by Tanner Kinney The opinions and views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the opinion of Byte or Byte's editorial board. Season 9 has (almost) begun, and that means it’s time for another year of drama, suspense, OMEGALULs, fully-stacked tears, and dozens of clown fiestas. The meta of the previous year became admittedly pretty stale, despite the previous Worlds Championship being one of the most high-octane tournaments in terms of action around the map. I feel I can speak for a lot of people in hopes that the meta of season 9 will be less focused on murder and more focused on better teams winning games. I personally don’t think Riot will do it, but they’ve surprised me before. Like with Patch 8.11, which made my duo partner nearly quit the game. Onto the power rankings, these were decided after a pretty lengthy discussion with a panel (Discord server) of experts (my friends), based off of a few qualities. We looked at the potential of the teams and the previous results of the teams and their individual players, along with keeping in mind the volatility of certain rosters and players. Although these are ranked traditionally, we grouped them into three groups since it is, admittedly, a pretty close call: The Top Three, The Middledogs, and The Bottom Feeders. Let’s just get into it.

The Top Three

1. Team Liquid

2. 100 Thieves

3. Cloud 9

The Middledogs

4. Team Solomid

5. Counter Logic Gaming

6. Golden Guardians

7. Echo Fox

The Bottom Feeders

8. Clutch Gaming

9. OpTic Gaming

Introducing our starting lineup for Week One of #LCS:

Top: Dhokla Jungle: Meteos Mid: Crown ADC: Asta Support: Big#OPTWIN #GREENWALL pic.twitter.com/NnE83SVzbE — OpTicLoL (@OpTicLoL) January 24, 2019

10. FlyQuest