Chaos. That is how I would describe Week 2 of SCL6. Particularly in the Masters Circuit: upsets, unexpected results, and everything in between have been the hallmark of this week. This week now includes a community poll alongside my own rankings (you’ll find that in the brackets to the right of my own ranking), so let’s get into it. Once again, thanks to Silverthorn for helping put this together.
Diamond
Diamond saw some very interesting results this past week that are going to shake up the power rankings; I wish I could characterize it as either the old guard holding off the new, or the new assaulting the old, but in reality nothing is so clear cut.
1: YerAnd (+1) [YerAnd]
Second place of SCL5 Platinum shoots up to the top of the rankings with a razor thin win over divisional favorite, WarningTrack. This didn’t look so likely halfway through the match however- being down 5-3 coming out of the doubled picks, YerAnd made a blistering 4 game win streak to come back and steal away the set in the back half, proving that he’s a threat to take this whole division.
2: WarningTrack (-1) [WarningTrack]
Don’t let the loss fool you; Track is still a formidable contender in Diamond. His choices in drafting against YerAnd nearly handed him the win outright before the insane comeback streak. Given that this blow comes against our previous number 2 spot, Track won’t be dropping too much in the standings, and has plenty of room to recover later on.
3: Magician1099 (+1) [Pwndnoob]
Magician comes off hot on a win against FalconHit. With lots of strong spy play out of the old guard of Diamond, this is the best start to an SCL season Magician has had since Season 2 where he made the finals. It’s enough to push him above Pwndnoob; Though partially it’s because Pwndnoob hasn’t played his Week 2 match against Slappydavis as of this writing, and since these power rankings are the Most Important Thing, they deserve a slap on the wrist for it.
4: Pwndnoob (-1) [Magician1099]
5: FalconHit [FalconHit]
FalconHit felt the fury of a Diamond player scorned this week, unable to keep up with Magician’s breakneck spy. While this doesn’t outright drop him any further in the standings, it is a pretty significant loss for someone expected to be relatively safe from the demotion possibilities of 5th and 6th place. Falcon’s going to need some impressive wins quick if he wants to recover from this early deficit.
6: Slappydavis [Slappydavis]
Platinum
Two relatively expected results, one wildly unexpected one. While Platinum didn’t dissolve into pure chaos this week, the division still experienced a shakeup that’s going to change how the power rankings look from here on out. It’s also far more clear cut in individual match results than the razor thin margins of Week 1; no match went past 10 games with a 7-3 scoreline.
1: OpiWrites [OpiWrites]
Opi continues to handle the top spot, taking down Skrewwl00se in fairly convincing fashion. The only player in Platinum with a spotless record thus far, Opi is going to stay at the top in Week 2. Look out for next week though, as he has a match against…
2: Lazybear (+3) [Pofke]
Lazybear surprised everyone this week, taking an absolutely dominating win over Yeesh, who was expected to be the strongest player in the division in the preseason rankings. Not without precedent, either; Yeesh is a two time Summer Cup champion, and Lazybear’s previous excursions against him have ended rather badly for the bear. That’s all flipped on its head though, Lazybear storming his way up the rankings as a result.
Pofke (+1) [Lazybear]
Pofke’s win over Ryooo this week was just what he needed to get back into the game, power rankings-wise. While last week’s rankings would have told you that Ryooo was the favorite in this matchup, the reality ended up being fairly different. Able to make his spy work for him in this set, Pofke ran away with it despite bending just a bit on the sniper side to Ryooo’s spy.
4: Yeesh (-2) [Yeesh]
In a pretty shocking loss, Yeesh drops a couple spots on the power ranking. What’s more surprising about this loss for Yeesh than the result is the margin by which it comes at. During SCL5, Yeesh maintained a sniper winrate of over 90%; those numbers are usually good enough to take any set the distance, but so far he’s been unable to replicate that past success, and it shows against Lazybear in Week 2.
5: Ryooo (-2) [Ryooo]
While losing to Pofke isn’t the worst thing Ryooo could’ve done this week, he still drops two spots overall thanks to Lazybear’s surge against Yeesh; going forward, he’ll need to tighten up his sniper if he wants to make a run at top of the standings.
6: Skrewwl00se [Skrewwl00se]
Unable to make something happen against Opi, Skreww remains down at 6th place for the time being. One of the main worries going forward in the season for Skreww is his apparent weakness in picks and bans. With a couple of clearly weak venues and a couple of much stronger ones, his opponents might have an unreasonably easy time picking him apart before the match even starts. Skrewwl00se’s success going forward may end up relying on his ability to mitigate that weakness.
Gold
There were no upsets in Gold this week; however, that is not to say we did not having surprising results. In fact, some of our results were surprising enough to shift around the power rankings more than one might expect looking only at the points on the scoreboard.
1: Cameraman (+1) [Cameraman]
Cameraman gains ground this week in the standings, pushing Kotte out of the top spot. This comes off the back of a (surprisingly) close win against Turnout8. In a vacuum, this win would not be convincing enough to push Cameraman up, but a power vacuum at the top puts him at number 1.
2: Sheph (+1) [Kotte]
Coming out of a surprising loss in Week 1, Sheph finds a convincing win against Wodar in Week 2. While the strength of this win comparatively to Cameraman’s isn’t enough to counteract Sheph’s Week 1 loss to the current top spot, it is enough to hold Kotte below him in the power rankings.
3: Kotte (-2) [Sheph]
Kotte beat RoyalFlu$h at an incredibly close 7-5 scoreline this week. In fact, Flu$h was only denied a point on the leaderboards due to the inability to line up a shot on Kotte’s spy in the waning seconds of the final game of the set. There is a world in which Flu$h drew Kotte, and all it takes is a slightly faster laser and better aim on one game. This is not the kind of razor thin margin we’d expect from the top spot in the division, so Kotte drops down two spots despite the win.
4: Turnout8 (+1) [Turnout8]
Fueled by a win over RoyalFlu$h in Week 1 that we weren’t able to cover, as well as a near loss against Cameraman, Turnout8 makes progress up the standings in Gold. He’s not the only one, either.
5: RoyalFlu$h (+1) [Wodar]
We’ve already gone over how close the loss was for Flu$h this week, and it’s enough to bump him up just slightly in the standings when compared to the decisiveness of Wodar’s loss to Sheph.
6: Wodar (-2) [RoyalFlu$h]
Starting 0-2 over the first two weeks was not what Wodar wanted to see out of this season’s chance at Gold. Unfortunately for him, both Turnout8 and RoyalFlu$h performed overall better in their losses than he was able to, being knocked down by Sheph in the most decisive set in the division this week at 7-3.
Silver
If the rest of SCL is chaos, then Silver was largely the calm in the eye of the storm this week. No true upsets, lots of expected results, and SpyParty developer checker still not having played any matches. Now that’s consistency.
1: Turnipboy (+1) [Turnipboy]
Back on top of Silver after a strong win over Nanthelas, the same kind of performance last week that Lauras43 made to take the top spot then. However, with a slightly underwhelming result for Lauras this week, the win over Nanthelas is enough to push Turnipboy back on top.
2: KumaKid (+1) [Kumakid]
KumaKid comes out strong this week with a devastating 7-0 sweep against FurbyFubar. That’s really all that needs to be said about this placement in the rankings.
3: Lauras43 (-2) [Lauras43]
Similarly to Catnip in Week 1 of Iron, Lauras43 was surprised by needing to come back for a draw against spedmonkey, a player predicted solidly in the middle of the pack in a deadly Silver. This pushes him down a bit in the standings, but not below those who haven’t played their matches yet this week.
4: Spedmonkey (+2) [DavidW]
With a very nice draw against Lauras in his first match of the season, Spedmonkey makes ground towards the top of the standings. But for a late set comeback by Lauras, Spedmonkey would look to be in the top 3 of Silver right now.
5: Miniorek [Spedmonkey]
6: DavidW (-2) [Miniorek]
7: Hunu [Hunu]
8: Zerodoom [Beanie]
9: Beanie (+1) [Nanthelas]
10: Nanthelas (-1) [Zerodoom]
11: sgnurf (+1) [FurbyFubar]
12: FurbyFubar (-1) [sgnurf]
13: checker [checker]
Bronze
1: Magicdoer1 [Magicdoer1]
2: Gabrio (+1) [Gabrio]
A 7-1 victory over HumanKirby is exactly what Gabrio needed to continue establishing himself at the top of the division.
3: Portalfreek (+2) [Tonyl]
4: Iggythegrifter (+3) [Iggythegrifter]
While not quite recovering all of what was lost in Week 1, Iggy’s win over Dukit this week pushes them back into Tournament of Position contention in the top 4.
5: Tonyl (+5) [dbdkmezz]
With a massive win over Calvin Schoolidge, Tonyl storms up the rankings, helped along by a lethargic lower half during Week 2. It was helped along by some seriously voodoo sniper shots coming out of nowhere, but that same voodoo was never punished by the usual accompanying civ shots. Will Tonyl regress to the mean, or will he continue to confuse us all by sniping Bronze into the shadow realm?
6: Dukit (-2) [Dukit/Portalfreek]
7: Calvin Schoolidge (-5) [Dukit/Portalfreek]
So far Calvin hasn’t been living up to the expectations the community had of a first place Bronze player. With a draw and now a loss on his record, Calvin is going to need to make a statement going forward for both a place at the top of the ranking and points on the leaderboard.
8: dbdkmezz (+4) [Calvin Schoolidge]
9: Humankirby (-3) [Sykosloth/Kmars133]
10: Kmars133 (-1) [Sykosloth/Kmars133]
The loss to Magicdoer wasn’t completely unexpected, so it’s not enough to knock Kmars below Sykosloth, who had a bye this week.
11: Sykosloth (-3) [humankirby]
12: mrrgrs [quicklime]
13: quicklime [mrrgrs]
Copper
The only pro circuit division with no draws, Copper is starting to stratify into pretty apparent tiers as far as the scoreboard goes. While the rankings likely won’t match that perfectly, as we try to take strength of schedule into account, it still makes for a relatively low-chaos division.
1: Legorve Genine [Legorve Genine]
Fun fact, not one respondent in the community poll put Legorve Genine anywhere but first in Copper.
2: Monaters [Monaters]
3: jd105l [jd105l]
We considered bumping JD up over Monaters thanks to a win against a presumably stronger opponent, but the margin was too thin to really justify it. Regardless, both of these players are still clearly sitting near the top.
4: Paratroopa [Paratroopa]
5: Tflameee [Tflameee]
6: Yglini (+3) [Yglini]
A solid win over Alexare brings Yglini up in the standings, even despite the attempt at a late comeback from the speedy spy player.
7: Monopolyman (-1) [Alexare]
A close loss against JD is good enough to keep Monopolyman afloat above some of the competition, but he still does slip below Yglini for now. Despite this, the match was high quality and it wouldn’t be surprising to see Monopolyman rising in the ranks in future weeks.
8: Con-pope (+2) [Monopolyman]
Similarly to Monopolyman, Con-pope’s fairly close set against Monaters will see them gain a couple rankings among other players who didn’t lose as gracefully.
9: Alexare (-2) [AndiVX]
10: Harren (-2) [Harren]
11: AndiVX [Banana Bread]
12: Banana Bread [Con-pope]
13: Howiie [Howiie]
Iron
Iron is looking weird. A couple of players are living up to preseason expectations, a couple aren’t doing so as much. It’s still early, but things are shaping up to look a lot different than was expected here in Iron.
1: LevTrotskij [LevTrotskij]
2: RhythmicSheep [RhythmicSheep]
RhythmicSheep continues to dominate the top of the rankings with a win over Beanie/steam, even the scoreline only being marred by a Beanie sweep of the High Rise singled pick. It seems likely she’ll stay on top for some time to come.
3: Rov (+1) [Rov]
4: Koopa (+1) [Catnip]
5: The_Usual_Toaster (+6) [Koopa]
Showing off against Catnip, The_Usual_Toaster showed a willingness to be aggressive on the spy side and force the sniper to catch what they were doing. This willingness not often seen in lower divisions, plus the stagnation of those around them, propels Toaster to a top 5 spot in this week’s rankings.
6: YtterbiJum (+2) [Beanie/steam]
A close loss to Koopa is good enough to gain Ytter some spots thanks to a backsliding competition.
7: Catnip (-4) [jaHNI]
Similarly to Calvin Schoolidge in Bronze, the presumptive divisional favorite hasn’t shown any of the prowess that was expected of her so far in weeks 1 and 2. With a draw and now a fairly convincing loss on her record, Catnip’s going to have to start showing up against her next few opponents to reassert control over Iron; those opponents however, are YtterbiJum and jaHNI, two players who have been showing up fairly decently during the start of the season.
8: Beanie/steam (-2) [YtterbiJum]
9: jaHNI (-2) [The_usual_toaster]
10: MrTwister [MrTwister]
11: dejoker (-2) [dejoker]
This change in the rankings is a purely opinionated and spiteful act by the author. This week, dejoker played a set in which the same Spy/ST pairing was picked during five of six of their spy games. I had to cast that.
However, despite this, there is actually a good reason to drop dejoker a few spots despite coming out of week 2 with a draw. Out of six spy games, dejoker did not come even close to completing missions in a single one. While slow play is valid, on a pure eye test level, it’s worrying to think how dejoker would fare against a sniper who either knows their style or a simply more disciplined sniper.
12: Sun Bro [Sun Bro]
13: Vac58 [Vac58]
Unfortunately, Vac58 has dropped from SCL, and will permanently possess the 13th (and from here on out, nonexistent) spot in Iron.
Obsidian
Oh Obsidian, how I love you. The first division to finish all their matches this week, even among those that did complete all their matches, they make it so easy to write up a power rankings order each week. That said, this activity is also indicative of a high level of interest in the game, which always makes for better players and more interesting matches.
1: Monsterracer (+1) [Monsterracer]
The only player coming out of week 2 with an unblemished record, Monsterracer pushes to the top of the standings.
2: Corvusmellori (-1) [Corvusmellori]
3: ALTInsider (+5) [Xeynoxys]
With a very nice win over Pipesuper, ALTInsider rises quickly thanks to a downturn of those above them.
4: Xeynoxys (+3) [ALTInsider]
Similarly to ALTInsider, Xeyno makes solid progress with a draw against last week’s top spot, Corvusmellori.
5: TheForgot3n1 (-1) [TheForgot3n1]
While the loss to Monsterracer wasn’t the worst thing in the world; after all, Monsterracer now establishes himself as our number one spot this week – Forgot3n still loses a bit of ranking, but is buoyed by, once again, that relative divisional slump near the top.
6: Bannanasniper (-3) [ShootingGoats]
7: ShootingGoats (+4) [BobTheAlmighty]
ShootingGoats pulls off a mild upset over DeathTacticus this week, proving that they can shoot spies, too! It’s going to push them above the falling middle-of-the-pack players who lost or drew their matches, and it’s a stronger win overall than those who did well below them.
8: Auglbe240 (-3) [Auglbe240]
9: Scout (+1) [DeathTacticus]
10: Pipesuper24 (-4) [Scout]
11: BobTheAlmighty (+2) [Lushmoss]
12: DeathTacticus (-3) [Bannanasniper]
13: Lushmoss (-1) [Pipesuper24]
Oak
Oak grew! From five players to eight, schedule changes and weirdness is going to make doing weekly power rankings a bit difficult for this division. Due to this fact, when writing the rankings for Oak, I’m going to be taking into account all the matches played at time of writing, regardless of their technical week designation. That’ll make things a bit confusing if you’re reading this from the future, but I’m willing to trade your confusion for mine.
1: TONewYork [Phillammon]
The only player sitting with a spotless record in Oak, TONewYork’s second week matchup wasn’t as clean of a victory as their first; in fact, it was rather close, sporting a 7-5 victory over newcomer Armageddon. That said, it’s still enough to keep Tony in the top spot.
2: Phillammon (+1) [Atia]
Phillammon fell a bit thanks to not having a match to play last week, but now that he’s played two since then, he’s back to gaining ground. With a draw against cptbasch and a close win over last week’s 2nd place, Atia, it’s enough to push him to number 2 in the division.
3: cptbasch (New) [cptbasch]
Despite being new to the division, cptbasch has the most games of anyone around. With nearly 1500 games under their belt, that experience is paying off so far with a draw to Phillammon and a win over testierjamaj.
4: Atia (-2) [Maxstermind]
5: Maxstermind (-1) [Smashblade]
6: Smashblade (New) [TONewYork]
7: Armageddon (New) [Armageddon]
8: testierjamaj (-3) [testierjamaj]
Where is the community poll?