Hello everybody and welcome to the Season 12 Recap edition of The Dean’s List! Now I know what a lot of you are wondering; where have you been all split?
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As we look forward towards our locked playoff matches, let’s first take a look back at all eight teams and their journeys. We’ll be going over everybody in reverse standings-order, so buckle down as we briefly examine all of this season’s competitors!
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8. Hyperion Gaming
Featuring several known players, such as mid laner Pandorum and ADC Atilla, Hyperion was one of the expected favorites going into the season. Regardless, the team was ultimately unable to find their footing, ending the season without a single match victory.
Without any inside knowledge, it’s hard to say for sure what happened. Maybe there was a clash of personalities on the team, maybe comms were bad, I dunno. In order to avoid speculation based purely on Gold General, I will refrain from making any personal statements.
Regardless, the roster was never quite able to make things click. Most of the players on this roster have found moderate success in the past, so hopefully they’re able to bounce back and find future success. You’ll only fail to cross the finish line if you leave the race, after all.
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7. Team Skyline
I will be 100% transparent when I say that I was not overly familiar with these players or their games heading into the season. Their roster was a total question mark for me, so I wasn’t sure what to expect at all.
One thing Skyline was very good at was their early game. They always came out swinging and fought hard, which is a great sign for any roster. Sadly for them, they were hardly ever able to find any series wins despite their strengths.
Again, it’s hard to say why this roster didn’t pick up more victories throughout the season without insider knowledge. Hopefully this roster can take some lessons from this split to come back in the future even stronger.
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6. Conduit Monarch
A sort of antithesis to Skyline, Monarch was a team that rarely had good early games, but winning against them was hard as hell. They never gave up, and always tried to find win angles, which netted them enough wins to make it into the postseason.
Featuring veteran players like mid laner Razors4life and top laner Klugscheisser, this roster was another one that was expected to do well. After their week one, all it took apparently was a “do or die” speech from coach Panda (quitbadgeringme?) to help net them their critical victory against Skyline in week 6.
Despite their record (two match wins and one series FF win), Conduit are absolutely not a team that can be underestimated. While their expectations might be relatively low compared to some of the other teams, they absolutely have the grit to take out other teams above them. Just, please god, use the Smite button.
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5. Hyperion Shield
Yet another veteran roster, Hyperion Shield was assembled like a sort of Gold superteam, as silly as that sounds. With players like jungler Swag, mid laner XIL69, and adc Elohim (formerly Minaemi), there was almost no way for this team to miss out on postseason based purely on nameplates. While they did succeed in that goal, the path to get there maybe wasn’t quite what they expected.
Shield was one of a few rosters that had more than its fair share of substitutions, and not all of them worked out. Their subs are absolutely capable, don’t get me wrong, but changing players will always affect the dynamic of a roster, which often makes winning even harder. Still, despite the moves they had to make in some weeks to show up, they stayed in contention for a top seed all the way until week 7.
When they had their intended starters playing, they were undefeated until this last week vs SON. It should absolutely not come as a surprise if this team ends up winning it all. Despite being called “Shield,” they’re aggressive like a spear, which makes them a real threat for any and all challengers.
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4. SON’s of Accel
Speaking of teams with roster difficulties, SON sure had a wild time assembling its starting core. Without a stable roster until quite literally halfway through the season, they ended up coming together when it mattered most to finish the season in 4th.
Initially starting with mid laner Jug, ADC YesParade, and support Lsword, the additions of the formerly retired top laner Puffin and jungler TheDean0 (who is super handsome and epic btw) saw this team go on a string of wins, including against the top seeded Jolly Rogers*.
As someone who is on the team, I won’t go too hard to hype us up, but I will say this; if we end up winning it all, it’s because we made the single best roster move of the split and brought on coach Brommker. That guy is goated, and I thoroughly enjoy working with him.
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3. TD Wildcard
Fielding a really bizarre six man roter, this TD team really does live up to their name by being a true Wildcard.
Yes, I know that joke was terrible. No, I’m not sorry.
Anyways.
Quite literally everybody on this TD roster has a pedigree of success, including one of the most (in)famous IBS/Gold players of all time, jungler Toxin. This translates very well into their gameplay as well, with this team being capable of finding winning teamfights seemingly out of thin air. They’re definitely one of the scariest teams to play against when they have a lead.
Despite finishing the regular season in 3rd, it wouldn’t be insane to call them a straight up favorite for the championship. They arguably field the best-in-role for all five roles, and are very flexible in playing the game through whoever they choose to. Underestimate them at your own peril, lest ye fall victim to the Thousand Daggers.
What do you mean that’s not what TD stands for?!?!
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2. Phantastic Academy Starcross
Phantastic Academy Starcross, who I will always and forever abbreviate to PAS, has been sitting at the top of the standings for almost the entire season, and it’s very clear as to why. They’re a relatively young roster being coached by Prof Malice, and that coaching is visibly coming through to raise their stock.
PAS is overall just a clean team, with no easily exploitable weaknesses shown throughout the regular season. Several of their players, such as jungler GoldenBob and mid laner DP Fifi, have been at the top of their role on the stat sheet for the entire season as well, so there’s clearly something going right for this roster.
Despite Being a top team and being respected as one, PAS have stumbled a little bit in recent weeks, falling to the team on either side of them in the standings to fall to 2nd place. They can still absolutely recover with their off week to make a strong run to the title, and I don’t envy anybody that has to play against a young, hungry roster.
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1. Jolly Rogers Black Pearl
Jolly Rogers have a singular match loss this entire split*, which is part of why they ended the regular season in 1st place. What’s that asterisk, you might be asking? Well, their only loss was when they had to field an e-sub and also FF game 1. So like, yeah, it’s a loss, but can you really seriously hold it against them?
When JR are on, they’re on. I had the pleasure of talking to Astrid on Otter Talk this last week, and he spoke with a lot of controlled confidence in his team, which is very reassuring for this team going into playoffs. They play like they have something to prove to themselves, which is one of the scariest mentalities to have in any league.
To put a pin in their season, Black Pearl absolutely earned their first place finish. The only mark against their resume can hardly even be considered a mark at all, which makes them a pretty clear favorite for the championship. Best of luck guys.
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With the season-long recap done, let’s take a look at the upcoming Quarter-Finals matchups!
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TD Wildcard (3) vs Conduit Monarch (6)
If Conduit wants to make a miracle run, they start with quite possibly the hardest draw of the available teams. Wildcard is a team that I don’t see giving up easy openings to come back against, which does negate a lot of Monarch’s potential upswings. How then can they make an upset happen?
Simply put, they need to bleed out less in the early game. TD is one of the better pre-14 minute teams in the BOL Gold, which happens to be where Monarch struggles the most. When your primary win-con is to capitalize on your opponent’s mistakes to find a big gold swing, you need to be in as good of a position as possible early on to make it happen.
This really does feel like TD’s series to lose. I don’t think Monarch are completely out of it, so a game win at least is reasonable, but TD holds too many advantages to underestimate. Expect a fun series with some
s c r a p s.
Prediction: TD 3-1
Matchup to Watch: Varinda vs Razors4life
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SON’s of Accel (4) vs Hyperion Shield (5)
We runnin’ it back, I guess. SON and Hyperion meet again for a Bo5 repeat of their week 7 match, and expectations could not be tighter for me.
I won’t go too in-depth to avoid bias, but SON will (hopefully) be fielding their full starting roster, and Shield should definitely have learned some lessons in both draft and even macro between now and then. The only remaining question is which version of both teams do we see on the day?
A five game series is the expectation, not the hope here. In a match of relatively equal experience across the board, it’s ultimately SON’s macro vs Shield’s hands.
I could go more in depth, but like I said, I want to avoid coming across like a biased content man. I’m nothing if not impartial, so naturally I’m predicting a SON win.
Prediction: SON 3-2
Matchup to Watch: Jug vs XIL69
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That does it for this week’s edition of The Dean’s List! I’ll be back next time with a recap of our Quarter-Final matches as well as a preview of the upcoming Semi-Finals, so stay tuned for that! Until then, good luck, have fun, and we’ll see you on the rift!
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