Welcome to the SCL Weekly Power Rankings! The title is self-explanatory, so I’ll skip to the stuff that’s not:
- These are weekly power rankings. This means that they’re going to be heavily recency biased.
- Speaking of biased, everything here is just the author’s opinion. So far, the author is not known to be always right. I’m holding out hope though.
- These power rankings will have a base-state that’s modeled off of the community predictions pre-SCL, on average. This is so that the first week (this one!) isn’t completely dominated by the results of one match, as recency-biased as I promised this to be.
Thanks to Silverthorn for helping put this together. With that, let’s get into the divisions!
Diamond
With its first week of matches fully played, Diamond has had a few interesting results to report. While the match results overall were mostly expected, the way in which they played out wasn’t as typical.
1: WarningTrack
With a solid win over Slappydavis in Week 1, WarningTrack simply plays to the expectation that he’s going to beat the player who was predicted to be in last place in this division by the community. With a shutout sniper, Track once again proves that you don’t want him having the book on you, and maintains his top spot in Diamond.
2: YerAnd (+.5)
YerAnd comes off a win against FalconHit as was expected coming into the season. As it turns out, taking an “expected” win is all that he needed this week to raise a (half) spot from the community predictions.
3: Pwndnoob (-.5)
Pwndnoob had a rough week, ending his set against Magician1099 with a draw. While this isn’t an awful result, it’s not the win that one would expect from the incredibly dominant champion of SCL5 Platinum, and it’s enough to push him under YerAnd from the tie in community predictions.
4: Magician1099 (+1)
Magician’s draw against Pwndnoob wasn’t the prettiest thing in the world, but it did net Mr. Ian a point against an opponent that seemed to be a fair favorite to shut down points for other players. While this isn’t enough to push him outright above Pwndnoob in the rankings, it does give him a boost in this week 1 chart.
5: FalconHit (-1)
FalconHit drops a spot less on the fact that they lost, which was somewhat expected, but on Magician’s impressive draw against Pwndnoob. Plenty of room for FalconHit to make their mark on the division yet still, but he suffers a one placement slip in week 1.
6: Slappydavis
Slappy’s loss against Track was not unexpected. The main thing to recommend Slappy is the scoreline, which showed 4 wins out of the 11 games despite not managing a single spy win; that’s a fairly solid sniper against Track’s spy, which went on a tear at the end of last season earning him an above 50% spy winrate in a division with KrazyCaley. However, this alone is not enough to push him up in the rankings, and so he sits in 6th for the time being.
Platinum
Author’s Hot Take: This Platinum division is the toughest division SCL has ever seen. Only slightly affected by the fact that the author is in this division.
Week 1 in Platinum was close. Blisteringly so. It was one game away from every single Week 1 match going to a draw; basically, the difference between 1st and 6th in this division is absurdly tiny).
1: OpiWrites (+2)
The only player to come out of Week 1 with two points under their belt, OpiWrites played a shutout sniper set against Pofke, who was predicted to be a slight favorite in the matchup. While it was just as close as expected, ending 7-5, it went to Opi, who establishes himself (for now) at the top of the division.
2: Yeesh (-1)
Remember how I said there was only one non-draw game in Platinum? This is where that gets interesting. Yeesh dominated SCL5 Gold, dropping only a handful of games and representing a sniper winrate of 90%. He was only taken to a draw once that entire season, and it wasn’t even close in the other matches. Starting off with a draw against Ryooo in Week 1 is a little underwhelming for the two-time Summer Cup champion, which is what allows him to drop a spot to OpiWrites’ win.
3: Ryooo (+2)
A draw against Yeesh is pretty big, and that combined with Pofke’s loss to Opi is going to propel Ryooo to the top 3 of Platinum in these week 1 rankings. As you can see, it’s going to take very small margins to change the landscape of these power rankings a lot week to week in Platinum, but for now Ryooo’s earned his spot.
4: Pofke (-2)
The loss to Opi wasn’t the biggest upset in the world for Pofke, but in a division that had ties everywhere else, a slight loss is enough to push this elite sniper down a couple of spots in the power rankings.
5: Lazybear (-1)
It’s going to be the same story for Lazybear as it was for Yeesh; A draw against Skrewwl00se, the bottom predicted player in the division, isn’t a deathblow nor is it a huge shock. But it is enough in this tiny-margin division to push him below Ryooo and Pofke.
6: Skrewwl00se
Hey, Skreww beat expectations! What gives? How come he’s still at the bottom of this stupid division? Unfortunately, Ryooo beat expectations just a bit more, and Pofke’s loss wasn’t stark enough to plummet him to the very bottom. And of course, he drew Lazybear, which isn’t enough to push him above the very same. Did I mention this division is stupidly marginal yet? Because if I have, get used to it; that’s gonna be a common theme here.
Gold
This division probably saw the most unexpected results of any of the higher divisions where skill seems a bit more clear cut. With the ascendance of Cameraman and Kotte, it’ll be interesting to see how this shakes out.
1: Kotte (+2)
Kotte showed up big this first week, taking down Wodar in what was expected by the predictions to be an underdog matchup for him. Winning his opponent’s doubled Ballroom pick certainly helped, and with an underperformance from Sheph it’s enough to boost him to first in the rankings.
2: Cameraman (+2)
Another upset in this division, perhaps even more unexpected, is Cameraman taking down Sheph. While some might discount it as a case of the Balcony Blues for Sheph, that was actually his pick, one of his favorites. And throughout the rest of the set we saw Cameraman absolutely lock down the sniper side, something that was unexpected from this returning alumn who didn’t seem to be practicing. It was an impressive enough performance to put him second in the rankings.
3: Sheph (-2)
As what seemed like the clear favorite coming into the division, such an early blow’s going to make Sheph’s life difficult in the coming weeks. For now though, it just knocks him down to third in the power rankings thanks to Cameraman’s sucker punch.
4: Wodar (-2)
This one reads pretty similar to Sheph’s story in the power rankings, though Kotte’s strength coming into the division was a little more expected. Be on the lookout for this veteran to return with a force, but here he’s left at 4th.
5: Turnout8
6: RoyalFlu$h
As their week one match hasn’t been played as of this writing, no change happens to our two presumptive last place players in gold.
Silver
Now into the Pro Circuit, these rankings get a bit more complex. With a lot more to consider, these rankings will start to fluctuate far more on not just results of a match but the way in which it plays out. Starting with Silver, we won’t be doing a paragraph writeup on every player, but we’ll be pointing out interesting changes in the rankings and reasons to why as we go along. Fun fact about Silver: Every match played so far in the division have been generally more decisive than any other division, with no sets going beyond 7-3.
1: Lauras43 (+1)
With a standout win over Nanthelas, a longtime player who was predicted at middle of the pack in a very strong Silver, Lauras gained enough ground to take the number one spot in our Silver rankings over Turnipboy, whose match against SpyParty developer checker has not been played yet.
2: Turnipboy (-1)
3: KumaKid (+1)
With an unexpectedly strong victory over Zerodoom this week, Kumakid gets a bump in the standings over DavidW, who simply met expectations with his win over sgnurf.
4: DavidW (-1)
5: Miniorek (+5.5)
Miniorek makes big progress on a few factors: A strong upset win over Beanie, and simple stagnation of many of the players above him. Spedmonkey spent the first week on the bye bench, Zerodoom and Nanthelas lost their matches in a convincing fashion, and Hunu’s win wasn’t as impressive as Miniorek’s.
6: Spedmonkey (+.5)
7: Hunu (+2)
8: Zerodoom (-3)
All of our 8/9/10 spots are strong players that many expected to see in the playoffs hunt, and that still could be easily true, but for now a combination of losses and those below them making wins happen is going to push them down in the ranking.
9: Nanthelas (-2.5)
10: Beanie (-2)
11: FurbyFubar (-.5)
12: sgnurf
13: checker
Bronze
Bronze had a hectic week, with one of the top expected players having a bye and lots of close matches throughout, the rankings in this division are particularly unstable in this first installment.
1: Magicdoer1 (+1)
By simple virtue of not doing anything, Magicdoer1 gains ground on Calvin Schoolidge, who was fought to a draw by Portalfreek, someone predicted to be near the bottom of the division.
2: Calvin Schoolidge (-1)
Despite the draw to Portalfreek, we’re not going to drop Calvin too low in the standings for it. Portalfreek actually finished higher than Gabrio in SCL5 Iron, and so we may be seeing some underestimation by the community in this case.
3: Gabrio (+2)
Gabrio’s gain mostly predicates on doing better than those just above him. A minor win against a player predicted fairly low in the standings is to be expected, but SykoSloth took a very unexpected loss to Humankirby and Iggythegrifter only managed a draw against Kmars133
4: Dukit (+2)
Dukit dunk’d it over Quicklime this week in one over the biggest wins in all of SCL at 7-1, which is enough to push him over Iggy for the time being.
5: Portalfreek (+7)
A draw against the division favorite is big for Portalfreek in the standings this week.
6: Humankirby
With a huge upset win over Sykosloth, predicted at 4th in the division, Humankirby goes from dead last in the predictions to a solid middle of the pack contender in Week 1
7: Iggythegrifter (-4)
8: Sykosloth (-4)
9: Kmars133
The last few entries in this list look weird. Players who exceeded expectations or at least didn’t seem to drop any in skill are losing ranking simply because there were others who exceeded expectations in stronger ways. This starts with Kmars, who stays at the same rating despite the draw against Iggythegrifter.
10: Tonyl (-3)
11: dbdkmezz (-3)
12: Mrrgrs (-1)
13: Quicklime (-3)
Copper
In a division dominated by the massively underpromoted Legorve Genine, it’s almost certainly going to be a race for second in this division. That said, it’ll be interesting to see if anyone in this division can make Legorve bleed and give themselves a big leg up on the competition in the process.
1: Legorve Genine
Legorve stays on top pretty comfortably, beating the #2 player in the division, Tflameee, by a wide margin.
2: Monaters (+1)
3: jd105l (+1.5)
4: Paratroopa (+.5)
With a convincing win over Banana Bread, Paratroopa makes enough headway near the top of the standings to drop Tflameee a total of three spots. It wasn’t that unexpected of a loss from Tflameee, but those just below him did well enough to push him further down than it really warrants in a vacuum.
5: Tflameee (-3)
6: Monopolyman
7: Alexare (+2.5)
A close win over Harren earns this wild spy a boost in the standings. While the astute opponent might study up on the devil-may-care style Alexare employs, it worked well enough in week 1 to secure a win over a higher ranked opponent. Will it continue to shock and awe the rest of Copper? We’ll have to wait and see.
8: Harren
9: Yglini (-1)
10: Con-Pope (+2)
The closest loss among the bottom ranked players, the 5-7 performance is good for a slight bump in the standings.
11: AndiVX (-.5)
12: Banana Bread (-1)
13: Howiie
Iron
Iron is interesting; filled with strong players who were too late for placements(or didn’t do well enough in them to warrant a higher spot), it seems like there’ll be a lot of competition over the top spot.
1: LevTrotskij (+1)
2: RhythmicSheep (+2)
In a convincing win over the_usual_toaster, Sheep positions herself at the top of the scoreboard here in Week 1. A good win against a lower ranked player wouldn’t normally be enough to boost this far, but for a couple of draws below her makes Rhythmic number 2 in week 1.
3: Catnip (-2)
Catnip comes into Iron division as the overwhelming community favorite; an SCL alum with nearly 10,000 games that opted to return using the placements system, she didn’t manage to place into a higher division and so was dropped to Iron at the start of the season. However, Week 1 doesn’t bear that out so far with a close tie against Koopa, someone predicted much lower in the standings. Catnip had to struggle in the last few games in the set to come back for this draw; if Catnip wants to continue standing at the top of Iron, she’s going to have to bring the claws out a lot faster than that in the coming weeks.
4: Rov (-1)
5: Koopa (+2)
6: Beanie/steam
7: jaHNI (+4)
A tie against one of the top predicted players of the division might indicate a bit of underestimation on the community’s part of jaHNI. That said, it could’ve just been some style mismatch allowing jaHNI to make this draw happen. A slow spy going into Rov, who provided plenty of civ shots to work with, definitely helped jaHNI out. Either way, he makes gains around other players who didn’t do so well.
8: YtterbiJum (-3)
9: Dejoker
10: Mrtwister (-2)
11: The_Usual_Toaster (-1)
12: Sun Bro
13: Vac58
Obsidian
Obsidian is another interesting division. While it doesn’t have any of the newer players who have tons of games, it does have competitors from Cups, from other games, and friends of higher ranked players. Of note in these categories: Auglbe240 and Pipesuper24 have played competitive SpyParty previously, DeathTacticus and Monsterracer hail from competitive Offworld Trading Company and Crypt of the Necrodancer respectively, and Xeynoxys, Corvus, Scout, and Lushmoss are friends of various higher ranked players.
1: Corvusmellori
2: Monsterracer (+2)
With a postponed match and a bye among other top predicted players, along with win against Auglbe, Monsterracer makes some progress in the rankings this week.
3: Bannanasniper
4: TheForgot3n1 (+2)
Biiig win over BobTheAlmighty. While the result was expected, the dominance wasn’t necessary. Definitely look out for Forgot3n at the top of Obsidian as the season progresses.
5: Auglbe240 (-3)
6: Pipesuper24 (+1)
7: Xeynoxys (+2)
8: ALTInsider (-.5)
9: DeathTacticus (+2)
Fighting ALTInsider to a draw, the set was an interesting mix of high level strategy and new player mistakes. What this tells me is that it’s simply experience holding these two players back, and as they get more games under their belt they’ll be scary contenders for the top of Obsidian.
10: Scout (-2)
11: ShootingGoats (-1)
12: Lushmoss (+.5)
Two words: Wheels aficionado.
13: BobTheAlmighty (-.5)
Oak
The smallest of divisions, these rankings are going to look a lot different once the division starts to fill up. But in the meantime, we’ve got just five players to rank; the divisional favorite, Phillammon, also had a week 1 bye, which it even more difficult to guess what’s happening here in week 1.
1: TONewYork (+1)
Sporting the only 7-0 sweep of week 1 in the entirety of SCL over Testierjamaj, Tony makes a huge statement about where in Oak he should be landing.
2: Atia (+1)
With a close win over Maxstermind, Atia makes enough progress to temporarily push her over the bye-gone divisional favorite.
3: Phillammon (-2)
4: Maxstermind (+1)
5: Testierjamaj (-1)
Great write up, thanks Opi!