League Rundown - Episode 515: “Once more into the breach”

[00:01:07] Speaker A: Hello and welcome to episode 515 of the League rundown. This is the LeC summer preview episode, and it's lovingly entitled Once more into the Breach. I'm your host, Kangas, and I'm joined by four esteemed co hosts. Up first, we have the ever present Jack Zoman. [00:01:25] Speaker B: Twitch tv. Jack Zoman, come watch me. I'm actually slowly progressing through platform. [00:01:30] Speaker A: Oh, my God. [00:01:30] Speaker C: Not getting trolled in rank this week. That's great. [00:01:33] Speaker B: I mean, sometimes, but the enemy team has actually had as many trolls as mine for once. [00:01:37] Speaker C: Wow. That's character development. [00:01:38] Speaker A: I believe in you. I believe in you. We'll all be cheering you on in your chat. Also joining us on the cast, we have freshly no longer a pickle. We got pickle. [00:01:47] Speaker D: Happy birthday, Duffy. [00:01:49] Speaker A: Happy birthday, Duffy. Somebody's going to have to say it every episode. It's not going to be me because that would be too much of a bit, but thank you for that. [00:01:57] Speaker D: Just rotate through, everybody. [00:01:59] Speaker A: Yeah, if we, like, forget by the end, we'll just sneak it in. Right? [00:02:02] Speaker C: I was gonna say we need to start doing it like 36 minutes into the episode. You know, like, yeah, it's like a. [00:02:07] Speaker E: Little Easter egg it in there. [00:02:09] Speaker A: Sneak it in. People have to give us a time stamp of when it happened to show that they're a true fan. Yeah, you heard some of their voices already. But we have also joining us, Mister Mazelle pl. [00:02:18] Speaker E: Hello. Really excited to talk about what's gonna be going on today, but also get to be, I guess, run around by Kangas now. So it's gonna be fun. [00:02:28] Speaker A: True. That's gonna be fun. Or at least I'm excited for that part. We also have newest member to the pod, Hawk. How's it going, Hawk? [00:02:39] Speaker C: Doing all right. You know, we're vibing. That might have been the most Gen Z thing I've said on this podcast yet. [00:02:48] Speaker A: Oh, no, you are the Gen Z correspondent. I realized that. So you're gonna have to keep us up to date with all the Gen Z happenings. Speaking of, what's going on with Gen Z right now? [00:02:59] Speaker C: What's going on with Gen Z right now? I don't know. [00:03:04] Speaker A: I'm still confused. [00:03:05] Speaker C: I'm going to turn around the question, what's going on with millennials right now? [00:03:08] Speaker A: Oh, God. It's not looking great. [00:03:09] Speaker C: Yeah, it's not looking good for us either. [00:03:13] Speaker B: Everything's fine. [00:03:14] Speaker A: Well, still don't have a house, but we'll get there. [00:03:16] Speaker C: Yeah, I still don't have a job either. We're just one step behind you all in the pain train. [00:03:24] Speaker A: We're all struggle busing together, but those who will not be struggle busing going forward are LeC fans because the LEC is starting up this coming weekend, so we get summer split ahead of us. But before we preview lec summer, we're going to go over some global news in the riot League of Legends ecosystem. Quick snapshot, LPL has already started. LEC is this weekend. LCK will be back June 12 and LCS returns June 15. We also had some news for lcs. Best of three is official. I mean, we kind of knew it was official. It was as everything but announced basically. But it has been announced. Single round robin and some other fun stuff in there as well. Is anybody excited about the twitch expansion in particular or the twitch extension? Sorry. Where you get to like click on items and kind of see builds and stuff. [00:04:14] Speaker E: Yo, they've had that kind of stuff on Hoopo forever. And also like Huya and Billy. Billy. So I'm so excited that the west is actually getting. [00:04:25] Speaker C: Yeah, it's really cool. [00:04:26] Speaker B: And they said apparently CBlol has this and CB Lol is who developed this for lcs. [00:04:32] Speaker A: I believe they had it last split in the CB lol. I tried to go back and check at least the co streamers to see if they were utilizing it, but I was not able to find that information because their vods were locked to subscribers. I was like, I'm not. I don't care that much. But I believe that they had it all blast split too. [00:04:51] Speaker B: I'm not the target audience for this cause I rarely watch live and if I do, I'm in a watch party with people. So I'm not really paying attention to extensions. But shit that improves the live experience is inherently a good thing. I like it. [00:05:05] Speaker A: Yes. Yeah, I was talking about it with some other folks in the scene and you know, a big part just being that if you can interact with the media that you're watching, retention rate usually sticks higher. Cause typically people, even if they're watching a twitch stream, they're on their phone or they got like another screen. So if they're interacting with the screen that has the game, it'll theoretically hold their attention a little bit better. I don't know how many people will use it, but I think that's one of the cool things. Also, playoff format changes were announced. We have kind of a quasi gauntlet returning. It's not the same as the olden gauntlet that happens after the playoff bracket, but now the lower bracket is essentially just one gauntlet of a bunch of best of s and then seating in the regular season actually matters way more because the way it works, the upper bracket's a traditional one, so the two matches will be happening, happening side by side each round. But then in the lower bracket, it gets higher. Seeded teams that drop down get prioritized further up the bracket. So, like, at one point in the upper bracket, two teams will go down. Whichever team is higher seed will actually have to play one less best of five. They'll move up one in the bracket, which is really interesting. [00:06:13] Speaker D: I believe this is the same format the LEC used to run for their playoffs before they went to the very similar. [00:06:23] Speaker A: I. You know, now that you say that, it really does ring a bell because I do remember teams skipping ahead in a gauntlet style. So basically that. [00:06:33] Speaker D: I want to say it was 2021. [00:06:36] Speaker A: It was a while ago now. Wow. Crazy. I think that was three years, but, yeah, it's kind of cool. It's neat. I think the biggest thing is that when I was looking at the bracket, third and fourth seed, the difference between that is huge. If you can guarantee third seed minimum, then you only need to win two best of fives to qualify for worlds. If you are fourth seed, there's a good. If you win two in a row, you only need to win two best of fives. But if you lose any, then you're going to have to win three best of fives in order to make it to worlds. Just based on how that lower bracket gong works. [00:07:11] Speaker B: Basically, as long as you win the first round, seeding matters. If you lose in round one, it doesn't fucking matter. You're screwed no matter what your seed was. [00:07:19] Speaker A: Yeah, you're gonna have to run the whole gauntlet if you lose first round regardless. Good point. Yeah, so I think it's cool to see some changes there. Mazelle want to give us some of the changes at the NACL level as well because a couple things were announced for North American Challengers League. Just quick spark notes because we'll cover more of this next week for the official LCS episode. [00:07:39] Speaker E: So we've got new partners partnering up with a new system of our teams, which is going to be really fun. We are also introducing Fearless plus, as they call it, which is going to be all champions that are picked are no longer available for all teams, which is actually kind of insane. We've got double the best of fives in our playoffs. It's going to be a lot of fun. We also have some thing called a money match. It's going to be a lot of fun. We have a couple weeks of that where teams will be competing for actual cash prizes on the week, which will be a lot of fun. But keep tuned for that. That's going to be an interesting episode when we get to cover all that. [00:08:15] Speaker A: Yeah, shout out to any Brandon Sanderson fans out there. [00:08:18] Speaker E: Dude, I can't wait to yell Dragon Steel. I can't wait. [00:08:23] Speaker A: It's kind of cool. Yeah, again, we'll cover more of that next week when we're kind of free doing more of North America. But big things there is just. Yeah, it seems like challengers League North America has more opportunity for sponsors to come in and kind of like buy naming rights essentially for teams, which I think is really cool. So we see that even in LCS Lec, sometimes sponsors will come in and buy kind of that type of deal with the team. So there's opening that up at the lower levels. VC's news as well. Bickle, I want to hear from you on this because I feel like you've had your closest to the ground with all the happenings over in the VC's because a big report came out. [00:08:59] Speaker D: So for anybody that remembers, before the playoffs even began back in the VC's in spring, the entire league was put on hold because of a huge match fixing scandal encompassing basically every team in the league. Every team had players caught up on it, some even higher up owners, coaches, all that. All suspended during an investigation that led into a varied VC's playoffs with some older players coming in. Well, that search through of the period the investigation into the match fishing has concluded and it is not pretty. Players on all eight teams have been caught up. 29 individuals in total have been banned with their bans varying from six months to permanent. And one of the organizations, Rainbow warriors, has been officially banned from all riot events. [00:09:54] Speaker A: It's a lot. [00:09:56] Speaker D: Obviously there were some individuals who originally under investigation that now they are cleared of all wrongdoing, they'll be back ineligible to play. So good for them. But it never looks good when you lose this many players to an investigation. [00:10:07] Speaker A: How many teams are in the VC's? [00:10:09] Speaker B: Eight. [00:10:09] Speaker A: Eight? I don't. [00:10:10] Speaker C: Eight. [00:10:11] Speaker A: So eight times five is 40. That means 29 out of 40 players. [00:10:17] Speaker D: Yep, 29 individuals include coaches and an owner as well. [00:10:22] Speaker A: Oh, okay. [00:10:23] Speaker E: I also read in an article that a lot there were some of the bands that were people that were just, that weren't involved with that fishing, match fixing but knew of it and as soon as like if you had any knowledge of it and you let it go, then that you. They also claim on you. So it's an interesting way, but man, it is decimating the VC's. I'm glad to see some positivity from it, though. There's like the owner of gam and stuff. It's interesting. [00:10:51] Speaker B: And it's not just a bunch of vietnamese players that we've never seen, like Beanjay and Glory are gone. [00:10:58] Speaker A: Wow. [00:10:58] Speaker B: We saw them at worlds last year. [00:11:01] Speaker A: Yeah. Notable though is for the players. I assume that some of the ones that maybe like new but didn't participate, that would be more the six month range that they're banned for. That would just be a summer ban and a world's ban. Essentially that means that we, they would be eligible to play next year because six months from now would be January 4 or whenever the report came out, essentially. So should hopefully be able to play next year for a lot of those players, but, yeah, that. That's such a mess. What an insane news story to break. And then the big ban hammer coming down on a whole lot of players. I feel like we haven't had something like that happen in the right ecosystem in quite a while. Like, when was the last time we had something like that? [00:11:43] Speaker B: I feel like cis controversy of some sort. [00:11:47] Speaker D: Yeah, there was the only, like, yell. [00:11:50] Speaker C: Oh, I do remember that. [00:11:52] Speaker A: The only caught up. [00:11:54] Speaker C: Yeah. The only big cheating controversy that I know of is, like, wasn't there one with a Zubu frost, like, way back in the day? [00:12:01] Speaker B: Oh, that was a different kind of cheap, but. Yes. [00:12:04] Speaker C: Yeah. Yeah, that was a different kind of cheating, but it was still, like a competitive integrity kind of things. [00:12:10] Speaker A: I'm trying to think. Last time we even had, like, a team banned from participating in riot events. Was it Monte Cristos team? [00:12:17] Speaker E: No. [00:12:18] Speaker B: Since then, there was one in Oceania that I can't remember the name of that was super fucking abusive to its players and got. [00:12:25] Speaker A: Okay, sure. Well, yeah, I mean, cool to see riot taking swift action on that. Heart goes out to all the players that now have to grab new teammates and new players off the ladder and everybody to figure out how to clean up that mess. That's VC's, though. We also had, like I teased earlier, LPL that started up, and we just happen to have an LPL caster with us right now, so. Mizelle, catch us up. How was week one of LPL? [00:12:52] Speaker E: Yeah, so we're still going. It's. We've gone four days now. We've had some really fun games. Fearless has been interesting. I don't feel like we've had the effects of it necessarily just yet, just because I feel like the meta itself is also very varied, but we've had a lot of fun. I'll just do catch ups on the groups and stuff that are going on. We have Group A, where FPX last night had a awesome two one reverse sweep over TT, which was a great time. They are leading that Group A, and then we have Group B, who is led by team we. The other two, Billy. Billy and LGD, have not played yet in that group. Group C is tied between LNG and top esports both at one and zero, and Group D is tied with ninjas and pajamas and anyone's legend at one and zero. [00:13:44] Speaker A: Awesome. [00:13:45] Speaker D: Cool. [00:13:45] Speaker A: Cool. [00:13:45] Speaker D: Anybody hasn't watched the at least the end of game one of Nip versus Weibo? [00:13:52] Speaker E: It ends with a crazy, one of the craziest games I've ever casted in my entire life. [00:13:58] Speaker A: Oh, is. Is that your match to watch, then? Because that's what's going to be my next question. Like, what's the top match for somebody to check out? [00:14:04] Speaker E: It was not a great match, but the end was hilarious. So I maybe, I think. I don't know. I thought the. The way both series against IG was, was pretty fun. All right, but if you had to watch one game, you can only choose one. Yeah, go, go watch that. [00:14:20] Speaker D: That game one versus Weibo is fun. If you want to see a team somehow win it three, win a three game, series three nothing. [00:14:27] Speaker A: Yeah. And I'm going to put the challenge on Mazelle. You can also go check out Mazelle's Twitter account because he'll post the ending of that game. Hell, yeah. So funnel some viewers in there if you haven't already. Maybe it's already up there. [00:14:41] Speaker E: I did not. [00:14:42] Speaker A: Okay. All right. It'll be up there by the time this episode's out, then. Sweet. Sweet. That's LPL update. We have a couple of roster news things. A lot of the lec roster news we will cover very shortly once we get into the team. So we'll save some of that for right now. But the big one in the LCS, Tomio starting spot for Shopify Rebellion, he is coming in. So that means that unfortunately, there will be. They still have a bench spot open. Like, they had Tomio sitting on the bench the entire time anyway. But it means that they will now. Somebody save me here. Why am I blanking on Shopify's jungler name? There was boogie, boogie, boogie. There we go. I kept wanting to say b boy. I'm like, I know it's not b boy. Yeah. Yeah. So boogie will be sitting on the bench now, but good news for Tomio. We'll see if he's got what it takes. Hawk, do you have any thoughts on Tomio? I know you haven't like casted a ton of his games, but you do kind of keep your ears to the ground of the scene that he competed in last year. [00:15:41] Speaker C: Yeah, I mean, I honestly think this is kind of another one of those about time players. He won both NACL splits in 2023 and then he rode the bench last year. Or what was he up to last year? He was doing something that was not playing in any competitive league or last split, I should say not. [00:15:57] Speaker A: Last year he was listed as their sub. [00:16:02] Speaker C: So I I'm very happy that he's, you know, kind of getting a shot now because this is definitely a player that has been at a high level for a long time and is deserving to play at this level. [00:16:15] Speaker A: Very excited for Tomio. Also just a hilarious personality, so hopefully they can make a lot of content with him. Also, it is now official official speaka on Dignitas. The contract database has been updated. So yep, the speaka Jensen roster for Dignitas has come together. Exu did land a spot as well on one of the NACL teams, so shout out to Cincinnati fear who were able to pick him up, who are also partnered with OTK now. So Exu will be on a team, ideally with a lot of viewership and fans already. So cool. That's the roster news for LCS. I teased it already. We're getting ready for Lec preview, but before then, shout out to everybody in the community discord if you haven't joined yet, it is in the link in the description below. You can find the link in the description below. Wherever you're listening to the podcast, come hang out. Come join and talk about Lec week one with us. We do community game nights in there as well. And also fantasy is going to be picking up so shout out to everybody that helps out with that. Also the patrons that help keep the show running, keep the audio good and also earn themselves some fun rewards based on the Patreon tiers that we have there. [00:17:27] Speaker B: Or just have an impromptu watch party in the discord. [00:17:30] Speaker A: That'd be fun. [00:17:32] Speaker B: We do that sometimes. [00:17:34] Speaker A: Honestly, I don't think I have anything crazy going on this weekend unless I'm forgetting my schedule again. I'm always terrible at committing to things and I realized I had something come up. Well, you know, fix that at some point. In my life. Either way, shout out to everybody in the community. You all rock. With that said, it is now time to get into conversations about the LEC, but I'm realizing I'm debating you yet again because it's actually time for us to introduce a new segment. We haven't done this live on the podcast before. We always do it behind the scenes, but I thought it would be fun for everybody to hear a little bit of behind the scenes. Not just the patrons who have gotten it a few times, but everybody who listens to the podcast. The way that we cover and kind of divvy up responsibility on the podcast is that we do a draft of all LEC and LCS teams. It's a snake draft, kind of like in the fantasy league. And then whatever teams we draft are the teams that we are responsible for providing information on if anybody's not able to join an episode. Obviously we're all confident and comfortable sharing information about the teams, but this is kind of tough. Make sure flow of conversation works a little bit better. So we're going to give you a peek behind the screen here and do the draft live. Like I said, it's a snake draft. All teams are available for Lec and LCs, and we go by seniority, which means Jax is going to be up first and Hawk will go last as a snake draft. Hawk will get two in a row then. So, Jax, if you're ready, take it away. [00:19:00] Speaker B: Yeah, it's real easy. I'm taking g two because of course I am. [00:19:03] Speaker A: Of course. Well, that was a pretty obvious one. So typically it would be like Duffy would go first here and he would pick something funny to start off. But this is just like the pretty obvious choice to start off. [00:19:18] Speaker B: The only hope of the west. [00:19:20] Speaker A: Does that mean I have to do something funny then? [00:19:22] Speaker E: Funny, funny. [00:19:24] Speaker B: Okay, Kangas, you do something funny every time we draft this, whether or not you mean to. [00:19:32] Speaker D: Last draft, you took K Cork first. [00:19:34] Speaker A: I did. You know what? That's a good point, actually. I'm gonna lock in K Cork for my first draft. You don't respect team. I'll take one for the team. They did not grow my social media following in the slightest last two splits, but we're still hoping maybe it'll pick up. All right. That means it's over to Bickle. [00:19:53] Speaker D: I don't know what to do drafting this early. I'm not used to it. A lot of the good teams are gone by now. I think I'm gonna run back what I did last time. I think I'm gonna stick with fly. [00:20:06] Speaker A: That's a good one. First LCs team as well. So shout out to Bickle. Grab one of those. Made it to the finals. Mazelle. That means it's over to you. [00:20:15] Speaker E: Hello. I am going to take. Oh, God, it's such a hard decision. Um, you know what I'm gonna take Shopify Rebellion. [00:20:27] Speaker A: Ooh, they got a lot of hype behind them. Wait, they're basically just disguise team from last year. NACL. Lot of na players now. But Hawk, I just stole one of. [00:20:40] Speaker C: The teams I was gonna take. [00:20:42] Speaker E: They're my favorite team going. [00:20:46] Speaker C: Fair enough. [00:20:48] Speaker A: I have no. [00:20:49] Speaker E: They didn't send me. [00:20:50] Speaker C: I was gonna take them because I have some things cooking with them. But, hey, I mean, I'm. We'll both be on the Shopify hype train together. [00:20:56] Speaker E: I like it. [00:20:57] Speaker C: Okay, well, what do I do now? Okay, I'll take tl because I need the APA vibes. [00:21:06] Speaker A: Captain America. [00:21:08] Speaker C: You know what? I'll just take, like, I'm gonna go full na. I'm also gonna take 100 thieves. [00:21:14] Speaker A: Okay, that's fair. Hundred thieves are also an exciting team to follow. They did probably perform better than expectation in spring split, but I still have a lot of hopes for them going into summer as well, so I think it's a great choice. [00:21:27] Speaker C: Yes, sir. [00:21:27] Speaker A: That means it's back to you. [00:21:29] Speaker E: I'm gonna go hunter the. Wait, did he just say? I was like, wait, Kangas just felt. [00:21:37] Speaker C: Like talking him up so that you would pick him, like, you know. [00:21:39] Speaker A: Yep. [00:21:41] Speaker E: You just felt it? [00:21:42] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:21:45] Speaker E: Mmm. You know, we'll just do BDS. [00:21:52] Speaker A: BDS. Ooh, team bds from the LEC. They got some fun players on BDS. I actually wouldn't mind having to watch their games. Big Adam fan and isa got all pro, so, yeah, high expectations for them. They call it over to you now. [00:22:10] Speaker D: All right, I'm between two and a half teams here, so I think I'm going to swap to the LEc here, and I'm just going to grab fanatic, play it safe. [00:22:20] Speaker A: Ooh, that's a great safe pick over in the Lec. I already got one lec pick, so I feel like I should go lcs before they're all taken. So I think in true tradition, I'll take immortals. I mean, why not Kc immortals? We were locking it 100% pick rate over the last. [00:22:42] Speaker D: Do you not remember the pain you were in last spring? [00:22:46] Speaker A: Yeah, I feel like people generally find it funny when I'm in pain, though. So we'll just give the fans what they want. Wow. [00:22:53] Speaker B: All right, well, I'm gonna take cloud nine, since none of y'all have. [00:22:56] Speaker A: Seriously, it's crazy that they. [00:22:59] Speaker B: And then I'm also gonna take energy. [00:23:01] Speaker A: Oh. [00:23:02] Speaker B: Cause here. Here's the key. I'm the one who watches all the games anyway. I get to cover whoever's teams didn't show up to the podcast every week. So I'll get to talk about all the european teams anyway. I'll get to talk about fnatic at some point. I'll get to talk about BDS. I'll get to talk about team liquid. [00:23:21] Speaker A: It's a good point. [00:23:23] Speaker B: So I'm going to take the NA teams that don't completely and totally suck before I get saddled with one of the ones that suck. [00:23:29] Speaker A: I like your mentality. I like mentality. So, for me, I'm going to go a slightly different strategy, and I'm going to lock in the third team that I always take, which is just vitality. So there we go. We're three for three, mortals. KZ vitality. My draft is the same every time, Bickle. That means it's over to you. [00:23:47] Speaker D: Well, you made it easy because I was between vitality and another team. I'm going to go dignitas. Actually like the revamped roster. Think they got potential. [00:23:57] Speaker A: Respect. [00:23:58] Speaker C: Respect. [00:23:59] Speaker A: I think that that roster has definitely built dignitas hype. Going into summer. A lot of people are like, are they now a team that's going to push for a world's representative spot from the LCS? I think that's a little overhype, but they have potential. I think the ceiling of that team is very high. The floor is also pretty low, depending on how they all gel together, so. But it'll be fun to watch either way. Mizelle, what's over to you? [00:24:27] Speaker E: Not gonna lie, I'm pretty sad. I misjudged that. Forgetting that there's eight teams mean that literally one round at all of lcs is gone. So now I'm gonna have three LeC teams. [00:24:37] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:24:37] Speaker E: Oh, my God. [00:24:39] Speaker A: If you want immortals, I can trade you. Yeah. [00:24:44] Speaker E: I'm definitely gonna be watching more. He has that I. [00:24:46] Speaker D: Today I learned that Shopify rebellion is an lecture. [00:24:49] Speaker E: Lec is, like, literally the worst fucking time zone for me possible with my schedule. Literally right when I'm sleeping. [00:24:58] Speaker A: It's pretty funny. Yep. All right. [00:25:01] Speaker C: Let it be known. It's also a bad time for me, but that's only because I have a bad sleep schedule. Nothing to do with work that is self inflicted. [00:25:09] Speaker A: Let's finish the draft regardless that we could discuss Eddie trade deals afterwards. So, Mizelle, what's your next round pick, then? [00:25:19] Speaker E: Teams that I know. I guess I'll just do MDK. [00:25:24] Speaker A: MDK? Otherwise known as you're supposed to say, moms dig Kangas, but it's okay. We'll work on that. [00:25:34] Speaker E: We have to make sure that's peer reviewed. [00:25:37] Speaker B: You got a service. [00:25:38] Speaker A: You also have to come up with a new one every single time. Hawk, it's over to you. [00:25:42] Speaker E: Yeah. [00:25:42] Speaker C: Does heretics still have yonkos? [00:25:44] Speaker D: Yes. [00:25:45] Speaker A: Yes. [00:25:45] Speaker C: Oh, okay. I'll definitely take team heretics, and then I'll take SK as well. [00:25:51] Speaker A: Nice. And look at you. Pretty well rounded. [00:25:53] Speaker C: Yeah, I'll take it. I'm chilling. [00:25:57] Speaker A: All right, Mazelle, that means that you have two options left, which are gigantic, x, or as I like to call it, you. Yo, GX and rope. [00:26:10] Speaker D: She got. [00:26:18] Speaker A: All right. Rogue locked in despite their 9th place finish and missing out on playoffs. They still have that brand name and they also still have Finn and Larson and pretty fun players to watch. So I actually don't think that's, like the. The worst one. They almost made playoffs. [00:26:33] Speaker B: I think of the bad Lec teams, they're actually the best one to pick because they at least. [00:26:37] Speaker E: Yeah. [00:26:38] Speaker B: Have the potential to be interesting. [00:26:41] Speaker A: And their tie breaker match against SK was like, they should have won that. They just did a couple silly things. All right, Bickle, who do you like to pick? Last draft choice. [00:26:53] Speaker D: I think I'm going to pick Patrick's prison. [00:27:00] Speaker A: I think he has Stockholm syndrome because. [00:27:02] Speaker D: There'S no other reason he's still on this team. [00:27:04] Speaker A: Well, they swapped out a couple players, so maybe they are better. [00:27:08] Speaker D: Oh, I I'm so thrilled to get to watch the Antonio instead of Oto Omni. [00:27:14] Speaker A: Right. We'll talk about that in a bit as we will also preview all the roster changes and who you can be looking for and to root for in the LEC. But as it is, after the draft, Jax gets g two, c nine, and energy. That is insane. You got those three teams having started the five man snake draft, by the way. [00:27:37] Speaker B: You guys trolled this shit. [00:27:39] Speaker A: Yep. But you got some good ones. I. I think I won. I got KC immortals vitality. Although I feel like I'm going to be trading immortals to a certain Mazelle guys. [00:27:48] Speaker C: Over under eight combined wins for all of Steve's teams under vitality might carry that. [00:27:54] Speaker A: Okay, does that include playoffs? Because vitality is making playoffs important. [00:27:59] Speaker B: Distinguishing question on this, does a win count as you won one? Best of three? Or does winning a game in a best of three still have one win and. [00:28:09] Speaker C: Oh, that's a good question. I mean, I would probably count it as like the latter. Like you have to win the best of three to get the win. [00:28:16] Speaker A: But. Okay, but, but if they win two games, that would have been if they win all their series, they play the same number. Or they could like win the same number as they would have been able to in the previous system. [00:28:27] Speaker B: That's why I think you go game score. I still don't think Kangas's teams made eight combined. [00:28:38] Speaker A: I think I'll take it. Let us know in the discord. Will my teams drafted of KC, Immortals and vitality get cumulative game score of. Was it eight? Let's say just regular season. I think just regular season, no playoffs. I think that keeps it simpler. Will I get eight cumulative wins? [00:28:56] Speaker B: To be clear, I think because of format, Immortals will be half of those. And you'll still not make eight. [00:29:07] Speaker A: I think vitality can do it, but not enough to put any money on that. But if anybody wants to offer a bet, you know I'm good for it. Bickle has fly quest fanatic dignitas and Yu Gi oh g x Mazelle has shop firebellion, BDs MDK, otherwise known as. It's okay, we'll work on it. [00:29:26] Speaker C: My daughter, rogue. [00:29:28] Speaker A: Wait, what was it? [00:29:29] Speaker C: My donkey Kong. [00:29:30] Speaker A: That's a good one. That's a good one. We have used Donkey Kong already. But it's okay. [00:29:36] Speaker C: I'm new. [00:29:37] Speaker A: That's on me. It's a new split. Repeats are inevitable. And then hawk with tl hundred thieves team heretics and Sk. There you go. A little peek behind the screen as to how we determine who is responsible for giving you the information on which teams. Yeah, hopefully that was fun for everybody involved. I enjoyed this part. This is one of my favorite parts of every split, is getting to determine this and then completely trolling my draft regardless. [00:30:00] Speaker D: Is there a trade coming out? [00:30:02] Speaker A: Oh, oh, there's one of the Angus. All right. I will offer immortals for. I don't want to. Okay, give me MDK. Let's go. I'll be responsible for that one. [00:30:17] Speaker B: See, the thing, Kangas, is you're like me, but for the lcs, all the LCS teams, you're gonna have watched at least some of those games anyway, so you fill in gaps. [00:30:26] Speaker A: True. [00:30:27] Speaker B: So it's fine for you to pick up most of them. [00:30:29] Speaker A: It's better for me to be more responsible for the LEC teams because then, you know, I'll be forced to watch. [00:30:34] Speaker E: Also, you get to make up names for. [00:30:39] Speaker A: MDK. Well, I have a spreadsheet with words that have been used and it's most of the words that I can think of, so we're in trouble. I've had to start looking at dictionaries. Okay, now it is time. Officially, that's the title of the episode I've been teasing for so long. So let's preview some LEc because summer split is starting up and world's qualification is on the line for LEC teams competing this summer split. We're going to go down the list of teams. I don't know what order they were put in the dock, but we're just going to go by the order that they're in the dock and then whoever is responsible for them, we'll just cover the rosters that they have. We'll do that real quick. Talk about any of the big changes that happened as they come up, our thoughts on them, and then we'll do predictions and there you have it. That will be the LEC preview. So first up, first drafted g two. Jax, what's going is nothing changed, right? [00:31:36] Speaker B: Nothing changed. They're the definitive fourth place team from MSI. Like, what do they have to change? [00:31:41] Speaker A: Yeah, a couple of the teams had no changes, by the way, so some of these will be fast to go through. Another one being fanatic bickle, did they change anything in this offseason? [00:31:51] Speaker D: They did not change a damn thing. Rolling it out. Even if people have questions about Noah, everybody's solid. They're going to keep going. [00:31:59] Speaker A: Yep. Also, a quick shout out to g two and fnatic as the first two. There's not like an official LC all Pro votes like we do in lcs with like top three. But they did, you know, like all team for spring and broken blade caps both got All Pro. I'm just calling it all Pro, even though that's not the official title of it. And Fanag had razorc in June getting all Pro. Four of the five spots were between these two teams. Also, shout out to broken blade. His contract did get extended, so he will be on g two for another. It was it through 2025? I believe so. At least one year. I think it was only 25. Could be wrong on that. Don't quote me, but either way, we'll see him for at least another year on g two. All right, next up, MDK. Also no changes. Sail Merwin, Aloya for Scowi, Supa, and Alvaro with coach Melzhett. I've actually never said that coach's name out loud. So hopefully we got that one right. [00:32:59] Speaker B: I hope that's one of those names that makes more sense if you speak a different language. Probably because it's a fucking just mess. If English is your primary language, there's. [00:33:10] Speaker A: A lot going on there. Mazelle. Up next, we have BDS. Did they have any changes? [00:33:17] Speaker E: I do not believe so. Right. Aren't they running back or is it LeBron? [00:33:21] Speaker A: They are running back. [00:33:22] Speaker E: No, they are running back. Adam Shale, nuke, Ice and Lebrov with the striker. [00:33:29] Speaker A: Yeah. Shout out to ice also who got that all pro nod from spring. I think he had a really, really good split. A big reason why BDS was able to make as deep of a playoff run as they did. Cause we weren't like that hot on BDS after week one. We were like, oh, God, are they going to be able to actually compete with the big dogs? And then despite the regular season, not necessarily instilling the most confidence, they still looked pretty good in playoffs, so that's cool. Next up, g x bickle. Couple of changes here. Finally we got through a bunch that where had no change. This one's got a quite a bit. Yep. [00:34:06] Speaker D: GX coming off a 7th 8th place finish in this past spring split. They're going to be rolling back the same mid 80 carry support of Jackie's Patrick and Ignar Cass, still their head coach. They did bring an Emmy as a new assistant coach with trick heading down to the academy, but the changes are going to come in the top jungle. Ottawa has been benched, is currently inactive. Peach heading down to their academy team. Now they've brought up their academy players, the Antonio and Juhan. Former world champion. Juhan with G with DRX. Actually technically new top jungle coming in. [00:34:39] Speaker A: He was there. [00:34:41] Speaker D: The best kind of correct. [00:34:42] Speaker A: It's. [00:34:44] Speaker D: And this. Yeah. Changes good. Will they be better? No, just no. [00:34:52] Speaker A: Yeah. I don't know much about the Antonio. I was checking out his leaguepedia page. Been playing in the developmental scene over in EU since 2015. Been playing in tier two like. [00:35:08] Speaker D: He had been around in the EU master scene for so long with Vodafone. [00:35:13] Speaker A: Giants playing on Giants gaming. Spain as well was a sub on giants gaming for a little bit. [00:35:21] Speaker D: I think the Giants name is just carried throughout. He's been with that team throughout the entirety of it. Just like it feels like now is the weird time where he's not like this young up and coming prospect that you're going to give a chance. It feels like he's a known quantity. [00:35:37] Speaker A: Yeah, it is. I mean, it's cool to see players move up regardless. So I'm hopeful for him, but it's one of those players that without, like, watching his tape, it's a bit of a head scratcher, but we'll wait to see what the Antonio is able to do on GX going forward. Juhan is one that's, I think, a little more exciting just because he was behind Pioshek during DRX's, you know, world's championship run. So technically did was on that team when they picked up that world championship and has been playing for the, I think, immediately after or. No, no, he still played on DRX for like another year. Didn't do that great during the rebuild, but then has been playing on Giant X's development team for this past year and now moving up. So that's a player that I'm a little more excited for and hopeful for. Wasn't super impressed with Peach this past year, so, yep, we did not get nearly enough mileage out of that one with peach being in the league, but it's okay. So that is GX. They finished 7th, 8th in playoffs. Another team that finished 7th, 8th in playoffs is SK Hawk. Talk to me about SK's roster and some of the changes. [00:36:53] Speaker C: Bit of a disappointing spring and winter for SK, where I think they had expectations of doing pretty well. And they had a good, what was it, winter, regular season. And then the wheels kind of just fell off. Over the course of the split. They made playoff, both playoffs, both splits, but they did nothing in playoffs. So they've made some changes. They've brought in Rahel and. What is it, Juwan? I believe as their. [00:37:16] Speaker A: I think. I think it's Luan. [00:37:19] Speaker C: Oh, I'm sorry. Yes, it is Luan. I just don't think we have an. [00:37:22] Speaker D: Official pronunciation because he just changed his name to this. [00:37:25] Speaker C: Yes, but it does definitely does not start with a J. I just had the wrong name in my head. So Luan and Rahel coming into the bottom lane, coming over from Korea. I personally don't really know much about these players. I think that they spent some time in the challengers ecosystem in Korea and everything. See, Rahel was on D Kia last. Oh, he was a temp sub. Okay. So he was on challenges for a while. Luan was in Nong Shem academy, so they've been kind of knocking around. But yeah, coming over for this split, hoping to have SK do a little bit better. [00:38:06] Speaker A: And of course, Luan having the probably just misfortunate name. [00:38:12] Speaker C: Yes, yes. [00:38:14] Speaker A: Two letters that would not roll in your. So I had to change to Luan. So if you're curious about who that player is, why you maybe never heard of them also still low chance you'd heard of them before. But either way these are two poor players coming in hoping to prove their mettle in the LEC as the bot lane, which I think for SK their bot Lane was a bit of a weak point for them. I mean, especially even going back to that match, the tiebreaker match against Rogue that I hinted at earlier in the episode. They won that but not because of Botland. They actually kind of inted and that was a problem all split for them. So I think they were a little lucky that they made it into playoffs and hopefully this is a upgrade that they desperately need. Next up, rogue. Mizelle, it's going to be back over to you and I think you got an easy one because I'm pretty sure. [00:39:07] Speaker E: They ran it back too, right? [00:39:08] Speaker A: Yes. We'll go through the roster real quick. [00:39:11] Speaker E: Just so we know it's Finn, marcoon, larson, camp, zoellis and coach Freddy. [00:39:16] Speaker A: There we go. Same five from last split. They did not have a great run in spring. They weren't able to make playoffs but I still think that they should have been able to close out that game. There were a couple key moments in that tiebreaker match that it was like that's almost more unfortunate that that is how that happened than really them like totally throwing the game. So some hope for rogue going forward on my end. Next up we have vitality. Hey, that's me. They have one change coming in. It's still photon top lane veo mid Carzian Helsing in the bot lane jungle has swapped over. Douglas is out. Link us is in. I think I'm saying that correctly. Linkus link us either way. [00:40:01] Speaker E: I remember in in games I've watched it's Linkus. Link is I have medics voice just like ringing Link ass in my head. [00:40:11] Speaker A: Well, Link Ass is now joining in the team for vitality coming up from Carmine core Blue and then also had played in a lot of other developmental leagues in EU. So somebody to, you know, fresh blood I think is going to be good for a team like vitality. They still had a deeper run into playoffs than I had expected watching their entire spring split so hopefully this is still a good change. But I don't know much about this player in terms of what really they're going to bring in terms of play style and difference for the team. Team, team heretics. They're up next. They finished 5th, 6th in playoffs and they were drafted by hawks. So, Hawk, talk to me about team heretics. [00:40:51] Speaker C: Yeah, so team heretics roster, at least according to league media, has not been announced, but I think they're running it back, question mark. [00:40:59] Speaker A: So, yes, what we have right now is wonder. Jankos, Xi, Ru Flakit and Trimby. The big roster change would just be perks. Is it officially. [00:41:08] Speaker C: Oh, right, I forgot about that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. No, no perks. So, yeah, but other than that, I mean, it's basically the same team heretics, that was like good, but not amazing for the first two splits. So maybe they can try to build on something. And, I mean, I do think most people that were watching Lec Perks was kind of bad. So honestly, like, it might be out with the old, with in with the new kind of moment here for team heretics. [00:41:35] Speaker A: Yeah. And Zyru will have now, like couple games with a roster under his belt at the end of spring getting to play with them. So hopefully this is good news for team heretics. One other change that happened, though, technically, is they have a new head coach coming in. Peter Dunn is still with the organization. There's a bit of drama about that, I suppose, on social media. Machuki, though, coming up from their developmental team, spanish coach is now listed as a head coach, and Peter Dunn is just listed as a coach. Jackson to Peter Dunn. Right, sorry, was that. [00:42:08] Speaker C: I was saying congrats to Peter Dunn. He's like starting a family and everything, which is why he's taking time, reason he's leaving. [00:42:14] Speaker A: Yeah. Actually, just explain it for everybody at home as to kind of the. The reason why Peter Dunn is no longer listed as head coach. [00:42:20] Speaker C: Yeah, well, I mean, the. Peter Dunn announced on Twitter, this was a couple months ago. Now I feel like that him and his partner are having. Having a kid and starting a family, so he's. He said he's stepping away from head coach, although I think, to my understanding, he'll still be with the team for most of the split, if I'm not mistaken, until the child is born, whenever that is. So he's. He's no longer the head coach, but he'll still be around until it happens. But, I mean, yeah, you know, good for him. And that's very cool. I don't know anything about the new coach stepping in, so if there was drama about that, then I don't. [00:42:56] Speaker A: No, it was mostly just sheep esports, some kind of report about Peter Dunn. I got it the team or demoted or something along those lines, but Peter Dunn took to socials to clear it up. Nope. It was his decision because like you said, yeah, having a family, starting that up. So congratulations to Peter Dunn, friend of the podcast, and also congratulations to, I think, I hope I'm saying this one correct as well. Machuki, the new head coach stepping in to take things over now. Last and least Casey, 10th place in the regular season. They have a lot of changes to strap in. Everybody upset and Targa must are coming back. I think that these were two of the members or at least upset is somebody that I was happy with. I see Bickle shaking his head. Was that for target mess or was that for upset? [00:43:46] Speaker D: How the hell does target miss? Still have a starting job that is. [00:43:49] Speaker A: Still questionable, but I don't know how many other options they had to go for. I'm happy upsets around if you're going. [00:43:55] Speaker D: To keep prices sitting on heretics benchmark. [00:44:00] Speaker A: Okay, well, you know, that's a good. Well, maybe, maybe decisions are still made going into summer. You never know. But upset's back. Targumus is back. Coach Riha. And then a lot of changes everywhere else. Cabochard is out. Kana is in. Canna, cana, cana. Khanna. C A n N a closer is in for bow and Vladi is in forsaken. I still had hopes forsaken. I still hope that he is able to bounce back and make it onto another team because I saw flashes of brilliance from the player even if everything wasn't able to come together for them. So this is still, this is still Casey. I mean, 10th place back to back, right? I'm pretty sure that they got last place both splits in a row and their fans are threatening lec that they won't show up to any games that aren't KC games, which I think is hilarious and actually kind of awesome. And hopefully they'll have a reason to cheer this time around because three new players coming in will be a lot shaken up. I think the big one just being closer was teamless for a bit, played in the lcs, obviously, and had a lot of success here. Then a slightly middling end to his time in North America, a little bit of time off and out, back to competitive play over in EU. So eyes will be on closer and then Khanna as well coming in from Korea, somebody that expectations are going to be fairly high for. So there we go. That is the Lec roster rundown. Now it is time for predictions if everybody can bring their eyes over to the Google Doc. We have a lot of predictions across the board, but a couple that haven't been filled out yet, so I'm not going to call you out yet on the episode, but I'll give you a little bit of time to fill it in while we get things rolling real quick. We haven't done like split predictions for who's going to be first place or anything. We usually do that at the beginning of the year and we haven't been keeping up with that for everything in Lec. Jax, who do you think takes second place? G two's taken first, right? Like we can all g two is. [00:46:08] Speaker B: Taking first, Fnatic's taking second, and I don't think it's close. [00:46:12] Speaker A: You don't think it's close between Fnatic and anybody else? [00:46:15] Speaker B: No. [00:46:16] Speaker A: Interesting. I. I don't know if I can disagree, actually. I really want to come up with a reason why BDS should be able to make a push for it. I don't know. Okay, let's look at some of the teams that change stuff up. What about, like, vitality? What if link is shows up and is just like the craziest juggler? What if he shows up and is like the reincarnation of Yike, who also just recently showed up? [00:46:42] Speaker B: A, I don't see that happening. And b, I'd still take humanoid over VTO. I'd take June over current form helisang. [00:46:52] Speaker A: Fair enough. But again, we can all agree g two is going to be most likely first place. Fun fact, they got two of the all Pro votes caps. I was looking at the actual sheet because they published it is public information. You can take a look at it on their twitter account, seeing who voted for players. Every team got a vote, which was the coaching staff vote, and then the players got a vote. And then the broadcast talents, of course, got votes. Caps swept everything except for the g two votes because you can't vote for your own players and they both picked humanoids. So I think that's also evidence to you for saying fnatic also looking like that. Clear second place, which is also what we saw in spring and a lot of summer. So with that being said, let's get into predictions for next week. Starting off with a gigabanger, right? Jax team heretics versus Ga. This is what everybody waiting for Lec to be back has been waiting for. [00:47:50] Speaker B: Of course. [00:47:52] Speaker A: Yeah. Two of the titans. We have team heretics across the board. Not a lot of faith in the GX rebuild. With two new players coming in. They're gonna have to prove what they got before anyone is willing to put their predictions there. Then next up, sk versus rogue. Mostly rogue across the board, but we have a few sks. Bickle, why do you think SK over Rogue? [00:48:15] Speaker D: I don't think either of these teams have anything that's like, wow, this is what's going to set them apart. I think I just have confidence that Raheel and Luan in their debut are going to be like they're going to do something that excite people and then like, by the end of the split, like, okay, nevermind. So I think they get off to a hot start and then just die. [00:48:36] Speaker A: Okay, interesting. [00:48:38] Speaker D: I had it's what this entire season so far? [00:48:42] Speaker A: Okay, well, I had the opposite based on very similar reasoning. Funnily enough is that it's a new bot lane coming in for the team is gonna take some time to jive and I still feel like rogue, this is kind of a rematch of that tiebreaker series what kept rogue out of playoffs. They're gonna be playing mad and I think they can take advantage of a new bot lane that's not used to playing with this roster. So BDS versus vitality. Up next, we have bds for myself, Jax, Mazelle, but Bickle and Hawk, both with vitality. Fun fact, they were the two with SK last time around. So Hawk, I'm going to have you defend vitality this time because I've had to defend them for two splits in a row. And let me tell you, it's hard, you know, that what you got that is fair. [00:49:23] Speaker C: Okay. I feel like this vitality roster is really hype. Right, guys? Surely they can win games. Like my feeling with this roster. I'm gonna be honest. [00:49:33] Speaker A: Honest. [00:49:34] Speaker C: This was a vibes pick. [00:49:35] Speaker A: All right. [00:49:36] Speaker C: Like they theoretically compete anyone. So for this game I predicted them to win. [00:49:42] Speaker A: There we go. [00:49:43] Speaker C: Easy analysis. [00:49:44] Speaker A: I like that. Easy analysis, baby. Also, I do think still a photon had a great split. If cars is able to step it up and Helsang is able to flip heads, they, they really can beat a lot of teams, if not just any team in the LEC. So I don't think a vitality prediction to win should ever be like, like completely thrown under the bus. I just, I've been burned by them so many times. Bds though. Jax, why do you think BDS takes this one? [00:50:08] Speaker B: Because I just can't bet on vitality. They're so disappointing so much of the time. [00:50:14] Speaker A: Yep. For the same reason they can beat anybody. They can also lose to anybody, which makes them a bit of a wild horse. Still made a deep run in playoffs, though. This would be the third versus fourth seed or fourth place matchup here, here. Up next, g two versus MDK. Would it be anybody surprised if I said g two swept? Shouldn't be. We have g two across the board. I don't think there's that much hope for MDK, despite the fact that they're one of the teams that also didn't really have any rebuild. Next up, fnatic versus KC. We also have fnatic across the board. Really? No. Am I gonna do it? [00:50:52] Speaker C: No, Kangas, don't. I want you to cope on Mike right now. I want you to cope on Mike right now. [00:50:59] Speaker A: I don't even know how to cope with this team. There's so many new players. Upset's better than. [00:51:06] Speaker D: I can give you a cope answer, if you'd like. The cope answer is Casey makes a lot of changes coming. And Khan is a really hype top laner, Oscar, and has been shown to be the weak point of fnatic. Maybe Casey can work out through that top laner also, their fans are going to. [00:51:21] Speaker C: Oscar has held his own against top laners that are better than Ghana. [00:51:24] Speaker B: Right. [00:51:26] Speaker A: The fans are going to be so loud, they're going to distract Fnatic and then that's going to open up a window for Casey to come in. So I'm swapping my vote to fans boycotting, though. They're boycotting every game that isn't a Casey game. [00:51:39] Speaker D: Oh, right. [00:51:40] Speaker A: They're only going. [00:51:41] Speaker C: It's a very fake boycott because clearly they were going to watch every other game as well, you know? [00:51:48] Speaker A: Yeah, we'll see, we'll see. From my understanding, they're just not either not gonna be making noise or they're not gonna be, like, in the studio. [00:51:54] Speaker C: Or something for this to get targeted by Carmine corps fans. [00:52:00] Speaker A: I've been waiting for that. Again, my socials had no effect. No. Casey fans followed me this past year. But it's okay, we'll get them eventually. That is day one in the books. Day two, we have BDS versus team heretics starting things off. Wow. It's me and hawk that believe in team heretics based opinion. Hawk. I have to say, I still think that team heretics are a team that can scale Jankos and wonder. I got a lot of faith in them. And Zyru, again, just having more time with the team, should be able to step up. And even though BDS did make a very deep run in playoffs, I still just feel like they usually have slow starts and Adam could be, you know, a weak point for them. If wonder is able to just get something to play. I feel like Wonder's champ pool can't really be abused as much by Adam so I have some faith there. But why? Why do we think I'm wrong? Let's give it over to Bickle. You got BDS. Why do you have them taking the series or game? [00:53:00] Speaker D: I think both these teams are relatively close in terms of power. I could see it going either way. It's kind of a coin flip to me. I just think Adam tends to come into splits very. People aren't used to it at the very start because he always has something to catch him off guard. If anybody's going to pull out like a skarner, I wouldn't be actually. No, that's not a peruser. What am I talking about? [00:53:24] Speaker A: Yeah, wonder is going to play the skarner for sure. [00:53:27] Speaker D: But ice in particular has looked pretty solid for BDS. In all honesty. Just flip a coin. You can't go wrong either way. [00:53:37] Speaker A: Ice is. The part that's scary to me is I really do think he's one of the best, if not just the best ad carry in the LEC going into summer. So flak and trim be going to have their work cut out for them. Okay, next up for day two of summer split for Lec, we have vitality versus Rogue. Vitality for myself, Jax and Bickle, rogue for Mazelle and Hawk. No. Okay. I thought for a second Hawk had Rogue winning twice now. I was like that's a bold move having rogue twice in a row. But I will still give it to you, Hawk. Why do you think Rogue, the 9th place team from spring split, can take down vitality? Who you have beating bds, by the way. [00:54:18] Speaker C: It's for all of the reasons that you all have them losing to BDS that I have them losing to Rogue. I just decided to choose the spicier option. Like that is. That is literally the answer. [00:54:28] Speaker E: I got them starting off 20, baby. [00:54:30] Speaker C: Let's go. [00:54:31] Speaker A: You. Do you have a beating skin? Amazing. Actually I have them beating Sk too. I guess it's not that shocking. [00:54:38] Speaker B: All right, three of them. [00:54:40] Speaker C: Rogue has players that have been good before so it's not like this team can't be good. [00:54:46] Speaker A: I just like to meme standings. Jax, though, you have vitality so why do you think vitality takes this one? [00:54:53] Speaker B: Honestly, because I can't have rogue going 30. I refuse to do it. [00:54:59] Speaker A: Oh, you would have had them. Okay, spoiler. [00:55:01] Speaker B: They have a really easy strength of schedule this weekend. [00:55:05] Speaker A: Arguably the easiest out of any team at the LEC. But we'll get to that as we get into day three. Rounding out day two, though, in the midway point, we have MDK versus KC. We have a believer in Casey Mazzel. Do you want the following? There we go. The rest of us have MDK. Casey really haven't given us a reason to believe in them other than I just thought it'd be funny to change my fanatic prediction. And I'm happy that Mazzelli is at least taking this one. Next up, fnatic versus Gx. We got fnatic across the board again. No faith in Gx. With a bit of a rebuild coming in, probably gonna be a slow start for them. G two versus sk to close out the day. And we have g two across the board except. Wow, look at that. Hawk has skipped gaming. [00:55:56] Speaker E: Bold gun. [00:55:57] Speaker C: All right, guys. [00:55:58] Speaker A: Yourself. [00:55:59] Speaker C: I'm being very meta with my predictions. This is exactly the kind of game early split after the international with a new import bot lane that g two would randomly lose for inexplicable reasons. Like, it's very meta. But that is the reason why I've just predicted Sk. [00:56:17] Speaker A: Wait, who knocks g two out of MSI again? [00:56:20] Speaker B: T one. [00:56:21] Speaker A: T one. And now it's another Korean. Exactly right. You're right. [00:56:25] Speaker C: This is the kind of game that g two will inexplicably lose in week one so that they don't go nine and o. I love it. [00:56:33] Speaker A: They can't go perfect. G two always throws one. That should be a free. [00:56:37] Speaker D: They're not going to go perfect because they're going to lose one of a contested games to one of the top three teams. And then they're randomly gonna lose to rogue again. Like, they have the patterns now. [00:56:45] Speaker A: They're right. I'm gonna lose to Sk. [00:56:47] Speaker E: Pickle. [00:56:49] Speaker A: SK is the spiritual successor to rogue. Confirmed. Even though rogue is still here. Okay, cool. Well, it's a little bit of spicy pick there to close it out. I do like that. Keeping things fresh now. Final day of week one for lec summer split. Fnatic versus vitality. We have fanatic across the board. Bickle, I'm going to call you out because you had vitality for a second. [00:57:09] Speaker D: I don't know what I was thinking. What? [00:57:11] Speaker A: I just changed it. I was hoping maybe there'd be some belief in vitality, but we all think fanatics can be that good. [00:57:18] Speaker D: What was I thinking? What was in my mind? [00:57:22] Speaker B: Oh, no. [00:57:23] Speaker D: Yeah, I got nothing. [00:57:24] Speaker B: You just wanted to be a contrarian. [00:57:28] Speaker A: Sometimes that's all you need to be. [00:57:30] Speaker D: But I always come into a split having too much faith in vitality and then it bites me in the ass. [00:57:35] Speaker A: Wait a minute, I'm just realizing. Okay, no, I changed to KC. I was going to say, technically we have more faith in fnatic going 30 than g two going 30 according to all of our predictions. But I did make it even cause of my case each roll. So there we go. Gx versus sk. We have sk across the board. Except for myself, I'm the only believer in giant X's rebuild to take on SK. I'll give my defense. I think that new coaching staff coming in with new players is typically a good combo. I don't like to see new players come in with just the same of everything else. I like it to be like, okay, at least if you have new coaches, they can usually help out with what the new players want to do. Incorporate into the rest of the team. It's going to be a much fresher environment. And Patrick, I still have a lot of faith in as a bot laner, we said he's in jail, but maybe Johan and the Antonio will be the key that he needs to get out. Ignar will also play the game. [00:58:36] Speaker C: There we go. [00:58:38] Speaker A: That's GX in a nutshell. [00:58:40] Speaker B: For myself, I'm going to continue Mongoose's tradition of never voting for GX as long as Ignor is on the roster. [00:58:46] Speaker A: Ooh, I like that. I like that. Okay, next up, we have BDS. [00:58:55] Speaker B: I said, mongoose, I did it for you. [00:58:57] Speaker A: Oh, okay. Shout out to Mongoose, who will hopefully be back on an episode very shortly. So we'll be able to talk with him about his hatred of ignorant at that point. BDS versus g two. We have g two across the board. Despite the fact that BDS was a top three team in spring, we still just think g two is gonna be that good. But okay, what's going on, hawk? Where's the MSI hangover in this prediction, huh? [00:59:21] Speaker C: I picked a game to for them to lose this time. I was like, look, they're gonna win their first game. Everyone's gonna be like, oh, my God, g two. They're so fucking back, right? Then they're gonna lose and everyone's gonna be like, oh, my God, g two sucks. And then they're gonna still go, go two and one. [00:59:37] Speaker B: All right, I will give Hawk credit for this. When g two loses games domestically, it's usually to the shit teams. Yeah, not to the like 3rd, 4th place teams. [00:59:48] Speaker A: Good point. [00:59:48] Speaker C: It's either to fnatic or like rogue. Like, there's no in between, you know. [00:59:53] Speaker D: So hawk, you're saying they're going to lose to sk. Whenever g two lose game, they tend to have one tryout pick. That's kind of troll that ends up not working. What's the pick this time? [01:00:04] Speaker A: Ooh. [01:00:04] Speaker C: Okay. All right, all right. Yike is gonna play zyra jungle. [01:00:09] Speaker A: I could absolutely see that. [01:00:12] Speaker D: Yeah. [01:00:12] Speaker B: I have a real answer. [01:00:14] Speaker C: Oh, okay. [01:00:15] Speaker B: Scarner support. [01:00:18] Speaker A: I could also see that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. [01:00:22] Speaker C: I mean, realistically, something like, I feel like yike is just gonna slam. Like they're gonna, they're gonna flex Skarner. Everyone's going to think, yikes. Going to play it. But then yike on five is going to pick a blackfyre torch jungler. Like, that's what's going to happen. Okay. [01:00:35] Speaker A: It's going to be Zyra and then everyone's going to still think it's Zyra support and then they're going to swap at the 20 seconds and he's going to be like, what? It's awesome. I love it. We should put, like, money on that bet because we can make a lot if we get that one right. [01:00:47] Speaker C: I don't know if I want to put money on that bet. [01:00:51] Speaker A: Rogue versus Casey as the second to last game of the week. We have actually pretty split here. This is last place versus second to last place from spring. I put k. Wait, I don't have to put KC because I put Casey winning an early one. So I'm actually going to pick the correct team, which is rogue. And then instead I'm going to put Bickle on the spot for picking Casey. [01:01:16] Speaker D: I mean, both of these teams are pretty bad. I just think that maybe the roster changes to Casey, bring them like an ounce of life that can, like, steal a game with the unexpected. I'm gonna put it on canna again because, yes, like Oscar will survive in. I don't know if Finn will, but neither of these teams are gonna do anything. KC needs to end this season, need to end the playoffs in like third place to have any chance at making worlds, period. It's not gonna happen. [01:01:50] Speaker A: You know what? You've convinced me. I'm gonna change mine back to Casey and also I'm gonna put my MDK Casey prediction to Casey. So. [01:01:56] Speaker D: Oh, dear God, Kayce. [01:01:57] Speaker A: Thank you. That's all I needed to hear. You have them go out. [01:02:01] Speaker D: Are you okay? [01:02:03] Speaker A: Let's go rogue. Jax, do you have any big reason or is it just better team Casey rebuild also just in general suck? [01:02:11] Speaker B: I think at this point it's fuck you, Casey. [01:02:17] Speaker A: Damn and to that, Mazel says. [01:02:22] Speaker E: Viva la force. [01:02:24] Speaker C: Yeah, there we go. [01:02:28] Speaker A: All right. We have three KC predictions of that match. That's very funny. [01:02:32] Speaker E: I couldn't have rogue going 30 on the first week, so fair enough. [01:02:36] Speaker A: Final match of the week, opening weekend for summer split of LEC as team heretics versus MDK. And we're a little split on this as well. I, along with Bickle and Mazelle have team heretics. Jax and Hawk have MDK. Jax, any big reason for MDK taking this one? [01:02:53] Speaker B: I mean, I think they're the better team, but I think this is probably the closest match of the entire weekend. [01:03:02] Speaker A: It the entire weekend. I'm trying to think it's a pretty good match. It is. [01:03:10] Speaker B: On a banger. [01:03:11] Speaker A: He's going to be pretty good, too. [01:03:12] Speaker D: Vitality BDS maybe. [01:03:15] Speaker A: Yeah. For that reason, though, I mean, we can't obviously think of one that would be like, no, this is clearly it. So I don't disagree with the statement. I think that that's, that does add some weight to it and we'll make this kind of a fun way to close it out. But what about team heretics, Bickle? [01:03:32] Speaker B: Why? [01:03:32] Speaker A: Why do you have them taking the game? [01:03:34] Speaker D: I think just like Jack says, this is a really close game that can go either way. MDK has shown they're a very volatile team with high highs and low lows. If you look back at winter, they nearly won the split versus last season. They had a really slow run through spring that kind of brought them down. I think they're going to take a little bit of time to get going whereas heretics, with that veteran topside of Wonder jankos, has the stability to kind of start off strong. So I think they're going to be meshing well. Zyru is already integrated in the team. He played with them all of spring. So I think they're going to be rolling for now. [01:04:12] Speaker A: Cool. I like the explanation. Can't find any major flaws in the logic. So that's our predictions for week one of the LEC summer split. And that is also the episode for the preview of the LEC summer split. We got through it, everybody. Congratulations. We drafted our teams. We are ready to watch LEc. If you want to check it out, it will be live. Give me a moment to actually look up the exact start time for Na and EU audiences. [01:04:45] Speaker D: June 8 08:00 a.m. pacific. [01:04:48] Speaker A: Perfect. There we go. And for the folks over in EU listening along, I don't know exactly what that translates to, but probably like 03:00 p.m. or 02:00 p.m. around your time. [01:04:59] Speaker B: I've got it. 05:00 p.m. central european time. [01:05:04] Speaker A: There we go. Thank you very much for the Carrie Bickle and jacks on that one. It's back. I can't wait for summer split. Professional League of Legends is returning everybody and so is the league. Rundown shout outs to everybody again in the community discord. Make sure that you remind me if you agree or disagree. Will my three drafted teams get eight wins? Cumulative. We're going to keep immortals in there even though I did trade immortals for MDK, so it would be Casey immortals vitality. Does anybody want to put a bet on that by the way, on the cast, any hot sauce bets? Shoeis I'll do anything else. You'll do one? [01:05:41] Speaker E: Yeah. I don't know. We'll think of what it is, but. [01:05:43] Speaker A: All right, all right. We'll talk about it and then we'll bring it up for next episode. I think they'll do get more than I think they'll get eight or more wins. I think that they're good for it. [01:05:52] Speaker B: See, Kangas, this isn't what I'd want to do it on, but I would love to do a hot sauce bet with you just because I genuinely love super fucking hot hot sauce. So it's not even a punishment. I'm just like sweet. I get to eat some wings with like, like sick hot sauce on it. [01:06:08] Speaker A: Yeah. I am not. Okay. It does get to a point where it's too hot and I don't enjoy it in terms of like the flavor and actually like wanting to eat the thing. But I'm for something in my brain. I'm like, this is funny. I mean really hot hot sauce. So I've always doubted the hot sauce pets, but we'll come up with something between me and Mazelle. Let us know in the discord. Shout out to the patrons as well for keeping the audio quality so good. Hopefully you enjoy all the bullshittery episodes that we upload, which is where we, we have fun before the podcast actually starts. And hopefully you'll be watching along lec with all of us this coming weekend. We love you and we'll see you next time. [01:06:46] Speaker B: Bye bye bye bye bye bye. [01:06:49] Speaker D: Peace. [01:06:50] Speaker A: Oh yes, daddy.