League Rundown - Episode 511: MS BYE

[00:01:06] Speaker A: Hello and welcome to episode 511 of the League rundown. This is the MSI play in stage review and main stage preview. And this episode is lovingly entitled Ms By. I'm your host, Sean Juliet F. Duffy. I'm joined today by three esteemed co hosts. We have the ever present Jack Zoman, twitch TV Jackson. [00:01:34] Speaker B: I made it back to plat, so come watch me get trolled out of it again. [00:01:38] Speaker A: Let's go. And if you are in that range on solo queue, you should definitely queue up in the evenings for the west coast time so that you control jacks out of plat. Just throwing that out there or into plat. I don't know how it works. I just get Emerald and then I quit. Yeah, yeah. We got live from his own bedroom. It's King's cast. [00:01:59] Speaker C: Well, Platt comes right before Emerald Duffy, so that's kind of the way that the progression system works. [00:02:05] Speaker B: Yeah. We're allowed to queue together again. [00:02:08] Speaker A: Oh, we are? We won't. [00:02:11] Speaker B: Cause you don't play with me. [00:02:12] Speaker A: But, yeah, it's crazy. The time's like really flying also. [00:02:15] Speaker B: It's fine. I'll just make you play Hill divers with me. [00:02:18] Speaker A: Yeah, that's cool. [00:02:19] Speaker C: I'm into that flyquest, more like by quest. Am I right? [00:02:23] Speaker A: Oh, got em, man. You know, they were really interested in, like, you know, feeding the trees and all that stuff, but now they're just feeding the worms. Finally, he's here to gloat. I think this time around, the king of lpl, it's Mazelle. Hello. [00:02:42] Speaker D: I'm a little sad about tonight's matchups, but as we're recording this one, but this one's going to be fun. And I think MsI this year has been, besides some of the one sided matchups, I'm sorry. FlyQuest has been really fun this year, so I'm excited to talk about it. [00:02:58] Speaker A: Hell yeah. And we got quite a bit to talk about, so let's blow through the news real fast. Riot news, here we go. MSI, y'all are hearing this, hopefully before the main stage actually begins. However, we're recording just a. Several hours beforehand. We really only had about 36 hours break between the ending of the play in stage and beginning the main stage. So we're doing our best here and huge shout outs to Ian. If he gets this out in time. If he does not, then I need everyone to get into the discord and spam ian and get really mad at him and tell him that the Dallas stars specifically suck. Ooh, he'll really enjoy that. [00:03:32] Speaker C: Also, that trombones are dumb. [00:03:35] Speaker A: Yes. Tell him trombones are dumb. Not even a real instrument, just a tube. [00:03:38] Speaker D: Just given all of his weaknesses like that. [00:03:40] Speaker C: That's a tuba. [00:03:43] Speaker A: What did I call that? [00:03:44] Speaker C: I forget what. You know, we're not even talking about. [00:03:48] Speaker D: There's moving along. [00:03:49] Speaker A: There's some joke that this is a reference to from, like, two years ago. [00:03:52] Speaker D: And we're good. [00:03:53] Speaker A: Emma said, main stage begins May 7. We will have a break on May 13. For all of you who want to know exactly what time all this starts, good news is it's all over the place. Tomorrow at 02:00 a.m. Is the beginning. Well, really? Tonight at 02:00 a.m. For those of you here on the west coast, because this is all PDT. So 7th May 7, 02:00 a.m. Team liquid kicks off against top esports Wednesday, 02:00 a.m. Same time is Gen G versus fnatic Thursday. Same time. Yeah, you guys should be getting used to this. Now we have Billy. Billy gaming versus PSG Talon Friday, same thing, 02:00 a.m.. G two versus t one. And then we have a 09:00 p.m. Slot on lil esports.com. And I don't know what the fuck that is. [00:04:42] Speaker B: We already told you they're playing two best of fives on that day. That's why. [00:04:47] Speaker C: Yeah, so it's got started. Super. [00:04:49] Speaker A: That's the break time. It's 5 hours between. [00:04:53] Speaker B: Well, yeah, cuz there's potentially five games. [00:04:56] Speaker A: I know, but that still just blows my. [00:04:58] Speaker C: It's a lot, but it would be a rolling if the first series ends in three games. [00:05:03] Speaker A: I wasn't here. [00:05:04] Speaker C: Yeah, it was his birthday, right? [00:05:06] Speaker A: Yeah, it was again my birthday. [00:05:08] Speaker D: Come on, man. [00:05:10] Speaker A: Well, no, it's. It's not my birthday again. I'm here. Okay. It's my birthday again. Thank you. So again, this is the main stage. There's a lot of really fun things that are happening here. Most importantly, what is the actual series numbers? Jax? What are we finally getting best of five. [00:05:29] Speaker B: Oh, that's what you're asking? I was like, series numbers? [00:05:31] Speaker A: What the fuck are you talking about? [00:05:33] Speaker B: Yeah, they're playing best of fives now. [00:05:35] Speaker A: Best of fives. Best of fives. There we go. Thank you, Jax, very much for that assist. Best of fives all the way through for the entirety of MSI main stage. None of that Bo three nonsense. None of this Bo one garbage. We're in it to win it. [00:05:48] Speaker B: Who calls that a series number? [00:05:51] Speaker A: I don't know, dog. Just roll with me. [00:05:53] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:05:53] Speaker A: What did you want me to say? [00:05:55] Speaker C: Change? [00:05:56] Speaker A: No, no. I did it right. You did. I just did it wrong. There's a small break on May 13. We're going to try to record during that break time. But again, like what we do right now between the playing stage and the main stage, it is a very short period of time. We'll do our best to do a little check in with y'all, talk about how things are going. I believe at that point we will have teams eliminated. Yes, teams will be eliminated if they dropped into losers bracket and lost again. So we'll have at least two teams that are bye bye, very gone by that point. But we'll be back with everything else and we'll see which teams have risen to the top and which ones are swimming their way home. Speaking of back home roster news, Immortals has dropped some news here in North America. Last week they dropped their head coach or two weeks ago, maybe even longer ago. [00:06:42] Speaker C: I think it was around 02:00 a.m. [00:06:45] Speaker A: Recently because I was on the episode. So at least two weeks ago they just announced they've signed from disguised toasts. Team in narrow is back in the LCS, formerly the head coach and then I guess the head of Lowell Esports for Golden Guardians during their short but sweet reign at kind of the top, the apex of LCS. He is now joining Immortals, an organization that is just covered in mediocrity and low ambitions. So we'll see what this means because he's a guy who seems to be very focused on NA growth talent pipeline. And Immortals seems to be a team that has completely given up on that idea and dream when they dropped specifically their top laner. What? A year ago? When did they drop revenge? [00:07:32] Speaker C: That was a year ago going into summer. Cause that's when eg picked them up. [00:07:36] Speaker A: Yep. So they seem to walked away from that, especially given the roster this spring. But things may be changing with another bald head in charge. Speaking of Kankas, what's up? [00:07:47] Speaker C: He had a little tweet that he put out as well, kind of talking about how he was, you know, helping out with this guy is happy to do that, but wasn't sure if he'd ever make it back to lcs. So I think it's kind of heartwarming to see that he has been able to make it back. But I would say for a head coach, I don't know if he's going to be, from my understanding of Nick and like talking with him, what he's done in past teams, more of like the head coach then strategic coach. So they might still be making other moves if they have the budget for it. I wouldn't be surprised if they tried to bring on at least one other person. But like you had touched on, I think he is going to be focused more on NA talent because that's what he really did with golden Guardians. If you remember, he built really stellar roster over there. Licorice is still free agent. I wouldn't be surprised if that's somebody he's looking at. Serdi, probably one of the top players he's gonna be looking at. But then also he was just playing or working with a lot of the skies members and playing in the NACL. So he's got a good temperature read on like the players that are coming up in the scene. So hopefully we see some movement in summer. If not, and he's still around next year. Hopefully we see movement done. [00:08:53] Speaker A: Fingers crossed. But I've kept them crossed for a long time, hoping for immortals to figure shit out. So here's an.org that's figuring a lot of stuff out very, very quickly. Only into their third split halfway through the year, KC the blue wall has kind of revamped their roster. They've signed Dom, one previous standout, Khanna, as their new top laner, which kicks fucking ass. Kano is a really, really strong player for a period of time in the LCK. He's been not as good since what, 20? Oh, none of you guys have ever watched any of this shit? Well, maybe mizel, have you ever watched lck? [00:09:37] Speaker D: Not really. A little bit. [00:09:38] Speaker A: I used to, but where is badger and or I do recognize and or though. Okay, well, that's something. So you recognize his name because he's been around and he has been at the top of the game. I can't in the world's esports. Okay, that's pretty good. We're going to use that when they fail anyway. Kana stepping into the top lane. [00:09:55] Speaker C: This is huge. [00:09:56] Speaker A: He is definitely going to be one of the better players in the top lane pool in the LEC. Does that mean enough for this team? And will he actually perform well enough? I don't know, but the rest of the roster is coming together as well because they have promoted Vladi, who I believe was their mid laner from their b roster, the EU masters roster, which is what Saiken was previously. He is going to be replacing his counterpart previous one. And they've signed former north American all star professional closer, really of turkish descent and formerly of was he Fenerbahce Eastborn, 1907 Federbache I spore. Or was he Istanbul wildcats? I think it was wildcats. I think he was wildcats. But anyway, world level talent and closer did not find a team after 100 thieves pretty much revamped everything in their top side last year. After a very big struggling year for him and the rest of the team, they still have upset intargamus in the bot lane. Soon. [00:10:57] Speaker B: I looked up closers past. He was on royal bandits and royal youth. [00:11:01] Speaker A: He wasn't even on. [00:11:03] Speaker B: He wasn't on either of those ones. [00:11:05] Speaker C: But before that. Before that, he was on Besiktas esports. [00:11:10] Speaker B: Yes. [00:11:11] Speaker A: Okay. Yep. Besiktas esports. [00:11:13] Speaker C: There we go. [00:11:14] Speaker A: Is a storied soccer club, so just want to throw that out there. Perfect. Do not send anyone to kill Kangas in his home, which is located at. Kidding. I'm not gonna pull that. [00:11:28] Speaker C: He was also on a team called Sillekler. [00:11:33] Speaker D: You're doing great. [00:11:34] Speaker A: Okay. I would like for the podcast to not have any assassins sent after it again. I can't fight them off anymore. [00:11:42] Speaker C: We're gonna keep moving on. Skirmish with Alfari. [00:11:45] Speaker A: Yeah. The welsh teams. Man, the welsh super fans. Really, really killing me. And specifically led by Alfari. Here's someone who's also taken a step back entirely from pro play, maybe not of his own making. Perks is done. Or at least taking a break is really how he's trying to state it. He's done for the year, potentially for a little bit longer. He said he lost his passion for the game. He was really only looking forward to worlds level events, and I think worlds level events was looking at him and saying, yeah, we're good. So tough. Tough to go out like that. But I'm gonna say it. No one can stop me. This dude kind of sucks. I don't like what he's done, like, outside of the game. I don't like the stances he's taken. I don't like how much he's tied himself to ocelot and, like, everything that that entails. Who, for those who haven't been following along, was the creator and founder of G two esports, really built it up into this insane behemoth in the LEC and was kicked out of the team for essentially buddy buddying up with some of the most disgusting and despicable people that are still allowed on social media in the world. And Parks is just right there along with him, hoping he would be there for the ride. So fuck him. Bye bye. That's it. You guys have any other news you want to talk about, Kangas? What you got going on? Anything fun? [00:13:15] Speaker C: Playing a lot of yu Gi. Oh, probably going to a tournament tomorrow. It's going to be fun. [00:13:19] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:13:19] Speaker C: You want to come? [00:13:21] Speaker A: No. [00:13:21] Speaker C: Okay. [00:13:22] Speaker A: No, I'm good. That sounds lovely. [00:13:27] Speaker C: Oh, actually, you know what? I will say sea Lol is going on, so you can go check out those streams, because Ben Hawk, who was on the podcast last week as a guest, he's been putting it together with one of his cocasters grapes, and they've brought on a lot of other folks from the tier two, tier three community to broadcast the games because riot is completely hands off this year and kind of giving it over to the broadcast partners, who I'm even blanking on their name right now, but they weren't, didn't have really any plans for it, so they're just technically co streaming it. But you can go support the streams that they're putting together because they're doing a pretty good job for kind of picking up by bootstraps with two weeks of planning to try and put that show together. [00:14:08] Speaker A: So shout out to them, amen. If you want to join us and support us in your own little way, join us in the discord. Coming out with us. We've got pickems going for the entirety of MSI. Huge shouts to mini quant for doing all that. We're gonna have fantasy starting up at the beginning of the next split for the regions that are available. So if you want to be involved and really kind of jump in and then make fun of Jax for not putting together a roster that makes any sense and also for not making any changes later, come do. So come chat with us about MSI. We have actually had people awake at 02:00 a.m. And chatting the whole time, looking mostly at mongoose more than anyone else. So if you want to watch games live, no better place to do it than here in the discord. And huge shout outs to all of our patrons on Patreon, y'all kick ass again and again. I'll say this every week for as long as I'm here, which isn't much longer. You all are really the reason we continue to do this and are able to even do this as we transition completely away from Trinity Force network and into whatever our own little weird thing is. [00:15:08] Speaker B: And if you're inclined to watch vods because you can't get up at 02:00 a.m. Join the discord so you can come join us. When I put on a vodwatch party. Cause that'll happen at some point during MSI. [00:15:19] Speaker A: There you go. [00:15:20] Speaker B: I don't know what day yet. [00:15:20] Speaker A: Join the party. [00:15:21] Speaker B: It'll happen. [00:15:24] Speaker A: That's what we need to hear. No definitive times, just a vague it will happen. [00:15:30] Speaker C: But they have to join the discord in order to learn when it'll happen. [00:15:33] Speaker B: Exactly. [00:15:33] Speaker A: That's true. It's like a sweepstakes. You have to enter to learn more. That's it for news. Let's jump on in to the most fun stuff, which is MSI. We're gonna begin. We're all good do at the beginning with the play in stage. As a reminder for everyone, there was representatives that we had in the playing stage were the second seats out of the major regions. This was top esports from the LPL, t one from the LCK, fnatic from the LEC, and flyquest from the lcs. They faced off against LLA, latin America's Eskral esports. See below. Brazil's loud esports, VC's very own formerly gigabyte marines, now just gam esports and the PCs champion supreme PSG Talon minus Mabappe. So those were your teams in the play ins. Everything went pretty much according to plan, right, guys? Like all the major regions got in. [00:16:36] Speaker C: We don't really have to talk about anything, honestly. This episode is mostly prep for next season week, you know, for. For. [00:16:42] Speaker B: Right. [00:16:42] Speaker C: For the main stage. [00:16:44] Speaker A: Right, right. That. That makes total sense to me. Uh, unfortunately, for those of you who were cheering for a north american team, uh, none of what we just said was very accurate. Uh, however, t one did make it out clean. Two o's all the way through, including pretty big stomps of both of the teams placed in front of it for it to chomp right on through. And, uh, top esports made a pretty clean run of it as well. Although Mazelle was tops. Victory over fanatic. As good as you thought it would be? As clean? [00:17:17] Speaker D: I think it's about as clean as I thought it was going to be. And I think I was very vocal about the fact that top esports were going to probably be the team that from the LPL, that drops the most games out of both of them, and they're the most weak in other parts of the games that they aren't strong in. So I actually think it went about as much as I expected it to. [00:17:40] Speaker A: Okay, fair. We'll talk a little bit more about the series themselves, but those are your four teams moving out of the playing stage. T one PSG, top esports and fnatic. After we're done with that, we'll talk about the play ins a little bit more, and I think we might just want to do, like, a team focus. What do you guys think about that? So we could actually talk about teams like Estra loud and how the whole regions are doing, and then we'll preview these teams as we've now seen them in a snapshot on the newest patch as they enter the main stage and have to face the terrifying one seeds from each of the major regions. [00:18:12] Speaker C: Sure thing. [00:18:13] Speaker A: Sure. Hell, yeah. All right, well, then let's start with the bottom. Unfortunately, Esdral esports did not win a single game in their entire time here. The only team in China to not win a game. [00:18:30] Speaker B: Yep. [00:18:30] Speaker A: That is so tough. Kangas, why don't you talk to me about Estrall esports? What good? What bad? What did you enjoy? [00:18:38] Speaker C: Yeah, I think, in general, what I noticed with the minor region teams, even PSG, and also FlyQuest, is I feel like supports were really lacking a little bit here. Ackerman did not have a great showing and was consistently the reason that things were going wrong for a stroll. There were moments in games where it felt like they were actually hanging on, but then support would get picked or support would go for a bad engage, and it didn't work out. But the positives that we saw was Jose de Otto was trying his frickin hardest, man. This guy's actually still got it. And I think it was really cool to see Jose Deodo try his best to step up and attempt to carry some games, specifically the t one series. I know that that was still pretty one sided, but I would argue a stroll made t one work harder than Flyquest to actually get those wins. And it's off the back of Jose de Otto for the most part. I still think Cody also stepped up in a couple of fights, and the top lane was, like, trying to remember which game it was. It was other game, one or two, but they were able to, like, manage to hold on for quite a while. But, I mean, there's not much expected from the LlA teams in general. They. I don't think they've ever have. They won an international series in the past, like, two, three years here. I feel like it's. [00:20:08] Speaker A: I don't believe that they've ever won an international series, certainly not against a major team. [00:20:14] Speaker C: I feel like they had to have picked one up at some point, but. [00:20:17] Speaker A: I can't remember traditionally, they're probably the weakest region. [00:20:21] Speaker C: Yeah, period. I would say definitively. CB Lowell has more, you know, wins. VC's PCs definitely have more. Even like LJL back before they got absorbed. Maybe Oceania was down there back in the day, but right now it's tough to be the LLA, and it was a tough tournament for them. Their second series against PSG also not the best, as clearly didn't pick up a win. That one actually didn't get a chance to watch, though. So if anybody else has more information on the straw versus PSG series, feel free to chime in. But in general, tough for the LLA, but bright spots in some of the individual players. Jose Doto and Cody were in particular the ones that I was looking at. [00:21:03] Speaker A: Here's the big thing. Who did they kill? They killed Faker. They did. True. All right, jobs fucking done. Go home, retire a champion. You'll be elected king, God emperor of whatever country you live in. That's just how it works, guys. I don't make the rules. [00:21:19] Speaker C: Ah, I didn't know that. [00:21:21] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. Just so you're aware, that's all you need to do to become esports royalty outside of Korea and probably in Korea, that's pretty useful. Yeah. Astrol esports. I don't know if there's really anything to say about PSG. Jax, do you want to chime in? Is there anything positive for astral out of the PSG matchup that we didn't see? [00:21:38] Speaker C: Like, yeah, they looked a little bit. [00:21:40] Speaker A: Better than they did against t one. [00:21:41] Speaker C: But that was it. [00:21:42] Speaker A: And honestly, topside, second game against t one did not look bad, but I think Zeus had one of his happy little gaming moments. [00:21:47] Speaker B: So I got nothing else to say about astral. [00:21:51] Speaker A: Yeah, unlucky. [00:21:53] Speaker D: It was v rough. [00:21:55] Speaker A: It was. And they are v going home, but they had a good time while they were here. And again, they got to kill Faker. So who's the real winners? Let's talk about the other teams here that were eliminated. Allowed esports CB low. Several members of this cast last week were very high on this team for reasons I can't quite determine. There may have been some bias injected here. Not really sure. Something was in the water potential. [00:22:20] Speaker C: I was looking for followers, which I really did not get any more. [00:22:24] Speaker A: Yeah, he didn't get any at all. Yeah, I tried with our Twitter account, too. You know, I talked about Romario, and I was like, hey, listen, he's my goat. Trying to get some soccer fandom here and fucking nothing. [00:22:35] Speaker D: How'd that go for you know what? [00:22:37] Speaker A: Yeah, you know what? I'm now going the opposite way. This has polarized me. Now I'm just going to say CB low sucks. Oh, and Brazil is terrible. And if you don't agree with me, come fight with me about it on Twitter so I get good engagement. Thanks, guys. [00:22:50] Speaker C: Oh, also I had notifications turned off for anybody that's not a follower, so you'll have to follow me for me to see the comment. [00:22:56] Speaker A: Oh, there we go. Okay. You have to subscribe to him actually, for him to really. What do we talk about? Loud? What do we got here? They at least won a game. [00:23:08] Speaker D: They did, right? [00:23:09] Speaker A: That's huge. That's different. That's not what Esdral was all about. Mazelle, do you want to talk to me at all about loud? They faced off against scam esports in their second series, and unfortunately they were matched against top esports for series one. [00:23:24] Speaker D: I. I find it interesting because. [00:23:30] Speaker A: I. [00:23:30] Speaker D: Think you could see it on the faces after they got eliminated that they were unhappy with their performance. I think the brightest point were some of the newer players on loud, which I thought was really cool. And the only things that really worked for me were root and croc. I think Robo had a. Had some bright moments in topside, but overall, I think if Kroc wasn't having a good series, loud was not having a good series. And it made it very, very difficult to play around. [00:23:59] Speaker B: I felt like even the game they won, Robo wasn't doing great against kia ya. [00:24:04] Speaker C: Nope. I do think props though, cause their first series was against top esports. Very terrifying team to go up against for a minor region, but they did not look like they were scared. They showed up to that series and gave us exactly what you want out of a CB low versus LPL match. And that was fight, fight, fight. Never stop, never chill. Just balls to the walls action. And it was like kind of work. He like they were getting a couple plays, but tops. Just too good at playing the rest of the map and like making sure even if you get a couple kills, you get a couple picks or you like dive a turret. They're getting more on the other side. But it was. I was happy to see that loud didn't just do nothing. They were still very active and trying their best. [00:24:51] Speaker B: I just want to emphasize this point. In 1 hour of gameplay, two games, there was 79 kills in loud verse top. [00:25:00] Speaker C: That was great. [00:25:00] Speaker B: It was great game. [00:25:02] Speaker A: Game one alone ended like the kill score was like 28 to 18. So it wasn't like they couldn't get on the board and they couldn't get kills. It was just a clear runaway by top esports. It eventually became that. But yeah, they had a good time. [00:25:16] Speaker C: Each game's gold graph against top, it was like kind of teetering, teetering. And then a cliff would happen, right? Eventually the slide became too much. But I loved that they were drafting for team fights and then playing for teamfights as well. I think Tenones is ace hole. Almost had it. Like, they were getting to the point where you're like, wait a minute, is the acehole going to carry it? No. [00:25:38] Speaker A: But I actually want to jump on that because you mentioned the players you thought did well. I thought Tenones had some really, really good moments and general gameplay wasn't quite enough. And like you mentioned, he didn't quite get there with the Aceol, but he. [00:25:53] Speaker C: Had like, I think this is a. [00:25:56] Speaker A: Guy who we're definitely going to keep seeing on the international stage because Lau just keeps winning consistently in Brazil. And if he can start putting together more consistency in his overall performance, that maybe he can surprise someone and this team could turn into the PSG Talon of world. [00:26:12] Speaker C: Also, shout out to Kroc, who played a different champion every game, even though there were only five games. But still, still, you needed to make. [00:26:19] Speaker A: Sure that when they win MSI, he could have picked a bunch of different champions. [00:26:23] Speaker C: We made that joke so many times last week. The lad was going to win MSI, man, I'm so sad. We were like, dude, Brazil's gonna get two seeds into worlds. [00:26:35] Speaker A: I can't even do a stop the count joke because there was never a time where they were winning more than they really losing. Unlucky gam esports. This was the really tough one. Oh, my God. Because they had it. They fucking had this series game one, really close nail biter, kind of a cerebral game, very low kill score. Complete dichotomy between what we were seeing here and what we saw against top esports from loud and just from the way gam played, loud manages to ring it out, gets to the end. Game two, similar deal, very close game, but Loud's playing the map really well. And Jax, what happens? [00:27:18] Speaker B: I don't remember. I was so disappointed. [00:27:22] Speaker A: They try to end the game and the death timers are not long enough and everything turns on its head. They get caught. Game sports takes control of the game because they have a fucking zeri, who's now actually strong at three items. That's it. Their window snaps closed on them. And they probably were the harbingers of their own doom. They needed to back out and they just didn't they thought they needed to end in that moment and then everything turns on ahead. Game three is not fun to watch if you want CB level to do well. They are so mental boomed, tilted off the face of the earth. [00:27:57] Speaker B: It wasn't fun to watch. Even if you're just rooting for Levi. Like, it just wasn't a fun game. [00:28:03] Speaker A: Yeah, it's tough. It's a brutal game. So loud. This close to winning MSI is, I. [00:28:10] Speaker C: Think the way if they took that series, it was over. [00:28:13] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely. That was all the confidence they needed was beating VC's, the region that has not been seen at international competition for like three years. [00:28:22] Speaker C: Dude, tenones runs humanoid. We all know this. [00:28:25] Speaker A: True unlucky humanoid just dodged a bullet. [00:28:32] Speaker B: Okay, tenons legit did look good though, to be fair. [00:28:35] Speaker A: Yeah, he did. He was decent. Just wasn't quite enough for the team as a whole. And again, they had it in control. Arguably, like, this should have been a 20 for them. Just fuck. So close. And when you're in this point, when you were in the losers bracket and you had to face against a first, like basically a first team, top three team in the world to start it all off top four, there's just no room for error. And that's the hardest part of being in the minor region, is you're stuck in a really shitty situation. You don't have room to make mistakes the second you do your fuck. [00:29:07] Speaker C: Especially with this format of MSI where we get the second seed, LPL and LTK team in play, it's like, oh my God, good luck. [00:29:17] Speaker A: The upside is at least then every team in play ins has the chance to actually play a top tier team. Whereas before, if you were CB low and you got knocked out solely by LJL, like, great, you went an international competition, but all you got to face was someone who's so seemingly on your level and not like the best of the best. So they did get a good experience. And that's the cool thing also about astral is again, they got to kill fucking Faker. And in previous MSI's and in previous worlds, they may never even have had the opportunity to be in the same world champions. [00:29:47] Speaker C: Yeah. Was this faker's first ever play inside? [00:29:50] Speaker A: Oh, that's a good question. [00:29:51] Speaker C: I actually have think about that. [00:29:54] Speaker A: I think this is the first time MSI has had second seeds from LCK and LPL dropping a play ins. [00:30:00] Speaker B: I think this is first Ms never. I think they might have played at one of the world's play insect that. [00:30:08] Speaker A: For us and check and tell us. [00:30:09] Speaker C: If so, then, yeah, I mean, that straw got lucky then, not only for the format itself, but then for Faker not being the first seed, but either way, you know. Yeah, it is. It's tough. But Gam, it was also tough for them due to everything going on over in the vc's and just like, the situation with having players having to sub in. So props to them for doing the best that they could, but they could not do enough against Fnatic, who played pretty dang well. And I honestly think, like, EU fans be proud of fnatic because they made quick work of the opponents that they were able to tackle and take the wins of. And they even did take off that one game from top esports. They made the series close there. It felt like it could have gone either way at the beginning of game three. And then very quickly, we were like, okay, maybe not, but still, they made quick work of Gam in both of those series, so Gam couldn't tackle any of the major regions, but even if they were slightly nerfed, were enough to take down the CB low. [00:31:14] Speaker A: That's it. Is there anything else to mention about Gam? Except for, hey, it's good to see them back, period at all. Yeah. International cup. [00:31:23] Speaker C: You know, it wouldn't be an international tournament without Levi. [00:31:27] Speaker A: True. And some of these players that filled in, like, easy love as their ad carry, I thought performed really well. And this is a guy who was literally not playing up until about a month ago, so that's kind of kicks ass. And he did decently well in this role. Had a great zeri match, two of them in a row. So that's it for Gam. We got one last team that didn't make it out. Mazelle. Kangas, which of you two wants to fall on the sword here? [00:31:59] Speaker D: Well, it's really depressing. So. I don't know. [00:32:03] Speaker A: So, Mazelle. Perfect. All right, Mazelle, why don't you toast? [00:32:06] Speaker C: I'm too chipper to talk about them, clearly. [00:32:10] Speaker A: Well, Mizelle gets to celebrate for, like, the rest of the entire MSI. And, hey, you don't know. You're gonna be fine. [00:32:19] Speaker B: He knows lpl could get knocked out in the first two rounds. [00:32:23] Speaker A: Yeah, it's true. [00:32:25] Speaker B: It's technically possible that. [00:32:27] Speaker A: Mm hmm. Oh, definitely beat top fly quest. [00:32:32] Speaker D: Fly quest. Fly quest. So we started off round one against PSG. I thought there were some slip ups, thought there were some interesting decisions made in draft, at least, but had a really big step up from a couple key moments. And especially the bot lane, I felt like, had some. Some good moments, also some bad moments. But then, man, they got two hood by t one. And it was depressing. They lost the fastest best of three internationally of all time. [00:33:07] Speaker C: Technically the fastest ever international series, which best of three is the shortest series can be. So yes, goes to that same, but still. [00:33:14] Speaker D: And then you're like, okay, it was t one, though. It was t one. There was some. Again, the drafts were not looking great and execution was a little bit wanting against you. But, like, in game one, it actually was pretty. Pretty decently close for a while. But I think. Yeah, yeah. I think Wipo playing or got Flippo, dude. [00:33:36] Speaker C: He came to like, what was not great? What was he doing, man? [00:33:42] Speaker D: Okay. [00:33:42] Speaker A: Yep. I think if we were a serious region, Whippo played himself out of a job. I. [00:33:52] Speaker C: It's so tough because I think he was such a big component for their success throughout the regular season. In playoffs, I think he did okay, but he played a little bit more of a backseat and wasn't as, like, dominant as, like, the guy on the team. But then he just kept scaling downwards. And now at MSI, I mean, I think Busio played the worst, if we're being honest. Busio played really bad, but Wippo, I think, played the second worst, which was very surprising to me considering just kind of his pedigree as a player and what we expect from him. [00:34:28] Speaker A: I think he was more responsible for failures. Oh, okay. [00:34:33] Speaker B: Sure. [00:34:33] Speaker A: Okay. The fact that we can fight over three different players to all play poorly. I think inspired did terrible. Ooh. I think inspired literally caused more problems than he helped or fixed while on the rift. There are several times throughout every series where inspired is in the wrong place at the wrong time. Or it looks like his team is trying to set up for something and he's off by himself doing fuck. Who knows? There's a particular instance in the mid lane where he's on the Graves pick and he's hovering right behind enemy red, Buff and Jensen. It clearly looks like he's trying to jump in on Faker. And Jensen moves forward to bait Faker and inspire. Doesn't fucking do anything, just sits. [00:35:16] Speaker C: I do remember that moment. He had just gotten chased into his jungle from the enemy support, if I remember correctly, though. So in my mind, he was by himself alone. But the reason that he ended up in this position he was in is because I think he had tried to go for an invader the river. There was something that happened. I remember he, like, walked away, and in my mind, I was like, I bet you that was just miscommunication that Jensen was like, I need you here. And inspired didn't understand the need and was thinking, oh, no, Jensen can just get out. But if it's the same time that I'm thinking of, at least. But either way, inspired did have a couple of whoopsie moments. But you know what? Who I think had a fantastic showing, considering also just the experience coming in. Masu, the rookie 80 carry. I mean, he didn't play perfect. There were a couple moments where I was like, ah, he missed flash, or like, he still got hit by a key ability, but couple games were really rough. Yeah, but for a rookie at his first international event, I think he. He played admirably. [00:36:18] Speaker A: I agree. I thought he was very, very good, and it started strong, and he just kind of followed the trend of the rest. [00:36:24] Speaker D: I like his mentality too, when you look. Had a lot of the interviews that he had. I think just kind of the growth. [00:36:30] Speaker A: Certainly felt like it was stark contrast to the interviews given by the rest of the Flyquest members, which was also very nice to see. So, yeah, good for Masu. And hopefully Flyquest looks a bit better if we see them back in the international stage because. Or another team just beats them nationally because this was one of the worst outings at an international stage that an NA team has ever had, ever, ever. And this is a supposed super team in a lot of ways, and they couldn't fucking get out of plants. [00:37:01] Speaker D: And Cubby likes to talk about it a lot. But I completely agree. This team has looked like a completely different team since Fantix was let go. [00:37:12] Speaker B: It's. [00:37:13] Speaker A: Oh, okay. Well, for all of us here, strategy. [00:37:16] Speaker D: Coaches, he was their drafter. [00:37:19] Speaker A: Mm hmm. That's a big difference to have Duffy. [00:37:22] Speaker D: And we've seen a draft style. [00:37:26] Speaker B: Duffy, was this worse than golden Guardians getting three owed by BDS? [00:37:33] Speaker A: This was not worse than that. Absolutely not. BDS is a. From a major region. BDS was also. I thought they sucked, but they were decent at that point. [00:37:43] Speaker C: So you mean this was worse than that then? Correct. [00:37:46] Speaker A: That's what I'm. Yeah. [00:37:47] Speaker C: So this year is worse than when we got three owed by BDS. Yeah. [00:37:50] Speaker A: Yes. I think this is in the realm of TSM zero six. This is in the realm of TSM one five. This is in the realm of TSM pretty much anytime they've been international, whatever reason. I don't know what that's about. [00:38:03] Speaker C: They went three and three once or twice. [00:38:05] Speaker A: Yeah. Like a freest ass group in the world. And they couldn't get out. Sorry. I'm not gonna keep picking on TSM. Fuck you. Yes, I am. But what else has been as poor as this? [00:38:17] Speaker C: I think zero six is really the only one that comes to mind. Have we ever failed to make it out of a play ins at, like. [00:38:24] Speaker A: Outside of Golden Garden, outside of Golden Guardians? [00:38:26] Speaker C: But that, again, against a major region, and there are only two teams that made it out in that format, if I remember correctly, not four teams that made it out. So it's a little tougher. [00:38:34] Speaker A: Correct. I think the only other major region teams that have not made it out have been mad, so I'm pretty sure we've at least advanced. Hey, really good company was 1731. And what 1618 is that? The record was 16. [00:38:52] Speaker C: Somewhere around there. Yeah. [00:38:57] Speaker A: Yeah. If we were ever wondering, really wondering, like, if there was ever really a question or a doubt about whether or not the reduction of investment into lcs Lowell esports was going to rear its head in the performance of organizations and teams, especially in an international stage. Hey, we're results based analysts here, fuckers. We cut funding, we got rid of academy teams, and look what happened to us. The next year. We couldn't even make it out of play ins, and we lost to PSG. [00:39:32] Speaker C: Just don't pay attention to the fact that the two teams that we sent are the two that have academy teams still. But, you know. [00:39:39] Speaker A: We get to change the barometer. [00:39:42] Speaker C: It doesn't fit the narrative. [00:39:45] Speaker B: That's why we're results based. [00:39:46] Speaker A: Oh, they won. Well, here's one. [00:39:47] Speaker B: They lost. [00:39:48] Speaker A: Nope. We just need to acknowledge it. All right, guys, let's talk about the teams that actually made it, and we'll start with the teams that are least likely PSG. Jax, I know you really want to talk about PSG? [00:40:01] Speaker B: Sure. [00:40:02] Speaker A: So sorry, Mongoose isn't here. Can you channel Mongoose, please? [00:40:06] Speaker B: Oh, God. I don't think I'm capable of that. [00:40:08] Speaker C: Now, can you tell us that you're all. [00:40:11] Speaker A: Tell us all that you're recording in a closet. Start with that. [00:40:14] Speaker B: I mean, that's what he says. Have you seen the size of this room? It's not that much bigger than a closet. [00:40:20] Speaker A: I need you to get in a character. [00:40:23] Speaker B: Since when have I ever been able to get into character for any character? [00:40:27] Speaker A: Come on, you are a character. You just need to, like, be a different one. [00:40:33] Speaker B: You really wish I would be a different character than myself? I'm aware. [00:40:37] Speaker A: I will trade you for Blake any second. [00:40:40] Speaker C: Remind us always. Constantly. [00:40:42] Speaker B: No. So Flyquest first. PSG was how they kicked off and the first series they played was back and forth and interesting. PSG did lose it. They made it out because they made it to the rematch with FlyQuest and beat them the second time. As we just mentioned, the big takeaways I had Maple still fucking good. Betty's still fucking good. Those are the former Flash Wolves players. If they are going to get anywhere in the main stage, it's going to be off the back of maple roams and getting Betty going. And those two just being the carries. Cause Ozzy isn't good. Like, I think he's the weak link of the team. And in a tournament where there's 369 and Zeus and other like, God tier top laners, I feel like he's going to be the liability for PSG. [00:41:46] Speaker C: Ozzy was our win condition in the series that we actually were able to take them down. [00:41:51] Speaker B: Yeah. Like, genuinely, like, that's. That's how they lost to FlyQuest the first time around was Ozzy just couldn't do anything and it let Wippo steamroll the fucking map. [00:42:03] Speaker C: But can we talk about how good Maple's been looking? Specifically the Azir? His Azir is frickin insane, man. This guy, for how long he's been playing? I was hanging out over the weekend because one of my friends from college, it was his bachelor party and he used to watch league. Doesn't watch it anymore. And I was telling him, yeah, we got Jensen versus Maple. He was like, still imagine that's happening because, like, that was 2016, 2017 when he was watching. And so we actually watched one of the games and he was just like, dude, I freaking love Maple, man. Like, it doesn't look like he's aged at all. He hasn't changed at all. Like, and it's impressive that he's been able to maintain this level of play. [00:42:44] Speaker A: Amen. I thought he warmed up into it too. Really was worried. The very first series against Fly, I was like, oh, no, Maple. I hope he's getting paid well because this does not look like he's actually playing. What is his actual game one was really good. Is his year. [00:42:59] Speaker B: I was gonna say, what is his actual overall head to head against Jensen? Because they've played against each other quite a few times at this point. [00:43:06] Speaker C: They had a few times. Well, maybe not always because worlds format, sometimes they're funky. Even if two players go to worlds all the time, that doesn't mean that they play each other because they could always end up in different groups, but. [00:43:16] Speaker B: Sure, but they all, they also have played in na against each other. As well. So, like, they have a head to head record previous to this fair. [00:43:25] Speaker A: We need to get Leo back on. [00:43:27] Speaker C: Because on here, please. [00:43:30] Speaker D: Galileo. [00:43:31] Speaker A: Galileo. Yes. We need to get Galileo back on Galileo to the stars. [00:43:37] Speaker B: But, yeah, so, talking about PSG, I'm gonna try to get us back on track. [00:43:42] Speaker C: I'm trying to break Duffy as much as possible. If nobody had noticed so far, it's kind of working. [00:43:47] Speaker D: It's noticed. [00:43:48] Speaker B: And Jake's. Just keep going, please. [00:43:49] Speaker A: Please just keep going. [00:43:50] Speaker B: Jake's right through him. Hard on Ozzy. Cause he just kind of sucked. But, like, Junja, you're what? On Ozzy, Junja is pretty good. [00:43:59] Speaker A: Hold on. How the fuck do you pronounce that, then? [00:44:02] Speaker B: A z h I. [00:44:04] Speaker A: No, no, not Aussie. I just. Never mind. We're gonna keep our stories. [00:44:08] Speaker C: Don't worry. [00:44:09] Speaker A: Don't pay attention. [00:44:11] Speaker B: And, like, Woody's. Okay, so the highs for PSG are literally just Maple and Betty. And Junja is good. Like, Junja is not the carry, but, like, he's solid. Who's their first opponent? Let me look. Blg. [00:44:31] Speaker A: PSG faces Billy BoD, the champions of China. [00:44:35] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, okay. Okay. I could see Maple actually holding his own against night. [00:44:45] Speaker C: If he gets azir. Azir was his best champ by far. [00:44:49] Speaker B: That's the only matchup that I think they have a chance in. And I don't think he beats knight, to be clear. I just think he doesn't get blasted by night. Like, I think that's a. They're. They're relatively even, I think. I think elk is going to destroy Betty, and that's going to mean that there's no hope at all for PSG. [00:45:08] Speaker A: We'll talk a lot more about that. [00:45:10] Speaker B: Matchup in a moment. [00:45:10] Speaker A: I just want everyone who's listening to notice or to know that at least two mouths were fully agape at some of what was said. If he gets a zero, I'm assuming one of them was mazelle. [00:45:22] Speaker C: Yeah, I was going to say my mouth wasn't open, so I guess just mind reading. [00:45:25] Speaker A: I could just, like, sense it from mazelle. Is that right, lennon? [00:45:28] Speaker D: Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. [00:45:29] Speaker A: I don't know. [00:45:30] Speaker B: I've talked up PSG enough. [00:45:31] Speaker A: Let's move on. All right, we're going to move on. We got some other teams here, obviously, t one top esports and fnatic are the other three teams that advanced out of the playing stage. See, look at this. By doing that, you don't have to talk about fnatic. Jax, aren't you so happy? Mazelle how much of the fnatic matchup did you watch? Everything partake in? Hell, yeah, dog. You want to talk about fnatic and how cleanly they escaped from plans, right? [00:45:56] Speaker D: Yeah, clean for sure. Not bloody whatsoever. I think it's cool to see that their style from lec is kind of transitioned, is still into msi, and kind of being that chaotic, fast paced team with a lot of blood. I think it's worked well for them against the opponents they've drawn, especially against Gam. I think that was a really, really nice showing for fnatic and was kind of like a trendsetter for them. But then they went against top esports, and, yeah, they drew some blood. There was a lot of, lot of kills, but I think top esports handled a lot of the quick decision making better, and we did see fnatic fall behind a little bit, but then they got to go right back up against Gam, and unfortunately, gam did not have the answers. I think Levi had interestingly, kind of rough series, even though he was still, like, one of the brightest points. But I think fnatic as a whole, they look good if they can have control of the map and if they can be the ones deciding what is happening, like, what objectives are being fought for, kind of where pressure is around the map. The problem is, is, like, the game can get out in front of them sometimes, and they fumble the ball. [00:47:09] Speaker B: I felt like humanoid was just straight up better than cream in the entire series against top. [00:47:15] Speaker D: I would hope so. That's a rookie first time without rookie, but, like, first time going to international stage versus literally dominated the international national seed for. [00:47:25] Speaker B: I understand, but usually you wouldn't expect western mid to actually just straight up look better than eastern mid. [00:47:34] Speaker A: When was the last mid lane from the west whose name is not caps, or if you go even further back, perks who actually not just beat their opponent, but looked a class and a half above. [00:47:47] Speaker B: That's what I mean. Like, it was night and day. [00:47:51] Speaker A: I can't remember. [00:47:51] Speaker C: Yay. Versus faker at worlds last year. [00:47:55] Speaker A: True. Okay, never mind. Wrap it up. That's it. You nailed it. [00:47:59] Speaker C: That was the not APA for anybody. [00:48:02] Speaker A: Confused, but, yeah, that makes a lot more sense. Mizel, keep going, please. [00:48:08] Speaker D: That was pretty much done. I thought they had some good moments. From humanoid. I think it looks really good. He's the PowerPoint right now for fnatic. I think Razz Orc's champ pool is going to be interesting moving into the best of fives, but I think they can take some games off teams if they are allowed to take control of the map and keep that like, quick pace and a lot of kills. Chaos. [00:48:28] Speaker A: What'd you think of razor? [00:48:30] Speaker D: Yeah, I thought he had some decent, at least sustained jungling. I think the problem came when he was getting kind of pushed into his jungle. He lost a lot of decision making trees that it felt like kept him strong. But I love the way that he plays his champs and his champion pool, and I think he's going to be one of the biggest difference makers playing around in humanoid banger interviews. [00:48:52] Speaker C: Also true razor, coca camera more often. I want to see that all the time. [00:48:59] Speaker A: Fanatic has a lot of characters. [00:49:01] Speaker C: They do. [00:49:02] Speaker A: June, I thought, also was still very, very, very fucking good, this plan. And again, I'm excited for that. [00:49:09] Speaker C: The difference in quality of supports in plans was pretty drastic, man. Like the bottom five. And I'm going to lump Busio in there as well, like the supports in the minor regions. And then Busio looked like they were kind of running around with their heads cut off. But the supports that knew what they were doing seemed like they were much, much more comfortable on that stage. And I don't mean to like harp too hard on Busio also, you know, first time on the international stage, but if we're just being honest like it was, it was not a good showing. But I think, yeah, agree. June definitely stepped up. [00:49:42] Speaker A: Hell yeah. All right. Two other teams here, neither of which I think are unfamiliar to those who follow the international stage at all. Kangas as a sweet treat. Do you want to talk about skt t one k's dominant run through the plains and what the fuck do we even talk about? [00:50:01] Speaker C: I was gonna say he gave me the easiest one by faroed their way in a rapid fire. They must have had under 2 hours, probably under like an hour and a half of total game time here. Can somebody look that up while I kind of walk over or walk through what? [00:50:17] Speaker B: The game flyquest was like 45 minutes total. [00:50:23] Speaker C: And I want to say a straw was like 55, a little under that. [00:50:29] Speaker B: So, yeah, they had just over an. [00:50:32] Speaker A: Hour, just over an hour and a. [00:50:35] Speaker C: Half of game time across two series of games at the international stage. That's how SKTT won telecom. Their MSI has started off here, 20 against the straw, two against FlyQuest. And I'm not going to lie, it didn't really look like they were pushed at all. We have not seen peak t one because they didn't have to show us peak t one. Other than that, they have the ability to pull the trigger fast, and they have the ability to end games quickly when they choose to do so. And in particular, I think their bot lane is terrifying. Kumiyushi and Keria are real, real scary, and might be one of the best, if not the best, bot lane at this tournament. [00:51:17] Speaker A: I think there's two things to take away from what we saw in planes. One of them is do not give any of the eastern teams Senna, and especially do not give t one senna. Do not fucking give t one senna. Mizel, what did I just say? Yeah, don't give them Senna, guys. It's really simple. At least let them beat you with, like, other real champions and not absolutely obliterate you with the senna. Uh, the second thing is, even not at their best or really seeming like they're as focused, you cannot make a mistake around t one. That's how we ended up with the 1731 every single mistake. Flight, quest, mate, t one got three steps off of that, and that's what they do. That's what they've been good at for years with the same roster and even just variations of it. Uh, and they look like they can do that still and continue to do so against pretty decent competition. All right, we're back to you, mizelle, because we've got one other region team to mention. Yeah. Do you want to talk about, I don't know, Toppy sport? [00:52:21] Speaker D: Yeah, I think I do. [00:52:23] Speaker A: Okay, well, that's fine. We'll talk about it next time. [00:52:26] Speaker D: Okay. [00:52:26] Speaker C: Wow. [00:52:28] Speaker A: Go for it. [00:52:29] Speaker D: Yeah. Top, I think, looked about as good as I expected. I think they fell for a lot of baits, and their late game again was kind of bad, just as it was during playoffs and a lot of regular season. But I think Tien had some really rough moments, turned into some good moments because of his team around him. And Jackie love and Mako still look really, really good. I think Jackie Love is still on one of his most consistent performances of his career since his world championship run, which is really, really nice to see. And Mako still very proactive, which is great. They. We've already talked about most of the games, so mostly just talk about top esports as a whole. I think the. The most telling series that showed some of their weaknesses was that fanatic series, but I think the game three solidified a lot of the strengths that they can have. I know you were dogging on cream, but seems like a lot of people forgot about the game three, where he literally dogged on humanoid seven and two on the Tristana with mid lane pressure. That pushed all over the side lanes. I think it was really nice to see from a first time player on the international stage. It also, again, probably gave a lot of resources to top esports to show that, like, they need to clean up their late game decision making and not get caught because they were getting caught a lot. But I think they're still a really deadly team coming out of the play ins, and I think if you cannot lock down bot lane or find a way to not give them leads down there, I think you lose. You ought to lose the series. So I think teams are going to have to find a way to make Jackie Love Mako hurt or not let Tien get down there, which will be the most interesting thing to me. [00:54:08] Speaker A: Question for all y'all. How do you think the Lane swap meta affected plans and do you think it changed any of the results? [00:54:20] Speaker B: I don't think it changed any of the results. I think it just made some of the games a lot more boring. [00:54:27] Speaker C: I think that we could see a clear example of how draft affects the lane swap ability incredibly well and then which lane you choose to lane swap to cause often I would see with a team that got their bot lane together on the bot side, we're doing better. The ability to take three plates to one or two because of the increased resistance on the top turret. It actually did happen in a couple of games where like the, the lane swap was completely even. It was like mirrored basically, but whoever's hitting the bot turrets able to take an extra plate because it's just the turret has less armor on it in the early stages of the game. So that was something interesting to me, and I feel like in general, t one and top esports were better at doing that. Like, they weren't sending their bot lane top. I don't actually remember if they did it at any point. They they must have done it at least one time for c one at least. But I know then the fly Quest series, I was seeing a lot of the just stick bot lane and then out race for the turret. [00:55:34] Speaker A: Mazelle. What do you think? [00:55:36] Speaker D: Yeah, I agree with it. [00:55:38] Speaker A: Okay, there. There you go. Yeppers. [00:55:41] Speaker C: Rumble. Scary to drive because you can dive. Rumble much easier then. Yeah, you know, a tank. [00:55:48] Speaker A: Which is why I kind of like the adaptation of putting in support. Sometimes I didn't love it because it didn't always perform, but it was fun to see some flexibility. [00:55:58] Speaker D: I also, I don't think we've seen it. We saw a very different drafting style in the later games of playoffs and especially finals from top esports, and they were pulling out a lot more unique things or a lot of things that they felt were really strong. And I think you still look to the Nautilus as being Mako's best champion. This split as a whole, because it lets him roam, it lets him get a lot of engages off and a lot of shot calling ability. [00:56:22] Speaker A: But. [00:56:22] Speaker D: But we're not seeing the Dravens yet. We're not. We're finally saw the Lucians coming through for him and the. The kind of combos bot lane. But I feel like top esports have been holding a little bit of punches, and I'm very interested to see what they kind of do if they. If they have been in the first place and if they have been what they bring out in the group stage. [00:56:42] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:56:44] Speaker A: Cool. All right, let's talk about the individual matchups. We've got gen g versus fnatic, team liquid versus top esports in one side of the bracket. Then on the other side, we have g two. Lec's first seed against SKTT, one K, and Bilibili gaming facing off against PSG. A true China versus taiwan matchup there. That'll be fun and certainly, definitely okay to follow along on Twitter. [00:57:10] Speaker C: That one's gonna be definitely Taiwan podcast in that exact framing. [00:57:14] Speaker A: Yes, they're gonna mention the country of Taiwan at all, actually, in broadcast. Just keep an ear out for it. You can actually play a drinking game based upon how often they say that word. But let's begin with the first series as we've got it here. Team liquid versus top esports. [00:57:33] Speaker C: This is the one. [00:57:34] Speaker A: Kangas. [00:57:35] Speaker C: This is the one. [00:57:36] Speaker A: It is the believer. He's the one. Only one of us may be the true Highlander. And Kangas has a three two victory for Team Liquid over top esports. Jax has eight. Is it a 3231? I was going to go to you because he seemed really stable, but now you're changing your mind. [00:57:55] Speaker B: Changed my mind. It is a three two is what I'm going with. [00:57:58] Speaker A: Ooh. [00:57:59] Speaker C: Three two. [00:58:00] Speaker A: The other way. Top esports taking game five. Mazelle agrees with the three two. Top esports. We're going to come back to you. Missile. Don't. We're going to have to explain all of that in full detail. Yeah, really excited. I have top esports 30. I do not think this will be close. Mazelle. Five games. [00:58:19] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:58:20] Speaker A: You're really gonna have top esports beat Team Liquid. I thought you loved well. [00:58:23] Speaker D: So talking about it in a little bit more detail. Shut up. Thinking about a little bit more detail. [00:58:29] Speaker A: Like I will cause problems do actually. [00:58:32] Speaker D: And I didn't think about this before taking into account, but creams native champion pool is really good against APA's native championship pool. So I'd be very interested in how that matchup goes. But initially I was thinking, like, mid lane can be taken advantage of to some extent. I do believe in yawn and core to have a good read on how Jackie Love and Mako want to play the game, and I think they'll have a good way of dealing. The problem is, do we get oversteps from yawn, things like that? Core J also has been known to maybe have a little bit of oversteps, this split a little bit. Even if they did win, they did do well, whatever. But I'm going to be very optimistic about team liquid because first of all, I believe about that. I believe in the guys, but they have some of the tools and especially some of the drafting strengths that can do well against the style that top p sports brings. [00:59:24] Speaker A: Okay. [00:59:25] Speaker D: The problem is execution every time, right? [00:59:27] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. They looked pretty decent in finals, right? That whole last weekend. Team liquid and executions. [00:59:34] Speaker D: The problem is, is if Core JJ and Mako are doing the same thing and Mako is. Is not getting caught in core JJ is getting caught, then that becomes a problem. [00:59:42] Speaker C: Yeah, for me, it's pretty simple. I think lane swaps are still going to be very impactful going into main stage. I think impact is one of the top laners from Na, if not the only top laner from Na, that I am fully confident in his ability to survive a lane swap meta. And I think that core JJJ is experienced enough that even though Jan is still very early in his career, core JJ can lead him through a lane swap meta. So I actually think that with the early game, I have faith that Team Liquid will look considerably better than Flyquest. Cause Busio Masu did not know what to do with the lane swaps, or at least they didn't look comfortable in the lane swaps. And Wippo was just forcing ergot every game blind pick because that's what he felt he could carry the games on. And, yeah, so I think that team Liquid's gonna have a much better chance, and also I think that Apa is going to be just coming in super hungry. And if cream is not playing at the top of his ability, also, you know, first international event for him, there's a chance that there's less pressure on a player like ApA. This is the second time around. [01:00:48] Speaker A: Amen. Love it. So there's some faith here, y'all. There's some hope. Just gotta really hold on tight to it. Let's jump over to the other matchup. We've got gen g versus fnatic. I don't think the expected results here should really surprise anyone. Second seat of the LEC did look decent in the play ins, only really getting embodied by an LPL team. Unfortunately, they're up against generation gamers, which is a generational gaming organization in that this team, and really their mid laner, is a generational player. And I've got Chovy and the boys with a clean 30, as does Kangas. As does Mazelle. Jax is giving fnatic a single game. Jax, how does fnatic win one? Uh huh. Yep. He hasn't said a word for anyone following along. There's no, like, cut audio. He's just trying to formulate a reason right now. [01:01:42] Speaker B: Because I want them to win a game. They're gonna get fucking stomped. But they're gonna do something weird and wacky and catch gen g off guard enough that they can take one. I do think that Noah and June are amazing players. Humanoid is amazing and razor has been on fire so far. They're going to find one game where those guys all excel enough to cover up the fact that Oscar is going to get fucking destroyed by keen. [01:02:11] Speaker A: That's like, the only thing that I can point out is I think there's a chance for bot lane and there's a chance for top lane. The problem is top lane for fnatic is Oscar. And I just. I can't take that chance. But bot Lane, June Noah pays is not that good. I'm gonna put that out there into the world. Pays is good, don't get me wrong. But Pais is not Viper. He's not even gumiyushi. He just happens to be a good fit on a really, really good. [01:02:39] Speaker B: I think he's the right ad carry for Gen G, but he's not the best ad carry at the tournament, if that makes sense. [01:02:45] Speaker C: He's. [01:02:46] Speaker A: He's very ghost on Damwon. He fits the style, but he's not the first one I would go to if I were drafting a team so far. I mean, I think if you threw Viper on this team, they would also be really fucking good. So who knows? But probably still winning worlds anyway. Gen G pick across the board, yada yada. Let's talk blg versus PSG and mizelle. Does a single person here believe that the number one seed from the LPL is going to lose this one. [01:03:12] Speaker D: No, that. That's a no for me, cap. Uh, no. Everybody believes this blg, though. A lot of people have, like you believe strong. Yeah. [01:03:22] Speaker A: I'm going to you because you're the most lost of us. Insane. [01:03:28] Speaker D: So I, like, I still think this guy is so nutty. And the way that he plays jungle is really good into the style that LPL brings, and especially that shouldn't brings. So I think if the rest of the team can play stable and Junjuk gets to play his game against shouldn't, I actually think they can take some games off him. The problem is, like the lanes and stuff where like, I think Alkanon will have two v two s that go really well for them, things like that. But that Junzu guy, he'll win two games. At least. [01:03:55] Speaker C: I think he's got a good future. [01:03:56] Speaker A: I love it. Yeah. [01:03:59] Speaker D: And a really good past. [01:04:02] Speaker A: That's true. Thank you. Good job. Good point. Let's talk g two versus t one, where this is actually our most contentious matchup, which should be no surprise. It's the only one in which the western team is like, actually stacked up to international competition before. The problem is they're against t one, who's literally the reign of champions. The azale you will of MSI. We have t one. For myself, I think it's a three one. Both Kangas and Mazel think it's going to be a full five game series with t one taking it. Jax has a five game series going the western way, young man. Three two for g two. I'm going to have kangas and Jax back to back. Take three paces. And in your own turns, tell me why you are right. We'll start with Jax. Jax, why does g two beat the reigning champions? [01:05:00] Speaker B: Hear me out. [01:05:01] Speaker A: Yes. Hit me. Always do. [01:05:04] Speaker B: Faker died. To fucking cody. Faker's washed. [01:05:10] Speaker A: Okay. [01:05:13] Speaker B: That's the clip it and, like, run with it because it's funny. No legit. I think g two is actually just that fucking good. G two looks like the only team that is any western hope at all. I think Caps can actually hold his own against Faker. I think yike is phenomenal. Hans sama and mickey, on a good day, can absolutely match gumiushi and kerria. I still think the top lane is the same problem that it is in fnatic of Zeus is just better than broken blade. So, like, if I was gonna be logical, I'd be with kangas and mazelle and say three, two, t one. But fuck it. G two used to be the Korea killers. I'm going with it. [01:05:58] Speaker C: I love it. [01:05:59] Speaker A: Let's go, baby. All right, other side of the coin, kangas. T one's going to win it. And a heartbreaker for g two. [01:06:08] Speaker C: Yeah, I think g two are for pretty much everything's jack saying. They're a good team. They can bring it to t one, but they're not good enough to take the series. I think that faker at international events, he's not washed everybody. He will shop and be just fine. I mean, like, he's at the game. And I think that g two, with their wacky style and in this still lane swap meta, they are creative enough as a team, and they will have enough unique picks in their draft to throw t one for a loop. And I think they'll pull it off in more than two games. I think they're going to, like, get an early lead in three or four of these games through creative drafting and decisions. But t one are just, you have to play an almost perfect game to beat them, and I don't think g two is capable of playing a perfect game. They will make mistakes at points. They will start to ego, and they will push when they shouldn't. And for those reasons, t one will be able to punish them and close out three of the games. [01:07:13] Speaker A: Okay. All right, you heard it here. Now we've got some other matchups, because it doesn't end this period of the playoff stage with just the first round. We actually jump directly into, essentially, round two. We have the winners on each side of the bracket face each other. If you watch the play ins and followed along, this should be very familiar to you. And the losers drop down into a losers bracket and play each other, and they play within that same bracket as they started. So Gen G plays fnatic in one side and on the other side of their little bracket. It's team liquid versus top esports. The winners of those two face each other, and the losers of those two face each other in a losers bracket. The losers of losers bracket are eliminated. They're gone from MSI forever, or at least this year. And the winners advance continually into round three, round four. If you advance to the winner stage and lose that matchup, you drop into the losers bracket, but you are not eliminated yet. Etcetera, etcetera. So, one side, gen g versus fnatic, team liquid versus top esports. The other side, you've got g two versus t one, and bilibili gaming versus psg talon. So the picks right now for winners of one is what we're really calling it is which teams between gen g, fnatic, team liquid, and top esports will win their respective games and then face each other. Hopefully this all made sense for everyone who's following along at home. Given our picks, the likely matchup in this stage is gen g having beat fnatic and top esports having defeated team liquid. Now one of us thinks something else is going to happen, and kangas has picked team liquid to beat top esports. Regardless, we all have generation gamers winning this relatively cleanly. Kangas even thinks they're going to three one team liquid, whereas I have them three zeroing whoever the hell they're up against. Or actually, I have three one for top esports. But, mizzelle, you are the one who is most betraying their countrymen. Wait, what? And by countrymen, I mean lpl. You've got a three one for gen g over top esports. Explain yourself. [01:09:28] Speaker D: Well, somebody has to be sacrificed for BlG to win the whole thing. And I think I said it, like, somewhere, like a couple episodes back, that it's a willing sacrifice for top esports to bite the bullet and for BlG to move on. And I think, you know, losing to a korean team will appease the gods, and that'll mean Blg can beat Gen g in the finals. It'll be great. [01:09:49] Speaker A: You think Blg has a better chance of beating Gen g than they do of top? That's the hundred. [01:09:56] Speaker D: Wow, dude. Blg is literally the better top esports, okay? [01:10:01] Speaker A: Like, they're mid, so they should just be top. [01:10:03] Speaker D: Better point than Blg is their mid game decision making. And if BlG are on point today, it's theirs is better. [01:10:12] Speaker A: Okay. Okay, there we go. This is the setup that mizzell specifically wants. Let's do winners two, which is going to be between the winner of t one, g two, and blg PsG. We've got a very mixed bag here. In fact, we have three different teams represented across all of us here. I have t one, three two full game series. I'm so fucking excited. For t one versus Billy Billy gaming. Kangas has the same matchup, but a three one for t one. Jax has g two, advancing with back to back three two full five game series, beating t one and then defeating Billy Billy gaming. Mazelle has Billy Billy being the winners out of this three two over t one. Jax, I gotta go to you for this. Ha. [01:11:05] Speaker B: Knight goes back to living up to his rundown award. Oh, that's the only way it's possible. So that's what I'm banking on. [01:11:13] Speaker A: Okay. Okay. The bright, the lights are too bright for night is what I'm hearing. [01:11:20] Speaker C: It rhymed too, so it was great. [01:11:22] Speaker A: Agree? Yeah, I feel like we just have to agree with that. It was Doctor Seuss esque. I've got t one, three, two. I think this is going to be a fucking incredible series. I'm so excited for Billy. Billy versus t one. I just really like what I've seen out of t one historically. And their only boogeyman is Gen G. And bilibili gaming is not gen g. So that's tough. Now, mazelle, you've got Billy Billy facing off against t one. You have Billy Billy winning. How does this occur? [01:11:54] Speaker D: I think they just win the early game. I think the. The biggest thing that we'll tell very early on in the series is if t one is able to fight back in the early game or at least hold on. Cause t one are absolutely the better team. Late game. I think BlG's biggest failings is sometimes they're like that chicken with their heads cut off after like 25 minutes and they'll just get caught up in the game, caught up in fighting, caught up in fun. And I think t one can very much punish that. And so if we see t one be able to, like, draft around the styles that BlG is bringing, I think t one can have some strength, but I think they'll fall in the early game and Blg will just run away with some of the games and that'll end up being, I think blue side will be dominant and I think it'll be interesting. [01:12:36] Speaker A: Okay, cool. Fair. I think no matter who we get here is gonna be a banger. If PSG is the one in the winners, then something went fucking insanely right for them. And I'm excited for whoever they face off against and what this is going to look like. So ten out of ten watch this side of a bracket for sure. Now, unfortunately for some teams, they're going to be watching this from the sideline because they dropped to losers bracket. We've got predictions for that, too, because this all occurs before May 13. The next time we're going to try to record, I've got team liquid winning their losers bracket. Three two against Fnatic. We get an Na versus EU matchup. I think they're going to take it. Mazelle agrees with me down to the game. A full five game. Three two for team Liquid Bickle. I haven't been calling his out, but I'll throw it out here because he's got the opposite. He's got fnatic winning the five game series. Jax is a three one for fnatic clean over team Liquid Kangas, because he has top esports losing to Team Liquid instead. I'm assuming top esports will just run the gauntlet for most. Pretty much, yeah. And he's got a three. [01:13:42] Speaker C: And I think that first, similar to their match in the play inside fanatics, good enough to take a game off of them. So three one for top esports. [01:13:50] Speaker A: Okay. Jax, you think eu better than an a? [01:13:53] Speaker B: Yeah, basically, humanoid is going to bend apa over. [01:13:58] Speaker C: Honestly. Problem is, ld agree if that is the matchup. I think humanoid has a really good shot there. [01:14:07] Speaker A: Mizelle. Do you think that they're going to be able to isolate that mid lane matchup enough to exploit it? [01:14:12] Speaker D: I don't think. I don't think, um, t is gonna let that happen. Mm hmm. [01:14:16] Speaker A: I agree. I agree. That's it for the losers in one side. Second side, we've got. It's so messy to try to keep this going. Loser. Loser of g two. T one. Yeah. It's just how it goes. So, for a lot of us, this is g two versus PSG. I have g 23 owing PSG. I do not think this is close. I think g two is better in every single department. I think they figured out how to macro better than almost any other team that isn't a top one, top two team in the world. And I don't. I just don't think it's close. Bickle and mazelle agree with me. It's a 30 for g two, no matter who they face. We've got jax with the t one dropping down here because, of course, they lose to g two and they're going to clean sweep again. PSG. It's just psg for everyone. Uh, except for one individual here. Kangas has PSG 32 over G two. [01:15:14] Speaker C: I think it's funny. [01:15:16] Speaker B: He's going with a jack's reasoning. [01:15:19] Speaker A: Yeah. This is crazy. [01:15:21] Speaker C: You can't have two psg. He didn't notice. EU bombs out is basically. [01:15:26] Speaker A: Yes. [01:15:27] Speaker D: See that? [01:15:27] Speaker A: They don't mean anything. [01:15:29] Speaker D: You're manifesting. [01:15:30] Speaker C: Manifesting. [01:15:31] Speaker A: Wait, you have EU winning three games in total between the two teams. What? That they're gonna play? Let's go get shit on any of those in 1732. [01:15:44] Speaker C: Yeah. G two is gonna lose to PSG in, like, 15 minutes. 15 minutes. [01:15:52] Speaker A: Love that sign. [01:15:55] Speaker C: We're being honest like g two. I do have g two down here. G two should, like, 3031 this. But I think it's funny to put PSG, so I'm gonna stick with. [01:16:07] Speaker D: You know, you always go with. [01:16:08] Speaker A: We've had weirder things happen. All right, I think that's it. We've covered all of MSI that we are can't. We are able and can. Sorry, got ahead of myself there. We're gonna try to record again in the little bit of the gap between this early part of playoff stage and the end part of it. So we'll bring you all some more, but if we're not able to before the finals. Jax, who is your MSI champion? Without having seen four of these teams play. [01:16:39] Speaker B: I'm gonna say g two. Fuck it. I don't care. [01:16:42] Speaker D: Let's go. [01:16:43] Speaker A: Full send. Kangas, who's your champion? [01:16:46] Speaker C: I'm gonna say loud. [01:16:51] Speaker A: Not champion of our heart. Oh, yes. Winner of MSI 2024. [01:16:57] Speaker C: I'm gonna go. This is t one. It's just t one. [01:17:03] Speaker A: Yeah, it's t one. It's a t one angle. All right. Mazelle. I feel like I don't blg all day, baby. [01:17:09] Speaker C: I was thinking blg. I almost said BLT, and then I changed. [01:17:14] Speaker D: Cause you hate us. [01:17:15] Speaker A: Cause you ain't us. I'm going to agree with Mazelle. I think MSi is always an LPL angle. I think they should be favored to win it. I think they match up well against Gen G. And the fact that Gen G probably has to face both top esports and Blg, I think this is it. I think Blg is going to take it. I don't think it matters if they face either top or gen G, either. I think they're going to win in the final. They're going to have a hard fucking road to get there, though. That's the cool thing about this bracket and then move into teams, is they actually have to face some really good competition to take it all the way. [01:17:51] Speaker C: You know what I'm just realizing? This is a tiny little note. But if team liquid loses and fnatic loses, then it's team liquid versus EU in a best of five. And then if g two goes down, they probably beat PSG. Then it would be team liquid versus g two. There's a chance that na just gets to, like, make top five again, only playing EU teams. [01:18:11] Speaker D: Nice. [01:18:12] Speaker A: Unfortunately, that's not how it works, I believe. No, they will play the team that falls out of the winners, which, to. [01:18:21] Speaker B: Be fair, that would top sports, and they could theoretically beat them the second time around. [01:18:27] Speaker A: Yeah, hey, we saw it happen with PSG and my quest. You know, they don't like how that works then. [01:18:32] Speaker C: So that means we don't get any interaction across different sides of the bracket until round three of the lower brackets. We get two lower bracket. Best of fives before then, huh? [01:18:44] Speaker A: Yeah, I believe that's how it works. No, from the diagram or from what? [01:18:49] Speaker C: That is how that should work? [01:18:52] Speaker A: I think so. But that's it. That's gonna do it for us. Hopefully, you'll hear from us in just a few short days. Hopefully you're able to actually listen to this before the beginning of round one of this playoffs. MSI 2024, regular stage. But thank you all for listening. Huge shout outs to y'all. Jump on our discord. Come hang out with us. Come watch games with us. Come play games. Helldivers two, hades two. Just fucking early access. Dropped out of nowhere. Come play that with us. Apparently it already has a ton of content. Come enjoy MsI, do watch parties. Goof and meme along with us. We're friendly. We don't bite. It's very, very fun. And definitely join Mongoose because he's very lonely at 04:00 a.m. Being the only one watching PSG get absolutely fucking bodied. So don't let him do that alone. Don't let friends watch their team get bodied alone. That's all I ask. One person. One person. [01:19:45] Speaker D: It's a great lesson, honestly. [01:19:48] Speaker A: Yeah, it is. If you could also give us one star for each game flyquest played. [01:19:55] Speaker C: I was gonna say loud played, but yeah, yeah, loud played. [01:20:00] Speaker A: Work. That's great, too. That'd be great. That's five stars. We'd love that. We'd appreciate that a lot. It'd help us grow, stay in front of audiences as MSI goes on and as people pay attention and an international competition occurs. So thumbs up if you can't give us five stars, but that's it. Anyone want to give any last little shout outs? No? All right, thank y'all. We love you, and we'll see you soon. [01:20:24] Speaker B: Bye bye. [01:20:24] Speaker D: Bye. [01:20:26] Speaker C: I hit it too soon that time.