What an eventful week 1 for BOL Diamond. There were multiple outcomes which I fully expected and there were few that completely shocked me. Even though some teams might look extremely strong on paper, they may not be the best in a competitive 5s setting. This holds true in every elo which is why you don’t see every challenger player being picked up by pro teams or their affiliates. After the first week, I’m still throwing darts in the dark but hopefully my power rankings get better as we get closer to playoffs.
1. CB Diamond
At the beginning of the season, CB Diamond was #2 on my power rankings. Their roster contains multiple stud players who are going to be big threats against any teams they face in the upcoming weeks. They are moving to number 1 in the power rankings after they were able to successfully win 2 games to 0 against Acclivity Esports. However, these games were extremely close and CB could’ve easily lost both games. In game 1, they put themselves into a position where the game lasted for 40 minutes against a Jinx and a Corki. In game 2, CB ended with a 200 gold lead in another close game. CB was successfully able to win the objective war in both games which allowed them to control the overall state of the match. However, CB Diamond might be too confident this early in the season and could be taken down a notch if they lose to MSU BLÅHAJ this week.
2. Lotus
Coming at #2 is Lotus. I had them at #1 in my preseason power rankings, which was never posted or announced so I could completely be making this up. When I first laid my eyes upon this team, I saw a team that had the potential to not lose a single game during the regular season. Their roster is filled with solid players who are getting better with time just like a fine wine, except that wine is in a hyperbolic time chamber. I did not expect Lotus to lose a game in week 1 but I was proved otherwise. I will chalk it up to Lotus being overconfident in game 1 because they were able to even the series up quickly in game 2. Even though game 3 took a little longer, Lotus controlled the entire map from the beginning of the game and made sure that their season didn’t start off like TSM.
3. Goth Boi Clique
I currently do not know what to think about GBC at this point but that’s mostly because of the question marks surrounding ISU G&E Academy. For GBC, it was a great thing that they were able to win 2-0 while completely dominating game 1. The problem is that ISU currently has roster issues surrounding their team and they were already low on my preseason power rankings. I believe this is probably the most volatile spot in this ranking because GBC will be facing wls:scaling edition today. As much as I love soulbert, I have them ranked at #7. If GBC wants to stay at #3, they will have to win convincingly against WLS or they will be easily jumped by VBU, AE, and possibly MSU.
4. VBU Infusion
11-0 Twitch RIP. VBU Infusion has a lot of potential and can be neck and neck against the best teams in the league. Unfortunately for them, 1 bad fight led to their demise in game 1. They were able to bounce back and win the next 2 games. It is apparent that this team loves to play the solo lane enchanters and try to inject their ADC, Tiny Asian Boy, with steroids throughout the game. I fully expect teams to consider a Soraka ban against VBU since they have already proved they can flex it in both solo lanes. However, looking at their champ pools, I think they have a ton of team comps with different win conditions so they don’t have to play through mid or bot lane every game.
5. Acclivity Esports
This is probably the best #5 team ever. There hasn’t been enough data to properly rank these bottom 4 teams…..or any team for that matter. However, looking at the quality of the games, Acclivity was able to give CB Diamond a tough time and almost took 1 or even 2 games off of them. Over the past few days, they have also bolstered their roster by adding 2 solid subs. While there are many question marks surrounding this team, they have already stated that they will not lose another series for the rest of the season. I would bet money that they will lose at least 1 more series but I love the confidence.
6. MSU BLÅHAJ
If you don’t know what a blahaj is, please click this: https://www.ikea.com/us/en/p/blahaj-soft-toy-shark-90373590/. This team pleasantly surprised me in Week 1 by taking a game off of Lotus. I would normally value this extremely high for power rankings but I don’t know what kind of roster they will put out each week. They currently have a full 10 player roster and actually used one of the subs in week 1. This is probably one of those instances where I am ranking the team way too low and they are much better than #6. As of right now, I cannot properly rank them in the top 4 but they can be interchangeable with 5. Hopefully, they will fixate their place in the rankings over the next few weeks.
7. wls: scaling edition
This is one of the 5 million iterations of We Love Soulbert that we have seen participate in leagues over the past couple seasons. Unfortunately, I think they came in as one of the lowest average ranked teams in the league. They have a big hill to climb if they want to make a splash in the playoffs. They have taken a solid step in week 1 by at least taking a game off VBU Infusion and they have an opportunity this week to make a statement against Goth Boi Clique. I think one of the main problems this team has is that they are playing reactively instead of proactively in the early game. This is leading to large objective deficits and map control issues. If they are able grab a quick lead in the early game with a few turrets, I believe they have the discipline to close out the game without many problems.
8. ISU G&E Diamond
ISU has been facing a few roster issues since the beginning of the season. This is partly because their support went on a 2 week vacation and now I am getting word that they are bringing in another support for this week. This week, they will be playing against Acclivity which will be a solid test for them. While ISU won’t have their “full” roster for this week, they still have multiple weeks to get their stuff together. I heard from the grapevine of who the potential replacement support is from this week but they haven’t announced it yet. If it is who I think it is, It would be a massive upgrade from last week. I hope they prove all of the haters wrong.
Caster Power Rankings & Predictions
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