The League of Legends rankings at the start of 2026 have surprised many
As the early year tournaments have concluded in preparation for First Stand 2026, as usual, the League of Legends community eagerly awaits expert statistics on the teams and players after the recent phase. Of course, the audience has their own evaluations, but the overall rankings also attract attention. Recently, the Global Ranking of team strength after the early season phase was released, surprising many as the top three positions belonged to Gen.G, T1, and HLE.
The reason for the surprise is that, apart from Gen.G, both T1 and HLE did not have particularly good early year performances. T1 suffered two consecutive losses against BNK and DK, bitterly exiting the LCK Cup, and missing out on First Stand for another year. Meanwhile, HLE left the early LCK tournament right after the group stage but still held the third position, better than the LPL Split 1 champion BLG.
– Gen.G is reasonable, but T1 and HLE surprised me
– The early rankings likely still depend heavily on last year’s season, CFO is still in this top 10
– With both FlyQuest and KT above AL, this must be heavily based on last year
The League of Legends rankings are not too far off from actual results
This is because all five teams in the top five have had some achievements recently, including HLE, which had a very stable 2025 season, especially in the second half, being the only competitor against Gen.G. HLE’s elimination from the LCK Cup 2026 was mainly due to the tournament’s format rather than the results of this team, as opposed to the team that advanced, BRO, which did not win a single match throughout the entire season.
Therefore, despite much debate, the majority opinion still agrees with the rankings, and any changes will likely only occur when upcoming tournaments like First Stand or MSI begin.