League Rundown - Episode 518: These episode titles are getting way too long

[00:01:06] Speaker A: Hello and welcome to episode 518 of the League rundown. This is LCS week two review, week three preview, and Lec week four preview. Week three review. This episode is lovingly entitled. These episode titles are getting way too long. I'm your host. I'm Kangas. And I am joined by four esteemed co hosts. We have the ever present Jackson Twitch TV. [00:01:30] Speaker B: Jackson. [00:01:32] Speaker A: Awesome. You have an accolade. Are you not going to plug it? It just happened. [00:01:35] Speaker C: Right? [00:01:36] Speaker B: True. I did just get a hat trick of unkillable demon kings in my games. [00:01:40] Speaker A: Three in row, which I didn't even know what it was. So just in case anybody else doesn't. [00:01:45] Speaker B: Know, this is one of the tokens you can earn in the game for winning a game with at least 30% kill participation and zero deaths. [00:01:55] Speaker A: Round of applause for our very own Jack Soman. Right. There you are. I believe Grandmaster rank on it per like number that you need. [00:02:04] Speaker B: I should be, but it hasn't promoted yet. And I'm very sorry about that. I'm at 51 out of 50 required to make it to grandmaster hell yeah. [00:02:13] Speaker A: So go check out our very own unkillable demon king on his Twitch channel. We also have joining us, he's the master of economics. That trickle. It's pickle. [00:02:26] Speaker D: Of all the ways you could turn that. That is certainly one of them. Can somebody please yell at the LeC and LCs for not lining up their weeks for like the third year in a row. So we have four numbers in our title instead of just two. [00:02:39] Speaker A: It's quite silly. Um, very, very much silly. Should get shorter next week though, once we get forward along in the LEC schedule. But either way, I agree. Hardly. Uh, or hard agree. Words, everybody. Next up we have Mister Mazelle Piel. [00:02:57] Speaker C: Hello. You, uh, you. You say words for a living, my friend. [00:03:01] Speaker A: I do. It's funny. I make money talking. [00:03:04] Speaker C: It's crazy. No? Happy to be here. Excited to be for another. I get to do another LPL update, which I'm always excited about. [00:03:12] Speaker A: Hell yeah. And we also have flight soaring down from the skies. What is it? Is it a eagle? No, it's. It's a hawk. [00:03:23] Speaker E: You sound so disappointed that it was a hawk. [00:03:26] Speaker A: Like. [00:03:26] Speaker E: Well, I said a hawk would be better. [00:03:28] Speaker A: Objectively kind of cool, dude. [00:03:30] Speaker E: Yeah, man. [00:03:32] Speaker C: I used to work with hawks. And I also still work with Hawk. [00:03:37] Speaker A: True point. [00:03:38] Speaker E: Mazelle is in fact still a zookeeper. You thought you escaped, but I think. [00:03:44] Speaker A: Wrangling north american broadcast talent, basically being a zoo keeper. So true. Yeah, I can believe it. We got a fun cast ahead of us today. It's a pretty standard episode. We haven't had a pure standard episode in quite a while. We've had some fun guests on. There's been international events, but this one's just going to be about normal things. Cover the global news in the riot ecosystem. Mazelle, you talked about it a little bit already. What's the LPL update for everybody interested in what's going on over in the LPL? [00:04:17] Speaker C: There's a lot of news, and we only got a little time. All right, so we've got a lot of qualifications to round or the round. The second round, at least. I speak also for a living. Words, words. The second round. Group A, which is now called group Ascend. Uh, we'll already have JDG Billy. Billy top esports anyone's legend and nip in it. We still have one qualification left for each group, and those will be decided in the next four days. And there's only four days left in the first round of LPL summer, so it's going to be a lot of fun. Make sure you tune in the next four days. There's a lot of really important games, a lot of teams still in the hunt. Group A still has everybody looking for that second spot, and Group D is literally one win making the difference for that last spot, so it's gonna be crazy. [00:05:07] Speaker A: Okay, looks like things are getting tight, and this is the end of the fearless draft. [00:05:11] Speaker C: Like normal best of threes after this. [00:05:15] Speaker A: Normal best of three. So we'll keep everybody updated on which teams go to which format. Group things later on in this super easy to follow LPL format. LCK also happening. Bickle, do you know what's going on over in the LCK? Any, like, fun stories, fun updates over there? [00:05:32] Speaker D: LCk, two weeks in so far has been the most stock standard that you could expect. Gen G top in the league, undefeated 40 series, 80 games right behind them. Hanwha life T 1D only surprised so far, the emergence of quandong freaks behind their new ad carry Leaper, who's been showing out really well, and he's not actually that young rookie you might expect. He's a bit older. He was actually streaming for a while before coming back to competitive. And the other story is the disappointment of KT Rolster, which all fans of KT should expect by now. They are currently zero and four. [00:06:12] Speaker A: Man. Shout out to Emily Rand right there. Damn. [00:06:15] Speaker B: I just want to drive home listeners who haven't been following. This is a roster with Pioshek, BDd. [00:06:21] Speaker A: Deft, and barrel oh, no, there's a. There's a couple world champs on that one. Yeah. [00:06:29] Speaker B: That should not be the last place team in LCK, huh? [00:06:33] Speaker A: You tell me barrel isn't still playing Heimerdinger and hard carrying games. I don't want to believe that. I don't want to believe that. Reality. He's the reason I played Heimerdinger for a full year of ranked. All right, cool. Lpl, lck, and the books, then. Other than that, heads up for everybody. Lcs will be Thursday Friday this week because Valerie needs a studio space on the weekend. Um, just be thankful that we don't have the. Actually, now that I said, I don't know if they're gonna be in the closet like we were last weekend. [00:07:03] Speaker D: They said they're not in the closet this week. [00:07:05] Speaker C: Sweet. [00:07:06] Speaker A: Uh, that means that we will at least have studio space. If you're in the Los Angeles area and want to go check out games and have Thursday Friday free, uh, feel free to go check them out. Uh, otherwise, at least we'll have, hopefully, some audience interaction and the bigger stage feel. But I will say, with the downside of the, like, being in the closet, no crowd, right? No. No reaction to plays. No. Wow. Like, when stuff is happening, no chance. Things like that. The plus side, I love the interviews, man. I love the energy when the players are all next to each other. What do we feel about that this last weekend? [00:07:41] Speaker B: The actual plus side is there's no ward cheering if the game is really boring. [00:07:46] Speaker E: Well, I feel like word cheers are so funny. It's like bming the teams for being boring. [00:07:51] Speaker A: I like it. Personally, I want to start, like, more aggressive chants if nothing's happening in a game between immortals and shopify rebellion. I want to get the crowd going. This sucks. [00:08:02] Speaker C: Oh, my God. [00:08:03] Speaker A: Wow. [00:08:04] Speaker B: To the point that's too direct. It's got to be like, you got to get them chanting like, fight. Fight. Fight, fight. [00:08:12] Speaker A: True. That's good. [00:08:14] Speaker B: Fight. Like, you gotta. [00:08:15] Speaker A: Or, like, you can be direct but not negative. Yeah, that's a good point. Please say what we want them to do, not what we're disappointed that they are doing. That's a good point. I like it. [00:08:25] Speaker B: Exactly. [00:08:25] Speaker A: Redirect it. Okay. [00:08:29] Speaker B: Broadcast. You gotta not be advocating for bad things for the broadcast. [00:08:33] Speaker A: You know, that's a good point. But I will say it's still just props to the players and also the broadcast for having fun with the fact that they were in a smaller room because, like, the players had so much fun with that dude. Dignitas is interview. Probably my favorite interview ever. Like in any medium, through any tournament. Like, that was so much fun. Just watch those guys be good. [00:08:55] Speaker B: It was good, but it was no wicked translating for Snoopy. [00:09:02] Speaker E: I don't think. [00:09:03] Speaker B: I know that it's because it's before your time. This is like a season two interview. [00:09:07] Speaker A: Okay. [00:09:08] Speaker B: But, you know, it's incredible. I'll find the clip for you after the podcast. [00:09:13] Speaker A: I would love to see it because I've heard people say that these later interviews, these last weekend interviews, remind them of the old school interviews. But Bickle, it looks like you wanted to hop in with something there. [00:09:23] Speaker D: I was just going to say the interviews this week were absolutely on point. They were the best ones we've seen in a long time. And I think the broadcast just in general did this week. A, you did phenomenal. And b, licorice did amazing too when he was on the next day. Two phenomenal guests this weekend. I love both of it. [00:09:40] Speaker A: Yeah, love seeing the pros on the stream. So yep, that was fun. But that's just basically to say they will be Thursday Friday this week. Make sure that you have your calendars marked accordingly. And because of that, Jax, there will not be lcs on the weekend. I hear that you have something, an alternative that you would like to plug for every. [00:10:00] Speaker B: So, I mean, if you're into Valorant, that's what's going to be on the Riot broadcast this weekend. And enjoy that. I'm not going to begrudge that. Lec will still be going on the weekend. So there will be Lec to watch. They're not doing Thursday Friday, they're still Saturday Sunday. But Sunday rolls around. You're not feeling valorant. You're looking for something else to watch. Summer games done quick starts at 09:00 a.m. pacific time on 10:00 a.m. pacific time on Sunday. So I fucking love the games. Done quick marathons. [00:10:33] Speaker A: Yeah, they're awesome. [00:10:34] Speaker B: There's some cool games just on the Sunday lineup. They've got like Mega man nine, tomb Raider one through three, halo two. [00:10:43] Speaker A: Ooh. [00:10:43] Speaker B: Like they got some good games to kick it off. So that's what I recommend. If you're not feeling Valorant and you're looking for something to watch when Lec is over on Sunday, go watch some summer games. Done quick. [00:10:54] Speaker A: I've never seen a halo two speedrun. That sounds really fun. I gotta check that out. [00:10:59] Speaker C: That's pretty cool. [00:11:00] Speaker A: Great recommendation, Jax. Make sure, like you said, if you're not interested in the Valorant and you still want something to watch on Sunday. Happy that you gave an alternative to dlcs, which will be. [00:11:09] Speaker D: They have Halo two and Halo three. [00:11:13] Speaker B: Yeah, but halo three isn't on Sunday. I was just listing the Sunday run. [00:11:16] Speaker D: Okay, Sunday fate. [00:11:17] Speaker A: Real quick, everybody. I'm not going to out you. Raise your hand if you think Halo two is the better game. Now raise your hand if you think Halo three is the better game. [00:11:26] Speaker E: And now raise your hand if the first halo you played was halo Reach. [00:11:29] Speaker A: Well, tomorrow you don't have to hurt yourself. [00:11:32] Speaker B: Reach is a good game. It is here because he's a baby. [00:11:38] Speaker A: I. [00:11:42] Speaker E: Even ever owned on my Xbox was Halo four. [00:11:49] Speaker B: Halo two came out in 2004. How old were you, Hawk? [00:11:54] Speaker E: I was three. I am the same age as Halo, just in general. Me and Master Chief. [00:12:00] Speaker A: That's actually me and that's dope. I like that a lot. I like that a lot. Now I want to look up what video game frames. [00:12:09] Speaker E: A lot of good stuff came out in 2001. Like Halo came out in 2001. The movie for the first Harry Potter movie came out. No one. The first Lord of the Rings movie came out. No one. Shrek came out in zero one. There's some good stuff happening. [00:12:26] Speaker A: Three or maybe two. I feel like one of them came out in zero one. I don't remember. Wait, what? Either way, one of the Resident evil games I'm pretty sure came out of nowhere. [00:12:35] Speaker E: I've never played Resident evil. [00:12:36] Speaker A: Actually, I was also good. Pretty young. For as much as I like to poke fun at Ben, I'm not that much older than him. [00:12:44] Speaker C: All right, hold on to it. [00:12:46] Speaker A: Yeah. Hey, it's my badge of honor right now. Also, speaking of Benjamin Hawk Hawkins, we have a little update that we. I don't know if this information was out by last week's episode. We had a lot going on last week, so either way, we did not cover it. But just so it's on everyone's radar, if you're interested in checking out more tier two action, that is NACL, as well as Latin America and brazilian tier two, there's a pretty cool event coming up, so. Ha. Talk to me about the international Academy worlds that has been officially announced by Riot Games. [00:13:20] Speaker E: I love how we keep calling it Academy worlds when it's really just the Americas, but like, it's world based. [00:13:25] Speaker A: It's not even academy anymore, right? [00:13:26] Speaker E: Yeah. Well, hey, it's still academy and CB Lol though. But yeah. Okay. I pulled up the article to make sure I have all my information correct. Steve. It was not announced during last week's episode. So, yeah, this is the first episode we get to talk about it. [00:13:39] Speaker A: We are very professional. [00:13:40] Speaker E: Five days ago, they announced that the Academy worlds, as we've been calling it, that they, like, announced. I'm using air quotes on my camera here. They quote unquote, announced it at the beginning of this year, and then we had complete radio silence. Me and my broadcast partner, grapes, actually asked whooply, like, hey, tier two worlds. And he was like, TBD, hopefully. [00:14:01] Speaker A: Of course, the rioter that manages the tier two in Na, at least. [00:14:05] Speaker E: Yes. So we asked him about it and he was like, TBD. So we were kind of like, is this thing gonna happen? Finally found out it's gonna happen. I think, unsurprisingly to most people, it is going to be a pretty small tournament. I don't think we were expecting something super big, but it is still really cool. It's taking place in Sao Paulo with a $75,000 prize pool, and it's just gonna be six teams, top two from NACL, top two from CBO Academy, and top two from LATAm Academy. And I believe there's, like a single round robin group stage into single elimination. Best of five. Like, semifinals and finals is what I believe the format is. And it's just like a week long thing. Again, pretty small, but it's going to be really, really fun to get to see some of these, you know, teams crossing over. I mean, I think expectations maybe that NACL will be pretty strong, but I don't know. Man, pain game academy, they've been. They've been running things down in Brazil. [00:14:53] Speaker A: So, yeah, I think it's a cool event, not just for the fact that it's the first time that the tier two systems across regions are kind of interacting, but it'll also be the first kind of testing the water for the Americas, which is going to be the regions next year or the region next year. This is kind of a chance for our fan bases to interact a little bit. Watching an international. [00:15:14] Speaker E: How cool is it for the players, too? [00:15:16] Speaker A: Yeah, really cool. [00:15:17] Speaker C: Yeah, I think it's just super huge. I know I've talked about it on here before, but in general, giving tier two players opportunities to have moments like that on stage, offstage, whatever, just have, like, tense moments to practice and have. Have the pressure on them is super big. And even if it's just a lot of fun, the crossover is super huge. I'm just very happy that this is happening, and I think everybody kind of knew it was coming, but still exciting nonetheless. [00:15:46] Speaker A: And in a weird way, also a little bit of scouting potentially, because we will have overlap of player rosters from the north american region and the south american region for the Americas and players like Serdi, players like Shaden on Flyquest Challengers are players that if they don't make it to lcs, I would not be surprised if CB low teams would be interested in them. So it's a great opportunity for some of our players to kind of get some experience down there. It's in the back of my mind. I don't know how likely that is, but it's cool. There's a lot of reasons to be excited for this event. So there we go. Not a lot of roster news. In fact, there are no, no roster moves this last week, but there has been some discussion about player brandings. Wait, what was that missile said? [00:16:28] Speaker C: Lies. [00:16:29] Speaker A: Lie. Oh, have there been in the LPL? [00:16:31] Speaker C: There's been. [00:16:32] Speaker A: Oh, all right, let me clarify. In the LCs and the LEC. [00:16:35] Speaker C: There you go. There you go. [00:16:37] Speaker A: If you wanted to talk about it, should have been in the recap. [00:16:40] Speaker C: Too much to do in 30 seconds. [00:16:43] Speaker A: I didn't even set you up for 30 seconds at that time. You could have just gone with it, but appreciate you trying to keep it brief. There have been some conversations among some NA players at least. I haven't seen a lot of EU players chime in, but I'm sure that it's also on their radar of branding and just kind of the idea of that, the concept of that players like Alorum, you know, long standing players in North America are talking about this in relation to what we saw this last weekend in lcs, which was great utilization of player personalities. Jojo was tweeting, having fun on the broadcast. I got to interview him and he was having a great time. Vulcan stepped in too. We had like the Dignitas interview and people have been talking about, hey, if you're a tier two player, rather than just grinding the game all the time, put some thought into your branding and your social media presence and building the skill of being in content as well. Mizel, I mean, like, I know that you know this because we struggle with this. Just getting players have a camera for interviews. Like we want to highlight them, but it's just hard to even get them in a camera sometimes. [00:17:42] Speaker C: Yeah, you come across it all the time. I think my, the biggest breath of fresh air has been like, when we show up with a player who's like super excited, has everything ready to go and is like prepped and like having a lot of fun with it. But there's a lot of players who are really camera shy who just don't even want to try. We get declined on interviews in post games all the time. [00:18:02] Speaker A: Yep. [00:18:03] Speaker C: That is your moment. That is. You can say what you want to say. You can present yourself how you want to present yourself. It will be used in clips like things like that. And I think players that aren't willing to do that, we don't see a lot of success with. And I think it's important. Not only has broadcast talent, obviously, it's the same kind of conversation you have to have, branding, but for players it's even more important because people have to care about you. [00:18:26] Speaker A: Right? [00:18:27] Speaker C: Like, that's where all professional sports have incredible stories because it's picking up on things that people love to follow hard. [00:18:36] Speaker A: Agree. And I want to give a shout out to somebody who I think has a good mentality for it. Mazelle, I know that you know this story, but I don't know if anybody else knows it. Masu from FlyQuest, he actually was a guest on the NaCl last year. I don't remember. I think it was summer. It was last year's summer finals. I'm pretty sure he was a guest on the desk. He wasn't sure if he wanted to do it, but he did end up going through with it. And I had a chance to talk with him about it afterwards and even a little before, but the reason he gave was, I mean, I understand as a player, if I'm going to make it to lcs, they're going to want to do interviews and me on camera, so I should practice it now. So I get used to doing it. And I was like, masu, that's a fantastic mentality to have. And I'll say in Masu's lcs content that he has been and he hasn't been the most charismatic or outgoing, but I think it is beneficial still to take advantage being a tier two player. When you get that opportunity, lean into it because it gives you the reps and the skill. [00:19:28] Speaker C: Because he's gotten better. He's gotten better. [00:19:30] Speaker A: He has gotten better. Yeah. [00:19:31] Speaker E: For me, half the battle is like willingness to be able to do content because your personality will shine through eventually if you just do it enough. I mean, even in tier three, like, gosh, you think it's rough getting players to have camera on tier two? Man, it's even worse. We're in the trenches down there. But, you know, I always tell players all the time, they're like, oh, I'm not sure if I did well or whatever. I'm like, just be yourself. Because at the absolute worst, you're just letting people get to know you a little bit better. And that can never be a negative thing. And then they usually have fun, they come back for content later and they do even better. [00:20:03] Speaker C: So. So that's what I love when you come away from a piece of content and a player is just like, when are we doing this again? Or can I be on the next one? Or like, things like that. It's just really awesome. [00:20:13] Speaker E: Rewarding for both. [00:20:14] Speaker A: Bradley are great with that, trying to think like other big notable examples in the NACL. Tomio really enjoyed doing content and now look at where he is in the LCS. So yeah, something to think about. It's really cool. [00:20:27] Speaker C: Like, look super hard, but like, you. [00:20:30] Speaker A: Can look, just don't listen to Tomius takes on Drake versus Kendrick and maybe. [00:20:35] Speaker C: Don'T watch some of the games, but, you know, it's fine. Oh, that's, that's more so. [00:20:39] Speaker A: That too. That too. Well, either way, it's a fun conversation. If you want to check out some of the players thoughts, you can go check out Twitter. Would not be hard to find their takes on that. Otherwise, though, shout out to our fantastic community in the discord. If you're interested in joining, check out the description in the link. Wherever you are watching this or listening to this podcast, it's an audio. [00:21:00] Speaker C: We're a video media. [00:21:02] Speaker A: Yep. Also shout out to pickems and fantasy, which are going on right now. I meant to catch up on who's ahead right now. Does anybody know anybody on the, on the pod? I'm putting us all on the spot. [00:21:13] Speaker C: Here, but I haven't done the. [00:21:18] Speaker E: Pitcher and part was bragging about predictions. This guy's just got the big brain, I guess, man. [00:21:22] Speaker A: He's got the predictions for our show at least. [00:21:24] Speaker D: But either way, seed predictions right now is a tie between mini Quant and Mister emperor, both with 25 points. [00:21:33] Speaker A: And shout out to, of course, Minnie Quant for putting a lot of this together. We wouldn't be able to have this kind of interaction with the community if it weren't for the community stepping up and doing it, so. And shout out to all of you. [00:21:44] Speaker D: Also, it's a tie between Korag, Mister emperor, blade crush, and the turtle bear and Matthias. [00:21:52] Speaker C: Nice names now. [00:21:53] Speaker A: Yeah, the turtle bear. Is that like a D and D fan where they're like a barbarian like way of the turtle slash way of the bear? I don't know. I'm reading way too into that. Okay. Anyway, shout out also to the Patreon supporters. The bullshittery episodes will be coming hopefully soon. I know we're behind on them, but there's just a lot of stuff going on with kind of transferring the account over to me and just scheduling on Duffy's end to try and get stuff uploaded. So thank you for your patience. We will have a plethora of episodes and once I do have access to the account, they will all be going up at a regular pace. But anyways, thank you for supporting because it also helps out with the audio quality which makes the episodes better for everybody. With that said, that's all the news, that's all the updates. Let's get into the weeks themselves, starting off in the third best region. Are they still that probably lec over on in Europe we have a bit of a clump, but not where we often see it. We got a clump at the top here in the standings because there are three teams tied for first place. Let's start with the one that's at the top of the list I have in front of me, which means it is bickle up to talk about them. Fnatic still are in first place, but they're now sharing the spot with a few other teams. [00:23:10] Speaker D: Yep, Fnatic came into the week undefeated going into their first matchup against MDK. All went as expected, came out undefeated, but they finally met the end of their streak. They finally met a roadblock. And that roadblock has a familiar name that they've officially played 100 times and they lost to g two. [00:23:30] Speaker B: Yup. [00:23:31] Speaker A: That's such a cool stat. By the way, before we get into like, how their kind of weekend looked overall, 100 games that two orgs have played against each other is so cool. I want to see more of that across all regions. [00:23:43] Speaker B: It's especially notable when you consider that g two was not part of the league for the first several years of the league. That's just how many times they've met up in playoffs where they've played best of fives to ramp up their numbers. I've heard otherwise it would be SK because they've been around the longest. [00:23:59] Speaker A: Yeah, right. I've heard that team liquid cloud nine is close. They're at like 90. So we at some point, I think next year, depending on how like best of fives and stuff this year go, there's a good chance next year. We have the hundredth game between cloud nine tl, which is really cool. [00:24:15] Speaker B: I love it. Does that include when they were cursed or no? [00:24:18] Speaker A: I actually don't know. It's a good question, but we can cover that once we get more into the Lac side of the show. For now, how'd fnatics weekend look? Bickle? I know one. One. But who are the stand up players who are the kind of big highlights to talk about? [00:24:32] Speaker D: So all in all, relatively expected in terms of how things ended up, I'd say standout player Oscar and Noah continue to look really solid, especially against Fnatic. It was kind of razor and humanoid that had some oof moments. [00:24:50] Speaker B: You mean against g two? [00:24:52] Speaker D: That's what I'm. Yeah, against G two they had some oof moments, but altogether I think they're relatively happy with where they are. Six and one should be able to close things out relatively simply. It's just a matter of can they actually do well against g two come playoffs, as that's always their struggle. [00:25:12] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:25:14] Speaker B: Go undefeated in LEC regular season continues to be impossible tier despite the fact that Fnatic in 2015 is the only team that's ever done it. [00:25:22] Speaker A: I was going to say they were close and GT we're not looking in like the highest form at the end of last weekend, but they showed up and denied that. So we still have not had. Even though technically the regular season is the easiest it's ever been to go undefeated for any team in the lack of nine games. [00:25:40] Speaker B: Yep. [00:25:40] Speaker A: No, it's just nine games. It's easy. Just win nine in a row, guys. Come on. Beat everybody once. [00:25:46] Speaker C: Nine in a row. [00:25:48] Speaker E: When you put it like that, I. [00:25:49] Speaker B: Mean, well, compared to win 18 in a row, which is what Fnatic did in 2015. [00:25:55] Speaker A: Yeah. Either way though, it's. I think Fnatic are still looking like a decent team, but yeah, that g two match just doesn't seem to go their way most of the time. [00:26:05] Speaker D: I believe I know the head to. [00:26:07] Speaker A: Record after the hundred games, 60 to. [00:26:09] Speaker D: 40, g two favorite closer than I expected because Fnatic used to be fanatic. [00:26:14] Speaker A: Takes a lot of games off of. [00:26:15] Speaker E: Them, but they lose all the series anyway. [00:26:18] Speaker B: Well, and there were a couple of years where Fnatic was straight up the better team. 2018 and I think 2015 were the ones in question. [00:26:28] Speaker E: Was you even around in 2015? [00:26:29] Speaker B: I think that's when they joined the league. [00:26:31] Speaker E: I think it was 16. I think. I think Fnatic only had their number in 2018. If I'm actually not wrong. [00:26:40] Speaker A: I'm not exactly remembering, but that doesn't sound like off base too far. If it is off, I don't think it's like that. [00:26:47] Speaker D: That off, but with that loss. Fnatic drops off their undefeated season. The only team left to have not dropped a game, not a series a game is Gen G, who currently sit undefeated at eight and zero in game score. [00:27:01] Speaker A: Okay. [00:27:02] Speaker D: Across the major regions. [00:27:03] Speaker C: Yep. [00:27:04] Speaker A: We'll see if they're able to maintain pressure is on, but that was for next week. They are sharing first place with two other teams. We have sk up next, hawk. They had a good week. I mean, they're maintaining, man. Yeah. [00:27:20] Speaker E: I mean, they're officially locked into the group stage, which I don't think there's any question about, but they're mathematically there, dude. Honestly, I don't, like, know what to say about this SK team because they just keep playing good league of Legends, you know, like, like, they just, his team is looking good. Their bottom lane is insane. Their games were pretty easy this week, too. I think maybe that's the big takeaway. They absolutely blasted heretics and their game against mad Coy was, like, messy, but they won very quickly. [00:27:52] Speaker B: Anyway, I was going to say I don't think SK looks like the best team. I think both fnatic and g two look better when they're firing on all cylinders. But SK is the cleanest team in the league. Like, they are making the least mistakes. They just aren't taking as many risks and outplaying. They're like what rogue was when rogue was good a few years ago. [00:28:14] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:28:14] Speaker A: Interesting. Okay. [00:28:15] Speaker E: I actually am curious if you guys would agree with this. I would say I feel even though bds also six in one, which I'm sure we'll get to in just a second, I would say SK looks like my number three, but I'm not sure how you all feel about that. [00:28:27] Speaker A: Agree. I think that's pretty fair to say. They also do have the longest game average game time. So even in, like, their wins, they do oftentimes take a little bit longer to close things out, which is not, like, always a big indicator of them not being, you know, the better team, but typically the better teams can finish a little faster. [00:28:47] Speaker C: I think that BDS is my third and we get. [00:28:52] Speaker A: Okay, well, I mean, yeah, unless Hawk has any other final points for SK because they're also up there. So we could also, I mean, yeah. [00:29:01] Speaker E: I think my thoughts really just lie with Jax. I think, I think Jack summed it up. They, they just look, they look clean. And even though they might have some work to do to beat the best teams, they also beat BDS in week two. [00:29:12] Speaker B: So that's what I was gonna say. [00:29:14] Speaker A: But, yeah, we can Israel. Is Rahel already in his debut, a top three LEC bot laner? That's a question for everybody here. [00:29:24] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:29:25] Speaker A: Yeah, I think so. [00:29:26] Speaker E: Also, I don't. Honestly, dude, I'm about to flame all the Le CD carries. I don't think that's that hard. Okay. [00:29:33] Speaker A: All right. What do you mean? [00:29:34] Speaker D: You need to be better than Supa, who's obviously better than deft. [00:29:39] Speaker B: I mean, given deft's record right now, that might be true right now. [00:29:43] Speaker C: Bring caps ADC back. [00:29:45] Speaker A: I mean, I'm trying to, like, think of the big, you know, competition right now. [00:29:50] Speaker B: Like, if I was just going to pick. [00:29:55] Speaker C: Ice. [00:29:56] Speaker E: Yeah, I mean, ice is pretty good, too, but I don't think he's as solid. [00:30:01] Speaker B: All right. I think Ice has the worst support out of the top four. I think the top four are pretty clearly Hans, Noah, Ice and Rahel. Of those, I think ice has the worst support. Like, Lebrov's not bad, but he's. He's definitely the worst of the supports in question here. [00:30:19] Speaker E: That's a fair take. [00:30:20] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:30:20] Speaker B: So I feel like ice winds up falling out of the top three because he's just not set up for success as well. Not because he's any worse than the other three. And I think picking any three of those four players to be the top three ADC's in any order is valid right now. [00:30:36] Speaker D: I think that's a solid top four with. Despite his team and sometimes him looking atrocious cars, he kind of at that number five trying to get him his way back in. [00:30:49] Speaker A: The cars. [00:30:50] Speaker B: I think the difference between the four and everyone else is absolutely. [00:30:55] Speaker D: There's a top four. [00:30:56] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. All right, well, either way, that means we're over to BDS, so. [00:31:06] Speaker C: BDS are actually looking pretty good. The first series was, you know, unfortunately, isn't my other team rogue. You know, we could just kill two birds with 1 st, 28 minutes, bds smashed them. Adam actually popped off really well, but again, it's another ice. Ice, baby for me. 706 on the zeri had really, really good teamfight moments, but also was able to leapfrog off of Adam's strength on the Renekton against Finns orn, which I think was probably one of the biggest picks in that one. I think shale, also, as I'll get to for their second one, was super big this weekend. I think he had a. A really, really strong weekend and facilitating to the rest of the team because in their second series, he dominated on Talia. Him and Adam went. Popped off Cassante. Talia Combos were really, really nice and I think this team has what it takes to push for the upper echelons. Again, I said I think they're clearly the third for me. So I think bot Lane just needs to clean up a couple things. Like you were saying, I do agree with the Lebrov moment and a couple of things going wrong there, but I think nuke has to find a way to be a little bit more priority integrated into the team because not having strength at mid lanes can be really difficult in the LEC. [00:32:20] Speaker A: So especially when mid laners are like the mid lane champ. Pool feels like it's picked so early, like it's kind of crucial for a lot of draft phase in particular, so. All right, cool. Well, they're still up there in the top three. Whether you put them second or third. It feels like we all saw fanatic above them but a team not far behind and maybe, maybe still the best team in EU. Who knows? Either way, Jax, g two also had a good weekend and feel like they're on the bounce back. [00:32:49] Speaker B: They are fully back. Whatever you want to call a post MSI slump, you want to call it a bad meta read at the start, whatever that is gone. They are firing on all cylinders and looking like the g two we know and love. They absolutely blasted KC. It was not close. [00:33:06] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:33:07] Speaker B: And then they proceeded to embarrass the, at the time undefeated leaders of the league in fnatic. [00:33:14] Speaker A: Hans and Mickey Casey just gave them that confidence boost. You know, they needed it. [00:33:18] Speaker B: Yeah, I don't think that was it. KC was a speed bump. [00:33:25] Speaker A: I still feel KC deserve as much credit as g two for being fnatic. You know, we only got that g two cause KC let them ramp up. [00:33:33] Speaker B: Nah, like Hans and Mickey look great. Like I said, I think they're easily top four and probably top three bot lane in the league. League right now. Despite their week one performance, Caps looked back in form. Yike. Is still an amazing jungler. And broken blade still pretty much clearly the best top laner in the league. Yeah, like, I don't even think that's an argument. He's just head and shoulders above anyone else in Lec. [00:33:59] Speaker A: The fact that his Camille and his sejuani both look like they're just like the best in the league, it's like how did, how is he able to play so many different styles so well? [00:34:08] Speaker B: Dude, dude, dude's a monster. Broken blade is incredible. [00:34:13] Speaker A: Yeah, really, really good. So do you think they are the best team then? That's the question. I think on a lot of people's mind, they're not in the top of the standings. But based on how they handled fnatic, that conversation is now going around. [00:34:26] Speaker B: I honestly think that, yeah, they're just the best because they're. They're the complete package. There's no weak points now that they look back and forth, at least at the lac tier of competition. [00:34:41] Speaker E: I mean, guys, I'm a fanatic fan in the Lac, but my. My take is that I feel like we're kidding ourselves if g two wasn't always the best team. They just hate fucking locking in. Right, like that. [00:34:53] Speaker A: That's the explanation. [00:34:55] Speaker E: Like, I feel like they were always the best team we knew. [00:35:01] Speaker A: What's the opposite of locking in? Like something out? No, they're always checked out. [00:35:08] Speaker E: They're always checked out. [00:35:09] Speaker A: Checked out. There we go. That's. [00:35:11] Speaker B: Sometimes it just feels like g two just randoms. A champion. [00:35:15] Speaker E: Yeah. [00:35:15] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:35:16] Speaker E: Or like they forget it's not scrims. [00:35:18] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:35:18] Speaker E: Oh, actually, they. You know what they forget? It isn't grims or they remember it's not scrims. Because that's why they lose. Because they will only win in scrims. We made it there in the end too high. [00:35:31] Speaker A: What do we think then? Is this because the conversation had been, is lec a one team region back in like, spring, even in winter? Now we have three teams side for first, and g two is not one of them, even if we think they are the best team. I think that that argument doesn't really stand anymore. We talked about a little bit, a pre show, but I want to hear everyone's thoughts, or at least anybody who wants to share their thoughts now of, like, how competitive is the lec right now with the way standings look? [00:36:00] Speaker E: Until someone actually beats g two in a format that is not single round robin best of ones, it is a one team region until further notice. That is my. That is my take. Even though SKM fanatic and bds have looked good, someone's got to beat them in a best of five. [00:36:18] Speaker B: I think fnatic is close to being their actual second team. Like, fnatic didn't look terrible despite losing at MSI. And that was the first international showing for Noah. [00:36:31] Speaker D: Yeah, best of ones are very, like, flimsy in terms of showing actual power level. I think you guys are right on the o's that until otherwise shown, it is g two is this region. Fnatic is close to jumping up and maybe being team number two. Everybody else still has a lot to prove on an actual best of stage. [00:36:54] Speaker B: Like, I think either BDS or SK is gonna wind up being the third seed to worlds given current form, but I think they're just gonna get knocked out in swiss and not really do anything. Maybe play spoiler for an NA team and that's about the best they can hope for. [00:37:11] Speaker C: Hey, I think. [00:37:14] Speaker B: And they could also play spoiler for them. [00:37:16] Speaker C: So, yeah, I think fnatic is clearly too, but I think people aren't giving them enough credit for what they did at international and think that growth is going to come this year. [00:37:28] Speaker B: That's exactly what I meant with the MSI comment is like, now that Noah's had some international experience, now that oscars had more international experience, I think fnatic is going to be an actual threat come worlds. [00:37:39] Speaker A: Yeah, I think so. But I am surprised to hear multiple people agreeing with that. Just considering the fact. I know it's single round robin best of one, but the two teams, g two lost to our SK bds, the one they beat, fanatic, that's up there in that clump, but they lost to the other two in that clump in single round robin best of ones. [00:37:58] Speaker C: I know it doesn't care about best of ones, man. Like, get led off of best of one. [00:38:04] Speaker B: It's not just single round robin best of ones, it's single round robin best of ones in the same weekend. [00:38:10] Speaker A: Yeah. Okay. [00:38:12] Speaker B: If those losses were split apart a week, I think it would carry a little bit more weight. It'd still be best of ones. But like g two fans got nothing to worry about. [00:38:21] Speaker C: They had over under of how long lec gonna take to get with the rest of the world and get best of threes back. [00:38:27] Speaker A: I think next year, I honestly think next year we're gonna have every major region fairly close in format. Probably there still will be a couple differences, but I imagine everyone's gonna be best of three and everyone's schedules are gonna line up much closer because a third international tournament almost forces the schedule at least to align much tighter. We are not going to have, like a month difference between lcs schedule and LPL. Schedule agrees? Yeah. All right. That's the top four teams in the LEC, the ones that warrant the most discussion, as they're all the ones with a positive win record. Now we're going to move on to the next. We'll go a little faster through these and just give, like, the kind of surface level highlights. Casey, baby, they got another win and what do we say to them is? I don't know. I thought what happened to viva Lafrotts. I guess we just don't see. Where's Ali? Ali. Ali. [00:39:21] Speaker C: Change. Let's go. Oh, it's like go, go, go, but it's like a cheer in french. [00:39:27] Speaker A: You know what? It's. It's high energy, and I, you know, I'll allow it. I still like that. They got a win against team vitality upset. Had a crazy fricking performance. Eleven one and four on the Kai'sa and just hard carried this game, and they did. Unfortunately, we already lost pretty hard to g two, so kind of a swing week for them. [00:39:49] Speaker D: I give this team and one player in particular a lot of crap because I don't think he's played well over the past year and change. I need to give him his flowers against vitality. Targumus was fucking insane. He played phenomenal. If you can play like that every game that he absolutely deserves to be here. It's just this is the only time he's shown this for me. [00:40:10] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. And then he immediately showed us why we doubt him quite often in the g two game. But before that, I do agree. Looked good. I also think that Khanna is starting to warm up to the team a little bit more and kind of get more on the same page. It feels like this team is starting to work together a little bit better. I also love the fact that they're willing in draft to do things like, you know, kind of bait your opponent into thinking that it could be a Kaisa in the mid lane and then be willing to play a bot because we have seen Kaiser as a counter sometimes. So I feel like this team can do some cool things in draft phase at this point. So that's Casey in a nutshell. Vitality is up next. But I just talked. So it's actually go to one of the other teams in two and five club because there's also a lot here. GX Bickle, talk to me about how giant x looked in the weekend. [00:40:58] Speaker D: Giant x continues to look better than I expected to start the season, but still average to subpar. Jackie's still a very good standout. The Antonio actually looking to be a solid ish top laner. But there's still a lot of questions for this team. They look good and got their win against vitality and then got their teeth absolutely kicked in by BDS. [00:41:26] Speaker A: But, man, did they get their win against vitality. That bot lane in particular, too. [00:41:32] Speaker D: I don't know if beating vitality says that much anymore. [00:41:38] Speaker E: Fair. [00:41:39] Speaker A: It also was Senna Tom Kench Lane. [00:41:41] Speaker D: So yeah. [00:41:43] Speaker A: Yeah. Stats can all often get skewed when you see lanes like that. Cool. So they are in that clump at two and five. But they did get that one win against another team in that two and five clump. Rogue. Mizelle, talk to me about the rogue team and how their weekend looks. Oh, I think you muted. [00:42:04] Speaker C: I am muted, unfortunately. I was putting together miniatures. I didn't want to be loud. They won. They actually would. Okay. But they lost to start off, which, you know, against BDS. Clear 13 like I stated here. But they won against team heretics, which, you know, out of everything, I think pushing team heretics down a little bit, kind of catching up in that way and going to two and five is really huge. And I think, I think in the way that they did it, it was holistic. I think Larson had a really, really good series on the Azir. The Ivern at least pick for, for Marcoon was very helpful in like facilitating the rest of the the map and I think they need to kind of continue to stick towards that. [00:42:49] Speaker A: Sure. I. Yeah, I think that the fact that these teams towards the bottom are only picking up wins against each other is kind of reinforcing that question earlier of like, is this now a four team region? One team region still seems like GG's at the top, but there's really only four teams that are doing well right now. These guys at the bottom are definitely struggling still and that spills over to the next team. I'll talk about them here. Vitality that we saw spark and maybe some fight, maybe some ability to climb up in the rankings, especially when they're look going up against teams around them in the standings. GX, who they're currently tied with KC who took a, you know, a jump ahead. They gave wins to both. This is a path. Look for vitality. If you are trying to make a, you know, a run, get some momentum going into playoffs, still good chance that they're able to make that. But I mean, they're trying to run like double marksman comp or rather triple marksman comp. Photon still playing the range top lane tF. But the fact that they're banning Skarner blue side I think is a really scary sign. Not the biggest fan of that personally. And then they're not banning the red side and I'm like, guys, what are we doing so bad? Phase is a little awkward and it just feels like their bot lane was not able to keep up this last weekend. So tough. Look for vitality. I'm very concerned for them going forward. [00:44:15] Speaker D: I mean, you said that they're still in a good spot to make playoffs but they're really not. This coming weekend they have to play G two and Sk two teams at the top of the table. [00:44:27] Speaker A: Oh my. I didn't even look at the strength of schedule. They're not making playoffs. [00:44:30] Speaker D: They lose that, they're likely still towards the bottom and that means they're at a real risk of missing out on season finals. [00:44:40] Speaker A: Guys, I I want everyone to know that the again, it was Immortals Vitality KC that were the teams I initially drafted and I needed to get eight wins between all of them. We did confirm it's series wins for Immortals because LCS is best at three. Immortals has one, Casey has three. That puts me to four. Vitality has two, which puts me to six. And there's one more week. If vitality don't make it, Casey's got a good chance. But if they don't make it, that's really rough either way. Yeah, I think that kind of sums up vitality. They're at a really rough spot. They could make playoffs but they're going to have to beat some pretty good teams to eke that spot in and I doubt they will make that big of a splash. But the final team at two and five is team heretics. So, Hawk, talk to me quickly about how their weekend looked. [00:45:29] Speaker E: Dude, heretics is so cooked, man. They, they lost to SK very badly and then they lost to rogue. And when you're losing to rogue, your season's not looking too hot. That's all I'm going to say. [00:45:45] Speaker C: It. [00:45:46] Speaker E: It is not looking good for, for heretics. They look completely out of sorts. This roster does not seem to be. [00:45:52] Speaker A: Working but let's look at their strength of schedule. Surely that's not too bad. Oh, it's fanatic g two next week. [00:45:59] Speaker E: Yeah, they're looking really cooked, man. They're looking really cooked. [00:46:05] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:46:06] Speaker E: I feel like heretics, it's ironically like, I don't know, their younger players have almost looked like they've had more spark in them than their older players, which is a shame to say, I think flock, it has been the only somewhat consistent piece on this team. I mean, the only thing going for them is that there's a massive supe in the middle. But like you said, strength of schedule. It's looking. I'm pretty doomed for what has been a very disappointing 2024 for heretics, for sure. [00:46:32] Speaker A: Yeah. Are there any bright spots, anything that you can think of when you look at the steam as like maybe this is something to build towards or, you know, again, this be a long off season. It's really early to talk about that. But looking at the strength of schedule, it does not seem like this is a team that makes playoffs. Do you think that there's like need for changes and if so, where or anything that you want to see them continue to build around, if that's even existing right now? [00:46:58] Speaker E: Yeah, I mean, like I said, I think. I think Flockett has played well enough. I honestly think like, they have good players on their team. Like, I look at, you know, zwei ru has been not great, but also like not completely terrible either. Like, I think. I don't know. Whatever is wrong with this team, it doesn't feel to me like it's completely a, like, oh, they're just bad issue, but like just the team's not working, if that makes sense. I'm hoping for the best for all the players, though, that they'll be able to land on their feet because, yeah, it's not been a good split for them. [00:47:31] Speaker A: Sure. All right, well, that brings us to the last team in sole possession of last place, MDK. Now, from my understanding, technically they're not out of playoffs, right? Even though they're one in six. There is a world next weekend that they still can clench a lower seed spot, very low seed spot, but technically it exists. But they lost a fnatic SK. Very tough schedule for MDK aka mostly don't know they have BDS and rogue this next weekend. BDS is gonna be a tough one. Rogue should be easier, but they would ideally need to win two of those depending on how the rest of the bracket plays out. So yeah, not great for MDK and I'll say I'm not seeing a lot of spark in them either. It feels like they have bottom two to three player in a couple of roles, which is tough for a team. And I want to root for them. I want to believe in them and I want specifically for Scowie to have a better shot than this roster is giving him. I think El Yoyo also can deserve some nods depending on the champion that he gets. But yeah, I'm not seeing a lot to build around with this team. Their 10th place and they look like it. [00:48:58] Speaker D: Can someone please explain to me how the hell this team was top two in winter and made the finals against g two? [00:49:06] Speaker A: They do not look like that team. [00:49:08] Speaker E: One team. [00:49:10] Speaker D: They are in a very good position to make season finals just because of the fact they went to finals in winter and it's so depressing. [00:49:19] Speaker A: That is insane. [00:49:20] Speaker B: All right, they are currently not in a very good position to make it because if they get no points at all in summer for not making the playoffs at all, they are probably going to get surpassed by at least four teams. [00:49:36] Speaker A: Yeah, fun stat. I just want to highlight, you know who's in first place. Technically tied for first place, but fnatic, they have the highest fastest game time at 31 47 with an average gold per minute of plus 212 or lead over their opponent. Mad Lions is the second fastest game at 32 minutes with a negative 209. [00:50:02] Speaker B: They just lose quickly a lot. [00:50:05] Speaker A: They lose really fast, which thankfully we don't have to watch them for very long, but it is still a bummer. So that's Lec and how it looked last week and let's bring our attention to the next weekend with our prediction. Actually, sorry, before that matches to watch, games to watch. If you have a limited schedule and you weren't able to catch them all, even with our spoilers here of how the games went, here's our recommendations. I mean, I think it's hard to not say fnatic g two. Oh yeah, I think that's gonna be the most popular one. [00:50:29] Speaker B: That's the only one. If you have to pick one, just watch fnatic g two. That game was phenomenal. It was action packed. It was crazy. It was far from a stomp. [00:50:44] Speaker A: Bickle. [00:50:45] Speaker D: If you want something to laugh at, you can watch team heretics rogue because brock so was pretty funny on the cast. [00:50:52] Speaker A: Hell yeah. I love funny games. I absolutely love funny games and funny casts. And I was going to ask, does anybody have even another nod? Because I think fnatic g two is so clearly like the best game to watch. It's tough to think of another one. But I do love the comedic nods. There we go. Fanatic versus g two. If you haven't watched it already, do yourself a treat. Do yourself a favor. Check that game out. Otherwise, if you want to laugh at team heretics versus rogue, that brings us now. Oh yeah. [00:51:21] Speaker C: Can I make a point about the Broxa thing? [00:51:25] Speaker A: Yes. [00:51:26] Speaker C: Mixing broxa with hysterics and hysterics. Just continually jabbing him and try to like make him say things was one. [00:51:33] Speaker E: Of the funniest things to get like I've learned cuz you know, I heard him like occasionally on the LPL but bro is an instigator. [00:51:46] Speaker A: Freaking love it dude. Cool. Let's bring our attention to next week then with our predictions. We'll get through them fast. There's only two days of games, fnatic versus team heretics fanatic across the board. No, really. Argument needs to be given there. Rogue versus GX. We do have a split cast. We can talk about that one. Jax, myself and Bickle have GX. Mazelle and Hawk have rogue. They're both died at two and five. So I mean, you don't. Yeah. I don't know how many of us are actually going to watch this one too closely by Jax. Thoughts? GX? Reason for it? [00:52:18] Speaker B: I mean, I literally plan on playing a switch game while I watch this one. [00:52:22] Speaker A: Yeah, kind of the same misel. Hawk, either of you strongly on Rogue or is it just kind of like mostly coin flip? [00:52:29] Speaker C: I mean, one they want do momentum and underdogness is crazy. [00:52:37] Speaker A: You're right. GX won their first game but lost their second. Rogue wonder lost their first but won their second. So they're on a one way. [00:52:45] Speaker C: That's what I'm saying. That's what I'm saying. I'm just saying the numbers are saying something. I just don't know what they mean yet. [00:52:52] Speaker A: Yeah, I like it. [00:52:52] Speaker E: They both like scraped past another shitty team and got wrecked by BDS. I don't know. It's gonna be a funny one. [00:52:59] Speaker A: I think the true answer is that Mazelle and Hawk are, funnily enough, I think the highest LEC prediction rates and they're just sticking next to each other for all their pre. Oh, my God. They're. Wait, the exact same predictions. [00:53:15] Speaker E: I'm weird for that. [00:53:16] Speaker A: Next up, g two versus vitality. We have g two across the board. Makes sense. SK versus KC. SK across the board. I think KC is a team that could maybe have a little more credit but it's still likely it's best of ones. SK should win this one. But again, shout out to Khan and closer that are getting more on the same page as the weeks go on. MDK versus bds. We have bds across the board. Yeah. I mean, yeah. Day two though, this is where things start to split. SK is across the board in their series against vitality or their game against Vitality. But day two, we have MDK versus rogue. Another battle of lower teams and funnily enough, the majority of us have MDK winning it despite the fact that they have less wins. Myself, Bickle, Mazelle and Hawk have MDK. Jax has rogue. Pickle, what are your thoughts on MDK taking that one? Oh, also, Hawk just changed his so now there are two for rogue. [00:54:13] Speaker D: Still. [00:54:13] Speaker A: I'll give it to Bickle first. [00:54:15] Speaker C: Dare to be different. [00:54:16] Speaker D: Both these teams are just so bad. You can flip a coin and somebody will find a way to win or lose this game. MDK, I think despite having less wins, has shown more bright spots in some way. I mean, they did manage to make finals in winter some way shape and form. Plus, if they win this, I think there's going to be multiple teams tied at two wins at the very end of the season, which means tiebreakers, which are always fun. [00:54:45] Speaker A: True. Does make things very exciting. I also think, personally, I don't know if this is like 100% true, but this is just kind of what I feel. It feels like MDK is a little more willing to have fun with some of their drafts. Like when I look at team Rogue's drafts, they're pretty stock standard basic stuff. They haven't really grown too much. Doesn't feel. But MDK is at least pushing the limit. Things like brand jungle always, you know, add a fun factor to their games, so. But Rogue, Jax, why do you think they take it? [00:55:17] Speaker B: Because they suck less than MDK has shown us this split swipe. This is another, like, I don't recommend watching this game. [00:55:27] Speaker A: I would say we're really negative about the bottom six teams in Lec this week. But then I have to remind myself they are cumulating three wins, nine losses for the entire bottom six of lec this last weekend. [00:55:44] Speaker D: I mean, it's just a really bad schedule of all the top teams against all the bottom teams this weekend. [00:55:50] Speaker A: Yeah, it was an unfortunate one. And the only wins they got were against teams either tied with them in standings or like right next to them in standings. So cool. Next up, fnatic versus bds. We have fnatic across the board. G two versus team heretics. G two. [00:56:02] Speaker B: I don't want to skip over that one. I think that's the match of the weekend. [00:56:06] Speaker A: Oh, okay. [00:56:07] Speaker B: I do think fnatic wins. [00:56:08] Speaker A: I'm happy to bring that up. [00:56:09] Speaker B: Tied for first place. These two teams are two of the top four teams playing against each other. [00:56:17] Speaker D: It's depressed. I think this is the only good game of the weekend. [00:56:21] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. I'm trying to think of the other ones. [00:56:25] Speaker B: So like, we all have fnatic because we have more faith in fnatic. But I think this is going to be a good one. This is the one. I'm excited. [00:56:33] Speaker A: GxKC has potential to be a fun one. We'll cover that because that's the game after this, but yes. Or, sorry, two games after this, but yes. BDS fnatic should be the closest and theoretically the best game in the LEC. And now that you mentioned that. I am actually a little surprised that it's fnatic across the board. Do we all just think fnatic is that much better? Are we disrespecting? Does anybody think that we're not giving BDS enough credit here? [00:56:59] Speaker B: I think this is a clear, like, 65 35 in favor of fnatic, and all of us are betting on the more likely outcome. [00:57:10] Speaker A: Sure. [00:57:10] Speaker B: Like, I don't think yes is out of this. I think it is close ish. Just fanatic favored. [00:57:17] Speaker A: This is how good ice has been and kind of being surprised that nobody's at least making, like, an argument as to ice being able to take on Noah and June, but maybe we just don't believe in the other side of that with you said third. [00:57:35] Speaker C: Yeah, fanatic. Second. [00:57:38] Speaker D: This is. [00:57:38] Speaker A: Any final points on BDS? Fanatic. This is the exciting one. [00:57:41] Speaker D: Yeah, it's. If you told me BDS, when this wins this matchup, you're like, yeah, I can see that. Not really surprised in the slightest. Like, jack's called a 65 35. I might even go like, a 60 40. I think it could be that close between these teams. Like, it's the one matchup I look at and say the other team won. Completely understandable. [00:58:00] Speaker A: Well, I'll say I was trying my absolute best to get somebody else to change their prediction so that we won't have fanatic sweep, but I will do it since nobody else wanted to. [00:58:08] Speaker C: You contrarian. [00:58:09] Speaker A: I'll swap to BDS. I just don't think it warrants a full sweep for everyone saying fanatic, and I think that there's enough tools for bds to get a win here, so I'll do it. Team heretics versus g two. Next g two across the board, except for hawaii. What the hell, dude? You have team heretics beating g two. [00:58:23] Speaker E: All right, man. Hear me out. Team heretics. They're down. They're almost out. G two to end the season. Guys, if you think we're good, let's just prove it right here. Did you win? That's the question that we're gonna need to have answered. Jankos, 2019 MSI champion about to come out, put G two in the dumpster, and make playoffs. [00:58:46] Speaker A: I mean, throw wonder into that pool as well. True. [00:58:52] Speaker E: Wonders looked worse this split, so. [00:58:54] Speaker C: But it's the old g tours, and that's. That's all that matters. [00:58:57] Speaker E: Exactly. They're gonna. They're gonna be like, wait, guys, we're supposed to, like, be a good team, and they're gonna come. They're gonna beat g two and come in like 7th place. [00:59:07] Speaker A: Love it. Well, that is the second to last match. The final game of the weekend is GX versus KC. Mostly KC, except for Bickle, who has GX Baker. Why do you think Gx? [00:59:19] Speaker D: I think I'm still really uncertain in regards to Casey. I don't expect anything positive out of them. And Gx, like Jackie's, has been a point that I can look at and say, okay, he can be the one to lead the charge to win you a game. So I kind of have faith in him. [00:59:39] Speaker A: I would agree. I don't think that this is like super Casey favored, but I still have them taking it a big part just because. Because like I'd said, I think the top half of the map is getting more on the same page. And if Targumous has better performances, especially against a team like Giant X who like ignore is kind of known to into a couple of games here and there, I think that Casey should take this one. So there we go. That's LeC predictions. That's lec week three recap predictions for everybody. [01:00:11] Speaker D: Who are the two teams we're not going to see after this week? [01:00:14] Speaker A: Oh, that's a good point because there. [01:00:16] Speaker D: Will likely be tiebreakers of some sort. [01:00:19] Speaker A: I have MDK winning one, losing one. Do I have team heretics losing both. [01:00:25] Speaker D: Yeah. Heretics losing both. You got vitality losing both. [01:00:28] Speaker B: I mean, if we just go off our predictions like losing heretics, MDK. [01:00:35] Speaker C: Unfortunately, yes. [01:00:37] Speaker E: Gx MDK. Oh, okay. [01:00:43] Speaker A: All right. Well, there we go. It seems like none of us at. [01:00:47] Speaker B: Least, I mean, to be fair, they have the, the worst position they have to two. [01:00:52] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. [01:00:54] Speaker B: And then possibly also play a tiebreaker. [01:00:57] Speaker E: Depending on they might have to play tiebreaker with a one one. I don't know, the one one. [01:01:02] Speaker D: They likely have to play tiebreaker one one. [01:01:04] Speaker B: They probably get a tiebreaker, but they might just be gone two. Oh, they. I think it's impossible for them to not at least have a tiebreaker. [01:01:15] Speaker A: Well, only because they play rogue. So I'm trying to think here because, like, if vitality and team heretics also two o, by a miracle, GX two o's because they don't have a lot of overlap. Right. No rogue GX play. Yeah. It's always dependent on who's playing against whom at the bottom of the pack. And when there's this many teams tied for that spot, it gets a little. [01:01:36] Speaker D: Technically, even if they two o, there's a world they can drop out because despite being three and four KC right now isn't locked the playoffs. That means there's a world in which a three win team doesn't make it. [01:01:50] Speaker B: Yeah, but that would only be through tiebreakers. That's what I was saying is MDK two zero's going to have at least. [01:01:56] Speaker A: A tiebreaker, most likely, if not 100%. It's. [01:02:01] Speaker D: You're right, because some interplay. So at least some of these two and five teams would end up with three wins. [01:02:06] Speaker B: Exactly. [01:02:07] Speaker D: Yeah. [01:02:08] Speaker A: Well, that is it for the discussion about Lec, though. Shoutouts to g two for the comeback and region for having four pretty good teams, repping, representing them, fighting for three world spots. Keep that in mind. There are four good teams, it seems like right now in the region and only three can represent them internationally. We will keep our eyes close as we approach into playoffs. There was, it seems, next up, hopping over the pond. Let's get over to the LCS where we had week two just happened. And pretty fun week, honestly, a lot of action going around. We have a little more separation between teams. It's going to take a long time this summer to really see the standard settle because it's also single round robin, but it's best of three, so each team's only playing one series. There are two teams currently in first place. First up, team liquid. Defending champions Hawk. Talk to me about how TL's weekend looks. [01:03:07] Speaker E: Dude. I mean, okay, it was against. It was against Shopify and Shopify is looking like the. The hexd of LCS right now. However, team liquid is winning and they're seemingly having fun while doing it. They're. They're still on their winning ways. [01:03:23] Speaker C: I don't know. [01:03:24] Speaker E: Not much else to say. They're just better. [01:03:26] Speaker A: Yeah. Team Liquid are still looking like, I think, the best team. Yes. Although they have competition, which I am happy about because I think that will make our region better as we don't think is unexpected. Yeah, yeah. But I mean, when, when an offending champ comes back in, I don't remember who said somebody in the interview, was it Whippo? It might have been Wippo who was like, if you're able to win the region, go to MSI and not slump afterwards, which he actually, based on how he was talking, was saying like, it wasn't that common. Despite the fact that we have seen in the past that you should, with that extra experience at the international event, be able to then win your region the next summer split. Does anyone remember who said that? I know some. A pro said that in an interview this week. [01:04:11] Speaker D: I think that was whippo that sounds right. [01:04:14] Speaker A: I'm pretty sure it was Wipo. And that is the situation that team liquids win. They went to MSI. I know we sent two teams this year, but they went to MSI and they looked like the better of the two teams we sent. Had a decent series against t one despite losing. We're going to take that one to the bank for at least another couple months here before worlds and, yeah, they. I still think that they're looking like one of the best teams in the region, if not the best. Does anybody think they're not the best current lcs team based on two weekends of performance with only two best of threes? Yeah, there we go. But they are tied in first place, not only in series score, but also, technically overall game score with cloud nine. Jax. Cloud nine, I was not a believer. I had them losing multiple times. I did not think they were going to work. And I got to eat my words here because they had a good weekend. [01:05:03] Speaker B: Again, they did have a good weekend. This one was a lot cleaner than their series last weekend, to be fair. Opponent was immortals. So I don't know how much weight you want to put on that. [01:05:16] Speaker C: Hey, hey, hey. They lost twice to them in spring. [01:05:19] Speaker A: They did. [01:05:20] Speaker B: I'm aware cloud nine still looks like a team of five good players that are not always on the same page, but against immortals, it just didn't matter. They were just so much better. [01:05:34] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:05:35] Speaker B: I think if you're a fan of cloud nine, the, or a fan of players on cloud nine, they have a decent shot at being one of the world's representatives. Like, there's. There's some positive hope here, but they still need to definitely work on understanding what each other wants to do better so that they can coordinate better because they definitely still do not always look on the same page. [01:06:01] Speaker A: Yeah, I think that the. The impressive thing with cloud nine is that they are not just losing individual lanes like they were in spring. And I think that was one of the biggest struggles. It was the combination of losing lanes and having poor macro. They still don't have the best macro, but they're not losing lanes anymore, which means that they're able to do well, at least in this region. And that's good news for cloud nine fans because that means that they have a legitimate shot if they can keep this form, making a push for worlds and another international event when they were denied that MSI spot. So 20 in the lead for first place. We have a couple teams now at one and zero. Bickel, talk to me about what I consider a top three team. I don't know if everybody else agrees because there's another team right next to them, but Dignitas one and one, three and two in game score. [01:06:57] Speaker D: Hey, Kangas, what season is it? [01:07:00] Speaker A: It is season twelve. [01:07:02] Speaker D: No, it's big season. [01:07:04] Speaker A: It's dig season. Big dig season. [01:07:07] Speaker D: It is big dig season. They had to play 100 thieves this week. Came out with a 20 win in the end. I think the big thing to note coming out of not only this weekend, but last weekend then. Looks like he never left the ad carry position. He's, yeah, playing towards the top of his game. He looks phenomenal. Jensen continues to be that solid mid laner. That's just consistent. Spica pulled out the Morgana jungle apparently after having never played it in scrims. [01:07:36] Speaker A: First competitive game ever. And was 0% win rate in solo queue this year, apparently. Yeah. [01:07:46] Speaker D: But dignitas, despite behind the scenes, apparently having a very rough time in scrims, coming together very late, looking really good all together on the stage. They had the best game, like, in terms of entertainment of the weekend with their game one against 100 thieves. Almost ended with a base race, which was crazy. But they take the two on the end and they're looking really solid continuing. [01:08:12] Speaker A: Yeah, like you said, zven kept them in that first game and then game two just crushed. And like, game. Game two is not very close. Game two was dignitas in the lead pretty much the whole time. Game one, they were in a really rough spot, but Zven was like three k ahead of meech the whole time. So it didn't matter as smolder, he gets the fastest ever recorded major region smolder. 225 stacks tied for the global record, which I believe was an LJL team. I don't remember exactly, but for a major region, this was the fastest we've ever seen a smolder stack. And it's cause he got to just free lane against a scion because, like, meech was Senna, it just roamed and left a scion alone in lane. We've seen the scion Senna with teams like g two that would, like, use the fun combo with, like, the scion e with the Senna w to, like, root people at range. Well, they try to, like, get a roaming Senna instead and just let a smolder get free stacks. The entire laning phase, and it did not work out for 100 thieves because despite all these threats that they had, they weren't able to get onto the smolder. And then it came to this base race like you said. And despite sniper getting really close, does lose to Jensen and the one v one in the base. And yeah, can't close it out. [01:09:28] Speaker D: So turns out playing against a yone with zero crit, it's really helpful. [01:09:34] Speaker B: Yeah, I was going to say we saw several yone in lcs. Champion sucks in LCS right now. [01:09:42] Speaker A: Yeah, we don't really have the best pilots for it. Quid has been able to play it in the past, but not. Not that game. Not that one. So dignitas with a successful weekend. Happy to see them find success because they also had that postgame interview. Post series interview. One of my favorite interviews of all time. Go check that one out at the very least. But another team is at one in one with a positive win. Record. Record from the weekend. And it is Flyquest. Bickle, it's also you. So talk to me about how Flyquest weekend went. [01:10:13] Speaker D: Yeah, right back to back. Flyquest. Only team to take the two one this weekend. Their series against NRG went the full three games. Was not looking like it was going to go three games after game number one when they just turbo stomped NRG. Big thanks to the fact they just decided to leave Skarner open. That champ is fun. Yeah. And this series, the story was Zyra jungle because every team that had it won. And dear God, these AP junglers are so oppressive, it's not even funny. But game one, curb stomp. Game two, actual back and forth a little bit. It looked like energy was going to win. FlyQuest were coming back with the scaling of that Karthus jungle with double 80 carries and just didn't close it out in the end. And then game three just was more for Flyquest. [01:11:11] Speaker A: There we go. Energy is still on a slump, too, or I don't even know if we call it a slump at this point. But the fact they got one win is, I guess, good news for energy. But Flyquest still looking like one of the top teams. But that's kind of why I don't have them in the top top three at the end of the standings. Does anybody think I'm crazy for that? Does anybody think likewise is absolutely still a top three team and dignitas has not overtaken them. [01:11:36] Speaker B: I think it would be a better argument to say cloud nine might actually be the number four and its strength of schedule is why dig and fly are both below them. [01:11:44] Speaker A: Oh, yes. [01:11:45] Speaker B: I realized cloud nine did beat dig, but that series was close as fuck. [01:11:49] Speaker A: It was. [01:11:50] Speaker B: And immortal. [01:11:50] Speaker D: I think dig, fly this coming week will tell us a lot. [01:11:53] Speaker B: Yes. [01:11:54] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:11:54] Speaker E: I feel like there's actually not a definitive second place team for me right now in lcs with those four kind of all knocking around. And then obviously team liquid at the top with 100 thieves getting two zeroed by dig, they're definitely not in that conversation anymore. And then obviously, immortal's energy and shopify seem a little bit lost. [01:12:14] Speaker D: It feels like there's a one, a two through four, a five, and then a six through eight or six, slash, seven and then eight. [01:12:24] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, let's talk about that five because that's the next one up here. Hawk. I think it's 100 thieves, right? Do we think that's the five? [01:12:31] Speaker E: Yeah, it's either them. I will say I'm gonna toss a bone to Immortals. I think Immortals actually could, like, be a mid table team. I mean, they got absolutely plowed by c nine, but they, Immortals seems like they've got more figured out than energy or shopify. I'm really down on energy just to, like, put that out there. Yeah. However, I would still have 100 thieves as the number five. I think immortals maybe could overtake them. It was an okay showing against dig this weekend. I mean, I. [01:13:03] Speaker A: Game one at least, right? Like, game one, I think they definitively showed they can get advantages. It's just. Yeah, Meech was kind of all over the place. Yeah. [01:13:13] Speaker E: I think, mean, even game two, like, they had win conditions, even though they, it was more one sided, but, yeah, I don't know, it just, I feel like this is still a good team. But I agree with you that, like, we're still seeing some of the concerns that people have with hundred thieves all the way in the beginning, where it's like, individual members at times are still just not the best in the LCS, necessarily. And it can cause problems. I mean, like, letting Jensen get to to 4 million stacks. Molder was kind of bad. That game was really winnable for them, but then they got completely outscaled by that. I don't know. It was not a good look for them this week, but I still think it's a good team. [01:13:54] Speaker A: I think there were good looks for individual players, though, specifically sniper, the rookie top laner, youngest player in the league, gets a one v two double kill in the top lane. He's still a highlight machine under the opponent's turret. Like, like, this kid has the ability. He's got the hands. It's just then, you know, everything else around the team coming together to, to enable that. So I think that there's sparks for 100 ds, for sure. [01:14:20] Speaker E: Yeah, they're still a good team. [01:14:21] Speaker A: Yeah, but you talked about them a little bit. Immortals is up next. I'll cover this team here. Immortals didn't have a great series against c nine. I think a bit of you can really summarize their performance as lack of willingness to do anything. They just didn't feel like loading in and actually playing League of Legends in a proactive manner. They were the most passive I think I've ever seen them. Mazelle, you were able to catch the Immortals games as well. Do you think I. Am I on the right point here? Like, Immortals just didn't really do much right. They were just so passive and they never got into a point where they could actually fight cloud nine. [01:15:00] Speaker C: Yeah, I think it really displayed a lot of the weaknesses that have kind of been there, at least in the two games we've seen. Early two series we've seen from them so far. I still wonder if the drafting can help them in any way because I think that's the strength that they've had a lot in the past, but I don't think that that's going to work against the top teams when they can just out execute you. [01:15:24] Speaker A: Yeah, I feel like there were two moments where I saw our mayo try and make a play, and in both of those moments, Mask, who is the one next to him, just said nope. And other than those two moments, which I believe were both Maokai old Spotlane, they just didn't really do anything the whole game or the whole series. So tough to really say where immortals is at, but hog, you did say that you think that there's a chance. So do you have anything positive to say about immortals? Or is it mostly from their previous weekend where they were able to shopify that you think is where the. The spark is? [01:16:00] Speaker E: I still think immortals has good players. Well, okay. I think they at times have good players. [01:16:07] Speaker A: I don't know. [01:16:08] Speaker E: I just feel like they look like a team that is close to figuring it out and that they do certain things really well. But like we highlighted, they also do certain things really, really badly. It's like, guys just be willing to send it occasionally. They're not actually. I don't find them to be outclassed. I guess is. Is kind of how I feel watching them. [01:16:29] Speaker A: Dude, the fact that castle counterpicked Lee Sin into thanatos gnar and then proceeded to lose the lane in the one v one. [01:16:38] Speaker E: Yeah, that was rough. [01:16:39] Speaker A: Just broke me. Cause, like, if you cannot do that, you, you cannot do that. If you're picking Lee sin, you are demanding your jungle. Come topside camp, you crush the gnar and become such a problem on Lee sin that you're an item and a half above everybody else. Else that they can't deal with you. And instead, what we got was our mayo power farm and then playing to bot side and then Castle losing the one v one with the counter pick like that. That is bad. The other game wasn't as bad, but. [01:17:12] Speaker B: That game, that's a lot of why I downplayed cloud nine's 20 against Immortals. Is just immortals. Absolutely. Just handed them a freebie. [01:17:20] Speaker A: Yeah. Fun fact, though, that was so sand and Castle were in the LCK developmental league together at the same time. Castle had a, I believe is a 14 to 13 if my member serves correct record. After this weekend, it is now 15 to 14 in favor of thanatos. So he takes the head to head record against Castle. We'll see if they maintain any sort of rivalry either here or maybe going into playoffs because they're going to play again in summer season. But enough talk about that team. Let's move on to the teams at the bottom. Energy jacks, real quick. They got a win a game win against Flyquest, but they lost the series. What do you think about them? [01:17:57] Speaker B: I think this team looks lost, honestly. Like it's. It's painful. They did get the game win. I chalk a lot of that up to Zyra jungle is op right now because contracts absolutely had a standout game when he got ahold of the Zyra jungle. But it's palo fox does not look great. He does not look like Palafaker right now. FBI. And who he look okay? Dokla is just. He's little doaks right now. It sucks. [01:18:30] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:18:31] Speaker B: I hate this. This team beat g two at worlds last year, changed none of its members, and looks like this now. [01:18:38] Speaker A: Well, support, you know, he coming in said ignar. [01:18:43] Speaker B: Yeah, but that's enough. [01:18:44] Speaker A: So it should have been. But we have. [01:18:48] Speaker B: I don't give a shit. Fuck ignor. [01:18:50] Speaker A: Well, okay. It depends on what you need. Let's have an actual conversation about this, because I think this is the only point that really makes ignor. You can say you think who he is a better support, but that doesn't mean that he's the better support for this team. Because what we've heard broadcast has talked about it. I've heard about it behind the scenes. Palafox, who he rather pal. Fox is one of the big voices on the team for shot calling. But from my understanding, it's not just Palfox. It's pretty much everybody and who he are not always on the same page, who he has a different read of game states than the rest of the team have. And that has caused a lot of awkward moments in game. And you can see it in the gameplay, indecision, hesitations, or just people being out of position and not following each other up on calls. All of that can be summarized by a key shot calling role not being on the same page as the rest of the team. [01:19:45] Speaker B: Also, Hawk, since you apparently weren't here for Mongoose, I said that for Mongoose are hopefully to be back soon. Co host, I see. I don't like Ignar currently, but I do have fond memories of him in 2017 taking SKT to five games at Worlds. [01:20:03] Speaker A: That was great. Yes. [01:20:04] Speaker E: That's legendary. [01:20:05] Speaker B: Exactly. [01:20:06] Speaker A: That's a great. [01:20:06] Speaker B: So, like, I don't feel that strongly about him, but Mongoose does. So I'm going to. I'm going to say that for Mongoose since he's not here to say it. [01:20:14] Speaker A: Fair enough. All right, cool. Well, that's NRG. Yeah, I think kind of hitting the panic button for them. They have a fairly easy strength to schedule this next week. We'll get into that in a little bit. But the last team to talk about Mazelle Shopify. [01:20:27] Speaker C: Rebellious yet to pick up a game do we have. [01:20:31] Speaker A: What's going on, man? [01:20:32] Speaker C: It's on fire, my friend. I. The combo that I thought would be really good with Tomio and Zazel. With Zazel, I kind of guiding Tomi around really hasn't really worked at all. And I think they haven't really found a drafting style that's worked for their. The pieces that they have. And it's looked really, really rough. They fell the team liquid this week and unfortunately does not get much easier until two weeks from now because they'll be facing off, well, I guess more than two weeks from now. But anyways, they'll be facing off cloud nine next week, which is very rough. [01:21:09] Speaker A: Yeah. Very tough schedule for them. Yeah, I think it's tough because I want to root for Tomio. I want to root for pretty much everybody on this team. But this is the team a lot of people will be looking at and then looking at NACL teams like Flyquest challengers, things like Dragon Steel, the Maryville roster that have a lot of players that are trying to make it LCS and be like, well, if any team is going to be struggling and looking for changes, I know next year is going to have a lot of changes with the whole format change, but curious about how Shopify Rebellions roster and these players individually continue on in their careers going forward. So yeah, that is LCS standings. Let's talk about matches to watch. Dignitas for 100, no bias. No bias for as to why you should watch it outside of it was a good game. It was a good series. Game one in particular was fantastic. Any other shouts yeah, but listen to. [01:22:07] Speaker E: It on mute, though. [01:22:09] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. Honestly, mute disgasses. They sucked. [01:22:14] Speaker E: At the fly. Quest Energy was fun at times. The, the second game was a little, a little slow, but it was, it was probably the closest. Well, that, that and dig 100 game one were probably the closest games of the weekend. [01:22:28] Speaker C: Yeah, it was not as fun of a weekend as last weekend, but it's still some good games. [01:22:32] Speaker B: Dig hundred is the only series. I think that's really like, you should watch that and not just game one. [01:22:39] Speaker D: Is the only game you should watch. [01:22:41] Speaker A: Yeah, I do feel lucky that I got the best series to catch for the week. Everything else would have been much harder. But you, are you lucky to get. [01:22:49] Speaker E: The best series or was it the best series because you were there? [01:22:54] Speaker A: I mean, the, it was definitely the players, but I will also lean into that and say, absolutely was me. Yeah, I think that that's a clear one to take. So let's go into predictions for next week and then wrap things up. 100 thieves versus team Liquid. We have team Liquid across the board with a lot of two o's, but Hawk, you got the two ones. So what do you think about this series? Why do you think 100 thieves has enough in the tank to take at least one game? [01:23:17] Speaker E: Yeah, I mean, if I'm being honest, I think TL is definitely the better team, which is evidenced by the fact that, you know, we all have them winning. I just wanted to throw 100 thieves a bone because like I said earlier, I do think this is a good team. They are just not as good as Team Liquid. But you never know with hundred thieves. I feel like they always can take a game, even though I'm honestly not really expecting it. [01:23:38] Speaker A: I think that's pretty fair to say. Team Liquid seemed like the raid bosses of the region. So let's get into a less hype but maybe closer match. Immortals versus nrg. Now the reason it's a little closer, they're close to each other in the standings, but also energy took a game against Flyquest. Immortals has only taken games against Shopify Rebellion so far. We got immortals for Jax, Bickle and Hawk, two ones except for Hawk with a 20 myself and Mazelle have energy taken this? 1121. Jax, let's throw it over to you. Sorry, I've just baited you. Hawk, you have the two o, I think. Because that's the most extreme one. Talk to me about why you think immortals can two o nrg. [01:24:18] Speaker E: I'm just going to, like, play the role of NRG's biggest hater. The split. I do not think this team is good. I. From watching the tape, I do think NRG still has better, like, individual players most of the time, but they look like they hate playing League of Legends right now. And I think hundred thieves looks like a team that is actually trying and I. I genuinely cannot say that about energy. [01:24:42] Speaker A: Yeah. Immortals being the one that's actually trying. Energy or. [01:24:45] Speaker E: Sorry, sorry, struggle. [01:24:46] Speaker C: What did I say? [01:24:46] Speaker E: Yeah, immortals looks like they're trying. [01:24:49] Speaker A: You just really liked to say the words energy there, I think. Because like you said, you're their biggest hater. Understandable. Understandable. I have energy at least taken this series. I have not been convinced that Immortals can play the League of Legends at a LCS. [01:25:08] Speaker C: I thought you were just gonna stop it, right? [01:25:10] Speaker A: Oh, my God. [01:25:11] Speaker E: Yeah. [01:25:12] Speaker A: I don't want to play them too hard, but, God, they just don't look like they want to play League of Legends and energy. At least I can identify a couple of players, maybe League of Legends. I don't think Douglas wants to play League of Legends at this point. I don't think who he wants to play League of Legends at this point. FBI is a maybe. I still see the hunger and pal Fox and contracts. I still think that there's more willingness to just make things happen for energy. And if you are willing to just make things happen against Immortals, immortals will probably not be making things happen at the same time. So good spot to be. [01:25:47] Speaker B: I remembered that our mayo was on Immortals and I'm changing to energy. Two, one. [01:25:51] Speaker A: Love it. Absolutely. Wow. That's day one. Day two, we have Shopify Rebellion versus c nine. And we got c nine across the board at two. And. [01:26:00] Speaker D: Oh, can I see nine 30? Because I know they're only playing two games, but it's gonna 30, basically. [01:26:10] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:26:11] Speaker C: Mentally it's. [01:26:12] Speaker A: But also three. Oh. In series. They will be undefeated in series if they can take down the mountain that is Shopify rebellion. More like a molehill. Shopify Rebellion definitely looking rough. C nine looking much better. So we won't talk about too much that one. The next series of dignitas versus fly. This one is the series to watch, in my opinion. Yeah. Immortals energy should be close, but for bad reasons. This one should be close for. For good reasons. I think the Dignitas and Fly quest can bring us to the distance. We all have three games except for Mazelle, who is a big believer in Dignitas. But we all have Dignitas except for Bickle, who's the only one that has Flyquest two and one. Bickel, I'll send it to you first. [01:26:53] Speaker D: I think this, as you said, is the closest and most exciting series of the weekend. This feels like it's going to be that thing because right now everybody's saying team Liquid's the best. Cloud nine is relatively up there. It feels like people are like, okay, who's going to be that third team to jump into that kind of world's contender spot? And it feels like it's between these two teams. Plus, you have the built in rivalry there between Jensen and Flyquest. FlyQuest kind of being elected by everyone watching the lcs as the villains of this season so far. But I think a big thing for FlyQuest, I think the meta fits them really well, especially in the jungle. These power farming, hyper carry AP junglers really fit what inspired likes to do. It was kind. These strong junglers are what made him kind of the standout in the lcs and the LEC. And I think they can continue to play around that. I think they need to play around that if they're going to take the win. [01:27:53] Speaker A: Fair enough. Personally, I don't care who wins. I don't even have a strong opinion of who is going to win. I just pray, please, Masu, do not play Senna and do not leave Lane. I want to see Masu Bucio versus van Isles. Masu, the rookie ad carry coming in gets to actually show Zven what a landing phase looks like. Do not just give this guy a free laning phase and let him scale into late game team fights where he's a monster. Masu, show up, make him work for it. That's what I want to see from FlyQuest going into this series. I still have dignitas taking it, though. Again, like I said, not strong on it. Mazelle, you have the 20. So let's send it to you for Dignitas. Why do you think they take it and fly quest don't even get a game game again. [01:28:38] Speaker C: I think momentum in League of Legends is undersung a lot of the time. And I think Dignitas are riding the big dig summer train right now. But also, again, I think Flyquest has leaned to not playing through Bot lane and I think they are going to continue trying to make that work, so I don't see it working out for them. [01:28:57] Speaker A: Makes sense to me. Well, that's it for LCS. It's weird we get through LCS so fast. There's only four teams and only four series to cover each weekend along with predictions, but that's it for LCs and LeC. Thanks so much for sticking with us everybody, for another episode of the League rundown. Remember, it really does help if you are willing and able and have the time to throw up that five stars or the thumbs up wherever you do. Listen on the podcast to help us out. If you want to support us on Patreon as well, the link will be in the description down below. But most importantly, we would love for you to join our community. The discord will also have a link in the description down below, but we'll be ready for week five four four of the LEC next week. Week three of the lcs. Make sure to stick with us. We'll be back with more league rundown. We love you and we'll see you next time. [01:29:49] Speaker C: Bye bye bye. See ya.