Utility Monster and JeffGodGamer’s Week 6 Helios Power Rankings
9/30/2021
Click for last week’s Power Rankings
“It’s the second-to-last Helios power rankings of Friend or Foe Season Four, and it’s still being written by Utility Monster and JeffGodGamer. Only one more week of games before playoffs begin, and we can’t wait. Next week will be more of a retrospective look at how the teams did this season, with some playoff predictions, so this will be the last “normal” power rankings. Time flies!
This week’s position rankings visit the mid lane, and we have some spicy takes. We also made this political compass meme to help you familiarize yourself with all the players. As members of Yuumiversal Basic Income, we’re disappointed in the lack of economic leftist midlaners, but we’ll continue to evangelize the benefits of economic redistribution.”
- Utility Monster
8th - GURL [+/-]
GURL’s playoff hopes are all but dead, even if they remain mathematically alive, as they face off against two top teams in TG and RLS this week. They have at least split their games against both CFG and STC, so they could force a tiebreak, but since those teams play each other one of them is guaranteed 4 wins, and a 2-0 week for GURL is astronomically unlikely. GURL has never quite managed to put together a complete game, and there’s not much else to say.
Mid rank: 7th. xNek0x has never impressed us, as she often loses lanes and mis-positions or misses key abilities in teamfights. Still, it’s hard to separate individual performances in losing matches. One thing we have liked is her willingness to look for opportunities to make proactive plays in losing game states. The results often look bad, since fighting from a deficit with your team not on the same page has bad outcomes, but looking for plays instead of rolling over and giving up shows impressive mental fortitude.
7th - CFG [-1]
CFG sports an almost completely new roster, and while individually they may be slight upgrades, the team coordination was clearly lacking. CFG went 0-2 in week six, though to their credit, they put league-leading TG to the test. The match against STC will likely determine their playoff fates, as a win all but locks the 6th seed, while a loss requires them to get help just to force a tiebreak.
Mid rank: 5th. Rout looked like a bright spot in his two games, and he is at least an average mid laner in this league. It’s not enough of a sample size to say much else, unfortunately.
6th - PTP [-1]
PTP continues to maintain a 50% win rate, and their drop to 6th in the power rankings reflects a new belief in the strength of STC more than it does a recent drop in PTP’s quality of play. PTP defeated RLS this week, which is always impressive, but it was with RLS fielding substitutes, and RLS has looked notably worse when not playing their starting lineup. Still, PTP is locked for playoffs, and after their winless season three, that’s a huge improvement. We’ll see how they’ll adapt to a best-of-five series format.
Mid rank: 6th. Graviel has been solid but unspectacular, probably in part because he’s been forced to practice and play other roles for his team throughout the season, most notably jungle. He does his job, especially on control mages, but doesn’t tend to go the extra mile.
5th - STC [+2]
Over the last two weeks, Songo’s Tiny Chode Seal Team Chris has gone 3-1, including a dramatic win against INT this past week. Much of the credit goes to their new midlaner, who has popped off, but the entire team looks both individually capable in the laning phase and fairly coordinated afterwards. A key match against CFG on Thursday seems destined to determine which of the two teams goes to playoffs, and which will have their season end this week.
Mid rank: 2nd. The recent surge up the standings from STC has completely coincided with IMSOLOING joining the roster, and looking at his gameplay and stats back up the idea that he is a huge part of this teams’ wins. His ability to take over the game is second to none, and while his champion pool isn’t huge, it looks big enough to force several critical bans moving forward. We’re sold on this guy, and we kind of hope STC completes the dream run so we get to see more of him in the playoffs.
4th - RLS [+/-]
RLS remains the worst good team in the league. We keep hearing good things about their performance in scrims behind the scenes, but it doesn’t translate consistently to the matches that matter. Perhaps the scrim gods will finally show up in playoffs, but until then RLS will remain at the 4th spot, looking wistfully at the teams above them and wishing they were that good.
Mid rank: 4th. PenguSol is rarely completely outclassed, and is clearly a teamfight-focused player, so going even in lane tends to be good enough. There’s not quite enough individual playmaking happening for him to stand out, but there’s also no substantive complaints about his gameplay from us.
3rd - REX [+/-]
REX handled GURL, but lost convincingly to TG thanks to a poor early game and not being on the same page in teamfights. It’s a matchup that seems fairly likely to reoccur in the playoffs, so we hope REX learned a lot from the loss. Recent losses to both INT and TG keep REX at the number three spot in the league, despite INT also faltering this week. It’s a warning sign when you’ve lost to both your closest competitors in the league going into playoffs, but a fantastic first half of the season does at least keep the dinosaurs the favorite for the second first round bye.
Mid rank: 3rd. Zenzen, like PenguSol, is a solid laning player who plays for teamfights, and the skill between the two is frankly quite close. We think Zenzen has shown more depth to his play, so he snags the third place spot, but it could go either way. Solid players like this are a great building block for any team.
2nd - INT [+/-]
INT is making it as hard as they can to justify this second place spot - a loss to STC this past week is a tough pill to swallow. We are still relying on their head-to-head victory over REX to put them in the second place spot, but it’s very close, and it would be cool to see the two teams play a best of five against each other. Make it happen, scriptwriters! INT plays RLS and PTP this week, which is two games they should win, but neither can be taken for granted. It should be a great illustration of INT’s form heading into playoffs.
Mid rank: 8th. This one might be a bit controversial, but we think EvolvedNewb just isn’t good. He consistently goes slightly behind in lane and looks lost in teamfights, as evidenced in the STC loss. The fact that the team around him is so good allows him to hide some of his flaws. Perhaps he brings a lot of intangibles to the table, but we don’t think his pure individual skill is above anyone else in the league.
1st - TG [+/-]
TG has cemented themselves at the top of the league, and there’s not much more to say. Wins over REX and INT in the last two weeks, while not completely one-sided, are enough to say that TG looks to be a cut above the competition. We look forward to seeing if they’ll continue that momentum this week and into playoffs, or if teams will eventually find a weakness to exploit. We don’t see any big weaknesses ourselves; perhaps the early laning phase, but that’s more of a slight soft spot than a true weakness. Without an obvious Achilles heel, it’s easy to imagine TG staying on top from here on out.
Mid rank: 1st. Tien has looked fantastic since joining TG, especially when scaling into the teamfight phase of the game. We’ve heard rumors of some toxic behavior behind the scenes, though, and maintaining a good team environment can outweigh individual ability.
