Upcomer is back with the ninth iteration of our weekly League of Legends power rankings. While there weren’t many new additions this week, recent results left heavy implications for where some of our top 10 teams could find themselves.
DWG KIA and NongShim REDFORCE are two hot teams in the League of Legends Champions Korea, whichshot DK up the list and reintroduced NS to the rankings after a week of absence. The League of Legends Pro League saw plenty of movement near the top, most notably with LNG Esports, who have taken a dive after completing back-to-back losses between last week and their upset loss against Ultra Prime on July 10.
The summer split is reaching its climax in most regions, but there’s still time for some teams to improve and others to shake up the standings. Here are the 10 teams that impressed us the most last week followed by our top five LoL regional power rankings rankings down below.
10. Rogue, LEC
Record: 8-3 | This week: 1-1 | Movement: -2
Rogue’s poor performance against a resurgent G2 Esports in Week 5 of the LEC drops them to the bottom of our LoL power rankings. While they still sit at the top of the LEC standings, their continuous defeat at the hands of G2 in the regular season calls for concern. In that game, Rogue only managed one kill on Martins “Rekkles” Larsson, who ended with 11 kills for himself. They also took only one tower and a dragon throughout the game’s duration.
The team looked outclassed from beginning to end against G2. Moreover, support Adrian “Trymbi” Trybus and bot laner Steven “Hans sama” Liv couldn’t make a positive impact on the game with Nautilus and Kalista picks. Also, jungler Kacper “Inspired” Sloma failed to make a difference on the Viego as they fell too far behind to contest G2.
However, regardless of their humiliating loss to G2, they still have a lot of positives going for them. And if they do not repeat such a draft as seen in the game against G2, they should be fine hanging on to the top spot in the LEC.
— Rashidat Jimoh
9. NongShim REDFORCE, LCK
Record: 7-3 (16-10) | This week: 2-0 (4-0) | Movement: New
NongShim REDFORCE return to the top 10 after a week hiatus from their debut. The team is coming off of a 2-0 week and a 1-1 week back in Week 4. In that time, Han “Peanut” Wang-ho and his team have put together impressive wins over DWG KIA, Afreeca Freecs and T1.
While the team has one of the best junglers and bot laners in the league, the standout this week was NongShim’s mid laner Kim “Gori” Tae-woo. Across their four wins, he had a 15/6/20 Kill/Death/Assist score line on Lucian, Akali and Karma. He notched many impact kills in their games and has been their most consistent performer. He currently leads the team in MVP points and is second in the league with 600.
— Declan McLaughlin
8. LNG Esports, LPL
Record: 7-2 (15-8) | This week: 0-1 (1-2) | Movement: -6
Li-Ning Gaming’s Cinderella run has been fun to watch in the LPL but after back to back losses, the clock is getting close to midnight. LNG not only lost their glass slipper recently but, in the process, took an ugly fall in Week 5.
With only one game on the schedule, LNG looked to rebound from their first loss to the bottom dwelling Ultra Prime squad. However, UP came out swinging in game one. They caught LNG off guard, took the lead and never let it go en route to a sub 30 minute victory. LNG did get their revenge in game two as LNG bot laner Wang “Light” Guang-Yu picked up his first player of the game honors of the split as his performance on Varus led LNG to a 28 minute victory to tie the series up at one.
With LNG looking like they finally woke up, game three was set up to make game one look like a fluke. However, it was LNG who looked flukish, as UP simply repeated their game one performance in 29 minutes to wrap up the 2-1 upset. It’s not time to panic just yet, as LNG are still 7-2. But with back to back losses, including an inexcusable one to UP, LNG fans might want to start checking their expectations.
— Warren Younger
7. Gen.G, LCK
Record: 8-2 (16-7) | This week: 1-1 | Movement: —
After blazing through the first half of the LCK 2021 summer split, the Gen.G hype train may be coming to a temporary halt. The team’s most recent week of play netted them a second consecutive 1-1 week featuring a 1-2 loss against T1 and a 2-0 redemption victory against DRX. Their relatively one dimensional, bot-centric style has grabbed wins, but it’s becoming clear that teams are slowly learning how to exploit it.
In an interview with Inven Global after Gen.G’s win against DRX, Gen.G coach Ju “oDin” Yeong-dal made it clear that the team understands where their problems lie.
“We’re very well aware that our drafts are very one-dimensional,” oDin said. “We’re experimenting with new methods in our drafts during practice.”
We’re confident Gen.G can shore up their minor issues, especially with the gap between them and the next closest team in the standings as a buffer. It won’t be easy with NongShim and DWG KIA on the rise, though.
— Nick Ray
6. JD Gaming, LPL
Record: 6-3 (14-8) | This week: 2-0 (4-1) | Movement: +3
JD Gaming start their rise on our rankings with a 2-0 week and wins against top 5 Rare Atom and mid table Team WE. With their two wins, JDG are on an upwards trajectory after an underwhelming split so far, with few wins against top competition. Their only other decent win outside of Rare Atom is a 2-0 sweep against Top Esports.
If the Seo “Kanavi” Jin-hyeok led side can continue to put down their upcomer, mid-table opposition, then they may continue to stay in our LoL power rankings and secure a safe playoff spot for themselves. Also, if Kanavi continues to embarrass enemy jungler on picks like Shaco then it’ll be hard not to move them up our LoL power rankings in the future.
— McLaughlin
5. Top Esports, LPL
Record: 5-3 (13-7) | This week: 1-1 | Movement: -2
Top Esports reclaimed their spot on our weekly rankings after toppling LPL giants Edward Gaming in Week 4. Now that the dust has settled, while they’re certainly a top contender in the LPL and capable of climbing back up our list, they didn’t have the smoothest performance this week.
TES lost 1-2 against Suning Gaming to start the week, but the game they won was handed to them off the back of a Suning throw around Mountain Dragon that swayed the game in TES’ favor. It doesn’t seem like TES players were happy with that result, because they went on to sweep the last place Victory Five in two bloody and relatively one-sided games.
In their upcoming matches against Bilibili Gaming and FunPlus Phoenix, TES have a shot to bounce back from this unfortunate week. A 2-0, especially off of a win against FPX, could finally break them out of the middle of the standings and our LoL power rankings.
— Ray
4. Rare Atom, LPL
Record: 7-3 (16-9) | This week: 1-1 (3-2) | Movement: –
The enigma of the LPL, Rare Atom, had another eventful week in the LPL, as they have all summer (though the events were not all good). RA put together another 1-1 week, which normally seems like a bad for a top tier team. But for RA, it’s oddly OK — especially because it keeps them tied for third in the standings.
In their first match of the week, against ThunderTalk Gaming, RA had a bumpy early game. But thanks to another fantastic performance from mid laner Chu “FoFo” Chun-Lan, RA managed to close out game one before the 30 minute mark. Game two ended even faster as RA picked up the easy 2-0.
But in their second match against the surging Funplus Phoenix, FoFo and the RA squad were tested. The three game series started off with the two MVP front runners, FoFo and FPX mid laner Kim “ Doinb” Tae-sang, trading blows, but Doinb’s supporting cast came in clutch to give FPX the win in game one.
FoFo didn’t stay down for long, as he took the matters into his own hands in game two. Locking in Orianna, FoFo made the champion look absolutely busted as he bullied FPX the entire game en route to an amazing 12/1/12 score line, evening up the series at one a piece.
With FoFo showing up Doinb in game two on Orianna, the world champion mid laner decided to return the favor, as Doinb picked away the Orianna in game three. Although Doinb didn’t go 12/1/12 on the champion, he did hard carry FPX and, in the process, made FoFo a non factor. FPX took the series 2-1 and Doinb took the MVP lead away from FoFO.
FoFo and RA have been on a tear all split. They still have quality wins, and they have been competitive even in their losses. Although they don’t look like the best team in the LPL, they are still definitely on pace to make a real run for a Worlds seed.
— Younger
3. DWG KIA, LCK
Record: 7-3 (16-8) | This week: 2-0 (4-0) | Movement: +2
DWG KIA officially look back in fighting form with another week under their belt in their preferred roles and starters on Summoner’s Rift. The team started a bit slow in each series, with them needing to make comebacks in both of their first games. But, just like DWG KIA of old, they regained leads and took games off of great fights while down in gold and experience. Against Hanwha Life Esports, they overcame an early deficit and a strong opposing Gwen who ended the game with 10 kills, four of which came in a disastrous fight for DK at 10 minutes. As for Liiv SANDBOX, DK turned the game around in a fight for dragon thanks to Kim “Canyon” Geon-bu’s Diana play.
In both of the second games, they steadily took control and ended the games with massive leads across the board.
The team’s fortunes are looking up, but they have a tougher Week 6 going up against NongShim REDFORCE and T1. They can either further distance themselves from the LCK’s volatile mid-table teams or join Gen.G as a permanent fixture on top of the table and atop our LoL power rankings.
— McLaughlin
2. FunPlus Phoenix, LPL
Record: 7-3 | This week: 2-1 (4-1) | Movement: +3
FPX are creeping their way to the top of our global Power Rankings for good reason: they proved how effective they are as a team. Their first game this week against Rare Atom was a huge win thanks to mid laner Doinb’s consistency on Galio along with jungler Gao “Tian” Tian-Liang’s objective control.
Unfortunately for FPX, they couldn’t win the second game due to FoFo’s 12-1 Orianna. He put up a huge difference in damage dealt compared to Doinb, and FPX just couldn’t keep up with Rare Atom’s wins. But FPX quickly picked up the third game as they got together and successfully played as a team.
Jang “Nuguri” Ha-gwon as Jayce went ahead and dealt 17,607 in damage, the highest above everyone this game. Not only was he committed in fights, but he also went 8-1 along with Doinb’s 6-2 as a hyper carry Orianna.
Even before today’s game against Rare Atom, FPX proved they’re still a dominant team against LGD Gaming on July 9, despite starting top laner Ping “xiaolaohu” Xiao-Hu over Nuguri. The confidence and skill radiating from their wins are definitely worthy of a spot near the top of our LoL global power rankings.
— Carolynn Soba
1. Edward Gaming, LPL
Record: 10-1 (20-3) | This week: 2-0 (4-0) | Movement: –
After their lone loss in Week 4, Edward Gaming have been on a warpath, leaving teams absolutely destroyed in the process. Just like in most of their matches so far during the summer split, EDG had no issues dispatching ThunderTalk Gaming and LGD Gaming this week.
In their first series against TT, EDG decided to have some fun, as MVP bot laner Park “Viper” Do-hyeon pulled out Draven and did not disappoint. Viper ended the 27 minute stomp with a perfect 6/0/10 stat line and a 94% kill participation, enough for his second player of the game honors of the split.
His lack of post-game accolades isn’t due to Viper not playing well, though. It’s because EDG has threats from all angles. In game 2, Jungler Zhao “Jiejie” Li-Jie proved that fact as he put on a dominating performance with Diana, going 9/0/10 as EDG took down TT in just 22 minutes to secure the 2-0.
Their next series against LGD was also a 2-0 stomp, but games 1 and 2 had very different paths to victory. Game 1 was a contested but methodical win. EDG never really trailed in the game but still took 35 minutes to close it out. In game 2, however, it only took EDG literally half that time to take the 2-0 sweep. In another case of EDG having no regards for their opponents’ feelings, they won one of the fastest victories in the history of League of Legends.
EDG is a team on a mission. They look like they are in peak form and no team can even remotely contest them right now. If they keep up this pace, the old kings of the LPL will cement their rule of the region with an iron fist once more. They already seem to have locked down the No. 1 spot on our LoL power rankings.
— Younger
Regional Rankings
LCS
- 100 Thieves (100)
- Evil Geniuses (EG)
- TSM (TSM)
- Team Liquid (TL)
- Cloud9 (C9)
LEC
- Rogue (RGE)
- MAD Lions (MAD)
- Fnatic (FNC)
- G2 Esports (G2)
- Misfits (MSF)
LCK
- DWG KIA (DK)
- Gen.G (GEN)
- NongShim REDFORCE (NS)
- Liiv SANDBOX (LSB)
- Afreeca Freecs (AF)
LPL
- Edward Gaming (EDG)
- FunPlus Phoenix (FPX)
- Rare Atom (RA)
- Top Esports (TES)
- JD Gaming (JDG)
