Ajs' Pre-Draft Power Rankings
Note: I discuss that I disagree with some player’s role rankings in this piece. However, if you are one of this season’s Team Owners, please consider a player’s role rankings worth significantly more than my opinion. I don’t keep up with what everyone is playing in solo queue and for all I know, some players could have changed significantly in the past few months.
ROOKIE WARNING: I have little to zero knowledge on these rookies and will be drawing these conclusions from a combination of rankings and very small sample sizes of interactions. They have better chances than anyone else on this list to outplay their ranking and team owners should consider that - as rookies tend to always be very impactful in the SBL.
Or they could shit and die.
Lastly, no, I don’t have you ranked low on this list because I don’t like you. I have you ranked low on this list because, in a vacuum, I think the players above you are better choices. If you don’t like it, prove me wrong on the Rift - you’ll have 3 months to do so.
OFFICIAL TEAM SWAIN BADDY LEAGUE SEASON 6 PLAYER POWER RANKINGS
Created by Ajs Zero with entirely objective analysis.
1. Master Splinter
Season 5 position: Jungler (3rd place - Baby Scorpion Backpack)
Diamond 4, 1100 normal wins, 7 – 10 – 1 – 1 – 7
Master Splinter is the best player in the SBL.
He has performed on every team, in every meta, for 3 years now. He can get the most mediocre of laners into massive leads, and he can make his above average players look like stars. He gets ahead early and he gets ahead often. And if he doesn’t? He will engage you the second your carries take one step out of position (if you weren’t around to catch his Season 4 Playoff game where his team won despite trailing by 10k gold on two COMPLETELY SEPARATE OCCASIONS, you missed out on seeing just how far above the competition this man is at engaging).
Splinter plays like a Chinese professional. Fight early and fight often - for everything. And he will usually cave your heads in during the process.
Oh, and did I mention he’s one of the few capable shotcallers in the entire League? Because that’s pretty big too.
His only real weakness is that he sometimes will take a disproportionate amount of his team’s gold for himself solely because he thinks he can carry harder. However, in a League like this, that sometimes is also one of his biggest strengths.
You cannot go wrong with putting this man on your team.
2. Thrifty Senpai
Season 5 position: Mid lane (4th place - Debauchery Tea Party)
Diamond 5, 1500 normal wins, 7 – 6 – 10 – 6 – 9
Master Splinter is the best player in the SBL, but the Man We Call Alice is the one player that, on any given Tuesday, has a chance to be better. Those of us who have been around long enough know what happens when he plays at his ceiling: Complete massacres in mid lane.
Fortunately for us, Thrifty is flawed. Unlike Master Splinter (who is likely giving 110% in a drunk ARAM while you’re reading this), Thrifty does not take every game completely seriously. This is especially apparent whenever he’s facing a mid laner he doesn’t respect - he’s often caught out giving zero consideration to the opposing mid (or jungler) and dying in boneheaded fashion because he can’t force an outplay to get out.
He’s also the best shotcaller in the League, who can perform an almost Hai-esque level of micromanagement to ensure his teammates are making effective plays. He will happily play out the team game and sacrifice himself when it’s beneficial for the team, taking advantage of the enormous caution opposing teams try to use on him.
And if he can pull off a hot streak: Good luck to the rest of the League. With a champion pool as deep as his, there’s no containing him.
3. Purplepicklepie
Season 5 position: Mid lane (1st Place - Swift is Shit)
Platinum 3, 1106 normal wins, 10 – 5 – 5 – 5 – 5
In all the talk about how impressive every other member of the Season 5 Champion Team ‘Swift is Shit’, it’s almost easy to forget about how good Purplepicklepie was. He wasn’t even the best jungler in the League, how good could he be?
In all the talk about how impressive Thrifty Senpai was carrying his way to a Season 4 Championship, it’s easy to forget how impressive rookie AD Carry Purplepicklepie was, always showing strong positioning and taking full advantage of the massive pressure his mid laner was drawing to maximize damage dealt.
Yet here we are, with Purple practically begging to get thrust into top lane for his 3rd season in the League. While I think his role rankings might be a little inaccurate (given that he’s won the League from 2 other positions), it’s hard not to respect the man who is truly bringing solo queue talent into the SBL successfully. I suspect he could play any role in the game and contend for the best player in the League despite his rankings as a top-lane only player this split. This versatility to plug and play him into any team makes him incredibly valuable, and I expect to see another strong season out of him.
He simply bullies his opponents into submission and over time. His superior skills will net him the lead.
From my understanding, he isn’t much of a shotcaller. This is his biggest weakness relative to any of the other top players on this list. However, his ability to fit almost any team as a strong playmaker across the map (unlike most top talent in this league) pushes him this high on the list.
4. Viveret (Rookie)
Diamond 5, 1072 normal wins, 6 - 8 - 7 - 9 - 10
He’s a Diamond player. Simply enough, he will have to play like one of the best 3-5 players in this League to have a chance of his team keeping up, because he IS Diamond and WILL be drafted as such.
And the idea of drafting an SBL Rookie at that price is an incredibly frightening prospect. Viveret has premade experience (he’s played in plenty of PONG LAN Tournaments vs Team Swain, among others), but in my (limited) experience playing against him I don’t recall any particular traits.
The biggest question with Viveret is: Do you trust him to turn his ADC into a God, or do you spend big for a strong ADC to pair with him (and then completely bet your team’s success on bot lane being so dominant they’re worth the pricetag?). And if you don’t like those options, do you ask the best player on your team to play his 2nd best role (ADC) and hope it’s good enough to keep up with the price you paid?
Tough decisions to make for any team owner. I’m super excited to see how this guy turns out..
5. Thirty
Season 5 position: Support (2nd Place - Team Flashlight)
Platinum 4, 1001 normal wins, 4 – 8 – 6 – 9 – 10
Thirty is, most importantly, an excellent shotcaller. Thirty might be the smartest League of Legends player in the entire draft, and his ability to lead The Trainwreck Known as Team Flashlight to a 2-3 Championship Round last season is another impressive notch in his belt. Most captains would’ve broke down and let that team burn last split, but Thirty found a way to work non-meta picks and playstyles into a cohesive unit that really showed how exciting Baddy League play can be - something I don’t think any other player in this League could have done with that team. He might be the best drafter in the League, with his ability to play well to his team’s strengths in addition to the meta (and playing to your own strengths is a very, very underrated part of drafting for gameplay at this level)
Oh, and he has great macro-level knowledge inside the game and knows how to keep his team in a position to succeed.
And on top of all that, Thirty’s relentless aggression leads to him streamrolling through anyone standing in his way in lane. “There is only one way to play the lane, and that is forward” is an accurate summary of how Thirty plays the game. I think his laning skill isn’t quite as spectacular as Thexmastree, but he isn’t far behind and makes up for that by contributing to his team’s success in so many other ways.
6. TheXmasTree
Season 5 Position: Support (4th Place - Debauchery Tea Party)
Gold 2, 1300 normal wins, 1 – 2 – 7 – 9 – 10
If you like watching lanes get thrown into the dumpster week in and week out, Tree is your man. Like Thirty, Tree is another rabid dog always looking for opposing AD Carry meat to feast on. Tree’s greatest strength over Thirty is that we’ve seen him with every level of AD Carry over the seasons - and his lanes have always done well. We saw Thirty play with Keinhosen, who was playing at a very high level himself last split. What happens when Thirty plays with Kraegin instead?
Because Tree just wins the SBL anyway.
Tree’s communication is top notch, however, he is absolutely not a shotcaller. Far from it. He’s a great secondary voice for a team with a primary caller, and he brings excellent direction to bottom lane during laning phase, but that’s the extent of his power.
Tree will make bad carries look serviceable and good carries look great. He’s done this long enough and consistently enough that you absolutely want this guy on your team, and the only thing holding you back from dropping your entire salary on him is the insane number of supports in the League this split.
(And for clarification: Tree is not a passive support. The only less passive support I’ve ever met is Thirty)
7. Salvo
Season 5 Position: AD Carry (6th Place - Troy’s Waste Management)
Platinum 5, 1565 normal wins, 9 – 9 – 9 – 9 – 9
Salvo is not a smart League of Legends player. He might be the dumbest League of Legends player in the top 20 of this list.
Yet he’s still a monster player. That’s how incredible his raw mechanical talent is.
I have to start by stating that, like Purple, I think his role rankings are awful. I think it would be a mistake to build a team with him at a role other than ADC, mostly because he has the potential to be so much better than every other ADC in this League. His support is pretty good too, however.
In the other roles, his champion diversity is somewhere between lackluster and bad. Obviously, he thinks he can play those roles and if a team would benefit from him doing so, I assume he would try it. If that happens, I expect him to be an overpriced, underperforming member on a losing team.
Even on his top role of ADC, he needs his teammates to tame him at times. The joke about the latest iteration of Team Swain, where I would pick his champion and tell him what to build, Tree would tell him what to do in lane, and Splinter would tell him when to back off in fights, isn’t a joke that went viral for no reason. He’s streaky with how much he can handle himself, but if he’s on, or he gets the right direction from his teammates, he will be the ultimate damage threat. Constantly shooting from the backline, weaving in and out to blow up opposing carries, and walking away to the next objective is something Salvo can do at a level no other ADC in this League reaches.
But picking champions that have zero synergy with his team’s composition, building items that offer no gold efficiency together, and diving enemy turrets at level 2 to give up First Blood is just as Salvo as winning.
8. Blabooer
Season 5 Positions: Mid and Jungle (5th Place - Basically Jim Kelly)
Platinum 3, 1542normal wins, 7 – 8 – 10 – 1 – 7
After playing an entire season with him last split, I can safely say one thing about Blooper: I’m pretty lost on how good he actually is.
For starters, I don’t think Blabooer can be a number 1 carry on a successful team. I think this is the biggest reason our team struggled so much before our role swap last split - we had no primary carry. However, as the number of support players near the top of this list should tell you: I don’t think that’s a bad thing. I think his supportive mid lane is top notch and he can be an awesome compliment to any team’s number 1, while occasionally playing the primary carry role himself.
(And just to clarify: A team’s number 1 doesn’t have to be it’s best player. Samsung White won a World Championship with their best 2 players (jungler DanDy and support Mata) playing heavily supportive styles. While not as common in the mid lane as the other roles, there are some very strong niche options for supportive midlane play)
His communication is a little below the average level of the top of this list, and he is far from a shotcaller. If he’s in a bad situation, I expect he will look like a very poor player. But if he ends up in the right situation this season, I think he’s going to prove me right and have a great season - a clear cut above all the non-Thrifty mid laners.
9. Ajs Zero
Season 5 Positions: Top and AD Carry (5th Place - Basically Jim Kelly)
Gold 3, 1351 normal wins, 7 – 1 – 5 - 10 – 2
Pros: -Shotcaller
-Right clicks enemy champions during fights
Cons: -Gives himself a high gold priority regardless of situation
-Tilts and shotcalls poorly from behind
10. Mai Wang
Season 5 Position: Jungle (6th Place - Troy’s Waste Management)
Gold 1, 1300 normal wins, 4 – 10 – 9 – 7 – 7
Time for one of the most controversial players on this list.
What have I learned about Mai Wang in the past 6 months or so? He cannot be a number 1 shotcaller. His team was stacked with talent last split and no direction to take it. Wang is a great supplementary shotcaller and has outstanding control over dragon/baron, but the rest of his direction isn’t as effective as it once was.
However, Wang is a longtime jungle main who understands a lot of the intricacies of the role.
We have a few more jungle players than last split, but Wang is still a safe bet to be a top 2 or 3 jungler (and with a significant drop off after the top 3 or 4).
And if your team ends up needing a mid, Wang has some tournament experience doing that as well. He’s more of a playmaker than a laner, but he has the capability (and the solo queue practice) to properly body out some games you might not expect.
Of course, you also have to gamble with Bad Wang showing up in any given game. And if Bad Wang shows up, it’s very hard to stop him.
11. KKing
Season 5 Position: AD Carry (1st Place - Swift is Shit)
Silver 1, 1872 normal wins, 6 – 1 – 6 – 10 – 8
My mind tells me to put him lower. “He can’t get out of silver, he’s falling off - and HARD!” It would be easy to think such, and I wouldn’t blame anyone for doing so.
But I’ve been watching King play with the rest of the big boys at ADC for too long to think much of that.
His laning phase isn’t as great as some of the other bigtime carries (although it’s by no means bad), but his teamfight positioning is phenomenal. King always manages to sit on the outside of the fight and maximize his damage, and when his teammates give him a good fight to work with he can be counted on to reliably clean up.
He has good communication as well, although he’s not a primary shotcaller.
12. Ahros
Season 5 Position: Mid lane (1st Place - Swift is Shit)
Gold 3, 660 normal wins, 6 – 1 – 10 – 2 – 1
Let me start by thinking that I don’t think Ahros is anywhere near as good as he played last season. His rookie BCL season was phenomenal, but I believe a lot went right for him last season - in addition to him just playing well all season. However, everything I’ve seen from him outside of the Swift is Shit Star Factory has made me believe he won’t repeat that success to the same level.
But that doesn’t mean he’ll be a bad player either. Ahros is an incredibly aggressive brawler who, once ahead, will fight until that lead becomes insurmountable. His success will likely be dependent on synergy with his jungler - and the other lanes willingness to sacrifice pressure to snowball their midlane playmaker.
Ahros also seems like the type of player that will highly prioritize his practice during the season - with the team and with his solo queue. If he doesn’t start the season hot, I expect he will put in the time to try returning to his rookie form.
13. Dubdrum
Season 5 Position: Support (1st Place - Swift is Shit)
Gold 2, 645 normal wins, 7 – 9 – 6 – 8 – 10
How good is Dubdrum? Better than most people want to give him credit for, worse than he thinks he is. I didn’t walk away from last season overly impressed with his laning phase, but his teamfighting was consistently excellent. He was absolutely a factor in the monstrous season that KKing had.
He’s talked up his jungling a lot in the previous months, even claiming it was better than his support at some points, but I haven’t seen enough of it personally to agree with that. But as valuable as junglers always are, it could be a solid gamble for any team to take.
The roughest part of drafting Dubdrum is the attention that comes with it - he’s possibly the most arrogant smack-talker in the entire league and I don’t know how well he handles losing (which obviously wasn’t a problem last season, as he won the league), and comes off like he might rub teammates wrong - especially if he’s on a losing team.
14. OnTheWind
Season 5 Position: Top lane (1st Place - Swift is Shit)
Gold 5, 540 normal wins, 10 – 7 – 6 – 2 – 3
OnTheWind near the top third of my power rankings? File this under “things I never would have thought could happen as recently as 5 months ago”. OnTheWind’s skillset is very specific - he knows the strategic elements of top lane inside and out, which no other SBL top laner has shown the ability to come close to doing. His teleports are top notch, his wave control sets him up for great roams and objective-oriented map play, and he makes proper decisions inside of teamfights.
So what’s his weakness? His laning can fall anywhere from “just good enough to get by” to “abysmal”. As last season progressed, he raised his laning level just enough to focus on his strengths - setting himself up as a key member of Swift is Shit’s mid- and late- game transitions. It’s hard to say whether this was his own improvement or the incredibly weak pool of top laners he faced. If his next season is going to be a struggle, it will be a return to his massive lane losses.
However, if he gets onto a team-focused team and can play intelligently, I believe no top laner can compare to what he offers to his team in terms of communication and teamplay. And in a meta with so much high impact that can come out of top lane, that’s insanely valuable.
15. madam strippe
Season 5 Position: Top lane (3rd Place - Baby Scorpion Backpack)
Gold 5, 996 normal wins, 10 – 1 – 1 – 9 – 1
My opinion of madam strippe is a complete opposite of OnTheWind. Halfway through the regular season of last split, I thought he had completely returned to form in top lane (after spending a few seasons as an ADC) and was looking like the best top laner in the SBL by far. However, I think the complete derailing of Baby Scorpion Backpack was partially due to a slump in strippe’s play.
Strippe is capable of being a very dominant 1vs1 laner and is at his best playing strong champions that win lanes. If he sees success this season, I expect it to be rooted in lane bullying.
However, he has no idea how to use Teleport. His teamfighting can be inconsistent at times as well. And in the current meta, that’s pretty rough to overcome.
16. Miciro
Season 5 Position: Mid lane (3rd Place - Baby Scorpion Backpack)
Gold 3, 1500 normal wins, 2 – 9 – 10 – 7 – 5
Do you believe in chance? Because that’s essentially what any Miciro team will be. We’ve seen Mic alternate between Alice-killer and Silver-feeder too many times to count at this point - many times within the same series. When Mic is on, he’s a stud playmaker applying massive pressure to the enemy carries. When he’s not, he’s giving zero respect to an enemy jungler or generally having no game knowledge and dragging his team down to uncarriable levels.
17. Cruzmaster
Season 5 Position: AD Carry and Support (5th Place - Basically Jim Kelly)
Unranked (Gold 1 in Season 4), 1016 normal wins, 4 – 1 – 9 – 6 – 10
So Cruzmaster hasn’t been playing as much lately. He isn’t even ranked this season. And yet for some reason the only thing that worries me is that his practice availability is awful.
Cruzmaster knows how to lane. Cruzmaster knows how to peel. And Cruzmaster (still) has the best vision control of any of the support mains in the SBL.
His mid lane is very underappreciated as well, and something that could work out great for a team. He knows how to play well with low-priority on his team and tends to play much better on supportive champions, but he rarely-to-never loses lane by much, allowing him to get into midgame and focus on setting up his team’s other carries.
18. Keinhosen
Season 5 Position: AD Carry (2nd Place - Team Flashlight)
Gold 1, 847 normal wins, 5 – 3 – 7 – 8 – 5
If I made these rankings immediately following last season? Keinhosen is probably in the 7-10 range. However, he hasn’t been playing lately - and that amount of rust scares the hell out of me.
If he’s able to pick up the game quickly and play near the level he was at last season, he will be in the top half of ADCs in this league - potentially the best. However, if he doesn’t have time to devote to practice or just doesn’t pick up his form quickly, he could be the riskiest player in the League.
He ranks his mid close to his ADC as well, and in a league always looking for mid lane players he could be a solid option for a team looking to just add as much talent as possible. His mid lane is a lot rawer than his ADC, but a season of refinement might be enough to change that.
19. Scotchonaut (Rookie)
Unranked (Platinum 4 in Season 4), 1348 normal wins, 10 – 3 – 9 – 1 – 9
In his own words, he’s a supportive type player that doesn’t really carry on his own. If he’s playing top lane, there’s obviously a lot of effective ways to work that into a team comp. He was Platinum in Season 4, so he obviously had some level of skill.
He’s mostly only been playing Twisted Treeline this season, and in the storied history of the SBL, I’ve learned that typically means nothing about how he will transition back to Summoner’s Rift. We’ve had great 3s players and we’ve had awful ones, with little ability to predict what kind will show up. But if he can play at or near his old Platinum level, he’ll be a huge part of some team. Scotchonaut screams “typical SBL value pick” to me.
20. Thermador (Rookie)
Gold 3, 850 normal wins, 3 – 8 – 5 – 6 – 6
A rookie jungle main!? This is another pick that screams upside to me. Our jungle pool always ends up a little sketchy, but this looks like a player that should have serious experience at the position.
Of course, jungle is also the position with the biggest transition between solo queue and premade play. Until I’ve seen more, I also have to accept Thermador is a player that could completely burn out and fail to transition.
21. Deathgodnero
Season 5 Position: Top lane (2nd Place - Team Flashlight)
Gold 3, 2807 normal wins, 10 – 1 – 9 – 1 – 1
What does Deathgodnero do well? Dumpster every lane opponent, and typically splitpush his advantage. So why is he so low? Because he’s incredibly one-dimensional and a well-planned team should, in theory, be able to shut him down pretty effectively.
But he’s still insanely good at his 1vs1 match-up and was able to eliminate the opposing top laner entirely from more games than not, even when it seemed like it should be impossible. Whichever team he ends up on will probably have to play around his playstyle completely, but if a team is willing to utilize it, he has the potential to be an undervalued steal.
22. Amillionbabies
Season 5 Positions: AD Carry and Top Lane (5th Place - Basically Jim Kelly)
Gold 3, 900 normal wins, 7 – 1 – 6 – 8 - 10
Babies is one of the most consistent players I’ve seen, and the level you expect is almost always the level of play you get out of him. He’s never shone through to be a major star player, but he’s consistently done his job without making egregious mistakes to cost his team leads.
If he shows a major weakness it’s that he sometimes can begin playing too passively, and in a League where bot lane is going to be so highly contested, it’s a style he’ll want to make sure he doesn’t fall into this split.
However, just having a guy you can count on to not shit the bed is an often underlooked aspect of team building. He’s also committed to improvement throughout the season and a guy that will work hard with his team to grow.
23. Albinojoe
Did not participate in Season 5, has played in previous seasons as support
Gold 3, 669 normal wins, 2 – 7 – 2 – 9 - 10
Joe has good mechanical skills, but his play fluctuates more than anybody I’ve ever known. If Good Joe shows up, he will play adequately against his opposition. But when Bad Joe shows up, he tilts - and he tilts hard.
I think his game knowledge is lacking and he has a tendency to overcommit to “typical solo queue plays”. However, if he ends up in the right situation with teammates giving him proper direction, he can be an effective player.
24. GarenFrkngBaltar
Season 5 Position: AD Carry (4th Place - Debauchery Tea Party)
Silver 2, 823 normal wins, 7 - 7 - 6 - 10 - 7
Ol’ Dirty Garen managed to prove the doubters wrong with his strong finish to last season, but now the expectation will be to take the next step towards the big league of ADC in this League. He’s not yet at that level, and he will need to work hard to continue growing if he wishes to reach it.
He’s a very motivated player though, and should be someone his team can count on to give his all toward improving. Whether he can take a next step upward as an ADC will be on his shoulders.
25. The Gernig (Rookie)
Gold 5, 1000 normal wins, 8 - 1- 10 - 10 - 7
A guy who, to my knowledge, has no premade experience, playing one of the two primary carry roles in League of Legends. That’s always a scary prospect. However, he’s been to high gold, and he was really, really good at World of Warcraft*.
*In my experience this has nearly 0 correlation in determining good League of Legends players.
26. Thorr74 (Rookie)
Gold 5, 797 normal wins, 10 – 7 – 5 – 10 – 8
He plays top and AD Carry. He could be good. He could not be good.
27. Mitchurugi
Season 5 Positions: Bench, Support and Mid lane (5th Place - Basically Jim Kelly)
Gold 4, 365 normal wins, 4 – 4 – 8 – 7 – 8
His biggest problem in his debut split of the SBL was that he tended to be too passive. He wasn’t very vocal during games either, which can make it tough to keep up with all of the high-skill bot lanes the SBL produces. His mid lane was consistent but I have my concerns about champion pool size.
28. DevoutMilk
Season 5 Position: Jungle (2nd Place - Team Flashlight)
Silver 2, 1191 normal wins, 6 – 10 – 5 – 3 - 7
I play with Milk fairly often. And every time I play with him, I just keep thinking to myself: “How does this guy keep winning?”
His mechanics are decent but his game knowledge is sub-par. However, he accepts his role-player status and will follow commands to help put his teammates into the right position. So far that’s worked out pretty well for him.
29. Zezimas My Main
Did not participate in Season 5, has played in previous seasons as Top lane
Gold 3, 1256 normal wins, 9 – 6 – 5 – 2 – 3
This is probably the most difficult ranking I’ve done so far. Formerly known as ‘Slender Dan’, Zezimas has the potential to be the most dominant top laner in this entire league. So why ranked so low?
He’s a bit of a tilter and has an almost refusal to touch meta champions, and seemingly changes which champions he feels comfortable playing every few weeks. It can be really difficult to plan around him and use him effectively in-game.
But if Dan is on? The upside is insane, as he has plenty of potential to completely outplay his lane opponents.
30. FailedDestiny (Rookie)
Gold 5, 295 normal wins, 7 – 8 – 4 – 10 – 10
A rookie who plays bot lane, in a league known for having strong bot lanes. He might impress, but I would expect a rough transition.
31. Kvothe Hibbs
Season 5 Position: Support (6th Place - Troy’s Waste Management)
Gold 5, 575 normal wins, 3 – 6 – 6 – 8 – 7
Had a rough rookie season in Season 4, which is saying something because he was supporting Salvo for most of it. Might be more natural at ADC (his top rank), but as a support last season just didn’t seem to show much promise on a team that just didn’t seem to show much promise.
32. ManlortheMiracle
Season 5 Position: Bench (Mid lane when he did play)
Unranked, 1103 normal wins, 4 - 1 - 6 - 7 - 9
While Miciro plays every game like he’s simply rolling a die to calculate his performance, Manlor is on his knees praying for strength from some derpy Deity during his loading screen and pulling miracles out of nowhere on the Rift. He’s not called “The Miracle” for no reason - he’s often making bronze mistakes all game before pulling off ridiculous plays you don’t want to believe in. He was electric every time he came off the bench last split, and I could see his play falling anywhere between a surprisingly good cheap player or completely drowning in a full season’s focus.
33. LockemDown
Season 5 Positions: Jungle and Top lane (4th Place - Debauchery Tea Party)
Gold 5, 1163 normal wins, 7 – 9 – 2 – 4 – 6
Lockem is a solid team-oriented player who has an unfortunate habit to tunnel vision a bit too much sometimes. He has no issues accepting his place as a role player, but he requires strong direction from a shotcaller to be most successful.
However, he’s very willing to practice and receptive to criticism. He’ll work to improve over a season and practice with his team.
34. Boozegraph
Season 5 Positions: Top lane and Jungle (4th Place - Debauchery Tea Party)
Gold 4, 996 normal wins, 8 - 7 - 5 - 7 - 8
Booze is known to be a pretty strong tilter in-game, which is his defining trait. He’s an aggressive playmaker when he’s at this best, but has a hard time reacting to adversity within a game, which has an absolute effect on his gameplay if he falls behind at all.
He’s another player that requires strong direction from a shotcaller to be most effective in game, but the potential is there if he finds the right situation.
I’ve never seen his support but, to be honest, the idea scares me.
35. Kraegin
Did not participate in Season 5, has played in previous seasons as AD Carry
Gold 3, 979 normal wins, 4 – 8 – 8 – 6 – 10
Kraegin’s the type of player that changes his main role every few weeks when he finds a new champion to be interested in. In any of my times playing with him, I’ve never really found an impressive trait to his support. His mechanics don’t seem to be good as his ranking, and he doesn’t have any other particular strengths - especially when you consider the bot lanes he will have to keep up with.
36. Ghostsniper32 (Rookie)
Silver 2, 737 normal wins, 7 - 8 - 5 - 8 - 7
Ghostsniper has no real premade experience and from my discussions with him, I’d expect his transition to be rather rough. He plays a lot of champions but I have concerns about how many he’s really mastered. He’ll have to work hard to not simply play a solo queue style in his games.
37. NoiceOneBrotha
Season 5 Position: Mid lane (6th Place - Troy’s Waste Management)
Gold 5, 886 normal wins, 4 – 2 – 10 – 8 – 7
Simply put, had a rough rookie season last split. The big question all season was “Can he have an impact playing something besides Vel’koz” and, unfortunately for him, the answer seemed to be no. If he wants to be a bigger contributor this split, he’ll have to show a more versatile champion pool.
38. Zaku13x
Season 5 Position: Support (3rd Place - Baby Scorpion Backpack)
Silver 3, 297 normal wins, 3 – 3 – 5 – 7 – 9
Zaku started last season fairly well, managing to play more than just his staple Leona at acceptable levels. However, like his solo lanes, his play seemed to fall off towards the end of the season. His ability to play at that top level again would decide his value in his second season.
ROOKIE WARNING: I have little to zero knowledge on these rookies and will be drawing these conclusions from a combination of rankings and very small sample sizes of interactions. They have better chances than anyone else on this list to outplay their ranking and team owners should consider that - as rookies tend to always be very impactful in the SBL.
Or they could shit and die.
Lastly, no, I don’t have you ranked low on this list because I don’t like you. I have you ranked low on this list because, in a vacuum, I think the players above you are better choices. If you don’t like it, prove me wrong on the Rift - you’ll have 3 months to do so.
OFFICIAL TEAM SWAIN BADDY LEAGUE SEASON 6 PLAYER POWER RANKINGS
Created by Ajs Zero with entirely objective analysis.
1. Master Splinter
Season 5 position: Jungler (3rd place - Baby Scorpion Backpack)
Diamond 4, 1100 normal wins, 7 – 10 – 1 – 1 – 7
Master Splinter is the best player in the SBL.
He has performed on every team, in every meta, for 3 years now. He can get the most mediocre of laners into massive leads, and he can make his above average players look like stars. He gets ahead early and he gets ahead often. And if he doesn’t? He will engage you the second your carries take one step out of position (if you weren’t around to catch his Season 4 Playoff game where his team won despite trailing by 10k gold on two COMPLETELY SEPARATE OCCASIONS, you missed out on seeing just how far above the competition this man is at engaging).
Splinter plays like a Chinese professional. Fight early and fight often - for everything. And he will usually cave your heads in during the process.
Oh, and did I mention he’s one of the few capable shotcallers in the entire League? Because that’s pretty big too.
His only real weakness is that he sometimes will take a disproportionate amount of his team’s gold for himself solely because he thinks he can carry harder. However, in a League like this, that sometimes is also one of his biggest strengths.
You cannot go wrong with putting this man on your team.
2. Thrifty Senpai
Season 5 position: Mid lane (4th place - Debauchery Tea Party)
Diamond 5, 1500 normal wins, 7 – 6 – 10 – 6 – 9
Master Splinter is the best player in the SBL, but the Man We Call Alice is the one player that, on any given Tuesday, has a chance to be better. Those of us who have been around long enough know what happens when he plays at his ceiling: Complete massacres in mid lane.
Fortunately for us, Thrifty is flawed. Unlike Master Splinter (who is likely giving 110% in a drunk ARAM while you’re reading this), Thrifty does not take every game completely seriously. This is especially apparent whenever he’s facing a mid laner he doesn’t respect - he’s often caught out giving zero consideration to the opposing mid (or jungler) and dying in boneheaded fashion because he can’t force an outplay to get out.
He’s also the best shotcaller in the League, who can perform an almost Hai-esque level of micromanagement to ensure his teammates are making effective plays. He will happily play out the team game and sacrifice himself when it’s beneficial for the team, taking advantage of the enormous caution opposing teams try to use on him.
And if he can pull off a hot streak: Good luck to the rest of the League. With a champion pool as deep as his, there’s no containing him.
3. Purplepicklepie
Season 5 position: Mid lane (1st Place - Swift is Shit)
Platinum 3, 1106 normal wins, 10 – 5 – 5 – 5 – 5
In all the talk about how impressive every other member of the Season 5 Champion Team ‘Swift is Shit’, it’s almost easy to forget about how good Purplepicklepie was. He wasn’t even the best jungler in the League, how good could he be?
In all the talk about how impressive Thrifty Senpai was carrying his way to a Season 4 Championship, it’s easy to forget how impressive rookie AD Carry Purplepicklepie was, always showing strong positioning and taking full advantage of the massive pressure his mid laner was drawing to maximize damage dealt.
Yet here we are, with Purple practically begging to get thrust into top lane for his 3rd season in the League. While I think his role rankings might be a little inaccurate (given that he’s won the League from 2 other positions), it’s hard not to respect the man who is truly bringing solo queue talent into the SBL successfully. I suspect he could play any role in the game and contend for the best player in the League despite his rankings as a top-lane only player this split. This versatility to plug and play him into any team makes him incredibly valuable, and I expect to see another strong season out of him.
He simply bullies his opponents into submission and over time. His superior skills will net him the lead.
From my understanding, he isn’t much of a shotcaller. This is his biggest weakness relative to any of the other top players on this list. However, his ability to fit almost any team as a strong playmaker across the map (unlike most top talent in this league) pushes him this high on the list.
4. Viveret (Rookie)
Diamond 5, 1072 normal wins, 6 - 8 - 7 - 9 - 10
He’s a Diamond player. Simply enough, he will have to play like one of the best 3-5 players in this League to have a chance of his team keeping up, because he IS Diamond and WILL be drafted as such.
And the idea of drafting an SBL Rookie at that price is an incredibly frightening prospect. Viveret has premade experience (he’s played in plenty of PONG LAN Tournaments vs Team Swain, among others), but in my (limited) experience playing against him I don’t recall any particular traits.
The biggest question with Viveret is: Do you trust him to turn his ADC into a God, or do you spend big for a strong ADC to pair with him (and then completely bet your team’s success on bot lane being so dominant they’re worth the pricetag?). And if you don’t like those options, do you ask the best player on your team to play his 2nd best role (ADC) and hope it’s good enough to keep up with the price you paid?
Tough decisions to make for any team owner. I’m super excited to see how this guy turns out..
5. Thirty
Season 5 position: Support (2nd Place - Team Flashlight)
Platinum 4, 1001 normal wins, 4 – 8 – 6 – 9 – 10
Thirty is, most importantly, an excellent shotcaller. Thirty might be the smartest League of Legends player in the entire draft, and his ability to lead The Trainwreck Known as Team Flashlight to a 2-3 Championship Round last season is another impressive notch in his belt. Most captains would’ve broke down and let that team burn last split, but Thirty found a way to work non-meta picks and playstyles into a cohesive unit that really showed how exciting Baddy League play can be - something I don’t think any other player in this League could have done with that team. He might be the best drafter in the League, with his ability to play well to his team’s strengths in addition to the meta (and playing to your own strengths is a very, very underrated part of drafting for gameplay at this level)
Oh, and he has great macro-level knowledge inside the game and knows how to keep his team in a position to succeed.
And on top of all that, Thirty’s relentless aggression leads to him streamrolling through anyone standing in his way in lane. “There is only one way to play the lane, and that is forward” is an accurate summary of how Thirty plays the game. I think his laning skill isn’t quite as spectacular as Thexmastree, but he isn’t far behind and makes up for that by contributing to his team’s success in so many other ways.
6. TheXmasTree
Season 5 Position: Support (4th Place - Debauchery Tea Party)
Gold 2, 1300 normal wins, 1 – 2 – 7 – 9 – 10
If you like watching lanes get thrown into the dumpster week in and week out, Tree is your man. Like Thirty, Tree is another rabid dog always looking for opposing AD Carry meat to feast on. Tree’s greatest strength over Thirty is that we’ve seen him with every level of AD Carry over the seasons - and his lanes have always done well. We saw Thirty play with Keinhosen, who was playing at a very high level himself last split. What happens when Thirty plays with Kraegin instead?
Because Tree just wins the SBL anyway.
Tree’s communication is top notch, however, he is absolutely not a shotcaller. Far from it. He’s a great secondary voice for a team with a primary caller, and he brings excellent direction to bottom lane during laning phase, but that’s the extent of his power.
Tree will make bad carries look serviceable and good carries look great. He’s done this long enough and consistently enough that you absolutely want this guy on your team, and the only thing holding you back from dropping your entire salary on him is the insane number of supports in the League this split.
(And for clarification: Tree is not a passive support. The only less passive support I’ve ever met is Thirty)
7. Salvo
Season 5 Position: AD Carry (6th Place - Troy’s Waste Management)
Platinum 5, 1565 normal wins, 9 – 9 – 9 – 9 – 9
Salvo is not a smart League of Legends player. He might be the dumbest League of Legends player in the top 20 of this list.
Yet he’s still a monster player. That’s how incredible his raw mechanical talent is.
I have to start by stating that, like Purple, I think his role rankings are awful. I think it would be a mistake to build a team with him at a role other than ADC, mostly because he has the potential to be so much better than every other ADC in this League. His support is pretty good too, however.
In the other roles, his champion diversity is somewhere between lackluster and bad. Obviously, he thinks he can play those roles and if a team would benefit from him doing so, I assume he would try it. If that happens, I expect him to be an overpriced, underperforming member on a losing team.
Even on his top role of ADC, he needs his teammates to tame him at times. The joke about the latest iteration of Team Swain, where I would pick his champion and tell him what to build, Tree would tell him what to do in lane, and Splinter would tell him when to back off in fights, isn’t a joke that went viral for no reason. He’s streaky with how much he can handle himself, but if he’s on, or he gets the right direction from his teammates, he will be the ultimate damage threat. Constantly shooting from the backline, weaving in and out to blow up opposing carries, and walking away to the next objective is something Salvo can do at a level no other ADC in this League reaches.
But picking champions that have zero synergy with his team’s composition, building items that offer no gold efficiency together, and diving enemy turrets at level 2 to give up First Blood is just as Salvo as winning.
8. Blabooer
Season 5 Positions: Mid and Jungle (5th Place - Basically Jim Kelly)
Platinum 3, 1542normal wins, 7 – 8 – 10 – 1 – 7
After playing an entire season with him last split, I can safely say one thing about Blooper: I’m pretty lost on how good he actually is.
For starters, I don’t think Blabooer can be a number 1 carry on a successful team. I think this is the biggest reason our team struggled so much before our role swap last split - we had no primary carry. However, as the number of support players near the top of this list should tell you: I don’t think that’s a bad thing. I think his supportive mid lane is top notch and he can be an awesome compliment to any team’s number 1, while occasionally playing the primary carry role himself.
(And just to clarify: A team’s number 1 doesn’t have to be it’s best player. Samsung White won a World Championship with their best 2 players (jungler DanDy and support Mata) playing heavily supportive styles. While not as common in the mid lane as the other roles, there are some very strong niche options for supportive midlane play)
His communication is a little below the average level of the top of this list, and he is far from a shotcaller. If he’s in a bad situation, I expect he will look like a very poor player. But if he ends up in the right situation this season, I think he’s going to prove me right and have a great season - a clear cut above all the non-Thrifty mid laners.
9. Ajs Zero
Season 5 Positions: Top and AD Carry (5th Place - Basically Jim Kelly)
Gold 3, 1351 normal wins, 7 – 1 – 5 - 10 – 2
Pros: -Shotcaller
-Right clicks enemy champions during fights
Cons: -Gives himself a high gold priority regardless of situation
-Tilts and shotcalls poorly from behind
10. Mai Wang
Season 5 Position: Jungle (6th Place - Troy’s Waste Management)
Gold 1, 1300 normal wins, 4 – 10 – 9 – 7 – 7
Time for one of the most controversial players on this list.
What have I learned about Mai Wang in the past 6 months or so? He cannot be a number 1 shotcaller. His team was stacked with talent last split and no direction to take it. Wang is a great supplementary shotcaller and has outstanding control over dragon/baron, but the rest of his direction isn’t as effective as it once was.
However, Wang is a longtime jungle main who understands a lot of the intricacies of the role.
We have a few more jungle players than last split, but Wang is still a safe bet to be a top 2 or 3 jungler (and with a significant drop off after the top 3 or 4).
And if your team ends up needing a mid, Wang has some tournament experience doing that as well. He’s more of a playmaker than a laner, but he has the capability (and the solo queue practice) to properly body out some games you might not expect.
Of course, you also have to gamble with Bad Wang showing up in any given game. And if Bad Wang shows up, it’s very hard to stop him.
11. KKing
Season 5 Position: AD Carry (1st Place - Swift is Shit)
Silver 1, 1872 normal wins, 6 – 1 – 6 – 10 – 8
My mind tells me to put him lower. “He can’t get out of silver, he’s falling off - and HARD!” It would be easy to think such, and I wouldn’t blame anyone for doing so.
But I’ve been watching King play with the rest of the big boys at ADC for too long to think much of that.
His laning phase isn’t as great as some of the other bigtime carries (although it’s by no means bad), but his teamfight positioning is phenomenal. King always manages to sit on the outside of the fight and maximize his damage, and when his teammates give him a good fight to work with he can be counted on to reliably clean up.
He has good communication as well, although he’s not a primary shotcaller.
12. Ahros
Season 5 Position: Mid lane (1st Place - Swift is Shit)
Gold 3, 660 normal wins, 6 – 1 – 10 – 2 – 1
Let me start by thinking that I don’t think Ahros is anywhere near as good as he played last season. His rookie BCL season was phenomenal, but I believe a lot went right for him last season - in addition to him just playing well all season. However, everything I’ve seen from him outside of the Swift is Shit Star Factory has made me believe he won’t repeat that success to the same level.
But that doesn’t mean he’ll be a bad player either. Ahros is an incredibly aggressive brawler who, once ahead, will fight until that lead becomes insurmountable. His success will likely be dependent on synergy with his jungler - and the other lanes willingness to sacrifice pressure to snowball their midlane playmaker.
Ahros also seems like the type of player that will highly prioritize his practice during the season - with the team and with his solo queue. If he doesn’t start the season hot, I expect he will put in the time to try returning to his rookie form.
13. Dubdrum
Season 5 Position: Support (1st Place - Swift is Shit)
Gold 2, 645 normal wins, 7 – 9 – 6 – 8 – 10
How good is Dubdrum? Better than most people want to give him credit for, worse than he thinks he is. I didn’t walk away from last season overly impressed with his laning phase, but his teamfighting was consistently excellent. He was absolutely a factor in the monstrous season that KKing had.
He’s talked up his jungling a lot in the previous months, even claiming it was better than his support at some points, but I haven’t seen enough of it personally to agree with that. But as valuable as junglers always are, it could be a solid gamble for any team to take.
The roughest part of drafting Dubdrum is the attention that comes with it - he’s possibly the most arrogant smack-talker in the entire league and I don’t know how well he handles losing (which obviously wasn’t a problem last season, as he won the league), and comes off like he might rub teammates wrong - especially if he’s on a losing team.
14. OnTheWind
Season 5 Position: Top lane (1st Place - Swift is Shit)
Gold 5, 540 normal wins, 10 – 7 – 6 – 2 – 3
OnTheWind near the top third of my power rankings? File this under “things I never would have thought could happen as recently as 5 months ago”. OnTheWind’s skillset is very specific - he knows the strategic elements of top lane inside and out, which no other SBL top laner has shown the ability to come close to doing. His teleports are top notch, his wave control sets him up for great roams and objective-oriented map play, and he makes proper decisions inside of teamfights.
So what’s his weakness? His laning can fall anywhere from “just good enough to get by” to “abysmal”. As last season progressed, he raised his laning level just enough to focus on his strengths - setting himself up as a key member of Swift is Shit’s mid- and late- game transitions. It’s hard to say whether this was his own improvement or the incredibly weak pool of top laners he faced. If his next season is going to be a struggle, it will be a return to his massive lane losses.
However, if he gets onto a team-focused team and can play intelligently, I believe no top laner can compare to what he offers to his team in terms of communication and teamplay. And in a meta with so much high impact that can come out of top lane, that’s insanely valuable.
15. madam strippe
Season 5 Position: Top lane (3rd Place - Baby Scorpion Backpack)
Gold 5, 996 normal wins, 10 – 1 – 1 – 9 – 1
My opinion of madam strippe is a complete opposite of OnTheWind. Halfway through the regular season of last split, I thought he had completely returned to form in top lane (after spending a few seasons as an ADC) and was looking like the best top laner in the SBL by far. However, I think the complete derailing of Baby Scorpion Backpack was partially due to a slump in strippe’s play.
Strippe is capable of being a very dominant 1vs1 laner and is at his best playing strong champions that win lanes. If he sees success this season, I expect it to be rooted in lane bullying.
However, he has no idea how to use Teleport. His teamfighting can be inconsistent at times as well. And in the current meta, that’s pretty rough to overcome.
16. Miciro
Season 5 Position: Mid lane (3rd Place - Baby Scorpion Backpack)
Gold 3, 1500 normal wins, 2 – 9 – 10 – 7 – 5
Do you believe in chance? Because that’s essentially what any Miciro team will be. We’ve seen Mic alternate between Alice-killer and Silver-feeder too many times to count at this point - many times within the same series. When Mic is on, he’s a stud playmaker applying massive pressure to the enemy carries. When he’s not, he’s giving zero respect to an enemy jungler or generally having no game knowledge and dragging his team down to uncarriable levels.
17. Cruzmaster
Season 5 Position: AD Carry and Support (5th Place - Basically Jim Kelly)
Unranked (Gold 1 in Season 4), 1016 normal wins, 4 – 1 – 9 – 6 – 10
So Cruzmaster hasn’t been playing as much lately. He isn’t even ranked this season. And yet for some reason the only thing that worries me is that his practice availability is awful.
Cruzmaster knows how to lane. Cruzmaster knows how to peel. And Cruzmaster (still) has the best vision control of any of the support mains in the SBL.
His mid lane is very underappreciated as well, and something that could work out great for a team. He knows how to play well with low-priority on his team and tends to play much better on supportive champions, but he rarely-to-never loses lane by much, allowing him to get into midgame and focus on setting up his team’s other carries.
18. Keinhosen
Season 5 Position: AD Carry (2nd Place - Team Flashlight)
Gold 1, 847 normal wins, 5 – 3 – 7 – 8 – 5
If I made these rankings immediately following last season? Keinhosen is probably in the 7-10 range. However, he hasn’t been playing lately - and that amount of rust scares the hell out of me.
If he’s able to pick up the game quickly and play near the level he was at last season, he will be in the top half of ADCs in this league - potentially the best. However, if he doesn’t have time to devote to practice or just doesn’t pick up his form quickly, he could be the riskiest player in the League.
He ranks his mid close to his ADC as well, and in a league always looking for mid lane players he could be a solid option for a team looking to just add as much talent as possible. His mid lane is a lot rawer than his ADC, but a season of refinement might be enough to change that.
19. Scotchonaut (Rookie)
Unranked (Platinum 4 in Season 4), 1348 normal wins, 10 – 3 – 9 – 1 – 9
In his own words, he’s a supportive type player that doesn’t really carry on his own. If he’s playing top lane, there’s obviously a lot of effective ways to work that into a team comp. He was Platinum in Season 4, so he obviously had some level of skill.
He’s mostly only been playing Twisted Treeline this season, and in the storied history of the SBL, I’ve learned that typically means nothing about how he will transition back to Summoner’s Rift. We’ve had great 3s players and we’ve had awful ones, with little ability to predict what kind will show up. But if he can play at or near his old Platinum level, he’ll be a huge part of some team. Scotchonaut screams “typical SBL value pick” to me.
20. Thermador (Rookie)
Gold 3, 850 normal wins, 3 – 8 – 5 – 6 – 6
A rookie jungle main!? This is another pick that screams upside to me. Our jungle pool always ends up a little sketchy, but this looks like a player that should have serious experience at the position.
Of course, jungle is also the position with the biggest transition between solo queue and premade play. Until I’ve seen more, I also have to accept Thermador is a player that could completely burn out and fail to transition.
21. Deathgodnero
Season 5 Position: Top lane (2nd Place - Team Flashlight)
Gold 3, 2807 normal wins, 10 – 1 – 9 – 1 – 1
What does Deathgodnero do well? Dumpster every lane opponent, and typically splitpush his advantage. So why is he so low? Because he’s incredibly one-dimensional and a well-planned team should, in theory, be able to shut him down pretty effectively.
But he’s still insanely good at his 1vs1 match-up and was able to eliminate the opposing top laner entirely from more games than not, even when it seemed like it should be impossible. Whichever team he ends up on will probably have to play around his playstyle completely, but if a team is willing to utilize it, he has the potential to be an undervalued steal.
22. Amillionbabies
Season 5 Positions: AD Carry and Top Lane (5th Place - Basically Jim Kelly)
Gold 3, 900 normal wins, 7 – 1 – 6 – 8 - 10
Babies is one of the most consistent players I’ve seen, and the level you expect is almost always the level of play you get out of him. He’s never shone through to be a major star player, but he’s consistently done his job without making egregious mistakes to cost his team leads.
If he shows a major weakness it’s that he sometimes can begin playing too passively, and in a League where bot lane is going to be so highly contested, it’s a style he’ll want to make sure he doesn’t fall into this split.
However, just having a guy you can count on to not shit the bed is an often underlooked aspect of team building. He’s also committed to improvement throughout the season and a guy that will work hard with his team to grow.
23. Albinojoe
Did not participate in Season 5, has played in previous seasons as support
Gold 3, 669 normal wins, 2 – 7 – 2 – 9 - 10
Joe has good mechanical skills, but his play fluctuates more than anybody I’ve ever known. If Good Joe shows up, he will play adequately against his opposition. But when Bad Joe shows up, he tilts - and he tilts hard.
I think his game knowledge is lacking and he has a tendency to overcommit to “typical solo queue plays”. However, if he ends up in the right situation with teammates giving him proper direction, he can be an effective player.
24. GarenFrkngBaltar
Season 5 Position: AD Carry (4th Place - Debauchery Tea Party)
Silver 2, 823 normal wins, 7 - 7 - 6 - 10 - 7
Ol’ Dirty Garen managed to prove the doubters wrong with his strong finish to last season, but now the expectation will be to take the next step towards the big league of ADC in this League. He’s not yet at that level, and he will need to work hard to continue growing if he wishes to reach it.
He’s a very motivated player though, and should be someone his team can count on to give his all toward improving. Whether he can take a next step upward as an ADC will be on his shoulders.
25. The Gernig (Rookie)
Gold 5, 1000 normal wins, 8 - 1- 10 - 10 - 7
A guy who, to my knowledge, has no premade experience, playing one of the two primary carry roles in League of Legends. That’s always a scary prospect. However, he’s been to high gold, and he was really, really good at World of Warcraft*.
*In my experience this has nearly 0 correlation in determining good League of Legends players.
26. Thorr74 (Rookie)
Gold 5, 797 normal wins, 10 – 7 – 5 – 10 – 8
He plays top and AD Carry. He could be good. He could not be good.
27. Mitchurugi
Season 5 Positions: Bench, Support and Mid lane (5th Place - Basically Jim Kelly)
Gold 4, 365 normal wins, 4 – 4 – 8 – 7 – 8
His biggest problem in his debut split of the SBL was that he tended to be too passive. He wasn’t very vocal during games either, which can make it tough to keep up with all of the high-skill bot lanes the SBL produces. His mid lane was consistent but I have my concerns about champion pool size.
28. DevoutMilk
Season 5 Position: Jungle (2nd Place - Team Flashlight)
Silver 2, 1191 normal wins, 6 – 10 – 5 – 3 - 7
I play with Milk fairly often. And every time I play with him, I just keep thinking to myself: “How does this guy keep winning?”
His mechanics are decent but his game knowledge is sub-par. However, he accepts his role-player status and will follow commands to help put his teammates into the right position. So far that’s worked out pretty well for him.
29. Zezimas My Main
Did not participate in Season 5, has played in previous seasons as Top lane
Gold 3, 1256 normal wins, 9 – 6 – 5 – 2 – 3
This is probably the most difficult ranking I’ve done so far. Formerly known as ‘Slender Dan’, Zezimas has the potential to be the most dominant top laner in this entire league. So why ranked so low?
He’s a bit of a tilter and has an almost refusal to touch meta champions, and seemingly changes which champions he feels comfortable playing every few weeks. It can be really difficult to plan around him and use him effectively in-game.
But if Dan is on? The upside is insane, as he has plenty of potential to completely outplay his lane opponents.
30. FailedDestiny (Rookie)
Gold 5, 295 normal wins, 7 – 8 – 4 – 10 – 10
A rookie who plays bot lane, in a league known for having strong bot lanes. He might impress, but I would expect a rough transition.
31. Kvothe Hibbs
Season 5 Position: Support (6th Place - Troy’s Waste Management)
Gold 5, 575 normal wins, 3 – 6 – 6 – 8 – 7
Had a rough rookie season in Season 4, which is saying something because he was supporting Salvo for most of it. Might be more natural at ADC (his top rank), but as a support last season just didn’t seem to show much promise on a team that just didn’t seem to show much promise.
32. ManlortheMiracle
Season 5 Position: Bench (Mid lane when he did play)
Unranked, 1103 normal wins, 4 - 1 - 6 - 7 - 9
While Miciro plays every game like he’s simply rolling a die to calculate his performance, Manlor is on his knees praying for strength from some derpy Deity during his loading screen and pulling miracles out of nowhere on the Rift. He’s not called “The Miracle” for no reason - he’s often making bronze mistakes all game before pulling off ridiculous plays you don’t want to believe in. He was electric every time he came off the bench last split, and I could see his play falling anywhere between a surprisingly good cheap player or completely drowning in a full season’s focus.
33. LockemDown
Season 5 Positions: Jungle and Top lane (4th Place - Debauchery Tea Party)
Gold 5, 1163 normal wins, 7 – 9 – 2 – 4 – 6
Lockem is a solid team-oriented player who has an unfortunate habit to tunnel vision a bit too much sometimes. He has no issues accepting his place as a role player, but he requires strong direction from a shotcaller to be most successful.
However, he’s very willing to practice and receptive to criticism. He’ll work to improve over a season and practice with his team.
34. Boozegraph
Season 5 Positions: Top lane and Jungle (4th Place - Debauchery Tea Party)
Gold 4, 996 normal wins, 8 - 7 - 5 - 7 - 8
Booze is known to be a pretty strong tilter in-game, which is his defining trait. He’s an aggressive playmaker when he’s at this best, but has a hard time reacting to adversity within a game, which has an absolute effect on his gameplay if he falls behind at all.
He’s another player that requires strong direction from a shotcaller to be most effective in game, but the potential is there if he finds the right situation.
I’ve never seen his support but, to be honest, the idea scares me.
35. Kraegin
Did not participate in Season 5, has played in previous seasons as AD Carry
Gold 3, 979 normal wins, 4 – 8 – 8 – 6 – 10
Kraegin’s the type of player that changes his main role every few weeks when he finds a new champion to be interested in. In any of my times playing with him, I’ve never really found an impressive trait to his support. His mechanics don’t seem to be good as his ranking, and he doesn’t have any other particular strengths - especially when you consider the bot lanes he will have to keep up with.
36. Ghostsniper32 (Rookie)
Silver 2, 737 normal wins, 7 - 8 - 5 - 8 - 7
Ghostsniper has no real premade experience and from my discussions with him, I’d expect his transition to be rather rough. He plays a lot of champions but I have concerns about how many he’s really mastered. He’ll have to work hard to not simply play a solo queue style in his games.
37. NoiceOneBrotha
Season 5 Position: Mid lane (6th Place - Troy’s Waste Management)
Gold 5, 886 normal wins, 4 – 2 – 10 – 8 – 7
Simply put, had a rough rookie season last split. The big question all season was “Can he have an impact playing something besides Vel’koz” and, unfortunately for him, the answer seemed to be no. If he wants to be a bigger contributor this split, he’ll have to show a more versatile champion pool.
38. Zaku13x
Season 5 Position: Support (3rd Place - Baby Scorpion Backpack)
Silver 3, 297 normal wins, 3 – 3 – 5 – 7 – 9
Zaku started last season fairly well, managing to play more than just his staple Leona at acceptable levels. However, like his solo lanes, his play seemed to fall off towards the end of the season. His ability to play at that top level again would decide his value in his second season.