Sin Gaming – Snowball Esports [Legacy]

MVPs of the Week: Split 2 Week One

Reece Perry — Wed, 13 Jun 2018 02:55:42 +0000

As we give our sincerest thanks to Bencel for all his hard work last split, we have our own Reece “LoLTies” Perry on hand to pick up the MVP Mantle for Split 2. Check out who put in the best performance for your team below!

MAMMOTH

MAMMOTH: Cuden

Maybe we’re finally seeing Cuden come into his own, maybe EGym was right when he called him an “offseason warrior”. Whichever it comes down to, it was a delight to watch for MAMMOTH fans. Cuden was everywhere he needed to be, almost every time. He made plays on both attack and defense, and even managed a rare Tahm Kench highlight play with his flash-nom saving of Mash. I could have given this to Remind, the way he bodied Looch in the first game really set the tone for MAMMOTH.

Bombers

Bombers: Sleeping

There was really only one option for this. Sleeping was exemplary against the so-called MVP in Chippys and outplayed him through the laning phase in definitely one and arguably both games. It can be hard to play Jayce into Tahm Kench but he was still getting relevant damage onto key targets, but he just didn’t have enough assistance enough of the time to extend the series. Tiger was decent in patches but the rest of the lineup was very disappointing.

Chiefs

Chiefs: Babip

The story of Babip is not just a crushing performance on his signature Nidalee, though that is always very nice to see. Nor was it his superlative Taliyah, though adapting so impressively to the new pick on stage was also encouraging. What impressed me the most about Babip this week was the total package, showing mastery while facilitating standard compositions and the unorthodox no ranged physical damage carry compositions alike. Outstanding from the young Chief this week.

Legacy

Legacy: Mimic

Another layup of a selection, as Mimic was the only one showing any real resistance from Legacy this week. It might be hard for Legacy to take much heart from such a disastrous opening, but they can take comfort in knowing they’ve still got a legitimate top laner in a region where it’s so important to have one. Mimic showed why his Gangplank had been banned in 2/3rds of his prior 24 games – the rest of the roster will fire with him sooner rather than later and he will become overwhelming on the pick.

Avant

Avant Gaming: DarkSide

I really, really wanted to give this to Frae because I was very happy with his performance, but it’s just too hard to go past DarkSide. I was more impressed with his game 3 than his game 1 as his ability to run a train on Tectonic was much more impressive the time when they didn’t fork over kills hand over fist in the first six minutes. I was initially worried about this pickup, but this was a bright debut, shenanigans in game 2 notwithstanding.

Tectonic

Tectonic: Papryze

Papryze’s play backed up his offseason talk with a really impressive set against Avant. In Game 1 the rest of the map fell apart around him, but he was instrumental to game 2’s success and was serviceable on Gangplank in game 3. Of the rest of the squad he seemed the most at ease with the substitute ADC situation. Papryze showed that you don’t get 700LP on Korea for nothing, and if he maintains consistency as the split progresses will have delivered on all the promise he entered the OPL with.

Dire Wolves

Dire Wolves: Triple

I had tentatively pencilled down three of the four other Dire Wolves for this spot during the course of the match before I somewhat stupidly realised “…waitaminute, it’s just Triple.” He was bonkers in game one and was a constant catalyst for his team, putting up repeatedly good performances – especially important into what was a solid effort coming out of Swiffer. He was everything Sharp would have wanted from his midlaner and he very quickly is becoming the Wolfpack’s best player, even considering the presence of Shernfire.

ORDER

ORDER: Tally

Tally was great in this match, despite getting a surprising lack of help in the draft phase He was competent on tanks, save for one teleport that completed that was picked up by the casters, and as good as BioPanther was, showed the gulf in class between the two in the game ORDER won. I wonder how this series would have gone had ORDER not done the Wolves a solid and let BioPanther toe his way out into the Ocean.

Player images courtesy of Riot Games/OPL

Bencel’s MVPs of the Week: Week Eight

Reece Perry — Fri, 16 Mar 2018 04:33:12 +0000

Reigning Coach of the Split Bencel is with us again to break down who was the best player for each of our OPL teams in Week Eight. Check out who put in the best performance for your team below! Player images courtesy of oce.lolesports.com

ORDER: Tally

Tally continues to be the rock in the top for Order. While Order continued their trend of being sloppy against all levels of opponent, Tally himself never seems to falter. Specifically his tank play has been his greatest achievement this split. Gnar gives him the opportunity to flex both sides of his play and I think in this series he solidifies his ability to play tanks with the best tops in the league.

Legacy: Sybol

What a change from Sybol. His ability to get midgame vision on tanks has been extremely questionable, in the games that are even. On Kha’Zix Sybol knew how to get ahead and what to do with his lead, which is something we haven’t been able to say about him this split. He does however still get hyphy at times which can let him down in high pressure moments. Let’s hope we see him on more carries and I think more bans will be thrown his way to his credit.

Sin: Bdoink

Once again Sin make life difficult in picking their most consistent player over 3 games. Praedyth and Dream had good series but simply got caught out too many times inexcusably. So this week I give it to Bdoink who was able to stay safe and clear waves on Viktor, while also putting out some decent damage in team fights. The question for Sin going into next split is still ‘Can you put together a match where everyone plays at their best every game?’

AV: Jayke

AV have had a standout performer every week. But every week I find myself slotting Jayke into number 2 or 3. Another quiet achiever in the league but Jayke has been a great engage threat on Alistar this split, as well as his usual skill on peel duty as Tahm Kench and Nami. This week though Jayke had a Bard performance that tipped him over the edge in my book. His stellar ultimates really made the difference in game 3 against Sin and earned him MVP. Perhaps more playmaking from Jayke is something AV will look to going into playoffs.

Dire Wolves: Shernfire

What should’ve been a cakewalk for Dire Wolves this week turned into a bit of a messy affair. The bot side of the map looked all out of sorts for the first time in the split. Shernfire and Chippys in the meanwhile continued on their merry way, racking up huge gold leads that allowed Dire Wolves to soar to two quick wins. I give the edge to Shernfire over Chippys this week because despite his bot side capitulating, he still managed to maintain control over the river and all of it’s delicious objectives.

Tectonic: Tilting

Signs of life from Tectonic in the lane phase but once again, when the game exits lane phase, they seem to lack proactivity. But on the plus side Tilting did a lot of work with roaming. This is something we haven’t really seen from the Tectonic bot lane so something new is always a pleasant sight. He set up some skirmishes that would give Tectonic a fighting chance going into the mid game.

Chiefs: Destiny

Times were tough for Chiefs in game 1 and once again when the chips were down their bot lane stood tall. Raes and Destiny pulled Chiefs from the brink of a huge upset with precision team fighting. You can see how much faith Chiefs put in their bot lane when it comes to how they are gonna play late game team fights. Everyone rallies around Raes and Destiny hits his buttons at the exact right moments and it all comes together. Only by a hair’s breadth do I put Destiny ahead of Raes this week because of the one time Raes got caught out by Sleeping. Game 2 was a stomp and the Chiefs were all over the Bombers from the get go.

Bombers: Rosey

Rosey has had a few really good Alistar games this split and this week was no exception. He hit some crucial combos and has looked good on these engage supports outside of lane phase. Sleeping had an amazing game 1 but was once again let down by his inconsistency. Sleeping still needs to find his feet to be a real threat to the top teams in split 2. Rosey could be the difference maker in the match against Legacy next week on picks like Morgana or Alistar so it will be interesting to see how Legacy handle it.

OPL Power Rankings: Split 1, Week Eight

Josh Swift — Mon, 12 Mar 2018 03:49:06 +0000

Howdy all, and welcome to Snowball Esports’ weekly OPL Power Rankings. These will be hot off the press each Monday, serving only the hottest takes fresh out of the oven that was the last week’s games. Our panel, as always, are our contributors: Reece, Andrew, Callum, Swifty, and former SIN Gaming coach Bencel.

A quick note on power rankings: Power Rankings are different to how one would traditionally rank teams. Normal rankings are a bit more based on ability than results. In a traditional ranking if one team beat another you could still rank them lower if you thought they were still worse than the team they beat. Power Rankings are by definition recency-biased and results-focused and are more of a snapshot of how a team looks right now than how they have looked throughout the year or how they project overall. A bad loss may see a team drop below a team most would see them as being better than. A string of losses can see a team tumble down the rankings.

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8
Andrew Wray
Reece Perry
Callum Matthews
Swifty
Bencel

Want more detail as to why our panel put the teams in the order they did? Click below for more thoughts from each pundit.

Andrew Wray

DW / CHF / ORD / LGC / AV / BMR / SIN / TTC

GAUNTLET HYPE ANYONE? Lets ignore positions 6-8 they’re dead and buried now for playoffs lets get around this top 5.

I am incredibly excited for this years gauntlet outside of AV who can make an impact but probably not be consistent enough to win it, it’s up for grabs for the top 4 teams. While Dire Wolves are yet to drop a series, they have dropped games and at times looked shaky, as the saying goes if it bleeds you can kill it and that’s the mentality everyone will be going into the gauntlet with, on any team’s day they’ve got a great shot at coming out on top.

Let Andrew know what you think of his power rankings on Twitter @AWray7

Reece Perry

DW / CHF / ORD / LGC / AV / BMR / SIN / TTC

I, as the resident CHF #2 Overlord, would like to welcome my new compatriots. What took you so long? Rest of the list remains unchanged. Legacy close a bit of a gap to ORD but not as much as the result suggests. I don’t consider that result to be repeatable – but I hope Sybol proves me wrong.

Let Reece know what you think of his power rankings on Twitter @LoLTies

Callum Matthews

DW / CHF / LGC / ORD / AV / BMR / SIN / TTC

A shuffle between teams in the two to four bracket has occurred largely due to how teams have appeared against each other in recent weeks with only ORD CHF left to play in the last week. CHF appear to be a class above LGC and ORD currently, with LGC and ORD appearing to be quite close together.

Let Callum know what you think of his power rankings on Twitter @CDMLoL

Swifty

DW / CHF / ORD / LGC / AV / SIN / BMR / TTC

This week Legacy exposed some chinks in the armour of ORDER that no other team but Dire Wolves had taken advantage of so far. It will be interesting to see how ORDER fare against a Chiefs team next week that continues to show strong, decisive play. Bottom side of the ladder remains the same with Sin moving up one spot after their surprisingly close series against Avant.

Let Swifty know what you think of his power rankings on Twitter @Swift_y

Bencel

DW / ORD / CHF / AV / LGC / BMR / SIN / TTC

Let Bencel know what you think of his power rankings on Twitter @Bencel92

Bencel’s MVPs of the Week: Week Seven

Reece Perry — Fri, 09 Mar 2018 02:56:37 +0000

Reigning Coach of the Split Bencel is with us again to break down who was the best player for each of our OPL teams in Week Seven. Check out who put in the best performance for your team below! Player images courtesy of oce.lolesports.com

Avant: Only

Only was all over the map this week. He was able to keep up with Swathe in farm on Jax in game 1. Later in that game he showed some excellent team fighting on a champion that is difficult to execute on. He tied up multiple members of the enemy back line while having very little gold to do so. Game 2 he was given the role of outpacing the enemy jungler as Nidalee. He successfully helped his team get through the early game and transition into their poke comp.

Tectonic: Shok

Game 1 Papryze had a bigger impact, but throughout both games Shok was once again the only player to stay consistent on the Tectonic lineup. Shok managed to not get caught out by Jayke’s Alistar in game 2 where the rest of his team failed. For a team that is still struggling to find their identity and transition leads, much weight falls on the shoulders of their most consistent member who acts as the cornererstone for now.

Bombers: Looch

Not only did Looch demonstrate some depth in his champion pool this week, but he still is a beastly threat on safe scaling carries like Corki. Karma is not a champion Looch would normally be associated with but he showed he can facilitate his team while being the biggest threat on the map. This is a good look for Looch and yet another positive thing we can say about Bombers prospects looking at split 2.

Sin: Cuden

This may have been the hardest team to pick an MVP from all split. I think you could comfortably pick almost any other player in this series from Sin and have valid reasons as to why they would be your MVP. This is where my bias for consistency comes in and is why I give it to Cuden this week for Sin. Cuden has definitely become more a playmaker compared to last time we saw him in the OPL. On a champion like Braum he goes forward way more and growth like that is really good to see. He does a great job of keeping Dream safe when the game is capitulating around them and I think Sin’s bot lane have proven to be a solid pair.

Chiefs: Destiny

Chiefs’ carries have been the beneficiaries of some of the best setups in the entire league. Swiper and Babip do a great job in their own right of starting fights for their carry members. However you can’t go past Destiny when it comes to taking decisive action. This man has been on the ball with his engages and quick thinking to turn fights around. Of all the bot lanes in the league he and Raes have shown they are the quickest at thinking on their feet and turning bad looking situations around.

Legacy: Mimic

Legacy have been playing with Mimic in the side lanes a lot recently. Their core 4 members of the 4-1 have been looking extremely shaky in their ability to get vision around objectives and manage wave priority around mid. This has meant more reliance on Mimic to create pressure for his team. His laning phase is looking cleaner and his timing on when to group or split has looked better too. Legacy still have a lot to work on to compete with the top 3 but the pieces are there.

ORDER: Swiffer

Swiffer has slowly been rising from his slump and this week he looked almost back to his old self. Games 1 and 2 I would say he was more impactful than Triple, which at this stage is no easy feat. He commanded the map more and combined well with Spookz to have control over mid lane. This has not been a consistent factor for Order this split. The timing on Swiffer’s ultimates in team fights is something he still does better than any other oceanic mid and I would stamp as his trademark.

Dire Wolves: Chippys

Chippys has been able to take a back seat for the middle part of this season to his mid laner and bot lane. They have been doing most of the heavy lifting in the early parts of the games. This week it was time for Chippys to accept his promotion to veteran status. When the times were tough, he showed up big time. Chippys is really a feast or famine sort of player. He plays selfishly on champions like Camille and Gangplank and really puts a lot of pressure on himself to be the one to carry. Once he has items the games often hinge on how impactful he can be in a side lane or entering a team fight late. This week was a good one for Chippys, and on his good weeks it doesn’t matter who the opposition is he has the ability to tear them to shreds.

OPL Power Rankings: Split 1, Week Seven

Reece Perry — Tue, 06 Mar 2018 07:01:35 +0000

Howdy all, and welcome to Snowball Esports’ weekly OPL Power Rankings. These will be hot off the press each ~~Monday~~ Tuesday this week, serving only the hottest takes fresh out of the oven that was the last week’s games. Our panel, as always, are our contributors: Reece, Andrew, Callum, Swifty, and former SIN Gaming coach Bencel.

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8
Andrew Wray
Reece Perry
Callum Matthews
Swifty
Bencel

Want more detail as to why our panel put the teams in the order they did? Click below for more thoughts from each pundit.

Andrew Wray

DW / ORD / CHF / LGC / AV / BMR / SIN / TTC

This week didn’t exactly change much other than you have to be really excited for ORD vs CHF – feels like the Chiefs are really breathing down their neck. Other than that the Bombers are finally finding their feet but it’s a case of too little, too late as it will take a miracle to make the gauntlet.

Let Andrew know what you think of his power rankings on Twitter @AWray7

Reece Perry

DW / CHF / ORD / LGC / AV / BMR / SIN / TTC

I nearly put BMR above SIN last week, call me old sentimental for having not done so. Now there can be no doubt, though it was a competitive, enjoyable series. You should have expected Chiefs to comfortably handle Legacy, but the degree to which they have done so was an absolute statement series from Australia’s Boys in Blue. (Not to be confused with the US Boys in Blue in EnVyUs). There is no gap between AV and LGC these two teams are as close in relative strength as any other two teams in this list, including CHF and ORD.

Let Reece know what you think of his power rankings on Twitter @LoLTies

Callum Matthews

DW / ORD / CHF / LGC / AV / BMR / SIN / TTC

Let Callum know what you think of his power rankings on Twitter @CDMLoL

Swifty

DW / ORD / CHF / LGC / AV / BMR / SIN / TTC

Only change this week is Bombers moving up one spot after their win against SIN. They’re starting to really come together as a team and it’s great to see. I personally think ORDER can take a series win against Chiefs right now but a potential Legacy upset this weekend may change my mind.

Let Swifty know what you think of his power rankings on Twitter @Swift_y

Bencel

DW / ORD / CHF / AV / LGC / BMR / SIN / TTC

Let Bencel know what you think of his power rankings on Twitter @Bencel92

Fish’s OPL Players to Watch

Matthew "Fish" Stewart — Tue, 06 Mar 2018 01:10:45 +0000

Editor note: We are very fortunate to have former OPL and current LPL Play-by-Play shoutcaster Matthew “Fish” Stewart bring to us his squad of OPL players to watch. Despite what Fish will tell you, the opinions of a “play by play monkey” are really interesting because there’s so much more that goes into a league team than just how they click their buttons. As we have seen time and again in regions all over the world, roster composition, leadership, and team chemistry are so important and this is something any caster, not just the colour caster can draw on their observations, knowledge and experience to tell us about.

Full disclaimer, I am first and foremost a play-by-play monkey. I talk about all the things that happen when they happen. If you asked me how or why my first instinct would be to shout ‘Spawn! This guy has a question for smart people.’ (Never EGym though, that guy feeds in every solo Q game I get.) Since joining the LPL team, I have not been able to keep up with every game played in the OPL. But I have been able to watch quite a few matches before the LPL broadcasts.

Top: Brandon “Swip3rr” Holland
I had the pleasure of working with Big Swips during the League of Legends: State of Origin tournament. Well known for his tank play, the Armoured Titan has been able to show that he can play carry oriented champions too. With Gangplank nerfs and the resurgence of tanks like Sion in the top lane, Big Swips will be a force to be reckoned with in the Top Lane.

The man has an incredible work ethic. He is always looking to see how he can improve himself, on and off the rift.

Honourable Mention: Jackson “Pabu” Pavone
The young gun who was hyped up for a long time as a mechanical genius now has one full professional split under his belt. This will be an important split to track Pabu’s performance to see how much of the hype he had leading up to his professional career follows through.

Jungle: Brandon “Juves” Defina
While casting the OPL, Juves and Carbon stuck out as the ultimate ‘leaders’ for a team. Constantly looking to mentor younger players and constantly allowing them to grow. They always made sure to provide the emotional backbone, leadership and support their teams needed.

Carbon’s ‘old man hands’ as he likes to call them means we now see him sitting down on the couch – more talking about the OPL than actually playing. (I am upset that there is no VB in his hands when doing so.) This leaves Juves as the last of the two major leaders in the League.

His ability to mentor talent has a proven track record as the likes of FBI & Rogue started with SIN Gaming. Ryoma had a great split with the team before moving back to the Chiefs, where he came from as a substitute for Swiffer.

Split 1 2018 has been rough for SIN, especially in comparison to the multiple “Sinderella” Runs and Rift Rivals performance that we saw from the squad last year. All eyes will be on the veteran Juves to turn things around.

Honourable Mention: Leo “Babip” Romer
Every Legacy game last split, I would wonder “Is this the week we will see Babip step in for Carbon and start his professional career with Legacy?” Babip was mentored by Carbon and a star player for their OCS team. Now starting for the Chiefs rebuilt roster, it will be interesting to watch how much of an impact Babip provides in The Chiefs climb back to the top.

Mid: Stephen “Triple” Li and Tommy “Ryoma” Le
There is no honourable mention here; these are my players to watch in the Mid lane. They were the underdogs in 2017, in the shadows of the likes of Phantiks, Swiffer and Claire. Now it’s their time in the spotlight. Both have helped their team to the top of the table halfway through split one.

Triple has made his way to the Dire Wolves and had big shoes to fill. Phantiks finished 2017 as the best player in the OPL. So far, Triple has adapted to the Dire Wolves well and the pack has yet to drop a set in the OPL. One of the mean reasons Triple did not make an appearance at Origin was due to Ryoma being able to provide synergy with FBI.

Ryoma had a large impact in the performance that Sin had during 2017 as well as the 2nd place finish for NSW in Origin last year. He is quiet in comparison to other Mids in the league, often providing only crucial information to the team, but is attentive and listens to calls. He is flanked by the vocal Destiny and Swip3rR this split which will allow him to do what he does best, listen to the team, focus on the mid lane and destroy his opponents.

Bottom Lane: Victor “FBI” Huang & Jake “Rogue” Sharwood
Last split, I was very vocal in thinking that this was hands down the best bottom lane in the league. Which was a bold statement to make when the likes of Lost & Cupcake, Raes & EGym, Blinky & Jayke and King & Destiny were around in 2017. Their synergy is unmatched, both FBI and Rogue are incredibly skilled when it comes to mechanics and have been working together for a few splits now.

Although FBI made a few critical errors last split, he seems to have honed in on his decision making for 2018. Rogue just gets better and better with each split. It was a tough choice to not pick him up for Origin 2017, instead going for EGym for the synergy with Coach Jish and Swip3rR. (Big mistake, EGym’s Tahm Kench cost me 20 Elo. Should have benched him and let Tgun play.)

Order now sit top of the Table and have only dropped a single set. Impressive for an organisation’s first split in the OPL. A lot of their power comes from this bottom lane duo and I believe that will continue.

Honourable Mention: Myles “Blinky” Irvine & Jayke “Jayke” Paulsen
The Bash Bros are still at it and are the only other bottom lane pairing left from 2017. They started 2017 strong but didn’t end the year well. They have had a decent showing so far in 2018. Tracking their performance to see if they can reverse the trend from last year will definitely impact Avant’s performance.

These are the people I think will be interesting to watch in 2018. Why Snowball trusted a washed up dyslexic play-by-play shoutcaster from the LPL to write this? I don’t know. But at least I don’t feed in Solo Q. Which EGym is great at.

Bencel’s MVPs of the Week: Week Six

Reece Perry — Fri, 02 Mar 2018 06:42:47 +0000

Reigning Coach of the Split Bencel is with us again to break down who was the best player for each of our OPL teams in Week Five. Check out who put in the best performance for your team below! This week, teams that have played two matches will have two MVP’s listed!

Player images courtesy of oce.lolesports.com

Dire Wolves

K1ng

Chiefs

Babip

Ryoma

ORDER

Tally

Rogue

Avant Gaming

Frae

Legacy

Mimic

Sin Gaming

Dream

Bdoink

Tectonic

Swathe

Low

Bombers

Tiger

Players to watch in the last leg before Playoffs

Mimic

Mimic has been extremely inconsistent from his first weeks in the OPL to now. However we have seen marked improvement in his Teleport play and team play overall. Whether he can continue this upward trend will be crucial to his team’s performance going into playoffs.

Shernfire

This is another player who has been up and down in his performances. He has performed far better on carry junglers in recent times. It will be interesting to see if teams start to target him (really for the first time) while the rest of his team is doing so well.

Frae

Started the season very weak but is only just now starting to put his laning phase and team play together. Unfortunately it’s just at a point where AV are starting to look lackluster in their early games. Early in the season we could point to Frae as the weak link for AV in the laning phase, but arguably that has been flipped on it’s head in recent weeks. Will Frae be the one to turn around AV’s fortune before playoffs?

Raes

Some games Raes has looked like the best player in the league. He can have the best positioning and deal the most damage almost no matter the state of the game. But at other times Raes can be prone to some really poor decision making. If he can resist these rushes of blood and rely more on his exceptional team fighting, then Chiefs will be hard to beat.

Rogue

Rogue has been a quiet achiever for Order this split. In a meta where supports mainly aren’t relied upon to do anything flashy for their team, he has been super consistent. Riot are making hefty changes all the time and if Rogue can be unlocked then Order’s bot lane may take over games even more than they already are.

OPL Power Rankings: Split 1, Week Six

Reece Perry — Mon, 26 Feb 2018 05:23:44 +0000

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8
Andrew Wray
Reece Perry
Callum Matthews
Swifty
Bencel

Want more detail as to why our panel put the teams in the order they did? Click below for more thoughts from each pundit.

Andrew Wray

DW / ORD / CHF / LGC / AV / SIN / BMR / TTC

Very difficult to split ORD/CHF after seeing a dominant Chiefs performance with a 50 minute series win.

AV and LGC are getting very difficult to split after AV getting the series win twice over LGC but Legacy taking a game off the Dire Wolves and turning in a very competitive series has piqued my interest for the gauntlet.

Bad luck for Tectonic that someone had to lose the series and as a result find themselves last.

Let Andrew know what you think of his power rankings on Twitter @AWray7

Reece Perry

DW / CHF / ORD / LGC / AV / SIN / BMR / TTC

The gap between ORDER and The Chiefs continues to narrow, but as long as they keep putting up similar results, the nature of those matches continues to not be substantially different enough to justify flipping them. I still give The Chiefs the edge on Strength of Schedule. Legacy and AV flip on the nature of their results. Legacy show stronger results on a consistent basis against like opposition, to a degree that for my money it overpowers the head-to-head. I called BMR over TTC in this column last week, and on the Friday Flash-Forward, and much like when I moved SIN to 6th the week before their victory over Bombers I am again proven right. *smug*

Let Reece know what you think of his power rankings on Twitter @LoLTies

Callum Matthews

DW / ORD / CHF / LGC / AV / SIN / BMR / TTC

Legacy, despite having lost to Avant twice in the split move ahead and take 4th place. Avant appear to be on the decline, after having a strong start to the split defined by the synergy in the top side of the map. Legacy appears to be on the rise, and should only improve with further improvement in their baron play.

The bottom three still appear quite close despite Bombers taking the 2-0 against Tectonic. The lack of proactivity between these teams had favoured Bombers. SIN moved ahead of both of these teams due to a seemingly favoured matchup against both these teams and being able to push early tempo.

Let Callum know what you think of his power rankings on Twitter @CDMLoL

Swifty

DW / ORD / CHF / LGC / AV / SIN / BMR / TTC

ORDER and Chiefs both with clean 4-0’s this week, Dire Wolves faltering a little against Legacy but still come out on top. I’ll be watching next Sunday’s games very closely. The only change for me on the bottom side is Bombers moving up 1 after their victory over Tectonic.

Let Swifty know what you think of his power rankings on Twitter @Swift_y

Bencel

DW / ORD / CHF / LGC / AV / SIN / BMR / TTC

Over the course of the super weeks I think the top 3 have distinguished themselves from AV. Thus putting us more into a 3-tier system; (DW, ORDER and Chiefs in 1-3, Legacy and AV 4-5 and Sin, Bombers & Tectonic 6-8).

Looking at playoffs, Legacy are more likely to have a chance against the teams in the top tier than AV however they need to overcome this weakness they seem to have vs AV. Bombers finally had a result against Tectonic in which their players just overpowered the Tectonic lineup. ORDER have displayed a lot of problems in what be clean 2-0’s but end up being far from it. Meanwhile Dire Wolves are clearly taking every opponent seriously and look the more solid roster. Chiefs are getting better every week and I think the likely match in the gauntlet vs ORDER will be the toughest one to call.

Let Bencel know what you think of his power rankings on Twitter @Bencel92

Bencel’s MVPs of the Week: Week Five

Reece Perry — Thu, 22 Feb 2018 08:46:19 +0000

Player images courtesy of oce.lolesports.com

Dire Wolves

K1ng

Triple

Chiefs

Raes

ORDER

FBI

Avant Gaming

Blinky

Only

Legacy

Claire

...Claire

Sin Gaming

Dream

Tectonic

Shok

Bombers

Tiger

Looch

MVP Leaderboard at the “Halfway” Point

Claire – 4
Destiny – 3
FBI – 3
Looch – 3
Shok – 3
Tiger – 3

What does this tell us?

I think it’s fair to say so far this season it has been a time for mid laners to shine. When they can play champions like Zoe, Azir and Ryze they really have the opportunity to be making a lot of plays and to throw their weight around the map. These champions also have the ability to output a lot of damage in team fights making them all around solid meta picks until they are severely nerfed.

It also tells us that no team in the OPL is being more one man carried than Legacy. Not to tarnish Claire’s achievements so far this split, he has been the best player in the league so far and an inspiration for his team.

Keep in mind half the teams have played 6 rounds and the other half only 5 so the list is not gonna be completely balanced until super week is finished. Also some players didn’t have the opportunity to play for their teams in every match so far.

OPL Power Rankings: Split 1, Week Five

Reece Perry — Mon, 19 Feb 2018 03:24:39 +0000

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8
Andrew Wray
Reece Perry
Callum Matthews
Swifty
Bencel

Want more detail as to why our panel put the teams in the order they did? Click below for more thoughts from each pundit.

Andrew Wray

DW / ORD / CHF / AV / LGC / SIN / TTC / BMR

Let Andrew know what you think of his power rankings on Twitter @AWray7

Reece Perry

DW / CHF / ORD / AV / LGC / SIN / BMR / TTC

Not much reason for change towards the top of the pile. Maybe I want to believe in the Bombers narrative a little too much, maybe not…but when the Bombers string together encouraging plays it looks to me that they’re trying to do things and it ultimately falls short. When I watch Tectonic have some of these strong early games I want to scream at my screen “WHAT ARE THEY (the other team) DOING?!” I want to take a closer look at Tectonic’s matches to see if this is something they’re forcing or a product of being disrespected. For now though what I see from the Bombers is more repeatable and controllable.

Let Reece know what you think of his power rankings on Twitter @LoLTies

Callum Matthews

DW / ORD / CHF / AV / LGC / TTC / SIN / BMR

Power Rankings remain for another week. CHF have cemented themselves as a top 3 team, and until they face tougher competition it is difficult to place them above ORDER. As for the bottom 3, until competition between these teams commences it remains difficult to gauge which order these teams will belong with all teams showing signs of improvement.

Let Callum know what you think of his power rankings on Twitter @CDMLoL

Swifty

DW / ORD / CHF / LGC / AV / SIN / BMR / TTC

After our first Super Week, the rankings may be a little skewed because some teams played more games than others. I’m leaving my top three the same, however in my mind Chiefs and ORDER are on the same level currently. I’m keen to see them match up in week 9. I do believe Legacy at least for the time being look slightly better than AV, even though they’ve lost to them now twice. I’ll be watching Avant closely this weekend as they go up against ORDER, could be a very telling series for both sides.

Let Swifty know what you think of his power rankings on Twitter @Swift_y

Bencel

DW / ORD / CHF / AV / LGC / SIN / TTC / BMR

Let Bencel know what you think of his power rankings on Twitter @Bencel92