League of Legends global power rankings through June 20

Tyler Erzberger, ESPN EsportsJun 20, 2017, 04:36 PM ET
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- Covered esports since 2011
- Worked with biggest teams across titles like League of Legends and StarCraft II
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Welcome back to our League of Legends global power rankings. Every week, we look at each team in the five major regions and rank them according to how they are performing.

The NA LCS, EU LCS, LCK and LMS are entering Week 4 of competition. The LPL is entering Week 3. The +/- indicates the change since the previous ranking.

Nos. 1-10: World contenders

Nos. 11-20: Playoff contenders

Nos. 21-30: Middle of the pack

Nos. 31-40: Struggling

Nos. 41-50: Bottom of the barrel

World contenders

1. SK Telecom T1

Record:6-1 (12-4) | League: LCK | +/-: --

Another week, another Global Power Rankings with SKT T1 on top of the world. "The Cleaner" Kang "Blank" Sun-gu has been the unsung hero for the team this season, as the substitute jungler bumped up his overall record for 2017 to 15-0 after a win over Jin Air Green Wings.

2. KT Rolster

Record: 5-1 (10-5) | League: LCK | +/-: +1

This is the KT Rolster that the people wanted to see. The runner-up of the LCK last split has shaken off its weak start to the season, and it all revolves around the club's captain, Go "Score" Dong-bin, who is having his best start to a season in his career. With a Telecom War looming next week, KT will need to make sure, win or lose against its archrival SKT, that the momentum it has gained through the last two weeks won't be squandered.

3. Samsung Galaxy

Record: 5-1 (11-4) | League: LCK | +/-: -1

Samsung beat SKT T1 the last time the two teams met, the new KT has a meltdown every time it loses against SKT, and Samsung, except on one or two occasions these past two years, just can't keep up with KT. The proverbial rock-paper-scissors of South Korea are in their own tier right now when it comes to strength worldwide, and that makes the race for the top seed and the auto-qualification into the summer final only more important for whichever team can grab it.

4. Longzhu Gaming

Record: 5-2 (12-5) | League: LCK | +/-: +4

Longzhu bounced back from a rough 0-2 start last week against SKT and Jin Air Greenwings with 2-0 victories over both MVP and ROX Tigers. Moon "Cuzz" Woo-chan and Gwak "BDD" Bo-seong continue to bring that aggressive skill-based edge to the team, but sometimes Longzhu gets carried away and fails to uphold clean fundamentals.

5. Jin Air Green Wings

Record: 4-3 (9-7) | League: LCK | +/-: +2

Starting jungler Eom "UmTi" Seong-hyeon is a gamble that is paying off for the Jin Air Green Wings. When he struggled in his rookie split last year, the team could have made a knee-jerk decision and kicked out the erratic jungler. Instead, the team doubled down on its faith in UmTi, and he has been a revelation this season (at least in the early going) en route to Jin Air's 4-3 start after being inches away from relegation the past split.

6. Afreeca Freecs

Record: 3-3 (9-9) | League: LCK | +/-: +3

The Freecs are an enigma. When it comes to first games of matches -- this is not hyperbole -- Afreeca is the best team in the world. It smashed SKT in the first game of its most recent series, but things unraveled quickly the deeper the series went on. If the Freecs could duplicate their success in opening games in either the second or third sets, we'd be talking about a legitimate contender for the best team in the world. Until then, though, we'll watch Afreeca's opening games on loop, trying to trick ourselves into believing that the LCK is only a best-of-one format.

7. Fnatic

Record: 3-1 (7-3) | League: EU LCS | +/-: -3

Fnatic might have lost against ROCCAT in a sloppy 2-1 affair, but it has shown the most promise in Europe by the time Week 3 of the European LCS summer split concluded. The squad has shown the best early-game play in Europe and has managed to control the tempo of the game with sufficient leads most of the time, but ROCCAT's heroics near Baron Nashor stand as a proof that Rasmus "Caps" Winther and his teammates need to maintain focus if it is to succeed in reclaiming the European crown.

8. OMG

Record: 4-0 (8-2) | League: LPL | +/-: +2

OMG continues its strong summer start with wins over both LGD Gaming and Suning Gaming in Week 2. Despite SNG and LGD both being teams that are lower on the food chain, OMG struggled to impose its will on these teams, especially with more experimental picks like the Corki and Rek'Sai last weekend. OMG are at the top, but it might not be for long.

9. Unicorns of Love

Record: 3-1 (7-3) | League: EU LCS | +/-: +2

Last week Unicorns of Love met a squad that reciprocated its aggression levels (Splyce), further exposing the team's dependency on Kiss "Vizicsacsi" Tamas to be in good shape come team-fighting time. Minute overextensions and a possible lack of practice with a team-fight and wave-control centric mid laner aside, UoL has the least amount of issues to fix moving forward, which is more than can be said about other teams in Europe.

10. EDward Gaming

Record: 3-1 (6-2) | League: LPL | +/-: +11

EDG had a strong Week 2 in the LPL and Ming "Clearlove7" Kai showed that he is really back now. Clearlove did not die more than once in any of his games last week and amassed a KDA of 16 after demolishing both Invictus Gaming and Imay. As great as Clearlove was individually on Kha'Zix and Nidalee, though, EDG still relies heavily on the pressure that Lee "Scout" Ye-chan brings mid lane.

Playoff contenders

11. Immortals

Record: 5-1 (10-5) | League: NA LCS | +/-: +5

IMT had a down Week 2 but came roaring back in Week 3 of the NA LCS. Immortals greatest strength still lies in the laning phase, but the team took steps toward addressing win conditions in the side lanes last weekend. The team is far from perfect, but now IMT sits near the top of the LCS after beating both Team SoloMid and Cloud9 this split. This week, IMT faces its final test in Counter Logic Gaming.

12. Counter Logic Gaming

Record: 5-1 (11-5) | League: NA LCS | +/-: --

After a relatively disappointing split, Trevor "Stixxay" Hayes is a contender for NA LCS MVP through the first three weeks of the season. He holds the highest KDA of any marksman in the league (6.2) along with the highest DPM (558 per minute). A 5-1 start to the season has pushed CLG into a close race for a first-round bye in the playoffs, and the addition of Joshua "Dardoch" Hartnett looks like it could be a major success for the team if the good times keep on rolling.

13. G2 Esports

Record:2-2 (6-5) | League: EU LCS | +/-: -7

G2 Esports is in danger, that much is certain. Some might isolate its demise against Misfits to the lack of a Lee Sin ban, but the real issue consists in uncharacteristically sloppy play riddled with overextensions across the map and potential communication issues -- a reason that might explain some of its team-fighting sloppiness last week. Should G2 reemerge to its Mid Season Invitational level of play, one can retrospectively look into Week 3 as a false alarm.

14. H2K Gaming

Record: 3-1 (7-2) | League: EU LCS | +/-: -1

Move along, nothing to see here, besides H2k's weekly display of utter destruction of teams not named the Unicorns of Love. Vitality was the latest casualty of H2k's improved team-fighting and solid game plan -- not that it stood a chance. The true challenge for Marcin "Jankos" Jankowski's squad lies in replicating such feats against Fnatic and G2 Esports (and to some extent, the awakened Splyce).

15. Team SoloMid

Record: 4-2 (9-5) | League: NA LCS | +/-: +2

It isn't always in the prettiest of ways, but Team SoloMid is continuing to get the job done, rising up the NA LCS standings following a slow start to the split. Following the disastrous ending of the Mid-Season Invitational in Brazil, the team has had to rework itself on the fly with little time between leaving Rio De Janeiro and beginning the summer split. The team also added another new face this week in the form of veteran Danish AD carry substitute Rasmus "MrRalleZ" Skinneholm. Out of the six members on the TSM roster, half are now of Danish origin.

16. Team WE

Record: 2-1 (5-3) | League: LPL | +/-: -11

Team WE might be the only team to come out victorious against DAN Gaming, but it's also the only team to lose against Snake. In one of the bigger upsets of the LPL, Team WE constantly walked into teamfights against Snake in the mid-lane and fell to more than a few baron baits. Lane priority was surely an issue, but Team WE assessed power spikes poorly during the series.

17. Team Dignitas

Record: 5-1 (11-6) | League: NA LCS | +/-: +6

Dignitas is as one-dimensional as ever. Despite being 5-1, most of the team's success has come off the back of Kim "Ssumday" Chan-ho's stardom in the top lane. Ssumday is not only the owner of a league-leading 4.3 KDA, but he boasts the highest kill participation of any top laner at 68.7 percent. Sure, Ssumday has been big on split-pushing, but Dignitas depends on his impact in fights just as much.

18. Splyce

Record: 3-1 (6-3) | League: EU LCS | +/-: +2

The early game used to be Splyce's bane. However, the squad demonstrated its ability to develop an early-game centric game plan against the Unicorns of Love, a matter that spells trouble on its opposition in Group B as a whole. If Splyce has indeed figured out how to play in the early game outside of the lane swap meta, the unit might be able to return to the World Championship in virtue of its strong mid-game play and team-fighting.

19. Misfits

Record: 3-1 (6-4) | League: EU LCS | +/-: +7

Misfits is on the rise. Its ability to play to its strengths -- around Barney "Alphari" Morris' disruptive front-line picks, backed well by an equally disruptive Nubar "Maxlore" Sarafian on Lee Sin -- is laudable, but its positioning in team fights in the second game against G2 Esports left much to be desired. Expect this team to rise higher than its current position should it keep carrying its current momentum (and should it allow Maxlore to be as proactive as he was against G2).

20. Royal Never Give Up

Record: 2-2 (4-4) | League: LPL | +/-: -5

RNG continue its Uzi-less Summer and has proven to be quite the mess. Whether its Liu "MLXG" Shi-yu's seemingly unnecessary flex onto the Jungle Jarvan or the team taking needless fights at every turn, RNG is in disarray. However, that should not take attention away from Lu "Xiaohu" Yuan-Hao being one of the best performing mid laners in the LPL this split, especially on Taliyah.