Hey everyone it's CTRL ULT ELITE back once again for another week of CCS Novice. I held the vote and everyone decided that we would do power rankings again in week 5 and here we are. I will say this week has been filled with the most changes out of every week we have had so far in Novice. Up to this point we have had 4 main roster positions changed. In between week 4 and week 5 we are up to about 9 main roster moves and god knows how many subs moved around. That is on top of the smurfing ruling being dished out. So this week is mostly speculation on my part based off of the stats that I have. It is very probable that I am completely wrong on many of my takes. If you are confused I list the big 4 as OE, BCWB, ROK and CBR and reference this multiple times throughout my article.

 Similar to what I did at the start of the split, teams are going to be sorted into one of the same several tiers. This is what every tier in the list means: The team in S tier is who you think will win CCS Novice. Teams in A tier are the teams that will be challenging for the playoff byes(aka other top 2 team). Teams in the B tier will be the teams expected to make playoffs with confidence. C tier teams will be the teams fighting for the last couple of playoff spots. Teams that ranked in the D tier will be the teams that are predicted to have a difficult time securing a spot in playoffs in CCS novice this year. Left to right matters with left being the best within their tier.

 Here are the updated standings as of week 4 after the CBR penalties being taken into account. You can read about that here: https://www.blueotterleague.net/post/competitive-ruling-pipp-kadekadekadekade  I have just sorted this list I made by total wins. The official sheet might be different looking but who cares you all play tonight anyway. OOH AHH. That right there is my art talent(it's not very high)

This is my overall tier list. This list has changed drastically 4 times in the past week and I am finally content with my rankings. With all of the news in the last couple of days to come out none of the other content creators have had time to work out a new list so you only have my tier list sorry.  This is the TLDR stopping point. Below I have explained why every team is ranked where they are and why.

Optimal Esports

Record: 4-0 (8-2 game score)
Top: Elsa From Frozen
Jungle: Hunterwolfsteel5
Mid: ThEpiChampion
ADC: 1E318
Support: MxTato
Roster Changes: 1E318 instead of tR Maker starting ADC
MVP of team so far: IE318

I think it is hard to argue that Optimal Esports are not currently the favorites to win CCS Novice. They were in my S tier from the start and they will remain on top of CCS Novice. Why is there such a gap in between OE and everyone else? First off they are the only team in the league that is still undefeated in matches. 2nd OE have not just played weak opponents they 2-0d ROK last week who were undefeated up to that point and took out CB Rush in 2 games in week 1. I admit I was a little surprised to see this team losing games to DZG and ELY. It shows that OE is not perfect and they can lose.

As a team Optimal has the elite S tier stats you want out of the favorites to win. And it's not just one type of stat, yeah OE are dominating in the micro part of league but they also dominate on the macro level.  For fighting stats OE get the most kills a game, the most assists, 2nd in average deaths a game and they are top 4 in dmg a minute done as a team. Marco stats are just as crazy OE make the most gold a minute, lead the league in early game gold stats, they have the highest First Turret amount, the most rift heralds out of every team, the most dragons. Just about the only stat that OE does not lead the league in is Barons a game as normally they end the game after taking one.

So as far as MVP for Optimal there are plenty of options. Everyone on this team is having a fantastic split but the player on this team that stands out the most stat wise is their ADC IE318. 1E318 has the highest KDA in the league out of everyone not just on his team but the entire novice division. 1E318 is also 3rd in kills per game out of everyone in Novice, leads the gold a minute category and is top 11th in damage per minute. They are playing at an elite level for Optimal Esports. 

A Tier

So you might have noticed my A tier is empty. Which is odd to say the least. To be perfectly honest with you I do not think there is a clear team that deserves to be here. There was a clear consensus with almost everyone that there was a top 4 coming into this league of BCWB, OE, ROK and CB Rush. After looking at the stats of all these teams I do not think there is a clear number 2-3 in the league which A tier is for. You can guess and say well X team should be up here but thats it a guess. None of these teams have the stat totals to back up themselves as yeah we're number 2 right now.

B Tier

Bing Chillers Worry Brothers

Record: 3-1 (6-2 Game Score)
Top: UBC Sauder
Jungle: banger
Mid: matg
ADC: egirl ass (Why name change to this? You know what as a writer I am still calling you Fujin I am not typing out Egirl ass every week fuck you)
Support: Ah0p
Roster Changes: None just name changes that I do not condone as a writer. Degenerates
MVP of team so far: banger

So it's weird to see the BCWB down here in B huh? The reason why is simple: BCWB have dropped a series so they are not the S tier team everyone rated them to be. I would not even put them in the A tier that I had ranked them previously in the season. This team lost to DZG last week and have for most purposes a pretty easy schedule so far so their stats should be awe inspiring. Spoiler alert, their stats are not all that. Ok lost to DZG is not a good description of these 2 games. Game 1 was obliteration, domination; this game was never close for BCWB. DZG finshed game 1 with 21 kills to the 3 of the BCWB in under 30 minutes. Game 2 was closer but alas the game was “a jungle gap” in the wise words of my favorite washed up korean streamer Rush. Angry Present on Viego went 11-0-6 stole a baron and pentakilled you guys. That's hilarious. Other than losing to DZG the BCWB have beaten 2 teams in D tier and were taken to game 3 by CB Rush who just had their roster put together. This team has a lot of respect being put on them and I don’t see it. You guys are playing ROK tonight, another one of the big 4 coming into the season. You need to win this series. No johns, no funny hehe Yasuo jungle, just good league to give me hope for you.

As far as team stats the one thing BCWB have going for them is they are not afraid to fight. I hope that the BCWB are just having fun right now and can start to clean things up. Your micro/fighting stats are not good. Your team is in a 3 way tie for most kills a game out of every team in Novice just behind OE and are second in kills at 25 minutes. That's all great all right into A tier I knew it! But then reality comes crashing down. BCWB die a lot. Your team is top 5 in deaths a game and that includes the teams without a series win. Your team also has the 2nd lowest first blood amount at 22% which is abysmal. Damage a minute for this team is right in the middle of the pack, same with kills at 15. The macro stats for the BCWB are much more impressive than their kills/micro numbers. Macro wise is where this team is able to redeem themselves. BCWB get First tower the 2nd most of every team, make the most gold a minute thanks to having the highest CS a minute out of every team, take the most towers a game out of every team and get the most barons out of every team. Your dragons a game is 3rd overall which is great as well. But again there are cracks chipping away at the foundation. You guys had bad Rift Herald stats, got the first dragon the least out of every team in playoff contention and let teams take too many dragons against you(you are 7th at this). 

I think the MVP of this team is very much up for debate. There are 3 options. Banger in the jungle, Fujin or UBC Sauder. Out of the 3 I think that banger probably deserves it the most. Playing mostly team fight style AOE junglers Banger has the highest kill participation on his team, the most kills and leads CCS Novice in damage dealt for junglers. He also has a ton of deaths(3rd most of all jungle players) so it's not clear cut. As the jungler for the team I have to assume that Banger is part of the reason why BCWB has as good macro stats as they do. Dragons and Barons are a jungler's job.

Reign of Kings

Record: 3-1 (6-2 Game Score)
Top: SIappy
Jungle: Hastega
Mid: Chacheeokc
ADC: Wìtt
Support: badcop74
Roster Changes: Falsën has ranked out.
MVP of team so far: Falsën sadly

Sitting at 3-1 Reign Of Kings should be a team on the up and up. Unfortunately they lost their last week match vs OE convincingly and have lost the best player on their team shattering their aspirations. I am wondering where to put this team. Some will still have this team in A tier but I have this team in B. ROK have all the pieces to put themselves back together again humpy dumpy style but I do not think it's going to be an easy process. I have harped on this for several teams but I feel ROK has not played very many teams that I feel will make the playoffs other than OE. You guys have played the bottom 2 teams in the league and SHZ before they swapped their mid and started to draft like humans so that series was not a great indicator. ROK probably has the toughest strength of schedule for the rest of this split playing 5 weeks of playoff caliber teams. I do expect ROK to win these series but I am guessing they will start to drop games. I see lots of their remaining sets of games going the full 3 games of a series.

As far as team stats go ROK have some great stats. You would hope so for a team that only has dropped 2 games so far this split. ROK has more or less tied OE in kills a game at the top of the league. They have slightly more deaths a game and less assists. They only have FB in 50% of their game which I think is a huge concern with their schedule. ROK does the most damage a minute out of every team in CCS novice. Macro wise ROK has great stats as well. They are 2nd in gold a minute somehow despite being nearly last in CS a minute, get 3 dragons a game(only get 1st drag half of their games), do not care about Rift herald as a team, get the 2nd most barons a game and their opponents get the least barons a game of every team. I want them to continue these stats against better teams and I will be properly awed and put this team back into A tier.

The MVP of this team up to week 5 is not up for debate its Falsen by a country mile. 30% of his teams damage share on average, 2 more kills a game then the next closest player on his team, makes the most gold a minute, has the best damage to gold conversion rate, highest gold difference at every point of the game compared to his teammates, was the only player on this team getting First blood other than Hastega had 11 solo kills(2nd in league). And they did all of this playing primarily scaling control mages. Falsen had half their games on Veigar. I will be honest I have 0 idea who this mid laner Chacheeokc is coming in to replace Falsen. Some people recognize him, which is good. I took a brief glance at the OP.GG and this player flip flops like a fish. Some games they dominate other games they do 1900 dmg to champions in 20 minutes. Chacheeokc has huge clown size level shoes to fill for ROK. I hope they are up to the task.

DZG Styx

Record: 3-1 (7-3 Game Score)
Top: MobilitySc00ter
Jungle: AngryPresent
Mid: Andicus
ADC: Dragone943
Support: uknowthekid
Roster Changes: None
MVP of team so far: Dragone943

So if you look at my list at the top sorted by total wins DZG Styx would be 3rd this week or an A tier team. I do not think that DZG is an A tier team due to some of their horrific team stats. They have for sure proven that they are not the bottom of C tier where I had initially ranked them at the beginning of the split though. I think the middle of the B tier is a fair representation for DZG. DZG is one of the few teams in CCS Novice that has had the same 5 players play every game this season. DZG has beaten teams like the BCWB and taken games off of OE but also dropped a game in week 1 to CBG. This team is not the most consistent. As far as strength of schedule DZG I think are all but assured a playoff spot. The only team I had of the big 4 initially left for them to play is ROK. They get to play many teams that I hate rated below them and should be favored in most of these matchups. Why are they not in A you may ask? Keep reading.  

So when we get into team stats there are a few things that stand out to me as big problems and why I do not have DZG rated higher. DZG as a team does 1959 damage a minute. The league average is 2800 a minute for reference. They are last in damage a minute dealt almost across the board when it comes to their respective roles almost universally and are cratering in damage to gold conversion. That's huge red flag concern number 1. Now it is not that they win really fast or something, they are 4th in average game time.  Number 2 huge red flag WTF is going on is this team is 3rd last in gold a minute generated. I would argue these are the 2 easiest to look at stats to see how a team is doing. Gold a minute generally shows how strong your macro is and damage a minute more or less shows how good you are at fighting in the most basic terms. And both of these stats for DZG are like the bottom of C tier bad. But like lots of other stats make it look like DZG are an A tier team. They have a 70% FB ratio, the least deaths a game of every team, have almost a 1200 gold lead at 14 minutes on average and take baron in 67% of their games. Those are all stats belonging to a top tier team. But DZG is dead in the middle of the pack when it comes to Dragon, Rift Herald and towers taken a game. If I am being honest the team stats for DZG confuse me a lot. It looks like they are Caitlyn as a champion in terms of power spikes. Dominant early, a non existent mid game and an incredible late game.  

So team stat wise for MVP I think it's Dragone943. The argument could be made for AngryPresent as they are the only player in the entire league with a pentakill but god damn their stats are low. I think that might have just been a pop off performance last week vs BCWB. Everyone on DZG has a phenomenal KDA because no one on this team dies a lot. Uknowthekid at support averages 3.5 deaths a game and that is the most on the team. Dragone943 only dies twice a game on average so they have a KDA of 6.05. That is 3rd in the entire league KDA wise. They are also 2nd in the entire league at CS a minute sitting at 8.2 a minute which is crazy and are top 5 in KP%. But if we sort by damage dealt a minute by ADC’s Dragone943 is 9th only ahead of TMG’s ADC. They have the worst damage to gold comparison I have seen on an ADC in a long time. The only people worst at this conversion stat are support players and other members of DZG. The number 1 role of an ADC is to stay alive. Dragone943 is really good at this. The number 2 role of an ADC is to do damage. This needs some work. 

Elysium Frost

Record: 3-1 (7-2 Game Score)
Top: Boogie
Jungle: ELY Chihuahua
Mid: ELY GRAND CANYON
ADC: ELY Vortex
Support: ELY Chaster
Roster Changes: Supports has changed twice.
MVP of team so far: ELY Vortex

ELY Frost are a team that have had a shake up in the win columns over the past couple of weeks. I have them in the B tier again, same as my initial rankings. Looking at overall team stats I do not think that ELY can challenge for the playoff bye but they should make playoffs with ease. They are currently sitting near the top of the table but have lost their last 2 series(one was overturned as it was vs CBR). ELY has done well for themselves so far. They were able to 2-0 the teams that should be below them as a B tier team and took OE to 3 games. As far as strength of schedule for the back half of the split, ELY faces challenges having to play ROK & BCWB but also has chances to play lower ranked teams like TMG. I am very confident that ELY should make playoffs and they have the chance to fight themselves for the coveted 2nd place finish in the regular season to get a bye but I do not think they are going to fly that high. 

As far as team stats go ELY have a few standout stats. They have a 67% First blood rate(3rd), are 4th in damage a minute, ward the most a minute out of every team thus having the best vision stat of every team. There are problems with ELY. They have a rough early game ELY are normally behind 144 gold at 14 minutes, get the first tower, Rift Herald or Dragon in less than half of their games. ELY also have the lowest 1st baron take a game stat of every team in CCS Novice. With their vision stats I am not sure how they are failing in Macro but they need to make sure to try and make sure their early games go better. Teams like ROK and BCWB will run away with the leads that you often give teams. 

The MVP of this team is probably ELY Vortex. It's not easy playing with multiple supports and ELY Vortex is doing great this split. They have 71 kills which is about 20 more than everyone else on this team. They lead the team in CS a minute as they should as an ADC, lead the team in dmg a minute and have the highest KP on the team at 25 minutes. ELY Vortex has played mostly towards Varus this season playing him half of their games.

C Tier

CB Rush

Record: 0-4 (0-8 Game Score)
Top: ???
Jungle: CBR Rutledge
Mid: Prophet of Tears
ADC: Hikaku Uchiha
Support: Kanaina
Roster Changes: Well they need a new top laner as Pipp was caught smurfing.
MVP of team so far: N/A

In all honesty I do not want to write anything about this team. Their games they have played this season are tainted so to speak. Smurfing is a huge issue in every league and is incredibly frustrating. I'm sure that most of you that play Clash can sympathize. I am never worried about the diamond players in Clash, it's the level 58 accounts with 4 ranked games that worry me the most. I helped run a tournament back in my Uni days and we closed it due to the sheer amount of people trying to add obvious smurf accounts to our league. I feel awful for the rest of CB Rush as I have talked to and interviewed lots of them over the past year. We lost in BOL last season to CB Rush with Pipp on the roster and got shit talked which I had to take. So uh I am not happy with CB Rush to put it mildly. Sorry again to the rest of this team.

You guys are in the C tier. Despite being 0-4 right now. On the brightside for CBR this team probably is still making playoffs. You have a very easy strength of schedule remaining in the split as you have played only teams in the top half of the standings so far. Tonight you play ROK which should be close then its 4 series against the teams in the bottom half. So just win out and prove the haters (I am a hater) wrong.

Shadowz Plat

Record: 2-2 (4-4 Game Score)
Top: Yung Rat
Jungle: PeterGriefer
Mid: Eazy
ADC: Archêr
Support: Decerous
Roster Changes: Eazy in Mid lane instead of Moowy and Decerous in support instead of Lose ın Peace
MVP of team so far: Taliban Karthus

SHZ are a team that had a really rough 1st 2 weeks in CCS Novice. After making some adjustments in the draft and swapping some players I think SHZ are a team with a decent shot at challenging for the last couple of playoff spots so they are in C tier. If SHZ had not made any of these roster changes I would still have them in D tier where I initially ranked them. SHZ has played 2 of the “big 4” so they have a decent strength of schedule left in the season. Weeks 5 and 6 you play the rest of the big 4. Taking games off these teams shows that you are a serious threat for playoffs. The rest of the season features you playing teams that you should be favored to win. 

As far as team stats go SHZ have the longest average game time of every team with 34:35. They are one of the only teams in CCS Novice that are wanting to play on red side. SHZ are just outside the top 3 in kills a minute and have identical kills to deaths. SHZ fights more than every team their games are normally over a kill a minute. Thanks to all the fighting they do, SHZ is 3rd in damage a minute dealt. They are 4th in gold a minute and CS a minute. SHZ only gets 1st blood in 25% of their matches which is a concern. Agains SHZ has some great early game stats they get first tower 63% of the time and first drag in 75% of their games which is the highest out of every team. SHZ stats go a little worse as the game goes on however. They have pretty bad baron stats and let teams take over 2.5 dragons a game. They also seem to care about herald the least of every team as they let their opponents take the most Rift Hearlds out of every team.  

As far as MVP for this team I think it goes to someone on the top side of the map. Taliban Karthus, Yung Rat and Eazy are all playing very well. I am not going to award MVP to Eazy as they have only played half the games that the rest of SHZ has played and all those games have been wins.Eazy’s stats I think might be a little inflated right now. I am going to go with Taliban Karthus as my MVP for this team. A player that has a great name and an interesting champion pool. Taliban Karthus came into this season as a 3 trick only playing Eve, Udyr and Karthus in the jungle. Taliban Karthus has also picked up some more traditionally seen junglers playing games of Zac and Wukong as well as their specialty picks. Taliban Karthus has the most kills on this team by far getting 7 kills a game having 57 kills in 8 games(3rd among all junglers). Taliban Karthus is top 3 in CS a minute for junglers and 2nd in damage per minute.  

D Tier

Let em Cook

Record: 2-2 (4-5 Game Score)
Top: WEAKŚIDE WARRIOR
Jungle: Rμined Kïng
Mid: NeoFromRWBY
ADC: Barleymoishe
Support: Mikamoishe
Roster Changes: Name change for support
MVP of team so far: Barleymoishe

Let Em Cook come into week 5 right in the middle of the pack in the standings. They are doing much better than I anticipated as I had them previously ranked as the worst team in CCS Novice but they are still in D tier for me. I cannot see LEC making the playoffs. LEC are one of two teams that have not made any roster moves this season. I have them in the top of D tier as LEC has already played the 2 other teams I have listed in D tier and only 1 of the big 4. I think they are going to have a very hard strength of schedule left and I do not see them making playoffs.

As far as team stats go LEC are again one of the teams in the league that play for the red side in the draft. LEC have some of the longest average game times at 34 minutes. They are another very bloodthirsty team averaging 23 kills and 25 deaths a game. LEC are very focused around early game; they get first blood in 78% of their games, first herald in 78% of their games, LEC get first tower and first dragon in over half their games as well. LEC are in the bottom 4 for damage dealt a minute despite all of their kills but are top 4 in gold a minute. They are dead in the middle of the pack when it comes to CS a minute and have around a 200 gold lead every game at 14 minutes. 

Team MVP wise I think we have to go with Barleymoishe the ADC. Barleymoishe is almost the polar opposite of Dragone943 doing 28% of his team's damage mostly playing on hit Varus and Jinx. Barleymoishe is 3rd in dmg per minute, 3rd in CS a minute of all ADC’s in the league. The main problem for Barleymoishe is that they are dying a lot. They have 5.5 deaths a game on average which is the top of every ADC and are 8th in assists a game. Playing immobile ADCs that tends to happen a lot. I am hopeful that Barleymoishe can start playing something with a bit more safety to get their death totals lower and keep their damage numbers up something like Kai’Sa maybe or Xayah. Remember the number 1 role of an ADC in league is stay alive. That's what you need to work on.  

True Minded Gaming

Record: 0-4 (1-8 Game Score)
Top: TMG Cone (listed as sub but has played last 2 weeks IDK)
Jungle: Seaborg
Mid:  Devil Milk Tea
ADC: Tsaeky
Support: TâcoCât
Roster Changes: Tmg Cone in top lane instead of 00Seven and Tsaeky to starting ADC?
MVP of team so far: Devil Milk Tea

I initially predicted that TMG would be a C tier team battling for the last spot in playoffs. With the removal of 00Seven and their ADC Shy Winter as well as not winning a game I have no choice but to move TMD down to D tier. TMG has played 2 of the big 4 from my initial power rankings playing ROK in week 1 and BCWB in week 3. But they also have lost to teams that I did not think were that much better than them. They lost to LEC in a 3 game series and were unable last week to take a game off of SHZ. As far as the rest of the season goes you more or less need to win out to make the playoffs as does every team at 0-4. This week you play CBG the other team without a series win. It's the first part of the climb of your accent to playoffs you just need to start the climb right now. There are some stepper sections of the climb later on like OE and CBR but you just need to keep putting 1 foot in front of another taking things 1 game at a time. 

So team stat wise it’s not pretty.  As a team with only 1 win in 9 games it's kind of expected. I am going to compare your stats mostly to that of CBG. TMG has 9 more kills a game then CBG, 5 more deaths a game and 13 more assists. Your FB% is 44 and that's pretty good TBH. 2500 damage a minute is fairly close to the league average of 2800. The two teams below you are doing 500 damage a minute less then TMG. TMG and CBG are tied in towers taken a game at 3.3, and both have less than 2 dragons a game on average.   

So who is MVP of TMG? They have 2 standouts in Devil Milk Tea in mid and Seaborg in jungle. Devil Milk Tea is going to get my vote as the overall MVP as I think they have the greatest chance to pop off 1 week and carry TMG. Debil Milk Tea is not playing the traditional control mages that I am such a fan of comp they are playing much more towards damage carries playing lots of Akali, Yasuo and Yone. Devil Milk Tea has 7 solo kills and 8 double kills in 9 games. That's pretty decent stats. Devil Milk Tea does 28% of TMG’s damage on average which is really high.    

CB Galaxy

Record: 0-4 (1-8 Game Score)
Top:  Secroza
Jungle: Deeeyo
Mid: Spires
ADC: Hai Legacy
Support: koyesh
Roster Changes: A lot IDK who is on this team until the week is over.
MVP of team so far: Spires 

So sitting at the bottom of the leaderboard in the D tier is CB Galaxy who I previously had in the C tier. CBG has 1 game win and that  was against DZG back in week 1. They have not won a game in 3 weeks. This team has submitted so many roster subs over the past couple of days I have almost 0 idea who is still on this team or starting. Simply put CBG are bad currently. Maybe these roster swaps save this team I don’t know. As far as strength of schedule for the remainder of the split, it's up in the air. You have only played 1 of the big 4 and now you more or less need to win out to make the playoffs so it's a tough road ahead. This week you play TMG as a streamed game and you need to leave it all out on the Rift. Prove to yourselves if no one else that you are a platinum team that deserves respect. 

Team stat wise the best thing going to CBG is that they die the third least in the league. They also get the 1st drag in 56% of their games and 1st herald in 78%. Those are about the only positive stats for CBG. CBG has the lowest kills and assists by such a long shot it's almost funny. They have half the assists of the next closest team TMG. I am not going to keep going on this suffice to say CBG are dead last in just about every stat that is tracked. 

As far as an MVP for CBG it's hard to find. Spires in Mid has the most solo kills and highest KP% so I guess it's them? Listen, whoever pops off vs TMG is honestly getting my vote for MVP. All of these individual stats are also depressing so getting a win will skyrocket your stats.