Currently, all domestic leagues, especially the four leagues from the Major regions of the League of Legends scene, are preparing to enter the final stages of the group stage. The first names to enter the playoffs are gradually revealing themselves, such as T1, Weibo Gaming, Victory Five… However, this does not mean that the matches are free of surprises. For example, the continuous disappointments of the 2021 World Champions – EDward Gaming.
After showing an inconsistent performance, EDG, once a contender for the championship, is now being rated much lower in the eyes of the international League of Legends community. Specifically, recently, the updated power rankings from the past week have surprised fans with the new ranking changes of teams across all four Major regions in the League of Legends scene.
It is clear that if we only consider the two largest tournaments, LCK and LPL, only two teams successfully maintained their status after Week 7, namely T1 and WBG. Broadening the scope, Fnatic from LEC also retains its position… near the bottom of the rankings, just above Team Liquid, who has just entered the picture. Although they were crushed by Royal Never Give Up, WBG managed to bounce back in their match against LGD Gaming, but that victory left much controversy. As for V5, they unexpectedly lost to JD Gaming. Thus, Rookie and his teammates missed the opportunity to create distance from WBG and climb the international power rankings.
However, after an early period of being highly rated, Bilibili Gaming has now “fallen off” the rankings. Nevertheless, this team consists entirely of players who are competing together for the first time, and the members of BLG are not exactly superstars who can single-handedly change the outcome of a match. But the most disappointing position is that of EDward Gaming. The 2021 World Champions have fallen to a position near the bottom (ranked 8th out of 10).
However, this position is entirely understandable. From being a championship contender with impressive early-season victories, EDG has lost its way after the defeat to WBG. The “last straw” was their recent match against Anyone’s Legend – a team positioned in the lower half of the rankings, where EDG also surprisingly lost 1-2. It can be said that the 2021 World Champions are going through tough times. However, EDG’s strength cannot be underestimated as they enter the decisive playoffs – where they often shine and deliver unexpected victories.
Meanwhile, the community has expressed disagreement with this ranking. The reason is that some teams like Gen.G Esports and V5 have not ranked very high or there is debate over the positions of teams from LEC and LCS. However, this is a ranking based on performance and has likely excluded objective factors such as Gen.G being affected by Covid-19.
And since no one can predict the outcomes of the matches, all rankings should only serve as a reference and only partially reflect the performance of the teams. As for which team is stronger or weaker, it is likely very difficult to state clearly because sometimes, just a moment of brilliance, a team that is underrated can completely create an “earthquake”, as exemplified by AL against EDG.