EPTThe Title Contenders:
These are all quite close imo and all these teams have 2 or more players of world-class caliber which are capable of winning every WTL regular Season match
1. DKZ
DPG won WTL 4 times in a row. They do have lost quite some depth compared to last Season, tho, even after acquiring/fusing with kaizi. But still, Hero is the best protoss in the world (Maxpax is a little less consistent and Classic is not in WTL atm). Dark is a top 3 zerg and this is his last WTL Season, so he will do anything to get a title again to end his career in glory before military. Oliviera is the world Champion - Do I need to say more? On Average, he might be weaker than other top players, but if he peaks again, there is nothing stopping him. Jieshi is also capable of quite some things. F91 and Xiaose are casters and way worse than rotti.
2. Onsyde
Onsyde did make second in regular Season with having Rex play quite a lot of matches. This says quite a lotlifting of their strength. Now they have the former ace of Team GP also, a top 5 zerg in the world and the best Terran in the world. This roster can absolutely beat anyone and has a higher average strength than Basilisk, in which reynor and Serral have to do the heavy lisfint on average.
3. Basilisk
There are a lot of nice jokes about how strong rotti is as a player, and he did take a map off goblin and also maxpax recently. He can be a backup if needed, but his best strats are very abusable. Here opponents have two or more days to prepare and rottis average level if you prepare or even play specifically to counter his best builds wouldn't bring him into closed qualifiers EU. Trigger is Top 3 NA or even better at this point, he has wins against a lot of people in WTL and will likely be a solid performer. But he is not up to the level that most 3rd best players are on the other teams in this tier. However, the other two top players make up plenty for it. I don't need to introduce either of them. If they are in top form, they will win WTL. If not, then they can be stopped by their peers.
4. ABYDOS
ABYDOS is here as last title Contender for two reasons: They have two very hard matches to start, where they can't use DRG and Creator is emotionally not very stable. If both perform to their highest capability, tho, they can outperform anyone here. They also have their ace Cure, Nightmare, who is very solid and two Koreans I can't rly judge much as they have not played since forever in tourneys (SoS) or are pretty unknown with Quanta (and lost to top 48 EU)
Safe Playoffs:
Shopify Rebellion:
Shopify is the only team in this tier for a few reasons. Their members have shown before that the team can be more than single parts and players, and showed great consistency and results with preparation in WTL. They may not have as much Star power as some others, but they have shown consistency before and will continue to do so.
Playoff Contenders:
Psistorm:
Psistorm sadly lost Gumiho but their regular roster of Maxpax, special, Has, Gerald with a bigger support squad is very capable. They have shown what they can do when they are peaking (like second place last Season) and can outperform my prediction massively. However, a Season before they barely missed playoffs with a very similar roster but a weaker maxpax. This is why I am a bit worried.
Liquid:
With the addition of Skillous liquid now has 3 strong European powerhouses, which should be enough for playoffs again after losing uthermal and harstem. But WTL is not Clems strongest suit. Elazer is not a big fan of pvz in this patch, and the other contenders have players that can beat him and score upsets. Consistency has not been kind to liquid before. Kelazhur and Mana can also do some help in good form.
Platinum Heroes:
Platinum Heroes has grown a lot since losing to Firefly in Code A and even in that Season it was very close to the nail, and we nearly avoided relegation. Since then DnS, Shadown,goblin, Vindicta and others joined the roster and continued to grow. PH has 6 players in the top 32 of EU and a top 4 NA player and some other depth. Shadown nearly made IEM, goblin in good form can contend with the strongest of Europe. They also beat a MYG that used their strongest roster of Classic, DRG and Strange with 4-2. If this roster is peaking and working together they can upset some teams above and beat the teams below cleanly, but there is a ceiling. Anything from 7-10 is possible.
SLT:
SLT is a chinese version of Platinum Heroes as a very big community clan. Their main players in Spriti, Nice and Cham all made IEM Katowice. Rewhite is a solid support, but he is weaker than even some of the players on IG and surely weaker than the top 7-8 of PH. Cham and Nice are on a similar level as the best of PH on some days but can also lose to them. Spirit is a very strong ace but he has dropped maps to the players on ph and especially the teams above so for him to carry his supporting squad higher is going to be a bit of a challenge but the consistency of this team is probably slightly higher than PH if the best 3 are always available which might hurt, since Nice cant play the first two rounds.
Will fight against relegation:
SSLT:
Firefly is a monster in WTL. He got SSLT in twice and boasted strong regular Season form. He now has Cyan to support him, which should be enough to avoid relegation and might even allow punching up, but the average level has risen imo.
Berserker Esports:
Wait, why are they above IG when they lost to them in the qualifiers? The answer is very simple, imo. Breakinggg was able to cheese Spatz twice, which should never happen if there is plenty of material and time to prepare for him. A few hours in Code A are simply not enough as there is almost 0 replays to get on Chinese players for Europeans so vods (which now exist) are very valuable in preparation. Having multiple Days will also help a lot. Besides that, Mixu can be used, and he is stronger than Dimaga imo.
IG:
IG have always gotten relegated and now they dont even have Coffee. Breakinggg is a mad cheeser, which might take some maps but it gets figured out. XY and Macsed are in their older years and a bit past their prime, but they got some punch left. They have lost alot of Showmatches to HateMe also, who is currently one of the weaker players of PH. I might regret these words in a week, but IG will face relegation again.
hope you enjoyed this power rank.
If you want to learn more about or support
Platinum Heroes, check out these
siteshttps://liquipedia.net/starcraft2/Platinum_Heroes
https://ko-fi.com/teamph
