Power Rankings Week 5 (Emerald Dream)

introduction

SECOND THL POWER RANKINGS OF THE EMERALD DREAM! As a reminder, we use internal data calculated into a formula called PAR to create these rankings. PAR calculates data such as win/loss, game win rates, and strength of schedule. If you would like to read more about how this is calculated, read the blog that Marty wrote explaining how it all works! Each week we will be updating you on how these players and teams shift throughout their respective series, as well as highlighting individuals and their journeys.

​legacy

Another week in, and the more things change the more they stay the same. Surprisingly, there isn’t much volatility even in the early season, and last week’s top teams are unchanged, even with a small shakeup to the order. Like a frat bro skipping leg day, the red conference is strong but top heavy, with Da Stubbs falling further in the rankings after a draw against Lethally Blind, with Athlon and LunarEchoes clutching it up for their team. Notably, Ozmanaut was one of the players securing a win on the other side, and in true PAR tradition he slid down a spot to last in the Top 10. The one new face, Tortolla Ate Our Team Name, rallied behind strong performances from CritECal, HSDragon, and a strong season debut from Mythology in the 5, giving us some movement in an otherwise locked up top table. Finally, on the player side, it looks like Geranium Battle and RonMexico took my advice; despite only winning 3-2 in their toughest matches of the season, they did remain undefeated, playing better and earning a spot on the list. They do meet this week, though, so someone’s perfect season is going to end then. IT WOULD BE REALLY COOL IF IT HAPPENED ON STREAM, PLAY ON STREAM, ESPECIALLY ON SATURDAY. No one proofreads these, so I’m sure that one snuck by. But seriously, the people want to see high level Legacy play, and that match will be the one to follow when looking toward next week’s rankings.
​-DankestDad

​hero

So, it turns out I was wrong. We had a huge shake up from last week in the teams! The team I snubbed shot up the rankings after a big win last week! ET Y’Shaarj also made a big move to land just outside the podium with a large double digit week. All of our APM teams saw large shake ups. Are Protoss Met? moved up while Across-Playoff Mastery and A Persistent Mountain dropped. Defy Us is our only returning team to the podium for the week hanging on at the 3. DoLA, I’m not sure what you did so wrong according to PAR that it would drop you so far despite carrying the best record in Hero Series and a very narrow loss last week .None of the other series had even remotely a shake up this large! Hero is the most exciting series!

On the player side, a much smaller disturbance took place. Ozmanaut, rebobson, and LuluMk1 all made their way onto the list. Glacier had the largest move from last week while our podium sat the same. 2 of our 5 undefeated players dropped their matches last week! Leaving us 3 undefeated players and still a whopping 13 players at X-1. The MVP race is still wide open!
-basedinc

​pro

Hello again, Pro Enjoyers.  This week saw a bit of a shake up in the top ranks, with F2L claiming the #1 seed after a win over the former #1 seed, Unidentified Pet Tracking, who find themselves in third place this week.  Ada's Litter is nipping at F2L's heels right behind them at #2.

Brushy Tuna wins again but still finds themselves just off the podium at #4, and Play Green Card muscled their way up to the 5th seed after losing a close fight to the four seed.  We are four weeks into the season so all teams are in a place to make a playoff run!

We also have shake ups in the undefeated player race:  Empol (Staff of the Five Dubs) called in a sub last week so while she's still undefeated she gave up the top spot to Raimat (Play Green Card) at 4-0.  Also at 4-0 are abc (Ada's Litter), Eswaff (Unidentified Pet Tracking) and Rumham (ET Yogg-Saron).  There's another five players in that 3-0 bracket, good luck to all!
-Whodack​

​wild

It's time for the THL Power Rankings for Wild! Atop the standings is the impressive Staff of the Five Dubs on 71 points, followed closely by APM on 68 points. Three teams in the series (Greasers, ET N'Zoth and Cereal) all make up a band of 58-53 points between them, and we would expect them to be jockeying for playoff seeding until the end of the regular season. Unfortunately, this leaves team WTF drift but not yet eliminated at 46 points, a team having seen extensive turnover from their roster last season. As far as individual performances go, we have only ONE undefeated participant this season remaining, Staff's Sinferno (4-0), after boogerworm fell to kvlt last week.

This week, imperious, undefeated Staff take on celler dwellers WTF who need points fast if they want to move up the standings. APM is paired with Super Cereal Clowns. APM needs points to keep pace with Staff (who play the bottom team in the series) while Clowns will want to recover the form that brought members of that team to the finals a couple seasons ago. Worgen Greasers and ET N'Zoth are separated by only 3 points, so expect a hotly contested series there. 

Along those lines if I could watch one match this week, it would be boogerworm 3-1 (ET N'Zoth) vs Judochop 3-1(Greasers). boogerworm is brand new to thl and has taken the Wild format by storm, his style punctuated by bringing different decks each week. Judochop is ANYTHING but a stranger to thl, but is enjoying a resurgent season. I'd love to see who blinks first, a young buck shooting from the hip, or one of the elder statesmen of the competition.
-Schmoopydady