Platinum League Breakdown: Week 1

Hi all my name is Storm or CTRL ULT ELITE. I am sure I am a new name to everyone in BOL as I have just started getting back into competitive league this year. I am the top laner and captain of The Basement Dwellers and am going to be the main content writer for our Platinum league. I have written articles for Yugioh and done some Fantasy hockey articles in the past but this is my first foray into LOL content. I hope to see you all on the rift and we all have a fantastic season!

This week I'm going to be providing a little bit of information on every team in BOL Plat as team rosters dropped recently. I have written a short team summary for every team as well as a little bit about every player with their solo que picks and general lane style from research I could find based on their OP.GG as of August 4th.

Here are the teams competing this split in platinum! We have 3 divisions each with 7 teams with the top 4 teams making playoffs in each division.

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1) Elementals Maelstrom

Top: TheRealOogway

Jungle: L9 SKOOTIN

Mid: Nèzumi

ADC: defly

Support: DMForScholarship

Elemental Maelstrom are poised to top their division; they have a high solo que average at platinum 2. Their highest rated players are both platinum 1 are TheRealOogway and defly. With a roster built around getting the top side of your map a strong start and letting your AD scale I see this team doing well. Other than watching TheRealOogway to see how many solo kills they can get I would focus on L9 SKOOTIN. When Kindred and Graves get a lead they can start throwing their weight around. A top side gromp mark may look innocent but it could become a team fight with Kled and Galio looking to join.

TheRealOogway is a top laner who looks to carry in solo que. A Jax, Kled and Darius player primarily, TheRealOogway wants to be the one on his team with the most damage done and taken. With this type of play style you force your team to play for you and this roster is built to do just that.

For jungle Elemental Maelstrom have L9 SKOOTIN a very flexible jungler. L9 SKOOTIN has games on many different champions but in solo queue they primarily rely on themselves to carry and play more scaling junglers like Graves, Kindred, Karthus and Shyvana. They do however still have many early game junglers in their champion pool playing Xin, Udyr and Rek’Sai to name a few.

Nèzumi plays a supportive style mid with picks like Karma, Twisted Fate and Galio unlocking L9 SKOOTIN to play his much more greedy scaling junglers. But if Nèzumi needs to carry he can play several control mages or Yone. Nèzumi will probably play for push on his picks and roam with L9 SKOOTIN to whatever lanes need help.

The bot lane for Elemental Maelstrom is defly and DMForScholarship. Both are strong ADCS and DMForScholarship is listed as the support on this roster. With intimate knowledge of how ADC’s want to position and play DMForScholarship will have unique insights playing this new role for themselves. Senna and Renata Glasc are two of the only supports I can find within DMForScholarship’s champion pool. Hopefully they are practicing their new role in scrims. defly the actual ADC for Elementals Maelstrom is a Twitch lover the plague rat has been his most played champ in ranked for 4 seasons straight. defly has primarily early games lane bullies in his pool as Twitch is his hyper carry of choice. I expect this bot lane will primarily look to play for scale instead of outright aggression giving L9 SKOOTIN and Nèzumi an easy gank target.

2) NwE Nebula

Top: Cølę

Jungle: Goati

Mid: Nuffies

ADC: Duck But Rubber

Support: 5ugar

NwE Nebula is a team with a strong core identity. Let Duck But Rubber carry the team on hyper carries with 5ugar and Cølę protecting him. Nuffies and Goati are going to look to harass the enemy team flank and dissuade them from having full 5v5 team fights at objectives. With an average solo que rating of plat 2/3 I easily see NwE Nebula making it out of their group and into playoffs.

Cølę is a weak side top laner. Sion is his tank of choice in solo queue but they also play lots of Ornn, Tahm Kench and Shen. For more damage profile Cølę also plays gangplank and gnar. Having a scaling safe top allows teams to play hard for early drakes. If his team needs a carry Cølę can play Jayce, Camille and Gwen as well.

Goati is the cap exception player for NwE Nebula. Primarily a mid lane roam specialist Goati has a very interesting jungle pool with high damage profiles to compliment his tank top laner. They play a lot of champions who can jungle as well as mid and seem to enjoy assassin junglers such as Rumble, Zed and Qiyana. Gaoti will have to expand his pool to some more conventional jungle champions I feel but who knows maybe Rumble jungle is sleeper OP.

Nuffies has played a lot of champions this season and almost none of them over 10 times. Nuffies plays over 100 different champions almost every season of rank they play. Nuffies was diamond back in season 9 and played the majority of their games on Sylas mid. Currently Nuffies is enjoying Ahri and Zeri mid. I expect NwE Nebula to look to give counter to Nuffies and let them pull out crazy counter picks in draft. I expect that Nuffies will play a different champion almost every single series.

Duck But Rubber is the reason that Cølę is a weak side top laner. Duck but rubber is a hyper carry focused ADC playing Jinx, Vayne and Aphelios. They are also picking up Sivir, another very strong scaling ADC. Last season Duck but Rubber was playing mostly Senna, Twitch and Samira. Samira might be played often as their support 5ugar loves early game aggressive supports. 5ugar has almost 200 games of maokai this season with a 55% win rate. It is their comfort pick. Other supports in 5ugar’s pool include Blitzcrank, Ashe, Nautilus and Leona. For more enchanter style picks 5ugar plays Janna and Renata Glasc.

3) TA Tropics

Top: Twiggy 44x

Jungle: CoffeeBlack 7x

Mid: Monix 11x

ADC: Paneer

Support: Jackie Moon 33x

Ta Tropics have a strong team this season for BOL Platinum. The key carry for this team is Monix 11X a high ranking mid who can look to secure picks for their team. Both top lane as well as the bot duo on this team play plenty of different picks and I imagine that they will be able to react accordingly in draft. Playing VS a team like NWE Nebula who are all about their bot side of the map you can early pick a safe top laner for Twiggy 44x and look to ensure you have a winning 2v2. But if you are against a team with a really strong top side of the map like Elemental Maelstrom you probably want to save a counter pick so your top laner has a playable matchup, looking to punish with range advantage.

Twiggy 44x is a player within the Freljord group who has the option of playing on the weak side of the map. Twiggy 44x plays weak side picks like Gnar, Mundo and Ornn but also has the option of playing for counter pick and strong side as well. Last season their most played was Mordekasier and they do have other strong side picks such as Akshan,Camille, Sett and Sylas.

For Jungle they have CoffeeBlack 7x a top laner who is making the switch down from top lane to jungle this season. CoffeeBlack 7x played juggernauts in top like Urgot, Darius and Sett while transitioning to jungle they have seemed to enjoy playing much more mobile picks. Lee sin Jarvan IV and Lillia are currently their most played. I'm curious if this lane swap will be beneficial for TA Tropics as CoffeeBlack 7x seemed to have a lot of success in the top lane.

Monix 11x is a mid player with a slightly unusual mid pool, they enjoy mages with much more CC compared to the average mid laner. Most of Monix 11x games are on Ekko but they also have lots of games in solo que on Lissanada and Neeko. All these champions provide a deadly 2v2 mid jungle synergy so I expect CoffeeBlack 7x to spend a lot of time mid to unlock their mid laner and allow them to roam with them to other lanes.

The bot lane for TA Tropics is Paneer and Jackie Moon 33x. Jackie Moon 33x is the support player and higher rated of the duo in solo que. Jackie Moon 33x has a wide support pool not specializing in any particular champion or style of support but looking to pick whatever is best for their team. They play it all from enchanters like Lulu, poke mages such as lux to engage options like Rell. With such a wide pool Paneer will have almost his choice of support to pair with whatever marksmen they lock in. Paneer enjoys ADCs not typically found at the top of tier lists. Most of their games this split are on Caitlyn and Kai’Sa. Paneer off roles into mid so I expect Mages to come out of them sometime in the split. Jackie Moon 33x also plays Senna allowing for more unique picks bot with fasting Senna. Ta Tropics will always have lots of bot lane options with this duo Panner having mid picks to draft from and Jackie Moon 33x having a support for almost every pick.

4) Literal Monkeys

Top: jah olive e

Jungle: lebron basketbal

Mid: Chinese Spy

ADC: Paca Paul

Support: Just Bobo

Literally Monkeys is a team I think will surprise teams with the Freljord division. The team's average solo que rank is on the lower end only being plat 4 but they have a clear game plan. If I were drafting in the perfect world draft scenario we get a team with a top lane equalizing matchup juggernaut or counter pick(think Sylas vs Ornn or Aatrox vs Gwen) a power farming jungler such as Shyvana jungle, a scaling mid such as Viktor and an aggressive pushing bot like Miss fortune Blitzcrank. If your draft is like that with everyone playing their style you can probably take a game off almost anyone in your group. The wheels start to fall off however when things change from that golden plan. PacaPaul is the player to watch. They remind me of WildTurtle from the LCS flash is not a defensive tool for PacaPaul but an offensive one to be used to go forwards for kills and that comes with risks. On picks such as Jinx having no flash is similar to having a sign above you that reads FOCUS ME FREE GOLD.

Literally Monkeys top laner is jah olive e. A top/mid player jah olive e primarily plays fighters and juggernauts in the top lane and control mages in mid. jah olive e has most of their games this split on Sylas, Irelia and Gragas picks who can be played flexed between roles. They also have tons of games on Camille, Darius and Aatrox providing their team with a win condition if they are on the strong side of the map. I think jah olive e will have many opportunities for his unique counters but might be put onto tank duty due to his bot lane being the strong side of the map.

Lebron bastketbal is a jungle player in this league who enjoys playing power farming junglers. They have the majority of their games in solo que on Shyvana and Hecarim. The question for Lebron bastketbal is can they match the early tempo of the other junglers within his group? If they are able to play Shyvana and get early drakes with his strong bot duo it will definitely help alleviate the pressure on the map. But with a mid player who primarily plays to scale and a bot lane who will draw constant they might be forced to play a high temp jungler they are not as practiced on such as Poppy or Trundle.

Chinese Spy for Literally Monkeys is a fan of staple competitive picks. Their mid lane pool is full of picks seen in pro play around the world such as Viktor, Corki and Ahri. The spice that Chinese Spy has is Ziggs and Annie. Ziggs is a counter to most of the traditional control mages in mid out ranging most of them and possessing superior shove. Without an early game jungler I am unsure if Chinese Spy will be able to play this pick optimally as they will be a prime target to get camped. And a 2v2 early mid of Ziggs Shyvana/Hec does not sound like a winning fight. Annie is a pick that is the opposite of Ziggs looking to play with an aggressive jungler and who looks for roam opportunities and dives. Chinese Spy I think will be a pillar of stability on Literally Monkeys. If he is able to farm well all of his picks provide exceptional value in late game scenarios possessing utility and damage so teams can not solely focus on PacaPaul.

PacaPaul the ADC for Literally Monkeys will be the swing point for this team he is their highest rated player sitting in plat 2. A Jungle/ADC player PacaPaul loses games by themselves or they win them in solo que. Looking at PacaPaul’s history they have losses as an ADC with double digit deaths but in their wins they normally have a KDA above 5.0. Almost every game PacaPaul plays he has over 50% kill participation. With a champion pool of Ezreal Miss Fortune and Sivir I predict that PacaPaul is going to look to fight with Just Bobo all the time. Speaking of Just Bobo they have a clear preference to play high tempo engage supports. Thresh Nautilus and Blitzcrank are their most played this year. This bot lane is going to try to smash people, get up in their face, get plates, get dragons and win through bot.

5) TA Wild Side

Top: TâcoCât

Jungle: SingularBread

Mid:Kurido

ADC:Soulbert

Support: Drakas424

Soulbert is THE player on this team to watch and the player to get TA Wild Side their wins. Soulbert is the highest rated cap exception player currently in BOL Plat. This team is theirs to carry and they play the hyper carries who can. Expect drafts that feature a tank top laner, a secondary engage jungler and a control mage mid. Soulbert will play whatever is best for himself and try to get some gosu level highlight plays.

TâcoCât is the top laner for TA Wild Side and a solo que warrior with 800 games of ranked so far this season. TâcoCât generally seems to play more tank and juggernaut style top laners. They have played lots of Ornn, Shen Urgot and Garen in ranked. Recently TâcoCât has been playing mostly tanks in the top lane and is getting ready for his weak side duty on TA Wild Side.

SingularBread play mostly sejuani and wukong 2 champions known for their high gank threat and teamfight CC. Both champions do not possess the fastest clear times so Singular Bread might be a bit later to plays then his jungle counterparts. When SingularBread is looking to carry, they turn to Shyvanna, Mordekaiser and Bel’Veth. With a tank top and a control mage mid player I predict that SingularBread will mostly be playing for counter ganks. If SingularBread can keep the game close they are doing a fantastic job as a jungler.

A control mage player Kurido will have all the tools to try and carry his team if he is given the time to do so. Given enough time to scale and acquire items and levels Azir Viktor and Malzahar can almost solo win teamfights. All 3 picks have high CC, damage and are fairly safe. Kurido is looking to buy space for Soulbert to win teamfights, locking down key targets and proving space safes with CC.

Soulbert and Drakas424 form the bot lane for TA Wild Side.. Soulbert plays lots of Kog’Maw, Ashe, Jinx and Caitlyn. All of these picks have long range and want to suck up all the farm to become the late game monster. Everyone on Soulberts teams is designed to protect and let Soulbert shine. Drakas424 is someone who enjoys roaming and looking for early kills. With Blitzcrank, Pyke and Bard as their top 3 played this season I predict that almost every 1st base Drakas424 is going to look mid or top to help out his team while Soulbert gains solo exp. Drakas424 does not have that many games on enchanters so far but they might start practicing them.

6) Titan Gaming Atlas

Top: Rågnar

Jungle: Vxpir

Mid: 0dysseus

ADC: ACIick

Support: AU KnuckeD

Titan Gaming Atlas are a team that is all about their bot lane. ACIick and AU KnuckeD want to play for plates and to get ahead. Rågnar needs to provide a front line for the duo around objectives and 0dysseus needs to be the team's secondary carry. Let Vxpir cause chaos on the map and look for plays whenever they see fit. I think that the team will attempt to take the bot tower, rotate your bot to mid and repeat the process until you have a sizable gold lead and look to snowball the game from there.

Rågnar the top laner for Titan Gaming Atlas is a player who loves Sett. It is their most played champion by far this season. Rågnar has added some tanks in their roster with games on Mundo Cho and Orrn. They however had much more success on classic split pushers like Yorick and Camille in past seasons. Rågnar is looking to play a new playstyle for his team fulfilling the front line role. That's not to say that Rågnar will always be the weak side and pathed away from but expect more juggernaut/tank picks from this player as opposed to champions who need tons of money to function like Kayle and Gangplank.

Vxpir games seem to be complete bloodbaths in solo que. His games on average have almost 2 kills a minute in gold. This player loves champs who want to fight you more than they want to farm. He is extremely proficient at Volibear, an early game gank focused snowballing jungler having a 67% win rate on the pick over 75 games. The rest of his pool is somewhere around the normal 50% with lots of games on Udyr, Hecarim and Viego, all champs who look to fight you in your jungle for your farm. I'm curious if he will be able to reign in his aggression and play at a more traditional tempo.

0dysseus is listed as the mid laner for Titan Gaming Atlas. They are transitioning to mid as their main role this season as they seem to be a fill player playing almost every role a small amount. 0dysseus will need to try and narrow his champion pool and refine his picks if he hopes to stay even with the platinum mids he will be facing in the league. He is currently playing mostly Viktor and Vex 2 strong mid laners with plenty of wave clear and CC.

ACIick and AU KnuckeD form the bot for Titan Gaming Atlas. ACIick looks to be this team's clear carry at plat 2. ACIick has most of their marksmen games on Cait and Jinx 2 characters who want the game to go as late as possible so they can achieve the 6 item dream scenario. ACIick also has lots of games on Zeri, Jihn and Ezreal to provide their team with utility and poke if scaling is not needed. ACIick in their wins deals tons of damage to turrets and leaves lane with CS advantages 2 great signs for the Titan Gaming Atlas early game. AU KnuckeD the support player of the duo has plenty of options. When the duo is looking for early towers and lane pressure AU KnuckeD plays Morgana, Lux and Zyra for long range poke and trap combos. When the teams need hard engage they play Nautilus and Leona. Need scaling Yummi, Senna and Renata Glasc are also in AU KnuckeD’s champion pool.

7) Mystic Cats

Top: StarCraft

Jungle: Washing Hands

Mid: FWESH

ADC: CornStar

Support: Tambourine King

Mystic Cats are a team with lower rated solo laners but have a very strong jungler and a solid bot lane. Teams should look to ban Viego and Anivia most games against the Mystic Cats. I would try to close out games early vs this team as they play plenty of high utility picks that scale very well later into the game and have slower starts.

StarCraft is the top laner for Mystic cats. They are gold 3, one of the lower rated players in BOL Plat. StarCraft is a top and ADC main. In top lane they enjoy the split push play style with most of their games on Yorick and Kayle. They have played plenty of top laners in solo que this season with 28 unique picks this season. Most are not that practiced unfortunately with only 6 champions in their pool having 5 games or more. StarCraft will hopefully have great macro and map vision like their namesake. When it is safe to push and look for turrets is much harder in a competitive 5v5 environment with comms.

Washing Hands is the highest rated player on the roster and the player I think will lead this team to their victories this season. Viego is their most played and they have an insane win rate on The Ruined King who I think will be a priority ban vs the Mystic Cats. When not playing Viego, Washing Hands enjoys Graves, Lilia, Lee Sin and Nidalee. Washing Hands will have to look to make sure that his less highly rated solo laners in top and mid will have the chance to carry, providing tabs on the enemy jungle and helping push out lanes for resets.

FWESH is a player with a unique champion pool that they have enjoyed for several years. They have most of their games on Anivia and Zilean mid. They also love Neeko, Heimerdinger, Galio and Seraphine. FWESH is guilty of not having a high vision score(we all have the games where we forget pink wards and to use our trinket on CD) but come out laning with CS leads in most of their solo que games. The later the game goes the higher FWESH’s win rate becomes. FWESH has been much higher rated in the past even last season they were plat 4, and were diamond in season 8. FWESH has mained Anivia from season 5 onwards and would probably be another must ban.

CornStar has fully transitioned to being an ADC main for the past 2 seasons after finding a new main in Samira last year. They have been a mid and ADC player since season 7. CornStar also plays tons of Zeri and Jinx in solo que. CornStar also has mained Yasuo in the past and if the opportunity arises I could see them playing it bot. Playing mid for so many years it's quite possible that CornStar might play mages bot as well.

Tambourine King is a support player with a love of hard CC. Tambourine King has mostly played Nami and Rell this season but they enjoy playing most supports having 28 unique support picks this year. For other enchanters Tambourine King plays mostly Seraphine Renata and Lulu. Rell is their engae picks of choice but Tambourine King also has plenty of games on Nautilus. Expect them to pick whatever compliments CornStar the most.

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Top lane in the Shurima division is absolutely insane with 5 players who are dedicated split pushers and the other 2 top laners have plenty of counter pick options in their arsenal as well. Mid Lane in this pool I think is the weak point with many teams having someone with a lower champion pool. Most of the games in the Shurima decision I believe are going to be bloody affairs with top lane brawls being constant and junglers rushing around the map trying to put out fires. ADCs in shurmia are strong as well, some are late game hyper scaling marksmen like those on GE Emerald and Crustacean Nation but others are hyper aggressive such as the marksmen of NWE Titan and Absolute Esports. I do not think this group is going to see that many late game multi baron elder plays like you see in the NA LCS. I think games are going to look much more like the LPL with solo kills and teams gaining an edge and attempting to stomp their way to victory with it.

1) Crustacean Nation

Top: Elsa from Frozen

Jungle: TehSplash

Mid: Skifter

ADC: DragonMoonCake

Support: Teegarden

Crustacean Nation is a team with incredibly high potential judging from their solo q stats. They have the highest solo queue average out of every team this season in BOL Plat. Watch out for strong side top with Elsa from Frozen who will look to generate huge advantages that they bring to teamfights. Crustacean Nation will look to invade and choke the enemies vision control and jungler out of the game. Elsa from Frozen will run your early game and dive top with Skifter and TehSplash. Late game Teegarden will look to pop off poking enemies before they commit to objectives.

The Top side of Crustacean Nation scares me. Elsa from Frozen is a split pushing Juggernaut specialist with most of their games on Aatrox Riven & Garen. They of course have tons of other picks having played over 1000 games of solo que this season. The difference between Elsa and most other top split pushers I have seen is that they play juggernauts who want to group up and fight once they have a lead. Riven and Aatrox look to shove in someone then go try to land 5 man knock up flash highlight reel play not proc demolish on your tier 2 tower.

TehSplash the jungler seems to be primarily a carnivore style jungler focusing a lot on high tempo early ganking champions such as Volibear Trundle and Zac. When their team needs ap expect TehSplash to play Mordekaiser or Diana. TehSplash loves Rift Herald and focuses on the top side of the map. Even though TehSplash plays junglers who look to gank they are normally up 2 camps over their opennent in solo que at 15 minutes. I expect TehSplash and Elsa from Frozen to look for dives on enemy top laners frequently.

Mid for the seafood lovers is Skifter a mage lover who loves champions with push potential and roaming capabilities. Their games this season are mostly on Ekko Cassiopeia and Taliyah, all champions who excel at generating push advantages and roaming with their jungler. When Crustacean Nation needs more teamfight prowess Skifter plays the staples Orianna, Viktor and Azir. Skifter often looks for Rift Herald in solo que with their mid pressure looking to break the mid tower instead of starting to stake drakes.

Crustacean Nation has a formidable bot lane with a multi-year diamond support player in DragonMoonCake paired up with Teegarden, a plat 2 ADC and solo que grinder who has a large pool. Teegarden plays primarily safe laners such as Zeri and ezreal and utility champions like Ashe and Jihn. When looking to hard carry Teegarden turns to Kai’Sa and Twitch. DragonMoonCake features flexibility in draft. They play tons of different champions, everything from engage picks like amumu and leona to utility supports like Zilean and Renata. DragonMoonCake as a support is used to carrying his team's vision score and is incredible at it. Thave have over 2 vision score a minute in game placing a ward every minute on average. I picture this bot lane being the late game insurance policy for the Crustacean Nation looking to scale as the top side of their map is much more tailored to early aggression.

2) Sensei Squad Susanoo

Top: Orphic

Jungle: SQD Vaulter88

Mid: lavalizard8U

ADC: Sunflower

Support: SQD Zippy

Drafting vs this team is incredibly tough. They have must bans in Wukong, Ahri, Diana and Zeri. That's already too many must ban champions and I’m sure most top laners are going to want at least two bans vs the d4 top laner. Orphic is obviously the player to watch. But it's not just on them to carry. Lavalizard8u in mid and Sunflower in bot are also players worthy of respect and generating their own leads.

Orphic looks to be one of the best top laners currently in BOL plat. The exception player for their team Orphic has been grinding solo queue this season with a 56% win rate over 400 games. Orphics best 3 champions are Wukong Garen and Sett. For Ap top laners they have picked up Mordekaiser and Gwen. Wukong has been something Orphic has prioritized heavily in solo que and I think he will draw a ban for the majority of the season. Both SQD Vaulter88 and Orphic have over a 60% win rate on the monkey king so I don’t see him making it through pick and ban. Orphic has plenty of other strong side picks like Jax, Tryndamere, Aatrox Darius and Urgot.

SQD Vaulter88 is the other key member of the top side of Sensei Squad Susanoo. SQD Vaulter88 plays jungle and top so they will know when to come help out Orphic and when to leave them alone. SQD Vaulter88 has most of their ranked games this split on Diana and Xin Zhao. In the past SQD Vaulter88 played tons of Kayn and Hecarim, giving them a respectable pool. Like I mentioned earlier SQD Vaulter88 also plays top lane so I expect them to early pick flexible things like Trundle, Gwen and Mordekaiser. SQD Vaulter88 looks to be the primary engage player on their team and I imagine to be the primary shot caller as well.

lavalizard8U is primarily an ahri 1 trick in solo que. They have dominated on the pick in solo que the last 2 years and I think this is another must ban champion when playing vs Sensei Squad Susanoo. Rounding out their pool is Vex, Syndra and Fizz. lavalizard8U might not have to deal with getting banned out due to the extreme threat of his top and jungle but some teams may look to ban lavalizard8U out and see if they can capitalize on mistakes they make without their comfort picks.

Sunflower I believe is the oher carry for Sensei Squad Susanoo. Playing Varus, Zeri, Kai’sa, Jinx and Lucian Sunflower has a pick for most team comps. Their Zeri is performing at another level in solo que however. It spots a 58% win rate as of August 1st with 65 games. If they are playing weakside Sunflower can look into utility ADCS they play like Varus or Jihn. Need late game Kai’sa, Zeri and Jinx can 1v9. SQD Zippy plays mostly enchanter and utility picks. Zilean, Sona, Karma. When the team needs disengage SQD Zippy has Gragas Thresh and even Zyra if the team is too low damage.

3) Absolute Esports

Top: Peaceful Player

Jungle: Angry Cookie

Mid: RoseOfShi

ADC: Arts and Crafts

Support: Cant Boil Water

Absolute Esports has a must ban in Diana . Angry Cookie has 2 exceptionally strong early ganking junglers you would want to ban as well with his Zac and Sejuani. Bot lane would not be something I would want to blind vs this team as you might randomly be playing vs a kill lane that will throw the entire map into disarray. Top lane blind is always a risky option and I can even with a small pool Peaceful Player has things that would ruin the day of an early Ornn. Mid lane RoseOfShi wants counter pick as well. The point of strength in this team is where I want to watch bot lane. We need to see if wacky synchronized play can overcome the standard enchanter support plus hyper scaling ADC meta that is commonly seen. Wins from this team I think will come early in the series before teams are able to adapt to the tempo and unique style that Absolute Esports plays.

Peaceful Player is currently plat 4 and has swapped between ADC and Top for the past several seasons. Peaceful Player has only been playing the game for 4 seasons(at least on this account). Fiora is their favorite top lane pick playing it the most every season. For competitive play Peaceful Player has learned Ornn, Gwen and Shen. Peaceful Player has a smaller champion pool compared to most players I have seen but they are not the strong side of the map for their team. I think Peaceful Player will be put onto weak side letting their bot side of the map receive jungle attention.

Angry Cookie the jungler for Absolute Esports is the highest rated solo que player on his team as of pre week 1. They are a former mid player who transitioned into the jungle role at the end of last season. Angry Cookie excels in solo queue when playing Sejuani and Zac. Both picks have incredible gank potential and team fight impact but are very slow to clear. Angry Cookie when they need to up the tempo play standard options like Volibear and Trundle but can also look to Kha’Zix if physical damage is lacking on their team. Rose of Shi plays Diana mid primarily so I wonder if Angry Cookie will look to learn Diana jungle for flex opportunities. I imagine Angry Cookie’s path will not be as straightforward as some junglers in BOL plat and their pathing will constantly change every game. Some games Peaceful Player may be given counter and have split threat, some games they might have an assassin mid like katarina or Diana who want to look for early 2v2 fights. Other games Angry Cookie might try and 3 camp into bot blowing summoners so that their bot can go all out.

RoseOfShi may look like a Diana 1 trick but they have played 35 unique champions mid this season in ranked. RoseOfShi plays some fairly unconventional picks like Lillia, Sett and Neeko to compliment their more traditional champions like Ahri and Lissandra. RoseOfShi seems to want counter picks allowing them to roam heavily in good matchups and possibly being stuck in lane when not given the opportunity.

Arts and Crafts are paired up in the bot lane with Cant Boil Water. These two constantly duo with one another, have matching icons and got the synergy going. Both Arts and Crafts and Cant Boil Water are both former mid laners and they are looking to throw down in the bot lane. Arts and crafts doen not play almost any safe scaling marksmen Arts and Crafts plays Samira, Kalista and even Akshan. They also sometimes play mages like Karthus and other mid picks like Yasuo and Irelia. Cant Boil Water pairs aggressive ADC picks with high CC supports like Ammumu and Swain, even Galio from time to time. They are also a great Lux player with it being their most played in ranked and also play Senna who opens up for absolutely wacky bot lane pairs. The risk of playing this way is that it can be incredibly hard to close out games. If you are unable to get early drakes or set up baron correctly games can get drawn out and you might get outscaled.

4) CB Tsundere

Top: Rindo Kobayashi

Jungle: Mikelasy

Mid: Fonso

ADC: Shifti

Support: Treepalm

CB Tsundere is a team with clear strengths. They play for lockdown on key targets, enjoying champions with high amounts of burst potential and force teams to face check them at objectives such as Dragon or Baron. I think the games CB Tsundere wins will be the ones that they are playing their way. When they are forced into games without their comfort style I can see them dropping games. I would watch out for Shifti as the cap exception player you expect them to carry and having your best player on ADC is a great idea.

Rindo Kobayashi is a top laner with a wide pool. They play a lot of top laners found in professional leagues across the world with most of their games on staple pro picks such as Ornn, Gwen, Renekton and Shen. Rindo has lots of potential counter picks in their pool as well playing Lilia top and darius to name a few.

Mikelasy is another Jungler I would refer to as a carnivore player. They enjoy high tempo early ganks playing picks such as Vi, Wu Kong and Trundle. Mikelasy runs the early game often looking to pressure the mid lane 2v2 with Fonso. Fonso plays primarily utility mid picks in solo que like Zilean and Karma mid. Fonso can also play much more for himself with picks like Ekko and Viktor looking for early 2v2 fights as often as possible and snowballing the game from there.

Fonso in solo que almost always plays for their jungler sacking their own ability on the map. Fonso must be a fan of LS as they play Zilean, Karma, Diana Ivern and Soraka mid. When looking to carry themselves Fonso plays control mages like Viegar, Viktor and Orianna.

Shifti is the cap exception player on CB Tsundere last season they were able to climb into diamond primarily playing early game focused marksman like Xayah Miss Fortune and Tristana. This season they have tried branching out more with their playstyle playing more scaling ADC’s such as Jinx and Senna in solo que. Shifti’s partner is Treepalm, a support player who loves hard CC. Treepalm plays lots of Alistar Nami and Braum. They look for roaming opportunities with Mikelasy to get pressure on early objectives.

5) NwE Titan

Top: Boogie

Jungle: NwE Trigger

Mid: NwE Merlin

ADC: Protomorph

Support: Picklegod

NwE Titan is a team with a clear player to watch in Protomorph their ADC. Will they play things like Draven and Cait and look to set the tone on the map? Or will this team early pick things that both Protomoprph and Boogie share in their pool like Gangplank? Almost everyone on this team does play another role allowing them some freedom in draft and allows them to pick tons of flex options.

Boogie is a solo que grinder that is currently not doing as well as they would like in solo que. Boogie has played almost 900 games this season on over 100 champions. However they are currently in gold 4 almost a full division lower then they ended last season. In January of this year they had gotten back into platinum but by mid march were at the bottom of gold. They have rebounded and fallen several times, their LP graph looking like a mountain scape. Boogie plays hyper scaling ADCs more in solo que than champions in top lane and will have to try and commit back to playing the role NwE Titan has them for. With 46 unique top lane champs this split Fiora has been their best by far and is an incredible counter pick to meta top laners like Aatrox and Ornn. Boogie does not play many blind pick top laners such as Gnar or Ornn and will have to look to counterpick and give themselves a winning matchup within drafts.

NwE Trigger is a jungle/adc player who will be jungling for NwE Titan. NwE Trigger began grinding his main role about 2 weeks ago. With a week left until the season starts I hope they get enough practice in learning the ins and outs of their champion clears as well as the timings to go for objectives and when they should gank. NwE Trigger’s current jungle pool seems to be Zac, Ekko, Diana and Viego. They have played over 20 junglers in ranked this season and I hope they are able to use their large pool to give NwE Titan exactly what the team needs.

NwE Merlin is a mid laner who loves control mages but also plays a lot of support. Vex is their most played mid along with Ahri and Viktor. NwE Merlin is picking up other staple mid champs such as Azir, Syndra and Orianna. Playing support should hopefully give NwE Merlin some shotcalling experience and let them help dictate vision lines for their team in games.

Protomorph is an ADC/ Top lane player and maybe we will see Boogie and him swap roles in certain situations. ProtoMorph plays for aggressive lane dominant ADCs. They are one of the few Draven players in the league and also love Caitlyn and Jihn. While playing top Protomorph plays champs like Gangplank, Volibear and Nasus. Picklegod has a side of the map that they enjoy sticking firmarly to support. They mainly play enchanters like Lulu and Yummi but they do have quite a few games on roaming supports such as Bard and Alistar. I expect ProtoMorph and Picklegod to look for high tempo bot lanes and look to cash in on plates and drakes.

6) GE Emerald

Top: 1 icecreamguy 1

Jungle: Deeeyo

Mid: Shockwave53

ADC: Soprych

Support: PAIN PRESCRIBER

GE Emerald has a priority ban in Anivia. The teams plays strong side top and a scaling bot generally. 1 icecreamguy 1 is going to push aggressively in most of his matchups. Look out for Deeeyo later in the draft as they play some interesting jungle picks. Shockwave53 is the primary wave clear on the team, loving control mages and poke. Soprych is the clear carry for this team with an enchanter main paired with them. The team has no clear carry in regards to rank and every player has an equal opportunity to pop off.

1 icecreamguy 1 is a strong side juggernaut player. They are most practiced on picks like Darius Camille and Riven. Even when playing tank duty 1 icecreamguy 1 likes to play more aggressive style tanks like Shen and Tahm Kench. GE Emerald may not get as many advantages from 1 icecreamguy 1 as they are used to as Shurima contains tons of incredible top laners and they are one of the lower rated tops. I think that they cannot shy away from the fight, picking Tahm Kench or Shen blind and hoping for the best sounds like a great way to lose your top tower in this group.

1 icecreamguy 1 is going to look to push so expect Deeeyo the jungler for Ge Emerald to path top and look for 2v2 fights. Deeeyo go to brawler is Viego. Kayn might be another option allowing Deeeyo to gain some early orbs to gain their form. Deeeyo is also a Fiddlesticks player, a champion that provides almost unparalleled vision control and can quickly turn the tides of a team fight thanks to Crowstorm, one of the best ultimates in the game.

Mid for GE Emerald is Shockwave53. Shockwave53 has played more games of Anivia mid they then have every other mid in their own champion pool combined for the past 3 seasons. I found it incredibly strange that someone named after Orianna’s ultimate would not have the champion in their pool. Some of their other mid picks include Xerath as an answer to control mages and Veigar and Lissandra to bring CC. I worry for Shockwave53 if they will ever get to play their signature Anivia. I would keep it as a priority ban in my games against this team unless we had a clear counter ready for it.

GE Emrald’s botlane is Soprych at ADC and PAIN PRESCRIBER as support. The duo are going to look for classic enchanter supports paired up with a hyper scaling ADC. I expect this team to early pick supports such as Karma or Renata Glasc to provide team utility. If given the opportunity PAIN PRESCRIBER does play the ultimate scaling supports in Sona, Yummi and Senna. Soprych has a clear preference for Kai’sa and Xayah 2 ADC’s generally not seen as much compared to other meta picks. When they have the gold to carry Soprych does quite well in solo que winning games that go late.

7) Revolution Ice Age

Top: Shenghai

Jungle: Dogaroo

Mid: Twiz

ADC: Leavy

Support: KillaTron100

Most of the players on Ice Age are lower ranked(their team MMR average is somewhere around plat 4/gold 1) and have smaller champion pools. Revolution Ice Age will live or die with Dogaroo. Almost every lane seems to have players with follow up CC for their ganks. Creating leads with Shenghai will give you points of pressure to try and outpace dragon stacking teams. Focusing mid with Twiz would give you the potential of Viktor or Vex 1 shooting people wandering into unwarded territory. His bot lane loves to play champs who crave early leads like Pyke Ezreal and Nautilus. However failing on these early ganks could lead to junglers counter invading, gaining leads and looking to invade Dogaroo or take objectives as they struggle to clear.

The Top laner for Revolution Ice Age Shenghai is another player specializing in split push. They have a deep champion pool playing most champs less than 10 times despite only having 100 games of Solo que. Their most played are Illaoi Yorick Trundle Sejuani and Renekton. I think the Shenghai is going to have to all in and try and play their split push champions into more duel focused top lane options that the rest of Shurmia is looking to play.

Dogaroo is the team's jungler and someone who will have to prove themselves. Dogaroo, a gold 2 jungler seems to love off meta and enjoys hard cc in whoever they play. They have their most games this season on jungle morgana but also have found lots of success on Sejuani Jarvan and Poppy in solo que. I worry that most of their pool seem to have a weak clear speed and will be forced into early ganks, a very feast or famine style. I however feel they need to lean into this style even more, picking up champions like Vi that have unrivaled level 3 ganks and try to create early leads.

Twiz looks to be the primary carry of Revolution Ice Age. He is a specialist two tricking Viktor and Vex this season. Both Viktor and Vex scale incredibly well offering 1 shot potential and cc to bring the team some utility. Twiz often buys Crown and Zhonyas, prioritizing staying alive to pump out damage and utility. Being a specialist is not always a disadvantage. There is a reason most pro players tell you the best way to climb in league is to find a character you love and to 1 trick them. Learning the ins and outs of your damage utility and trading patterns allows you to focus more on the macro side of the game. Twiz will hopefully be able to help lead his team and communicate their win conditions.

The bot lane for Ice Age Revolution features two players who heavily duo with one another. Leavy the ADC for revolution ice Age is having his best year of solo que. They fell in love with Zeri playing her for almost 40% of their games and have climbed to their highest rating of any season currently sitting in gold 1. Their partner KillaTron100 has also found success this year quickly reaching their last year peak rank of plat 3 already. KillaTron100 loves Pyke and like most support players has realized the potential of Renata Glasc.

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I believe that Mt. Targon will be the hardest group to predict the outcome of. Almost every team in this group has a plat 3 average and I could see any of these teams making playoffs. I think that CB Rush and XFLOW Blue have a slight edge due to the fact that they both have cap exception players on their rosters and that is why I ranked them in 1st and 2nd. I have Ta Akatsuki in last in this group due to the fact that they have off role players and are a plat 4 average team. The rest of this group is a complete toss up.

Top lane in mount Targon is probably the weakest role within the group with 6/7 top laners being plat 4. Most of these top laners focus on having weak side champions. Junglers are probably the highest rated in the group compared to any other division with the average jungler being platinum 2. Lots of teams in this division have their highest rated player in the jungle so hopefully that will allow teams to have clean early games. The mid laners of Mt Targon play plenty of poke mages and other unusual picks. People in Mt Targon are going to blind pick something like Orianna and be playing vs Neeko or Xerath not Viktor. Botlane in this group is also very tight in terms of ELO when you factor both players into the lane. IceBorn Chaos and Basement Dwellers both have the strongest looking duos. Most other teams have 1 strong laner paired with someone lower rated or have two players who are a little lower rated.

Game to Watch week 1: IceBorn Chaos vs CB Rush

1) CB Rush

Top: Pipp

Jungle: Hunterwolfsteel5

Mid: CBR Rutledge

ADC: Gl4cial

Support: ˇˉˉˆ

CB Rush is a team name people might recognize from the last split of BOL the team that won the plat league. However this CB Rush features no one from that winning roster. It needs to be seen if this CB Rush has what it takes to become champions once again. This version of CB Rush is a team with strong flex potential in the top side of the map their Top laner enjoys mage picks and the jungle and mid both like juggernauts. Hunterwolfsteel5 their cap exception player will set the tone for his team either playing early game aggression looking to out 2v2 you or try to scale past you. Gl4cial and ˇˉˉˆ are a duo with high kill threat in the bot lane. Expect them to push and look to punish teams taking early plates and looking for early drakes.

Pipp is a top laner who seems to love playing juggernauts and fighters. Their most played champ the last 2 seasons has been Camille with Sett as a firm number 2. They also have mages in their top lane pool such as Vlad, Sylas and Gragas to bring some AP to their team if needed. To heavily punish safe blind picks Pipp also plays Fiora, Aatrox Akali and Kled. I think Pipp is a player who must be respected on the rift. At plat 4 they are not the highest ranked player by any means but they possess counters that would be incredibly painful to play games into. Pipp also takes a secondary combat summoner spell in solo que for most of his games so watch out for early ignites.

Hunterwolfsteel5 is a player right at the border of achieving diamond for the 1st time. A jungle player with top secondaries Hunterwolfsteel5 is mainly a Hecarim and Diana player. When his team needs early game priority Hunterwolfsteel5 looks to play Xin or Olaf. I'm curious with the shared pool if Pipp and Hunterwolfsteel5 will ever bait enemies by locking in flex top jungle picks like Mordekaiser Wukong or Olaf. Hunterwolfsteel5 has plenty of gank options with Pipp and CBR Rutledge playing champions with follow up CC. In solo queue they fight early and often having first blood participation in 75% of their games within the 1st 5 minutes.

CBR Rutledge is a mid player who also plays top as a secondary role in past seasons. CBR Rutledge plays most pick mages. This season they have primarily played Malzahar, Ahri and Syndra. They also have played tons of Sylas in past seasons as well as Yasuo. With a Diana jungle player on this team I expect teams to have to respect ban one of the two picks most games.

Gl4cial and ˇˉˉˆ are the bot lane duo for CB Rush this year. ˇˉˉˆ is a hook engage champion lover playing pick primarily like Thresh Naut and Leona. ˇˉˉˆ also off roles as ADC so they will know times to engage. Gl4cial on the other hand seems to mostly enjoy late game marksmen like Twitch Vayne and Jinx. However Gl4cial has started to play much more early game focused ADC in ranked like Kalista, Kai’Sa and Lucian.

2) XFlow Blue

Top: XFW ReedandWrite

Jungle: XFW Gibb Diff

Mid: OPKillswitch

ADC: XFW PraYx

Support: New IGN wanted

XFW Gibb Diff is the team's cap exception player and plays aggressive early junglers. Expect them to path top side and look to punish players who over extend. OPKillswitch in mid will look for poke mages and to punish you as you try and retake vision. XFW PraYx and New IGN wanted are the bot lane and will probably play to scale.

XFW ReedandWrite is the top laner for Xflow Blue. XFW ReedandWrite plays what most coaches want blind pickable champions such as Ornn and Gnar and a few counter picks to those safe blind picks like Fiora and Trundle. XFW ReedandWrite has made it into platinum this year for the 1st time and at platinum 3 with a 54% win rate I think they will do quite well for themselves. I believe that they have also been recently duoing with XFW Gibb Diff’s smurf to practice the 2v2 top side fights that this league will provide.

XFW Gibb Diff is the cap exception player on his roster and will look to be the early game snowballing jungler that we all hate to play against in solo que. XFW Gibb Diff loves early ganking champions such as Trundle, Volibear, Wukong and Rek’sai. When they need to play for scale XFW Gibb Diff plays Shyvana, Hecarim and even Amumu. XFW Gibb Diff has a strong top side of the map to play for. His bot lane focuses much more on scaling so expect XFW Gibb Diff to path top side and look for fights. With OPKillswitch playing more poke style mages expect XFW Gibb Diff to look for deep wards so that OPKillswitch can look to invade and harass enemies while keeping themselves safe.

Rounding out the top side of the map for XFlow Blue is OPKillswitch. OPKillswitch plays some different mid picks practicing poke mages like Ziggs and Vel'koz to counter control mages with much lower ranges like Veigar and Anivia. OPKillswitch most played champion this season is Diana but they play that when playing their secondary role jungle. Enjoying pushing his lane opposition in OPKillswitch also plays lots of Taliyah and Ekko champions found in both roles they frequently play.

The bot lane for Xflow Blue is XFW PraYx and New IGN wanted. New IGN wanted plays mostly defensive support options with plenty of enchanters like Karma, Soraka and Janna. New ign wanted constantly is looking for vision dominance placing a ward a minute on average in solo que. Make sure your team has plenty of sweepers and look for squishy supporters who are warding by themselves. They also play wardens like Braum, Thresh and Maokai. This pairs perfectly with XFW PraYx who loves to play Hyper Carries such as Jinx and Aphelois as well as more utility adcs like Ezreal and Jihn. XFW PraYx loves to farm, averaging over 7 CS a minute. Setting up slow pushes and looking to engage when their ADC steps away to collect a wave might be a viable tactic vs this bot.

3) IceBorn Chaos

Top: Taíase

Jungle: Stunna

Mid: Mikewiwi

ADC: QLUU

Support: xviinteen

IceBorn Chaos is a team looking to scale. Play scaling mid laners and junglers, have an enchanter support and a good scaling safe AD. Have your top split push and look to take objectives that way, forcing fights with number disadvantages or take free towers. They have some most ban champions in Azir on the team so hopefully they will come up with some different drafts as teams might have to drop bans and give them back comfort picks to do with evolving threats within their series. Look to punish the top side if you can. Stunna generally plays scaling options in the jungle and Taíase is going to play for his lane.

Taíase is a ranged top enjoyer. Their 3 most played champions the past 2 years are Jayce, Gnar and Kennen. Very much a strong side player Taíase also plays split push threats like Camille, Gwen and Akali. Being the lowest rated player on his team with a very volatile champion pool I wonder if Taíase will be able to have the impact that he is used to achieving in solo que. Every champion Taíase plays is a gank magnet and with Stunna playing much more scaling junglers I worry they might get camped.

Stunna for IceBorn Chaos is a player who loves to farm while jungling. His most played champions this season are Diana, Viego, Graves and Kindred. Stunna's early game ganking champion of choice is Xin Zhao or Wukong. While Stunna does have a top side of the map who wants jungle pressure Mikewiwi his mid will be looking to scale most games and play safely. I expect Stunna to mostly stick to power farming junglers and attempt around the 3rd drake when 2nd items are starting to come in and teamfight with the rest of IceBorn Chaos.

Mikewiwi is a lover of Azir, it has been their most played champion in solo que for 6 seasons straight. An automatic ban for most teams I would guess. Mikewiwi also plays lots of Vex, Qiyana and Syndra. In the past Mikewiwi had tons of games on Aurelion Sol and is looking to pick them back up this season for something with some more early game pressure. At plat 1 Mikewiwi needs to be a strong point of his team and I hope they and Stunna can play together well.

QLUU and xviinteen are the duo for IceBorn Chaos in the bot lane. Xviinteen is a very well rounded support player. They have played 26 different supports this year in solo que with Rakkan, Thresh and Karma being their most played. Xviinteen plays most supports, Taric being one of the only exceptions. Xviinteen will look to provide whatever his team needs in draft, I'm confident to say they will have a pick for almost every situation. QLUU their partner is an ADC player that has been looking to change up their pool this year. Last season QLUU mostly played for aggressive marksmen like Miss Fortune and Lucian. This season QLUU has played most of his games on Zeri and Ezreal champions who are much safer and are looking for 2-3 item power spikes.

4) Hypnotic Gaming

Top: GreatJace

Jungle: Neeble

Mid: KiNG Yeetloaf

ADC: Seven Devils

Support: NotBangbusdriver

Watch out for Seven Devils and KiNG Yeetloaf to be the primary carries at ADC and Jungle. This team leans a little AD heavy in their champ selection. You will be able to tell how Neeble will path based off their pick. They are either full clearing and fighting for scuttle crab or you are getting cheese ganked. Sevin Devils will play secondary engage and NotBangbusdriver will be the teams primary engage. Shut this bot lane down and the team will have a hard time securing objectives.

GreatJace for Hypnotic Gaming is another top laner on traditionally weak side champions. Gnar and Gangplank are GreatJace’s 2 most played champions. When GreatJace was higher rated in previous seasons they primarily played much more for themselves with early aggressive top laners like Renekton Sett and Aatrox. GreatJace is willing to experiment playing off meta picks like Lillia top and Taric. GreatJace is a fantastic option to have for Hypnotic Gaming weakside options as well as stronger laners when playing vs split push threat.

Neeble is the jungler on Hypnotic Gaming. They have a wide champion pool playing 27 different junglers all with 10 or less games. Neeble has always done this in solo que even back in season 9 when they were diamond. Expect Neeble to play in BOL games whatever is the strongest jungler of the patch or to play what his team needs him to. NotbBangbusdriver primarily plays engage supports so I expect Neeble will play more carry style junglers and early game focused champions.

Continuing with the tradition of off meta mids for MT. Targon KiNG Yeetloaf is an Akshan mid main. KiNG Yeetloaf also plays jungle secondary and almost every champ on his list has less than 15 games this split. KiNG Yeetloaf’s pool is generally champs with high mobility: Yasuo, LeBlanc, Qiyana and Talyiah. They also play poke mages like Xearth and Zoe. KiNG Yeetloaf is also platinum 1 and will look for early aggression. Most of their picks are aggressive early looking for solo kills. Shove you wave in and disappear off the map and clear wards with red trinket. Rinse and repeat and look for kills either on your lane opennet who is trying to reestablish vision or dive.

Seven Devils is platinum 1and the highest rated ADC in Mt Targon. They play primarily utility focused picks such as Jihn, Ashe and a pick I was surprised to see almost no other bot laners having in their pool Seraphine. Seraphine, when given income, provides teams with crazy amounts of shielding heals and still does decent damage if they build Liandry's Torment. NotBangbusdriver is Seven Devils partner in bot lane and is the lowest rated member in Mt Targon. They are currently gold 2 but were plat in seasons 9 & 10. NotBangbusdriver plays engage in ranked with a preference for Rakkan and Nautilus. Hard engage champs do work when played with utility ADCs giving kill opportunities in lane so it's not like the duos picks are fighting with one another.

5) Basement Dwellers

Top: CTRL ULT ELITE

Jungle: BattleGnome

Mid: NakNak

ADC: Jayel

Support: Amandalin

Just to note this is my team. I am the top laner and captain for this team and will try to be as non biased as possible.

Basement Dwellers have a clear game plan looking at their solo que picks and it's a simple plan in just 3 words. Late Game Scaling. With tanks top lane, farming junglers, control mages and a hyper scaling ADC paired with an enchanter support. If games for Basement Dwellers go late they are ecstatic. It will be up to teams to decide how they want to counter this.

Top Lane for the Basement Dwellers is CTRL ULT ELITE. A weak side specialist CTRL ULT ELITE mostly plays scaling tanks. They have almost all of their games this season in solo que on Dr Mundo and Cho’Gath. If CTRL ULT ELITE can lose graciously to split pushers hopefully they will be able to stall their opposition long enough to scale where they can join team fights and bring the frontline his team otherwise lacks.

BattleGnome is currently tied for the highest rated player on the Basement Dwellers at platinum 2. A former support player that swapped to jungle this year. BattleGnome will have to see if their time spent as a support will let them control vision and sneak past wards to set up ganks. With very few games of solo que recently I would be worried about this player's individual skill; they will be forced to play more games if Basement Dwellers hit playoffs. The few games that BattleGnome does have in the jungle are a mix of assassin junglers like Kayn and Qiyana and more scaling options like Shyvanna and Nocturne.

Mid Lane for Basement Dwellers is NakNak. They have an interesting champion pool, they are one of the only players in all of BOL playing Anivia. For other control mages NakNak plays Veigar and has a handful of games on Cassiopeia as well. They also love Sion mid with hullbreaker; it was their most played champion last season. NakNak will have to see how his unique mid lanes pick stack up in comparison to the other non standard mid players in the Mt Targon division.

The bot lane duo of Jayel and Amandalin for Basement Dwellers is where a lot of the team's late game damage needs to come from. Jayel has experimented with most marksmen this split playing almost 600 games of solo que this split. Jayel’s most played ADC the past couple of years is Vayne having 2 pentas in solo que this season. Jayel’s aggressive laner of choice is Lucian who pairs incredibly well with Nami who is Amandalins most played support this season. Amandalin is an enchanter main with a fairly narrow pool. Most seasons in ranked Amandalin only plays a max of 11 different champions. Amandalin non enchanter support picks in bot lane are poke mages like Zyra and Brand.

6) SG Invictus

Top: STN e dash trade

Jungle: STN Kubix

Mid: Alphexus

ADC: STN Lizard

Support: Footstomper12

SG Invictus is a solid team; they all have large champion pools. I expect that STN Kubix will be their best performing player out of the jungle with them leading their team especially if STN Lizard picks more utility focused carries. I think the player to watch on this team is Aplhexus. Teams will have a hard time scouting this player(I certainly did) and they will have some off the wall counterpicks.

STN e dash trade is a top laner who likes champion that dash with E and trade who could have guessed? Renekton, Aartox, Gwen and Camille are these players' strong side picks and when left alone on the top lane island they play Gnar, Ornn and Cho’Gath. A solid top laner STN e dash trade has no clear weaknesses in their pool or play but nothing that jumps out at me as something I would regard as a must ban or takeaway. They have a large pool which is always a plus but the question is what are the picks out of their large 10+ champion pool that are BOL ready.

STN Kubix is the highest rated player on this team and another player on ISG with a large pool. STN Kubix has played 28 different junglers in ranked this season and has played 10 picks 10 times or more. STN Kubix has played lots of high tempo junglers such as Lee sin, Jarvan IV and Volibear. For more teamfight picks they have Lillia Kindred and Diana. STN Kubix strikes me as a player who loves to learn new jungle clears and is constantly looking to improve their pool. With viego as their most played(who is kinda everyone) I don’t expect STN Kubix to play the same champ in a series in BOL this split. I have no idea where STN Kubix is looking to provide his early ganks.

Alphexus is a complete enigma to me, I have 0 idea what this player is going to play. Aplhexus plays almost every role except ADC in ranked. They have almost no preferences for champions with their most played being Trundle at 7 games. When playing mid in ranked this season they have played 15 unique picks in solo que all with only 1 or 2 games. In flex que with their full team this player played the following picks over their 2 hour session: Malzahar mid(one of two games they lost), Dianna Mid, Irelia Mid, Sivir top, Shyvana mid and finally Twisted Fate Mid(the other loss). Hopefully STN Kubix and Alphnexus will be able to discuss quickly what mid jungle combos that they have drafted and if they are strong or weak.

Both bot late partners for SG Invictus play a lot of solo que each with over 550 games this season. Footstomper12 will be looking to play engage for this team with champions like Nautilus Blitzcrank and Leona. If engage is covered by STN e dash Footstomper12 can play teamfight champions like Taric and Seraphine. STN Lizard is one of the only other ADCs in the league playing non marksmen in their position. STN Lizard plays Seraphine, Ziggs and even Heimerdiner. For traditional marksmen they enjoy longer range options like Caitylin and Jihn.

7) TA Akatsuki

Top: DownBadAndSad

Jungle: PotPot PotHead

Mid: Snowlife

ADC: Eqq

Support: l Cynic I

I worry about this roster of TA Akatsuki missing playoffs. MT. Targon as a whole is incredibly close to one another in ELO and they have 2 players off role while being slightly behind the solo que rating of everyone else. DownBadAndSad and PotPot PotHead are the two people to watch out for on this team. DownBadAndSad can hopefully outplay his opponents, gain a gold lead and dive enemy tops. PotPot PotHead will have plenty of support if they look for early invades thanks to the nature of Snowlife’s pool but will also be required to pick up some of the damage slack that utility picks lack.

DownBadAndSad is an enjoyer of high mechanical difficult top laners. They mostly play Gangplank in solo que but also have plenty of games on other high skill ceiling champions like Aatrox Riven and Fiora. DownBadAndSad has very few champions in his pool that can face check and someone else on TA Akatsuki will have to be the front line for this team.

PotPot PotHead plays aggressive junglers primarily and has had a lot of success in solo que on these picks. Their volibear and Hecarmin are both 70% win rate as their most played junglers with about 30 games on each. PotPot PotHead has plenty of options to choose from having played 28 different junglers this year. PotPot PotHead shares very few flex options with his team other than Mordekaiser. PotPot PotHead should look to his top laner for early gank setup to give themselves a strong split pusher who can crash waves and roam down to teamfights.

Snowlife is the highest rated player on TA Akatsuki and is primarily a support player in solo que this year. I expect Snowlife to look for picks like Orianna, Seraphine, Lux and Zilean, things they have played in the support role who are also quite good mid. Snowlife does play high priority pro play picks as well like Azir and Akali if the team needs more raw damage.

Eqq and l Cynic l form the bot lane for TA Akatsuki. Eqq the ADC player for his team has primarily been a jungle player for most of their ranked career. Only 17% of Eqq’s solo que games have been on ADC most of which have been the past 10 days. Adc is a role that requires tons of time to learn to play properly from the positioning to mechanics to trade patterns and wave states. I hope Eqq has put in their time and will be able to channel the power of their season 9 Vayne and Lucian. l Cynic l is a solo que support player through and through. They love engage and “poke supports”. l Cynic l is used to playing aggressive early; they have gotten their first kill, death or assist within the 1st 5 minutes of their games 80% of the time. By 15 minutes l Cynic l has a KDA of 9.0. However they fight so often they fall behind in levels and when they are not ahead they are seriously behind.