League Rundown - Episode 528: Grandslams and slamming grands: A C9 story

[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 wasn't you against the nexus. Hello and welcome to episode 528 of the League rundown. This episode will be LCS Finals preview and Lec season finals finals review continued. This episode is lovingly entitled Grand Slams and slammin a c nine story. That was also definitely not my second attempt at an intro. After butchering the first one. I am your host, Kangas, and I'm joined by two esteemed co hosts. Up first, we got. Again, I forgot to look up a different word that rhymes, but we got Bickle. Welcome to the show. [00:01:37] Speaker B: You sure this is an episode 200 something? I could have sworn. [00:01:40] Speaker A: No, I could not have possibly started. [00:01:42] Speaker C: I love the intro yourself. [00:01:45] Speaker A: You redid it well, so I had the Google Doc. I was scrolled down at the bottom because I was looking at like, what matches we were covering. And then I started the intro. I was like, wait a minute. I scrolled up real fast. Did not get there in time. But anyway, he heard his voice. We also got Mister Mazelle pl back from a LPL finals overseas. How are you doing? [00:02:04] Speaker C: I am a sleepy boy, but I am very good. I'm happy to be home, but it was a. It was a great time. [00:02:11] Speaker A: You feeling jet lagged a little bit? [00:02:13] Speaker C: Yeah. Yeah. The early days over there don't translate back the other way around. I'm not going to lie. [00:02:22] Speaker A: Yeah. I mean, I don't know how much you want to get into your travel story, but it was also rough getting there. Just the plane ride itself and happy you were able to survive, let's just put it that way. [00:02:32] Speaker C: I can hear and that's all that matters. [00:02:34] Speaker A: Yeah. Might have taken you a couple days to, you know, fully get into the swing of things, but I. It was awesome watching LPl finals. Happy that you are at least on the desk for, I think, the opening ceremonies. [00:02:43] Speaker C: Everything was really cool. [00:02:46] Speaker A: You are on. I was trying to keep track about three minutes at a time. I think you were on twice that I noticed for the actual finals. It was a great time. It was a great time. But we got a lot of global news to cover, so we'll start off getting into some of that before we talk more about the LPL finals. Up first world's format update. We actually, a lot of it, I believe will be similar to last year. I don't think there's anything like too different. So this will probably sound similar to how last year shaped out lcs and LEC, third seed will go through the play ins. No rematches allowed in the swiss stage this year, though. That is a very exciting one because nobody likes rematches between teams. Once you've seen the play against each other once, it's preferred that, you know, we got that answer, kind of, let's see more variety. And especially it limits the opportunity. Then I think for what was it, which MSI was it where we had, like, regional matches against each other in the lower bracket? [00:03:45] Speaker C: Wasn't that. [00:03:47] Speaker B: Yeah, MSI 23 was second round. We had all regional matchups. [00:03:52] Speaker A: Yeah. Like, awkward moments like that can happen with international formats. So I love it when changes like this are made where it's like, no, let's just try and make it the most entertaining it possibly can be for everybody watching. Cause at the end of the day, the people that win worlds are gonna be the best team. I feel like the path to get there oftentimes, uh, it's less like, you know, you gotta just be the best team at the tournament regardless. Right. [00:04:15] Speaker C: I. I think it's also. I might be completely wrong, but isn't this the first time that we don't have, like, an LPL or LCK team in play ins? It wasn't fourth seed always in play ins. Usually. [00:04:28] Speaker B: I. Last year, I believe last year they were. [00:04:31] Speaker C: Was it? [00:04:32] Speaker A: Okay, maybe it happened one time. I know it has one time because. [00:04:37] Speaker C: Esports or something wasn't like, in the plans. [00:04:40] Speaker A: I just remember we had a CB Lul versus LPl match, and that was really fun to watch. [00:04:46] Speaker B: It's happened a couple of times. You had the LGD near choke in play ins before making the run to get out. You had dam one in play ins. You had both DRX and I think it was lng in play ins one year. [00:05:06] Speaker A: Yeah, I'm pretty sure DRX was in. Yeah, they were in play ins the year that they won, because that was the big story is like, they were the lowest seed. They had to play through the play in stage, and then they made it all the way to finals. So, yeah, it definitely has happened, but they will not be there this year. I don't remember if last year it happened, but I don't think they were not last year. Like, it's. It does not make sense to have the 14 for those regions in plans. And speaking of plans begins September 25. That is coming up here at the end of the month. We're only a few weeks away from that, so we're going to have, you know, obviously, Lec finals just wrapped up. LCS finals will be this next weekend, and then we're going to have, I think, like a week or two of world's preview episodes before we're actually into it. So not that big of a wait before world starts proper, at least for the purposes of our show. But the draw already occurred, so we do have the teams that will be, you know, match up against each other in the first round here. Also a couple teams that are qualified in. So while I pull up what the play ins bracket looks like so we can briefly cover that bickle, if you could, I highlighted bolded at least all the new teams joining the world stage that have recently locked in spots. So could you cover that? [00:06:16] Speaker B: Yeah, sure thing. So coming into this week, we already knew that the likes of Billy Billy Gen G, two Fnatic Mad Lions, Team, Liquid FlyQuest, PSG, Talon Gam Esports, Vikings esports, and movie star seven reals had qualified. But this past week, we got a bunch in from the LPL as they rounded out both their regular season playoffs and there's their regional qualifiers. All the LPL seeds are set. Top esports will be joining as the second seed. LNG Esports will be your third seed and Weibo gaming will be your fourth seed. LCK still in their playoffs right now, so we have nobody rounding out that. We already know all three from the LEC. We do have our second seed coming in from the PCs regional gauntlet, and it's actually not a PCs team, it's an LJL team as the Funkaku Softbanken Bank Hawks are joining up from regionals. [00:07:11] Speaker A: The full name is Fuqua or Fuqua, however you say that. Softbank Hawks gaming, what a mouthful. But they just go by SHG, so we'll probably just call them either the Hawks or SHG. From this point on, we are still. [00:07:23] Speaker B: Waiting for the three other seeds of the LCK and the one seed of the CB Lul. And the biggest shock of all that we'll get to later, the third seed not necessarily locked into third seed, but the third team from the LCS going to Worlds is not cloud nine, it's hundred thieves. [00:07:46] Speaker A: Yes, giving us that banger of an episode title as C nine slammed some grands on this roster and were not able to qualify for worlds again, as this is JoJo's now second worlds in a row that he did not make. Of course we'll cover that as we get into the LCS review, but yep, thank you for all that. It also gave me time to pull up what the world's plans is we'll cover all this more in depth again in later episodes. So don't worry if you feel like we're not covering it enough right now. We got plenty of time. But round one of play on stage is going to be MDK versus VKE, which is vikings esports from Vietnam. Then we have PSG versus the number one seed from CB low. That's one side of the bracket. And I know that Lec fans were a little upset that MDK or Odo Wamne who did the draw, pulled them again into arguably the rougher side because PSG, I hear, is looking pretty good. Specifically, Kadril's reaction to that was quite funny. And then on the other side of the tournament, the other side of the bracket, we have gam versus Hawks Softbank Hawks gaming, and then the number three seed from lcs versus seven reals. So lcs definitely, I think, got the softer pole when it came to the play in steams. [00:08:56] Speaker B: Part of me is so sad that team liquid can't get the third seed from the lcs because if they did, would get TL versus Rainbow seven, which we would get APA versus summit. [00:09:09] Speaker A: That would actually be amazing. But it is going to be summit either way. And I think no matter who's up against him, it's going to be fun to see Na players versus that guy again. But yeah, there we go. Mazelle, any thoughts on the, on the play in stage? Any insight into we're going to make it out right? Like, clearly, I think we should be confident here? [00:09:30] Speaker C: No, I think. I think there's some positivity for an a, not as much for Lac. I feel like after watching their last couple series, oh my God, I'm so worried for them. But I think the real test is going to come when we get to the swiss stage and see how that works out because this is going to be really fun to see Swiss at this level. [00:09:53] Speaker A: Now there are still four teams making it out of play ins. [00:09:56] Speaker C: So even if double lives. [00:09:58] Speaker A: Yeah. So even if MDK do lose to PSG in that qualification match, I mean, arguably they should be just fine. But the fact that LEC broadcast talent and fans are so concerned, I think is kind of telling of it's not guaranteed. Lcs definitely have the easier road in, though. But I mean, knowing how we've done historically, it's not guaranteed for us either. So you never know. [00:10:19] Speaker B: The thing is, it's not just that it's PSG who is by far the best non na EU team there. It's the fact that it's Mad Lions who have a history. [00:10:32] Speaker A: Yeah, well, now it's Mad Lions. Koi, though I'm pretty sure last time they were just pure mad Lions, they were decay. Yeah, well, either way, that is going to be it for our little mini preview of worlds. Of course we're going to cover more, especially once we have the CB little seed as well as the definitive lcs ordering along with LCK remaining three teams going forward, but we teased a little bit at the beginning LPL update here. Mazelle. We're going to do a more proper, full focus on the four teams from the LPL going into worlds once we have an episode dedicated to them in LCK. But for now, give me the highlights of the weekend and maybe some of the scary teams that LPL are going to be sending to the world stage. [00:11:14] Speaker C: Blg really, really good. Top esports kind of. Kind of good. Lng very slow, but still okay, Weibo. Who the hell fucking knows? And there you go. There's a little bit of a breakdown. That's great. [00:11:33] Speaker A: Of course, we'll have, like I said, more time in later episodes to really break it down and kind of go over the power level of these teams. But for now, those are the ones going in from LPL. LCK Bickle, when will we know the other three teams? Is their playoff going to be wrapping up here? Soon. [00:11:47] Speaker B: So their playoffs are wrapping up this coming weekend. We will know the second seed after Saturday because that's when Hanwha life in t one play. The winner of that locks themselves in two worlds. Then the regional finals happen an entire week later from Thursday the 12th to Saturday the 14th. So on the 14th, we will know all four seeds of the LCK. We know it will be three of t one hanwha life d kia, Kt Rolster and fe Rex. [00:12:25] Speaker A: Hey oh. [00:12:27] Speaker B: The highly likely probability is that it is just the top four teams of Gen G hanwha life t 1d plus kia, unless kt or fear x pull off a miracle. [00:12:42] Speaker A: Okay, interesting. Well, that's still a decent amount of teams that are in contention for it, but understandable that there's obviously going to be favorites. Also, we do have EMEA masters that wrapped up. Congratulations to the winner. BDS Academy might have taken an earlier bow out of the LEC, but we'll at least be able to support that. Bummer that they couldn't make it to worlds. I think a lot of people were arguing that they had a better argument for their current form than MDK, or at least consistency as well. Throughout the split, but something to celebrate for them, a couple of awards to cover as well. LEC awards. We have the 2024 MVP caps showing up here yet again. Feels kind of inevitable that Caps is hopping onto these lists and it's just impressive this late into his career. How many MVP's is this now for this guy? Does anybody know? [00:13:38] Speaker C: That's a great question. [00:13:39] Speaker B: Give me a second, I'll see if I can find it. [00:13:40] Speaker A: But I want to say it's like five, but I'm not confident enough. And it's also a goat, though. Yeah. Because it used to be split MVP is when they had two splits, just like it was in na. And now I believe it's just the full year MVP. [00:13:59] Speaker B: So he has one MSI MVP, six season, six Finals MVP's. Okay, three split MVP's. And this is the first season MVP. So he technically has four MVP splits. [00:14:18] Speaker A: Only three split MVP's. I actually expected more. [00:14:21] Speaker B: He's also in eleven. [00:14:25] Speaker A: He's also what? [00:14:26] Speaker B: An eleven time first team all Pro. [00:14:28] Speaker A: Oh, my God. Okay, that's also crazy. Yeah, well, Caps is good at League of Legends, everybody. Yeah. And Mizzell, I know you've been hot on caps even this year as well. I was a little more critical of him earlier on, but it's cool to see that he's still getting the nods. [00:14:44] Speaker C: Yeah, I mean, I think he's shown that he can be very flexible in his style, what he brings to the team, and as well as just being really, really fluid with how he plays the meta and how he kind of supports the team, especially with a newer jungler. It's been really, really nice to watch and especially just like, still seeing him pull off the most ridiculous plays, like in the most stressful moments. It's, it's always so crazy and he's just giggling, smiling the whole time. The best attitude you could ask for for a player. [00:15:14] Speaker A: Yeah, I think it's based on especially how the season was able to close out caps deserving of an award of that caliber up. Also, Lec announced. I was curious last week, we talked about slightly like, what kind of awards are they actually going to have? Because it's just kind of like the full year wrapped up. They do have a rookie of the year, and it was Jackie's that picked that one up from Giant X. I actually was pretty high on Jackie's as well. I think that he had a pretty good debut. I'm very hopeful for this guy going forward. Beckle, what do you think? Was there really anybody else in big contention this. Okay. [00:15:52] Speaker B: Ice was not eligible because he had played in the LCK before. [00:15:57] Speaker A: Okay. Yeah. I was gonna say if he was. [00:15:59] Speaker C: Eligible to Viper got rookie of this splitting LPL. There we go. [00:16:03] Speaker B: Different rules, different rules. But if I'm thinking off the top of my head, names that were eligible were Jackie's. Vladdy was eligible even though we only played the last summer. A lot of MDK was with Antonio. [00:16:21] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:16:22] Speaker B: Antonio, Merwin, Frascawi, Supa, Alvaro. [00:16:27] Speaker A: Oh, wow. It's actually, I think Zoelise Merwin is a rookie. [00:16:32] Speaker B: Wow. [00:16:32] Speaker A: I just, I feel like four fifths. [00:16:35] Speaker B: Of MDK are rookies. [00:16:37] Speaker A: He's become so iconic already. It's just like the rage top later. [00:16:41] Speaker B: The issue for so much of this is a lot of people have like one of three good splits and like, it was really tough. Like, Jackie's was phenomenal in spring. I mean, in summer, but as spring and winter were. [00:16:59] Speaker A: Yeah, I. Man, now I'm starting to think Merwin was robbed. [00:17:05] Speaker B: Season finals, I do not believe count towards this. [00:17:08] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:17:09] Speaker B: So that's when MDK really turned it back on. Before that, they were kinda really bad. [00:17:15] Speaker A: Actually, you know, now that you bring that up. Yeah, it's the inconsistency from a lot of the rookies throughout the year and the teams as well makes it kind of tough. But there we go. Jackies did pick that up. And that is it for the LEC awards that we have. There's one final LCS award that was unveiled before going into finals this next weekend. As is tradition, and it is impact for most valuable player. Raise your hand if you were surprised. And I'll tell you for the audio listeners, because it's audio medium, nobody raised their hand. This was kind of a gimme for impact. He had won a hell of a split. People are talking about MVP for impact the moment playoffs started as like, yeah, I know this guy is the clear front runner and yeah, I think well deserved. I don't know, Mazelle, did you have anybody else on your list that you think could possibly have taken it from impact? [00:18:07] Speaker C: Nah, I think he deserves it. And it's crazy. What he posted was like, after twelve years, he finally gets an MVP. [00:18:14] Speaker A: Yeah, it's wild that he hadn't gotten one yet. He's been on like a lot of all teams, hasn't been first all team that consistently, but has been all teams like second and third or first for, I think like most of the splits competed, if not all of them. But first, I'm picking up MVP. Tough for a top laner to get awesome to see impact grabbing that one. We covered the other awards, last week's episode, so that will wrap up the global news. But if you want to give us any updates on global news. Actually, as I say that, Bickle raises his finger. [00:18:46] Speaker B: I was gonna say, I don't know if we cover. I don't think rookie of the year was out last week when we talked about it, so minor thing. [00:18:52] Speaker A: Oh, it might not have been. [00:18:53] Speaker B: I think it was just after the episode. But to the, again, shock of everybody, Masu wins this award legitimately, unanimously. Every vote he possibly getting, he got. The only people didn't vote for him were Flyquest, because they weren't allowed to. [00:19:08] Speaker A: Vote for him, which I will say. I am actually surprised that it was unanimous. I think that sniper should have gotten more nods than he actually was given. I even think Thanatos should have been given more nods than he was given. So not that I'm saying it shouldn't be Masu. I agree. Masu is the rookie of the year. But it surprises me to hear that it was like, everybody agreed on that sentiment and that there were no dissenters. Mazelle, do you. Do you think that this was a clear cut, unanimous Masu decision? [00:19:41] Speaker C: I mean, I think I lean more towards your side of things, where the. It should have been a little bit more split, but in the end, I think Masu deserves it. [00:19:50] Speaker A: And also, at the end, like, you don't want to just vote for a different player because you don't want it to be unanimous. So, like, it's. It's not like a. Oh, vote for sniper, because it shouldn't be everyone voting for Masu. But I'm just. I feel like Sniper made a big enough argument that people. I could see why people would be convinced that sniper should deserve it instead. But either way, that is cool. It's cool to take that away. As Masu, I been very excited about this player. I mean, Mizel, we got to watch him develop last year. I know that we were rooting for him, but you never know the Wi Fi wizard. You never know when a player promotes how well they're gonna do. But the fact that we have two promotion success stories in Masu and Sniper, I think, is fantastic. I mean, it's. It's not. I was gonna say it's fantastic for the NACL, but it's not like we did anything right. Like, it's these guys owning it and performing themselves. But I think it's just really cool to show that the system's working. Like, we had this conversation me and Rafa, I want to get your thoughts as well. Mazel that. But we have like two rookies going to worlds as well as the majority. Over half the players going to worlds spent time in NACL. [00:20:52] Speaker C: Yeah, it's so cool to see kind of the new generation of na kind of come to the fold and see that it has been something that this scene has been working towards. I mean, we've had some really cool success stories with our most valuable prospect award in NACL and being able to see that pay off a lot of the time and just being able to see kind of the eyes already seen a little bit on these t two players before they get an lcs is so much different comparatively to what we were looking at three years ago where players were coming into the lcs and then three months later, you didn't even know who these players were and they weren't playing anymore. Right. And I think they being able to see not only for the players that this is working, but kind of for their. The scouting and that kind of stuff. While I will say, and in that regard, Na is still in a terrible position, but overall, we can see a little bit of progress, a little bit of growth, and it's really promising. [00:21:49] Speaker A: Okay. I like to see it, and I agree that it's very promising to see the systems work because it feels like we're finally getting to a point where there is a system to begin with and that it is working. People are starting to pay attention to these players coming up through the NACL. So there we go. Thank you, Bickle, for that reminder. And that will do it for the global news reminder that you can join our community discord if you want to join in on the conversation about the awards. If you think Sniper was robbed of rookie of the split, let us know in there. If you think anybody elsewhere around with the awards was snubbed, you can voice your opinions. We did a fun little mini watch party of the LEC finals in there as well. I wish I could have stuck around for the whole time, but I got pulled away to a work meeting halfway through. But it was awesome seeing some folks in there enjoying their time. And yeah, thanks everybody for supporting as well on the Patreon and the merch store reminder. If you want to check out any of our merch, we got league dash rundown, dash shop dot, fourthwall.com. i got tagged in a photo this last week with one of our listeners in a shirt of my face on the Gigachad guy and he was trying to get it on the LCS broadcast. Good luck. I don't think they ever put the photos up on the broadcast, really. It's usually just the tweet itself, but it's cool to see that support. So thanks so much, everybody. Ariel, possibly shout out to you, but that'll get us into the episode proper. Now, look at that. It's going to be maybe a quick one. So that's why we spent a little bit longer covering a lot of the global news, because there's not that many games to cover this time around. It was, in fact, the finals, the finals of the season, finals for Lec. So let's start off there, because that was the banger, man. I don't even know if I want to say exact banger, but at least it was the El Classico banger of fnatic and g two in the finals. Because, of course, the lower bracket finals went the way everybody predicted. We all had g two taking it. That put in predictions, and it was, in fact, g two that took it three to one. Bickel, how. How did g two look in that lower bracket finals? And more importantly, how did MDK look? Because they will also be going to worlds in that play in stage. Is this a team that we think can do some damage? [00:24:05] Speaker B: We'll have to wait and see. MDK continues to be a team of highs and lows. Game one, it looked like maybe there was something stirring as MDK came in. Pretty strong. Super. Looked really solid on that misfortune. G two tried to pull out this gwen jungle yasuo mid fooling around a little bit. Just didn't end up working for them. MDK was pretty dominant throughout game number one. Game two. G two says, okay, enough fucking around. They pull out the champion. We're going to see a lot of this weekend for g two whenever they feel like winning games. The brand jungle for yike. And he gets it. The next three games, they go 30 with it. It's relatively stable. I think it's three games brand to three games quirky for g two. [00:25:02] Speaker A: Almost three games, Ash. But then Ash gets picked away. From the minute four, you can just. [00:25:06] Speaker B: See them like, okay, we're getting a bit more serious here. Sit down, stand up. Focus up. Just get these games done. Because when they start kind of playing these stock standard, less flair comps, they just kind of smack mad lions around. Even when MDK tries to pull out a little bit of fancy stuff, like that smolder top with the ivern jungle, just. No, g two just smacks him down and takes over. [00:25:38] Speaker A: And it's cool to see how MDK was able to take down g two in the past. Merwin in particular with the top lane champ pool utilizing the ranged champions and just kind of even, like, the lulu back in the day, like, earlier on in the bracket tournament, was really hard for broken blade to deal with. But I think that g two kind of figured it out of like, okay, well, we don't have to play the broken blade. We can just put him on the cassante. And even, like, game four, putting him on the Aatrox was doing just fine into the gwen pick, of all things. We haven't seen Gwen, or at least I haven't seen Gwen in quite a while. So, yeah, I think that g two, they solved the puzzle. [00:26:17] Speaker C: I love to see a little bit of spice come out as well. But, yeah, I think MDK kind of ran out of steam in a lot of ways and felt a little rough. But I guess I literally remember we were all sitting, all the LPL casters were watching, watching the series in a hotel room in Ireland. I just. I didn't start it, but the chance started a one team region. And, you know, maybe that's a little bit of an explainer, but no, no, I think actually, MDK being able to put up a fight like they did was. Was nice in some regard. [00:26:53] Speaker A: I hope that MDK keeps the spice going into worlds. It's gonna be a different patch, so maybe it doesn't work anymore, but I hope that they show up and don't try and go back to play standard and play ins. I hope that they do play wild like they have been. Cause they're a fun team to watch in the draft phase. And if you're a fun team to watch watching the draft phase, usually it's going to translate into a fun team to watch in game. Whether it crashes and burns or it works out, at least it's going to be interesting. So I hope that they at least carry some of that momentum forward, even if their LeC momentum was heavily halted in this series. But, yeah, I mean, I think that, like you said, g two going for a standard draft, they played the same comp two games in a row, games two and three, and then game four, they almost played the same draft. Ashe was picked away from them, and then the Cassante and the Rakan were banned away from them. But I'm sure that they would have been happy to do the same one back to back to back because they just found the way to take out MDK and then found the victory there. Relatively fast games but very dominant in the last 310K gold leads plus in each of the wins. So that will be MDks bowing out of the LEc season finals. But then they can earlier prep for worlds or at least one day earlier because right up next it was the season finals. Finals between fnatic and g two. L classico g two had bested fnatic so many times in best of s this year alone and everybody in their right mind should have predicted g two. Here again, me and Mongoose were trolling last week by saying fnatic would win. And I think everybody that predicted g two definitely validated here. They were able to take the series. It was not a sweep as they have been doing at Fnatic. It was actually a three one. Fnatic did at least grab one victory there, bickle. [00:28:44] Speaker B: Not just, they took game two, which was good to see. Game one was a heartbreaker. 50 minutes banger. Just absolutely back and forth slugfest. That was like the second I saw that I'm like, please, four more of these would make me so happy. Did not end up happening. But it was such a fun, enjoyable game. So much late game scaling in there, hero plays from both teams back and forth, just trying to hold on and take the lead. But in the end, g two was the one who could kind of wrangle in that game number one. I think the second they won this game series was done. [00:29:33] Speaker A: It felt like that until game two. And fnatic did have a very solid performance. But going deeper into game one, I mean, yeah, mazelle, you said it's kind of heartbreaking freaking mundo, man. That guy is killable. [00:29:47] Speaker C: And where does he please to the nexus of fanatic. [00:29:52] Speaker A: Yes, he did. He did do that. [00:29:54] Speaker C: Yeah, I mean it was. It was really, really awesome for game number one, I will say even if game number two wins fanatics way, the games weren't as exciting after that game number one, maybe because that game number one was so exciting. But overall it just started feeling like a bit of an arm wrestle where g two was just the stronger opponent. Just felt like they were like slowly but surely wrestling control out of fnatic. [00:30:21] Speaker A: Yeah, I think that the smolder was working out pretty well for Fnatic. But once they weren't able to get their hands on that as consistently, we showed the, you know, weaknesses in their armor. That game won. I think they could have taken it. They actually, in my opinion, I mean, in a lot of people's opinions, not even like a bold statement to say here, but they were in the winning position in game number one. But then, I mean, like, Ken and will fall behind in scaling, and they weren't able to find the right engages. I don't want to call out a specific player, but, like, Oscar Renan played the second half, not even the second half, probably, like the last quarter of a very long game. He had a lot of really good flanks, a lot of really good plays early. But then he played the last quarter of that game pretty poorly. He was constantly trying to engage straight on into the mundo, or, like, flash past the mundo, but, like, the team can't follow him up and then they can't kill the back line, who have cleanses and QSS and stuff like that at the time. And you just see the way that they played, and they just did not know how to play around Mundo. And I think that Oscar Rennan just kind of got over aggressive, over eager with a couple of the plays, and then they snowballed a couple kills, had delayed timers. And then that's how g two is actually able to kind of push into the base at the end and then crack things open. So rough to see that game one. But then game two, fnatic, does come back, and it's a smolder game yet again, but this time with the Ivern. And they actually kind of crush it in a way. Like, it's not like a crush, like a super one sided game, but it's at least a. A pretty good statement of, hey, we know how to team fight with a smolder. Right? [00:31:58] Speaker B: Pickle absolutely was humanoid. Kind of took over that game on the smolder. Noah had a solid ezreal game in razork on that ivern. Just makes everybody so hard to deal with. And this was another game where g two goes for this gwen jungle to just try and. Yeah, get a bit fancy with the flex for the poppy top. The gwen jungle just doesn't go their way. Yike. Didn't look too solid on the pick both times we've seen it so far. [00:32:30] Speaker A: And then you know what happens after they go a little funky with the draft to standard brand gaming. Yep. We get a cassante brand azir. Cassante brand azir for the next two games. Rel as well. The same support picked only the ad carry change, so it feels like g two. This is not how we've seen them win in the past. Mizelle, where's the g two that would play pike and play, like, every solo laner in any position, no matter. It was just kind of like a coin flip or like a rock, paper, scissors, who got to play it? This is. I don't expect standard play out of g two, but that's what we're getting. [00:33:04] Speaker C: But from here, from all the players, they just wanted to get across the finish line bad. Like, they were struggling. They're like, apparently there was, like, a lot of issues just going and, like, in terms of, like, motivation, stuff like that behind the scenes. So, like, just trying to get across the finish line knowing that you're good enough to win, but knowing that it wasn't easy getting there. And I think the biggest conversation was that, like, there wasn't a lot of elation, there wasn't a lot of, like, super happy feelings with. On that trophy lift is because they knew they weren't playing great. Right. They won and that's great. Right. But they weren't dominating. They weren't the team that they wanted to be. So I think they're still going to be trying to get some of that confidence back. [00:33:44] Speaker A: Yeah. I don't think that this is the g two that has gone to worlds in past years. I think this is more like last year, g two then, you know, 2021, 2020 g two, that was actually a threat and did damage, especially. I mean, I even skipped 2020 or 2019 where they made it to the finals. I think that Europe and Lec had better practice for g two leading into those worlds, and they didn't necessarily get that this time around. And I hope, I. I really hope that they find that hard again because they got a little bit of a break. Right. They. They have a couple weeks to prepare, get used to the world's patch and then come in swinging. And I think time zones true. Actually, they are hosting. That's a great point. But worlds is always more fun when g two is doing well. That's. That's my personal opinion, but I'm sure a lot of people, especially Europeans, agree with that. So that does it for LEC finals. Congratulations to g two. They got the grand slam. They didn't. Yeah. Last year they were close. Right. They missed one of the splits. [00:34:48] Speaker B: I think they won winter, summer and finals last year. Mad Lions were the team that won spring. [00:34:57] Speaker A: Yeah. So they only dropped one of them, but this time around they were able to pick that up. But that's crazy consistency. Two season finals in a row and five out of six splits that you win as a team. [00:35:10] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:35:11] Speaker A: One team region, maybe just a little bit. [00:35:14] Speaker B: It's not even a one team region. It's a one player region. This is caps. [00:35:20] Speaker A: I would imagine the most valuable player caps yep, there we go. So that's it for Lec. It was a fun weekend of games for them, and now we know the seeding of teams going into worlds for them. It will be g two fanatic and MDK that brings us over the pond now across the ocean to Santa Monica, California, where at the Riot Games arena, we saw a couple more best of fives leading into LCS finals weekend. We had a lot of lower bracket games and then one upper bracket finals. Starting off with a bit of a banger in a five game series elimination match between the old guns, the old guard, the retirement home of NA League alleged versus the young guns in 100 thieves. Dignitas brought it to the thieves, but we're not able to get it back home. It was a two to three victory for 100 thieves. Rather, three to two victory for 100 thieves. Mazelle, were you able to catch much of this series? I was all right. How do you feel about the drafts from dignitas? Because again, it just feels like if Jensen is not on something that he's able to survive lane phase with this team struggles. [00:36:37] Speaker C: Yeah, no, it did not feel great. I feel like a lot of the time when we were seeing kind of the trades back and forth in the draft, it wasn't necessarily feeling like dignitas had a plan and they were just trying to go with things that, like, last minute stopgap. And I think it kind of translated onto the rift as well. I think a lot of times we were seeing decent early setups for them and, like, kind of the game plan, you could see what was going on, but then it was, like lost in mid game a lot of time. There was a lack of direction, a lot of. And they were kind of relying on hands diffing, which, you know, I'm not going to lie, you were able to give us a series because of that, but it did not feel great. [00:37:19] Speaker A: Again, it was just bullying. Sniper seems to be everyone's game plan against 100 thieves. But, I mean, Jensen gets the one Nasus game where he just pops off and it's just like, unanswerable, unkillable. And then after that, I just, I wasn't that impressed. I feel like this guy has not been able to adapt to the ad carries in the mid lane nearly as well as a lot of the other mid laners. And meanwhile, you look at what quid was doing. Not about the ad carries in the mid lane. It's about what can counter the ad carries. I love watching under these. I'll mention this, especially during the cloud nine series. It feels like this team is as close to old energy as we have currently in the league, where they will play things like the yone mid with a top laner that can dive as well. It's been Camille, it's been Renekton. Those are the two that they like to pair as the solo laners. And that one two punch combo has been too much for a lot of teams to absorb, and I love to see that quit. I think had a fantastic series, and I'm very excited for this guy's prospects going forward. I mean, he won mvp last year, and I think that. Or was it just last split? I'm trying to remember, actually. I think last split, last play. Yeah, there we go. And, yeah, I think that we're getting back to that level of quid because he's figured out he wasn't great at the ad carry meta either. So he said, screw it. Let's just do something else. Let's do my thing. [00:38:41] Speaker B: It was really interesting to see this series, the draft prio on some picks, particularly the highest prio jungler that went 40 in the series and was banned in game five. It's not Sejuani, it's not Maokai, not brand. It's not brand. Not Zyra. It. It's a moomoo, dude. [00:39:09] Speaker A: It just kept showing up. [00:39:10] Speaker C: It's wild. [00:39:11] Speaker A: The amumu can combo with two champions in particular that I see a lot of people drafting. You can go with the Miss Fortune, which is a very classic one. The curse of the sad bullet time Amumu ults. Everybody locked in place. And then bullet time over the top. But another really funny one is the Nasus. Cause NASA's spirit flame shreds arc and then a mumu shreds magic resist. So you're basically doing true damage as a team. If those two champions ever are team fighting together. And I mean, game one in particular, we did see that combo come through. We've seen a lot of NACL teams in particular, drafting those two champs together this past week. And I do love to see that. But then, yeah, I think we got, like, we got that combo a couple times in both of the teams. It got to the point where I was banned in, in game five. Like, that was 100% presence from amumu in the series. I'm happy you brought that up. Missile. Is anybody playing this in LPL or is this just like an LCS thing? [00:40:02] Speaker C: Only lcs? [00:40:04] Speaker A: Oh, no. That makes. [00:40:06] Speaker C: I mean, I. I don't think. I think the champion worked in the moment. I do not think that it's a good champion right now. I mean, we saw. We even saw it in ACL a little bit. If. If you get ahead, if you have control, if you have a really good comp around it, I think it works well. If you utilize the combos really well, it works well, but you're setting yourself up for a really high bar of execution. [00:40:29] Speaker B: Well, has shown up three times in the LEC. It was a big prior pick this weekend in the LCS. It's got nothing in the LCK or the LPO. [00:40:40] Speaker A: Oh, God, that makes me so sad because it will continue later on in the weekend. We'll cover that as we get to those games. There's at least one other series where it was peaking its head, but, yeah, dignitas, this is them bowing out of contention. This what is their opportunity to keep going for a bigger push. Big dig summer, big dig season. Big dig energy, unfortunately did come to a small energy. Small dig energy, maybe. Maybe. I think they leave with their heads held high still, relatively. This was a roster that we didn't really know what to expect from them. They had high, low, lows, but they were a fun ride regardless. Like, it was cool to see a lot of these players come together. They hadn't played together for quite a while or ever, and, you know, start some new stories together. But hundred thieves advance, and they played up next against c nine. But before that bickle final point, I. [00:41:39] Speaker B: Will say there's a chance that this is the last time we see Dignitas as an organization. If they take the buyout and if it is, it is the most poetic thing that the way they go out is with a dig baron. [00:41:54] Speaker A: That is actually true. Game five. That is how the entire series wrapped up. And it was close. It was. It really could have been them taking down hundred thieves and advancing along the bracket. But if the final moment of Dignitas on screen, ever in the LCS is a dig baron, that, yeah, I mean, leave how you came, right. Well, they will wait and see if they're leaving or if they are one of the teams that sticks around. Either way, it is 100 days advancing up next, though, the second day was actually team liquid versus Flyquest in the upper bracket finals before we had the final elimination match in the lower bracket to determine the last spot at worlds. This was to determine the raid boss of the LCS finals, as well as the opportunity to fight for first seed for North America. Going into worlds and team Liquid Flyquest, a lot of us on predictions. We had sweeps expected. We had you know, three zeros from Hawk, mongoose. Bickle, you thought 30. I said three one. I thought Black west was good for a game. And what happened, Bickle, because this one turned into a very exciting series. [00:43:08] Speaker B: We got a slugfest back and forth as these two teams traded back and forth. It makes me so happy to see that it's not just team liquid rolling over everybody, but they actually do have some competition that'll push them back a little bit. I want to give some props to Wipo. We've been really harsh on him this entire year so far, but he's transitioned this series and last series also from this five reals counter pick guy to almost blind picked Renekton every game, if you let me. And that's what he did. He picked it for his team, set up strong, and it makes the way with him beyond that pick, inspired, going more supportive, or gank focused for quad and. And boot and Masu to be kind of the shining stars. And in game two, where they kind of came out on top, but particularly game four for Quad, was absolutely phenomenal. Quads Zeri in game four, was just absolutely perfect to play. You get to see it all come together as they finally play around mid a bit more. [00:44:26] Speaker A: And then the Pentakill also coming in here. We had two pentakills this year. Apa got one in game three. Quad answers it back the next game. It was, like you said, a slugfest. Back and forth, trading of fights in game moments, going back and forth the series, going back and forth. And I think this was fantastic to see Team Liquid pushed, because we hadn't seen Team Liquid pushed this hard. I'm not even, like during the regular season, when they had gone to three games in series. Mazal. I don't think any team had really shown the ability to just fight Team Liquid, where Team Liquid was strong, which was answering their, you know, lane swaps and then transitioning that into mid game team fights. [00:45:05] Speaker C: It was nice to see. And also a couple little things. It was the first two pentakills of the whole split, really. Yeah. They have the same game. I also believe it was the. It was only the second time that two pentas had been in one game from LCS history. But also, also all series, right? [00:45:31] Speaker B: One series, not the same series. [00:45:32] Speaker C: Yeah. Quad hit the grand slam, which was one kill to single kill, double kill, triple kill, Quadra Kill, and Penta killed. [00:45:45] Speaker B: Oh, in one game, all in the same, separate instances. Not like that. [00:45:50] Speaker A: Well, yeah, yeah. Obviously not counting up, but I did not notice that that's really cool. I went for the history books then I guess as, yeah, I think Quad is clearly looking like the best player on fly Quest. I'm happy Masu's getting nods, but when it comes down to who's got the, the better hands right now, I do think Quad is that guy for this team and I hope that they continue to play around mid lane and that inspired and Quad can have a strong mid jungle duo going into finals weekend because if they do, they are going to be a scary team, especially as their next opponent, which we'll talk about here as we're getting into predictions. Has a pretty good mid jungle duo. But takeaways from Team Liquid here because they were able to close out the series. Apa gets a Pentakill game five. Still pretty close back and forth. Apa on the corki as he plays at five games in a row. Really? I expanded that champ pool, I guess. Is this what it looks like when you expand a champ pool and just play the same champ five games in a row? [00:46:56] Speaker C: I guess so. I mean, hey, if it works, it works. If it's part of the game plan, it's fine, right? [00:47:03] Speaker B: Yeah. Apa, obviously Pentakill in game three came up really solid, but in game five, it really felt like. Like the most important player was Yeon in that game. He played really well in the Kai'sa, the early game, lane swaps, they were able to play around with getting him ahead and just able to not just get him ahead, but set Wippo really far behind. They banned away the Renekton and forced him onto something else. He pulled out the wukong. They lane swapped on him and set him so far behind. [00:47:37] Speaker A: Yeah, this is what Team Liquid is so good at doing. It's adapting in the best of series that we've had so far and then utilizing these lane swaps to max efficiency, knowing when to do it, when not to do it. So, yeah, they are the raid bosses of lcs still. They fought all the way through the upper bracket, not dropping the series, and will make their way to finals weekend for a chance at back to back titles. It's been a while since we've had that, right? Like, when's the last time we've had an.org win back to back? It had to have been like cloud nine or something. We had a long string there where people were just kind of juggling it around. [00:48:14] Speaker B: Was the last time we had it liquid? [00:48:19] Speaker A: Surely not. [00:48:22] Speaker C: That sounds right. [00:48:24] Speaker A: That would be wild. Here, let me see. I'm just going to pull up lcs, because you can usually just like, look at all the champions. So here we go. First place, summer 2024 championships. Here we go. Yeah, we had team liquid, and then we had NRG previously, cloud nine before them, and cloud nine. Yeah. So cloud ₩9, 2022 championships and 2020 playoffs. [00:48:51] Speaker B: I was thinking same year, same year. [00:48:54] Speaker A: True. I think that might have same year's liquid. Liquid. [00:48:57] Speaker C: I think that's the one you look at. You don't look it yearly, right? [00:49:02] Speaker A: I mean, I still think back to back counts if it's not the same year, but back to back in the same year with the same roster every. Yeah, you know, everything coming together for that one calendar year. Let's them get their own little mini grand slam. Even if it's not as many series wins as g two was able to grab. We'll still count it, but, yeah, they will be the raid bosses up in the upper bracket, like I had said. But that leads one final series here for lcs in the lower bracket. This was the one. Everything went according to prediction so far from what we had had on the cast, but then this next one really made a lot of us wrong. C nine versus 100 thieves. We all had c nine, except for Mongoose, who's not even here. Everybody wish mongoose. I don't know what you wish somebody when they're feeling sick, feel better. Just wish them, you know, hopefully quick recovery. But he's not here to talk about why he was so right about that hundred thieves win. A lot of us had c nine, you know, 303132. We were all over the place, but there's actually a three one victory for hundred thieves. Mazelle. The momentum that hundred thieves are riding right now is looking pretty intimidating as they continue on in the bracket. [00:50:20] Speaker C: Dude, that series was all about vibes. It's actually insane how much it, like, I thought that I had seen Weibo look like one of the worst looking teams after a loss I've ever seen. But then I saw that cloud nine team, and you could just literally feel the pressure on their shoulders. And then you're looking over at the other cams like all of 100 thieves are laughing, smiling, snipers dancing. Like, when. When you have that kind of mental edge over the team, it's so. It feels so impossible to overcome. And then there's little mistakes. You know, Jojo picking Leblanc, which, you know, isn't necessarily a big pick in the meta right now, has some counterplay there, but getting just brutally killed, like, four times in a row in the game, and it just all felt like everything was against cloud nine and they didn't have a chance to even like, breathe at all, actually. [00:51:18] Speaker A: Yeah. Their only win was off of a Nasus Midlandhouse, which again, I think is like, weirdly enough, the best mid lane champion in the game right now. [00:51:27] Speaker C: Little point on that. Jabada was literally sitting there molding his face off in the. In the room when we were watching it because he's like a big nasus player. And apparently Jojo went, like, all. Everything wrong that he could possibly go. He like, he started D Shield. You're supposed to start ring. He like Max Q when you're supposed to Max Eternity still won. [00:51:50] Speaker A: That's very funny. [00:51:52] Speaker B: A big part of that was for 100 thieves. The Vi was knotted into that comp. [00:51:58] Speaker A: No, like, what's Vi supposed to do against Ivern? Leona Kaisa. The only person you can ever really dive is Kai'sa, and you're trying to get through just a crazy frontline. Even if you get on her, she's probably got Ivern Shields, so you just don't have enough damage to really kill anybody. The garen counter into nessus was cute, but. But everything else just. It didn't come together for the comps. So, yeah, I think that was mostly a draft win. But C nine's kryptonite in the playoffs so far has kind of been drafting like, they just did not draft good teams. And a lot of folks, a lot of cloud nine fans were more excited about Reaper coming in than they were thanatos. Thinking Reaper is going to be the one to fix this team. And I think that's a resounding nope. That did not fix the issues that this, this team had. And they still just did not click by the end of the split. [00:52:47] Speaker B: You talk about draft issues. What is a Nidalee LeBlanc duo supposed to do? Jungle mid. [00:52:57] Speaker A: I think you're picking the Nidalee for the Renekton top lane, but you're into Cassandra. You're probably never killing that Cassandra or diving that Cassandra anyway, so. [00:53:05] Speaker B: And the double Leblanc picks for Jojo. So that just feels like, in a sense, desperation, trying to pick something where he feels like he can be a playmaker. But 100 thieves, especially in game three, pick so much point and click. CC lockdown between the Maokai Renekton. Was it a rel follow up? Anytime he distortions in, he just gets it w'd on by Maokai, locked up by sniper or Ayla right after. With Tomo dropping all of the Ziggs damage on top. And he just gets blown up repeatedly. [00:53:45] Speaker A: Yeah. And then, I mean, they even put berserker back on the zigzag in game four when they're backs against the wall and eliminations on the line. Mazelle, you were talking about pressure. We saw the player games. They did not look like they were in good spirits. Why are you putting berserker on his 0% win rate? Ziggs, when he is, like, known to be the super Carrie Lake game ad carry? Like, it just. It doesn't feel like it makes sense. Like, make it make sense. Mazelle, I don't understand. [00:54:14] Speaker C: I don't think I can. I mean, I think it's just they're searching for something. Right. I think Ziggs is a good answer into a lot of things right now, and it does provide you a different profile. And it's picked across the world. Right. Like, we were in CNL as well. Right. I don't think it was necessarily pick. It's just how they executed around it and just being able to kind of, like, find a consistent strategy was not there. [00:54:39] Speaker A: Yeah. The strategy in game four seemed to be just try and fight for objectives. [00:54:44] Speaker C: They were fine waiting. Like, they. They were okay if they waited, but they just didn't. [00:54:50] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:54:51] Speaker B: Ziggs is a great champion across the world and good for that weak side bot lane. Push prior clear waves, easy. He's not the type of champion you want. Berserker on the one game, cloud nine came out really strong with. Yes, it was the nasus, it was the Kai'sa for berserker. It was this strong, aggressive, playmaking style dive in sort of champion. Whereas the games, they lost two misfortunes and a Ziggs. Those don't scream these hyper carry style champions for Berserker, where you can see him show off his better mechanics. [00:55:29] Speaker A: Yeah, neither of those allow Berserker to have a lot of agency. They're both requiring the team to set up your play for you with the misfortune, kind of the Ziggs with Megan Inferno bomb, but. Or with the Ziggs. Just play patient, play pokey, and just land skill shots, clear waves, and then keep enemy off of you. Hard to keep enemy off of you when it says one rel renekton kai'sa. As they were not able to peel the zigzag efficiently in game 400, thieves were just able to take the fight saying, okay, you're going to contest us for these objectives? Well, we're. We have better tools to get onto your back line and you don't necessarily have enough to stop us. I know Leona Skarner Cassante can make a lot of space, but it just didn't feel like it was enough because Berserker's playstyle is, I want to DP's. I want to get damage in. And he just kept walking up and then being in precarious positions for the Yonael to get on him for Sejuani. And to be fair, some of the fights were very close. Like, c nine were not getting destroyed in a lot of the fights, but they just kept opting for them. And the fact that they lost so many consistently is just, yeah, you saw the spirit leave their body very early in that game at number four. And it's hard to see because, I mean, even before, I don't know how serious he was or if it was like a joke interview, I don't even remember what the interview was. I just remember broadcast referencing it that berserk Jojo said if they lose a series, he might as well retire. And I know that, like, some people on broadcast were joking about it. Some people on broadcast, like, I think it was jet in particular, or maybe it was azale. One of them was like, no, like, I think he. Like, it's real. Like, like this. This is now two years. Jojo is not making it to worlds. Two msis in a row. Is he not making it to. I don't know what to make of the situation of this c nine roster. Mazelle. I know that we talked a lot about, like, what's going to be the fix. We didn't feel like it was top lane, but it's just hard to see these players in the caliber that they have not find a fix on their own. [00:57:28] Speaker C: I mean, I think it's just that roster's mentality is not working. The pieces aren't working. That happens all the time with. With teams that come together like this. Right. And I think it's something to be said that, like, I don't know if we need to pick into it, like, a surgical operation going into it. Right. Like, this team just didn't work. Right. I would love, love to see these pieces elsewhere. I'd love to see them part of other teams and see if that thing that works. But this cloud nine organization been trying to build around this roster for like, the past four years. I mean, we're seeing Vulcan back on this team. Like, I think it's just time to separate and see what comes better of it. [00:58:08] Speaker B: These are five good pieces. You have three former mvp's you have a multiple time LCS champion and you have one of the most high hyped up korean prospects. Top, top laners. They're all good players. It just didn't mesh together and sometimes that happens. Look at last year's flyquest team. Look at two years ago team liquid. Sometimes you have all these great players come together and it just doesn't work. Super teams don't always work. This is the team everybody said should be the best team in the lcs and sometimes they just don't come together and that's okay. Some players don't mesh and it's sad to say I just blabber and jojo feel like they have anti synergy. [00:59:01] Speaker A: Yeah, they were not the mid jungle that scene I needed. So I will expect big changes going into the off season. I just hope that Jojo does continue to play. I hope that it was not a serious comment and it was more of a kind of like maybe heavy hearted joke. I was going to say light hearted joke, but it feels kind of heavy hearted to make that kind of statement. But I hope that it was in jest and that he does return because I think Jojo is still good for the league and still has promised. But either way, C nine will not continue in the playoffs and it is 100 thieves that took the series. Which means that we have some predictions to get into for next week. But first, a eulogy for the two teams that are bowing out and we will not see for the rest of the year. Dignitas and Sinai. We didn't talk about it ahead of the episode, so we'll just do it on the episode. Who wants to do which one? I could take either one. Do either of you really want to hop in and do one for a team? [00:59:52] Speaker B: Good. [00:59:52] Speaker A: Either way, I'll do Dignitas. How about that? And then Mazelle, you down to hop in for C nine? [00:59:59] Speaker C: Sure. [01:00:00] Speaker A: All right, I'll do dig. Because they were the team I believed in all year. They are the biggest reason for my negative prediction rate in lcs because I always thought they could do it. I always believed that the old men would turn things around. And even though we heard stories about the scrims not always going well at the beginning of the year, but then stage games early on showing more promise than even the team thought that they had, I still thought that they were a fun team to cheer for. And I loved the interviews that they gave consistently. Whenever they got on camera, they talked about how things were going, whether it was a good day of a good week, of scrims or bad week of scrims, they at least always felt like they were having fun together. And I know at the very end of it all, Sven gave an interview saying things just didn't quite click in game. I think from the vibes check, it felt like they at least clicked out of game and that this was a fun group of guys that had good experience in past years, bringing as much of that experience as they could into this roster and making a deep enough run. This is better than Dignitas usually does, and I think it was more people cheering for dignitas than I've ever heard before. Sad that Tomo died for this, but happy he made it back to 100 thieves. I was able to actually be the one to knock them out of the playoff bracket. But, Dignitas, whether we see you again or not, whatever lcs looks like next year, thank you for the memories, and thank you for one final baron throw of the year. There we go. All right, c nine is up next. Mazelle, give us the eulogy for the team that we will not see again for the rest of 2024. [01:01:37] Speaker C: Jack, you gotta let him go, man. You gotta let him go. You gotta let him free. Sometimes, sometimes you keep birds in cages. Sometimes, sometimes you feel like you just want control over their life. You want a pet, you want something you can look at. It's beautiful. It looks cool, but they're locked in there, man. You gotta get them out of there. Jack, I think your fascination with these beautiful birds needs to stop and let these. Let these. Let these birds live a little bit. Now, it was a team that should have been at the highest of highs and an ape. But again, sometimes things just don't go the way you want it to go. Reaper having another rough stint with cloud nine, the whole team having individual lapses throughout the season. On a team full of veterans, seeing things that you would expect a lot better of, it is just clear that there is some dysfunction behind the scenes. And I very, very much want to see all five of these players and even reaper somewhere else and maybe thriving a little bit more and trying to find and what works for them and find ways to play, because that was not the cloud nine that we could be proud of at the end there. And I look forward to seeing the next iteration of c nine. [01:02:58] Speaker A: Agreed. I think that this is a roster, especially a lot of players that have a lot of fans and a lot of folks wishing for their success. So that's why it hurts so much to see them struggle, to see them fall. But why do we fall. Let the cage. Let him fly. Their peacocks. I gotta let him fly, man. [01:03:17] Speaker C: Peacocks don't fly, kegas. [01:03:19] Speaker A: I know, but it's a. It's. It's a reference. Wait, is this a movie reference that I know and you don't. You've seen the other guys. [01:03:26] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:03:26] Speaker A: Right. Okay. All right. There we go. Yeah, I don't think there's probably a movie that I've seen that you haven't that would be in the comedy genre, knowing our upbringings. But either way, that is it for our eulogies as well as our look back. So let's look to the future and then wrap things up here. We got two series ahead of us for LCS finals weekend. Up first on Friday. Please note it is not Saturday, Sunday, for the hilarious reason that the venue that they are utilizing has kids bop there on Sunday. So they could not get it. [01:03:58] Speaker C: That's the reason? [01:03:59] Speaker A: That's the reason. Did you not know about this? Yeah, we talked about last week. So the reason. I mean, kids bop has apparently had this for, like, a very long time. And lcs were looking for venues. They were happy with the venue, but they couldn't get the Sunday because kids bop already had it reserved. It's the funniest fucking thing, man. It's the cherry on top of the last ever split of lcs. You know, it's like, whatever. Even if we're called lcs next year, it's gonna be very different. But like kids, Bob, you kingdom. So anyways, we Friday and Saturday. So that's going to be LCS finals. Whether you're traveling or not, mark your calendars so that way you can support the teams. We have FlyQuest versus hundred thieves taking to the stage first at the YouTube theater in Los Angeles, California. We got predictions. I, as well as Mazelle, think a full five game series. Bickle thinks a sweepst. But we all have FlyQuest walking away the victors. Bickel, I'm going to have you started off first. Why do you think it's a 30? [01:05:05] Speaker B: I think it's great for the fact that 100 thieves managed to turn things around and kind of push forward and upset cloud nine. And I think that goes down to a combination of them playing well, but also cloud nine playing pretty poorly. I think FlyQuest just looks too good right now. They're able to go toe to toe with team Liquid. I don't think 100 thieves is at that level. [01:05:30] Speaker A: You know, when you put it that way, it does make a certain amount of sense. I still just have enough faith in hundred thieves, based on the momentum and the vibes that they were bringing to their last series. Mazelle, are you of a similar mindset, or why do you think that FlyQuest will win it, but hundred thieves can at least get two games? [01:05:45] Speaker C: Vi. [01:05:46] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:05:47] Speaker C: Five eye vibes. [01:05:49] Speaker A: Can we have a new term of vibes based analysis? [01:05:52] Speaker C: Yes. [01:05:54] Speaker A: I like that. All right. Vibes based analysis. You heard it here. That's why 100 thieves can at least get two games. I still think FlyQuest won the series. I'd be surprised if hundred thieves win it, but I think they're good for two. That means that if we all agree, Flyquest is going to the finals itself, it's team liquid versus Flyquest, for all of our predictions. And yet again, we're all in agreement on the team taking this just slightly different paths to get there. Bickel and Mizzelle both think ATL 31. I think ATL 32, based on how FlyQuest had just shown that they're capable of pushing team liquid to that fifth game. The only concern is what happens if Team Liquid just ban Amumu from the beginning? Because Flyquest did pull that out in three of the games earlier in the series against them. Team Liquid might be able to adapt a little faster to that, but I still think that Team Liquid could win either way. Bickle, why do you think three one and not a three two or a 30? [01:06:46] Speaker B: I think TL has shown the most kind of ability to adapt to everything being thrown their way. And I think now that they had that very recent series against Flyquest, they have a better understanding of what they might want to do. A big thing was removing that Renekton from Wippo, who had played, I think, nine games in a row because he had fucked. No, not nine. That was a lot. Eight games in a row. Four games against C. Nine. Four games against Team Liquid. I think they can remove that and kind of throw a wrench in Flyquest plans. And I think without that stable comfort, there's going to be a bit more chaos for FlyQuest, which may make it a bit harder for them to match up. But I do think Flyquest has the talent to match up, and I think mid Lane can be a reason they take a game. [01:07:35] Speaker A: Okay, missile, why do you. How do you think flyquest wins their game if you only have them taken one? What do you. What do you think the reason is? [01:07:41] Speaker C: I'm going to say it's bot lane. A two v two, early kill, and do a snowball. But I think Team Liquid are going to have a lot of answers. If flyquest don't, like, blow out the. [01:07:52] Speaker A: Early game, okay, if we all have team liquid winning it, I think it's worth it to ask this question then, because that would mean that they're back to back split winners and that they were undefeated in series this entire summer. Does that also make lcs a one team region? Bickel, let's hear you first and then mazel. [01:08:11] Speaker B: I'd say no, because a one team region we're talking about in relation to the lec. G two has been the dominant team there since 2019. Yes, there were occasional other winners, but it just been like, g two is the best. And then there's everybody else there year. Team Liquid has still been pushed. Even if you look back to spring, they came in, as, I want to say, like fifth place coming in from the spring split. They came through the lower bracket of playoffs. They've been really good. And also Flyquest is still really pushing them. So I don't think they're at a one team region. [01:08:52] Speaker A: Okay. I like that reasoning. Mizzelle, what are your thoughts, though? [01:08:56] Speaker C: I don't think it's a one team region. I think we've seen that there's different strategies, and while one team can be better, I don't think it's necessary to the level that we're seeing LEC. I would say, like, if you're going to give that aspect to na, then maybe Finag deserves a little bit of remarks there as well for LeC. But I wouldn't say we're a one team. [01:09:20] Speaker A: All right, well, I might be bucking the trends then. I don't think necessarily one team region, but I think we are only going to be sentence sending one dangerous team to worlds. I think that team liquids going to be like the representative for LCS at worlds. And I am not nearly as confident in FlyQuest and 100 thieves ability to compete with the international teams, but I do. I could see team liquid taking down like a fourth 3rd seed LCK LPL team. I don't know if I see FlyQuest or under thieves doing that. [01:09:51] Speaker B: What is your definition of dangerous? [01:09:54] Speaker A: I think like eliminating one of the major region teams from quarterfinals contention, right? I could see TL making quarterfinals even. I could see them being like the second place team coming out of their group, or I guess it's no longer groups. It's now going to be the swiss stage, right? But I think that they could make it out of Swiss and be like the reason that one of the LPL or LCK teams doesn't make it out because they are able to actually pivot in a best of series as well as pivot based on the meta changes and shifts. Although, you know, if I'm saying that, I still want to give credit to Quidd, who's done a great job of that too, but I think it's more so he's pivoting back to what was already working for him rather than, like, adapting super well to shifting metas. So, yeah, maybe not exactly one team region, but still just only one team, I think that could, like, actually have a chance of going far at worlds is the way I put it, so. Okay, cool. But let us know your thoughts. Everybody in the community discord, we got LCS channels there. So I the question to everybody is if Team liquid wins, because if they don't, then that argument's clearly out the window, right? They didn't do the sweep, and they didn't go the undefeated in summer, but if they win, does that make it a one team region for us as well? Here's everybody's thoughts and reasonings behind it, but that'll do it here for the league rundown, episode 528. I got it right two times in the actual episode recording there. Thank you so much. Thank you so much for listening along with us, everybody. If you could give us a big old five stars wherever you are listening or a thumbs up or whatever rating the platform has, it really does help us get noticed more and try and continue to grow this product. A big thank you to everybody who already supports us, especially through the Patreon and through our new merch store. Let us know any of the merch you grab in our community discord. Make sure to throw ats to me so that way we can hype you up as episodes go forward. And thank you, everybody, especially Bickel and Mazelle, for hopping on give again. Mongoose is feeling sick. Hawk was traveling all day, so he wasn't able to hop on because he's exhausted. So people are just recovering from various things, so send the love their way as well. But thank you so much for listening, everybody. We love you and we'll see you next time. [01:12:06] Speaker C: Peace. [01:12:09] Speaker A: Oh, yes, daddy.