VPL Preseason

Week 1

It was an exciting week one of the Vainglory Premiere League. There were a lot of highs and lows, but overall the first weekend was successful. A few things were different of course, such as no Munchables. He awaits his visa to be accepted, so we have Kate Elliott to fill in. It will be nice to have Munchables back in the studio. Not because Kate is bad, but Munchables just knows Vainglory and the players. Things would probably flow smoother with him at the wheel. Second big change is that FlashX is on the desk as an analyst right now! Whether he is there for good or not, he offers a lot of insight into the game. It does suck having an analyst be biased towards a team considering he is a coach for TSM, but hopefully he won’t focus on them to much.

In terms of how the production of the first weekend went, it would be a 5/10. Obviously it was the first time they have used the system. The green screen is tacky and some of the filler conversation pieces were cringy, but this is just temporary until the official studio is finished. People in chat are really toxic, which is to be expected of the Vainglory community. Does it seem worse than the production in 2017? Yes. Will it stay like this? No. ESP had a lot of great things that worked. Some of the intros and highlights were really smooth and edited really well. Like this transition into a game.

These will only get better as the weekends go on. The hero icons they used in draft are a little goofy. Not sure where they are getting some of those from, but maybe they should use the ones from in game. Let’s break down some of the action.

EU saw every team play on both Saturday and Sunday with there only being six teams. The biggest take away was that EU was pretty aggressive. In past, NA always dominated EU because EU was so passive. In a lot of the matches over the weekend, EU teams were picking up first blood by minute three and in some cases even sooner. Going into the preseason all eyes were on team Queso with their all-star roster. Qlash came out in day one and performed extremely well to take Queso down. Qlash is sitting on top with two wins over the weekend. Qlash seemed to play as a team and their games in the future should be exciting. Wolves and Equinox struggled against the other teams. They really need to use the preseason as a time to experiment and figure out what works best for them going into season 1.

NA is obviously where I focus most of my attention on. I want to keep a running power ranking all year long to see how teams fluctuate from week to week. At the end of the write up is the graphic that I will make each week. I plan to write and explain my thoughts on why teams are ranked where they are.

TSM (2–0)

TSM is the first place team after weekend number one. The kids from TSM are playing really well right now. They have been playing together for awhile and have been beating big teams like Tribe in other tournaments before VPL. This weekend they were matched up against Tilt Rehab and Hammers. In both match ups, TSM was able to draft the heroes they are comfortable on. Daniel was able to snag Blackfeather both games while CozZ played meta picks like Taka and CP Kestrel. While game one against Tilt wasn’t a complete steam role, TSM ended the game in a dominating fashion.

2. Tribe (1–0)

Tribe was a team going into the VPL with a lot of eyes on them. Having struggled with certain things as a team pre VPL, a decision was made to switch MaxGreen and Gabevizzle. It is early to see how this switch will play out, but Tribe was able to defeat Hammers on day one. Having not played on day two, I will keep them above teams like Rogue and Nova until they prove otherwise. Also, ttigers was subbed in to play for iLoveJoesph on Saturday and absolutely dominated as Koshka.

3. Rogue (1–0)

Rogue really surprised people this weekend. Even though they only had one match up, they were able to take down Nova. Rogue has changed a lot from 2017 and there was a lot of curiosity on how this team would play together. eVoL switched from captain and is now the mid laner. I was curious to see if he could adapt quickly to such an important role. New member louisvuittondon had an absolutely dominating game as Glaive and played a key part throughout the game. I expect Rogue to stay towards the top of the leader boards based on how they played in their first game.

4. Nova (1–1)

Nova had a pretty hard schedule coming into the first weekend. With two young stars, Truth and Starting’s performance was in the spotlight. They fell short to Rogue after some tough mistakes were made. In day two, Nova came back strong against Tilt Rehab and snuck away from a 31 minute match that could of gone either way. If they can clean up play calls and maybe worry less about securing one turret, they will be in a good place. While Truth and SOA will make big plays, expect them to have some off weekends as well.

5. Slimy Salamanders (1–0)

Having Saturday off, Slimy came into Sunday against a brand new Vision team. The veterans from Slimy were on my watch list, but I definitly didn’t have them ranked high in my early predicitons. Iraqi has struggled in the past but played an amazing CP Kestrel and was hitting a high percentage of his glimmer shots. PECO or formerly know as Yugi played amazing with some pretty epic plays. People need to be keeping an eye on him going into the rest of the VPL. Overall, Slimy had a sloppy game and will need to clean things up against the top teams.

6. Tilt Rehab (0–2)

Expecting big things out of themselves, Tilt Rehab are sure to be a little disappointed with zero wins on the first weekend. While it is very early and far from time to panic, Tilt does have some work to do. They will only have one match on Sunday of week two, so expect them to be well prepared. Their loss against TSM was more expect than their loss against Nova on Sunday. Over both games, they did go for some greedy objectives. A few mistakes being cleaned up will put them back in a good spot..

7. Vision (0–1)

The last two spots were definitely hard to pick. Vision is going to receive the seventh spot because they put up a fight against Slimy Salamanders. It was a sloppy match for both teams, but Vision showed some promise. If PvPWarrior can continue to broaden his hero pool, I really expect him to be a play maker. I know Rona is good, but sometimes PvP gets tunnel Vision on who he can play. With LightningT playing well, Vision could pull off some upsets this preseason.

8. Hammers (0–2)

Rounding up the eight spots will be Hammers. I know the team is disappointed being 0–2, but it is only week one. Starboi will have to keep his team’s spirits up as they try to find their synergy together. Some of these teams have only been playing for a few weeks together so perfection isn’t expected. They sit just below Vision with two loses.

Here’s a look at next week’s schedule!

Going to be a lot of great match ups in week two. In EU, I hope we see some wins from different teams. I have a feeling it is going to be the Queso, Qlash, and Salty Potatoes show. In NA, a lot will be decided as the teams with only one game will get caught up. At the end of week two we will have all teams with three games under their belt. I expect to see wins from Tribe and TSM. Rogue will have a tough week which will show where they belong in the standings.

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-Endless