I think they will do based on their OP.GG from February 26th and any history of them that I know from other amateur leagues. I am also going to be ranking every team within BOL platinum into one of several tiers. The team in S tier is my hot take to win BOL Platinum this year. Teams in A tier I believe should be the teams that will place top 2 within their group and finish the year within the top 4. Teams in B tier I believe are solid playoff contenders and should finish the season in position 3/4 within their group. Teams within the C tier will be teams that I think will be battling for a wildcard spot in their group for playoffs. Teams that I have placed in D tier are the ones that I think will struggle this year to reach playoffs.
Without further ado here are the teams competing this year in BOL plat. Thanks Poptart for the infographic!
I think that Shurmia as a whole is going to be much easier to predict out of the 2 groups that we have. Shurmia has some standout teams for sure but I feel they also have more of the teams I would consider lower rated.
NWE Orion
Top: Ziyk
Jungle: Denali The King
Mid:Eazy ADC:Boogie Support:Mental Boom3r
The team that I am expecting to place 1st in Shurmia is NWE Orion. This team should have many familiar faces to you if you have competed in the amateur league scene. I recognize half of this team from my time in BOL last season. Denali the King, Eazy and Boogie have been on several rosters that I have covered and are all upper tiers players. Ziyk and Mental Boom3r are new to me though and I am eager to see how well they mesh with this team. Overall I think NWE Orion looks like a team poised to fight for the top spot in their group. This team does not have the crazy stacked roster that some plat teams coming into these tournaments do so that is why I have them in A tier. I think that NWE Orion will be a team that generally is going to play towards mid game going for aggressive invades and looking to stack dragons to force you to fight them.
Ziyk has the typical solo queue top laner champ list. It’s all fighter outplay champs and 1 random tank. Winning lane does typically make winning the game much easier(I know shocking analysis) and Ziyk is looking to win some lanes. They do tend to die a lot and hopefully they are less flip in this season of BOL. In comp play it's much easier to camp a flip player if they push all the time. On the other side of the coin though Denali The King does play a lot of early game champions. Playing 2 flip champions top lane is not just randomly flipping the game its called a strong side of the map. Fiora Elise is a winning 2v2 looking to dive not something that you try and fight.
Speaking of Denali the King they are the jungler for this team and the exception player on this roster. Denali I would say is going to be one of the top 3 junglers in BOL plat this year and probably going to be on the top 25 list(if we have it) again. Last season Denali was ranked 2nd overall out of every player on the stats sheet. For an actual jungle pool Denali plays a lot of different junglers from the ADC junglers of Kindred and Graves to the AP teamfight threats of Lilia and Fiddlesticks. Xin would be their most aggressive pick probably and a couple of seasons ago Denali was a tank jungle main so don’t sleep on him picking the priority Junglers like Sejuani.
Eazy if you are new to BOL is someone that you will know by the end of the season. Whether they are asking for god awful scrim times, posting random reaction gifs or tearing it up on the Rift, Eazy is very active within our community. For mid lane Eazy focuses on two distinct classes. Primarily Control mages but when the team needs it Eazy also has a couple of early aggressive options in the Yone, Tristana and Akshan. One of the best parts of CB white(the team Eazy and Denali were on last year) was that they simply farmed better than almost every team that they played. I'm expecting Eazy to be another top tier mid laner.
In the bot lane for NEW Orion we have Boogie and Mental Boom3r. Boogie is another player I recognize as being very active within the amateur league scene. They are a top/ AD player. In top lane Boogie plays primarily towards fighting early so expect them to contest bot lane and look to fight not just scale. In bot lane Boogie plays primarily Zeri, Varus and Ezreal. All 3 spike very hard at certain item timings so try and make sure you keep track of them when you play NWE Orion.
Mental Boom3r is someone who is retuning back to support as their main role. 2020 was the last season when they mained this role in solo que. Expect Mental Boom3r to play a lot more towards hard engage melee supports compared to most other supports this year in BOL. They have really good KDA values in solo queue and Im excited to see how that plays out for them on the rift.
First Class
Top: FC bruiser2012
Jungle: FC truest
Mid:FC Solem ADC: piece pipe 13 Support: FC peptic
The other team that I can see wining Shurmia is First Class. This is the type of roster I am talking about that when you load up scouting as you are getting into a league you look at and go oh that's a team we need to watch out for. Featuring 3 players currently in plat 1 I think we can expect First Class to be a solid A tier team. This team has really solid fundamental players with clear identities. You have a winning top laner, an early game high temp jungle and a control mage mid player giving you a really strong top side of the map. Their bot lane both play hard for scaling and have plenty of options between them. I think that this is going to work really well in BOL this season. The reason I do not have this team winning Shurmia is that two of the players on this team have swapped roles in the past couple of seasons.
FC bruiser2012 is another player who plays towards the dominant top lane style of league. Their champion pool consists of almost entirely of top lane duelists. Aarotx, Camiile, Jax, Darius, Yone need I go on? FC bruiser2012 is highly rated and is going to try and flip the game on you if solo que is any indication. Every game FC bruiser2012 plays they kill a lot of people, die a lot and farm a lot. Try and make sure your top laner when playing First Class can actually play the game save them a later spot in draft.
FC truest is a jungler who suits FC bruiser2012. FC truest plays for early game high tempo junglers like Viego, Graves, Xin Zhao and Udyr. They do lack a lot of the more seen junglers that we have seen this season in the tanks and various AP style picks. But with those getting nerfed just as BOL starts it will be interesting to see how the jungle meta shakes up. FC truest is the lowest rated player on this team by far(sitting at Plat 4 last season and currently Gold 3 as of writing this). They do not need to do the heavy lifting for this team, they just need to make sure that they can set up their team with early plays.
FC Solem is someone who has swapped from jungle to mid over several years. They are firmly a mid-main this season and have a majority of their games on Orianna for the past couple of seasons. As well as the Orianna FC Solem plays Yone and Corki. They have a very interesting mid pool to say the least with weird pick thrown in here like Rumble. For other more traditional control mages FC Solem has games on Viktor, Syndra and Ryze. As long as FC Solem is able to play the waveclear that his team needs I think that First Class will be set up for success.
piece pipe 13 is a mid laner that has transitioned this split to ADC. They have certainly found their ideal ADC in Xayah having played 130 games of her so far this split. piece pipe 13 also plays Jinx, Trist Caityln and Kog’Maw. They are doing very well in solo que and look like they are coming into BOL in top form.
Rounding out First Class is FC Peptic. FC Peptic is a support main that found a lot of success last year in solo que and hit plat 1. This year they are already back up to the Plat 1 and look like they will easily climb into diamond. FC Peptic has a wide support pool playing hard engage like Thresh Naut and Rakkan but also has enchanters like Zilean, Nami and Lulu.
TE Abyss
Top: K7 showoff
Jungle: yuupi
Mid: CountDoku ADC: HENRYRØCKS22 Support: XTX viper
Overall as a team looking at their solo queue data this seems to be a team where everyone is looking to play forward and aggressive. I think that TE ABYSS is going to win more games by being better players than they are being a better team if that makes sense. TE Abyss has their best players on the team sitting in the bot lane and I hope that this team is going to be able to peel and not just dive forwards. This team is going to have to show me in drafts and gameplay that they can play multiple ways or be incredibly dominant before I would consider moving them up my tier list. TE Abyss I think are a very solid team but I do not expect them to win Shurima. I expect them to easily make it into the playoffs which is why I have them as the top of my B Tier. I think this team is going to act as a gatekeeper in Shurima. Take a game off TE Abyss and you show that your team has what it takes to compete in the playoffs.
HENRYRØCKS22 at ADC looks to be the standout player for TE Abyss from their solo que data. HENRYRØCKS22 plays towards hyper carries most seasons like Zeri and Jinx. This season they have also been playing some of the more lane dominant ADCs like Lucian and Caitlyn. The thing that stands out the most is not the KDA on HENRYRØCKS22. They die way too much for their KDA to be hight. The impressive part of HENRYRØCKS22 is that they have so many multi kills. Every season they get at least 2 penta kills and last year they had 8 quarda kills. HENRYRØCKS22 is going to make the risky play and go for it.
XTX viper is the support player on TE Abyss and completes their bot lane. I am expecting big things out of XTX viper as they are the cap exception player for this team. They need to be the glue that holds this roster together. Everyone on TE Abyss seems to be a go forward and fight kind of player and I hope that XTX viper can shot call for this team and dictate what fight his team should and should not be taking. In solo que XTX viper plays a wide mix of supports from enchanters like Nami to hard engage options like Amumu and Thresh.
Top lane we have K7 showoff for TE Abyss. K7 showoff to me looks like a mid/top main that has become an ADC/Top player. They have games on plenty of picks that flex in between top and mid like Irelia, Akshan, Yone, Swain and Aatrox. This season the have been playing a lot of ADC in solo queue more so than they are playing top lane. K7 showoff has a great pool for top lane with lots of lane dominant picks like most of BOL. I hope they are ready to brawl up in top lane.
yuupi last season was being a bit of a fill player in ranked but looks like jungle is their primary role firmly now. This season it's been all jungle with the majority of their games on the extremely high risk reward Sylas jungle. yuupi has already played 31 champions so far this season in ranked. Of those 31 I would say 20 of them were jungle picks so expect yuupi to play what the team needs.
CountDoku is listed as the mid for TE Abyss. They have played mid quite a few seasons ago and are currently an ADC main. I mentioned in various other parts of my article but switching lanes is not necessarily a bad thing. Every lane teaches you important concepts. ADC teaches you mostly about farming efficiently, positioning and outputting constant damage. Mid on the other hand is more about pushing waves, roaming and bursting targets. So hopefully CountDoku is a quick study and is ready to play a new role. Lissandra, Ahri and Sylas seem to be the mids that CountDoku plays the most.
Master McNasty
Top:pQ Papa Cooks
Jungle: 0 Quantum 0
Mid: Bongo Bong ADC: ChessDIE42 Support: nyseahawk000017
I do not recognize any of these players from the previous season of BOL or from any of the other leagues I am looking at. So almost all of my thoughts will be based on their solo que data. Master Mcnasty looks like a team that's going to surprise people. Just looking at their ranks and the fact that they are all new to amatuer(I could be off on this) it's easy to rank this team in D tier. Initially I thought this team was just going to play completely for the top side after briefly glancing at their ranks and champion pool. But after looking at everyone's individual OP.GG I think that this team has a lot going for it. Your top laner looks like they can play what you need, your jungle is well suited for the bot lane meta and your ADC might just be a sleeper. I have the most faith out of every C tier team to clinch a playoff spot to be Master McNasty. I think this team could even be a B tier team. But this team does need to prove themselves.
When I saw someone who was gold 3 last season and Silver 2 the season before and currently in Silver 2 my thoughts were why is this person on a plat roster? Then I looked at their stats and went oh thats why they are in a plat league. ChessDIE42 is the ADC for Master McNasty and I have a hard read. Coming back to league after a huge break in the past couple of seasons put you in smurf que which felt awful and heavily discouraged smurfing once you got detected. It also trapped people returning to the games there as well unfortunately like ChessDIE42. Last season this player played mid primarily, mostly playing Anivia. They had a 64% win rate and played over 75 games of the bird with 3.34 KDA. That's not a normal gold player. This season they have swapped to ADC and seem to be doing okay(other then Xayah don’t look at the Xayah). Zeri Samria and Kai’Sa are their 3 most plated champions in ranked. Despite getting hard nerfed because of pro play Zeri is still a hyper carry at 3 items she sort of starts taking over your game.
Partnered with ChessDIE42 is nyseahawk000017. This is probably the worst username out of everyone in BOL platinum. Please change it. I do not want to have to type this multiple times a week. This is the part of Master Mcnasty I am worried about. Yes nyseahawk000017 was platinum last season. But they are a top lane 2 trick of Wukong and Garen who has swapped to support. I do not think either of those champions teach you much about support. Both are all about diving and tunneling on your enemy, not peeling for your backline(supports job for the most part). They have been duoing a lot with ChessDIE42 so hopefully they enter this season ready for their new role.
pQ Papa Cooks in top lane for Master McNasty is a jungle / top player. They are going to offer their team plenty of different options in draft. I'm hoping that we see this player play to their full potential this year in BOL with tons of different champions across the league.pQ Papa Cooks plays almost everything from the weak side tanks of Ornn and Sion to split push solo carry champions like the Fiora and Illaoi. With so many jungle games they play plenty of flex picks in top like Graves, Mordekasier, Sejuani and Olaf. My only worry when you spread yourself so thin like this is you never reach that true level of mastery that some players at Platinum ELO are able to develop.
In the Jungle for Master McNasty we have 0 Quantum 0 who seems to enjoy some of the least played champions in all of league. 0 Quantum 0 has almost all of their games in the past couple of seasons on Rek’Sai, Ivern and Nunu. If pQ Papa Cooks champion list is a wide but shallow pool 0 Quantum 0 is a deep well having tons of mastery on those 3 picks. This season they have started to pick up the jungle champions everyone has been groaning about all of this season in Maokai and Vi. I hope that we get to see some of these more unique early tempo junglers for 0 Quantum 0.
Bongo Bong is the last platinum player for Master Mcnasty. Looking at their Op.GG history Bongo Bong appears to be a fill player. They have plenty of games in multiple roles. Their mid lane seems to heavily favor burst playing lots of Syndra and various assassins. I feel that Bongo Bong’s champion pool will compliment his jungler quite well. Early game burst when paired with Nunu or Rek’Sai can very easily lead to repeat ganks and snowballed advantages.
Oblivion Esports Ruby
Top: Louis0717
Jungle: Quinntik
Mid: JSChaoTiC ADC: Ravensman Support: KneoStorm
Overall I have Oblivion Esports Ruby as a C tier team for BOL this year. This team does have a lot of very highly rated solo que players as of last year but many of them have role swapped this year. The two players to watch on this team are Louis0717 in top lane and Ravensman at ADC I believe. As a team I expect this team to play a lot of different team comps as most of this team has a wide champion pool. I am expecting more “standard” team comps out of this squad trying to play mostly around Ravensman with various engage options from Jungle/Top. Some games I think this team might pull out the supportive jungle double ADC thing for some spice and some games might be about playing through top.
Louis0717 in top is someone that I think is going to have lots of success within BOL plat. At platinum 2 last year and having a fairly diverse champion pool featuring lots of staple meta picks Louis0717 looks like they will be hard to pinch in terms of champion picks. Urgot is their most played champion and is something of an odd pick something that might surprise people who are not used to laning against the Crab god. Playing weakside tanks like Ornn is going to make your team's coach incredibly happy as having a go button for the team is something invaluable. Louis0717 also has several side lane threats like the aforementioned Urgot but also Camile Aatrox and Mordekiaser.
Quinntik in the jungle for Oblivion Esports Ruby looks to be a support player who has role swapped over to jungle this year. Role swapping alw