Utility Monster and JeffGodGamer’s Week 3 Helios Power Rankings
9/9/2021
Click for last week’s Power Rankings
“Hi everyone, Utility Monster and JeffGodGamer here with the newest iteration of the Helios Power Rankings. This week will mark the halfway point of the season, and we’re starting to get a handle on how all the teams are performing. Our rankings this week might be a little bit boring, since they mostly mirror the league standings. To spice things up we’re adding position rankings to the power rankings, starting with top laners. We’ll get to all the other roles in future weeks.
Please note that our opinions are subject to change as players continue to improve and acclimate to the league. If we see any screenshots of the position rankings in #trash-talk calling us out, we’ll just change our minds about the relevant issue. To quote a close friend, “this is just our opinion, and if you don’t like it we have more.”
And you thought the modern GOP’s inability to stand by their words was bad. (SORRY, WE HAD TO. Please note that this is the personal political opinion of the authors, and may or may not reflect the official stances of the league as a whole. We’ll stop with the political commentary now.)
Without further ado, let’s trickle down into the actual rankings!”
- Utility Monster
8th - STC [-]
Aegis Gaming has formally withdrawn from Friend or Foe, and their replacements are Suck This **** Seal Team Chris (STC), a team of FoF OG players from season one. This team’s sole purpose is to boost head producer Chris Sunga, aka Songo, to FoF playoffs. It will be an uphill battle, though, as they take on a 0-6 record and will need to go on quite the miracle run to make it. By individual rankings their players will be competitive in the league, and we would expect them to take some games, but starting off with a winless record makes things much harder. We wish STC the best, but we’ll keep them ranked 8th until they can prove they deserve to move up.
Top lane ranking: 7th. ASM is an unknown quantity, so don’t read too much into this. We doubt he’ll be much more than an average top laner in the league, however.
7th - GURL [+/-]
It was another rough week for team GURL, and silver linings are hard to come by. They look individually outclassed in most of their games, and their overall team coordination isn’t up to par either. We wouldn’t mind seeing them try some new strategies; if playing standard won’t get you wins, then playing off meta can help, especially against the top teams in the league. GURL’ll have to practice and prepare hard for their second round matches against the other bottom half teams, because taking down the top dogs seems out of reach for now.
Top lane ranking: 5th. It’s hard to look good on a losing team, but BAKINPANCAKES has never looked individually outmatched. He hasn’t been more than solid, though.
6th - CFG [+2]
CFG is frustratingly inconsistent. They looked fantastic last week, especially against RLS, but the hype train got derailed with a loss against TG. It could be that the team is just snowbally, winning if they get ahead and losing convincingly otherwise. We hope to see more of their impressive performances going forward, but we can’t trust them just yet, so we’re keeping CFG ranked at the number six spot. If they can bring out the best version of CFG more frequently, though, they’ll be a tough nut to crack come playoffs.
Top lane ranking: 8th. Polevolter has had some very poor performances, and his team’s most impressive win came when he was subbed out. That said, he looked the worst in week one, so maybe the personal growth will continue.
5th - PTP [-1]
PTP is better than last year - their record doesn’t lie - but they’re still slightly below average in the league overall. They don’t have any standout performers, but their teamplay has actually been pretty good. It’s nice to see a team that strives to improve based on map play and communication rather than just grinding solo queue. Due to some practice schedules not lining up, PTP is swapping top laner and jungler starting this week, and it’s unclear if that’s a positive or negative change overall. Also, they beat us in a showmatch last week, and we’re still annoyed. Jeff’s Zoe deserved better, and Utility Monster really wanted a Lee Sin win so his friends would stop making fun of his mechanics.
Top lane ranking: 6th. Maiden op will probably not be allowed to play his one trick in FoF competition, but we think he has the ability to perform OK on the rest of his pool, and we might be pleasantly surprised.
4th - TG [-1]
TG seems like the most consistent team in the league, but frankly we doubt their ability to truly compete with the other top teams.
Top lane ranking: 4th. ShieldedValor looks good on Shen, but we’re not convinced by the depth of his champion pool yet. It’s hard to judge from such a small sample size, though.
3rd - INT [-1]
INT started the season well, but now they only look good and not great. Perhaps being forced to switch support players was a bigger hit to team synergy than we expected, especially given how well INT has performed with subs in the past. Losses to high quality teams like RLS and REX isn’t the end of the world, but INT has some work to do in order to break back into the top of the league. We hope they can improve their macro especially - their losses have come off of an inability to impact games after the laning phase. The only strategy they have is grouping and taking coinflip fights at dragon if they don’t win all their lanes to begin with. Adding more strategic depth to their play would easily catapult INT back into contention for the #1 spot.
Top lane ranking: 3rd. Brocklee900 never looks terrible, and has pop off moments. He’s not quite in the S rank of top laners in the league, but he’s certainly a strong point for his team.
2nd - RLS [+3]
We overreacted last week, they’re still good.
Top lane ranking: 1st. Ahntye is clearly the focal point of this team, insofar as they have one with their macro teamfighting style. He looks terrible in other roles though, so we hope he isn’t forced to sub in mid lane anymore.
1st - REX [+/-]
Still the best team in the league.
Top lane ranking: 2nd. Joushi is good, but he’s not even the best top laner named Josh in his league. Being Worse Josh must sting. Still, he’s a rock for his team in the top lane.
