Hey all CTRL ULT ELITE back at it once again. This week marks the end of the regular season and we are now getting into playoffs. We have gone from 21 teams in platinum down to the top 12. Congratulations to every team that made it wish I was able to join you! Games this week are for seeding. So every team will play 3 games on Tuesday against 3 other teams. These teams will be the teams with the same standing in you in other groups. For example if you are 1st seed you get to play the other 1st seeds from each division as well as a 2nd seed team. The 3rd seeds will play all of the 3rd seed teams and a random 4th seed team. The top 4 teams are given a bye week automatically advancing to the quarter finals. Here is a fancy infographic done by Poptart! I also reached out to interview every playoff team and was able to interview most of them. The time it would take me to implement quotes by making youtube videos and cutting sound bites is a little much for this week. I am going to look into trying to use them next week.
This week I made a poll and the overwhelming winner was to do Power rankings again instead of breaking down like I have been doing. I am going to be sorting teams into one of 4 tiers similar to my last power rankings. S Tier teams are the teams that I fully expect to be in the grand finals and to win BOL. S tier teams are generally going to be the 1st seeds from their division and have players in the top 25. S tier teams will have either a key carry or a draft plan that has been demonstrated this season. A Tier teams will be the teams that I expect to challenge the S tier teams. They will have a really strong individual player or a core team identity but may lack the depth or had key players swap out. The teams in B tier I think have a shot at winning a series but I doubt they can make a deep playoff run. I'm expecting them to make it to the top 8. Teams in C tier I think are not going to win a playoff series; they are primarily going to be teams found as the 4th seed in their division.
Crustacean Nation
Top: Elsa From Frozen
Jung: TehSplash
Mid: Watercat AD: Teegarden
Support: DragonMoonCake
Average ELO: Plat 2 Roster Changes: A new mid laner in Watercat
So it should come to no surprise to anyone that I have Crustacean Nation sitting at the top of S tier. I am really hyped on this team and am excited to see them on stream Tuesday. CN had a fantastic season, the best season out of everyone in BOL Plat with only the 1 game loss. CN still has the stats to back them up as the best team in the league. CN lead the league in kills and assists as well as the lowest deaths a game giving them the highest team KDA score out of every team in BOL. They take the most towers, are the only team taking over 1 inhibitor a game and have the most CS a game out of every playoff team and take baron more than any other team just to round things out. Most captains feel that Shurmia was the weakest division. It will be curious to see if this team has some inflated stats but every division had teams that were not as strong as the rest of their counterparts.
As far as individual players Teegadrin the ADC of this team feels that they do not have a specific X factor; everyone on this team plays well together and can take turns carrying. As far as individual stats go (LædyLight) has the number 1 stats in the league having a KDA of almost 15 in their 4 games with 65% KP but they were brought late into the season as Skifter ranked out. I mean Elsa From Frozen is the only top laner in our entire league in the top 25 as a top laner. But I can talk tons about every player on this team no one on this team is out of the top 30 individuals when it comes to stats.
CB Rush
Top: Pipp
Jung: Hunterwolfsteel5
Mid: CBR Rutledge AD: gl4cial
Support: CBR loveme
Average ELO: Plat 1
Roster Changes: New Support in CBR loveme
So CB Rush are the undisputed best team heading out of Targon to no one's surprise. CB Rush has won quite a few seasons of BOL plat and are a team looking to add yet another title as they cruised through this season dropping only 2 games. As a team CB Rush have some very impressive stats they take the most dragons out of every team in the league at 3.3 a game. They have the 2nd highest team KDA(more or less tied with EM) are 2nd in towers taken a game with 7.8, take 1.3 inhibitors a game(tied for second most). This team has also a very fast winning time taking wins on average by 28:45. This team only dropped 2 games this season as well one to Hypnotic(big surprise this team fell apart they were a lot better than their record suggested) and a game to Iceborn Chaos where they drafted poorly and had no answer when Jinx was able to pick up some early kills. Other than that CB Rush has won their games in convincing fashion playing lots of different champions not being afraid to experiment.
The strength of CB Rush is not just in their laning they are incredible at macro timing. But like this team has 4 of their players in the top 20 and 2 are even top 10 no one is a slouch. Pipp is all the way down at like number 70 but this still puts him as the 5th best starting top laner. As Pipp put it “my teams too good I don’t even get a chance to join them some weeks before the games over”. Pipp and Teggardin both have firmly felt that the only team to possibly contend with them is the other. Both think that EM and TGA will not be able to go the distance in a series.
Elementals Maelstrom
Top: TheRealOogway
Jung: PeIIi
Mid: Nèzumi AD: defly
Support: DMForScholarship
Average ELO: Plat 2
Roster Changes: New jungle in PeIIi
Listen I realize that Elementals Maelstrom have some absolutely insane stats but I have them in A tier for a reason. I truthfully think that CN and CB Rush are a step above this team and every team I interviewed listed those 2 teams as the only teams that they would not want to play in quarter finals. This team has not really been challenged whatsoever other than week 2 when they lost to Titan Gaming Atlas. This team was even denied a chance to play vs a full power Mystic Cat as they played Mystic Cats week 1 who were brought in as a subustion and only had 2 of their starting 5 in the lineup. Mystic Cats even had someone in their offrole. Granted when EM lost to TGA it was the week that they swapped junglers and EM won a game in that series, but those 2 games EM lost were not close. Other than that series EM has 2-0 every team they played quickly. To build on my point the average game time for this team was 26:36 and that is the fastest out of every team. That's fantastic your games have all been stomps! But that's the problem. I know the 3 teams on top of this division are good. The rest of your division frankly was not in my opinion. Ta Wild side I think was one of the worst teams in the league. Literal monkeys were not competitive either; they have the worst objective team stats in the league. TA tropics had tons of roster issues having 9 different people play on this team and multiple players swapping positions. I think seeding is going to be very illuminating this week and I’m very excited to see the results. It's quite possible that I am dead wrong and EM are a team that is going to dominate the playoffs but I’m not convinced.
Nèzumi is head and shoulders above the rest of this team they are a certified banger of a player. Pelli in his interview told me that Nèzumi is the team's X factor. He has the potential to solo carry a game for them being the 4th highest rated player in the league. All of this team is highly rated other than TheRealOogway and I am not sure why they are rated so low(I think the stats hate top laners or something they are generally the lowest rated player on most teams).
Sensei Squad Susanoo
Top: Orphic
Jung: SQD Vaulter88
Mid: lavalizard8u AD: Water Bear
Support: SQD Zippy
Average ELO: Plat 3
Roster Changes: New ADC in WaterBear
Sensei Squad Susanoo is another team that I expect to get top 4 in their inaugural split together and LavaLizard their mid agrees with me. Lavalizard8u feel that they are by far the strongest 3rd seed team and the 2nd seed in Shurmia belongs to them or CB White not NWET. Sensei Squad are an interesting team they do not win off of any 1 particular standout stat or player. They of course have star players along with other A tier teams. Lavalizard is in the top 20 of stats and SQDVaulter88 is just behind them sitting at number 28. But the player on this team with the X factor, the raw 1v9, is their top laner Orphic. Orphic has played some games where he just went no we win this game I’m huge on picks like Jax, Gwen even Yorick. SQD Zippy has been picking up steam as the split goes on learning more and more supports so better help round out draft for this team.
As far as macro team stats SQD are middle of the road in objective totals among playoff teams. 2.3 dragons a game is by no means bad but it is not elite the same as their 6.5 towers a game. SQD has the lowest average baron count of every playoff team that will hopefully be rectified. This team is also fairly middle of the road even when it comes to KDA and gold generation. They have a team KDA of 3.79 which is right in the middle at 6th in post playoff world.
Titan Gaming Atlas
Top: Rågnar
Jungle: Vxpir
Mid: Ham Sandw1ch
ADC: ACIick
Support: ArabeIIa
Average ELO: Plat 3
Roster Changes: New mid laner and support in ArabeIIa and Ham Sandw1ch
So Titan Gaming Atlas are the team in A tier I am the least sure on the placement of. I think that this team has such a clear draft plan they have more or less stuck to the same plan all of the regular season. It has worked really well for them. TGA almost always in draft take a Supertank top, a fighter jungle, counter pick mid or play a strong control mage and a bot lane with push potential. TGA i think has 2 major points of strength they have a really clean Macro game; they make sure to group for neutral objectives, tying for the most dragons taken a game and being just behind CN in barons taken a game. This team's other strength is Ham Sandw1ch in mid. Ham Sandw1ch has quickly shot up the player scores in our league. They average the most kills a game and have the highest damage per minute in the league.
My other major concern(besides flexibility in draft) is that TGA has a new support. AU KnuckeD was honestly probably the 2nd best player on this team and they are no longer here. Aclick told me that this team is still just as good and are a lock for top 4. They did lose 0-2 to the Mystic Cats in the last week so that is why I have them in the bottom of A tier. I’m skeptical of the statement. Rågnar has evolved his game and became the rock that his team needs, playing weak-side(more specifically Ornn) almost every game and doing well. They are number 2 in the league among all top laners and one of the only reasons that Ornn has anywhere near a positive win rate is due to Rågnar winning almost every game he plays on it.
TA Akatsuki
Top: RivenStepOnMe
Jung: Eqq
Mid: PotPot Pothead AD: Snowlife
Support: | Cynic |
Average ELO: Plat 4
Roster Changes: Snowlife to starting ADC Eqq to starting Jungle and PotPot Pothead to starting mid(swapping positions of 3 of their players)
TA Akatsuki is in B tier for several reasons. You cannot put this team in the C tier as they proved that they are a good team coming second in Mt Tragon(the closest division in terms of teams). In Mt Targon this team only dropped 1 series and that was to an S tier team in CB Rush. Putting them in A tier means that I think they can go the distance vs CN or CB Rush and I don’t think that they have the laning stats to get there. Snowlife believes that they have a tough road ahead of them coming into the playoffs and is hoping to draw CB White as they feel that they are the weakest team in playoffs and match up well against them.
As far as team averages go TA Akatsuki are a slower paced team having the second longest average game time out of every team in playoffs. They have good late game objectives taking 6.6 towers a game and 1.4 inhibitors a game(this is tied for second in the league with CB Rush) and get 1 baron every game. This team also has a good team KDA sitting at 3.45. They are right around the competitive teams in A tier with their death counts but get fewer kills and many more assists to push their team KDA up again showing that this team favors late game.
For individual players and draft flexibility TA Akatsuki play the game a little differently from most other teams. TA Akatsuki's best player is Snowlife who swapped to botlane half way through this split from mid. Snowlife is a big fan of mages in the bot lane and playing for push. They are the 6th best player in the league according to stats, are top 10 in Dmg per minute, gold per minute and least deaths per game. This team finds AD damage sometimes through bot when Snowlife plays Caitlyn or Tristana and sometimes through their mid and top instead. RivenStepOnMe plays lots of GP and Wukong top as well as Ornn. Their mid PotPot Pothead is always also willing to play Yone on the side lane as well or Vitkor if the team needs waveclear.
Mystic Cats
Top: Shovy
Jung: Washing Hands
Mid: Fwesh AD: CornStar
Support: Chupapi DADDY
Average ELO:
Roster Changes: Added Chupapi DADDY as starting support
Some of you may be wondering why I have a 3rd seed that is 6-0 in their past 3 games and who took down an undefeated TGA all the way down here in B tier. Mystic cats have had a very interesting season and Cornstar the ADC for Mystic Cats think that they are going to go all the way to the finals. They were brought in at the last minute as substitutes and were without their full roster week 1 when they were streamed. They got a fairly easy win vs Literal Monkeys and lost 0-2 to NWEN. After that this team practiced together and have been on a roll gaining confidence by beating TA Tropics and TA Wild SIde and then upsetting TGA.
Corn believes that Freljord was by far the best division and believes that Mystic Cats should easily go 3-0 this week in seeding. I’m not quite as sure. I have said earlier I agree this region had a really strong top 3 but I’m pretty sure that the bottom 3 teams in this division were to me the bottom 5 of all of BOL plat. As a team Mystic Cats have a top tier level KDA but I feel that their stats are inflated. Like CornStar and Shovy has some absolutely mental games vs the 3 aforementioned teams going 8-0 and things like that. I’m also not sure how hard TGA was trying last week(Aclick hinted that they were playing fast and loose with the draft). I somehow think that Aftershock Fiddlesticks mid into Galio is not the best counter you could be playing. When you guys played NWEN who I’m not convinced are that good your stats went into the gutter and went 0-2.
As far as individual players with Talent the Mystic Cats have 2 star players in CornStar their ADC who plays 1v9 solo que style champions like Samira and Yasuo as well as team focused picks like Samira. Shovy their top laner is also lethal and has started to play more and more for themselves instead of the team. Earlier in the season Shovy was on picks like Gnar and Ornn and that has swapped towards the end of the season towards things like Sylas, Vlad and Irelia. FWESH in mid is much more of a team player playing most of their games on Galio.
CB White
Top: Lonely Me
Jung: Denali the King
Mid: Eazy AD: Bruh Rock
Support: Guardian Wakka
Average ELO: Plat 3
Roster Changes: Put Lonely Me top instead of Cramma
CB White for those who do not know took over for REDACTED in week 3 so this team started 0-2. If this was not already bad enough the teams they lost a chance to play against were the 2 teams in the bottom of their division. They then had to play CN for their 1st game together as a team. That series did not go well at all CBW went 0-2. So they are now 0-3, have no game wins and now need to win out. And that they did CB White is the team on the miracle run and I’m excited just to see how far this run will go. I am curious if CB white was allowed to play every series would they be the 2nd seed in Shurima? Denali their jungler thinks they would be.
As far as team stats go CB White has no real glaring issues but no strengths either. They are able to get 1 Rift herald and 2.1 Dragons a game which is fine. Neither are going to get you towards soul point or a crazy fed top lane win condition. The thing CB white probably does best as a team is simply related to farming efficiently. CB White has a 30 min average game time and are 3rd in CS a game and 4th in overall gold a game. Team KDA wise CBW have a 3.23. That's a little lower than you would like to see. CBW average 2 deaths more a game then most other playoff teams and 1 kill less a game. As far as draft and flexibility goes this team is flexible. Eazy in mid has played 6 champs in 7 games. In top lane Lonely Me has played super tanks like Maokai and hard carry side lane champs like Camille. Denali The King has also played a wide variety of junglers from power farming team fight champs like Lillia and Graves to early tempo junglers such as Trundle.
As far as individual players go CB White have the number 2 rated player on the list in Denali the King. I had a chance to talk with Denali and he is eager to see how their team stacks up to the rest of the competition. Feels that they are way better than the other 4th seed teams and will easily claim the spot as the highest 4th seeded team. He believes that despite his bot lane having the lowest rated player in all of playoffs that this team can perform. He is most excited to play their sister team CB Rush.
New World Esports Titan
I initially forgot this team was in playoffs sorry don't have time to write more! New World Esports titan got an easy ride into playoffs If im being honest. You dodged playing one of the best teams in your division thanks to the free win as you played REDACTED. You then got to win over Revolution Ice Age and GE Emerald earlier in the season and played CB Tsundere once they had mental boomed.
As a team NWET have some really bad team stats.They are tied for lowest dragons taken a game and barons taken a game. They do better in towers taken being playoff average with 6.3 taken. This team has fairly fast game times of 28:28 but they have below 800 CS a game which is the lowest out of every playoff team besides the Mystic Cats.
Icebon Chaos
Top: matg
Jung: Noobily
Mid: Mikewiwi AD: QLUU
Support: xviinteen
Average ELO: Plat 2
Roster Changes: Mat G in top lane, Stunna out for Noobily
Iceborn Chaos is another team that I'm curious to see if they can pull off some wins in the playoffs. Again this team looks great on paper but have not had the best season in Mt Targon. Iceborn had a tough beginning of schedule playing CB Rush week 1, Hypnotic in week 2 was a close win for them and then they were forced to swap junglers in week 3 after some internet issues. Since that point Hypnotic has won 2 series one vs Xflow a clean 2-0 and a 2-1 win in the final week vs Basement Dwellers. I was very surprised to see this team lose to SGI. Overall Iceborn played the most amount of games I believe this year in BOL plat with 17 games. 9 wins and 8 loses.
As a tean Iceborn has good stats across the board. They have a solid 3.16 team KDA only dying 16.5 times per game. They do however have the lowest kill total out of any playoff team. Iceborn games generally go later into the game; their average game time is 30:36 and have the second highest CS per game numbers. Neutral objective wise Iceborn stats are a little low they only get 0.7 heralds a game and 2.1 Dragons, and have not taken baron many games. They take 5.7 towers and 0.7 inhibitors on average which is not great but it's not bad either. Its hard to analyze how draft diverse this team is when they have had so many players come and go. Their full starting roster they have for playoffs is not what they started the year with.
Iceborn has had 9 players so far play for them this year and their best player is not their cap exception mid but their ADC QLUU. QLUU has played primarily hyper carries like Jinx and Sivir for the team and can be counted on to output the damage as the game gets longer. Hopefully Iceborn are able to come together and play with their new roster and do well in playoffs but I’m not betting on it. I am pretty sure that Iceborn is going to have a poor showing in seeding and do much better in their 1st week of playoffs once they have more time to mesh as a team.
New World Esports Nebula
Top: Cølę
Jung: Goati
Mid:Nuffies AD: Duck But Rubber
Support: Picklegod
Average ELO:
Roster Changes: Picklegod in as starting support over 5ugar
New World Esports Nebula are the 4th seed of Freljord and I do not think this team is going to win a playoff series. This team ended the season 4-2 which is a really solid score but they only have 25 points which is the 2nd lowest. NWEN’s wins were against the 3 teams in the bottom of their division and against the mystic Cats in week 2 who were still trying to field their full roster. One of the best weeks this team had is when they were using primarily sub players. TGA and EM both 2-0d this team. I fully expect that CB white will beat this team and Xflow in seeding.
Team stat wise NWEN have the worst team KDA out of every playoff team other than Xflow who I have rated below them. NWEN farms very well with 850 CS a game. This team simply dies way more than almost every other playoff team. Objective wise NWEN takes a disappointing amount of dragons at 2.0 a game and has some of the lowest baron taking stats. They are slightly below average in towers taken compared to their peers but they are one of the few teams that takes an inhibitor on average every game.
Player wise there is an obvious X factor for NWEN and it’s Goati. They are number 11 in the league. I have talked about Gaoti plenty of times in my articles. They have a fascinating jungle pool as they are a mid laner. No one else on this team is even close to the top 50.
Xflow Blue
Top: XFW ReedandWrite
Jung: XFW Gibb Diff
Mid: OPKillSwitch AD: XFW PraYx
Support: Bean Enchanter
Average ELO: Plat 2
Roster Changes: None other than a name change
You may be wondering why I have a team with a plat 2 average sitting all the way down at the bottom of my tier list. Surely even though they are a 4th seed this team must be strong. Why do I have this team as the worst playoff team? The reason is that Xflow started the season strong but Xflow have not won a game since week 3. They have gone 4 weeks in a row without a series win. They are the only team to enter playoffs with a negative win-loss ratio.
Team stats do not lift Xflow up either this team has a team KDA of 2.44 that is the lowest out of every playoff team. They have the 2nd highest deaths a game out of every playoff team and are behind in Kills and Assists as you could infer by them having the lowest team total. For neutral objectives they are tied for the lowest dragon score, have the worst Rift herald score barley take baron and only average 5 towers a game(that is exactly the amount of towers taken you need to win a game). Xflow also has the longest game time of every playoff team in the league. They do hold the 2nd most gold a game and most CS a game but I think that's due to the fact that Xflow plays almost 3 minutes more of league then every other team.
The best thing that Xflow has going for them is OpKillSwitch who is ranked in the top 20. OpKillswitch is 2nd in damage per minute and 5th in CS a minute. If I were an enemy team I would look into banning out this player no one else on this team is even in the top 50.
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