Unofficial Week 4 Gold Power Rankings - By Toxin

Hello again, it’s Toxin! Last week, where the Otter Talk analysts and I thought that we had the entire league figured out. Outside of a few minor changes, most of us had the same overall opinions on which teams were considered the top teams, and which teams were considered the bottom teams. Well, everything changed when it got to game time, as there were upsets galore. In terms of actual predictions both Bully and FB Jayke did the best, with both of them able to predict 8/12 correctly. As for Billy and I, Billy was only able to get 6/12 right, and I was slightly better with 7/12 right. Let’s get into the games!

North Division:

Oasis NADS (W) vs KQC (L) 2-0 FF

In this matchup, unfortunately KQC was unable to get a top laner to play for them in time, so they unfortunately were forced to forfeit the series. This is definitely concerning for them, as at the time of writing these rankings they are currently using an esub this week that has not been accepted yet. We’ll see if they are able to field a roster this week versus Final Esports. For Oasis NADS, they may have won this week, but my concerns for this team have not gone away. Let’s not forget the freefall nightmare that was going on with this team in the first two weeks of the season, where they were winless. I still have high hopes that the former champs can rebound and find themselves in the playoff picture by the end of the regular season. However, they need to start winning actual matches to warrant moving up in the rankings. They go up against Gob Squad this week in a do or die matchup for their season.

Gob Squad (W) vs CB Rangers (L) 2-0

Okay, no one saw this win coming. Gob Squad came out of absolutely nowhere and dethroned last week’s top team in a convincing 2-0, which completely messed up the rankings in this division. The biggest standout for this matchup was definitely sushisuwa, who seemed to have a perfect read on the bot lane meta for this week. In game one, he absolutely popped off on his Tristana pick, which seems to be the best pick for ADC this patch. Then, in game two, he found himself his own personal counterpick for Tristana in Samira, which was able to tear through the Rangers after his team softened them up. He gets my player of the match vote in this one, despite some strong performances by other members on the team. Finally, I want to shout out Gob Squad for reading my power rankings and taking my advice from last week. They play Oasis NADS this week. On the CB Rangers side of the coin, I think that this loss was most likely due to burnout. I know a few players on the roster have been playing in other leagues, and I also know that playing too many competitive matches can make you not want to play the game. I also know that Anderson Cooper had an off night, as there’s no way that he puts up that performance on Hecarim on a good day. I think that if they ease up on the practice schedule, they should be able to get their mojo back next week against Imperial Gaming. If not, they may start to struggle.

Final Esports (W) vs Imperial Gaming (L) 2-1

Then we move on to the second upset of the division, where Final Esports was able to clutch out a win over Imperial Gaming. This was an absolute banger of a series, where each game felt like it could go either way until game three. Final Esports definitely made a name for themselves in this win, which moves them up to first place in the division for this week’s rankings. While their picks are not always the most conventional, they were able to find a way to win with their shotcalling and teamwork. For Imperial, I think that HowIMetYourTable continued to put up an MVP caliber performance in all three games that he played. It’s extremely clear in my eyes that he is the main carry on this team, and he has not missed a step since his days on Twin Miracles last split. The problem for Imperial in this series is that outside of the bot lane, the team had a rough week. In terms of draft, they decided to opt into the Nunu side of the Nunu and Willump vs Sejuani matchup, which was a solid 0/3 in the series. While it may have been a good idea to take a pick away from the enemy team, the end result was Batman, my player of the match, jungle gapping Swaggy P in both games on Sejuani. Hopefully they can regain some of their momentum back next week versus CB Rangers. FInal Esports looks to remain on top this week against KQC.

Rankings:

For this week, I’m gonna explain why each team is placed where they are due to the large amount of changes. KQC being winless and having to forfeit keeps them in last. NADs deserve the 5th Seed due to only gaining a win through a forfeit, and I don’t want to continue giving them a pass due to past roster success. Imperial’s wins have only come against NADS and KQC, so they are the worst 2-1 team. For the top 3, all three of them have been 2-0’d and have 2-0’d each other, so the standings are based on who they beat for their second win. Gob Squad’s win was versus KQC, so they are in 3rd. CB Rangers beat NADS, so they move down to second while Final Esports, who beat Imperial Gaming, move up to first.

1. Final Esports (+3)

2. CB Rangers (-1)

3. Gob Squad (+2)

4. Imperial Gaming (-2)

5. Oasis Nail and Day Spa (-2)

6. KQC (=)

South Division:

NSG Infinity (W) vs CB Royal (L) 2-0 FF

Next up is the other forfeit win that happened last week, with NSG Infinity taking home the 2-0 win over CB Royal. This was extremely disappointing to hear at the beginning of the week, as it was supposed to be NSG Infinity’s real test of whether or not they were a strong team or a team lucky to be in the South division. Instead, they took home the free win and I continue to sit here waiting for them to prove themselves. If they can beat !Rawr, the new home of Yung Natz, this week, I think they should finish second in the division at the very least. For CB Royal, I’m still sad that their roster blew up, but they brought in familiar faces in the bot lane by adding Pentakill Ahri (Vixen) and BaaMMM. They still have Boss Troll in the jungle, and their solo laners will probably end up being BTG and Skwigg, two other familiar names. At this point in the season, I’m a little worried about their future. The fact that they are missing three bans this week versus NSG Amethyst could be the difference maker in a series that they have to win in order to stay in playoff contention.

Crimson Dolphins (W) vs NSG Amethyst (L) 2-0

Next up in the South is the Crimson Dolphins, where they continue to crush their opponents in a convincing fashion. This week, I’m going to choose to highlight one of the unsung heroes in the roster, that being Fantastic Daisy. This player, while stuck on picks such as Skarner and Amumu, is the rock that holds this team together and is the one sounding the Dolphins’ battle cry. When Daisy says go in, the Dolphins are in. I think that especially in the Amumu game, Daisy was the difference maker in deciding the game. On the other side, I think that Shugotenshi had a very strong performance, despite playing against one of the better top laners in the league. Next week, NSG goes up against a handicapped CB Royal squad in one of the most important games of their season. Crimson Dolphins will play against the surging Dead Orbit.

Dead Orbit (W) vs !Rawr Eternal Return (L) 2-0

In yet another shocking victory last week, Dead Orbit defeated !Rawr Eternal Return in two quick games. This was actually a huge win for them and their chances at playoffs. After the CB Royal / !Rawr blow ups, the latter of the two ended up getting two of the best players from the fallout onto their roster. Moving forward, I think !Rawr will turnout to be one of the strongest teams in the division. The fact that Dead Orbit currently holds the tiebreaker against them is extremely promising for them in their hunt to hold onto the final playoff spot. As long as they are able to continue to pick up wins, I think that outcome is likely. However, they will need to continue to have strong performances out of their standout players Eterna1Darkn3s and Meliodas. As for !Rawr, it’s not looking good for them. While they do have Yung Natz and Lone Wind joining the roster this week, they basically need to win every matchup from here on out. The fact that they lost both games against their competition for 3rd already also doesn’t help them in tie breakers. I think these two additions should be able to give them a boost, but if they don’t win this week, they might just find their season to be over.

Ranking:

Not much changes in the South this week. Crimson Dolphins are the only undefeated team and stay on top. NSG Infinity stayed in second with a forfeit win last week. Dead Orbit and NSG Amethyst are still evenly matched in the middle, with Dead Orbit taking the 3rd seed for now. !Rawr and CB Royal have gone nuclear and are looking to pick up the pieces in the next few weeks, but I think the former got the better end of the deal out of two.

1. Crimson Dolphins (=)

2. NSG Infinity (=)

3. Dead Orbit (+2)

4. NSG Amethyst (=)

5. !Rawr Eternal Return (-2)

6. CB Royal (=)

East Division:

Literal Monkeys (W) vs Mythos Purple (L) 2-0

In the streamed matchup of the week, we had the Literal Monkeys taking on Mythos Purple, which ended up being much more lopsided than I expected. The biggest storyline in this matchup had to be the drafts, as my eyes were bleeding while looking at game one’s draft for both sides. For the Monkeys, PacaPaul decided to try his hand at Nidalee, while Mythos Purple opted into picking Gangplank. As we saw on stream, both of these picks were pretty detrimental to their team. If Paca was on any other jungler, I think that he would have easily picked up some kills early in the game that would have prevented his opponent from snowballing the early game so hard. On the flip side, if nOrthwert picked any other top laner, his team would have easily won the mid game dragon fights with their massive gold league that they held throughout the game. It felt to me while watching the game that Mythos Purple was taking fights 4v5 despite having all of their members present, as Gangplank struggled to be able to deal any damage in the fight. Game two ended up being a different story due to the Monkeys simplifying their draft. My biggest advice to these teams would be to keep their drafts simple. Instead of picking a champion as mechanically intensive as GP or Nidalee, stick with some easier champions and minimize your performance variance in game. Thank you for attending my TED talk! Next week, Literal Monkeys takes on VBU Argon, while Mythos Purple looks to rebound versus Classic Esports.

NSG Gold (W) vs Classic Esports (L) 2-1

In the closest matchup of the week in the East division, NSG Gold was able to finally close out a series with a win over Classic Esports. What can I say, other than the BarbaricChampion + nightxwolf871 show finally was able to air two performances in one night. This team seems to rely on these two carrying them to victories, while the rest of the team does their best to try to keep the game even. I specifically want to highlight BarbaricChampion’s Sivir pick, which had double digit kills in both games last week. While this strategy was able to work against Classic Esports, I think that NSG will continue to struggle in this division if their only win condition is their bot lane. I think their duo is strong, but every team in this division has a strong bot lane. They really need 1hand and TheRunicBlade to do more than stay even in order for this team to move up any higher. Classic Esports decided to make roster moves after this loss, where they moved Densoft to jungle, Flayedon back to ADC, and picked up Dilly from the CB Royal implosion to be their starting support. These moves are interesting to say the least. The first move of the three confuses me, as I don’t think Densoft has ever mained jungle. Flayedon moving back to adc makes sense, but if they were picking up Dilly, why not just have Dilly ADC? These moves definitely could strengthen their bot lane moving forward, but I’m not sure how much it will lead to team success. NSG Gold takes on Twin Spirits this week and Classic Esports faces off against Mythos Purple.

VBU Argon (W) vs Twin Spirits (L) 2-0

Finally, we have VBU Argon taking home a 2-0 win over Twin Spirits on Sunday night instead of the usual Wednesday night. I will say at the start that my team did get a bit of a handicap in this series, as Twin Spirits were without their captain and best player Riv60 for game one, which definitely made a huge difference in that game. Without his leadership in the discord call, the team struggled to figure out what to do after some early lane swaps by VBU, which led to tower plates being taken, level leads to grow out of control, and objectives to fall. As a result, the game ended quickly in a convincing fashion. Game two was a lot closer due to the arrival of their captain, however Kaiten ended up being too much to handle for them. His Nocturne took over in the mid game and led to VBU wrapping up the series in two games. Unfortunately for Twin Spirits, the result of this game led to Mr. Lean’s departure from the roster, despite him being the player that stood out the most. Personally, I think they downgraded their roster, but we’ll see if this change makes a difference in their matchup versus NSG Gold. VBU Argon takes on the Literal Monkeys this week.

Rankings:

The East stays exactly the same this week as last week, with every matchup going exactly the way I thought they would. I think there is room for some movement after the matches this week however.

1. VBU Argon (=)

2. Twin Spirits (=)

3. Literal Monkeys (=)

4. Mythos Purple (=)

5. NSG Gold (=)

6. Classic Esports (=)

West Division:

CB Obsidian (W) vs Shrimp Fried Rice (L) 2-0

In a week that was chock full of upsets, one thing remained the same - CB Obsidian proving that they are the team to beat in BOL this year. Shrimp Fried Rice were simply outclassed in every role, as Snowlife and Grandfayte absolutely popped off in both games. I have never seen a 29 kill Samira in competitive before, but if there was any team to do it, it would be Obsidian. They go up against Collective Cosmic this week, a team that currently has a lot of question marks surrounding their roster. As for Shrimp Fried Rice, they will look to get things going this week against Limitless Chaos. It will be a tough matchup for them, but I’m hoping that one of their lanes is able to step up and carry this team to a win.

Limitless Chaos (W) vs VBU Plutonium (L) 2-0

Alas, VBU Plutonium’s roster swaps and uncertainty caught up with them this week as they fell 2-0 to Limitless Chaos. Although VBU Plutonium got nearly every single power pick other than Seraphine in both drafts, TheFireOfTheFox1 hard gapped his lane on two of his best picks. This seemed to be enough for LX to take the victory, and they should be able to continue their win streak this week against Shrimp Fried Rice before a marquee matchup against CB Obsidian. As for VBU Plutonium, this roster just needs more time to gel, and they have nearly six weeks to do so. I know that last week they were using an esub in the top lane as well. Once they get a starting five players sorted out and set up a practice schedule, they should be able to contend for third in their group. A win over Silverline this week will go a long way towards that goal.

Silverline (W) vs Collective Cosmic (L) 2-0

Wow. Of all the upsets that happened last week, I think that by far the one Silverline, a team that was unanimously considered as one of the weakest in the league, managed to pull off last week was the most shocking. It truly seemed to be a group effort, as the sololanes pulled through on strong picks like Renekton and Malzahar in game 1, and jungler CD0000000000 pulled out the Kayn in game 2 to absolutely destroy the Collective. I also think that fasting Senna seems to be their go-to in the bot lane, which worked wonders in both games. For Collective Cosmic, major roster turnover in the middle of the series turned out to be a key reason for their loss. After game one, they decided to swap habloufough to ADC, and they had LunsBuns play top lane. I’m not sure why ADISHAWN was benched in between games, but I would have preferred for them to stick with the roster that won the week before against Limitless Chaos. Whether this will be a trend going forward or just a 1-week hiccup, I’m not sure, but we will see in their match this week against CB Obsidian, which is not a team I’d pick to bounce back against. Silverline looks to ride their wave of success into this week against what should be a very winnable match against VBU Plutonium.

Ranking:

Okay so these rankings were actually the most difficult to figure out what I wanted to do for the middle three spots. CB Obsidian is clearly on top, and VBU Plutonium over Shrimp Fried Rice in 5th and 6th place respectively. Silverline only has one win, but they haven’t played against the bottom two teams yet. I want to give them more room to grow, so I have them currently in 4th. Since it was 2-1 between Limitless Chaos and Collective Cosmic, I weighed the match as a draw and looked at who they beat. LX beat VBU, while CC beat Shrimp Fried Rice, so Limitless takes second for this week.

1. CB Obsidian (=)

2. Limitless Chaos (+1)

3. Collective Cosmic (-1)

4. Silverline (+2)

5. VBU Plutonium (-1)

6. Shrimp Fried Rice (-1)

Matches to Watch This Week:

To be honest, I think that there are a ton of interesting games to watch this week for BOL fans. In the North, the Oasis NADS vs Gob Squad stands out to me as a matchup between a team trying to find their identity while the other is out to prove that after beating CB Rangers, they deserve to be the top team in this division. Speaking of the Rangers, their matchup versus Imperial Gaming is equally interesting, as we’ll find out which of these two teams will rise up after their upsets last week. In the South, both sides of last week’s roster implosion are games to watch. Can CB Royal find a way to win without their first round bans? Will !Rawr find their first win in one of their toughest opponents in the group, or is NSG Infinity overhyped? In the East, I personally think the VBU Argon vs Literal Monkeys matchup should be an exciting series with pride and bragging rights for the next month on the line. Finally, the streamed match of the week will be Silverline, the rising star of the group, vs VBU Plutonium, which seems to run hot and cold. I definitely will be looking forward to seeing the result of this week’s games.

Top 16:

Instead of writing out a paragraph highlighting a few of the changes I made, I think that this method of giving a small explanation on the side is better. This way, every team knows the reason why they moved up, down, or stayed the same. If there’s any questions, feel free to @ me in general chat for clarity or trash talk to argue what you would change about my list!

1. CB Obsidian (=) Still on top and for good reason

2. VBU Argon (+1) - Kinda move up by default due to CB Rangers losing

3. Crimson Dolphins (+2) - Undefeated = top team, but against weaker competition

4. Final Esports (+11) - Maybe an overreaction, North being tight moves them up

5. CB Rangers (-3) - Results from last week move them down a bit

6. Gob Squad (+10) - A huge win moves them up a ton, but they may not stay long

7. Limitless Chaos (=) - Good win, but the North results move some teams up

8. Twin Spirits (=) - Stays the same despite losing to VBU Argon

9. Collective Cosmos (-5) - Huge loss to Silverline moves them down

10. NSG Infinity (=) - Unfortunately, the South is weak and you only got a FF win

11. Literal Monkeys (=) - Great win over Mythos purple, but can’t really move you up

12. Imperial Gaming (-6) - Back to where they were two weeks ago

13. Oasis NADS (-4) - Continuing to nose dive until they win a series

14. Silverline (NEW) - Huge statement win over Collective puts them on the list

15. Mythos Purple (-3) - Off week last week drops them a few spots

16. Dead Orbit (NEW) - Extremely important win last week to put them in contention

Dropped out: VBU Plutonium, NSG Gold

Predictions for this Week:

Gob Squad beat Oasis NADS 2-1

CB Rangers beat Imperial 2-1

Final Esports beat KQC 2-0

Crimson Dolphins beat Dead Orbit 2-0

CB Royal beat NSG Amethyst 2-1

!Rawr beat NSG Infinity 2-1

Twin Spirits beat NSG Gold (2-1)

Mythos Purples beat Classic Esports (2-1)

VBU Argon beat Literal Monkeys (2-1)

CB Obsidian beat Collective Cosmic (2-0)

Limitless Chaos beat Shrimp Fried Rice (2-0)

Silverline beat VBU Plutonium (2-0)