I – I would have followed you, my brother, my captain, my king – Boromir's death leads with an ELO of 1,318, ahead of III – You bow to no one – Aragorn and Arwen's wedding, and the people of Middle-earth bowing to the Hobbits (1,315) and III – It is time, Frodo – Frodo and Bilbo sailing away and leaving Middle-earth with the Three Keepers (1,312). Ranked over 943 duels between 54 contenders, last updated August 24, 2026.
Rank the most emotional moments from The Lord of the Rings.
How this ranking is computed
Every duel won lifts a contender and every loss drops them, by an amount that depends on the opponent's strength: beating the leader is worth more than beating the last. It is an ELO, the same principle as in chess. Duels are not drawn at random — an adaptive entropy sort puts the least predictable match-ups first, which settles the ranking far faster than a full round robin. A worldwide ranking is only published past 30 completed plays. Known limit: a contender who has faced few opponents keeps an approximate score, and the bottom of the table moves more than the podium.