To start off with, here’s the tier list that I’m going to discuss:

http://www.reddit.com/r/leagueoflegends/comments/1gl5m1/esport_summary_for_mayjune_pro_teams_tier_list/

While I’m trying to make a simple point, it’s going to take a long preface to explain that I’m not trying to belittle anyone or any team. Some of you may have seen this tier list that hit the front page of /r/leagueoflegends, which included a cool summary of prize winnings alongside an incredibly inaccurate tier list of global teams.

I try not to call content creators out since everyone makes mistakes and I adore community writing. After all, I started my career in LoL by founding ggChronicle to create quality eSports journalism. I do my utmost to support the writers of Team Liquid, LoLeSports.com, Acer eSports, and numerous independent bloggers that create awesome articles. In fact, I RELY on these writers to flesh out my own knowledge and challenge my assumptions about the game and the professional scene.

However, there are times when particular pieces of content emerge that are so wholly inaccurate that someone needs to speak up. The fact that this tier list even reached the front page of the subreddit deeply concerns me, since I make it my mission to further an educated, professional dialogue about LoL eSports. My greatest desire is for League of Legends to reach a respectable level of journalism, and fans need to help weed out content with suspect accuracy. Content like this tier list spreads misinformation, which should be shunned by fans.

ALL power rankings/tier lists are, of course, subjective. They’re fun because they create discussion about the finer points of teams through comparison, but they’re fundamentally inaccurate. There’s a limit to this inaccuracy, however, and to illustrate this point I’m going to use an example from a different sport: American football.

As a lifetime fan of football - hand egg to you sassy Europeans - I love reading power rankings and following the NFL. Below is a tier list of football teams, based on last season’s results, that I feel is comparably inaccurate to the LoL team tier list that emerged on Reddit:

Tier One:

Baltimore Ravens, San Francisco 49ers, New England Patriots, Atlanta Falcons

Tier Two:

Denver Broncos, Houston Texans, Alabama Crimson Tide, Notre Dame Fighting Irish

Tier Three:

Pittsburgh Steelers, Dallas Cowboys, Yale University, Harvard University

Tier Four:

Cleveland Browns, Arizona Cardinals, George Washington High School varsity football

Tier Five:

Kansas City Chiefs, Nicaraguan inter-mural flag football champions

As you can see, the placement of these teams in the same tiers makes no sense whatsoever. These power rankings don’t create interesting discussion because they are so out-of-touch with reality that they can’t be considered a legitimate piece of Sports journalism.

I wish the author the best as he continues to make his way through the world of eSports, but I couldn’t just let this slide. Each article should be weighed by its own merits, and I look forward to reading more pieces in the future.