Week 4 Masters - Athena, Denali & Teelos

S Tier

[S-] Tempest (6-0)

Obviously coming in the “S” tier is Tempest, Tempest has been a powerhouse of BOL for both seasons and even AL in season 2. They have started off games a little shaky giving away early advantages and that is why they find themselves at “S-” tier instead of “S” or higher. Tempest has some of the cleanest team fights in the league and play very well around item spikes. I can only suspect their comms are always cool, calm and collected. No matter how big of a hole they dig themselves, they will always give you a run for your money. Tempest continues their run at the top of the league and will continue it until someone can dethrone the kings.

X-Factor: Early Game plays

Although Tempest has had no excessively long games this season, I think eventually some early game blunders could cost them their perfect record. Last week against FZ and early in the season against CC (just to pick out 2), Tempest found themselves down in the early game. Of course only to stay calm, cool and collected and secure the W around 30-35 minutes. Although they won both of these games, since there’s not much else to nitpick about on a 6-0 team, I would like to see better execution early game, every game and to be able to snowball those leads they gain from the early game into their phenomenal mid-later game team fights. If they can clean up their early game Tempest has a great shot to go 18-0.

A Tier

[A] Casting Couch (5-1)

Casting Couch hands down has been one of the powerhouses of the league, which is why they are the only “A” tier team . With what I think to be the strongest bottom lane in the gold league, I see this team as a possible championship caliber team. With both of the games this week going past the 40 minute mark, that is a bit concerning. There were some bad plays made on both sides, and against a team like Tempest you can’t make those mistakes and expect to get away with it. I expect nothing short of a 2-0 this week from CC, anything less than that would be concerning and shuffle the rankings around a lot going into next week.

X-Factor: New Blood

With the departure of Athena, CC is bringing in a new jungler. I feel like Athena was a major part to CC’s success and not sure what this new player will bring. I hope to see lanes such as top and mid step up this week and help this player out. If they do that along with bot lane still crushing every matchup, we may see another “S” tier team next week.

B Tier

[B-] Illumination (3-3)

This may come as a surprise to some, but Illumination is a team that is clearly a tier above the rest of the pack. With their only losses coming from Tempest, CC, and Literal monkeys before quest’s departure, they have what you would call quality losses. This week they beat SPK, and nearly beat CC in an almost crazy comeback. With the addition of Awootism, who did surprisingly well in the top lane, and of course standouts Luke and Sibel, expect them to impose their will on any team outside of Tempest and CC. Their only question mark right now iS roster consistency, but hopefully the addition of awoo can help with that.

X-Factor: Unorthodox Comps

This team has shown they are not afraid to run something not considered “meta” in fives. They scrimmed this week with a Yi/Taric/Sej boosting strat comp, to enough success they felt comfortable pulling it out against Casting Couch. The composition alone almost won them the game in mid game teamfights with the ultimate combos. It definitely caught CC off guard and they nearly threw a massive lead, until they rallied off of one bad fight from Illuminations side late in the game and secured the victory. It nearly worked, and I would not be surprised in the least if they used more unorthodox comps like this in the future. If they’ll do it vs CC, they’ll do it vs anyone. Watch out.

C Tier

[C+] Chubby Babies (1-5)

I know it's shocking to see a 1-5 team not at the bottom and this high, but they had a good 1-1 week, showing big signs of life. Chubby has been known to have a slow start to seasons and it appears this split was no different. They finally stopped running their fill roster and have all (somewhat) assumed their main roles, with the big addition of Shadowballs bringing good stability to the top lane. I know beating gamma isn't that impressive , but they put up a real fight versus Casting Couch and nearly took the game. This week will be a real telling week with Illumination and Spk, and will really shake out the middle of the table a good bit. Expect big things from chubby when they stop trolling with rosters and start to gain synergy.

X-Factor: Lazerbite

If BOL did weekly mvp awards, my vote for week 3 would go to lazer bite 100%. He put his team on his back in the victory and nearly carried them in their game two loss vs CC. This guy is the established carry of chubby and is up there in talks for best adc with Quikslice and Hitman. Chubby Babies fate depends on Lazer putting the team on his back.

[C] Literal Monkeys (3-3)

Oh how the mighty have fallen after last week, in the absence of Zupho and Quest the Monkeys blundered putting up a mighty disappointing week with losses against FZ and Aztecs. Literal Monkeys would have been an A-tier team alongside Casting Couch if these rankings were done last week at this same time. An obvious reason for the immediate tank in rank is the loss of Quest in the toplane, and shaky performance from the jungle role as of late. With 2 missing teammates YRU Running did not step up to the plate and have as good of a week as he needed, if he hoped to win those games. This is our exact problem with the current state of the team after Quest’s departure. Who do they play through to win ?

X-Factor: Leadership

Someone is going to need to emerge on the Monkeys as a leader, and more than that as a carry in game. I would like to see YRU Running take over and carry the monkeys through this tough time. With an unsure look on who will be in the top lane or jungle at the moment over the next few weeks, I expect YRU Running to put his team on his back if they want a chance at winning. With games against SPK and a newly revamped Chubby Babies, someone is going to need to take over the leader role with Quest gone if they want to see success in the coming weeks.

[C-] Friend Zoned (3-3)

The 1-1 Friend Zoned curse continues to carry through this season with their 3-3 start. It is not surprising to find FZ as a middle - bottom tier team at this point in the season. Especially since their roster is improved from last season and only features 2 top lane mains instead of 3. Friend Zoned has been a pleasant surprise and has gotten a huge jolt from Shlidd in the bot lane. With the roommate duo of acme and SingularBread we believe this team is a for sure playoff contender. Acme has looked very solid this year on his staple control mage picks while bread has yet to have a bad game in the jungle. For us this team comes down to consistency in the top and support role.

X-Factor: Support Play

Although Kolfy hasn’t been bad for the team, we do think they would benefit from having someone dedicated to playing support rather than a “fill” player. Support seems like an easy role from first glance but can make all the difference if you find someone that mains the role. I know FZ has been looking into finding a real support and I think the addition of a real/full time support player could break the 1-1 curse.

D Tier

[D+] Atlas Gaming (3-3)

` Now for our first “D” tier team, Atlas Gaming. Personally, I see this team having a very good shot at making playoffs. With Shifti in the bot lane carrying, I can see this team being a possible 4th-6th place team. Some people may say that losing Bliss and Homie will be the downfall of this team, but they only went 2-2 with them on the roster. Also Atlas still had a 1-1 week 3 with the loss being a 30 minute loss to Tempest. Mid is a huge red flag for me with this team though. Hence why they are “D” tier. If Thresh tries to play hyper carries again like week 1 this team will crumble. I think if you want to look to punish this team look no further than the mid lane.

X-Factor: Shifti

The only way I can see Atlas winning is if it is on the back of Shifti. He is a top 3 adc in the league and if he gets put on a hyper carry he can take over a game. If this team accepts the fact that Shifti is the only way they can win and start playing around him, I can see this team ending with a playoff spot.

[D] Ozon3 Aztecs (2-4)

Ozon3 is in a really interesting spot. It’s hard to get a good read on this team considering they change their roster every week. They had a good 1-1 week and then they go and change their roster. If this continues I think we will see them enter the “F” tier. In my opinion they just need to pick a group of players and work on getting better together, building chemistry. Especially taking into account that it will be very hard for them to get back the point(s) they lost for the forfeit week 1. They have a solid core of players and if they work together they can easily be a playoff team.

X-Factor: Inheratance

Inheratance is definitely the backbone of this roster. The win condition of this team must be to win through the mid lane as it is by far their strongest lane. He is an X-factor for more than 1 reason, he has the potential to carry his team, if he's there, but that is one of the struggles. Can/will he actually show up every week? Or will he lock himself out of the house again? Ozon3 has won every game he has been there, and has gotten dismantled every time he has been absent.

[D-] SPK White (3-3)

The lowest rated of all the 3-3 teams is SPK. SPK’s only 3 wins came against Atlas, FZ and Ozon3. SPK also being the only team to lose to Gamma Guardians up until this point is quite concerning, as well as the loss to Illumination last week where despite getting 5 dragons, and 2 barons could not seem to figure out how to close out the game and end up with another loss because of this. Their fastest win of the 3 has been in 39 minutes with the other 2 wins taking 45 and 46 minutes. This screams of a huge issue of pushing their early game leads into anything productive. This is not a trend you want to see from any team that's struggling, from an outside perspective it looks as if they don’t know what to do when ahead or when they are behind and that is a scary place to be in.

X-Factor: Mid Lane Kingdom

The biggest shining spot for SPK is mid lane. With Jesus3114 holding it down and doing his absolute best to be the carry his team needs. Jesus3114 has acquired 38 kills in his teams 3 wins, and has had 0 bad performances overall this season. Jesus3114 is the carry SPK needs but doesn’t deserve, if he can start extending his leads in mid lane across the whole map and start shotcalling for his whole team I think we could see a big rise in the team grade of SPK.

F Tier

[F] Gamma Guardians (1-5)

Gamma is a team that I thought would be a middle of the pack team. They had one of the toughest first 2 weeks out of anyone, and they picked up a win. I saw hope in this team with Pete coming back, but then they went 0-2. I am not a fan of the top laner taking ignite on champs that have no kill pressure. This team could clean up their draft a bit too. Luckily there is plenty of time left. This team can still make a run for playoffs. We saw last split with Chubby Babies that once you fix the kinks and start winning, it doesn’t take long to catch the middle of the pack.

X-Factor: Underdog Buff

Now that this team is in last place they just need to play like they have nothing to lose. Some teams may underestimate them and they can use that to their advantage. If they start cleaning up their play, drafting better, and playing like they have nothing to lose, I can see this team making playoffs and making a deep run.