World Rankings
LPL, EULCS, NALCS, LCK, GPL/VCS, CBLOL, LMS, Other, Challenger.
1. SK Telecom T1 +1 2. Edward Gaming -1
3. GE Tigers +0
4. Invictus Gaming +0
5. CJ Entus +1
6. LGD +2
7. Vici Gaming -2
8. Team Solomid -1
9. Snake +0
10. OMG +0
11. KT Rolster +0
12. Fnatic +0
13. World Elite +0
14. Cloud 9 +0
15. Jin Air Green Wings +0
16. Unicorns of Love +0
17. H2k-Gaming +0
18. SK Gaming +0
19. AHQ e-Sports +0
20. yoe Flash Wolves +0
21. Team Liquid +0
22. Team Impulse +0
23. Qiao Gu +0
24. Team King +0
25. Masters 3 +0
Honorable Mention: Gamtee, Gambit Gaming, Origen, Counter Logic Gaming, Gravity Gaming, Najin e-mFire, Taipei Assassins, INTZ e-Sports, Besiktas e-Sports Club, Hard Random.
For once, we see a lack of change in the middle of the pack (due to Western regions' splits being finished) and some big shifts at the top. These changes are based on the aftermath of three matches: The LCK semifinal and the LPL 3rd place and final matches.
In Korea, CJ Entus dominated SK Telecom in their first two games. SKT then pulled the comeback of the century including a 70-minute game 4 and a blind-pick Faker Leblanc in game 5. Neither team looked lost: both had clear strategies (except that Ryze from CoCo) that off dead-locked with each other.
In China, Invictus Gaming looked strong in all their games against Snake, except in a loss where they were simply out-fought in rather brute fights. EDG looked vulnerable even with their full roster against LGD, and they needed a clutch Deft pentakill to win them the series in game 5.
In lower-leveled news, previous hopes of challenger and wild-card teams have proven to be too high after NA and EU promotions and the IWCI. These teams seem mechanically skilled, and okay at team-fighting, but entirely terrible at shot-calling. After much hype, I had hopes for teams like Fusion, INTZ, Chiefs, and Detonation FocusMe. Even the IWCI winners Besiktas were a disappointment, aside from their tremendous celebrating skills.
I believe that weaknesses are more discernible in season five. All teams have their visible problems, and no team (unlike in previous splits) seems invulnerable. There is no C9 of NA, no SKT/Samsung White of Korea, and no TPA/TPS of Southeast Asia. If there were any teams that seemed unstoppable during the first half of this split, they'd be Edward Gaming, the GE Tigers, and the yoe Flash Wolves in Taiwan. Now these teams have suffered major losses and the holes have shown. All we have now are these semi-dominant teams like EDG, SKT, GE, CJ, and TSM. And this lack of dominance is making games less predicable and more fun to watch.
Close matched EU teams showed pretty chaotic play in their final, in what Montecristo called a "shitshow." I don't disagree that the play was less than strategic, but I don't think this takes away from their international potential, or makes them bad teams in any respect. Season five's meta's way of bringing problems to light is making top teams look pretty bad. And the skill difference between strategic play (most of Korea and top teams from other major regions) versus reckless aggression (most of China and teams like INTZ) is hard to judge. I don't really have much of a point to this, I guess, just that it's hard to do rankings without international play. If only there was a tournament coming soon... :^)
Games to watch this week (times in EST):
Misfits vs. Storm on 4/28 at 11 PM.
Misfits vs. C9T on 4/29 at 11 PM.
Misfits vs. Crew on 5/1 at 7 PM.
#1. SKT vs. #3. GE on 5/2 at 4 AM.
