RLCS S9: Week 8 Power Rankings

RLCS league play has concluded, and with the end of the season brings our final edition (for now) of the NA power rankings.

THE GGRECON POWER RANKINGS COMMITTEE:

• Ben “notblondemonkey” Hurst - /r/RocketLeagueEsports mod and writer for GGRecon, The Players’ Lobby, GinxTV and others
• John_aka_Alwayz - /r/RocketLeagueEsports mod and writer for GGRecon and Octane
• Sly - RLCS Statistician and lead writer for Octane
• Jake - Head of Operations for GGRecon & Rocket League fan.

#10 - Flight - rapid, Sea-Bass, Memory (-)

Well, they ended where they began and were expected to be. Rooted to the bottom. Apart from looking on par with Cloud9 at their absolute lowest, and a measly win over the barely more impressive eUnited, Flight despite taking games has never had anyone’s faith to be an actual threat. It is a great shame because the individual pieces are there, many a fan are clamoring for Memory to hopefully land on a top team in the not so distant future. However with manager Base gone, Sea-Bass not playing the recent Astronauts cup, it’s fair to say that Flight has been grounded for the foreseeable future. 

#9 - eUnited - Hockser, Roll Dizz, Ayjacks (-1)

From making the world championship to actually matching last season’s expectations, the former birds have had a hugely underwhelming showing this season. After far too many a match in which they got dominated, the common response is that you can only do so much vs tier one teams, but when arguably seven sides in the league can make a playoffs run on any given day, being thoroughly outclassed by all of them will not cut it at an RLCS level. They will now battle for their RLCS status in the promotion/relegation playoffs, and regardless of results, a roster move is inevitable, whether its to help Hockser or let him move to bigger and better things.

#8 - Rogue - Wonder, Kronovi, firstkiller (-)

If there’s a silver lining for Rogue’s season, is at least they didn’t automatically demote to RLRS. Besting Flight 3-0 in the pseudo relegation match to live to fight another day. Regardless of how poor Flight may be, a comfortable 3-0, even with a substitute bodes well for Rogue in the promotion/relegation tournament. Yes their luck ran out with AyyJayy’s departure and they finally succumbed to missing the playoffs, but the foundations are there. Wonder has had one of his better seasons, while firstkiller is only getting better as time goes on. Unlike their relegation brethren in eUnited, there is genuine hope and potential for this side going forward. 

#7 - Pittsburgh Knights - ExplosiveGyro, Retals, AyyJayy (-)

Potentially one of the poorest roster decisions in the history of Rocket League. Even with mist’s desire to leave, the decision to bring in AyyJayy has not worked at all. Only three series win this season, two of which vs the bottom two sides in the standings, their best showings were unfortunately game five losses to NRG & the Soniqs. For the longest time, their poor record was just seen as a product as a front-loaded schedule, yet they would go on to lose to Rogue, the series that ultimately not only changed their perception, but condemned them to miss the playoffs. There are a lot of questions about PK now, whether they’ll stay together or who or what changes could happen, but one thing is certain, with AyyJayy they are not a top tier roster.

#6 - Ghost Gaming - Allushin, Atomic, Mist (-)

One of the weirdest sides to evaluate, on raw talent, Ghost should be battling for first in the region. In reality, they are quite inconsistent, but overall talented enough to warrant respect and even some fear from other sides. Nothing encapsulates this more than beating NRG in five games after getting swept by Cloud9 the previous week. Now while they are the 6th seed, given some momentum they legitimately can go all the way, such is the strength and depth of the NA field this season. If Atomic on form is enough to dismantle NRG, it’s enough to best anyone.

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=#4 - Susquehanna Soniqs - Satthew, Shock, Dappur (-)

Despite coming 3rd in league play, the SOniqs find themselves the dark horses of the NA regional playoffs. Their hot streak has seemingly ground to a halt. Late season losses to Cloud9 with Fireburner, and more recently, being perfect swept by G2. Don’t get us wrong, the Soniqs can absolutely win the entire bracket, but they are the team most sides will want to play out of the six in the bracket. Perhaps this is to their benefit, as they do still have the probable MVP Shock in their ranks. Truthfully, their season has already been a huge success, top four would be legitimacy, any further would be the icing on the cake. 

=#4 - Cloud9 - SquishyMuffinz, Gimmick, Torment (+1)

Who would have thought that compared to our pre-season rankings, Cloud9 would end up improving on their ranking of 5th by the end of league play? Yet with four series wins in a row with a 12-2 record, C9 breaks the top four in our rankings and is a massive wildcard for the NA finals. Gimmick through thick and thin is NA’s golden striker & Torment continued his resurgence in the clean sweep over Pittsburgh Knights. Of course, because of their early-season woes, they are only the 5th seed going into playoffs, meaning they will have only one life to make the top four, and then have to deal with the top seed. But if Cloud9 has literally risen from the dead, is it impossible to say they can’t go all the way?

#3 - NRG Esports - GarrettG, Jstn, Turbopolsa (-1)

Here is a sentence no one expected to say days before the regional finals. NRG realistically might not make the playoffs finals. It seems absurd but their 3rd loss of the season to Ghost Gaming has resulted in their worst showing since season six, indeed a season they did win the regional playoffs, but more notably went 0-2 at the LAN finals in Las Vegas. Therefore there are concerns NRG will be unable to win a 4th consecutive regional championship. For their excellent, literal world champion standards, Jstn is quiet, Turbopolsa is making uncharacteristic mistakes and GarrettG is at times invisible. That being said, the NRG team lineage, all the way back to season one, has made every regional finals barring season four, so history suggests this is their tournament. However current form might mean a top two with no NRG is in the near future.

#2 - G2 Esports - Jknaps, Rizzo, Chicago (+1)

Fears that G2 would completely throw away their stellar 5-0 start to RLCS nearly came through, loss number three came at the hands of SSG, making the contest vs Susquehanna Soniqs of high importance. And that series was the arrival of the G2 that allegedly is untouchable in scrims. In a 2nd vs 3rd match, G2 decimated the Soniqs, sweeping them and allowing zero goals to be scored against them. This has allowed them to secure top two in league play for the 5th time in their history, and now climb to two in our rankings (with help from NRG slumping). Whether they’ll keep that top two in the playoffs is another question but this may be their time to not only achieve that but potentially go all the way.

#1 - Spacestation Gaming - AxB, Sypical, Arsenal (-)

Unlike the rest of the new sides that all reached their first world championship last December, Spacestation Gaming has stuck around at the top, and then some. This past weekend saw the solidify their top-dog status by beating G2 3-1. Arsenal, despite having not a lot to do this season, scored himself a musty flick en route to player of the week. Their only slip this season thus far was a slip against the SOniqs in week two, but since defeating NRG, they have gone on a 7 series win streak in the RLCS. Ultimately, despite the renaissance of Cloud9 & G2, and the ever-looming threat of NRG, Spacestation Gaming enters this weekend’s playoffs the clear favourites to take the title and truly bring an end to the establishment.

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