Legacy Series Power Rankings - Week 6

Week 6 Legacy Power Rankings

By Ultimate and Boozasaurus

As the season enters its final third, our rankings will be more and more focused on what we expect the playoff picture to look like. As a result, there have been some possibly unexpected changes as we focus more on points and remaining difficulty of schedule, than on record and signature wins or poor losses. Coincidentally, as a result of this change in ranking paradigm, almost no teams in the bottom 8 teams have moved even though many had big weeks one way or the other. Trust us, we re-ranked every single team as we do every week, that's just how it happened to end up this week.

For strength of schedule, we used the metrics of average remaining opponent points and combined remaining opponent records in order to estimate how well each team will do the rest of the season. This, combined with each team's total points, were our main ranking factors this week and will remain so in our Week 7 and Week 8 power rankings.

Teams 9-15 on our rankings are all extremely evenly matched, and while we did the best we could to rank all of them accurately, we believe that the difference in their expected end of season points is currently extremely small. Heck, our 15th ranked team has more points than our 9th ranked team, that should say enough!

Key highlights for the week:

• BadonkaGonk vs DadLegend may be the match of the season, we're looking forward to get as many of their matches on stream as possible!
• 5 out of the 6 top teams on our rankings are in gold conference. Gold > Red confirmed?
• Xnergy and Team Mox are our dark horse picks for the playoffs in their respective conferences, despite their current point deficit.
  

1. Card Advantage Tempest (+6)
CAT put up a massive win over conference rival Pod People, gaining twenty points and holding the people of the Pod to only five. However, the largest reason for their jump is our factoring in of remaining strength of schedule this week. CAT has, by average opponent points, the third easiest schedule in all of THL. We expect them to put up a lot of points throughout the rest of the season, and they already are the current points leader, so they are our clear #1 this week.

2. BadonkaGonk (+1)
BadonkaGonk is once again our highest ranked team in the gold conference. They didn't have a super impressive showing against Dragon Army, but they were able to win even with sub Bass coming in (who put up an extremely impressive 3-0 over THL veteran and previously 4-1 ShadowRanger). They'll be playing in what is definitely our match of the week in BadonkaGonk vs DadLegend. Whichever team comes out on top will have a leg up in the race for the first seed in gold conference.

3. DadLegend (-1)
DadLegend fans will be surprised to see them as low as third. They didn't put up as many points as they might have hoped on the Hero Power Rangers, but the real reason they are third is because of their grueling remaining strength of schedule. We believe they have the hardest final three opponents in all of THL, and may have trouble putting up as many points as they have throughout the season against the likes of BadonkaGonk and Board Resistance Fighters. If they can take down BadonkaGonk in this massive Week Seven match, they'll be well on their way to the first seed in gold conference.

4. RNG (+1)
RNG was able to take down Collective Mayhem this week, and we expect them to continue to live up to the hype we've created for them over the course of the season. Once again, strength of schedule is a huge factor in our ranking of them, and they have the easiest remaining schedule of any of the major playoff contenders in gold conference right now. If they can continue to be as consistent as they have been all season and keep putting up a lot of points, we know that they'll be a strong contender for the championship.

5. Saronite Pain Gang (+5)
SPG's week 1 domination of Collective Mayhem is still paying dividends for them this late in the season. Even though they have only three wins, they are only three points out of the gold conference playoffs right now. Their win over fellow playoff contender BRF was absolutely huge for their playoff chances, gaining themselves 18 points and holding BRF to a below average week for them with only 13.

6. Board Resistance Fighters (-5)
The final gold conference team in our top six, BRF had a bit of a disappointing loss to SPG in Week Six. Team newcomer (and THL vet) Brasky wasn't able to take down Freeloader in his second week on the team, and the strength of BRF has remained in their powerful 1 and 2 seed duo in Slimsch and Plantz, both of whom are possible MVP contenders and probable All Stars. Look for their bottom three to start stepping up if they want to become a true championship contender, but even if they just maintain their current level, they will have a very strong shot at making the playoffs.

7. Nice Pants! (-3)
Finally, our second red conference team on the power rankings! Nice Pants has shown a powerful ability to put up points every single week, win or lose. Unfortunately for them, they were on the losing side this week, and dropped a match to askHS with only 9 points. As crazy as it may sound, that has been the worst week of their entire season from a points perspective (their prior season low was a solid 12 point week against Team Mox). This has been the reason for their success from a points perspective this season, as there are four teams in Red with fewer losses, but only one with more points. Their opponents this week are Da Stubbs. A win here in Week Seven would be huge for their playoff chances, shutting down a fellow contender and gaining more valuable points.

8. Da Stubbs (+4)
Da Stubbs made a massive statement last week with a clean sweep of Noob Central. They're here to show that they're real playoff contenders, and aren't to be taken lightly. However, they have the second hardest remaining schedule of any team in red conference, and will need to perform well vs Nice Pants if they wish to remain in the hunt here at the end of the season. Every series and game is going to be hard fought, but if they can show up big they'll be in the Red Conference playoffs for sure.

9. Noob Central (-3)
The Noobs have dropped several spots for not putting up a single series win against Da Stubbs. It definitely hurts for now, but they have plenty of time to recover and make the playoffs. If they want to start off on the right foot, they'll want to beat WTT this week. We expect it to be a close match,

10. Xnergy (-2)
Xnergy has, by our calculations, the easiest remaining schedule in all of Legacy Series. They're our dark horse for gold conference playoffs right now, even though they are a full thirteen points out of gold playoffs right now. If gold conference wasn't so strong at the top right now, Xnergy would have a much easier path to the playoffs. Instead, they'll need to do what they did at the start of last season, put up consistent 20 point performances to round out the season.

11. Team Next Level (+0)
TNL is a middling team in every sense of the word right now. They're near average in points, strength of schedule, have two 3-3 players, and are 3-3. However, in such a competitive format, that's an achievement. They'll be against another 3-3 team this week in Saronite Pain Gang, but they'll be without superstar 6-0 five seed Fsorace1. If they're able to pull off a win over someone they're in direct competition with, they'll put themselves in a great situation to make playoffs.

12. Pod People (-3)
The Pod People had a poor last week against top team CAT, with only their 4 seed Runhesaid being able to pick up a series win (for a total of only 5 points). They're not at all out of the playoffs yet, and this week they'll be against another playoff hungry team in Team Mox. The match between the two of them could make or break the rest of their seasons, it'll be crucial that they beat Mox if they want to come back from their 3-3 start.

13. We Thought This Was LHS (+0)
WTT has followed our prediction from the preseason rankings: They have had a slow start and have been steadily trending up each and every week. Last week it was the tie vs now top ranked CAT, and this week it's a 5-0 sweep over Team Mox. They've leapt all the way to fourth in the red conference in points, but we still have our doubts about their playoff chances. There are three teams within only five points of them in the Red conference standings, and every one of them has easier remaining schedules than WTT. Only time will tell if this is just a midseason surge by WTT that will peter out, or if they will prove that they're a contender for the title by putting up wins in an especially tough part of their schedule.

14. Team Mox (+0)
While Team Mox got entirely swept by WTT this past week, they are still our dark horse playoff contender in red conference. They have the second easiest remaining schedule in THL, but will need to capitalize on that schedule in a big way, as they're currently 12 points out of the playoffs. They're not nearly as long a shot to make the playoffs as most teams with only two wins at this point in the season, as the red conference remains wide open for the taking. Mox is an especially strong contender when you consider the fact that the three hardest remaining schedules in Red Conference belong to WTT, Stubbs and askHS, three of the main teams they'll be competing with for a playoff spot. Securing a win vs fellow playoff contender Pod People would be the first, and extremely important, step they need to take if they do wish to make the playoffs this season.

15. askHS (+0)
This team had a huge statement win over Nice Pants, yet still didn't move up any spots. Why is that? The reason is simple: They are still behind teams like the aforementioned Nice Pants, Da Stubbs, and WTT in the playoff standings. Them not jumping ranks is more indicative of the divide between the current bottom 5 teams in points and the top 15 than anything else. They have perhaps their easiest remaining match this week against Dirty Mike and the Boys, who will be looking to play spoiler and possibly make a miracle playoff run late in the season.

16. Dirty Mike and the Boys (+0)

17. Dragon Army (+0)

18. Collective Mayhem (+2)

19. Ninjas In Bathrobes (+0)

20. Hero Power Rangers (-2)


Note on the authors: iCon has decided to step down from the Legacy Power Rankings team to focus on his three teams as well as his commitment to the board. We will work to rebuild our team of authors this upcoming week.