League Rundown - Episode 522: You Can’t Fist Dignitas in 15 Minutes

[00:00:31] Speaker A: At the table with Messiah tanking it up. I do not believe he just leaves. I cannot understand this game. Unicorns of love. It was the nexus. Hello and welcome to episode 522 of the League rundown. This episode will be covering LEC playoffs along with LCs. Week five preview. Week four review. This episode is lovingly entitled you can't fist dignitas in 15 minutes. I'm your host, Steve Kangas. I don't know if I've ever put my first name there, but I felt like it today. And I'm joined by a cast of four co hosts. They have a presence. Jackson, Twitch tv. [00:01:37] Speaker B: Jackson, come watch me make it into Emerald for the fifth time, which may have already happened by the time this episode comes out. [00:01:45] Speaker A: Also checking on if he does have that condition. Now we have up also his mechanics. Trickle. It's Bickle. [00:01:55] Speaker C: I haven't thought of anything to say in this intro. Fuck. [00:01:57] Speaker A: It's okay. You can roast me for my really dumb joke that I just made about Janks. [00:02:02] Speaker B: It's fine. [00:02:03] Speaker C: It solid. Like four. [00:02:07] Speaker A: Okay, cool. [00:02:08] Speaker B: That's par for this podcast anyway. [00:02:11] Speaker C: I'd be concerned if it was higher. [00:02:13] Speaker A: On the loose, but we got him on today's episode. It's Mongoose. [00:02:18] Speaker D: Hello. Quick life rundown. I got a dog, I went to a music festival, I went skydiving, and I went to Duffy's wedding. [00:02:24] Speaker A: And that's all that's happened between the last episode that he was on and this episode. [00:02:28] Speaker D: That's it. [00:02:29] Speaker A: We'll be catching up with Mongoose throughout the episode. Yeah, Jack, it's a little bit of. [00:02:33] Speaker B: A jumping ahead in the order of when we do these things, but we have a community discord. Mongoose, did you post pictures of your dog in it? [00:02:39] Speaker D: I have not, actually. I will do that right now. I will post. [00:02:43] Speaker C: How dare you not. [00:02:44] Speaker D: Pictures of my dog in general. [00:02:46] Speaker B: Perfect. [00:02:46] Speaker A: I love it when we do that live for us. But then, you know, people will see it in the discord live, and then like a day later, two days later, hear it on the podcast proper. The last but not least member of the podcast, though, that we have to introduce Mister Mazelle pl. [00:03:02] Speaker E: Hello. Hello. Things are spice it up at LPL. I hope to catch everybody up a little bit today. [00:03:07] Speaker A: Yeah, you had a busy weekend, right? [00:03:09] Speaker E: Yeah, yeah. [00:03:10] Speaker A: A lot of shadow casting, but let's start right there. Riot News globally. This is the cast that we got, so let's get into it. Lpl update. Mazelle, are you ready? Can I just softball toss it to you right now? [00:03:21] Speaker E: Sure. Yeah. BlG has subbed out shun and they have subbed in way after picking him up from RNG and since then they have had a little bit better direction. I think they've dropped some games that were pretty bad, but they are on a two win streak now as they have already taken down JDG last and then Weibo. They are looking pretty strong. LNG is also looking really good in group ascendental as well as JDG all at the four win category. We already have six teams that are going to be locked in for the playoffs and that's going to be Weibo. Top esports anyone's legend, JD Gaming, LNG and Billy Billy. So they will be immediately seeded into the gauntlet style playoff later. Remember that the last two teams are knocked down to a playoff play in to get the last two slots for the gun. [00:04:18] Speaker A: So this is from like the upper group or whatever group ascend. Team ascend. What's going on in Nirvana though? That's again, I need to know. [00:04:28] Speaker E: It's always weird to try to tell the like, power differential because LGD and ninjas and pajamas and IP have not won a single series in Group A. They're both zero five and zero six, but in the bottom side you have four and OMG, which is a bit of a shocker, a four one. Rare Adam who are really strong right now, but at the bottom of the pack you have EDG and RNG who are already looking to be eliminated for 2024. They do lose another series here, so getting a little bit more contested, but at least the top four teams in group Nirvana will be moving on to that playoff play in to face the bottom two teams. So at least OMG and RA fans are sitting pretty right now. [00:05:10] Speaker A: Cool, cool. Thank you so much for the LPL update from our favorite LPL caster on the cast. LCK news bickle, usually I toss this one over to you. Anything cool going on in LCK? [00:05:23] Speaker C: The thing of note is Gen G shown they can bleed but not die. Their game series undefeated streak is finally over. They lost a game to Damon and proceeded to come back and beat them twice in a row to maintain their ten o series record. At the moment, they are unstoppable. And on the other side of the coin, Jax, last week we had a conversation of who's going to win a series first. Shopify rebellion or ok bro little. The day after we talked about an ok bro what a series. [00:05:55] Speaker B: Typical. [00:05:57] Speaker A: And who else rebellion did not. [00:06:00] Speaker C: Yeah, also last week I started talking up kt a little bit. I learned from my mistakes very quickly as KT went on to lose to Fox and lose their winning streak. Sorry, Mongoose. [00:06:12] Speaker A: Oof. Isn't that, like, rule number one for KT? Like, don't talk box? [00:06:16] Speaker C: Rule number one of KT's, don't get excited about KT. But, yeah, it was an interesting week. T one had a very bad past week. They actually lost both series, dropped the Fox, which was a very big upset, and to Hanwha, which is a bit more expected. So right now, Gen G, top in the leaderboard, undisputed best team in the world. [00:06:36] Speaker B: Right now, what team is Fox? [00:06:40] Speaker D: Fear X. And if I read their players off, Kangas would not know a single one. So that's how you know it's about. [00:06:49] Speaker A: He might know closer. [00:06:50] Speaker D: Clear. Raptor, closer. Henna and Duro. [00:06:54] Speaker A: I did recognize closer, but that's because there's another player. Yes. [00:07:00] Speaker D: It's a different player that you're probably. [00:07:02] Speaker C: Thinking, are they playing with Dura? [00:07:04] Speaker A: I thought they were playing with execute in that series. [00:07:06] Speaker D: They played with Dura. [00:07:07] Speaker B: To be fair, closer was on t one for a little bit. [00:07:13] Speaker A: Oh, really? Okay. [00:07:14] Speaker D: Yeah. He got subbed in for like, is. [00:07:16] Speaker A: It with three weeks? Is it closer with a z? [00:07:18] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:07:18] Speaker C: Yes. [00:07:19] Speaker A: Okay. [00:07:21] Speaker D: Got bullied back out. [00:07:22] Speaker B: And I think it was literally, like when Faker was having a rough time, like health something or other. [00:07:28] Speaker A: Well, I can't wait to see one. If not all those players in lcs on Shopify Rebellion next year. VC's also has some news going down. Mongoose, are you up on this news because you're sometimes a VC's guy otherwise. I know Bickle also put this in the dock. [00:07:43] Speaker D: I know that they had, like, some national thing that happened that they were in mourning for, and so they've kind of just stopped everything. Everything is the thing happened, though. I don't know what it was. [00:07:56] Speaker C: Everything is postponed until further notice. They are in a national mourning period after the passing of their general secretary of the vietnamese communist party. [00:08:07] Speaker A: Oh, interesting it has some person in charge passed away. Yeah. We're like. Cultural and political events will delay professional play in certain regions. So interesting to see that. We'll see if that affects them. [00:08:22] Speaker E: Yeah. [00:08:22] Speaker A: Going into worlds as well. [00:08:24] Speaker E: Somebody posted. I don't remember who it was, and I don't remember the exact details, but somebody posted all of the delays that have happened for VC's over the last, like four years or five. God, it's ridiculous. Literally, like every single year over the last, like five years, something has stopped their play or impeded them from enjoying international like it is actually crazy. [00:08:47] Speaker C: Minor thing. Also, if anybody cares, a little bit of news about the 2025 AIPAC league came out, which is the big combination of all the other regions of PCs, VC's, LJL, all that. It's gonna be four partnered teams, two guest teams, a guest team that qualifies from the PCs and a guest team from the VC's. So unlike the Americas North America south, they will have four partner teams and four guest slots. [00:09:15] Speaker A: Interesting. Any news on what the guest slots are going to be going forward? Are they relegation slots or are they just like. [00:09:22] Speaker E: I don't know, they are possible to be relegated. So there's the four standing slots which are going to be given and it's like very clear. It's like given to the best brands or the best teams competitive wise. Those are not going to be possible to be dropped like those off cough. PSG, pillars of the sea. Yeah, it'll probably PSG will be a couple others, but then all the other ones, from what I read in the article, they are possible to lose. [00:09:47] Speaker A: Interesting. Okay, well, we'll keep our eyes on VC's happenings, what that merger looks like going forward, and also when they're back, if they make it back before worlds and if they're going to be able to send a representative, then that can get really messy. But we do have at least like a month or two here to sort that out. No roster news that we're aware of this week so far other than I guess boogie did look good. We'll talk about that later on to Mongoose. You weren't here to talk about that last time, but we'll get your thoughts going forward once we get to lcs. Reminder for everybody, join the community discord if you have not already, if you want to help catch us up on happenings around the world, if you see any news sources, it's fantastic to have the community to help us out find those because sometimes things do slip through. Usually we're good at catching them ourselves, but also if you want to join the conversation about your thoughts on things going on, we would love to hear them. It's a great place to share. For the super fans of League of legends of either your region or global play, also shout out to our ex main host, mainstay host. We love him. We miss him. Duffy along with ex co host Sam, if you remember Sam over in Europe, our european correspondent. The two of them have been cooking a little bit. Now I want everyone to be aware this was not my idea. None of this was endorsed by me. But the two of them took it into their own hands to create a. A merch store. And then they pitched it to me and said, steve, can we do this? And I was like, sure, you've already done the work. Why not? You can send it. So here is the official league rundown announcement. We have a merch store, everybody. You can go find amazing artifacts like t shirts, mouse pads. I hear we might be able to get like, mugs and things like that. It's a pretty snazzy website. It is. League dash rundown dash shop dot fourthwall.com. i don't know how forthwall works. I haven't really explored it yet. But you might just be able to go to fourthwall.com and then search for us and find us through there. I'm not sure exactly what the search functionality is like. I'll be researching it more later. This literally just happened last night before recording this and I've been a little busy. But yeah, go check it out. We're gonna have some fun designs. By the time this episode is live, the site should be live. If not, it'll be like maybe 30 minutes or so for you to have to wait to get in. [00:12:14] Speaker B: Exactly. If there's a piece of merch you want us to have on there, fourth wall has a catalog of all of their base items they can make stuff out of. Tell Sam in the community discord what you want and he'll see if he can make it happen. [00:12:32] Speaker A: I think there's two. [00:12:33] Speaker C: Can be the proud owner of the Kangas mouse pad. [00:12:36] Speaker A: Oh, my God. That thing is so cursed. [00:12:39] Speaker B: So cursed. And it's great. It's literally just Kangas faced 100 times across a desk. Padded. [00:12:45] Speaker A: Yeah. It's the emote that Duffy loves to spam in the discord as well. So if anyone hasn't seen the. If you're not going to check out the website, I think you can imagine probably what that looks like. They also put my face on like the Gigachad guy for a t shirt. Again, this was not my idea. This is just Sam having Photoshop. I believe so, yeah. I mean, it's cool though, if you want to support the pod, that is now an additional way to do so because we have the Patreon and shout out to the patrons that helps support us there. It helps us pay for Ian's audio editing as well as giving us a little nest egg to do some fun stuff during the off season, which we are still planning right now. But this will just go intowards that pool as well so you can get some cool stuff. And then this will add to the support for the podcast so that we can try and do cooler things than. I mean, I'm still happy with what we've done in off seasons in the past, but hopefully with a little bit of that nseg, we can do some more fun, higher budget stuff as well. Yeah. [00:13:43] Speaker E: The king pad. [00:13:44] Speaker A: Get the king. I swear, Jax was like, there's gonna be at least four of those sold. I don't think there's gonna be a single one. I really don't think anybody. What's my favorite? [00:13:53] Speaker E: You heard that? Like, y'all just. We just need four people make a new mouse pad. [00:13:59] Speaker A: Yeah. The worst part is my sister pokes fun at me for, like, the random stuff she'll find of me online. Cause, like, her friends will, like, send a tweet I sent out or like, a TikTok I was randomly in. If my family finds out that I have a face, my face on a mouse pad 100 times, they'll be very proud of you. Might not let me live that one down. [00:14:20] Speaker B: That's how you know you've made it as a content creator. [00:14:23] Speaker A: Is that what I am? Well, either way, go check out the store if you're interested. We would love the support and hopefully you can have some fun stuff. I'm gonna get a mug that says rundown on it, and I'm gonna use that all the time and take some selfies and post it in the discord once I have it. But this site won't be live until, like, Thursday, so I won't be able to place my order. Hopefully they ship quickly. I don't really know what that looks like. [00:14:43] Speaker B: I don't know. We'll find out. We're learning to. [00:14:45] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. It's gonna be a process for all of us, but there we go. That's all the news. Which means it's time to get into what you are actually here to listen about, which is League of Legends, Lec and LCs. I actually didn't even think about this. Did we start Lec last week? I don't think we did Lec this week. You know, we're just gonna start Lec again this week, cuz that's what's in the order of the document there. [00:15:07] Speaker C: We started Lec last week because there were no LCS games to review this. [00:15:12] Speaker A: That's a good point. [00:15:12] Speaker B: There you go. [00:15:13] Speaker A: Let's start lcs. Pickle has the only one of us with more than five brain cells working. Thank you for that. But you know what? We'll still just start Lec because there was a lot going on there, so we'll get the bulk out of the way early. Jax, I see you shaking. [00:15:26] Speaker B: Yeah. Because LCS was four quick best of threes. We should just cover it first, then get to the hype to wrap. [00:15:35] Speaker A: Do we want to democracy this? We have five of us. We can solve this. Raise your hand for all the audio listeners if you want to LCS first. Okay, well, LCs wins for anybody curious. Well, Mazelle's camera's not on, so I couldn't tell, but Jax, Bickle, and mongoose all raised their hands, so. All right. I teased you all. We're not doing Lac. Let's start off. [00:15:59] Speaker E: Gave away my secret identity. [00:16:03] Speaker A: The most beautiful place on God's green earth, as Duffy would like to say. L C s. I was gonna say. [00:16:10] Speaker B: It'S not like your name was literally on the LCS broadcast when you tweeted shit out this weekend. I don't remember what your tweet was, but I remember seeing your name on there and being like, oh, Mazelle's on the broadcast. [00:16:23] Speaker A: It's always fun. It always fun with that happens. And anybody who wasn't aware of that, if you just use the hashtag feed, I know one. Well, there's two guys that will, like, rotate doing it, but the people that work, like, that station at production, and they just are on socials looking for the hashtag. And then if they find a tweet that they like, that's how it gets on the show. So if you want to get your tweets featured, make sure to use hashtag lcs. [00:16:47] Speaker B: It was 60 minutes, the dream hashtag lcs. [00:16:50] Speaker E: Oh, yeah. Great. That's foreshadowing for sure. [00:16:54] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. Well, let's stop being around the bush then, to get into it, because that's not where we'll start. We're gonna start by just running through the standings real quick, and we're gonna go from top to bottom. Talk about everyone's series, which is very easy for lcs now. Cause it's just a single opponent, best of threes, so we can talk about both sides at the same time. C nine and team Liquid still maintain a tie for first, although cloud nine have less games dropped overall. So I believe, technically that would make them ahead. Then we have flyquest at three in one series score. NRG at a two and two series score still in the top half. Dignitas, 100, thieves, and immortals all at one and three. Although Dignitas having far more game wins than the other two. And Shopify rebellion. O and four. With an o and eight game record, they have yet to pick up a game in the 16 dream. [00:17:43] Speaker C: The o 14 dream is real. [00:17:47] Speaker B: Yep. [00:17:47] Speaker A: O and 14. They're not that far away. They're over halfway there. Oh, we're halfway there. Yep. So let's go through the series then. Cloud nine, up first, had a series against 100 thieves. Jax, start us off talking about cloud nine, and then we'll get our thoughts on hundred thieves after all. [00:18:08] Speaker B: Right, so cloud nine comes out swinging with two blabber Nidalee games. [00:18:16] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:18:17] Speaker B: Which is a scary proposition if you're a cloud nine fan, because blabber Nidalee games go one of two ways. He either hard carries and destroys everything, or hard int for a scuttle crab and loses his team. [00:18:33] Speaker A: The game, I was gonna say. Or we get the scuttle crab meme, which is the origination of that, by the way. [00:18:39] Speaker E: By the way, if you didn't catch it, they recently, the Lol esports asked for him to go over some of his best and worst plays, and he literally went, like, detail for detail over his thought process in that whole play. It was actually really cool. [00:18:51] Speaker A: I have not seen that. [00:18:52] Speaker B: I gotta go check it out. I love that he's owning it, but, yeah, no, these were both blabber, just absolutely fucking destroying on Nidalee. They gave thanatos Renekton both times, and Nidalee Renekton is the combo. That's the reason you pick Nidalee is for that combo. And the rest of his team just. I mean, berserker played well. Vulcan played well on Alistar, both games going deathless on the engage in the first game, which is wild, anytime your engage player is the one that never dies, and it's your support where they're on low econ. You know, you had a fucking stomp of a game. This series was not close. [00:19:34] Speaker C: Speaker one. [00:19:35] Speaker A: Well, let's think about positives then, for cloud nine. What do we think? This, like, does this give a statement? Because I will admit, my. Even myself, I've been hesitant to say that they're, like a top team in the LCS, but performances like this definitely, definitely give them strong backing for the believers in cloud nine. Should we be believers in cloud nine after a performance like this? Yeah. [00:19:56] Speaker E: Like, yeah. [00:19:58] Speaker B: Without question, yes. Cloud nine is top two, and week six is going to decide whether they're number one or number two. [00:20:07] Speaker A: That is one. Of course. They're playing team look. [00:20:09] Speaker B: Yes. [00:20:09] Speaker E: I just think that they are showing a lot more of what was expected from them from the beginning. [00:20:14] Speaker A: Yes. [00:20:15] Speaker E: And I think it's just trying to find a. The whole question the whole time is how do you play with two superstars in mid jungle? And it hasn't really worked a lot of the time. And I think Vulcan is finally finding a way to kind of blend them together. And I loved the meme that was posted where it was, like, literally Vulcan in the middle with both blabber and Jojo on either side, like, on leashes, like, trying to bark at stuff, like attack things. [00:20:39] Speaker B: And I think that's accurate because we have seen Jojo. He's still got the hands. That's what he's known for. That's what cloud nine picked him up for, was this amazing, like, high skill player he's showcasing that he's starting to develop the brains. He's not doing the Jojo in plays that we've been seeing, not just this weekend, but, like, the past couple weekends, he's been much more controlled aggression and a lot less just aggression. And Thanato seems to be settling in nicely. Like, he looks like a solid top laner in the LCS now. He actually looks like an upgrade now. [00:21:15] Speaker A: And that's what I want to start off the conversation with. 100 thieves now. Mazelle, do you mind if I toss this one to you? What do you think about Sniper and the thieves and what we can learn from them from this series? [00:21:28] Speaker E: I think river is still having a major say on this team, and I think if he's not having the kind of coordination that maybe we would expect from him, it doesn't look great. I still don't think that we've seen the best out of the solo lanes that we possibly can. I think Bot Lane has been a bit non existent, which is a curious question when a list should be a strong point to be able to play around, especially with the stability they've shown in the past. But I think it all comes down to figuring out what's going on in jungle with river and try to get him in a place of confidence because that's where they played so strongly from. [00:22:03] Speaker A: Right. [00:22:03] Speaker E: Like, he was even in the conversations. [00:22:04] Speaker A: For MVP river and quid where the one two punch that really helped this team surge in spring. And we just haven't quite seen the same ability out of the team to. Maybe it's a meta conversation. Maybe it's a play style and sniper trying to use more resources in the bot lane not being able to keep up. There could be a lot going on there, but going back to what had worked in the past does seem like an avenue for success. [00:22:32] Speaker C: Speaking in regards to meta, this game shows you something you're going to be seeing a lot of this entire weekend in the LCs and the LEC and have been seeing around the world and will likely be seeing for a while, which is a you like an ad carry. Put a mid, put them top, put them wherever you want. Is ad carries right now. I think every series had usually an ad carry versus an ad carry mid lane. Except unless your name is ApA, it. [00:23:02] Speaker A: Seems like the entire meta right now is. Yeah, I mean, I'm happy you say the AP's side, he's been playing like Ziggs and stuff like that, but it's like two to 380 carries with then two to three CC champs. That's everything right now. Maybe an ivern, which kind of counts, but also is just like a space maker. You just have space makers with health bars to make space for the ad carries. And then you try and give your ad carries resources that that is really. [00:23:28] Speaker C: Cool every once in a while to see like that ad carry flex mid. When it becomes that every single game, you get really sick of it really quickly. [00:23:38] Speaker B: Mm hmm. [00:23:41] Speaker D: And I think like we'll see a move away from the ad meadow when we get closer to worlds because they're already starting to nerf. Like Tristana and Corki, I think were like the two big ones that they wanted to hit. And once that patch goes live, then I think we'll see the mid priority change a little bit. But I think Riot doesn't enjoy having the ADC's mid and having ADC's be as prevalent as they are in the meta. So I'm curious to see how the teams who are prospering now will do come worlds when that. When I assume that the ad mid meta will just be non existent because there's some teams right now, globally, that are just really struggling with the ad mid meta that have otherwise been super strong teams. [00:24:24] Speaker A: One of which I would argue is the next thing that we'll talk about. Also in first place, Team liquid. They have been using some eighties mid, but also APA has been more often than not willing to play AP champions instead. That is also just kind of his forte as champ pool. But they had a match against Dignitas this last weekend. Still won it, but did drop one of those games. I predicted a two one, thinking it would be zven that carried, but it was actually Jensen that carried that Dignitas game that they were able to win in game two, but still Team Liquid took it overall. Usually this would be hawk taking this one. But, Bickle, were you able to catch any of team liquid versus dignitas? [00:25:02] Speaker C: Yeah, I can just throw them both all together because I got dignitas as well. [00:25:06] Speaker A: Perfect. [00:25:07] Speaker C: Game one is where our title originates from, because this game was over before. [00:25:15] Speaker A: It started and all chat. [00:25:18] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:25:18] Speaker B: Technically the title comes from the beginning of game two. [00:25:21] Speaker A: Yep. [00:25:21] Speaker C: True. But it's in relation to this game. [00:25:24] Speaker A: For anybody who didn't catch it, there was an all chat segment where they were just showing the chat logs, but it was not a screenshot of the chat logs, it was the live chat logs. And as flowers is reading the chat logs that started the game, somebody said, I think it was Jensen that said, nobody fists dignitas. [00:25:41] Speaker B: I have the screenshot. Jensen says, I'm just confused. Spica says, it won't work on us again. Jensen then says how you guys didn't win in 15 minutes. Spica says, we are learning in real time. That's true. Kinda embarrassing. You can't fist dignitas in 15 minutes. [00:25:58] Speaker A: There we go. Amazing. [00:26:01] Speaker B: And this is because I believe they basically ran back the entire draft for game two. [00:26:06] Speaker C: Yeah, game one. I think they got. I think Dignitas got solo killed in every lane to start the game. And that point, it's just over. Impact is on Jax. He got a lead on Jaxe. Yeah, impacts on Jax. Apas on Casio, two champs that are late game scalers. You give them early kills, the game's done. [00:26:31] Speaker B: Okay. And specifically, Apa playing Casio is why I'm shocked. We're not seeing more answers to the ad carry meta. She destroys Tristana. And we saw a perfect example of that where Jensen jumps in, gets stunned because you cannot face away during rocket jump, and then can't move because there's miasma under him. And Apa is just like, cool. You went aggressive dead. [00:26:54] Speaker A: Now, Umti was there, but he didn't need to be there. Like, Apa had the damage to Kilimanjaro. [00:27:00] Speaker B: It was so brutal. And why are we not seeing more of this kind of innovation? I want to see more of this. Thank you, Apa, for showcasing how it can be done. [00:27:08] Speaker C: We give props to Apa for pulling up the casio, seeing all these carries in the lanes. This is where my one question mark and negative for team liquid of this weekend comes out. We saw umpty this entire season. So far it's been on Maokai Sejuani duty. Maokai, sejuani duty. Frontline tank. Frontline tank. And it's worked great this weekend. They pulled out the Viego, and it was ugly. It was very ugly. [00:27:36] Speaker B: Even the game they won, it was ugly. [00:27:39] Speaker A: Yeah, he had a lot of moments where you could kind of see the angle he's going for, but he just gets way too separated from the team. And then it's like, oh, well, just focus the Viego and then we'll kill him. Viego is great at going in second. You know, you're looking for the resets. You're looking to find somebody who's already low health and then finish them off. I think he was still a little bit on that Sejuani. I need to be the primary engage kind of mentality, and that's not where Viego shines. You need to be a little more patient with that champion and look for the resets instead. So, yeah, tough look. But still they got the win. Are we shaken on our confidence in team liquid, though, with how they won? Because even that game won. They had that massive lead. They kind of overextended in the jungle and got picked a couple of times. They gave up a free mid turret off of that. Like, there are windows where they were giving dignitas these, like, little areas to get gold back. And those kind of concern me. When you're a team that's so far ahead, it feels like you're not taking it seriously. [00:28:37] Speaker C: Then I think what it is is this is them slightly experimenting. They're pulling out the carry junglers because they know that ad carry, that carry mid carry ad carry with tank jungle tank support is their style. It works. And if they need a win, they can pull that out against the teams in Na. [00:29:00] Speaker B: I have no reason to worry about Team Liquid because this three game series was still faster than a two game series that we have to coming up to talk about. [00:29:08] Speaker C: Oh, God. [00:29:08] Speaker A: Okay, well, we're saving that one for the end, I hope you are aware of, because next up in the order here is Flyquest. Bickle, you also have Flyquest. They went up against some mortals and had a 20 bit of a schlack, if memory serves. But talk to me about how Flyclick's. [00:29:27] Speaker C: Looking pretty much slacken. Game one was slow to start, but after that game picked up, the entire series just kind of snowballed. It was an inspired quad show of just them running through everything. Really inspired picks. Nidalee and then more impressively has a great brand game. In all honesty, there's not much to talk about. They beat up Immortals. The LCS right now has a top three team. There are three top teams there. If they are not playing each other, it's probably going to be a slacking. [00:30:02] Speaker A: Yeah, I still think there's some hope for Dignitas every now and then, but no, they're also falling down in this. [00:30:10] Speaker C: The good news for Dignitas is they've already played all the top teams. [00:30:14] Speaker A: I'm expecting a bigger surge in dignitas now that they're going to be up against the Immortals and Shopify rebellions. [00:30:19] Speaker C: And one small thing not even related to the game itself if you haven't. I know Wipo's been getting a lot of flack and him and inspired in terms of their personalities. Go watch WiPO's postgame interview after Immortals. Great to see a player open up like that, just be themselves and really talk about the hard side of some things we don't usually see as an outside spectator. [00:30:40] Speaker A: Yeah, I love it. Love the nod. Mizelle for Immortals. Do we see any fight in them from here? Do you see any spark that they can try and use for a second half of the season surge if they're looking for a playoff spot? [00:30:53] Speaker E: I. I don't know. It's so difficult because I just feel like the mentality isn't bad. Like, especially when you look at the comms video that they post, which honestly is probably one of the best comms videos in terms of like graphical detail and stuff that, that we've had from LCS teams. If you haven't watched it, go watch it. But it's really telling how, like, there's still pretty positive mentality on the team and I wonder if they're going to lock in, I guess is the biggest question because right now it just feels like they're kind of moseying through the season as a whole. And yeah, they obviously were able to take the wind against Shopify to start it off, but it's not like it gets easier, right? Like you're facing TL 100 thieves and dig to finish out the season. So I don't know. I don't know if there's like an exact pinpoint of what I want to see go. Right. But it has to start at least by trying to figure out how to play around this bot lane because I still think tactical no lay are the strongest pieces of this roster. [00:31:46] Speaker A: Good news for them. If they want that playoff spot, they team Liquid is going to be their scheduled losses. Ben has now dubbed that. But hundred thieves and dagger, both technically tied with them in series. So if they can just win those series, they should be in a really good spot to have a playoff position. So, yeah, Destiny's in their hands. Let's see if they can do it. Which leads us to the series. I don't want to take too long on this because it's not like the teams are worth it, but the series itself was very funny. Energy versus Shopify. Rebellion, baby. This is North American League of Legends, baby. 245 plus minute games that were just ridiculously. [00:32:30] Speaker E: One was over, like almost an hour. It was literally like one of the longest games in professional played. [00:32:36] Speaker B: Like, I think they said it was literally like the last time we had a game go this long was like 2020 or 2019. [00:32:42] Speaker E: It's insane. [00:32:44] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:32:44] Speaker E: If you think back to what that metal was, that was literally just scaling up to 45 minutes and trying to win the game. Like, that's ridiculous. That's not what this meta is. [00:32:53] Speaker A: Yeah. And what happened in this game one, which is the one we're talking about, five elder dragons were taken. Or, sorry, not five in this game. Five in the series. But in game one, I believe three elder dragons were taken. [00:33:06] Speaker C: Three elders were taken in game one. Two by NRG, one by Shopify. [00:33:10] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:33:11] Speaker A: And I think it was like three or four barons as well, because it was an early baron, if I remember. [00:33:15] Speaker C: Or Baronsen. [00:33:16] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:33:17] Speaker B: And to be clear, remember, Elder Dragon is supposed to be the game ending buff. [00:33:22] Speaker A: Yep. But every time somebody got elder, the other team would get the baron. [00:33:28] Speaker C: You know what's supposed to be more game ending is having both Elder and Baron at the same time. Imagine having both of them and not being able to win the game. [00:33:36] Speaker B: Yup. Yeah. [00:33:39] Speaker A: Couldn't be in this game. Yeah, it was funny. I think we can all say that, right? [00:33:48] Speaker E: Sure. [00:33:49] Speaker B: I expected this to actually be what Shopify Immortals was not. Shopify energy. Reminder. This is the energy roster that won lcs last year and knocked g two out of worlds. [00:34:02] Speaker A: No. [00:34:02] Speaker D: Who? [00:34:02] Speaker A: He instead of ignor. [00:34:04] Speaker B: Yes. But four fifths of it is the same. [00:34:07] Speaker A: True. And since Mongoose is on this episode, I have to say the name ignor just for him. [00:34:11] Speaker D: Ignor who? Who said who? [00:34:13] Speaker A: He's the new support. Yeah. Game two also happened in this series. It was also a long one. And it was also silly because the end of this game, too. So this time around, energy contracts picks up Karthus. Because if you're just going to have a game like that, game one, you might as well have the crazy late game scaling jungle proceeds to be like, 30 cs up at like 30 or at ten minutes into the game, just power farm. Even though Boogie's getting a lot of ganks on Zyra and getting kills. He was like 30 at the time, which is falling behind and clear, which is not expected for Zyra. And then none of it matters because both teams just get a full build and we fight an elder and contracts in ghost form as Karthus gets the dragon while Shabbat is trying to backdoor. Energy almost wins, but then energy just runs it down mid and gets the win. Like, what the hell was that, guys? [00:35:09] Speaker B: Dude, I love that. Not only was it him in ghost form, but this was like after his ult. You can't cast spells after the ult. So this was the death aura that is around him. The, like, aoe damage zone that got it. Not even an actual Q, which gets isolated bonus damage. [00:35:27] Speaker C: I got to give props to FBI with the big brain play of saying, if we're going to go really late, I'm going to pick a champion that infinitely scales and just get all the souls on Senna. [00:35:35] Speaker B: He had like 250 souls or something stupid by the end. [00:35:38] Speaker A: It was so stupid. Miss Oliver, are you going to hop in there or some? [00:35:44] Speaker E: Oh, duh. I've just revelated the experience that we got to watch. It's also funny because you think about a lot of these players and there's a lot of track record between these. And I think a lot of that experience was not on display. [00:36:01] Speaker A: I think it can be summarized in the end of game two when they show the player cams just dokla just laughing at the end, dude. [00:36:10] Speaker E: Yeah. Contracts at the end with that, like, the most, like, cringe held back smile. He's just like, what did we just do? [00:36:22] Speaker A: That's a good one. [00:36:23] Speaker C: Shopify had a six k gold lead 42 minutes into this game at 46 minutes. They lost the game. [00:36:32] Speaker A: Yep. [00:36:32] Speaker C: And they were still up by nine kills at the end of the game. [00:36:37] Speaker A: Yep. But you're against Karthus, you're against Senna. Right? Like, it just. It kind of didn't matter at that point of the game. It was so late. So that's my series to watch for LCS this weekend. If you did catch any LCS games, go watch out, especially EU fans, because you can just be like, look, what are these north american players doing? They're terrible. And then just assume that that's our general power level going into worlds. I think that'll do great for us. But, yeah, it was just very funny, very entertaining. Any other series to watch over the weekend for lcs. [00:37:08] Speaker C: No. [00:37:10] Speaker A: Yeah. I think maybe a nod to tl dig, but it's shopify energy for the memes. Cool. All right, well, there we have it for the last weekend. Let's bring it into the future week here with our predictions. Lcs week four is happening Saturday and Sunday, and it's gonna be two series each day. First off, on Saturday, c nine versus nrg. We got c nine, 20 across the board. We were not convinced by energy in their performance, and c nine is not gonna be as bad as Shopify. Next up, speaking of Shopify versus Dignitas, this is one of those teams that Shopify. I mean, strength of schedule, kind of needs to pick up a win against, but hasn't gotten a game win yet, so unlikely. Dignitas. We have mostly two o's except for Mazelle. You have a two one. Talk to me about the two one Mazel. [00:37:58] Speaker E: They're going to get a game. I believe it has to happen if it's against anyone. [00:38:05] Speaker A: I could see it being digged. I really could, actually. Yeah. All right. Well, there we go. We're all in agreement, at least on the teams that are winning on day one. So let's see if there's any disagreement. Day two, team liquid versus immortals. We got two o's across the board for team Liquid. Still no face on immortals. Fly Quest versus 100 thieves is the only one that has any interest for lcs. We got two o's for FlyQuest. For myself, Bickle and Mazelle. Jax is a two one. Still flyquest. Mongoose with the hundred thieves, 20. All right, let's. Let's all just beat up on Mongoose and then he can defend himself afterwards. I just don't see it. 100 thieves have not shown the coordination to step up to a team as strong as 100. Flyquest. I think specifically the bot lane for FlyQuest can actually just kind of body the current state of hundred thieves bot lane. I think it's enough for 20. Jax, you have the two one. So I want to hear from you. [00:39:09] Speaker B: I could just see flyquest dropping a random game to an adequate team, and I think hundred thieves is an adequate team. [00:39:17] Speaker A: Okay. Is it Quidd quad? Is it quad getting the best of Quidd or. Sorry, quid getting the best of quad for a game. [00:39:25] Speaker B: Good point. I just want there to be three games of the Casters having to cast quid versus quad. [00:39:30] Speaker A: Agreed. I want that, too. Still think it's a 200 flag. [00:39:33] Speaker E: Welcome to my. Welcome to my hell. When he had Xiaohao, Xiaohu Xiaoxu. On one side, on the other side. [00:39:39] Speaker B: Oh, way, way Xiao. [00:39:42] Speaker D: Those are so different. What do you mean? [00:39:44] Speaker E: Yeah, they are totally different. [00:39:45] Speaker D: Very different. [00:39:46] Speaker E: Then you try to say all three of their names in a fast, high temper team fight and yeah, see what happens. [00:39:52] Speaker A: All right, mongoose, 100 thieves, 20 defend yourself. Why do you think so? [00:39:57] Speaker D: It's just river brain rot. That's all it is. [00:39:59] Speaker A: Okay. You know what? Thank God there's hope for him. We can fix him. [00:40:05] Speaker D: I haven't watched FlyQuest and I haven't watched 100 thieves and 100 thieves. Just easy clears. It's going to be so free for 100 thieves. [00:40:14] Speaker A: Also, shout out to our predictions from last week. I just want to say we had every single series correct, not necessarily down to the game score. We each had one wrong, but we all had the correct teams, which is, I think, easier than ever for lcs. We four predictions and best of threes. We had this conversation, so I want to talk about it now on the podcast proper. Mizelle, we were talking about the fact that the best of three shift is really showing us the difference between the good teams and the bad teams, right? [00:40:40] Speaker E: Yeah, it really is. I think it should have been like this all along. But the thing that we've known about teams that have best of threes and the difference between best of ones is you can always get a fluke game with the best of one. It's not as easy to take a best of three series when you have draft draft adaptations. You get to go back, talk to the coach. You get to look at the jungle pathing a lot of the time. Like, I think it completely changes what a team's approach is. It feels a lot more hands on, whereas it's kind of, Jesus, take the wheel with the best of what. I hope your cheese draft can win. [00:41:11] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:41:12] Speaker D: I do think it makes upsets a lot more hype, though. [00:41:16] Speaker A: It does. They're more earned. [00:41:18] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:41:20] Speaker C: And right now it very much seems like there is a top three in the LCS. It's kind of like, okay, three big ones. C nine, tl, Flyquest. Those are the three. Those are the favorites going into any day. Anything else? If you're not playing each other, you should be winning, no questions asked. And it'll be really interesting to see if any of the other teams can and find a way to punch their way up into it because we've got three world spots. Is it just going to be as boring as these are the three teams we've known for the entire season that they're going to go or is somebody finally going to pull off an upset? [00:41:56] Speaker A: Yeah, I imagine it's just going to be those three. I think that if a team were to do it, it would have been dig. But they do not seem like they are maintaining momentum. Would have been fun to see dig at their first ever world. I think that would be their first world. I don't think they ever made it before. Right. [00:42:10] Speaker C: They've made worlds as dignitas and as clutch gaming. [00:42:13] Speaker A: I believe clutch gaming does not count and I'm gonna die out. Hated that they put up and not biased, by the way. Hated they put up a graphic on the broadcast saying that they overtook CLG for games played. That's bullshit. Because it included clutch gaming. That's a different. So. All right, there we go. That's my little soapbox. Cool. That was lcs. So let's now hop into the. [00:42:39] Speaker C: They were at worlds before dignitas. Mid worlds as dignitas. [00:42:42] Speaker B: Yep. [00:42:42] Speaker A: Okay. [00:42:42] Speaker B: Well it's been a long time. [00:42:44] Speaker C: Licorice old school. Like season two worlds. [00:42:51] Speaker A: Okay, well before my time. Well before my time. [00:42:53] Speaker B: I think once since then they made. [00:42:58] Speaker A: Guys, we are not gonna spend time on the podcast. You keep talking on the check world. Pickle could do it on the side while we talk about LEc because that is the next part. [00:43:08] Speaker C: Just season two worlds. [00:43:09] Speaker A: All right, well, there we go. Thank you, pickle. [00:43:12] Speaker B: That was quick. [00:43:13] Speaker A: I have no control over this cast. Next person that shouts something out. [00:43:17] Speaker C: I thought it'd be under an hour. [00:43:18] Speaker A: There we go. Pickle, you're taking over. Congratulations. Talking about LBC. Okay, so there were actually a couple playoff games that happened. We are in week two of playoffs that just wrapped and the way we're going to do this is talk about it through the lens of the teams remaining. There are four still in summer playoffs at the LEC. In reverse order they are KC, BDS, g two and fnatic. Now there might be two surprises there. First off, KC made the run. They are still in top four in contention and g two not being the last name. We'll talk about how that is in the order that I listed them. Starting off with KC, they had two best of three series over the weekend. Or I guess the week because they played Sunday, Monday, Tuesday. I'm just going to refer to it as a weekend because that's usually what it is. First up they had a match against MDK and they too owed their opponent. I thought it was pretty good closer upset. Vladi just outperforming in team fights. I feel like they're really coming together closer in particular when he is the one to pull the trigger and be the initiator. Looks really good upset. Had a great week of games and I think is looking pretty good on form. And Connor is not just like completely lost from what the rest of the team is trying to do. So, like, the changes in the roster were questionable, but I think they've had enough time to gel that we're starting to see what this team is capable of. And that first series was a great example because it was that 20 in that game, too. I think MDK threw it a little bit because they just got really comfortable in Casey's jungle. And I think it's the curse of taking turrets too fast. Like, they took the top turret really fast. They were like, really trying to get that tier two turret and just stayed in Casey's jungle for about five minutes. And then eventually Casey found a way to engage on them and then that's when the game just kind of fell apart. So, yeah, shout outs to Casey for that one. And then they had the SK series. This one was a little closer as it was a two one, but still earned by Casey. And I'm going to say earned even though I see Bickle shaking his head with his head in his palm, facing his palm. [00:45:36] Speaker C: I hate this series. Was terrible by SK. Showed us the sk we've all been expecting and waiting to see that we saw back in winter and in spring, like, okay, Sk is going to choke eventually. When's it going to happen? And Nisky said, don't worry, guys, we're still Sk. [00:45:57] Speaker A: Okay, okay. No, no, you're saying Niski, that's game three. I'm gonna bring us back to game one, though. The biggest. [00:46:03] Speaker C: Oh, my God. Just cage, I'm done with them. [00:46:08] Speaker A: That Baron, that Baron. Where they're on Baron. They're taking Baron and then they decide, no, let's actually peel off and fight. But then. [00:46:17] Speaker B: But Baron is at three k with closer having just entered the Baron pit. [00:46:24] Speaker A: Yeah, so they. If you're going to peel off Baron, you got to do it at when it's out of health that the enemy jungler can't just walk in and take it because they all leave. And then KC just get a free baron. They lose two members. But, like, there's nobody in the pit anymore. [00:46:39] Speaker B: And it's literally like closer tanking it and Vladi over the wall hitting it. So, like, they're not even at risk of anything with this steal. [00:46:47] Speaker A: Shout out to Vladi, by the way, for the Azir gameplay I do. I still think Azir has a place in this meta and Vladis Azir's looking pretty clean. Had a lot of really good engages and cleanups and fights. [00:46:57] Speaker B: Vladi has grown so much over this split. [00:47:00] Speaker A: Yeah, nickel. [00:47:01] Speaker C: Vladi's definitely grown a lot. And this Baron flip was so bad that the desk had to pull out Ottawamne in a chef's hat with a frying pan to just illustrate how big a baron flip this was. [00:47:16] Speaker A: Nice. Game two, quick summary was just, you know, the Talia VI didn't work. That's all we have to say for. [00:47:26] Speaker C: Game two is what we expected this series to be pretty much sk murdering. [00:47:30] Speaker A: Kate Corp. Yeah, K Corp were trying to make a couple plays, didn't make the fast enough and the ones that they tried to make didn't work and they just fell apart. But game three, I summarized this in two words. Bickle, you summarized them in two other words. We're going to list them both. I said Aram gaming and you said. [00:47:49] Speaker C: I said Miski ends. [00:47:51] Speaker A: Yeah, and I think both are correct. This was just a bunch of five v five s in the mid lane. Once we got past 20 minutes and Casey just won the five v five s in the mid lane. They had the nautilus, if I remember correctly, and they just were the ones finding the engages, whoever their support was or whatever champion they had. I just remember being the one that was getting things rolling. Unless Bickle can prove me incorrect there in my head, I remember nautilus hoax going out. [00:48:18] Speaker C: I don't think it was a nautilus. Give me like 1 second. [00:48:21] Speaker A: It was Alex R. He'll fact check me. But either way it was Nisky getting caught on Ezreal of all things, at the very end, which was kind of the nail in the coffin. [00:48:30] Speaker C: I've never seen Ezreal get caught so much. [00:48:33] Speaker D: Yeah, some mid laners should not be given ADC's that have a dash. [00:48:39] Speaker A: They think they're invincible. But all of that is to say Casey is still in the race. I don't want to take too long talking about them though, because they're. We want a lot more time for the really good series that happened. So that's Casey's journey in a nutshell. They're still in the race and they have one more series to qualify for the finals. Because the way that the LEC format works, of course you earn points throughout the winter, spring and summer splitshood leading into these season finals, the top six teams will make it in there, but also top three from summer split auto make it in. They cannot get in by points, but if they win one more best of five, I believe their first ever best of five as an Oregon the LEC. Then they actually qualify for the finals. [00:49:24] Speaker C: In regards to season finals based on the results of this past weekend, the G two fnatic BDs and Mad Lions are all locked into the upper bracket of season finals. SK, despite losing out to K Corp, is locked into the lower bracket of season finals. There is one spot left. If K Corp beats BDs, it is them. If they do not, it is giant x. [00:49:49] Speaker A: It comes down to one best of five to determine the teams that will then compete against each other to see who represents lecithin at the world's stage. [00:50:00] Speaker C: And really minor thing that we should probably mention because we're not going to talk about them whatsoever, is there's a team not on that list that lost their first game. They lost their series this weekend and is officially eliminated. Goodbye team heritage. [00:50:12] Speaker A: Yep, yep. We'll eulogize them later, but for now we will give them a gentle wave as they are on their way out. But that was Casey's journey. BDS is the other team that is in the lower bracket and has a best of five immediately ahead of them. So, Mongoose, were you able to catch BDS's series? I'd love to hear your thoughts of just overall spark notes, broad strokes, what they looked like. [00:50:39] Speaker D: I only watched fanatic G two. [00:50:41] Speaker A: No worries. You made the right jacks. [00:50:44] Speaker B: Yeah, you made the right choice. That is the series. All right, so we're talking BDS versus Giant X. This was a three game series where all three games were long and slow. I did not like this series. [00:51:06] Speaker A: Okay, sounds like BDS, though. [00:51:09] Speaker B: Yeah, it's very bds. And to Giant X's credit, they managed to capitalize on BDS doing stupid shit. In game two, Shea was the squishiest tank build maokai I've ever seen. Like, holy shit, this dude has a warmogs and a randuins and he goes splat in like a quarter second every time that Giant X looks at him funny. But yeah, this was Jackie's. Looked absolutely great from Giant X. That's the good for them. BDS. Adam looked really good in this series. Specifically, we saw in game one, BDS thought there was going to be a lane swap because there was an Alistair locked in. And they read it as Alistair means lane swap to avoid the early laning phase. So Adam goes and invades Juhan. Then they realize, wait, there wasn't a lane swap. He teleports to top lane with his teleport down, proceeds to bully Antonio, then go re invade Juhan, then go gank mid. And by the time he's done with all of that, he walks back top and catches the wave. And it's just like Adam just solo won the entire fucking map in, like, the first four minutes of this game. It still took 45 minutes for this game to end, but it was really good by Adam. So that's why I wanted to highlight that. That was that, like, four minutes of play from Adam was the highlight of the series for me. [00:52:45] Speaker A: Okay, what about the second series, then? [00:52:49] Speaker B: That was the only series BDS played. [00:52:53] Speaker A: They only played one series. Oh, right. They were coming. Ah, I forgot about the team heretics GX series. In my head, it was the same journey as Casey. Well, we should probably talk about the team heretics GX series, shouldn't we? [00:53:07] Speaker B: I'll eulogize heretics briefly. We don't need to talk about that series. [00:53:11] Speaker A: Thank you. Because that means we can get into the good series of the week. Then it happened on Monday, and old baby, was it a good one. We had the upper bracket finals. El Classico, g two versus fnatic. And let's just go back before we get into this and just look at our predictions that the team had. It was what? Three one. G two. Three one. G two three. Okay, so everyone's saying g two. [00:53:44] Speaker B: Hmm. [00:53:45] Speaker A: What ended up actually happening, Jax? [00:53:47] Speaker B: This was the banger to end all bangers. I want so many more of these for context. It is possible for us to have this best of five matchup three more times before worlds. [00:53:59] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:54:01] Speaker B: Depending on how things pan out, we could literally not get it again. But I. We could get it as many as three more times. I want it three more times because, holy fucking shit, these teams are so. [00:54:11] Speaker A: I want this version of fnatic three more times because that is the big differential from past series between these two teams. Typically, it's like, oh, we have so much faith in g two because they just outperform fnatic pretty much every time. But this time around, fnatic actually brought the fight. They stepped up and I g two. I don't even. I wouldn't say that they inted. I think a couple of the drafts were a little, you know, g two creative type of style, but then they would also win with those types of drafts. So it's like, it's hard to really blame anything on g two. It just felt like fnatic. It was a good day. For them. [00:54:45] Speaker B: And even then, like, none of their drafts are all that wild. Like, we've seen tf tops in other games from multiple different teams. It's not even like, that's a broken blade special. We've seen varus tops from other players, not just broken blade, but yes, it is mostly g two playing it. So, like, it's not that out there. It's like, regular out there. Not like, what the fuck is g two smoking out there? But this series starts out with, let's see, 1234 ADC bands in the first six bands, and then another two top lane ADC bands in the second round, which meant that we got and caps. [00:55:24] Speaker A: Still played in ad carry. [00:55:25] Speaker B: Yep. We got to see Ezreal, lucian mid lane, and misfortune Jin in the bot lane. The resurgence of Jin in this series was weird. I think a lot of people were caught off guard by it. [00:55:36] Speaker A: Miss Fortune showing up was weird to me. I was like, why are we playing Miss Fortune suddenly? But I guess it's because all the bands are. [00:55:42] Speaker E: Miss Fortune is op right now. [00:55:43] Speaker B: She's really strong right now with the. [00:55:45] Speaker E: Bloodthirsty rush I hear all the time in LPL. She's literally picked, like, almost every. [00:55:49] Speaker B: The question is, why aren't we seeing more of her? The question is, why aren't we seeing more of her? She was not a surprise. She should have been here. The djinn is, I think, an artifact of how many ad carry bans happened. [00:56:03] Speaker E: She's also being banned or maybe less prioritized because she is falling off in 14 four a little bit more. And a lot of regions are still on 14 three, except for, obviously, 1414 and 1413. Yeah, yeah. [00:56:15] Speaker B: But Lec's still on 1413, so they should be playing her, so. But, yeah, it's interesting. Game one was, I think, the least close of the entire series. [00:56:27] Speaker A: And, yeah, g two just had better team fights. And I think a big part of it is Leona is just such a better engage champ than Alistair. And, like, we just saw the engages from g two every time an engage would happen. It's like teamfight wipe. All right. [00:56:40] Speaker B: Yep. And it was specifically Mickey was constantly finding the engages on a good damage dealer of Fnatic so that he could just get instantly blown up in response to the engage because he was also the sole front line of g two in game one. [00:56:55] Speaker D: I also think a big thing about this game, and it's a matchup that we didn't see for the rest of the series, was the brand into the zyra. Yike. Just had such a bigger impact with the brand than Razz orc was ever able to get on the Zyra in this game. And we do not see this matchup again for the rest of the series. It's either one of those champions just isn't played or brand is banned. So, yep, it was just like, I think that's something that Fnatic's gonna have to figure out next time this comes around, if these junglers are still prevalent, because it's like, it seems like Razz Orch does not want to play the brand even. And when he does, it's not as impactful as other players playing it. [00:57:41] Speaker B: Yeah, his brand in game four was kind of questionable. We'll get there. We'll get there. So, yeah, that was game one. And this series just kind of accelerates as it goes. That's the other thing I want to talk about, is this series just gets nutty. But so, like, game one is like, oh, yeah, this went more or less how you'd expect. And game two was the first of the varus tops. And it felt initially, without us having the context of the full series, game two felt like, oh, this is the one where g two inted draft. They're playing triple ad carry, and they just got frontlined to death. [00:58:19] Speaker A: They also got three item azeared at a baron fight. Yep, lost their jungler, and they got baited back into the fight and then just lost the game from there. Like, three adam a year is no joke. [00:58:30] Speaker B: He hurts so bad. But, yeah, fnatic played it well. Humanoid piloted the Azir really well. Then the series went insane because game three, we somehow got Oscar Renin going 500:17 on Ornn against broken blades. 00:10 and four Renekton. Yeah, that's right. Broken blade, straight up hard inted. But also, like, we got to see Noah just absolutely destroy on a Caitlyn. This game goes 47 minutes. So this was, like, full build with a zephyr. Humanoid built a zephyr on a zer. Game three was insane. It's like 16 to 32 by the end. [00:59:23] Speaker A: It's rare that I see a moment in a game of League of Legends again, because I watch bad regions. I want to be clear about this. It probably happens more in LPlCK, but it's rare that I watch a game of League of Legends, and I'm like, holy shit. I didn't even know you could do that. Noah's Caitlyn play bot lane when they're trying to get on the gym. Who's got flash and cleanse up. Does anybody remember this specifically? I'm talking about where, like, jin's just running away and just the way Noah comboed that Caitlyn, I was like, I'm sure that this is, like doable, like recreatable and good. Caitlin, players do this all the time, but just what he was doing for like, the trap placements to force out the flash and then like getting the trap to get the cleanse and then like flashing forward and like, I don't even know what he did. It was like a flash auto net auto or something like that. Like just the way he stacks the headshots was so cool. And he's like, barely gets the kill but pulls off the kill. I was very impressed with Noah's Caitlyn overall. [01:00:19] Speaker B: It was extremely clean. [01:00:21] Speaker D: That specific play that you're talking about too. June played it like, so well. So it's just like the both of them just playing it insanely well. And then Noah with like the Flash auto net auto was just so sick to get the kill because if he doesn't do that combo, I think Hans Sama just walks away. [01:00:37] Speaker A: If Isles and Sven tried that, they both would have died under turret. But the fact neither died they got the kill is huge. Yeah. [01:00:46] Speaker B: All right. [01:00:47] Speaker A: But I also agree the space making of the Ornn plus Caitlyn combo in the later fights, like those traps just made it so hard for g two to get on them. Even though g two. I believe g two got dragon soul in this game, right? Wasn't there like a g two soul take? [01:01:01] Speaker D: Yeah, they got chemtech soul which is, you know, partially a soul but still. [01:01:07] Speaker A: Cuz they win the next the fight after. [01:01:10] Speaker B: I think they got one of the elder dragons too. But like they got two elder drag. [01:01:15] Speaker D: They got. They got the first two elder dragons. [01:01:17] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:01:17] Speaker B: And like they were wiped out. One of them so they weren't able to use it. And. And one of them they like weren't able to close out. But they did significant damage to fanatic space. [01:01:26] Speaker A: That third elder dragon take, it was because g two like get a little picked in the mid lane and then it's the jhin nautilus trying to take elder dragon while everyone else is distracted. And jhin just does no damage to it. So they couldn't take it. It was so funny. [01:01:43] Speaker B: It was great. And that set up for, okay, fanatics up to one and we get game four. And g two goes back to the varus top. So there's two ways to read this. Either. Oh, g two is gonna get three one because they're inting draft or oh, g two is about to come back and sweep the rest of the series and it looked like it was gonna be the second one because holy shit, broken blade went eleven and four just absolutely made Oscar his bitch in game four. [01:02:14] Speaker A: Like there were five kills by four minutes. 30. [01:02:17] Speaker B: This game went 25 to 20 in 31 minutes. [01:02:22] Speaker A: Yeah, it was awesome. This game was my favorite of the series. And also fnatic had no nexus turrets for five minutes. [01:02:32] Speaker B: Yep. [01:02:33] Speaker A: For five minutes in a 30 minutes game. That is a large percentage of their game with no nexus turrets. [01:02:40] Speaker C: And this is also one of those rare games where g two is stepping up but it's not caps because caps is still looking shaky here, especially on the corki. It is very much broken blade and hansama stepping up for this game. [01:02:57] Speaker A: Yeah. I think game four can be summarized as g two saying bet you can't play as fast as us. And fnatic being like, we can try. [01:03:03] Speaker B: Fnatic going bethe and just not quite being able to actually do it in the end in game four. Yeah. And I think the expectation from everyone after that game four was okay. G two closes out this series. We get some silver scrapes. We go to game five. G two drafts, twisted fate, top lane and razor pulls out the nidalee with oscars. Renekton. [01:03:27] Speaker A: Yeah. And that's crazy. The deciding game in a five game series against g two. And we're going to. Yeah. Renekton, Nidalee. Let's go. [01:03:36] Speaker B: And here's the wild part. Razorc goes deathless. He has two kills by like four minutes. And it wasn't through going to the renekton lane at all. He just absolutely stomps. Yike. And hansama and Mickey and like gets an early lead off of that and then uses the amount of pressure Nidalee can exert while ahead to just constantly put Noah and June and humanoid in great positions while Oscar's just like, guys, I'm getting bullied by a twisted fate. Can you help? No. Cool. Guess I'll concede some stuff again. [01:04:14] Speaker A: Guess I'll just show up and be a monster frontliner anyway in the fights eventually. [01:04:19] Speaker B: Yes. [01:04:19] Speaker A: I still think that the Renekton later in the game was a huge factor because they just couldn't kill him. It's Derek's pops, like, oh, God, this guy's biggest. [01:04:28] Speaker B: Eventually it got to that point, but it took a while to get there and it kind of showed that g two's, ADC's were not able to cut through tanks because Oscar had no armor against an ADTF Aleutian and a Caitlyn and they couldn't kill him quick enough. [01:04:49] Speaker D: There was one time where he does TP in and it's like he gets Caitlin trapped and he just gets like one shot. And it was really, really funny, but that doesn't happen for like the rest of the game. But it was just like they're trying to take the tier two oscars tping in to help and then just like his whole team backs up as his TP's finishing and he just gets one tap. It's like, well, he was there. [01:05:15] Speaker C: It's so crazy to me that there are eight of carry bands this draft and we still have double ad carry versus triple ad carry. [01:05:24] Speaker B: Yup. Wild. [01:05:27] Speaker A: They just cannot. [01:05:28] Speaker B: There is a reason that on 1415, Kraken Slayer is getting nerfed. [01:05:34] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. [01:05:35] Speaker A: Anybody that can build that is in a pretty good spot right now, but also anybody that can just build infinity edge or triforce or really any of the ad items they're all feeling. [01:05:44] Speaker C: To summarize the series, congratulations, fnatic. You finally beat g two. Now do it when it actually matters next time. [01:05:52] Speaker A: 849 days since they can claim that. [01:05:57] Speaker C: It'S great for them, but this series still means nothing because we're gonna get the rematch in the finals and this doesn't matter at all. [01:06:04] Speaker A: No, it does mean something because it is, I think, unanimously, all of our series to watch for the Lec this week. And that is a title in and of itself. If you have not seen this series, do yourself a favor and watch it. Very entertaining. I still think game four is my favorite in terms of gameplay. Game five was still great because it was a conclusion to the series, but I still think game four is really when it peaked in terms of, like, what these teams were showing they were capable of. Absolutely loved it. So there we go. That's fnatic versus g two. LeC playoffs will keep continuing into next weekend, though, and this time it is actually on the weekend. It was a funky schedule this last week, but now it should be back to relatively normal status. So there are only four teams remaining. Let's actually do the eulogy before we go forward then, because now we're going to be talking about the teams that are remaining. Jax, you wanted to do the eulogy for team heretics, which has bid farewell to their entire year. We will note see them until 2025. [01:07:09] Speaker B: Heretics. You tried to channel your energy too by picking up wonder yengos and originally perks, and that didn't work. So you replaced perks. Cause he looked like shit and you had moments of greatness. But unfortunately there was a little bit too much wow in your playtime and it showed. Flacket and Kizer looked so much worse than they should have. And all in all, trying to put together a super team of has beens is never gonna work. Please stop doing it. Just. Just stop. [01:07:53] Speaker A: Yeah. Is that it? [01:07:55] Speaker B: That's it. [01:07:57] Speaker A: That's it. [01:07:57] Speaker D: New wow expansion came out this week so wonder had to throw the series. [01:08:01] Speaker A: Right. That's actually a really good point. Has out of that. He's got six months to put into that one now. I guess like five months. [01:08:07] Speaker C: But question for people, is this the last we see of for the big three trio of wonder, of Jankos and of perks? Do any of them come back? [01:08:18] Speaker A: It's one of them. [01:08:19] Speaker D: I think Jankos comes back. Jankos comes back and tries to get on a super team and makes it another world's run because I think he is still really good. I just think he's been unfortunately around players who just are not of his caliber. [01:08:33] Speaker B: Jankos was absolutely the shining star on. [01:08:35] Speaker D: The shit roster and he's been a shining star on shit rosters for like the past few years. So it's like, I think Jacobs can still do it. Whether or not he has the drive after playing on these subpar rosters. I think that's, that's just the other question. [01:08:51] Speaker B: I'm very sure that perks is just straight up done and I would be surprised if wonder isn't as well. [01:08:57] Speaker A: And I also say I could see a world where Jankos retires, but out of those three, highest likelihood he does come back, so. And I'd love to see him come back. I have been a Yenkos hater in the past but I've eaten those words every time. [01:09:08] Speaker B: He's one of the very few players still playing that my wife recognizes when she sees him on the screen. [01:09:14] Speaker A: Yeah. All right. Thank you for the ULG Jacks. Let's now talk about the teams remaining in the playoff bracket. BDS versus Casey have a best of five. Everyone has best defies from this point forward. So it's all bo five s from now on. KCB winner will face g two. Winner of that will face fnatic. Reminder KC. If they win this best of five guarantee a spot in the season finals. That is what they are chasing. BDS. It doesn't matter. BDS is playing for giant X's life. [01:09:45] Speaker B: Yep. [01:09:46] Speaker A: In that season finals and maybe a chance of winning summer. But either way they're locked into that upper bracket for season finals regardless. So let's talk about predictions. KC versus BDS. I am actually surprised. We have 1234 KC predictions. We believe viva la France. We think they can do it. [01:10:08] Speaker B: But I will say this is the french civil war match though, isn't it? [01:10:14] Speaker A: Is it? [01:10:15] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:10:16] Speaker A: I don't know. Our french correspondent Mazelle is BD. I don't. I don't remember if BDS was one of the french teams. I thought that was a vitality or something. No, that's also my team. No, it's not vitality. [01:10:25] Speaker E: There's three french teams. It's vitality. It's BDS. And it's. [01:10:28] Speaker A: Oh, wow. Shows how much I pay attention. I just hear you say viva la France. And I just get excited. I don't really pay attention to the team. But we have four of them. Everything else just fades out. Just fades out. I. Yeah, I just. Here's passion and enthusiasm. So there's four of us believing in KC. But I will say, casey fans, I've tried to gain your following by predicting four KC. Now I'm probably going to lose a lot. I never gained any followers. I'm calling you out instead. That was a dead audience when KC was winning their series this last week. You got to show up for this one. I hear there's a couple of you out there. I hear maybe you're banned from the arena but you can sneak in because you got to make some noise for KC as this could be huge for them. But why the hell do we all think they're gonna win this, guys? [01:11:16] Speaker B: Okay, hear me out. [01:11:18] Speaker A: A. Yeah. [01:11:20] Speaker B: Because Casey actually making top three is a hype narrative. [01:11:24] Speaker A: That is a. Yeah. [01:11:25] Speaker B: So I want it to happen. B. B s kind of looked like shit. Despite beating Giant X and KC BSk. A team that they had no business beating. So we got momentum going on here. [01:11:43] Speaker A: True. And I will say and what I've seen for KC, this. This is a team that is starting to be on the same page and actually play together. Specifically, Khanna is getting on the same page with what everyone else wants to do. Even on things like the Camille which he had a terrible showing on early in this summer. Had a great Camille game this last season. [01:12:00] Speaker B: Vladi has been growing. He looks great now and upset. Looks back in form like this is their time to shine. [01:12:09] Speaker A: Okay. Is that why Mongoose, you put a 30 for KC? [01:12:13] Speaker D: It's because of my end season prediction. So I need KC to win this for that to become true. [01:12:21] Speaker A: Gotcha. [01:12:22] Speaker B: As a reminder, way back at the start of the year, Mongoose put for his way too early LEC prediction. Hot takes KC goes to worlds as Lec first seed. Oh, which reminder for that to happen means they need to make top three in summer and then run the lower bracket gauntlet of season finals because they cannot get enough points to make up a bracket even if they win summer. [01:12:48] Speaker A: If that happens, new hot take for me. The police get called on Lec studio two more times due to Casey. [01:12:54] Speaker C: I was going to say I don't know if this has happened, Kangas, with the police intervention. I'm willing to bet it has. Almost credit for it. [01:13:02] Speaker A: I have heard it has. I've heard that it actually has happened once already in summer. But it's from an unconfirmed source. It's from a source who has a source and they're not willing to tell me their source. So I don't know how true it is, but I choose to believe. Bickle, you're the one with BDS. Talk to me. Why you think they win it? [01:13:23] Speaker C: I think if BDS don't get their shit together, it is such a detriment to the entirety of Europe that you are like, we jokingly say, oh, it's a two team region. It's a one team region. If BDS lose this, it is literally just g two and fnatic and everybody else is terrible. I'm hoping BDS brings some stuff together and shows us what they have shown in the past, which is they can be a good team. Also, I have a three two because I agree the narrative of Kate corp making the run to make it to season finals would be really cool. I'm a bit sadistic and I think it'd be really funny. If k corp goes up 20, their fans get extremely hyped and then BDS reverse. [01:14:13] Speaker B: So you're specifically calling it not just a bds three two, but a BDS reverse sweep? [01:14:18] Speaker A: That, absolutely. I hate that, but I also love it. All right, well, regardless of who you think is winning, they're going up against g two, which is going to be a very hard opponent for anybody in the league. Even fnatic had to fight tooth and nail to take them down. So we have three zeros literally across the board, not a single one of us. In case it does not matter which. [01:14:44] Speaker B: Team makes it here. [01:14:45] Speaker A: G two doesn't matter. We think it's a 30 for all of us. So let's see if our predictions get completely shot because they all got shot with KC's surprising earlier anyway for last week, which means that the finale, the final of summer season to determine seeding going into the season finals is going to be fnatic versus g two. And wouldn't you know, not a single one of us put fnatic winning the back to back best of five series against the number one team. Historically in Europe, bickle fnatic can never. [01:15:21] Speaker C: Win when it counts partially. [01:15:24] Speaker B: That also g two winning all three splits would be wild. Cause that. [01:15:30] Speaker E: Yeah. [01:15:31] Speaker B: It's rare for teams to have just won the two splits when we had a two split format. It hasn't happened yet. In a three season split format. It'd be wild for it to happen already. [01:15:41] Speaker A: Yeah. Would be unprecedented. At varying degrees, though, of confidence, like mazelle, jax have three twos. Myself and Bickle have three ones. Mongoose is the only one with a 30, which is very funny. If they lose three two and then just smash. [01:15:57] Speaker C: I love it. [01:15:58] Speaker B: Also, we mentioned that it matters for seating. I'm pretty sure fnatic is locked second place at this point. [01:16:08] Speaker A: Oh, do you not just get first seed for getting first place? [01:16:11] Speaker B: No, it's the seeding in finals is based purely on championship points. [01:16:16] Speaker A: Yeah. The difference between first and second is 30 points. And they have g two is currently 55 ahead. Even if. Oh, wait, no. If KC wins or bds beats g two, if either of them beat g two and then fnatic wins, they actually could take first seed. If my math. Quick math is correct here. The 65 behind and there's a 60 point difference between. [01:16:37] Speaker B: You are correct first. [01:16:39] Speaker A: Yep. [01:16:40] Speaker B: But that being said, there's no difference between first and second other than whether you play third or fourth. And I don't think either team cares as long as fnatic g two or top two. They skip each other in the first round. [01:16:50] Speaker A: That's a good point. Cool. Well, there we go. We all still think g two takes it. [01:16:55] Speaker C: Minor thing. Bds can also technically pass fanatic. [01:16:59] Speaker B: Oh. If they win out. [01:17:01] Speaker C: If they win out, that gets them the full 180, which bumps them from 265 because they have 90 right now. That gets them to 355. [01:17:14] Speaker A: Are you sure? [01:17:14] Speaker B: Yep. He is right. [01:17:18] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. [01:17:19] Speaker C: And that does matter because that means you can't face g two round one. [01:17:27] Speaker A: That's a good point. [01:17:28] Speaker B: I mean, they still don't care them playing bds round one either way. [01:17:35] Speaker A: Yeah. Hear me out. Hear me out. What if Casey wins it? Then sk is 6th seed, Casey's fifth seed. [01:17:43] Speaker C: And it doesn't matter because they're both in the losers. [01:17:48] Speaker A: All right. Well, there we go. That's the silliness over an lec for points. But predictions still expecting g two to take it. Expecting them to be first seed fnatic. G two going to be hopefully a good series unless something crazy. [01:18:01] Speaker B: Seriously, if you didn't watch it, watch g two fanatic and join the community discord so we can watch party the semifinals and finals matches in the discord. [01:18:13] Speaker A: Oh, I'm down for that. Although I will be casting those days Nacl but it's gonna be in the morning so yeah, I should be. [01:18:19] Speaker B: Yeah. These games are at like 08:00 a.m. pacific time. Something like that. [01:18:25] Speaker A: Yeah. I'm just realizing because I had said Saturday Sunday, but there are three days. [01:18:31] Speaker B: Of the first one is Friday. [01:18:32] Speaker A: Anybody? [01:18:33] Speaker B: First on Friday is BDS Casey at 08:00 a.m. pacific. Saturday is g two versus winner at 08:00 a.m. pacific. And Sunday is fnatic versus winner at 08:00 a.m. pacific. [01:18:45] Speaker A: You know what, everybody? I'm willing to say it. I will commit to hopping in on Sunday, 08:00 a.m. pacific to watch that Giga banger of a finals for Lec. Make sure to hop in, join the community discord so you can be there with all of us. Thank you so much, everybody who supports the pod either just by being active in the discord or our patrons that help us so much with our incredible audio editor Ian and soon to be. Maybe if you're interested in checking out our new merch store, you can get some fun stuff yourself. And then the proceeds will be going towards some stuff that we're working on for the off season. [01:19:18] Speaker C: We need tromboners merch. [01:19:20] Speaker A: Yes, we should get trombones merch. Although I'm very terrified of the mental image that just went into all the viewers heads and mine as well. But it's okay because we're gonna workshop something. Yeah. Thank you also to my incredible co hosts here for putting on another episode and thank you for listening. We love you and we will see you next time. [01:19:41] Speaker B: Bye bye. [01:19:42] Speaker E: Bye bye. [01:19:44] Speaker B: Peace. [01:19:46] Speaker A: Yes, daddy.