BOL Gold Week 2 Toxin's Toxic Report

Hey everyone, it’s Toxin! Well, last week almost completely went the opposite of how I thought it would go! I definitely overlooked some important things and maybe overvalued results from other tournaments. There will be a bit of a market correction in these rankings, don’t you worry. Let me know what you guys think about this format by either DMing me or sending a message in general chat to seoultoxin. Thanks!

Team Rankings

10) TD Harmony (-7)

As is tradition, I am particularly hard on my own org’s teams whenever they struggle. If I put them first, it feels extremely biased from an outside perspective. Hence, if they do struggle I make sure to put them further down than maybe they deserve just to make sure they can earn a higher rating in the future. That being said, last week was a bit of a mess. Not having a full scrim block of practice heading into a tournament is not the recipe for success, and we got thoroughly demolished as a result. I also lost my first comp game on Amumu in eight months I believe. Yeah, it’s that bad. Hopefully after a week to regroup and get some synergy we can regroup and climb the rankings.

Player to Watch: 1Hand

9) Fool’s Five Mercenaries (=)

Still in ninth this week is Fool’s Five Mercenaries. I think a lot of what I said above about TD Harmony can be said here for FFM; I know they didn’t get much time to get accustomed to their new bot lane of Crokpot and WolvenAlchemist before last week’s match. I’m sure that the lack of cohesion was a large reason as to why the first game was so one-sided. That being said, these two are extremely good assets to have on a team and if synergy starts forming the sky's the limit. 

Player to Watch: Crokpot

8) Nefarious Demons (-1)

Next up in our list of 0-2 teams is Nefarious Demons. I don’t think they necessarily had a bad week per say, I just think they ran into an OSG roster that is infinitely better than the listed starting roster I was going off of. More on that when we get to the OSG ranking, but for ND I think the issue is making sure everyone is stable. In game one, it looks like bot lane got heavily targeted and exploited, while in game two the victim ended up moving to mid lane. I think if you guys iron out the early game kinks, you guys will be good to go moving forward.

Player to Watch: HoodiemanX

7) Fool’s Five Squires (+1)

Moving up one spot from my preseason rankings is the Squires. Game one was an absolutely incredible way to start out your season, with an 18-0 Viego performance as the cherry on top. Game two was definitely a lot closer, but still came out on top in a 41 minute banger. I think winning the first week is definitely a step in the right direction for this team and I can see you guys climbing up the rankings soon. I just need to see a bit more against teams I have a better handle on. Player to watch: qwerthe5

6) Hyperion White Rabbit (-2)

Realistically, I could probably swap Hyperion and FFS in the rankings and have that make a lot of sense at this time. All of the signs of a Hyperion collapse are present: extremely difficult week one opponent, two 20 minute beatdowns in a row, and then role swapping after one week of play. All of the above are not exactly screaming for success. That being said, I do have some faith that this team can turn it around. I think it’s really easy to write off last week due to the fact that they played against last split’s champions. Give them some time to refresh and they should have a fresh start next week.

Player to watch: Shiny Mewlife

5) Glacial Void (+5)

I think lost in the whole “this team is named Glacial” which fed into my rankings last week was the fact that this team has Queen Frost aka Xiaobao on it and I’m personally winless against him. If you see this team as a Xiaobao-led team with a bunch of spunky rookies, then yeah this team definitely has what it takes to win the championship. I won’t quite put them up that high yet, but I think a +5 to their ranking is a good step in the right direction. 

Player to watch: Xiaobao

4) OSG Tactical Freeze (+2)

Moving up to fourth in the ranking this week is OSG Tactical Freeze. I think what was lost initially on me was the fact that the listed starting roster was more “Tactical Freeze” whereas the actual roster that played was more “OSG”. M8TRICKS and OSG Novakaine stepping in to play is a far cry better than the initial roster (with no disrespect to BillyButthole or thisdudeiknow) and it’s easy to see why they won last week. I think if this continues to be the roster moving forward, there’s an argument to move this team as high as 2nd. Yeah. I have that much faith in this roster. But for now we will wait to see if this version of the roster was just a one time thing.

Player to watch: TrainerGain

3) CB Impulse (-2)

Well call me a fraud, because my pick for the number undisputed best team in the league lost week one. Jokes aside, I don’t think this loss really knocks CB Impulse down too far in my mind. They were without their leader Traumerei (or Accel, whichever you prefer) for both of these games, and while TheYesParade is similarly cracked at the game, I don’t know if he has the same level of comms. Regardless, I think you just shake off this week and look to get things going next week.

Player to watch: BillyWillard

2) CB Phreaks (+3)

On the other side of the CB civil war is CB Phreaks, which completely blew me away with their win over Impulse. Last week I talked about how skeptical I was of TheDean0 playing top and CB Typhoon playing jungle, as both were known to be playing other roles. Well, to be blunt I was completely wrong to doubt them. If CB Typhoon is able to make BillyWillard go 1-10, I think they are the new front runner for jungle MVP at this time, straight up.

Player to watch: CB Typhoon

1. Jolly Rogers Ghost Crew (+1)

Speaking of saying sorry for ever doubting you, I believe the same needs to be said for Jolly Rogers Ghost Crew. I expected a slight bit of regression from their last split’s roster, but it seems that they have not missed a beat in their time off. These games were utterly dominant, and they were even the first series done in the night. I also think it’s kinda crazy that they were able to pull off the Amumu + Lux combination two games in a row. 

Player to Watch: Dolo XD

Week 2 Predictions:

Jolly Rogers Ghost Crew 2-0 Fool’s Five Squires

I think this one is a big test for the Squires. With current information, I think the Ghost Crew ultimately will come out and have similar results to last week. That being said, any sort of success from FFS, including taking a game or even the series, will catapult them into the top of the rankings.

Key matchup: Bot Lane

Glacial Void 2-0 Fool’s Five Mercenaries

I think that on paper, Glacial beat a better team last week 2-0, and both teams (Harmony and Mercenaries) are likely facing the same issues right now. If Glacial is going to make a run for the championship, they need to capitalize on the teams that are still coming out of the gate slow. 

CB Phreaks 2-0 OSG Tactical Freeze

For whatever reason, I feel like this match is going to be the turning point for OSG Tactical Freeze one way or another. I think one of two things could happen: the first is that they start their listed starting roster, get smoked, and then have a tough decision on what they wanna run moving forward. The other is that they start their Week 1 roster and either they choose to run that moving forward if they win, or they lose and it gives a mental boost to the team bringing in the listed starters. Either way this is my most interesting series of the week. 

Nefarious Demons 1-2 TD Harmony

Honestly I’m biased here because I’m on TD Harmony. I’m still in the copium stage where I think our loss last week is something we can write off to lack of practice and that moving forward we should be able to write the ship. I do think Nefarious Demons will take at least one game in this matchup though.

CB Impulse 2-0 Hyperion White Rabbit

I think it’s hard to put a vote of confidence towards Hyperion this week. They just played the team I currently have in first place in the rankings, and now they have to play the team I originally had in first place. A win this week would be insane for their confidence moving forward, but even just keeping a good mentality into the rest of the season will be a huge win.