Player "Strength" Rankings - THL S5 W4 - By PumbaasBFF

HeyGuys, we’re back again with this week’s Player “Strength” Rankings. I want to start this post off with a little ideology on what makes a player strong.
 
In my opinion, a player’s strength in THL comes from 3 things. 1. The amount of points they get their team throughout the season, 2. The amount of points they give opponents throughout the season, and 3. The amount of the cap space they take from their team. So a player who was signed to a team with a cheap PR for their seed, gets their team more points than most, while giving their opponents less points than most, is going to be one of the stronger players in my eyes.

​So with that out of the way let’s get started at my rank 10: Direstbear. Our first (of two) new players to the list this week. Direstbear is 11-4 total this season, with his only series loss coming from Memyselfandi who was on this list last week and is, in my opinion, Direstbear’s toughest matchup this season, and that series was still 2-3. Along with that match he has a couple sweeps, and a 3-1 to his name, not to mention he was signed for nearly 60PR less than the average. He’s got a matchup with captain c0mp next week which should be a good one.
 
At rank 9 this week we have Smokedsalmon. A bit of a fall for one of the higher ranked players last week. I was comfortable ranking Salmon so high last week since he had climbed to the one seed and taken that series as well. However, he found his way back to the 2 seed this week and ended up losing his match. This week was a set-back for Salmon while it was a step in the right direction for others on this list, which is why the fall was so far (from 4 to 9).
 
Time for you to meet the 12-6 club! Starting at rank 8 we have ArcaneTHL, the first of 3 players on this list sitting at 12-6. This is another player who experienced a bit of a fall this week (from 2 to 8) on the list. Arcane continued his win streak by knocking off JesusC, which many would have believed to be a great feat, myself included. However, it appears JesusC may not be as dominant as many believed him to be (currently 1-3, 8-9 total). Looking at Arcane’s schedule, it appears some of his easiest matchups are behind him with a few of his toughest ones coming up soon. Assuming players stay where they are now (big assumption honestly) Arcane will still have to face off against Eridan, Delta4one, and Zab (a 2 seed last season?). It will be a tougher road in the future but I’ll be keeping a close eye on how his season progresses.
 
At #2 of the 12-6 club and rank 7 on my list we have Aroy. Aroy has had a similar season to Arcane in the sense that I believe some of his easiest matchups are behind him, and some of his toughest are coming up, especially as he finds himself in the 1 seed yet again. Next week Aroy will face off against SuperSam in hopes of pulling the biggest upset of the season thus far.
 
Our final player at 12-6 and at rank 6 is Markshire. Markshire has been putting on a heck of a performance coming up to the halfway point of the season. With wins over Fenom, RidiculousHat, RayC, and HectorHowl, he has beaten some of the toughest opponents in the league. But while his performance has been impressive, Markshire came in costing more than the average 1 seed, and has given up 6 points to opponents so far. 6 points is not many at all, but it is more than the rest of my list this week and so he finds his place here at rank 6.
 
Moving on to the top half of the list, we have Lochness at rank 5. Last week I had Lochness top 3 and in my discussion for MVP. I still believe that both are easily attainable for him. Lochness lost his first match of the season, but since then has done nothing but sweep opponents. This is the only player on my list that is considered the average when it comes to PR, so his place in the rankings will be heavily influenced by his win rate. He’s only given up 3 points to his opponents this season, all of which came from one match, and while he’s only won 11 games, he’s actually scored 14 points for his team. So with 14 for and 3 against, I believe this puts him ahead of the 12-6 players who have put 16 points for and 6 points against their teams.
 
Moving along, we have MVParker at rank 4, and DLineMan at rank 3. I decided to do a write up for both of these players simultaneously because their situations are nearly identical. Last week I wrote that because of the weight of these 2 players’ PR, I didn’t think they should have a very high ranking, but with such ridiculous win rates, I believe they’re points for and against their team have been worth their heavy cost in PR. This week, MVParker went ahead and swept (although dunked on would probably be more fitting) Tzerial, and DLineMan won his match over DrewbixQube 3-1. Both of these players have fit the first two categories of what I consider makes a player strong, but have both fallen well below the mark on the third, and so they find their place here at ranks 4 and 3 instead of higher up.
 
Starting the MVP discussion this week I have Memyselfandi at rank 2. At 12-4, he has lost a little bit more than the pair of players at ranks 4 and 3, but he came with the upside of being cheaper than them on PR. As I noted last week, Memyselfandi has put together a pretty solid resume so far into the season, beating some of his toughest opponents he will meet along the way, including #10 on this list. Looking ahead and getting hyped for next week where he will be facing off with another captain in the 3 seed, Nacl.
 
Holding down my number 1 spot this week again I’ve got Sunshine. I was pretty hyped on Sunshine last week when I saw the win rate, the PR, and the fact that they hadn’t even brought Shaman yet. This week, Sunshine went ahead and brought shaman for the first time, and even though it got banned, still managed to pull off yet another sweep. Sunshine has already climbed nearly 60PR this season. Between starting with almost 30PR less than the average 5 seed, and having a 12-2 record 4 weeks in, Sunshine is my MVP for the first 4 weeks of the season.
 
That’s it for this week’s rankings! If anyone out there is interested in pitching in on these posts, hit me up. I’d love to get another 1 or 2 opinions floating around and seeing if that changes the placements of these players at all.
 
Hakuna Matata,
            ~PumbaasBFF