Your OWL Rankings

With OWL just three days away, I think it's time to discuss where teams will place come the end of the season. So here are mine:

1. San Francisco Shock
2. NYXL
3. Atlanta Reign
4. Seoul Dynasty
5. Philadelphia Fusion
6. Vancouver Titans
7. Shanghai Dragons
8. Guangzhou Charge
9. LA Gladiators
10. Hangzhou Spark
11. Houston Outlaws
12. Washington Justice
13. Chengdu Hunters
14. Toronto Defiant
15. Dallas Fuel
16. Paris Eternal
17. Florida Mayhem
18. London Spitfire
19. LA Valiant
20. Boston Uprising

I think people are really sleeping on Houston. Last year they went 9-19 and looking at their additions, they've fixed their main problems enough to push them over the edge. They finished 16th last year, and now they've upgraded at flex dps (Hydration instead of Jake), off-tank(Meko instead of Coolmatt), and at main support(Jecse instead of Boink)

On the contrary, I think there is a higher chance of Vancouver not making the playoffs then winning the title. Reports about the team said there was a lot of internal conflict, with the Titans being largely player run and players turning om each other. The example given is that players on this team blamed Bumper or Tizi for their loses and felt they were bringing the team down, hence why both were released. So you take a team that is already unstable and add the most notorious trouble causer in OWL history with Fissure. Fissure has played for 3 different teams and was pretty much kicked off all 3. This season I don't see the Titans being able to role through teams like they did last year, and with the team already being a bomb waiting to explode, not only do you have a team that has to travel across the world together and Fissure being a match, i think there's a good chance the titans fall apart.

1. SF Shock
   • Doesn't need explaining
2. Atlanta Reign
   • Either Reign or XL tops Atlantic. Maybe they keep dominating NYXL also this year, which matchup will decide 2nd place
3. NYXL
   • Expecting XL playing the long game and losing more games during regular season and putting all eggs in Playoffs
4. Philadelphia Fusion
   • I wanted to put them 5th, but couldn't reason enough for any of the following teams being 4th. Also, if 5-7 Atlantic teams are dumpster tier Fusion has to be pretty high in the rankings, if they are my 3rd best Atlantic
5. Guangzhou Charge
   • Well I made my choice, but they will probably take slight backlash with all those cancelled Homestands (waiting for info how those games will be played) and place slightly worse than 5th.
6. Seoul Dynasty
   • This team never delivered, what was expected and I don't think they will either this year..
7. Shanghai Dragons
   • Probably small dropout in standings, because of all the things currently happening in China
8. Vancouver Titans
   • Fissure will be taking his talents to South Beach by the end of the season
9. LA Gladiators
   • Unsure of their DPS lineup being consistent
10. Hangzhou Spark
    • I don't even know, what did they do during off-season
11. Chengdu Hunters
    • I would want to place them lower mostly, because of this whole Corona-virus situation, but since there's no info how those games will be played I don't know how much it will eventually affect team mentally.
12. Houston Outlaws
    • Have to say Jecse bumped them up a little bit. Would be placing them around 15th otherwise
13. Paris Eternal
    • Maybe I am overrating them, but Paris crowd might give them a boost couple times, which might also motivate them for few more weeks
14. Toronto Defiant
    • Not really sure.. Hero Pools might help them, if it doesn't affect too much for, what heroes Beast must play
15. Washington Justice
    • Corey can't win every game alone
16. Dallas Fuel
    • Just getting dumpstered by stronger Pacific teams even, if they would win couple more Atlantic teams I placed ahead of them
17. London Spitfire
    • Not expecting 12 young Koreans to handle all the travelling across the pond(Atlantic Ocean) too well.
18. Florida Mayhem
    • Expect nothing and still get disappointed.. Mayhem 3.0 or 4.0 incoming
19. LA Valiant
    • I just can't reason myself putting them anywhere else even there's some OWL talent and players hyping them up, when I don't have any intel...
20. Boston Uprising
    • Where else?

Since I already went over how I thought teams were going to do awhile back, I'll just list my rankings updated based on new info and signings since then.

1. Shock (+0)
2. NYXL (+0)
3. Titans (+2)
4. Reign (-1)
5. Fusion (+3)
6. Dragons (-2)
7. Spark (-1)
8. Dynasty (-1)
9. Glads (+0)
10. Charge (+0)
11. Mayhem (+1)
12. Hunters (+1)
13. Justice (-2)
14. Outlaws (+2)
15. Defiant (+2)
16. Eternal (+1)
17. Spitfire (-3)
18. Fuel (-3)
19. Valiant (+1)
20. Boston (-1)

My controversial power rankings:

1. Seoul Dynasty
2. Vancouver Titans
3. Shanghai Dragons
4. SF Shock
5. NYXL
6. Atlanta Reign
7. Hangzhou Spark
8. Philadelphia Fusion
9. Paris Eternal
10. Florida Mayhem
11. London Spitfire
12. Chengdu Hunters
13. Guangzhou Charge
14. LA Gladiators
15. Dallas Fuel
16. LA Valiant
17. Houston Outlaws
18. Washington Justice
19. Toronto Defiant
20. Boston Uprising

0. Envy
1. Titans
2. Shock
3. Dynasty
4. Defiant
5. Spark
6. NYXL
7. Dragons
8. Fuel
9. Gladiators
10. Eternal
11. Mayhem
12. Reign
13. Charge
14. Hunters
15. Outlaws
16. Justice
17. Fusion
18. Spitfire
19. Uprising
20. Valiant

Just my gut feeling, can't really say much because I don't know how travel, meta/balance changes and her pools will affect all these teams. Teams are somewhat interchangeable within their tiers.

I'm also ULTRA BIASED when it comes to Toronto and cannot properly evaluate them, because they're my home team, so take that as you will.

S Tier

1. SF Shock
2. NYXL

A Tier

3. Atlanta Reign
4. Philadelphia Fusion
5. Vancouver Titans

B Tier

6. Shanghai Dragons
7. Seoul Dynasty
8. Hangzhou Spark
9. Guangzhou Charge
10. LA Gladiators

C Tier

11. Toronto Defiant
12. Chengdu Hunters
13. London Spitfire
14. Florida Mayhem
15. Houston Outlaws
16. Washington Justice

Pepega

17. Dallas Fuel
18. Paris Eternal
19. LA Valiant
20. Boston Uprising