League Rundown - Episode 529: Last winion out, hit the lights

[00:01:06] Speaker A: Hello and welcome to episode 529 of the League rundown. We are covering LCS Finals review, and this episode is lovingly entitled last win. Yin out. Hit the lights. I am your host. You can call me Kangas. And I am joined by three esteemed co hosts. Up first. His opinions are never fickle. We got Bickle. [00:01:29] Speaker B: God damn it, Kangas. And, uh, how many times did we take to get the episode rolling today? [00:01:34] Speaker A: You know, we don't need to talk about it. We don't. We're on a bad track record because last week also, I struggled out there. [00:01:40] Speaker B: Two in a row. [00:01:41] Speaker A: That only took me one Reese recording, but yeah, it might have taken two this time around. You add. I had added myself last week. You added me this week. We'll see if next week the trend continues. But we also have joining us, mister Mazelle Pl. [00:01:55] Speaker C: Hello. Don't worry, I'll be there to add you next week. [00:01:58] Speaker A: All right, we'll cycle it. Yeah. Everyone gets a different call out. And also joining us on this episode, a friend of the podcast. He's been on one before, lost a bet on one before. We'll see if maybe he can pay that off. Today we have LCS stats guru, Leo. [00:02:16] Speaker D: Hello. Hello. Thanks for having me. [00:02:19] Speaker A: Happy to have you back Leo up. First, I'm going to be throwing these randomly at you throughout the episode. What is a wacky lcs stat that you can give us all to start off the episode? Anything coming to mind? Anything you have prepared for us? [00:02:32] Speaker D: Team Liquid had a 1600. Their goal difference at 14 was 1600 gold. Better in lane swaps than it was in standard, which is pretty insane. [00:02:45] Speaker A: That's a lot more. Wow. [00:02:47] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:02:48] Speaker A: So at 14 minutes. So like, when plates go down lane swapping, they had just significantly more gold advantage. But that isn't to say that they had 1600 more. It just meant that they had 1600 more than they did before, which I assume was also still positive. Cause they were like the best team, right? [00:03:03] Speaker D: Yeah. So in lane swaps, their goal difference at 14 was around 2300. And in standard play, it was only 700. [00:03:11] Speaker A: Interesting. Interesting. [00:03:14] Speaker D: And that's split long, not just playoffs. [00:03:17] Speaker A: Okay. That's a cool set. Look at you. You did come prepared. [00:03:20] Speaker D: I got everyone laptop. I'm ready. [00:03:23] Speaker A: I did not prep Leo that I was going to throw questions at him until right now. So this guy is prepared. But also, like I said, happy. Great to have you on. Thanks for coming on, Leo. Always great to have somebody to give us some insights into what's going on behind the scenes at LCS. Speaking of there's some global news to cover, so let's get into that up first world's swiss pools are now, I believe, finalized because of the teams that are at least from Na. Like, that was a big one in CBOL last week were the two that we didn't know where they were going to be. But, bickle, we do now know the teams that will be playing in the swiss pool, but also, more importantly, the play in stage with all the teams. Teams kind of finalized there. Yep. [00:04:04] Speaker B: So we know every team going to worlds aside from the final two LCK representatives. And with swiss pools, everyone remembers last year that it was all first seeds, pool one, all second seeds, pool two, all third seeds, pool three, and then LPL and LCK four, as well as the two teams from play ins in pool four. However, things have changed this year. Pool one is still all the first seeds, pool two is still all the second seeds. However, with four teams now coming out of play ins, they are all pool four. And that means pool three will be lck three, Lpl three, as well as lck four and LPl four. That means the NA and EU representatives in pool two, fnatic and we'll talk about the NA second seed later, are guaranteed to face an eastern team round one, whereas the teams that are the first seeds are guaranteed to dodge an eastern team. [00:05:04] Speaker A: That is very interesting. Play in seams being pool four means that hopefully if everything goes according to plan, we'll have teams like, you know, LCS's third seed, Lec's third seed and such make it into there. But yeah, that is going to be tough opponents for that round one of Swiss. But also, like I had said, play ins. We do have congratulations to pain gaming from CB Lowell, who are making it. We'll cover as we get into the lcs finals weekend. Third seed from lcs that has now been finalized, it will be in play in. So we now know everyone going there. But there's also one other team. Hanwha life esports and the LCK have now locked their spot. [00:05:42] Speaker D: Yep. [00:05:42] Speaker B: So just an LCK update for everyone. Earlier this week, we did have the finals weekend for the LCK. We knew that Gen G had already qualified. They were sitting as the final boss in the finals of the LCK. Hanwha life versus t one decided who would face them and also who would qualify for themselves. Worlds. As seen here, Hanwha life beats t one, qualifies themselves for the finals and locks themselves into worlds. And that's where things get fun. Because another year, another golden road hits the ground. [00:06:19] Speaker A: Yup. [00:06:20] Speaker B: Han. Will life defeat Gen G in an absolutely phenomenal finals, putting an end to the hopes of another golden road? And honestly, that may be the last time we really see something like that. As with the introduction of three splits worldwide and three international events, a golden road gets even harder. [00:06:40] Speaker A: It is crazy to think that we never saw one, but also, I mean, it would be crazy to accomplish it. It was still hard, but the fact it's getting harder means it's even more unlikely. And if it happens, at some point, people are going to go crazy. [00:06:57] Speaker B: The finals of gen g versus hanwha life was really fun. As people joked. It was gen g black versus gen g orange, with hanwha life having doran, peanut and delight all representatives from gen G last year. But in the end, Zekka finally expands his trophy case to have more than just a world's title win. Viper gets his first lck title. Peanut gets his 7th lck title on his fifth different team. He now has. This is a really stupid fact that just makes me sad about how diluted lec titles have begun. Peanut now has as many titles as yike does. [00:07:38] Speaker A: That is. [00:07:38] Speaker D: I see nothing wrong with this. [00:07:40] Speaker A: Hilarious. That is actually just hilarious. [00:07:45] Speaker B: Disappoint. [00:07:46] Speaker A: Well, congratulations, peanut. Uh, that's fantastic stuff. [00:07:51] Speaker D: Uh, one thing about peanut with his five different teams, that is actually a international record. No other person has won on five, has won a regional title on five different teams. [00:08:02] Speaker A: Who's close? [00:08:03] Speaker D: Do we. [00:08:03] Speaker A: Do we have that information? [00:08:04] Speaker D: Five CB Lowell people. [00:08:07] Speaker A: Oh, wow. [00:08:08] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:08:08] Speaker A: You know what, that does kind of makes sense. [00:08:10] Speaker D: I guess I might have it up, actually. I do. So we got BrtT, audi, Yeti, robo, Khan, biopanther and Babep or Babeep. [00:08:20] Speaker A: Babip. Yeah. [00:08:22] Speaker B: Two o'shock. [00:08:22] Speaker A: Babb was from Os, right? Yeah. But Khan. It wasn't Khan. Lck. [00:08:26] Speaker B: Khan was LCK slash LPL. [00:08:29] Speaker A: Okay, cool. So I guess there's one from a major region, but, yeah, everything else from the minor regions. Interesting to see. Yeah, it's very impressive. It's hard to do and hard to win LCK title to begin with, but I let alone five different orgs, that is one for the record books there. So LCK will keep everybody updated going into next week's episode once we have the final teams that have locked in world spots. Yep. [00:08:52] Speaker B: As we mentioned, the world's qualifiers begin in a couple hours of when this is being recorded. So likely when you hear this, you will already know one, if not both, Lck representatives. The three seed is facing off against the four seed, t one versus D kia. The winner of that locks themselves as the three seed for worlds, and then kt versus Ferx play. The winner of that will play the loser of t face off for the final seed at worlds. Of course, three seed versus four seed now doesn't actually mean that much as, no matter what, you will be pool three in worlds. That is interesting and something to note for the pool. Two teams of the Lck and the LPL, which are Gen G and top esports, is you are guaranteed top esports will face an LCk team round one. Gen G will face an LPL team, round one, because there is no inter regional battle in round one. [00:09:57] Speaker A: Hmm. Wow, that's. That's a lot of changes from last year. Then. [00:10:01] Speaker B: Poor LNg and poor Gen. I mean, poor lng, poor Weibo. One of them is going to draw Gen g round one. [00:10:11] Speaker A: Well, hey, I mean, they're not infallible. We've seen that. So we'll see what happens going forward. With all of the worlds implications and seedings. I can't wait to see one of my favorite parts of worlds. I know we don't have the groups anymore, and I think groups made it more exciting at this point, but that first draw, like the draw show after play ins, when you get to see everyone matching up and who's going up against whom, but still a fun time to keep our eyes on, and we'll have more worlds episodes going forward. Final thought on worlds and such, Leo. [00:10:45] Speaker D: I cannot wait for Greg Adler, LCs referee, head of compops in North America, I believe, to rig it for the west once again. My good man. [00:10:58] Speaker A: Was he the one that did it last year? [00:11:00] Speaker D: Yeah, he did. I think he did the round one, like, after plans, I think, if I remember correctly, and I made a tour rigging it, and he asked me to take it down just in case I was like, yeah, sure, bud. [00:11:14] Speaker A: Amazing. All right, well, that is the update for worlds. Now it's Academy worlds time, as we do have the Americas challengers international tournament coming up this weekend. This is something I've talked about a few times in the pod, but if you're unaware of what it is, basically, NACL, our challengers league, has two teams that finished the best in the regular season. Whoever made it to NACLA finals gets to go to Brazil and face off against the LLA and CB Lowell, top two teams from their respective regions. LLA has a northern and southern kind of split, so they have the top team from each of those going to represent LLA. Tier two, but CB Lowell having two teams as well. So it's gonna be fun. We've kind of joked about academy worlds for years now as a region and now it's actually happening. So I will be casting the first day on Saturday if you want to check it out. Let's see here. I actually have the screen up in front of me, so let's just see when the time is. I should probably know this. Yeah, 01:00 p.m. pT. There we go. That's when we have it scheduled to start. So yeah, come check it out. If you want to watch some league of legends this weekend and also watch me cast some League of Legends, there won't be a lot else going on because the LCK qualifiers will be wrapped up early Saturday morning for those of us here in the States. So also roster news, actually decent amount already is expected. As you know, a lot of teams are knocked out. Anybody not going to worlds is already having conversations, but maybe more than we expected. Up first, the big roster news coming out. Jojo. Apparently this. I believe this was a dom video that leaked. I haven't watched it yet so I don't know exactly what his source was or like how confident he was, but wouldn't surprise me if it is true. Jojo being dropped from c nine already and apparently due to work ethic being kind of the reason given. Again, I haven't watched a video. Has anybody here watched it yet? Pickle, Leo, either of you seen it yet? [00:13:16] Speaker B: Yep, I watched it. And the big thing is not just being dropped, it's being dropped with cause aka not just. Okay, we're buying out your contract. It's we are terminating your contract and moving on from there. The reason given is, as you mentioned, worth ethic. I think they said he was late to team related activities such as scrims, teams meetings, plannings. I think it was over 30 times at least from what I remembering off the top of my head, I can't. [00:13:45] Speaker D: Remember the 43, I believe. [00:13:46] Speaker B: Yep, that sounds right. Yep. And there's a lot of debate going around in regards to it. [00:13:53] Speaker A: I've seen a lot of takes, but I have my own. I'm happy to share, but if anybody else wants to share theirs as well. Is anybody feeling confident enough or do you want me to go first? Leo, you got a finger up so you can go for it. [00:14:06] Speaker D: Yes, sir. I'm just. I don't really have a take about this and I want to keep mildly out of it because I am a contractor for understand good old lcs, but I'm just glad newer fans can experience what us older fans experience with chaos. God bless. Kick 2013. Kick 2024 welcome back, chaos. [00:14:27] Speaker A: I missed that time period, so I actually don't know what you're talking about, but I have seen the memes and I'm sure that they are very funny for those that understand, but for those of us who don't, Leo would like to. Right? Maybe a little more context. [00:14:39] Speaker D: In 2013, Chaox was on TSM and he got benched for similar work ethic reasons. And wild turtle was subbed in for the LCS. And wild turtle got the infamous pentakill on Caitlyn, I believe, which kind of solidified wild turtle spot in the LCS. And Chaox was hardly heard from again in tier one. [00:15:08] Speaker B: Wow. [00:15:09] Speaker A: I did not know that. But that's cool. I mean, I know obviously the wild turtle story of subbing in and getting the pentacle, but I didn't realize who he had replaced and what the context was behind it. Cool. Now I can laugh at the jokes more appropriately because before I was just like ha ha, this seems funny. Now I'm like haha. I know it's funny. Cool. Well, here's my take on the situation. I think that I have heard rumors and I've heard stuff behind the scenes that Jojo has not had a lot of motivation this year in particular, and that it has been declining. And I think that it is no surprise that this is the report coming out. The surprise that I have is that the was willing or I guess. Okay, let me ask you a big because I haven't watched it. Is this scene nine making a statement or is this Dom saying that he has heard this rumored behind the scenes? [00:16:04] Speaker B: This is a leak coming from Dom. Nothing has been officially put out by either the organization or the players yet. [00:16:12] Speaker A: So if it was an official statement from the, that's what would surprise me. Cause it's very rare that we see those types of things. But also I think that to an extent, even if c nine did do it, I would not care. I know that's not the popular take. I've heard a lot of people saying like, oh, protect player reputations. It's gonna be harder for Jojo to get a new now if it's true and he didn't show up and he wasn't actually putting in the effort. Like I yes, protecting players is good. It's important. But players showing up and giving their best is also important. And yeah, you can have bad splits, but if it's true, then it's true. So I know that might not be the most popular take and you're absolutely free to disagree with me and let me know, but that's, that's kind of where I am on it, but it's not even an official statement from the team anyway. So harkers out to Jojo. Hopefully he is able to find a spot. But I mean, based on that interview that he had towards the end of the split, Leo, I'm sure you heard it a lot because in LCS finals it was being referenced multiple times or at least the weekend before finals in C nine's last series that Jojo joking about retiring if they didn't win. Who knows, maybe he's not butthurt and is not even going to be looking for a team if c nine do drop him. [00:17:29] Speaker D: But it's pretty crazy if he's not on a team in 2025. Like if he actually goes on his word and retires. Massive respect, but that'd be a huge loss for the region in my opinion. [00:17:45] Speaker A: I think it's crazier if he's not on a team and he wanted to be. I think the only way he's not on a team is if he chooses to not be on a team. If Jojo wants to play, somebody's going to pick him up. It's just a question of how much will he be able to get paid based on now this reputation that could follow him from c nine. [00:18:04] Speaker D: Yeah, because he's still top three mid easily, even with supposedly work ethic issues. [00:18:10] Speaker A: Yeah, he's just got so much talent, you can't really deny that. But also, another rumor coming around around the LCS is that Immortals and NRG will be the two teams departing the league. Because we have eight teams currently, it's going to go down to six with an LLA team and then an NACL team that gets promoted up at some point, maybe year one. It's that way. Otherwise at least there will be like a kind of relegation spot reserved for whatever tier two is going forward. And it's looking like, yeah, the team's gone are immortals and energy, according to Travis Gafford. Now, he was very vague in his video. I did watch that one as to what his source is, but he's just saying he's hearing reports, talk about this. But I do want to clarify something. Reports might say immortals and energy are leaving, but that does not confirm that the other six teams they're staying. I think that there is still the potential that teams, like hundred thieves who have been long rumored to kind of be on the way out. Theoretically they still could leave. It's just that riot's going to have six partner teams. It does not mean that they have to be orgs that currently exist in the LCS as the brands that they are. So I saw people celebrating, specifically 100 thieves, fans celebrating. I really hope it's true. I would love for 100 thieves to stay. I like the brand, but I'm holding breath on if they're actually going to be sticking around. But bickle, what are your thoughts on this? Immortal is an energy. Immortal is kind of a no brainer. A lot of people have been praying that energy. Some people might be surprised by. I know we've talked about it on the pod, would not be as surprised. But I want to hear your thoughts. [00:19:45] Speaker B: I mean, I think out of all eight teams that are there, these are the two that make the most sense. You saw dig trying to invest a little more this past split, getting a lot of veterans to try and make a presence. You saw 100 thieves just now make worlds. Shopify has already put out a statement saying, hey, we just bought a spot, we're going to be sticking around. And cloud nine, team liquid and cloud nine have all, cloud nine, Flyquest and Team liquid have always been the three kind of big investors that have been sticking around. And that leaves immortals who have for a very long time been doing little to none, and NRG who just kind of got the spot by accident and are now just cashing out. Kangas, you called this like months ago, so Bravo. [00:20:29] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. Well, so again, for me, the writing on the wall was the fact that it's a free buyout for energy. Like, they didn't. This was a zero cash purchase of the CLG spot. They were just gifted the spot in operations for like a percentage of their company stake, which I don't know the exact number, but I pretty much guarantee you it's going to be less, worth less than what they're going to get paid by riot to just leave. So I think it makes financial sense for energy to dip out. And also, I know some people might be like, disappointed. I know Travis in his video was talking about how it's kind of like sad to see them go because they were getting fans. I think the fans are the fans of that roster and what they were able to do at worlds and once they fired 90% of the coaching staff and then had this performance this year and full expectation, would they be kind of swapping up the roster anyway? Why do all that headache for a brand that was all about the CLG, you know, roster anyway, that in my opinion, that's what their brand was. We won with this roster that a lot of people liked as the underdogs and then did well at Worlds. But then that's kind of it. They didn't, they honestly didn't have much of a brand outside of that for my eyes. So, yeah, there we go. That's another rumor going around. Let us know in the discard what you think about the orgs leaving Mazelle. I actually haven't gotten your thoughts on this one yet. So what are your thoughts on immortals and energy potentially being the teams to head out? [00:21:57] Speaker C: I mean, I think, like you were saying, I don't think I have any additional information. I think it's just the writing's been on the walls and I think NRG about to hit that devious lick dog, you know what I mean? [00:22:11] Speaker A: I actually don't. [00:22:13] Speaker C: About to get away with all the money. [00:22:15] Speaker A: Oh, okay. There we go. Yes. Yes. [00:22:18] Speaker D: Again. [00:22:18] Speaker A: I mean, props to them. They and I don't hold anything against energy or energy, leadership, ownership, anything like that. I know that there are CLG fans, Duffy, that are very salty about it. Understandable. Yeah. Everyone wish Duffy a happy birthday. He's had a lot of birthdays these past couple of months. [00:22:35] Speaker C: He's really old now. [00:22:36] Speaker A: He's really old. That's what happens when you retire from a podcast. You actually get older, funnily enough, when you have less work on your plate. But I think that energy, they had a business opportunity, they took it and now they have another business opportunity and they're going to take that. And I don't hold it against anyone making those decisions. But it is going to be disappointing to see again less jobs, less opportunities. There will be people looking for work as always, when these types of things happen. So heart goes out to them. More rumors going around. This is hopefully a positive sign that Thinkcard already posted well before any rumors are going around that hes been looking for 2025 coaching roles. Great to see that hes going to be getting ahead of this. If any teams are planning on leaving the lcs. This was my hope and my prayer. Let your staff know early so that they can start taking the steps now to find employment for next year. If they want to stick around in the league of Legends esports ecosystem, do not be the assholes like Golden Guardians were that literally lied to their employees. Golden Guardians. Ryan Lau, the general manager, was told to his face, yeah, we're second round. And then like a week later that the news dropped. Golden Guardians were out and he was like, okay, well, now I'm out of the job. Now everybody's out of the job. After I just told all of them, I met with leadership and that we all still had jobs. That situation is messed up. Don't do that to your employees. If you're heading out, let people know so that way they can find a gainful employment elsewhere. There we go. Um, I guess one other thing. I just see lec roster change. Rumors thrown in there, bickle, I think that you just added that one. So walk me through what's going on in the LEC. [00:24:13] Speaker B: Yep, so as we are heading the end of the year, we're going to see our classic I'm still contracted with X team but have been given permission to look around, aka we are likely parting ways next year. We have confirmations from both Ziru of team Heretics as well as photon of team vitality that they've both been given permission to shop around, look to see what's out there. And we did have rumors come out a as to a potential replacement for photon for vitality. And also in regards to team heretics, that four fifths of that roster may be heading out with wonder, Janko, Zwe Ru and Trimby, aka they're just keeping flacking possibly. [00:24:53] Speaker A: Okay, that would be a big roster shake up, but it is the time to do it. You got a couple months of repair, so we'll keep our eyes and ears on the LEC roster changes as well, but that will do it for global riot news for this last week. As always, we want to hear your thoughts on it, so come hop into the community discord. You can find the link in the description wherever you are listening to the podcast to let us know your thoughts on things going around and let us know if we missed anything as well, especially from minor regions. We oftentimes aren't able to catch every bit of news that goes out, so if there's anything else going around, we'd love to hear it. Speaking of, thank you to everybody that supports us already, whether through the patreon or through the merch store, league dash rundown, dash shop dot fourthwall.com if you want to check that out. There should be a link to that one as well. Leo, I don't know if you've seen this yet. First off, do you have our doc open? I'm going to out you right now live on the podcast. Do you have the document up? [00:25:45] Speaker D: I only just opened it like a minute ago when you mentioned adding something. I was like wait, there's a document? There's a rundown for this? [00:25:52] Speaker A: Well, that's on me. I say I'm calling you out, but that's on me for not reminding the guests that we do have a document that we look at. I want you to click on that link for the merch store. I promise you it's not malware, but take a look at it, and then by the time we're ready to hop into lcs stuff, I want you to give your thoughts. Maybe at the end of the pod, actually, we'll save a little spot for that at the end of the pod for you to plug your favorite piece of merch that you can find on the website. But there we go. Thank you. Everybody who does support it does go towards our audio editor, as well as some fun stuff that we have planned for this off season. After worlds, of course, because we do have worlds immediately on the horizon. I see Leo laughing right now. I assume he found something. [00:26:33] Speaker D: I found my favorite easily. Yes. [00:26:36] Speaker A: Okay. All right. Well, we'll tease that for now, but save it for later because it's time to talk about LCS finals weekend. Everybody here in Los Angeles for two splits in a row in what could be not confirmed, but could be the last ever LCS finals. We don't know what next year is going to be called. We still don't know exactly what it's going to look like. But if it's not called LCS, then this would have been the last one. And what a way for it to end. It started off on Friday with a best of five series between FlyQuest 100 thieves. So let's start on Friday. Mazelle, you were there live for the whole thing, right? [00:27:14] Speaker C: Not on Friday. On Saturday. [00:27:16] Speaker A: Not on Friday. You were there on Saturday. Okay, well, Leo, you must have been there live on Friday, surely as the stats guy. [00:27:23] Speaker D: No, of course not. I'm a full remote worker. It's great. [00:27:26] Speaker A: Damn it. Okay, well, I thought we were going to have an on site correspondent here, but either way, let's talk about the series, because all of us had Flyquest taking the series. Myself and Mizelle had a three two. Bickel at a 30. Bickel, let's actually have you started then, because you're the big brain that actually predicted it and how it was going to turn out. So talk to me about Friday's series. [00:27:46] Speaker B: As exciting as it was to see 100 thieves beat up, cloud nine come in with all this momentum, the underdog stories alive and well, can they keep this going? Absolutely not. Cloud nine and Flyquest, not cloud nine. Team Liquid and FlyQuest, in both their series against 100 thieves showed that they're just kind of that step above. And Sniper had a rough time. Bwipo was as wide as we've seen in a very long time. He dumpstered him, especially come game two and game three. The rumble and the Olaf picks just ran over Sniper. Just well played by FlyQuest all around. Everybody had solid moments. Everybody looked, well, like there's nothing big to shout out. Hundred thieves tried when all was on the line in game three to pull out a really cheeky comp. The Zack Yasuo jungle mid, the Kalista senna bot duo. But it just wasn't enough to deal with things Olaf's, well, BWIP on the Olaf inspired once again on that Ivern, was just domination. [00:29:07] Speaker A: I'm looking back. Okay, so week five is when we saw them play each other in the regular season, and 100 thieves did win a game. So I was checking to see if 100 thieves had any chance at FlyQuest all summer, but that does put them at five one in favor of FlyQuest Quest in this matchup for summer split. Yeah, I mean, we even saw in Sniper's interview at the very end, they did a loser interview. He was like, well, that was embarrassing, not having the best show. And, Leo, any stats that you can tell us from this series in particular, anything that, like, jumps off the pages or that you think is kind of fun to highlight? [00:29:39] Speaker D: Well, he certainly wasn't kidding when he said it was an embarrassment. Series long. He had a 0.9 KDA. [00:29:46] Speaker B: Yikes. [00:29:47] Speaker D: He did not have a good. He did not have a good series. But I think. I think. I think from my expectations going in, I think hundred thieves actually put up more of a fight than I thought. I think. I thought they could have taken a game. I thought it could have been a three one, but I was thinking it was 30. And I think in game two and game three, I was kind of a bit impressed with some of the angles they were finding to try to get themselves back in the game. But Wipa was just too wide, man. He was just way too wide. He was his father, for sure. [00:30:22] Speaker A: And I think it's good to see Bwipo do that consistently against the less experienced top lanterns. The thing about Bwipo is that we had seen him struggle against some of the more experienced ones and sometimes just throw away leads for the team because he was getting a little greedy with his plays, thinking he's the main character. But as excited as we are for sniper, he's just so much less experienced, has been in so many fewer metas, and had way fewer matchup experiences than Bwipo has. Especially when you factor in, you know, what do I need to do to translate what happened in Lane into the mid and late game? And that's, you know, I think that experience definitely showed in this series. But what do we think this means? Because we're going to keep talking about Flyquest going into the next series, obviously, but for 100 thieves, because this is confirming that they will be the team in play ins at World, what do we think this means for the implications of that? [00:31:12] Speaker B: I honestly think this is the best thing that could have happened to them, not getting demolished by Flyquest, but losing this series, because if they win this, they face Team liquid in the finals. I highly doubt they win that. And that means they end up as the second seed, having to play either the LCK or the LPL third or fourth seed in round one versus here. They get the chance to warm themselves up internationally, go into some play ins matches. They go up against Rainbow seven in round one. It's a good way to kind of build themselves up with more international experience, which I think this team really needs before they get to the main stage. [00:31:50] Speaker A: You know what? That's a good point, actually. I do like that we've seen play ins kind of be a. What's the Dragon Ball thing? Time Chamberlain. [00:32:02] Speaker B: Hyperbolic time chamber. [00:32:04] Speaker A: There we go. Hyperbolic time chamber. What do you think, Mazelle? Is this the hyperbolic time chamber? Is that gonna be play ins for 100 thieves here? [00:32:09] Speaker C: I mean, I think we've seen a track record, especially this split, particularly across all regions, that more games equals more success. And we've had a hell of a ton of lower bracket runs across every major region. So I think as many games as you can get, it's gonna be good and especially. [00:32:28] Speaker A: I agree. Liam. [00:32:29] Speaker D: Yes. Speaking of the lower bracket run, we looked into the stat for the finals. I'm not sure if we ever mentioned it on air, but since we introduced double elimination, the winners bracket winner, like Team Liquid, would be that team for the split. They've only won this split four times out of, I think it's eleven now since we introduced double elimination, and the other two are three and three, so it'd be out of my bad. But it's. It's. I love double elimination and just goes to show how worth it it is, because each, each seed, as it were, for the losers bracket finals and whatever, they have, like, an equal chance of winning, if you look at the history and I love it so much. Like, anything can happen. [00:33:17] Speaker A: I'm happy you bring that up because it's basically the same thing that happened in spring. Spring where? Spring, it was flyquest winning through upper bracket finals. Get upset kind of by Team Liquid who had to run the full lower bracket gauntlet. Same thing this year, but swap the teams. Team liquid through the upper bracket, fly quest through the lower bracket, and the. [00:33:34] Speaker D: Finals were literally flipped. Like it was this. So this, it was Fly tl fly fly. Last split. It was tl fly tltl, which is crazy, man. I love this region this year, man. It's so, it's so entertaining. The teal fly rivalry just coming up throughout this whole year. It's like makes the future so much more exciting. We haven't had a proper rivalry like this in a while. [00:34:00] Speaker A: I don't think I'm happy you bring that up because exactly that. It's been a long time since we've had anything even close to like CLG, Team liquid or, sorry, CLG TSM. I think the closest maybe would have been like Team liquid. C nine was kind of the thing that took over in the more recent years of, okay, those are the two that are going to be fighting for spots. But even that had like hundred thieves take a finals. Eg took a finals in a championship at points there. So it wasn't like domination from any orgs or like consistently fighting each other for a finals. Like TSM, CLG dead. Like fnatic g two have done things like that. [00:34:37] Speaker D: Yeah. And like if you look at the whole year for tl versus fly, it's tl twelve, fly eleven. Like it's, it's so even throughout the whole year and it's just makes. I love, it's like, oh, it's so nice. So nice. [00:34:53] Speaker A: And spring was double double round robin best of ones. Then summer single round robin best of threes. So the fact that they've played each other that many times this year shows how many times they matched up in like the playoff brackets as well. [00:35:07] Speaker D: Yeah. It's the first time in our double elimination history in the LCS that two teams have faced off four times in playoffs over the whole year. There's been a couple three times, but first time ever, four time. [00:35:22] Speaker A: Well, we've teased already. I mean, we basically just said it. Flyquest in the finals against team Liquid did take it because of course that is the opposite to springs story. But how did they get there? Because we all on the cast for predictions, I said three, two, TL Bickel Mazzell said three one TL. But it was Flyquest with the three one victory. And gentlemen, we get to talk about it finally the way the series ends. But first, let's talk about how the series begins. Mizel, you were there live for this one, so kick it off. First off, what was the energy like? I want to hear, because I didn't get to experience this finals live. Was the YouTube arena cool? [00:35:59] Speaker C: YouTube arena was awesome. I was casting Mundo dodgeball at cloud nine, so I wasn't able to walk around ahead of time. But there was a ton of people. It was awesome. The actual inside of the studio or, like, the YouTube theater was really, really cool. The seats were super comfy. It was super nice and cold. There was a ton of people that showed out. At first I thought, I was worried that wasn't going to fill out. But then as the game started, everybody finally got in their seats. But it was good energy. It felt. Reminisced me a little bit of Houston way back when. Nice, obviously without the big moment, but yeah, it was really nice. I really liked the YouTube theater. I think it was a perfect venue for what we. [00:36:40] Speaker A: Cool. All right, well, then, now talk about game one of the series, and then just kind of like, we can all hop in and talk about the series because the game four is the one that is on everybody's minds. But I want to start off at least by giving credit to what happens throughout. [00:36:55] Speaker C: Yeah, I mean, game one started off really interestingly. I feel like it set the tone for a very weird start to the series. I feel like, in a way, like the crowd also, just as a little side note, hadn't, like, necessarily super woken up yet going through it, I think we had a lot of people still wanting to sit down, but it felt like a very good tone setter for the series. [00:37:24] Speaker A: Okay, well, throughout the series, did the energy increase at least because. Yeah, by the time we got to the end, I could hear it from my phone how crazy people were going to. [00:37:34] Speaker C: Oh, absolutely, absolutely. I mean, game, like, as soon as game two was over, I mean, I felt like that's when we started feeling a lot of the energy or as soon as game two was going around. But I guess going back to that game number one, the opener, I felt like it. The reason why I say it was a trend setter for the series itself is because I feel like you saw a lapse in a couple of the core positions for, for TL that maybe was indicative of what we were going to get for the rest of the series, like, especially empty and core Jjdemen having a really rough start to the series itself. It was really nice to see them pull it back around. But I think when you have such a stable comp, like they did with the kind of the Corki Ezreal back line and a very strong front line with the Rakan Maokai Cassante, I feel like you need to be a lot more stable. [00:38:20] Speaker A: And they just weren't chaotic comps they were playing against as well. [00:38:26] Speaker C: Yeah, I mean, you're kind of against the lilia yone from inspired and quad, I think unsung hero in that one. I guess maybe not unsung inspired to get the MVP, but Masu with the ash on the arrows was actually so massive. [00:38:42] Speaker A: His arrows have been so good. All split pickle. [00:38:45] Speaker B: Yeah. And you mentioned inspired. That's kind of the through line throughout a lot of this series is throughout a lot of playoffs. We've been seeing him transition. Like, okay, we're on a lot of ganking junglers, a lot of supportive junglers. We've seen the Ivern, we've seen the amumu, the Jarvan, those gank setups for his mid laner, for his top laner, for his ad carry games one through three, we see him transition back to Mister Folklear, Mister Cary Jungler. We get the Lilia, we get the brand and the loss, and we get the Zyra. And he shows what he can do with the farm, what he can do with the damage. And that felt like on the day, the biggest gap across the map was inspired versus umpty inspired. Felt like he was the biggest influence for Flyquest. [00:39:35] Speaker A: Umti has historically, this split been the kind of playmaker that has been playing the engage junglers as opposed to the full farm AP junglers. And we saw that in the first couple games. I mean, he plays the maokay, he plays the Sejuani. But interesting to see that impact, you know, just one MVP and is kind of stepping up, trying to play more of a carry role. He does get two Cassandra games with a Jax game and another gangplay that he pulls out. This is what only the second gangplank that he's had all year. Both was in like two weeks, and it didn't look great. [00:40:08] Speaker C: I mean, he's just trying to find something that works, I think a little note as well. I know I'm going back to game number one, but I literally was watching this and I saw the composition. I mean, if you're watching the game number one, like you all game, you're like, okay, why did Wipo pick Olaf? What. What is going on? Like, it didn't look good for a little while for. For flight west. And then there's the one fight where literally he just pops Ragnarok and walks at apa and yon. And I know we give a lot of praise to inspired, but I think Wipo was able to squeeze water out of stone, as he would put at the beginning of the weekend because I feel like he had such a stable performance against somebody who could have such a big impact. Obviously, the. The impact of Jaxe, uh, game number two, very difficult to deal with. But overall, like, from that moment in game number one, it felt like he was in a very confident position. I think this was super important for FlyQuest. [00:41:05] Speaker B: I think Wippo is a very interesting storyline, not just this series, but honestly, this entire year. First you talk about pulling water from Stone. Just look at game number three, how that starts him burning tp level one to get up to top wave, to instantly get solo killed on the Renekton versus gangplank should put him so far behind and out of that game. But then as the game goes on, he somehow gets a gold lead in lane and makes such good use of the Renekton as is. But over the entire year, we've talked about how the main character of the lcs of this story has been apa. I think you can argue it's been on a pseudo redemption arc over this time. When he first came to NA and joined that team, Liquid super team, it was supposed to be, this is a massive team that's going to do so well. It collapses, doesn't even make it to worlds going into the next couple times or next year or so. He doesn't end up on a team, he doesn't do anything. He ends up joining more of a coaching role and this fly quest years, his chance to come back spring split. He comes in all cocky with inspired, saying we're the best, we're going to do great, comes in as the favorites heading into finals, gets upset, goes into MSI, doesn't even make it out of plans. And that gives him the opportunity to kind of put on this self reflection of, wait a second, the last time I won a title, I wasn't even the main part of it going back to Fnatic in 2018, and he's been hungry for that ever since. He talks about it in his interviews coming into summer of how he's been dealing with anxiety and coming over a lot of mental issues to overcome these issues. He talked about the strength and support he's gotten from a lot of teammates and family members and his girlfriend of what support is meant for it. And he's gone from this player who only five reals counterpicks these odd, wacky picks like we've seen with the volibear five reals that never works out to somebody who repeatedly in playoffs. B one Renekton. B one Renekton R1. Renekton R1 just picks it all the time when it's available to be the role player for the team and fill the space. And finally has the opportunity in the grand finals to not only pick the Renekton, but in game four, game one, pull out these oddball picks and make an impact. In fact, game four in particular, a big turning point is when he picks the main character, Apa with this garen, and is able to turn around and finally wrap up the season getting his first ever LCS trophy. [00:44:01] Speaker A: Eloquently put. I think that's a cool thought because we do talk about Apa a lot, but Leo, I want to hear your thoughts. [00:44:08] Speaker D: Yeah, I'm glad you mentioned all of his Renekton picks because we found a very little stat. He's now, I believe, tied second for picking the same champion in a post season. He picked Renekton eleven times, and that's only second to Doublelift, who I believe picked Ash twelve times, if I'm remembering correctly. But, like, he really found his home on that Renekton. I do want to say though, like, he passed the eye test, the series for sure, but if you look at his stats, it's actually kind of like, like mediocre. So I'm actually wondering how he feels about his performance because I think he said he won in his own bupa way, as per usual. So I'm not sure if he really accomplished his goal of, like, being the reason he the team wins. Like, for example, like, he had 17 total deaths this series for a KDA of 1.8. I want. I want all three of you to guess how many of those were ISO deaths. So no one around, no team member around him. How many of his 17 deaths were ISO deaths? [00:45:16] Speaker A: I'm gonna go seven. [00:45:20] Speaker D: Okay. [00:45:21] Speaker A: Okay. Pickle, what do you think? I think missile, if you have any, can just blurt it out. I'm on six. [00:45:30] Speaker D: It was eleven one. He had eleven ISO deaths. I got absolutely insane to. And like, in game two, even he was down 1500 gold at 14. So, like, I don't. I wasn't too impressed by, like, I think within the context of going up against impact, I think he did pretty alright. But I'm not like, very impressed of him after this series. I mean, he did what he really needed to do, honestly. And I. [00:46:04] Speaker A: Which is win. [00:46:05] Speaker D: Yeah, exactly. Yeah. I mean, you can't. Results based analysis, baby. Doesn't matter. [00:46:09] Speaker A: Exactly. [00:46:10] Speaker C: That's what we love here, baby. Let's go. [00:46:13] Speaker A: But he did play the Bwipo champs. So like, olaf Urgot, Renekton, which has now become the Wipo champ. But then Garen as well, like, he was pulling out still these kind of counter picks, these things that he was trying to use to throw a wrench in the traditional draft plan that team Liquid would have. And it was enough at the end of the day to grab it because in that final game, gets the flank on Apa. They're in such a dominant position. They're pushing into the base. They've taken in hips. They've taken down all the Nexus towers. They go for the fight. No, Eap is getting the resets. The Tristana's popping off. They're teleporting in. They caught them in the mid lane. Everyone's dead. They're setting up a baron. We got to fight them again. We're dead at baron. Oh, no. A five for zero ace. Team Liquid are pushing us to game five. Camera on the Nexus push. Clearly tl got there. This busio spawns, buys like five extra seconds. And what happens in team liquids base Leo? [00:47:11] Speaker D: Oh, it's a disaster. The minions end the game. Team Liquid loses to a double super minion bot wave. And it is. Oh, man, it was so depressing because I wanted those five games. Like, we've had five game bangers all year from Teal fly, and we're about to get another one. And nobody backs. No one respects the minions. [00:47:34] Speaker A: Nope. [00:47:35] Speaker D: Oh, man. I got. I was. I literally had my hands in the air when that happened for like a good minute. Like, are you kidding me? This is how the LCS year ends with no one respecting the minion wave. And it was like, it was a game of inches too, because, like, that bought in him. If it respawned even 1 second earlier, more. More minions would have got pulled off that bot wave because one Caster Minion got pulled off. And I think if even one more Caster minion gets pulled off the. I think TL wins. But, like, there's. There's so many what ifs in that endgame scenario. I think. I personally think Team Liquid were right to do what they did. If Busio did not pull that minion wave and ult it to stun it for an extra three or 4 seconds of tower protection. That's TL's game easily. Busio, mvp of that series just for that alone. [00:48:31] Speaker A: Nickel, I want to hear your thoughts. [00:48:33] Speaker B: Yeah, it's absolutely crazy how it all ends up. Everything just barely coming together to get that final super minion win for FlyQuest. Team Liquid even pings out the wave before they start pushing mid. If you listen to voice columns, because LCS has put out a little highlight video of everyone's reaction to the end of the game. They include voice comms from Flyquest and from Team Liquid. Apa even asks if somebody should respond to bot wave, gets told no. They all five push mid in the end. That's what costs them. [00:49:10] Speaker A: Yeah, a lot of very close moments at the very end there because it was tl that they almost just lost anyway in their base. If Apa didn't pull out that final fight, him and Jan just kind of like going Super Saiyan together to clutch it out. They wouldn't have even gotten into a position to push for that game five. But you could tell that team Liquid was in shock. They were in almost, like, disbelief at the end because they, like, by the time Flyquest get up and walk over to shake their hands, you can. They're still emotionally reacting to, like, what just happened, Apa yan, like, they are all distraught. Like, oh, like, come on. Like, they were all so clearly ready for that game five push and to have just yanked from under them. And Mazelle, I gotta go back to you. Cause you were there live. What was the reaction, like from the crowd? What was your reaction, like, seeing that happen live? [00:50:00] Speaker C: Not gonna lie, I was not there for the last game, but it was still amazing. [00:50:04] Speaker D: Oh, no, dude, why? Why weren't you there? [00:50:08] Speaker C: Because I, first of all, had twisted my back two days before that, and I was in a lot of pain, and I had been working the c nine thing, but also we had our NACL finals the next day, and so I had to go home so I could prep for it. But I listened to it, and it was absolutely incredible. I mean, the reaction from all three of the casters is literally the epitome of what everybody's brains were thinking at that moment. It was so unbelievably perfect. And the fact that that is how the lcs, quote, unquote maybe ends, is unbelievably fitting for lcs as a whole. I think it's beyond hilarious. [00:50:51] Speaker A: It is wild that the, like, you said the potentially last lcs finals ever ended not because a team hit a nexus, but because of winning. [00:51:04] Speaker D: Yeah, I just want to give it, while we're talking about it, I want to give a huge shout out to observers. I think they noticed it first out of anybody, like even the co streamer, streamers. They had that picture and picture up real early. They knew. They knew it was coming. It was actually very. I thought it was very impressive because, yeah, you don't think that's going to happen ever. And then it does, and it's just. [00:51:28] Speaker A: Geez, the full moment, you could really tell. I think even the casters did a good job emotionally reacting to it because we've seen moments like that before that are close. And it's hard to tell right away when that picture, picture comes up if that's going to be enough and if that's going to be the difference maker. But then busio, like we had already said, was the difference maker to actually buy that extra bit of time as Leona just throwing his body out there, saying, look, we lose if I don't stop this wave and just give our supers a little more time. And it's just crazy that that actually was enough. I saw something tweet out, Leo, this might have been even. You tweeted out, what was it like? I'm forgetting exactly what the context was. It was something about, like, the amount of time that the, the supers had to, like, make it there and some kind of, like, breakdown of, you know, if something. Oh, it was, it was the inhibit. It was like the inhibit was 18 seconds away from respawning or something. [00:52:21] Speaker D: 2 seconds. The mid inhib was away. And if it did respond, then the nexus was immune and. [00:52:29] Speaker A: Yeah, because that would have been Aldi and hibs back up. [00:52:30] Speaker D: Yeah. This game was a game of literal seconds. Literal seconds, even. What a game. I mean, that's how you want the finals to be. That's dream finals right there. [00:52:43] Speaker A: For sure would have been better if it was game five, but the fact it's game four was definitely, like, bucking expectations even more because everybody believed we were going to that game of five. [00:52:55] Speaker D: I was stats for Jet to on the analyst desk. Like, we were looking up how many kills TL and fly have gone against each other on the whole year, how many minions have died, damage to champs. And it was, it was crazy. [00:53:11] Speaker A: Yeah. All the things that aren't actually going to be, that will never be because FlyQuest clutched it out, or rather, the minions clutched it out for them. Now this raises a big question. Do fly quest need to change their two little robot mascots that they haven't done anything with since the beginning of summer to a minion? Like, just. Just to the minions? Is that their new mascot now? I want to hear everyone's thoughts. Mazelle. Yes. [00:53:36] Speaker C: No, you know, I feel like we should. We should, you know, embrace the moment and absolutely do that. [00:53:43] Speaker A: I think so, yeah. Leo, you agree? [00:53:47] Speaker D: Absolutely. If they don't put out a cosplay of their mascot in a super minion costume, I'm going to be very disappointed. [00:53:56] Speaker A: Flyquest, let me know. I already sent you a pitch deck to bring me to worlds as your mascot. I'll do that. I'll wear a minion costume for you. Bickle. Likelihood that it happens, though. Just from a business development standpoint. Is that tough with the ip of, like, minions belonging to riot? I don't know. [00:54:12] Speaker B: It ain't looking pretty in terms of all this. [00:54:15] Speaker C: Yikes, bro. [00:54:16] Speaker A: You know, maybe we infringe on even a bigger copyright. Minions, the movie, like the little yellow guys. We'll just do that with Flyquest. [00:54:22] Speaker C: Perfect. [00:54:24] Speaker A: Yeah. Disney. We can have, you know, Flyquest with dreamworks or whatever. [00:54:29] Speaker B: I'm sure that dream scenario here. Well, not dreams here, but most chaotic scenario here is round five of Swiss in worlds, flyquest versus team liquid for a best of three. Winner goes to top eight. Loser goes home. [00:54:46] Speaker D: Oh, that would suck so much, but I kind of want it. [00:54:50] Speaker A: And team Liquid are pushing the base. Minions are coming back, and all five members back because they're all, we're not letting it happen. Yeah, well, that will do it. That's. That was LCS finals, everybody. What could be the last one again? Don't know what next year is going to be called, what exactly it's going to look like, but we know that this year ended with a banger, meaning FlyQuest will be the number one seed from lcs going into worlds and entering into pool one, whereas team Liquid will be entering into pool two as LCS's second seed. Was, of course, like we said, 100 thieves going into play ins as our third seed. Do we think the flyquest, after that performance, are the best team in Na to send to worlds, or do we still like. I'm still the opinion that Team Liquid are going to have a better shot, even though Flyquest won that finals. But it is a bit of a stand on TL's record and does give, I think, a little more hype for Flyquest. But I want to hear everyone's thoughts. Think. [00:55:50] Speaker B: I think Team Liquid is still the best team Na is sending, but I think this benefits both teams going as I think Team Liquid has a better shot against the LPL LCK in round one, whereas Flyquest gets that chance to ramp up a little bit against the play ins team. I think it could look beneficial for both of them. [00:56:11] Speaker A: Okay. [00:56:12] Speaker B: And also, this kills your thought from last week of Na being a one team region. [00:56:17] Speaker A: It really does, like, heavily just slaughters that narrative. Leo, I don't. Yeah, you probably didn't hear, but I was basically saying, if TL wins this, let's have a fun, like conversation. Like, are we a one team region just like EU? Because we, you know, meme Lec all the time, one team region. If Tl just sweeps everything, does that mean that we also are, but clearly not. Thank you, flyquest, for saving that narrative. [00:56:39] Speaker C: Yeah, clearly. Clearly. [00:56:41] Speaker A: Clearly. [00:56:42] Speaker D: Yeah. We will never stoop as low as Eu to be a one team region. [00:56:45] Speaker C: Damn right. [00:56:46] Speaker D: Absolutely. [00:56:47] Speaker A: Our best at the end. They'll always throw at the end just to make it interesting. But you know what? I'm just realizing this now. There is a potential that round one, depending on how lck shapes out, round one for TL at worlds could be a t one rematch that's in the. [00:57:08] Speaker D: Cards, especially with le are now. It's how t one is now. I think teal has a much better shot than they did before. [00:57:19] Speaker C: I just really want r seven versus tl. I know it's like nearly almost impossible. [00:57:24] Speaker D: But apa, every game in my life will be yours. [00:57:30] Speaker C: It would be the most funny matchup I've ever seen in my entire life. [00:57:34] Speaker A: That'd be banger. [00:57:36] Speaker B: As fun as it would be to have tl versus t one, round one. I want that to be saved for a best of three for qualification or elimination. I think that'd be better. And with the fact that there's no rematches this year in Swiss, I'd rather that hold off. [00:57:51] Speaker A: You know what? That's a good point. That's way more hype. [00:57:54] Speaker C: Too much logic. [00:57:55] Speaker A: A promotion slash elimination match. Yeah. What if it is the both? Because if you were like, what, two and two, then it's like either. When you're in, you lose, you're out. That would be hype. Give me that for t one. T o. Although please don't, because we're definitely losing. T one with their bags against the wall. Scary. [00:58:14] Speaker C: I really just need somebody to take out Gen G for all of the LPL. That's all I did. And I don't care who it is I'll sacrifice three of LPL's teams for it. We'll do it. [00:58:28] Speaker B: Just have the juggernaut of t one. [00:58:30] Speaker C: This is going to sound a little pessimistic, but I, like, I. I really need LPL to win the world championship. Like, honestly, if you're a fan of LPL English broadcast, you really, really, really want the LPL to win the world championship. Which sounds like it shouldn't matter, but it really shouldn't. But I'm just saying we really want them to win. [00:58:54] Speaker A: Hey, LPL wins world championship averages 500,000 concurrent viewers next year. That's guaranteed right there. Well, either way, that is how LCL is shaped out. And that means that we have our world seeds in order. So, I mean, a great finals, we don't know if it's the last one. Either way, it's one for the history books right there. And now that we can bring our attention forward to worlds for coming episodes, because that is it for our regional finals for Lec, for LCS, which are the two primary regions that we cover. We'll keep everybody updated on LCK as they are qualifying their final teams going into next week. But that means next week's episode will be our first world's preview episode because world's play ins is kind of right around the corner. It's actually closer than I'm even comfortable just saying right away because I have not pulled it up yet. Big old. Do you happen to have. It's like the 26th or something? 25th, 25th, fifth? Two weeks. 25th is literally two weeks from today when we are recording. So that means that we have time for an LCK LPL preview episode, which will current plan is for that to be next week's episode. And then we will have our classic play ins team episode right before the play ins start on the 25th. So that might be even going out like the day of. Hopefully we can get out the day before. We might have to adjust some of the scheduling for all of our schedules, but thank you for sticking with us, everybody. That's another year of LCS Lec in the books and it's time yet again for worlds. This goes by so fast, guys. I mean, I've been doing this for like five years now, four years now on the pod. And let me tell you, world season is a wild ride. So strap in. It's going to be a good one. But before we close things out for the episode, we do actually have something that we are owed to get the milk I am owed by a man that has joined us today because he said, do you remember even what you said, leo, because you thought it was something different than what we thought it was. But do you want to, do you want to own your prediction that you bet a hot sauce bet on? [01:01:05] Speaker D: So for last split in spring 2024, I bet IMT would be a top four team in LCS. [01:01:12] Speaker A: I bet that they would not that they would go winless in spring split. I think that's what my beta was. [01:01:18] Speaker D: I thought you just said the opposite. [01:01:21] Speaker A: Well, that was my hot take, was that they would go winless and then I took the hot sauce bet against you that they wouldn't be top four and that's all that you had. So I believe I dodged the hot sauce, although I might have lost it again because I made a different bet this summer that I actually totally forgot about until right now on the total cumulative wins of the teams that I had to cover. We're going to have to do that math at some point. [01:01:41] Speaker B: So looking back at it, Kangana, you did not lose a hot sauce bet. You lost a shoei bet. [01:01:48] Speaker A: Yes, and I already did the shoei. [01:01:50] Speaker B: Yes, I did do the shoei already, as did badger. This was another bet later on after Immortals had already gotten some wins that you did with Leo here and ended up on top as immortals did not end up as top four. [01:02:06] Speaker A: Thank you for the reminder right there. But either way, Leo, you do owe us some hot sauce now. I remember I haven't actually gone back and checked the tape. I remember it was a shot, but you have fought tooth and they'll say, no, it was just some hot sauce. So how much are you gonna give us here? I'm not gonna fight you on it. [01:02:23] Speaker D: I never agreed to a shot of this awful hot sauce. I've had this hot sauce three times now, once at lcs a few weeks ago because I lost a similar bet to a LCS producer and he actually did it with me anyway for whatever reason. He's just insane like that. But I never would have done a shot of this. Okay, if I said that, strike me dead, man. [01:02:49] Speaker A: How many Scovilles are we talking here? That's like, I believe, like the rating scale or something. [01:02:54] Speaker D: Yeah, it says it's made with a 6 million Scoville pepper extract and the person who sold me this once, or I talked about it with once, said it was 600k. [01:03:08] Speaker A: So it's so 6,600,000. That's a pretty big difference. But I'm just gonna pull up a quick Google search of like Scoville scale I don't even remember exactly what this is. [01:03:18] Speaker C: I'll just say it's a made up scale. Yeah, yeah, you know, just go with it, you know? [01:03:25] Speaker A: Okay, so if it's 600,000, that puts it around a ghost pepper and a chocolate habanero. So somewhere in that range. But how much, again, how much are you gonna give us is like a spoonful. Is it like a little dab? How are you taking this? [01:03:38] Speaker D: I'll just pour onto a piece of bread and then we'll see how it goes. But first I'm gonna go get milk, and if you want, start recording the discord feed. Oh, but I will be right back with a glass of milk. [01:03:52] Speaker A: And if I do it, my camera's gonna go crazy. I'm just gonna turn my camera off here because as soon as I open obs, it's going to try and capture my camera as well. But that's a good call. Okay, well, while he is doing that, what do we want to talk about, guys? Great talk. [01:04:14] Speaker B: A very good question. [01:04:16] Speaker A: We can talk about how, I don't know if anyone's noticed this. I've talked about a few times. Some of the episode titles had been throwbacks to chapel Rhone songs, song titles. This one is a throwback to a halo level, which was actually what I named the first couple of episodes that I hosted before or after Duffy left. I named them all after halo level references, but nobody noticed that and nobody brought it up. So now I can out that. And remember, last one out has been exposed. [01:04:50] Speaker C: Congratulations. [01:04:51] Speaker A: Yeah. Great episode or great level kind of episodes? Are they episodes? Would you say a level in a game is an episode? [01:05:00] Speaker C: No. [01:05:01] Speaker A: Okay. I think there's an argument for it. All right, I'm moving over discord. I'm getting everything set up on obs, and then it will be time. Oh, I also, I have a lot of weird sources going on right now. In obstained, the last week of NACL that I was on, I was just throwing up random jpegs and stuff into my obs virtual cam because that's what goes through to broadcast. I could, like, throw up funny stuff on my camera. It's all cluttered. I got a couple things. I got some grapes, tweets. That's good. I got dragoon memes. Shout out to dragoon, who, you know, got gooned perpetually qualifying. But I did get time. Really bucking that narrative. Mazelle. Are you excited for the Americas challengers? We didn't get your thoughts on it. At the top of the show, it's. [01:05:55] Speaker C: Gonna be a lot of fun. I mean, I think getting to talk to all the players and seeing how much it means for them to have something like this to look forward to is super cool. [01:06:03] Speaker A: I think it will have a mark. Marketly market. That's the word. Impact on the development of the players that get to go. I'm very excited for their ability to have this type of experience, and I. [01:06:18] Speaker C: Actually think our viewership is going to be pretty good, too. [01:06:20] Speaker A: Oh, well, we're gonna have the brazilian, so. Absolutely. It's gonna be good. They got no twitter. They got nothing else to do. [01:06:27] Speaker C: How will they know about esports if they don't have Twitter? [01:06:30] Speaker A: Exactly. All right, we have Leo back. [01:06:35] Speaker B: Familiar with X? [01:06:38] Speaker A: You're only familiar with who? [01:06:40] Speaker B: With X. What is this twitter you speak of? [01:06:42] Speaker A: Oh, you know. Good point. Good point. I thought you were talking about fear x star forge for a second. I've never heard them referred to as X before. All right, Leo, we got you back at the tail end here of the episode. You have your milk, you have your hot sauce, and I have you, as of right now, recording on Obs. So that way, we can share this with the world. I'll give a quick play by play, as this is, of course, an audio medium, but I'll describe, in my opinion, from a spongebob to a Ben ten level of chad, how much hot sauce he puts on the piece of bread. [01:07:25] Speaker D: Okay, so I'm not doing bread delivery. I'm doing a cracker here. [01:07:30] Speaker A: Oh, okay. [01:07:31] Speaker D: So holding up to my glasses just so you can see scale, right? [01:07:34] Speaker A: Yep. So that everyone listening can see scale. It is about. It's just over the size of his lens. It's. It's like a. It looks like a saltine. Is that a saltine? [01:07:42] Speaker D: It is a club cracker. [01:07:44] Speaker A: Club cracker. There we go. Even better. That's. That's going to mask the spice a little more. [01:07:50] Speaker D: And I had a little idea while I was grabbing this to make my life a little worse. Kangas, I will invite you to ask me a stat question, any stat question for 2024 summer split. And I will have to get you the answer before I touch the milk. [01:08:07] Speaker A: That is incredible. [01:08:09] Speaker D: And if you make it very hard for me, I'm gonna hate you so much. [01:08:13] Speaker A: Oh, well, now I'm trying to think of, like, the hardest stats that there would be to find. No, I'm not gonna go for hard, but I'm gonna go for one that I think is fun. So give me a second here and. [01:08:24] Speaker D: Only tell me once I talk about it. [01:08:25] Speaker A: Okay, I got it. I got it. Yep, I'm ready. Okay. Now, I will give an indication again, the chad meter goes from SpongeBob to Ben 1010. Shout out to anyone who remembers Ben ten. [01:08:40] Speaker D: All right, so here we go. [01:08:44] Speaker B: It's time. [01:08:46] Speaker A: Okay. He's currently applying. Oh, that's a decent amount. That's a good dab. That might be a toonami dub of Naruto right there. I think that's the level of Chad that we got here. Uh, yeah, that's up there. [01:09:03] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:09:03] Speaker A: Okay. That's pretty. Yeah, yeah, yeah. [01:09:09] Speaker D: You got your question ready? [01:09:11] Speaker A: Okay, I have my question ready. So you're gonna take the bite, and then I'm gonna ask the question. You have to find the answer before you take a sip of milk. [01:09:19] Speaker D: Yes, sir. [01:09:20] Speaker A: I'll count you in. You ready? Let's go to one. Go. Who is the 2024 all time solo kill leader? Leader. Who's leading in solo kills in the LCS all year? Not just summer, not just regular season all year. Regular season in playoffs. [01:09:39] Speaker D: Yep. [01:09:40] Speaker C: Yep. [01:09:43] Speaker D: Oh, this is. This is miserable. Is there swearing on this podcast? [01:09:48] Speaker A: Yeah, go for it. [01:09:49] Speaker D: This fucking sucks. I don't think I've done that much ever before. [01:09:54] Speaker A: That was a lot. That was a lot. I liked Toonami's dub of Naruto this already. [01:10:00] Speaker D: Normally, if I was not in so much pain. [01:10:06] Speaker C: It is. [01:10:06] Speaker D: Impact with 31 solo kills. [01:10:10] Speaker A: Impact BP of summer split. And there you go, Leo. That's a whole Mason jar. That is a full Mason dog. [01:10:19] Speaker C: He's still going. Even though he stopped, he's still going. [01:10:22] Speaker D: There's, like, nothing, dude. [01:10:25] Speaker C: Oh, no. [01:10:27] Speaker A: Okay. He's about halfway through the jar as I think he is currently hitting, hiccuping his way through. But thank you, Leo, for coming on and putting your pride on the line as well as your body on the line. That was incredible. Thank you so much as well, Bickel and Mizelle, as always, thank you, everybody, for watching, listening, and supporting the podcast. We won't be able to do this without you. And most importantly, we love you. We'll see you next time. Peace. [01:10:56] Speaker C: We love you, Leo.