SX Phase 1 Playoffs
Warriors Score a Godlike Streak While The Kings Are In Freefall
#1
Oni Warriors
10-0 (1st Chaos)
Previous ranking: 1
The Warriors captured history last week, defeating the Gilded Gladiators and Jade Dragons to secure sole possession of the all-time consecutive set win streak. With their streak still active, the Warriors will be looking to put this record into ‘unreachable’ territory by winning Masters and extending their dominance later into the season. For now, there doesn’t seem to be a formula for beating the Warriors; they adapt well, which makes them tough in best of threes and perhaps untouchable in best of fives.
#2
Highland Ravens
7-3 (1st Order)
Previous ranking: 4
After a loss to the Kings in Week 3, winning the order division seemed like a tall task for this Highland squad. The Ravens responded by winning out the phase, including a mostly-dominant (outside of some game 2 stumbles) victory over those same Kings. Now, they’re headed to Masters as the second seed. This week especially demonstrated how well these Ravens are playing right now; the Ferrymen were surging and the Kings are still the defending champions, and the Ravens dispensed with both of them relatively easily. The prospect of a Ravens-Warriors rematch at Masters is intriguing, but the Ravens will need to defy the narrative that they fade come playoff time.
#3
Styx Ferrymen
5-5 (T-3rd Order)
Previous ranking: 3
Stop letting Baskin play Vamana.
#4
Eldritch Hounds
5-5 (T-3rd Order)
Previous ranking: 5
The Hounds established themselves as a legitimate top-four team when they stamped out the Kings last week. Oathhh erupted with a baffling 17/5/8 slashline across two victories against the Kings as he continues to battle fellow teammate Vaporishcoast for the early odds on rookie of the year. They struggled some with the draft against the Ferrymen on Sunday, which leaves them now with a tie-breaker rematch against that very team on Thursday to determine seeding for the Path to Masters tournament.
#5
Camelot Kings
5-5 (2nd Order)
Previous ranking: 2
The Kings are in freefall. Relative to their expectations, this phase quickly turned into an absolute disaster. After starting 4-0, the Kings finished the phase with a paltry 1-5, including a dreadful 0-4 final two weeks that featured key losses to each of their three division opponents. Only the Jade Dragons matched those results, with every other team winning at least two sets over the final three weeks. Their sets are competitive for the most part, but the Kings have stopped being able to find wins, and the right side of the map in Variety and CaptainTwig has less-so struggled to control the pace and more-so outright forfeited control nearly every match. Tingz, Jarcorrr, and Genetics continue to put up solid numbers, but the dominant high-kill-low-death slashlines that had muscled the Kings to a 4-0 start are appearing less and less as teams adapt.
#6
Jade Dragons
3-7 (T-2nd Chaos)
Previous ranking: 8
The Jade Dragons never looked bad in the numbers, but often struggled to create and convert leads into advantages, and then further struggled to convert those advantages into wins. Outside of a puzzling mid-set role swap, the Dragons seemed to make ample progress on that front against the Leviathans. As Mike suggested in the post-game interview, this team has yet a long way to go, but that win on Sunday was desperately needed to avoid an 0-6 finish over the final six weeks. It was enough to inspire confidence in me that this team can project as a middle of the pack team heading into the season’s first playoff event.
#7
Atlantis Leviathans
3-7 (T-2nd Chaos)
Previous ranking: 6
I am puzzled by this team. On paper, they should be a strong roster, but they have struggled to consistently string together wins. It seemed like they may be vulnerable to the Gladiators coming into last week, but they won that set convincingly. Then the Dragons beat them despite giving them essentially a free game 2. What sticks out to me so far: fineokay does not seem like himself. His 25/45/162 isn’t the worst slashline among solo laners, but it is distinctly unlike Alec Fonzo, who has been known for dominant KDAs in the past. As hard as it is to perscribe a fix for this team, it is equally hard not to imagine them challenging for tournament wins later in the season.
#8
Gilded Gladiators
2-8 (4th Chaos)
Previous ranking: 7
The Gladiators had two weeks in a row with wins, which was enough for me to bump them out of the 8th rank over the ailing Jade Dragons. Last week, however, the Gladiators seemed to take a step back, losing first to the Warriors in 50 minutes of game time and again in a convincing 0-2 to the Leviathans. It is promising that they can take some wins off of other SPL teams, but this roster still has work to do to be legitimately competitive throughout the year. With the Dragons showing improvement and the Gladiators reverting to their early phase struggles regrettably moves them back into the #8 ranking.
