League of Legends LEC power rankings Week 5 – a weekend of firsts
By Josh Tyler
We’re past the halfway point of the LEC Spring Split. We take a look at which European League of Legends teams are the true contenders, which are the pretenders, and which are the failures. Here are our Week 5 LEC power rankings!
Week 5 of the LEC has come and gone, with the shocking defeat of G2 at the hands of Origen of all teams, Rogue finally managing to win a game, as well as the continued struggle of Misfits who recently adjusted their coaching staff. Fans of professional League of Legends are already beginning to wonder who is the best team the EU has to offer now that the Spring Split is past the halfway point. Here is our metrics-based ranking of all ten teams (you can find the stats underlying these conclusions here).
10. Rogue (1-9)
The good news is that Rogue is no longer the only winless team in the LEC after the organization got their first win over Misfits on Saturday. The bad news is that, at 1-9, they’re still at the bottom of our LEC power rankings.
More from League of Legends
- Bee’koz Vel’koz Skin: Splash Art, Price, Release, How to Get
- King Beegar Skin: Splash Art, Price, Release, How to Get
- EMENES retires following leave from Cloud9, cites military service
- EMENES Donezo Manifesto: Former Cloud9 Midlaner airs out grievances
- Team Heretics Perkz: European legend reportedly playing for TH
There’s really not much to say about this team that hasn’t already been said. They have the worst-ranked player in terms of effectiveness at every single position except mid lane, where Sencux barely edged out exceL’s Fabian “Exile” Schubert to be only the second-worst at that position.
Credit to them, though for subbing out Wadid for Vander at support and Profit for Finn in the top lane. Both of the subs outperformed their starting counterparts and have shown a lot of promise in their limited sample size.
9. ExceL (2-8)
The other team to make a substitution last weekend, new mid laner Joran “Special” Scheffer was far and away a better choice than Exile in his two games. Exile is statistically the second-worst player in the LEC (ahead of only Rogue’s HeaQ), so hopefully Special continues to get the chance to prove himself. Although the results didn’t bear it out last weekend, exceL has some decent pieces to propel themselves to a respectable record.
8. Fnatic (3-7)
With their 1-1 weekend including a win over Splyce, many were probably hoping that Fnatic would continue their rise. Alas, the defending World’s finalists are continuing to struggle. They are the second-worst early game team (according to OracleElixir) ahead of only Rogue.
Such struggles are quite perplexing given that this is a team with almost all veteran players. And it’s not as if the rookie, mid laner Nemesis, is dragging down the rest of his team’s performance. He actually has the best KDA (including fewest deaths) of any player on his team and is respectable in terms of damage dealt and gold earned.
7. Misfits (4-6)
As mentioned previously, Misfits made the decision to effectively demote their head coach Jezis to development coach, replacing him with Hussain Moosvi in the interim. This comes after another disappointing 0-2 weekend, including that embarrassing loss to the then-winless Rogue.
Statistically, Misfits don’t have any duds on their team. Even Maxlore, whose over-aggression cost his team precious tempo in the Rogue game, has been solid this year. Unfortunately, they still look like a team that is lacking in coordination, and hopefully, this coaching change will help solve that problem.
6. SK Gaming (5-5)
SK Gaming is the epitome of mediocrity. Thus far this split, they have only beaten teams below them in these rankings (they had the luxury of getting to play Fnatic twice) and lost to all the teams above them.
Looking at the stats, both on the individual and team basis, there don’t stand out in either a positive or negative way. Their early and mid/late game grades are squarely around the middle, and all their players are graded towards the middle or bottom at their positions.
This is a team that has just enough talent to get by, but not enough to be considered really dangerous, which is why they’re unlikely to make serious moves up future LEC power rankings. They’ll be an easy team to pick off in the first round should they sneak into the playoffs.