Jeong "Chovy" Ji-hoon celebrates Gen.G's win over DWG KIA

LoL global and regional power rankings for March 28

T1, again, stay on top while they watch the rest of the list shuffle in mild amusement

Upcomer Staff

Published: Mar 28, 2022 05:01 pm

As usual, Upcomer is back with our top 10 global League of Legend teams after a strenuous day of heated debate. The good news is the European teams are back. The better news is there are two of them to discuss, as we welcome back both League of Legends European Championship representatives Fnatic and Rogue. Also, there’s no bad news for this week, unless a team you like didn’t make the list (or you’re an NA fan).

10. Rogue, LEC

Record: 14-4 | Results this week: 3-1 | movement: new

Yes, Rogue have a better record than Fnatic. However, looking at the last few weeks of the LEC regular season, Fnatic did seem like a stronger team. To me, those first playoffs games we had further indicated that trend.

Both teams won their series with a 3-1 record, but Rogue faced a pretty disappointing Misfits that possibly showed the lacking experience of some of their players.

Still, Rogue are extremely close to Fnatic. I had some doubts when Kim “Malrang” Geun-seong received best jungler in the LEC, however he had a very good showing in his playoff series. I also still believe Rogue’s carries have a lot of talent. Fun fact: Andrei “Odoamne” Pascu averaged 673 Damage per minute against Misfits this weekend.

In addition, Rogue are a team whose performances in best-of-fives have sometimes been questioned, as they commonly perform much better during the regular season. I think that against Misfits, they proved to still be the same team and that they’re here as a serious contender for the LEC. This would also make them potential contenders to represent Europe once again on the international stage.

— Brieuc “LEC Wooloo” Seeger

9. Fnatic, LEC

Fnatic players mid-air during their celebration after beating G2 Esports — Fnatic players mid-air in a post-match victory celebration after defeating G2 Esports. | Photo by Michal Konkol for Riot Games

Record: 13-5 | Results this week: 3-1 | movement: new

Martin “Wunder” Nordahl Hansen just beat his former team, G2 Esports, proving the Fnatic top laner is far from washed up. And contrary to Rogue, Fnatic have always been a team to fear in LEC playoffs.

Players like Zdravets “Hylissang” Iliev Galabov and Marek “Humanoid” Brázda have proven to be world class players. On top of that, Elias “Upset” Lipp is considered by many the best bot laner in Europe right now. With Iván “Razork” Martín Díaz stepping it up, too, Fnatic have a roster that can do a lot of damage.

For Fnatic to climb higher in the power rankings, they will need to show a bit more dominance. But whether they climb, stay static or fall off, their clash against Rogue next week is a must-watch series.

— Wooloo

8. DWG KIA, LCK

Record: 12-8 (32-17) | Results this week: 1-1 (5-3) | movement: –

DWG KIA came into the LCK playoffs as a dark horse, as T1 and Gen.G locked up the two favorite slots and made the most of their time in the postseason. While the squad hasn’t managed to put together an as oppressive split as their previous iterations, making the playoffs and playing Gen.G as close as they did is impressive and worth a spot on the rankings.

If this young team had managed to hold their lead in the final game against Gen.G, then maybe we would be talking about a return to form by the golden children of the LCK.

— Declan McLaughlin

7. Edward Gaming, LPL

Record: 10-6 (23-14) | Results this week: 1-0 (3-1) | movement: –

Edward Gaming entered the LPL 2022 spring playoffs as a team half asleep. After starting 7-1, they collapsed during the last part of the regular season. Now, EDG are slowly regaining their form and seem to be waking up at the right time.

4v5? No problem for Scout as he goes full HERO mode! #LPL pic.twitter.com/v4rDAcmLVg

— LPL (@lplenglish) March 27, 2022

In their Round 1 playoff matchup against FunPlus Phoenix, EDG won in convincing fashion with a 3-1 victory that saw mid laner Lee “Scout” Ye-chan do the heavy lifting. Meanwhile, Li “Flandre” Xuan-Jun looked much more like his 2021 League of Legends World Championship self.

The road only gets tougher from here on out, though, with a match up against Weibo Gaming in Round 2. Despite their low seed, EDG are the team to look out the most for on this list. It’s hard to bet against EDG in a best of five format.

— Warren Younger

6. Royal Never Give Up, LPL

Record: 12-4 (25-14) | Results this week: – | movement: -1

Egads, have RNG dropped a single place below Top Esports because they’re bad now? Has everyone converted from the Church of the Tiger Emperor to atheism?

A crisis in belief aside, we’ve decided to cautiously put RNG one spot below Top Esports for this week, just because TES have played their first best-of-five and looked pretty good. RNG, on the other hand, played their final regular season game against Oh My God and raised some question marks in the process. It almost looked like they didn’t take the series seriously or were limit testing, but we prefer to err on the side of caution, for now.

Personally, I think of RNG as a team that have mixed performances against lower-end of the table teams but who always rise to the occasion against stronger foes. Top laner Chen “Bin” Ze-Bin has looked much more in sync with RNG in recent weeks, but there have been some hiccups still.

We believe there’s good reason for RNG to be sitting second in the LPL, but we’ll wait a bit to see them play again before placing them higher.

— E.G. “Megalodontus” Kant

5. Top Esports, LPL

Record: 11-5 (24-17) | Results this week: 1-0 (3-1) | movement: +1

Top Esports came into the LPL 2022 spring playoffs as one of the hottest teams in the league. Thanks to their insane back half of the split, the team found themselves with the fifth seed. Their 7-1 record in the last eight series granted them a high enough seed to earn a first-round bye in the playoffs — and with it, a match against Bilibili Gaming in Round 2.

Where did knight's enemies go? Quadra for knight!! #LPL pic.twitter.com/E1v5yGMvht

— LPL (@lplenglish) March 28, 2022

After a surprising Game 1 loss, TES turned on the jets and won three games straight to move on to the next round. They rise one spot for their performance this week thanks to their continued hot streak, but they will be tested when they take on LNG Esports later this week.

— Younger

4. Gen.G, LCK

Record: 16-3 (33-14) | Results this week: 1-0 (3-2) | movement: –

Despite their win over DWG KIA, Gen.G stay at their current ranking thanks to the continued success of teams above them (plus and a few mistakes in their semifinal series). If it wasn’t for the continued excellence of Jeong “Chovy” Ji-hoon and Park “Ruler” Jae-hyuk, Gen.G might not even still be in the running for a spot at the Mid-Season Invitational.

They are still a top LCK squad, meaning they could give plenty of teams at the top a fright in champion select and on the rift, but they still need to concur their big brothers in T1 to move an inch globally.

— McLaughlin

3. JD Gaming, LPL

Record: 11-5 (26-12) | Results this week: – | movement: –

Oh, what’s this? JDG have not been nudged out of third despite being stuck waiting on the winner of Edward Gaming and Weibo Gaming?

The main threat to JDG from last week was Gen.G. After a valiant effort, Gen.G overcame DK to move into the finals, but we expected a lot more from their series — especially since they fielded their full lineup. So considering JDG’s performances from the relatively recent final week of the regular season, we feel it will take a bit more to push JDG down.

There’s not much to elaborate on compared to last week, except that jungler Seo “Kanavi” Jin-hyeok made the LP 2022 spring All-Pro first team. Support Lou “Missing” Yun-Feng made the third team as well.

The #LPL All Pro teams are complete!
1st:
V5 Rich, JDG Kanavi, V5 Rookie, V5 Photic, RNG Ming
2nd:
WBG TheShy, V5 Karsa, RNG Xiaohu, LNG Light, BLG Crisp
3rd:
TES Wayward, LNG tarzan, EDG Scout, EDG Viper, JDG Missing pic.twitter.com/nlx2PGmkDV

— LPL (@lplenglish) March 28, 2022

We’ll see if our decision to keep them third will come to bite us in our ars- behinds on March 31.

— Megalodontus

2. Victory Five, LPL

Record: 14-2 (29-11) | Results this week: 1-0 (2-0) | movement: –

Victory Five didn’t have a playoff game last week, but they did have a rescheduled, regular-season match against Anyone’s Legend. In their final contest of the LPL 2022 spring before playoffs, V5 had nothing substantial on the line. The team had already locked up the first seed heading into postseason play. However, that didn’t stop them from showcasing their dominance.

The match was not competitive, as V5 quickly dispatched AL 2-0. The win gave V5 their 14th win of the season. Sitting at 14-2 and also having the newly crowned MVP with Song “Rookie” Eui-jin in the mid lane, V5 are firing on all cylinders. Still, we’ll have to wait to see them again until a team meets them at their Round 3 starting line in the playoffs.

— Younger

1. T1, LCK

T1 awaiting their finals opponent in the LCK — Keep calm and stay undefeated | Photo by Riot Games

Record: 19-0 (39-7) | Results this week: 1-0 (3-0) | movement: –

Kwangdong Freecs got hit by a steamroller this weekend as T1 continued their winning streak into the playoffs. The Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok-led squad has a date with destiny in the LCK spring playoff grand finals as they take on Gen.G to bookend a perfect split regionally and punch their ticket to the Mid-Season Invitational.

It feels like everything that can be said and written about T1 has been done at this point in time. So, the only thing left to do is hold our breath as Faker forces the world of League of Legends — and probably esports — to watch him make history.

— McLaughlin