BOL Gold’s Dean’s List

Hello everybody and welcome to the first edition of BOL Gold’s Dean’s List! It’s been quite some time since I’ve made one of these, but it’s a whole new season with a slew of new teams and players. Let’s not waste any time and jump straight into things!

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Jolly Rogers Ghost Crew vs Hyperion White Rabbit

Result: JRGC 2-0

Jolly Rogers are the reigning champions with 3/5 of that roster returning in this incarnation. It seems they have not lost their winning ways as they pressed through Hyperion like a freight train, boasting the shortest win time of the week by a full 6 minutes (23:04 is insane).

Game 1 was a steady and consistent game for Ghost Crew. Despite NasGhost dying three times before 10 minutes, they never lost a gold lead when they picked one up. Both of the first two dragons and the full six void grubs led to a 4k lead by 13 minutes which only got worse from there. Most of Hyperion’s kills did end up on Mewlife’s Pantheon, but it was unfortunately not enough as they lost a 5-0 teamfight at 22 minutes which resulted in a nexus kill for the reigning champs.

Game 2 was a similar story by the gold graph, but the review tells a different story. White Rabbit actually managed to pick up 4 grubs this game, which they did trade first dragon for, before Jolly Rogers won a big skirmish at second round grubs to take control of the game once again. The Hyperion squad did try to continue to fight, even picking up several kills for Ghost VII and Viyella, but it didn’t end up being enough. A 12k gold lead just before 29 minutes was enough for the pirates to pick up their first series win of the season with a clean 2-0.

There are actually two major takeaways from this series: JR is still the top dog in BOL Gold and Hyperion may just have some nice pieces again. This series took 51:55 in full game time, which alone is a massive statement for this new team. They’re definitely the team to beat going forward, which shouldn’t come as a surprise to anybody who’s been keeping up with the scene recently.

Hyperion’s mid and jungle had a quietly solid series as individuals, though it is a bit of an unlucky draw for them to have to showcase that against the top team in week 1. If they can continue to build around these two as well as continue to raise the levels of the side lanes around them, then HYP can fight to be a real threat come playoffs.

Player of the Series: Dolo XD - A bit of a tossup between him and Cracen, but the highest KP in g1 (18/25), two deaths total on Nautilus and Poppy, and the flexibility to have this series on two different styles of champ (engage vs counter engage) gives the slight tip to the JR support.

Ace of the Series: Shiny Mewlife - Another tossup (Viyella gets a mention), but the jungler bias is strong. Individually a solid g1 doing the most damage on his team before falling down a tad in g2, but he had a very different role in either game so I give it a pass.

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CB Phreaks vs CB Impulse

Result: CBP 2-0

The first of two civil wars in week 1, the Phreaks vs Impulse was a very surprising series on paper that has plenty of asterisks when you go past the surface. CBI didn’t have their multi-time champion ADC Accel on their roster, which threw off team cohesion in a big way. Still, you can’t control the weather, and sometimes you have to play the hand you’re dealt.

Game 1 saw a nice little trade of early objectives before BillyWillard and Puffin decided to tower dive a Trundle. This gave the auto fill top laner a 2 for 1 solo double kill that proves that I’m a piece of shit. The game would remain primarily objective centered for the next several minutes until it exploded with a massive skirmish win at 15 minutes. The game would continue to be scrappy with both teams within punching distance until a series of kills led to a Phreaks win in 29:12.

Game 2 was much more volatile, with Typhoon completely taking over the early game until Impulse’s mid Riku scored both a double kill and first tower around the 15 minute mark. The game remained scrappy until the mid jungle duo of CBP was able to come online and tag team the map with dual Nocturne/Galio globals. Despite the best efforts of Puffin’s Aatrox and Riku’s Azir, the individual power of Sairou’s Sivir and Typhoon’s Nocturne proved to be just too strong to overcome. A 5-0 teamfight at 34 minutes led to Impulse getting the win and walking away with a huge 2-0 win. Dean0 was also there.

It sucks that this is the last time we get to see these two teams play until maybe playoffs because this matchup is almost guaranteed to look different with both intended starting rosters. No Accel for Impulse and no Solomon for Phreaks does change how this matchup looks, though massive props must be given to both subs for coming in and playing. Toastfish in particular had a fantastic series for a newcomer on a team with 0 scrim time. Speaking of…

Player of the Series: Toastfish - An incredibly slippery Aurora game where he remained a massive side lane threat and an incredible Galio performance in a very difficult Galio game gives him the nod. Any of the other four could have gotten the nod here as well, but the sub coming in with approximately 4 hours warning and performing deserves props.

Ace of the Series: Riku - Incredibly high damage in both games , only 5 deaths in each game (5/26 g1, 5/37 g2), and some big individual plays tips the scale to Impulse’s mid.

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OSG Tactical Freeze vs Nefarious Demons

Result: OSG 2-0

This series was expected to be a battle at the middle of the table, but it ended up feeling way stompier than I think most analysts (me in particular) expected.

Without sugarcoating anything, game 1 was a bot gap. TrainerGain and Novokaine went a combined 13/7/38 vs Narwhal and BDuhMana’s combined 1/17/9. The rest of the map wasn’t exactly winning for the Demons, but the damage chart simply does not lie (Trainer 29.7k vs Narwhal 13.9k). The game most likely would have been over around 28 minutes had it not been for a massive teamfight to keep ND in the game, but it would all come crumbling down 7 minutes later to give OSG the g1 win.

The story is a bit different for game 2. Trashy made some early plays on the Vi to try and alleviate some pressure bot, and Hoodie even managed to score a kill in top, but disaster struck at the 12 minute mark when OSG won the 3v3 in bot and M8TRICKS won the 1v1 in mid. Nefarious would look more competitive in the mid game, with Trashy securing all of round 2 grubs, but the plays would unfortunately keep rolling for OSG. A 5-1 teamfight at 20 minutes resulted in a 6k gold lead that saw the Demons playing from behind for the rest of the game. The end would come at 30 minutes with one last teamfight and one last nexus for Tactical Freeze.

OSG looked more solid on paper than I think a lot of people were expecting. M8TRICKS looked absolutely insane on their Aurora, and TrainerGain had a downright blistering series. These two look like top tier carry threats, and it’ll be interesting to see what they have planned for next week’s fearless drafts.

Despite the memes, I do think there is a way for NEF to bounce back. First: stop inting. Both games were winnable if there wasn’t one major source of int coming from one of their lanes. If you respect your opponents, but can still play unafraid of them, then you can win. Second is to pick a playstyle. Both comps felt like they were trying to be protect comps, but playing both without a single winning lane makes the early game almost insurmountable. Blame your coach and tell him to download Procomps.

Player of the Series: Materium22 - Jungler bias. But nah, Materium had a great series on two very different styles of champion. Only dying once on Jarvan is a great way to set up your big carries for success, and only dying twice on Shyv while tanking 36k damage is simply insane. M8TRICKS and TrainerGain also played incredibly, but screw it, this is my list, and I’m gonna do what I want.

Ace of the Series: Trashy - Jungler bias LMAO. Honestly, Trashy did try to make things work, and was even able to secure more than a fair share of objectives. With a better draft in either game, I could see the leads and picks he was making working out, but I simply think it was too much of a coach diff to matter (love you Minae).

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Fool’s Five Squires vs Fool’s Five Mercenaries

Result: FFS 2-0

The second and final civil war of week 1, the Fools Five Furious Flavorful Fight was an… interesting series, to say the least.

Game 1 was actually pretty controlled for the Squires. A sub-29 minute victory with an 18 kill Viego will always look nice on paper, but what I’m most impressed by is the pure draft plan from this game. They opted into a B1 Viego and followed it with Sera/Ornn on 2-3, which already shows their hand. The Mercenaries responded well enough with Ez/Amumu on R1-2 and Gwen on R3. After seeing two more mid bans and Pantheon R4, they still decided to go Sona/Corki on B4-5, which actually does manage to maintain the flex of Sera mid/bot. When Syndra comes in R5, they opt into Corki/Syn and Sera/Sona in the bottom lane. This comp is built to play entirely around the Viego with a Corki insurance policy, and qwerthe5 absolutely delivered that. No breakdown needed, g1 was a 32-4 stomp.

Game 2 was absolutely not that at all. The gold graph for this game is incredibly even, with a 2k gold lead remaining a pipe dream until the 28 minute mark. This is mostly from both teams playing a really even game, complete with objective trading, skirmishing, and a pair of top laners that were definitely helping. A Baron play finally gave FFS a significant gold lead at the 32 minute mark, but even that wouldn’t be enough. Wolven Alchemist would get a few stray picks that enabled his team to get a 37 minute Atakhan, but it ultimately wouldn’t be enough. At 41 minutes, the Squires marched on the Mercenaries’ base and took down three towers, three bodies, and a nexus to secure a 2-0 victory.

What a series. I have to applaud any team that can keep it cool after a stomp like this game 1, but to come back absolutely swinging in game 2 is a statement and a half. The team simply refused to back down until their knees gave out, and I can’t help but applaud the effort.

Still, FFS more than earned this win. A dominant g1 win and a scrappy g2 win are honestly both impressive this early on in a season. I’m curious to see if this team can keep this form against one of the current top dogs, because they look like an incredibly fun team to be a part of. Any team that is willing to draft Sera/Sona is good in my book, iykyk.

Player of the Series: Qwerthe5 - jungle bias I mean. Yeah. 18/0/6 Viego in a not-particularly-easy Viego game and a great Vi showing in a sub-42 minute banger. Two very different champions in two very different game states and they looked great in both. Obvious pick is obvious.

Ace of the Series: CurryMunch3r - Highest damage on their team in g2 (51k) and the highest KDA on the team (0.6 in g1 lmao and 8.0 in g2) in what I believe to be skill matchups shows a level of reliability much needed for any team. Any of the other 4 could have easily gotten a shoutout.

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Glacial Void vs LE Prime

Result: GV 2-0

Okay, let’s get this out of the way here. The team formerly known as TD Harmony will now be referred to as LE Prime, as that is the team that has taken over their spot. I will not go over any of the drama here, I will simply state the facts as I see them. I’ll keep rundowns here short since the team has changed so much in the last week, but I still want to give Glacial their flowers. So, let’s be adults here and carry on with class.

Anyways, this is the series that killed TD.

Game 1 followed in a very similar pattern to a lot of games we’ve seen so far this week in that it was a slow and steady lead that mounted over the course of the full game. Toxin was able to secure round 2 grubs, but every skirmish would end up going the way of the Glacial team, resulting in a sub 34 minute victory.

Game 2 was much closer, with Harmony actually managing to swing the gold lead back for a bit later on, but a huge Baron play and Bear’s Yone were able to spike the lead all the way up to 3.5k at 31 minutes. There would be a few more fights as the game went on before it all came down to 1Hand’s Twitch vs Tremington’s Sion and Jel’s Volibear. It proved to be too much for the rat with a crossbow, as the power of a reborn zombie berserker and a literal demigod thunder bear would push to take the nexus, giving GV the final 2-0 of the week.

Glacial Void just looked solid as hell here, I dunno what else you want from me. Their players played more or less the exact roles that were expected of them, and they put down a team that was expected to be strong. They put themselves up in the thick of the conversation for the title, which they more than earned.

LE Prime goes into week 2 with a completely overhauled roster. The only remaining role is RedPanda at support, and the other four roles are seeing reshuffling, cutting, and new additions. PizzaPastaMafia enters top lane, Complex moves into the jungle, 1Hand finds a home in the mid lane, and deeTdub shoots his shot in the bot lane (please laugh). It’s hard to know how a roster that came together in such weird circumstances will perform, but I for one am happy that we have an org and players that are willing to play in the first place. Best of luck to LE Prime moving forward. Hopefully you don’t need too much of it.

Player of the Series: Tremington - Sylas and Sion aren’t exactly similar picks now, are they? Locking in two completely different champions and piloting both to success is no small feat. Quick nod to Xiaobao for that g1 performance and Jel for being equally as consistent, but Trem just barely gets the vote.

Ace of the Series: Complex - 14/13/3 series scoreline on K’sante and Jax, feelsbadman. He looks to be the reliable top laner we expected, but maybe with slightly more pop off potential with that g2 Jax. Here’s hoping he’ll be able to carry that into the jungle with his new roster.

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With that done and dusted, let’s quickly break down next week’s matchups!

• JRGC (1-0) vs FFS (1-0)

  • Reigning champs vs up and comers!

  • Can TDD contain qwerthe?

  • Which mid laner will offer more to their team’s success?

  • Prediction: JRGC 2-0

• GV (1-0) vs FFM (0-1)

  • FFM looking for a bounce back!

  • GV looking to prove it wasn’t a week 1 wonder!

  • Can CurryMunch3r handle the flexibility of Bear and Tremington?

  • Can Xiaobao beat another established ADC in Wolven?

  • Prediction: GV 2-1

• CBP (1-0) vs OSG (1-0)

  • Two teams looking to throw their hat in the ring for first!

  • Battle of the bot lanes! Who’s better, Trainer or Sairou?

  • How will Solomon look in his BOL debut?

  • Prediction: CBP 2-1

• ND (0-1) vs LEP (0-1)

  • Two teams looking to re-establish after a disastrous week 1!

  • Can ND find a formula for success?

  • How will LEP’s brand new roster look together?

  • Prediction: LEP 2-1

• CBI (0-1) vs HYP (0-1)

  • Both teams looking to regain momentum!

  • How will Accel look in his BOL Gold return?

  • Will HYP’s role swaps prove successful?

  • Prediction: CBI 2-0

And while we’re here, let’s have a quick ranking of all 10 teams!

1. JRGC

2. CBP

3. OSG

4. CBI

5. GV

6. FFS

7. HYP

8. LEP

9. FFM

10. ND

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That will do it for this week’s edition of The Dean’s List! I’ll be back next week to cover all of the matches and news ahead of week 3’s games. Until then, good luck, have fun, and I’ll see you on the rift!