Following the completion of the first three rounds of the Swiss format in the LoL S15 World Championship, Riot Games re-evaluated the strength of the competing teams. The new power rankings still have LCK occupying the top three positions, with AL and T1 sharing third place. Top Esports and BLG, originally ranked 4th and 5th, fell to 7th and 8th respectively. CFO climbed three places to break into the top 5, FLY moved up to 6th, and the remaining teams experienced minimal shifts.
KT is ranked below BLG and Top Esports, which seems a bit unfair because KT swept Top Esports 2-0 in the qualifiers. In terms of strength, KT is definitely stronger than those two teams right now. However, Riot’s official rankings are based on the entire year’s win-loss records, so they don’t fully reflect current team strength. The rankings should be taken more as a reference.
After the third round of the Swiss stage, Riot updated the kill leaderboard for the World Championship main event. Faker still leads by a huge margin, with a total of 519 kills. Uzi, who was previously second, has been overtaken by Ruler and dropped to third place. Ruler is now historically second only to Faker. Deft remains fourth, and even though Uzi retired a long time ago, he still holds a spot in the top three, showing how lethal he was.
Besides kill counts, the official also shared the per-minute damage rankings for the first three rounds of the Swiss stage. The top spot still belongs to old Lee Sin, whose damage per minute reaches an impressive 905. Chovy follows with 873. The rest of the list is filled with AD carries: Viper, Ddag, and Ruler rank 3rd to 5th. Lee Sin’s damage output is truly remarkable, breaking the 900 mark — a point that even his aunt should reflect on.
After BLG’s shocking loss to G2, the team is on the brink of elimination. Winning the next best-of-three would keep their hopes alive, but losing means they stop at the round of 16. During the off-season, ELK gave a media interview and was asked how the team adjusted after the loss. ELK responded that no special adjustments were made because they were already playing strangely during the match; all they needed was to reset their mindset.
At the end of the interview, ELK told fans: all upcoming matches will be played seriously, no matter what, they will fight to reach Shanghai. Saying no adjustments will be made after a loss sounds vague. Doesn’t BLG realize there are issues with team decisions and communication? If they truly don’t adjust and then lose to the Brazilian team, they might as well disband immediately. But given the situation, let’s choose to believe for now.
The guests for the fourth and fifth round draws of the World Championship have been revealed. Originally, Xiaohu and Zz1tai were scheduled to participate, but Xiaohu couldn’t attend due to more important commitments. Xiye will replace him for the draw. According to Doinb, the WBG trio of top, mid, and jungle are all with the official practice squad, so Xiaohu is probably busy with that. Without General Tiger’s presence, the draw loses some excitement.
Judging by the results from the first three rounds of the LPL Swiss stage, the practice squad isn’t completely useless. AL, for example, achieved three consecutive wins and advanced to the knockout stage. However, Top Esports and BLG seem to have gained little benefit; BLG has lost consecutively to European and American teams, and Top Esports was swept by KT. Both teams don’t have major laning issues but tend to struggle in team fights. It might be worthwhile to focus training on that aspect.
ELK said BLG made no adjustments, but it’s unclear if that’s true or just a smokescreen. If their form remains like the first three games, they can’t guarantee a win against the Brazilian team. Putting that aside, at least they shouldn’t underestimate opponents anymore, especially Bin. When facing 100T and G2, he really didn’t take the enemy top laners seriously at all.
So, what do you think — can BLG sweep VKS?
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