League Rundown - Episode 533: Balls

[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. [00:00:46] Speaker B: Unicorns of love. [00:00:48] Speaker C: It wasn't. [00:00:49] Speaker A: You did it. [00:00:50] Speaker B: The nexus. [00:01:10] Speaker A: Hello, and welcome to episode 533 of the league rundown. This is our world preview episode. Swiss stage continued. And this episode is lovingly entitled balls. I am your main host, Kangas, and I am joined by three esteemed co hosts for this week's episode. Up first. When he eats a snack, he eats it by a nibble. It's Bickle. [00:01:35] Speaker D: Not your best work there, but I'll take it. [00:01:38] Speaker A: Technically, according to Google, that rhymes. So I'm gonna say on a technicality, I get by with it. [00:01:44] Speaker D: Sure. [00:01:46] Speaker A: Also fresh on the loose. We got mongoose. [00:01:50] Speaker B: Let's go. It's fucking worlds. [00:01:54] Speaker A: Yeah, we got you on for a worlds episode. And unfortunately, we're gonna have to talk about a team. It's your personal favorite of yours that is maybe gonna be struggling going forward here. But first off, to round out the rest of the cast, we got em back in the roost. It's hawk. [00:02:10] Speaker C: Caw, caw, motherfuckers. Oh, I forgot to look up a bird fact. Hang on. [00:02:14] Speaker A: Oh, yes, you're right. And freshly delivering us this week's special exclusive, bird fact. We got hawk. [00:02:23] Speaker C: Yes. [00:02:24] Speaker A: What you got? [00:02:25] Speaker C: Hang on. Give me. Give me one sec. [00:02:27] Speaker A: I thought I filled long enough for you. [00:02:28] Speaker C: No, I know. Okay. [00:02:30] Speaker A: All right. [00:02:31] Speaker C: Okay. [00:02:31] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. You good? [00:02:32] Speaker C: So did you know? I don't think I already talked about this one. This one's pretty well known. But owls are the only birds that can fly silently. However, they give up the ability to fly when they're wet as a result. Interesting, because they don't have the same oils on their feathers or whatever that let them fly when wet to keep their wings dry, but they fly silently so that they're very stealthy. [00:03:04] Speaker A: That is a fun bird fact. I'll give that one to you. [00:03:07] Speaker C: That's a bird of prey fact, too. [00:03:09] Speaker A: So, you know, hey, even better, even more precise. Well, this is the cast that we got for this week's episode as we cover round, or like, the kind of the first half of the swiss stage, I guess, is what we can call it, week one of swiss stage. As we have already seen two teams promote to the knockout stage. They get to have a little bit of a break, actually, a long break until they play again at worlds. We can talk about. About the implications of that. And we've also bid farewell to two teams as well. But before then, we got to cover global news so up first, a reminder that swiss stage will continue on October 10 at 08:00 a.m. eST or 05:00 a.m. pST. By the time this episode is out, it might have already begun. Hopefully we can get this out a day ahead of time. Otherwise, maybe you're listening to this after day one it's come back, or right before day one has begun, but either way, hopefully we can get it out for you soon. But there's actually been a couple of roster rumors going around. Bickle, run me through some of the roster rumors because there was actually a lot in LEC in particular. A couple in Na. [00:04:12] Speaker D: Yep, definitely. But before we hit the rumors, there is one thing that is confirmed and that is Meech. Parting ways with hundred thieves obviously became the sub throughout the season. Had to step down for personal reasons. His mental health. They officially announced their parting ways. Sad to see. Kind of expected and understood with with the step up of Tomo. It is what it is, but a lot of rumors coming out. Two main ones coming out for the LCS. We already saw the official announcement that Berserker was leaving c nine. We do now have a rumor coming out of his replacement. It seems to be zven coming back as the ad carry for cloud nine, possibly reuniting with Vulcan in that 2020 bot lane. We'll have to see what else comes about, who the potential replacement is for Jojo in the mid lane. And the other NA news involves a former cloud nine player. Fudge, previously benched for Thanatos, seems to be heading to Shopify Rebellion. We saw that that position had been opened up with fate, God being let go from the team. So those are the two big na roster moves. Over in EU, we get a bit more of a mix up. They of course, a majority of teams have an EU Masters team, so they're. [00:05:27] Speaker A: Gonna get into the EU though. I just wanna take it some time to kind of react to the NA one. So let's just separate them one after the other moves right off the bat. Hawk, what are your thoughts? Cause I know that you were big on 30 to Shopify. Seems to be where errors are pointing, but now it's looking like it could be fudge. Are you happy? Sad about this. [00:05:46] Speaker C: So it's annoying, but I will say fudge was like the other top laner that I expected to get picked up, right. So I'm not too upset about this as long as 30 still goes somewhere. Cause I'm not surprised that a team especially like Shopify, that like kind of you know, they want to win. Picked up fudge. It's fine. I think the other news is definitely. I don't know, these are all kind of nothing burgers to me. Like, okay, fudge to Shopify. Meech partying away with 100 thieves. This was expected. It is a shame because we always want to root for our developing talent. But also, I do think it's fair to say that Meech did have a fair shake and didn't play very well, unfortunately. And then as far as Fenda Cloud nine, it's just kind of goofy. Like, what are we doing? [00:06:35] Speaker A: It is a little goofy. [00:06:36] Speaker C: What are we doing? [00:06:37] Speaker A: We were talking about all the potential players that could get promoted. Even looking at some brazilian players that maybe they would be interested in. But back to Zven, I don't think it's like, no, it's fine. [00:06:48] Speaker C: Yeah, it's just. [00:06:50] Speaker A: You're right. It's a little, little goofy. Like a little out there. As he has been on that roster before in the support position, notably maybe not playing ad carry for them. Now, outside of the NA rumors for NA teams, I have heard a crazy rumor that I want to get everyone's reactions for, I don't know, maybe hog. You've heard the same one. I don't think that Bickel or Mongoose would have. So I want to get Bickel Mongoose's thoughts on this. I've heard a rumor that has been substantiated by a couple of people. I'm not going to name drop them, but I'll say it was enough people with names notable enough that it makes me actually consider the rumors. Jojo and Surdy going to EU. [00:07:35] Speaker C: I've heard that as well. I've heard that as well. [00:07:38] Speaker A: For Lec teams. [00:07:40] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:07:40] Speaker A: Jojo in particular, receiving multiple offers and is actually in a bid war right now. [00:07:47] Speaker C: They are quotes. [00:07:48] Speaker A: 30 rewind contract. Yeah. So thoughts on that, guys? Because that is an insane. It's never happened. We've never actually sent just like a legitimate Na player to play in EU tier one. Right? I think, I'm pretty sure, like, we sent an ad carry. I forget his name, but an ad carry then went over to the Erls. What was his name? He played on hundred thieves. [00:08:17] Speaker D: I know exactly who you're talking about. His name is escaping me. [00:08:21] Speaker A: I'm so sad that I'm losing. He had like the highest KDA in a split that he was playing like double lift. Shouted him out and everyone was hyped about him. [00:08:28] Speaker D: Cody. [00:08:29] Speaker A: So then he. [00:08:30] Speaker D: Cody, son, Cody's son. [00:08:32] Speaker A: Yes. There we go. Cody son. I believe he went over and played in like an ERl team or something, but we never had like a proper import that EU picked up an na player. They might be pick well, I guess thirty's oh so really count. But they might be picking up Jojo, which would be like an honest to God, any import plane in EU. That's crazy to think about. [00:08:52] Speaker D: But honestly, the 31 sounds even more surprising in the fact that Jojo, you've seen the experience on the LCS stage. He's proven he's an MVP split behind him. He's been consistently at the top. Just had some issues here and there and a team may want to take a chance on that, thinking, hey, we can get this going. Serdi, we've never seen on a major region stage. He's only been out in the academy, so them taking that chance would be surprising. But great to see. [00:09:22] Speaker A: Yeah, definitely. Magus, do you have any thoughts on the crazy rumor? Again, it's not confirmed, it's just a rumor, but like just the, the potential of it. [00:09:30] Speaker B: I think, like the Jojo one, it seems a little bit more realistic. I think the sturdy one is like, I feel like there's still top laners in the LEC that, like, deserve a chance. So maybe we might see. But I think the Jojo one could be potentially pretty cool. But at the same time, I also don't know if I want to put too much stock in Jojo as a player, as a franchise player anymore, just from what we've heard from coaches and other things, so. But I don't know what to believe. I don't know who to believe. [00:10:02] Speaker A: So, yeah, if Jojo, I don't think we're there yet, but if Jojo joins another team and struggles and, like, we hear about the attitude stuff again, just like second coming to Dardoc, so much potential and everyone's like, we can fix them. We're going to be the ones that can make it work. But those are the crazy rumors. But that transitions us into EU because there are other rumors for LEC teams. Beckle, did you want to continue going through? Otherwise I can toss it over to somebody else. [00:10:33] Speaker D: I can continue. And on the Jojo point, I'm just trying to think of which team he'd end up with because I can't think of any mid lane spots that are open and that partly ties into these LEC rumors because we do have a lot of mid lane confirmations coming in or confirmations, I say in quotation marks with rumors for a lot of them. So BDS, we already heard that there would likely be some shakeups with Adam Lebrov and now Shayo likely moving on from the team. And they seem to have gotten some rumors as to who those replacements are going to be for the top lane. Big name, kind of star of the off season. Everybody had some hands on this pot, wanted to see where he'd end up. Irrelevant. Long considered kind of one of, if not the best performing top laner in the LEC, I'd say just behind broken blade competing for that second spot. Seems to be heading to BDS and for jungle replacing Sheo, it's going to be one, one three people may have heard that name before as he used to play for Astralis for about a year he was fine, but then again that entire roster was kind of atrocious. [00:11:42] Speaker A: Then he went back and for anybody who didn't remember that name, don't worry because I forgot to. He played for here in the LEC. Continue. [00:11:51] Speaker D: Yeah, then he went back to the URL's for a bit. Is coming off a split with K Corp where he looked pretty solid. The entire K Corp squad was pretty good all around. Took over in summer for them when their original jungler promoted. But now the big question along with that, we do have some more teams we mentioned shale from BDS seems to be heading to heretics. And that leaves the question of where does old man Jankos head? Because there's no obvious rumors or places for him to kind of be showing up right now. So people are asking, is this the final end of the story? [00:12:28] Speaker A: He's coming up. [00:12:30] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:12:31] Speaker A: Could you imagine picking him up in his prime? [00:12:35] Speaker D: Yeah. But along heading to heretics, we have the rumor that Carlson will be joining there. That is a top laner from their EU Masters team that I know absolutely nothing about. [00:12:50] Speaker A: So yeah, join the club. [00:12:53] Speaker D: Not much. [00:12:54] Speaker A: As we get into next season, we'll do some more research on some of these players that we don't have as much information on. That'll be good off season episode content, but for now these are just the players names for the rumors. [00:13:03] Speaker D: Yep. So moving on with that, SK seems to be making a mid lane change as they're rumored to be bringing in Rieker from BDS Academy. He's coming off a phenomenal performance in EU Masters, by far the best performing mid laner. He's another player who has had a little bit of experience in the LEC. Had one split with Mad Lions about two and a half years ago. It did not go well, he was by far the worst performing mid laner in the league. He was then sent down the URL's spent all that time with BDS Academy, has grown as a player and looks phenomenal. He definitely deserves another chance in the LEC. And rounding out for Vitality. I think this name is pronounced Sajak. Sajakhe being promoted again from their academy team. Mid laner for Vitality B don't know all that much about them, but that would mean Vitality making some more changes and we'll have to see what comes out of all this. [00:14:08] Speaker A: A lot of change, a lot of rumors. This is the off season. I know it's world season as well, but the teams that are not attending worlds are usually the ones making a lot of the changes. Right now. The teams that are at worlds maybe aren't going to be changing much of the rosters because it was good enough to get them there, but will oftentimes be later than on making those types of decisions. [00:14:27] Speaker D: And this is a really minor thing that I just remembered. I believe Callist, the star rookie ad carry for K Corp's academy team, obviously is about to become of age able to play in the LAC. He announced he will be playing 4K Corp coming this year as they're starting. [00:14:48] Speaker C: Yeah, everyone's been announced that for a long time. [00:14:50] Speaker A: Yeah, it's basically the sniper of EU with the level of attention that he's gotten in his come up being a very young player. [00:14:59] Speaker D: A lot of rumors going around that K Corp roster as to who's going to be there, who's going to stay, what possible names are coming in. Rumored jungler for them is another big performer of BDS Academy. We'll have to see if that ends up coming out of I'm trying to remember his name. Schumann is. People are saying he would have been BDS's first choice as their jungler. So the fact that they're rumored to be going with 113 means he's heading somewhere else. Likely K Corp, though. Some people have been throwing out g two, though I doubt it. [00:15:33] Speaker A: That would be interesting. [00:15:37] Speaker D: People have called scheme on the best jungler in the EU master system since they saw, yike, all those years ago. [00:15:45] Speaker A: Wow, that would be well fire under yikes ass then at worlds right now. Step up or shut up. You know, we'll see what those changes look like going forward, and of course we'll keep our eyes on all the roster rumors, especially as rumors become confirmed or debunked. But for now, that is the global news. If we missed any rumors or if you have any opinions on any of the rumors, reminder to voice them in our community discord. You can find a link to that in the description wherever you are listening along. And if you want to support the pod, we got two ways for you to do one is through our Patreon shout out to all the patrons y'all rock, as well as anybody who has purchased merch on the merch store self report. I still haven't done it. Let me do this right now. I'm gonna pull up the link. I'm gonna keep it open until I buy something. So that that way I don't forget. I just keep forgetting. I want to get the mug and I want to get the hat. But thank you to anybody who has made a purchase. It is league dash rundown shop dot fourthwall.com. and again, we'll have some fun off season stuff with kind of the funds that were accumulating over the months with everyone supporting the pod. Thank you so much for helping us out. And now it is time to talk about worlds proper. We have had a full week of swiss stage, and boy, oh boy, has it been 100% honest to goodness, accurately drawn and most balanced possible teams. Nobody's gotten overly lucky and everybody has had to play against, you know, the best competition. Clearly, this is the best format for worlds, I think, two years in a row now. We can confirm that. Right, back me up here, guys. [00:17:20] Speaker B: I think it's exciting. [00:17:22] Speaker A: That's all you got? [00:17:24] Speaker B: I think it is a good spectator sport. [00:17:27] Speaker D: It gives phenomenal entertainment value, but it does not do the best job determining who the eight best teams in the world are. [00:17:35] Speaker A: It is so funny to me. Hawk. Yeah, I'll let you follow up here. But we yelled for years to riot. Be like, we should do swiss stage. Like, change up the group format, because, like, there's always a lucky group of life. And then, like, we don't have the top eight teams in the world. It's like, well, maybe Swiss solves it. We're like, yeah. Then last year, it's like, oh, energy. Didn't have to play or beat an eastern team to make it out, and now this. I will say it's kind of funny to see, like, two LPL teams that wanted to. That clearly should not be but hag, I'll let you go first because it sounded like you wanted to hop in, and then we'll get mug disappoint after. [00:18:14] Speaker C: No, I mean, I'm honestly just gonna basically agree with you, Steve. Like, I just think. I don't know. I think people get weird about formats in general, because I saw, like, there was a really popular dom tweet that was like, oh, you know, like, teams should be seated, like, seated in pools differently, this and that. But coming from North America, tier three, the other side of the coin that I always caution people against is sometimes y'all get a little too up your own ass about seeding and forget the fact that it is a little bit about who just shows up on the day. [00:18:45] Speaker A: You know what I mean? [00:18:46] Speaker C: Like, yeah, sometimes that matters, too. I do think Swiss is imperfect. I will say. I think it's a lot better than group draw. I I think it is significantly better than group draw for the randomness factor. [00:19:01] Speaker A: Right. [00:19:01] Speaker C: Because at least, like, yeah, maybe you get a couple hard draws in a row and you ultimately lose to three really good teams, and you go two and three, but at the same time, if you lose to, say, hle, Gen G and. And LNg, which seemingly is, like, the worst case scenario right there, even if you lose to those three teams, it's like, well, were you really going to do much of this tournament anyway? I mean, at best, your fourth best, and, okay, you missed out on that. That fourth spot in semis. [00:19:32] Speaker A: Right? I. But. [00:19:33] Speaker C: So that's kind of where I get a little, like, weird about it. I do think the randomness, absolutely comical for how much it does skew things, though, in favor of teams or not. But I think ultimately, the philosophy behind Swiss is that the randomness works the kinks out. And if you get lucky or unlucky, you weren't so lucky or so unlucky that you would have moved up or down another stage, you know what I mean? Or more than one other stage. So that's kind of my take. And I do think this is better than the group format. I'm actually curious as to how you all feel about that. [00:20:10] Speaker A: But, yeah, tldr just win. Mongoose. [00:20:13] Speaker B: I mean, literally, I think, like, for me, there's two points I would like to see. If we do keep going with swish, just get rid of seeding entirely for the first round. Cause eventually you're gonna have to play some of the stronger teams. So why the hell does it matter if it's in the first round? I think it'd be a lot more exciting and a lot more fun and get rid of the whole region thing, too. I don't care if we have reasons. Regions playing against each other in the first round. I think it makes, like, very little sense to have that restriction on the first round, but not have it on the best of. [00:20:48] Speaker A: That's a good point. Yeah. [00:20:50] Speaker B: It just feels really silly that, like, oh, first round. Okay, these teams are going to start with a win. These teams are going to start with a loss. It's like. [00:20:58] Speaker A: I think the reason is that you can really only control for that in the first round, other than first and second round. Once you get to the third round, I don't think you can mathematically confirm that you will never have that. So then it just gets a little muddled. But I did not expect that take. But, bickle, I've seen your hand up for a while, so you wanted to hop in here. [00:21:18] Speaker D: Well, partly basing off mongoose just said, it is impossible. Like, come round three, our four 20 teams were three LCK teams, so there's no way to avoid region versus region there. But I can see where mongoose is coming from. Where, if you are content to say part of the reason we have it like this is for the entertainment value is for the spectacle. Just go all in on it in that sense, because with the current format, there's. I love na. I love the teams we sent. There's a world where team liquid can make the top three. I mean, top eight, having beaten pain, gaming, gam esports and flyQuest. Or FlyQuest can make the top eight, having beaten gam, PSG, tallon and team liquidity. [00:22:13] Speaker A: Yep. That's assuming that, you know, like, the next stage, flyquest loses, team liquid wins theirs. Yes. [00:22:20] Speaker D: Assumptions based, but, yeah, that's a kind of absurd. [00:22:27] Speaker A: I mean, that's basically what energy did last year. Like, pretty close. [00:22:30] Speaker D: It's even worse because energy at least. [00:22:33] Speaker A: Had to beat g two and MDK was there. [00:22:37] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:22:37] Speaker D: They beat european teams. This would literally be two minor region teams and the LCS. [00:22:43] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:22:45] Speaker D: Like, is anybody happy if that happens? Like, congrats, team. Like, would. You made top eight in the most fraudulent way possible. [00:22:54] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:22:55] Speaker B: I also feel like with this format, we get less EU and a and I don't like that. [00:23:01] Speaker A: Ooh, that's a good point. [00:23:02] Speaker B: I feel like eu n a. Like, now that we don't have, like, the whole riff rivals thing, which was, like. Like, all the way, like, 2017 or. 2018 was, like, the last time for that. [00:23:12] Speaker A: 2019, I think, was the last one. Yeah, yeah. [00:23:14] Speaker B: It was just like, na. EU is so hype, and that's like, we all, like. Except for 2018. 2019, we're not making finals. The only thing we have is the head to head against EU and Na. So it's like, whoever wins out on that just like, feels like they have gloating rights for the rest of the year. And I think we've had, what, one na EU matchup. [00:23:38] Speaker A: None have we had even. [00:23:42] Speaker B: No, I don't think. [00:23:43] Speaker C: What MSI not? We haven't at worlds. We haven't at worlds. [00:23:46] Speaker A: Yeah, I don't think at worlds we've had that yet. That actually hadn't even thought about that. That is very sad. [00:23:50] Speaker B: And do we have one? Will we have one? [00:23:53] Speaker A: Not until I on two choose two. [00:23:55] Speaker D: Two draw to get a. [00:23:58] Speaker B: So it's. [00:23:58] Speaker A: We won't get them until elimination. Best of threes, which is kind of hype. But also, and also, like Bickle said, then there's always gonna be that asterisk of like, oh, you made it out, but you only beat, like, these types of teams. Not, you know, back when it's kind of more fun. I think a big part of it is that it is very difficult to have a satisfying swiss stage when the two best regions each are sending four representatives. It is. They are half the tournament, basically. [00:24:30] Speaker C: I heard a take that was, which kind of goes in the opposite direction among us for mongoose wanting to get rid of seating. I heard a take that was na and EU. One should be in pool two and then the three. The two should be twos and three should be in pool three and then LCK and LPL. One and two is just. [00:24:49] Speaker A: Should be pool one. I agree, I agree. I don't remember who I saw. [00:24:54] Speaker C: Someone tweeted that, yeah, that's not my take, but I generally agree with that. I do think that would help, contrary to what Mongoose believes. But I do think, yeah, like, my issue is, I do think from a competitive perspective, there's always going to be an issue with the bracket. [00:25:11] Speaker A: Right. [00:25:11] Speaker C: But I do think it's right to keep region team kills from happening and keep rematches from happening and stuff. Because at the end of the day, what worlds is about is seeing the best teams from around the world all play against each other. Right. And so even if that means, oh, this team gets an easier road, this team gets a harder road, whatever. It's good that we're seeing teams play teams from around the world, and that's the point of worlds. And so, you know, for that reason, I also, like, can't completely hate the format. [00:25:43] Speaker A: You know, I think it's doing the best it can. It's just funny that it. Oh, it is. I think a lot of people had such, like, expectation of what it was going to do and it really hasn't done the expectation. It's just changed things. There are positives and there are negatives. I still miss some of the hype of the groups, but I think that Swiss is better. [00:26:07] Speaker C: Day two of groups where we went from having no idea who's going to get out to finishing the day knowing that was pretty hype, dude. [00:26:15] Speaker A: I just loved the conversations around group of death, group of life, like those types of things. [00:26:19] Speaker B: I thought those were always fun. [00:26:21] Speaker A: Yeah, it is a little hype, though. [00:26:23] Speaker D: The fact that we used to only get one group draw at the very beginning. Now we get, like, a group draw every couple days. [00:26:29] Speaker C: We get the memes with Malu and the stone faced ref from last year as well. [00:26:33] Speaker D: Yeah, we get. [00:26:34] Speaker B: Or, like, opening the ball to nothing. [00:26:36] Speaker D: Being, oh, somebody. [00:26:39] Speaker B: And it happened more than once, too, is the funny thing. [00:26:41] Speaker D: They did not have a good day at their job after that. [00:26:45] Speaker B: Someone got yelled at for an hour. [00:26:48] Speaker A: Yeah, I know. Shocks tweeted this out, like, how lucky are we that it was the last team drawn in pool one and there was only one missing. So we knew it had to be, I think it was LNG. And then it was the first team drawn in pool two. So that they realized, okay, we should just check them all and, like, stop this fiasco from happening. Like, if it had happened in the middle of the draw, it's like, what the fuck do you do? Or if there have been two teams missing from pool once, like, well, then we have to redraw the whole thing, right? That's just rough. So we did luck out a little bit when we noticed that there were stuff missing, so. But, okay, that's all talk about the format itself. I think it's fun just because we've had a week to react to it. But now let's bring our attention to some of the things that happened in the first half of the swiss stage. We've already had two teams go 30 and make it out into the knockout stage. They get a prolonged break now while they watch all the other teams duke it out. And we've already bid farewell to two teams here who are not going to continue at world. So the way that we're going to structure today's episode, this week's episode is we're going to talk about the teams that made it out. We're going to talk about the teams that dropped out, and then we're going to talk about some of the highlight games and ones to watch because there's just too many games to cover to go through all of them or to talk about every single team, what their journey has been. So we'll probably skew a little bit more lcs lec, I'm assuming, just because those are the regions that we cover on this pod, but unfortunately, we're not gonna be talking about them to start because they did not make it out 30. Those were an LPL representative and an LCK representative, but maybe not the ones that we expected. Let's talk about the expected one first here. Gen G. Make it out three and zero, Bickle. I know that a lot of people are talking about them as, like, one of the favorites to win. They had that one. Oopsie. Where they lose lck finals to hle. But other than that, a lot of people were still expecting them to be one of, if nothing, the best team at worlds. [00:28:43] Speaker D: Gen G right now just still look like the best team in the world, plain and simple. They. A lot of people say sometimes, as we mentioned with Swiss, sometimes you get easier draws, sometimes you get harder draws. Gen G got an extremely difficult draw. Said, we do not care. We are still going to go three win. Yeah. Says it doesn't matter what your draw is if you're just the best. And turns out it doesn't matter if you draw. Weibo gaming, into top esports, into hanwha life. If you're just good, you're going to win. And they did. So their game against Weibo was them saying, hey, remember that old meta of smulder mid? What if we just did that, scaled to oblivion, and then just ought. And then just won in the very end? And. Yeah, that's another thing to consider. We thought ad mids were going to be dead. Certainly nothing. Side note, please, for the love of God, ban yone. How are teams not doing? [00:29:42] Speaker A: Yes, that champion. Does anybody have the stats? Actually, I know he was like 90%. [00:29:49] Speaker B: 95 and a half presence. [00:29:52] Speaker D: I want to say, including plans. He's something absurd, like 18 and four. [00:29:58] Speaker A: Right now I have him 18 and currently. [00:30:01] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:30:02] Speaker A: Okay, so I just pulled up on goal GG, the champion stats. He's been played top lane once and has a one win. And then he is 14 wins mid. So that's 16 wins. How many losses is this? Looks like one or three losses. So you are looking 14 wins, three losses. [00:30:21] Speaker D: And if you include plans, that becomes 18 wins, four losses. [00:30:26] Speaker A: That's crazy. Yeah, that is a very high win rate for yone. And he just keeps getting left up. Mandy, just ban the champion team. Liquid blue side is banning that shit. [00:30:39] Speaker D: That's a problem we'll get to later. Even in its losses, it's a problem. Go back and we'll talk about this game later. But go back and watch g two versus Hanwha. What caps can do with this champion is nuts. But back to Gen G. They're an absurd team. They scaled late against, against Weibo. Kind of smacked them. They just dominated top esports all around. And in all honesty, they would have two owed Hanwha life if Hanwha life support delight didn't have the most godly mid lane relen gauge catch into a yone follow up from Zika. That was just one hanwha life. The game right there. But then Gen G just comes back and says, okay, that was cute. Not again. Ends it. Game three, pulling out the twitch ad carry saying, we're gonna play whatever the hell we'd like and we're just gonna be better than you. And they are. It works. This team is absurd. [00:31:43] Speaker A: Didn't twitch start like 20 or something crazy too? Like, got, like, fed a couple kills super early? That was just disgusting. [00:31:48] Speaker C: That was an awesome game. It was a really cool game. [00:31:52] Speaker D: The combo of the Nocturne plus the aurora plus the twitch was just phenomenal to see played all around. We've seen the Nocturne Orianna combo coming out a lot, but just the nocturne darkness paired with so much range and catch potential was great to see. Gen G looks like, hands down, the best team in the world right now, and I don't think it's close because. [00:32:17] Speaker A: When we compare that to the other team that went three and odd, it wasn't like, as convincing in terms of what they were able to do, what they were able to show off, even if they did two o in their best of three promotion match into the knockout stage. LNG is the LPl representative to make it out, and I will tell you right now, not a single one of us predicted them to be three. Oh, you did? Oh, my God, Mongoose. It was me. [00:32:47] Speaker B: It was me. [00:32:49] Speaker A: You know what? Fair enough. Mazelle, Mister Mazelle pl had them three and two making it out. He had the least faith in them. All right, Mongoose, I'll let you talk about lng then. Since I first off slandered your name incorrectly. Flex on us a little bit. Why did you think lNg was going to get 30 and talk about how they did it? [00:33:08] Speaker B: Scout is just. He's just scouting all over him. He looks so good. Scout looks really good. I think they're top. Lanere Zika has really stepped up. I think he looks just completely different. From how we've seen him look, especially in the LPL this past season, he's just taken over games. I know he had like the Nar triple kill in the one game, but they had sort of an easier road. They played team liquid and then they had to play blg, which granted, not, you know, a super easy team. And then they played DK, who has looked pretty decent. [00:33:50] Speaker A: Yeah, but also then DK beat what, like Flyquest and fnatic to make it into the 20 position. So arguably LNG had a very. A much easier road than Gen G into that 30. [00:34:04] Speaker B: But LNG still look really good. I'm excited to see what they do. I'm. I don't think there's, like, too much to spend on them. I think a big thing that's been missing for me has been jinx from the meta. I thought Jinx was going to be a lot more prevalent than she has been, and I think she still can pop up, but we just haven't seen anyone really picking her, so we'll see. Scouts looked really good on a lot of these mid lane champions that have been popping up, and even on some that not a lot of teams are utilizing like the. Like the Silas. So I'm just really excited. Really excited for scout. Really excited for just this whole roster with everything that they had coming into worlds, whether scout was going to play, just that whole question. So scouts just coming in and he's just making it happen. And we saw him do this exact same thing in LPL. [00:34:52] Speaker A: And I love that we're seeing pics. Like, there's been a couple of picks that I did not have on my radar, and in particular, LNG has pulled them out. Like the. The Galio scout pulling it out. We've also seen that played even like top lane. Shout out to broken Blade, who pulled it out. We saw the. The Sylas from scout as well, which is like that one was on some of our radars. Expect some of the more melee mid laners to show up, but just the different styles we've seen from LNG shows that they are willing to play different things. That game two against DK where they had the classic Camille plus the Galio combo, just lock them in the cage. It's cool to see relatively simple strats, but ones that are still very effective pulled out here, along with some of the more creative ones where it's like Renekton Sylas that are both just going melee cruisers in the sidelines type stuff. Bickel, I think you might be muted. I don't have you on as you're trying to talk. [00:35:50] Speaker D: You mentioned the game two against D plus Kia Zika on that Camille for the Camille Galio combo ended the game with a six and a half k gold lead over his lane opponent. He put king in and disgusting dumpster. [00:36:03] Speaker A: He flamerized. It was 98 cs ahead at the end, but 97 or something like that. But pretty close. [00:36:09] Speaker D: But yeah, basically world champ king. [00:36:10] Speaker B: And by the way, yep, finals MVP. [00:36:14] Speaker D: King in at that. But yeah, he put him in the absolute dumpster. I don't think D's drafting helped them. Turns out when your two damage threats are an Ahri and a Ziggs, you can just build magic, resist and laugh at them. [00:36:32] Speaker A: And when there's a galley on the enemy team, it makes it pretty tough too. [00:36:35] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:36:36] Speaker B: Also Ziggs, this tournament has been so unimpressive. I don't know how you guys are feeling about it, but the Ziggs just has not felt like it is a monster like it has been before. And to me that's a fun thing because I think Ziggs is very unfun to watch. I think he's just very like, clear out waves, take tower, throw big old. [00:36:57] Speaker A: I wasn't told that by people because the nerf to Ziggs that happened was his percentage damage increase against turrets from his passive just went down. He still like satchel charges at the same amount. He still does the same amount of damage to champions. It was just his passive bonus damage to turrets that went down and it was a significant decrease. I want to say it was like 125%, like 75% or something like that. [00:37:20] Speaker B: It was 250. Now it's 150. [00:37:23] Speaker A: Okay. Yeah, but that's like, that's a big, that's a big chunk difference. And people are telling me like, it's not going to change Ziggs that much. You should expect basically the same tempo from him in my opinion was like if he's taking plates lower, he's going to have item break points slower, which will have a spillover effect because he's going to do less damage in the early, in mid game and then that means he's going to be less fed come late game and he's just, his power curve is going to be delayed even just from a simple nerf like that. So I'm not too surprised to see this. [00:37:53] Speaker D: I think a big story with that as well is the reason Ziggs was able to perform so well is you could still have that diverse damage profile because ad mids were still absurd. So you just pick something like a Tristana mid, a Lucian mid, and you go from there and still have that split threat. Now the only real ad mid we're seeing prevalent is yone, which is hopefully being perma band. We've seen things like the smolder to mixed success. To mention the smolder with the Ziggs AP carry it kind of forced showmaker onto that smulder and admit, which was never his playstyle. It's nothing. They excel that they're the other team that's banning yone on blue side because they just don't play those 80 mid style champions. So that really hurt them. And we mentioned yone. I think that was also a big reason for their advantage against BLG. Scout got yone and did yone things. I think that has absolutely been helpful for LNG. [00:38:53] Speaker C: Sorry. I think a big point that you make too, about the sorry. I totally lost my train of thought. Like Ziggs yone. I think in general at this world we've seen much more of a dive meta. Even though yone's an ad mid, you don't really want to play it with the ziggs that much. It just doesn't synergize as well. So we've been seeing a lot more like Kai'sa this kind of stuff. It's a very, I think, more fast paced, teamfight oriented game than what we were seeing at the end of domestic summer split, where obviously was still very teamfight oriented, but it was much more like siege poke pick as opposed to, hey, guys, let's just fucking full send it into all of them, you know? [00:39:34] Speaker A: Mm hmm. Yeah. [00:39:36] Speaker B: So while we're on the pick discussion, Orianna Nocturne has been my favorite thing this world. It has been so much fun. So gam has been having so much fun with it, though. I have been loving watching gam play it because they just, they haven't figured out and they're just, it's so fun and they're, they're doing like, things too where they know if, like, they can't nocturne Orianna ball, so on. They're putting the Orianna ball on someone else and having nocturne ult. So that way if they don't see nocturne coming in, they don't expect the ball. It's just been cool. I really enjoyed it. I agree. [00:40:10] Speaker A: It's something we've seen multiple times, but I don't remember us really seeing it that prevalent at worlds in particular, outside of maybe like teams, like game pulling it out. So, yeah, love to see that, too. So those are the two teams that qualified already for the knockout stage. Like I had said, they're going to have a long break. I mean, they're just going to be sitting around for another week. Basically a week and a half with no games. Is this a buff or a debuff for the teams that qualify early because they had like LNG played four games and Gen G played five? Is, is that putting them in a better position? Come knock out stage where they will just have the one life going forward? Let's get bickle the mongoose. [00:40:49] Speaker D: I say, funniest thing about this. Before their matchup against DK, scout didn't interview or said, yeah, it's probably better to kind of get a few more games going and go down in the bracket a little bit more instead of just having this long break. And they instantly 40 to get this long break. I honestly think it can be detrimental because we saw how some teams were really slow to adapt to the meta. Having more stage games where the meta kind of gets more flushed out can be really helpful for teams. So it is a bit concerning. And we saw last year the two teams that made worlds finals. Weren't the 30 teams true? [00:41:29] Speaker A: I think the only positive argument you can make is that theoretically everyone wants to scrim them. So sometimes teams will be unwilling to scrim if they think they're going to play you in like the next round of Swiss or something like that, just because they don't want to give away strats. But now that you know you're not going to play these guys in swiss stage, I imagine they have their pick of the litter for scrims. Um, but I don't know. That's just a guess. Mongoose, what are your thoughts? [00:41:54] Speaker B: I think it all comes down to coaching. I think it depends on how good your coaching staff is for this break, um, and what the team culture is going to be like within this break. Cause if you're just sitting around doing nothing, obviously you're not going to do well come the next stage. But this also gives you more time to sit around and watch other people play who you're going to potentially be playing against and really break down their gameplay and see, okay, this is what we can exploit. We're seeing this in multiple of their games instead of having to focus on, okay, this one team that we're playing next week, what do we prepare for the next game? What do we prepare for them? So I think the coaching staff is definitely going to be a big proponent for both of these teams and just the team environment in general. [00:42:37] Speaker C: Yeah, I think. Oh, yeah, I was gonna say, I think it kind of depends because, you know, you definitely don't have to show as many of your bags, bag of tricks. Right. But it is. It is very funny how few games you have to play now if you're crushing Swiss. And I do wonder specifically for LNG, you know, they might not have practiced with scout for a little bit. Like, like, how locked in are they gonna be? I think Gen G is gonna be absolutely fine. The only other question that I then have is, like, how? The only other question that I have is, like, the next game they're gonna play, they've been playing the LEC studio so far. They're gonna go on a stage in Paris. [00:43:19] Speaker A: Right. [00:43:20] Speaker C: And so true. That also becomes a really interesting conversation. [00:43:26] Speaker A: I think that the one thing, though, is that's gonna be easier for more veteran rosters to deal with. I imagine that they're going to be more comfortable in those types of situations. And outside of like, Hong an LNG and like, Zika, maybe Zika doesn't have as much experience. Like, everybody's pretty much got that experience at, like, playing at these top levels. I doubt that, like, oh, get accustomed to a big stage in front of big audience is going to be that big of a deal for either of these rosters. So that's definitely a fair point. Yeah, yeah. But I think that it's a fair point that you bring it up to Hawk because I think that there's. There's two sides to that. It's. You never know. It's just a guess on my end because you never know. Maybe these players need to get reaccustomed to playing in front of big stages, lng playing in front of the chinese crowd, but it's not gonna be a home crowd anymore. It's gonna be, you know, not. Maybe not a hostile crowd. I don't wanna frame it that way, but, you know, they're not gonna be necessarily all rooting for you as country or regional representatives. But those are the teams that made it out. Now let's talk about the teams that made it out the other end, as there are two teams that we waved goodbye to. Mongoose, I'll let you take this next one here because. Sorry, not Mongoose. Hawk, I'll let you take this next one here because you did cover their league as pain gaming. The brazilian representatives have bid an early farewell. Well, to worlds. [00:44:56] Speaker C: I mean, look, we talked about this. Was it last week, two weeks ago when I was last on. This is what we expected, guys. Yeah, I am proud of them. They made it this far. Honestly, they're showing against Team Liquid was not shit at all. I do think team Liquid played terribly, but like, man, wiser stood up to impact and kind of fucking dumpstered him and, and wiser has always been a good player. Another Korean, right? So like, I'm, I'm really proud of this team. They, they have done more than what they set out to do this year, I would say. Or maybe this is what they set out to do, right. But I think they should be very happy with their, their season and ultimately they weren't very competitive in swiss stage, but we weren't expecting them to be. It is completely okay. And I'm very happy that pain gaming was able to play on the swiss stage. A lot of people said how fun it was. You know, the two v two kill on Guma and Kerria from titan, baby. That was awesome. Like, Dean Kato got to kill Faker. Athenae some point, like now, now dinkado can always say he killed Faker and that's awesome. And so, yeah, this was what we expected, but it's fine. I'm okay with it. I'm happy. [00:46:06] Speaker A: Reasons to celebrate and unfortunately, I mean, there's always going to be losers in the first round and I don't think that this is outside of expectations, but I'm happy, like you said, that there are reasons that they can at least go back to Brazil. Happy and kind of cheerful. Although, I'm sorry, I'll let you finish your point before I make my next one. [00:46:25] Speaker C: All I was going to say is I had them power ranked 19th out of 20 coming into this tournament. So phenomenal showing. Take about pain. [00:46:33] Speaker A: There we go. Phenomenal showing from pain gaming. I think the only bittersweet part of it, and you could see it on the faces of the players after their best of three series against Team Liquid, which is the team that knocked them out, is that they had a chance to do one of the funniest things ever where, you know, lcs, CB low, like the merger for the Americas. The brazilian fans were not happy about it. If they had knocked out team liquid. [00:46:58] Speaker C: That would have been wild, dude. [00:47:03] Speaker A: But unfortunately they weren't able to. And I think that that was maybe an extra layer on their minds. I imagine that Brazilian fans were definitely rooting for them even more just because it's like, oh, it's an NA team. We can show that we deserve more, better treatment than what, like we're getting right now and the memes about like, oh, give Brazil two seeds to worlds, I think would have been up pretty good for next year, but, yeah, that's just the extra little weight on it. But let's get pickles. Thoughts in the mongoose after with the. [00:47:32] Speaker D: Fact that they were playing TL, I think what hurt even more after that best of three was the fact that it was doable. Like, it's not like, okay, we had fun. Like, their game against t one, it was never going to happen. They had some hype moments. They got like those kills that you mentioned, but nothing was going to come of it. That series was really doable, in all honesty, Team Liquid, we'll talk about them in a bit. They've looked awful. They've looked the worst we've seen them in a long time. I really think Payne had a chance there. They had some moments in those series that could have gone the other way. I think that's why it's even harder is it's not like it was a game that was ever out of reach. Like, okay, yeah, this was never going to happen. It was a fun thought. They could have pulled it off, which I think makes it sad. But overall, nothing to scoff at. The fact that they even made Swiss is a massive accomplishment for them. They should be really proud of it. [00:48:31] Speaker A: I agree. Bong, you see a point, though? [00:48:34] Speaker B: I will say it feels really bad, but Teton got some respect put on his name. They had a hundred percent ban rate of Lucian against them. Dude, no one wanted to play against his Lucian. Which honestly, like, say what you will, but that's kind of hype, in my opinion. The fact that every team was like, now get that shit out of here. When there's things like Aurora, yone, things like that, they're like, nah, this guy's Luciane. No, no, we're good. So I think. I think that's really cool, if nothing else for. For pain. [00:49:08] Speaker A: Yeah. So that's one of the teams that bid farewell early on, but there is another that we have to cover here. And that one is maybe more surprising to some, I think still is in line with some expectations as unfortunately for Lec fans. You said goodbye to one of your team's early MDK, aka mummified dead kids, are going home early in some body bags. Cause they did not have a great showing in the swiss stage of worlds. Bickel, what are your thoughts? [00:49:41] Speaker D: Honestly, I don't know what to say to MDK. They managed to break the curse of making it through planes and still find a way to let everybody down. [00:49:52] Speaker C: Like, wow. [00:49:58] Speaker D: Normally if something like this happens, you could say, yeah, you got a really rough draw. But aside from the fact they had to play BLG round one, there isn't a better job. [00:50:08] Speaker A: Who is one and two, by the way? That's the only win that BLG has picked up. [00:50:12] Speaker D: It wasn't a bad draw. They got demolished by PSG in round two before looking atrocious against Gammon. Round three. And that's after in game one of the game series, having the fastest win of the tournament. Like, we saw some moments of what they could do, but then game two and three, they're just like, nah, first of all, what the hell was the yone not being banned whatsoever in that series? It was crazy, absurd. [00:50:47] Speaker B: Bad champ. [00:50:48] Speaker D: Yeah, yeah. [00:50:49] Speaker A: And I mean, MDK showed how to lose with it, though. [00:50:52] Speaker D: Yeah, they did. [00:50:52] Speaker A: They added one of the losses to that checklist. [00:50:57] Speaker D: High notes for MDK is you saw some really good moments here and there from Supa and Alvaro. They had their good showings even when one of them wasn't performing well, the other one did. Like, even in their losses, Supa looked solid trying to do his best. The solo laners are a problem, plain and simple. It's not good. They were able to try and hide some of this in the LEC regular season by pulling out these niche picks. But then for some reason, come to the international stage, you just try and play stock standard meta. It did not work whatsoever. They played a rumble top for the first time I think they've ever done it and Merwin just could not do it. It's a problem. [00:51:42] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, none of the range top laners, none of like, the fun, enchanter top laners that Merwin was pulling out in the LEC. And yeah, that's not how we've seen mad look good playing the stock standard. So I'm happy you bring that up because it was disappointing to see yet again a western team try and kind of fold to what everyone else is doing at worlds. That is not their style and just do it worse than everyone else at Worlds is doing it. Mongoose your thoughts. [00:52:11] Speaker B: To be fair, like, in the gam series, the first game, they won sub 21 minutes. Like they slammed gam. So everyone came into that like, oh, okay, MDK is like kind of stepping it up a notch. They're playing like, I mean, yeah, they got the yone, they got the Ziggs, so. [00:52:29] Speaker A: But they had the nar. So we're talking about like, the zigzag AP. They found a way to fit ad elsewhere in the comp. So I like at least this draft for Ziggs. [00:52:38] Speaker B: And then the rest of the games happened. It's just like gam just came out swinging and I don't think mad was ready for that. And to be fair game or mad does get unlucky in some of these situations where people are living on like very, very low hp, where it should have been like a more even trade. But still, at the end of the day, I think they got sort of outplayed in their match against game. [00:53:04] Speaker A: Yeah, I agree. I think the MDK's read in that second game, too. Not only were they trying to play more standard, but Zaya has a really bad win rate just globally right now. I know that there's some comps that you're happy to play her into. Like you're looking at a yone cannon, Rel Wukong. Like everybody's gonna try and jump and engage on you, press ult. But Xia is great against like one champ that can dive you. Not four champs are gonna be jumping on you because you can really only dive one of those. Realistically, maybe two of them. And Suva just did not have a great time because Xaya just doesn't do much right now in the current early game laning phase into mid game transition, outside of maybe surviving lane swaps, if you're left alone as an ad carry, you're feeling all right. But yeah, disappointing showing from MDK. I know that Lec fans in general seemed like they weren't super high expectations for them, and seems like sentiment is still relatively positive. Like, at least they made it out this time. But I think in general, you still would have liked to pick up a win against either PSG or Gam as Team Liquid are showing that maybe they're going to be the team to kind of capitalize on basically the same situation MDK was in. But Bickle, you had a point you wanted to hop in with. [00:54:15] Speaker D: I was just going to say, because we mentioned the soul owners kind of struggling, as in the individual series against MD, against PSG, and then against gam. I'll give one of them a break for Scowie going against Maple. He should be at a disadvantage there. Maple is a phenomenal mid laner and it's bound to happen, but you're kind of more critical of Merwin when he's against Ozzy, and that's really, you should have been able to do more there. Instead, you pull out the Galio top which is a cool pick, but you go, oh, four and two doesn't end up working for Scowie on that smulder. Not doing much there. And then on the counter end of that when they're playing against Gam. Kia is a really solid top lanere. Give Merwin some slack there. Kia is not someone of minor region standards. He's a solid top laner, period. But for Scowie against Emo should not be struggling. Like, that shouldn't happen. [00:55:11] Speaker A: And it's, and I'll even say it to Alvaro for how good he has looked in some games, that game three was just running it down like, it just seemed like Alvaro lost heart, which was heartbreaking to watch because sometimes this guy is the one that kind of. [00:55:26] Speaker C: Pulls things out for a while, too, and plans and stuff. Yeah. [00:55:31] Speaker A: And then here it's just the nautilus. He just dies like two or three times in lane randomly, just like not respecting the Braum, and then just gets picked and caught out pretty much every objective setup in the game. So it. I never like to just point the big finger at a player and be like, like, you kind of fucked up. But it really did feel like game three. Everyone was hanging in there bit by bit. Frascari was having a rough time, too, but Alvaro in particular was just like, out of position dies, and then MDK is like, well, we're going to try and contest them, and then just falls apart for it. [00:56:07] Speaker B: And to be fair to Matt, this is a young roster for rookies. Four people have never been on the world stage, and they went against some of these minor region teams who have some of the most worlds experience out of any of the players here at worlds. Like, I'm pretty sure Maple has more experience than 95% of the players here. [00:56:26] Speaker A: Levi's got Levi's experience. [00:56:28] Speaker B: Yeah. So just these two players who are always going to become cool and collected on the world stage, who have been here before, who have had these upsets against, like, major region teams. So I think it's, you know, you can look at, oh, they had these easier teams, had the minor region teams that they're playing against. Still, the world's experience is, is there for a lot of these teams. [00:56:50] Speaker A: Yeah, I'm happy to bring that up because, you know, I think that's part of why Lec fans in particular aren't going too hard on MDK right now. Obviously, there's still going to be some people that are pretty toxic, but they did better than 100 thieves, so at least they can ultimately, congratulations. Your third seed did better than any other. Final thoughts, though, on either MDK, PNG, LNg, Gen G. Before we move on to kind of the rest of the teams in the swiss stage, say your piece. All right, I'm seeing some heads shake. So that means again, we're going to say goodbye for now to two of the teams as they will get into eliminations. We're saying goodbye until next year to two other teams. Let's talk about the team still in the tournament. The team's still competing. The way we're going to do this, there's just way too many games to cover all of them. Talk about some of the highlights and probably just cover like, you know, the chances at this point for Na and EU teams going forward. Actually, you know, let's even start with that. I think that's a fun place to be so quick. Na and eu checkup as that is the two regions that we cover on this podcast. At the two and one stage, each of us have a representative. G two are two and one. Flyquest are two and one. G two in the draw pulled hle but had already played them. So we get shafted because now g two gets to play against t one and flyquest is playing against hle. That's pretty hype that we get g two, t one, though. I'm actually really excited about that matchup. That's going to be sick. So let's just kind of, like, react to the two in one teams for right now. We can celebrate one and be humor about the other, but at least to start with the celebration, g two, t one is going to be hype. [00:58:33] Speaker D: G two is once again the hope of the west. If you have not watched it, go watch g two versus hanwha life. It is a great game. It is an exciting game, and it is way closer than anybody expected. And you also get to see what happens when a korean team gets an extremely late game smolder. [00:58:53] Speaker A: Yes. [00:58:56] Speaker B: And I will say with that game, too, the g two interviews afterwards. [00:59:03] Speaker A: I. [00:59:03] Speaker B: Feel like this team is about to just go off because the interviews afterwards, like, yeah, we're just kind of warming up. We were. We weren't really feeling it that game, but we're. We're starting to just gear get into worlds and gear up into, into everything, so. And you see that in the next game, too, that they're just like, on a trajectory that's just going up. [00:59:21] Speaker A: Broken Blade has been having a great performance so far all around. I think, weirdly enough, hans sama has had some of the more, like, rough mistakes which is uncharacteristic of him. But. But it's still cool to see this team firing on pretty much all cylinders at the world stage. This is where you want to see g two step up and pop off after they've had some struggling performances. But yeah, that hle game in particular, Zecha deathless 100 and four on the smolder, was a little scary. They kept trying to make plays away from the smolder, which is kind of how to handle the situation. And they were finding a lot of success. Like, they. They get a baron. They get. They got like three barons. This game, actually, it was crazy. Like, it was a super late one. Yeah, baron steel. Yike. Like, flashes over the pit and steals away. Was that the first baron? Yeah. [01:00:09] Speaker D: I thought that was the second one. [01:00:10] Speaker B: Yes, I guess the first one, because g two is like knocking on the doors as well on like the side lane and mid lane. [01:00:17] Speaker A: So, yeah, an insane back and forth series or game, rather. And it showed that g two has the heart to compete against top teams. Hle is not an easy opponent. And then their next match, they beat weibo. Pretty hype to. [01:00:37] Speaker D: Hype, but I will caveat. Weibo is looking pretty shaky. [01:00:47] Speaker A: Sure. Yeah. I mean, even like, team liquid pushed them to the brink. So I guess in that point. Point. But I think this is the big point that the drafting and the excitement of what the meta is at worlds is cool to talk about because g two pulling out things like the nocturne plus orianna combo. And this is where broken blade on the galio just has this insane pop off performance. Literally, like, saves them in a fight that was so crucial. It could have been kind of a game deciding moment where if weibo pop off and broken blade doesn't pull off this, like, insane flash over the wall, taunt up two people, knock up two people. It's both the carries. He gets xiaohu and light. Then that fight goes very differently. But the fact he gets that means that g two is in a really good spot. Even though the gold was like pretty close, even come like the big baron fights in the late game, they still were able to clutch it out, which is something that cannot be said against about rather every western team so far out world. [01:01:47] Speaker D: Poor Xiao, who's having galio flashbacks. [01:01:51] Speaker B: Yeah, I love those memes, too. The ones that are just like them looking up. It's like that one and then the g two one with jarvan as well. [01:02:00] Speaker D: Yep. [01:02:01] Speaker B: I think both of those are just so good. [01:02:03] Speaker D: But coming into their next matchup against t one, it is so hype. T one is looking back in form. Owner, owner hits a new level whenever worlds comes around. It's absurd. I like, it's crazy to me. Just sends. [01:02:18] Speaker A: Mm hmm. [01:02:19] Speaker C: It is crazy to me how seemingly without fail, on the international stage, g two and t one will show up, man. Like, how does it always happen every time both teams look like they're on form? The theorem of their. I don't even know if g two. If t one, you can say is, like, fucking around just to scale into, like, international. But on the side of g two, you can definitely say that. It's crazy how these teams both look. [01:02:48] Speaker A: Good and it's from such different environments that they play in. T one's in arguably the most competitive region and claws their way in his fourth seed and is still now looking this good. G two is like, we barely get practice in our region and we just don't even have to really try to get first place plays, but they still show up at world. So, like, just the path that each of them takes is so different. But it's cool that the paths converge and we get g two, t one. Kind of like, it almost feels like a world El Classico at this point. But, mongoose, did you have a point you wanted to hop in with? [01:03:21] Speaker B: I'm kind of happy that we're also getting this when both teams are two one. Yes, because it's very exciting that one of these teams will go on and then the other team will still get a chance to progress and will probably as well. I think, like, it's really, really fun that we can be excited for both of these teams going into this series instead of being like, oh, shit, which one's going to be in main stage. [01:03:43] Speaker A: It's a celebration of the game and not like, an anticipation of, oh, shit, like, we're saying goodbye to one of them. But there is the best potential future now. If g two wins this and t one goes to two and two, and if team liquid wins against Gam and goes two and two, we could get a t one, t l best of three elimination match. How hype would that be for lcs? Because Tl has been so close, man. It's so close so many times to take it out. T one. And they just can't get over that hurdle, man. [01:04:21] Speaker C: I just hope we get anyone other than fly if that's the case. Like, that would be so lame if we beat ourselves to make it. But anything else is awesome, and, yeah, I'm here for it. [01:04:35] Speaker D: If you asked me, pre worlds I'd say that is the most hype timeline. I so excited. If you ask me now, I don't think team liquid has a chance in hell. [01:04:46] Speaker A: Aw. Hey, spawn just yelled at Corejj on a Twitter video. [01:04:52] Speaker C: I think they can figure. I think they can figure it out. [01:04:55] Speaker D: I don't look so bad. [01:04:58] Speaker A: They do. Apa in particular, again, I hate to just, like, shout out individual players, but, man, you watch his individual mechanics in fights and it's rough. [01:05:08] Speaker C: You want to talk about Apa? I'm sorry, I keep. [01:05:11] Speaker A: Okay, no, hop in. Just go for it. Apa. [01:05:15] Speaker C: I feel like he's had a lot of rough moments. However, to defend Apa a little bit every moment, that's not, like, critical to the game state. I feel like he has played so well, so I want to give him a little bit of credit where he's had some, like, very big chokes that obviously everyone has pointed out, but he's also gotten it done quite a bit. So I want to defend him a little bit there. [01:05:42] Speaker A: But even against, like, pain gaming on, his re performance was not great. He's missing a, like, point blank charms, but they're still winning the fight because it's pain gaming, so, like, they don't need him to. But if he's playing like that against t one, it's going to be a much different story. Even against Gam, it's going to be a much different story. So I think that that is tough because TL are going to have to go the best of three gauntlet if they're trying to get out of the swiss stage. So that's going to be tough. Pickle, final point, though, on this kind. [01:06:10] Speaker D: Of talking point, if we're talking players that are underperforming Tl, I hate to say it, because he's a legend MVP. [01:06:18] Speaker C: That's what I was thinking. [01:06:19] Speaker D: Regular season performance ever. I do not know the last time impact has looked this bad. I don't know if he ever has. [01:06:26] Speaker C: Like, bro, got my wiser. [01:06:29] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:06:29] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:06:30] Speaker C: And again, I love wiser. Wiser's my goat. [01:06:32] Speaker B: But, like, in the. In the nar Jax matchup too. [01:06:35] Speaker A: Yep. Yeah, he gets almost solo killed. Is behind, like, a shit ton of gold after getting out of the initial levels of the lane swap ahead. Yeah, that was rough to watch. So team liquids gonna have to get their shit together, but that's a natural transition. I think we kind of wrapped the bow on the two and one teams, at least from the western perspective. Flyquest. Good fucking luck. That's all we'll say there, wishing the best. Masu actually has looked great. I think we can maybe hype up Masu versus Viper. [01:07:03] Speaker C: Best ad carry in the world versus best up and coming ad carry in the world. I don't know, guys. [01:07:09] Speaker A: Okay, let's talk about Flyquest. Hle, you've convinced me. I think matchup alone is already gonna be cool to watch, but do we think that there is, like, above a 10% chance flyquest can pull this off? [01:07:23] Speaker B: No. [01:07:24] Speaker A: You think it's below 10%, Hawk? [01:07:27] Speaker C: I'll go above, like, not. I'll give them a 25%. I'll give them a 25. [01:07:33] Speaker B: 2025, I think. 25% chance they get a game. Maybe not. [01:07:37] Speaker C: Slightly plays too weird. [01:07:40] Speaker D: Did you see what D plus did to fly? Yeah. [01:07:45] Speaker A: See what Hle has been doing? Zecha is just a monster, dude. [01:07:51] Speaker C: Have you considered its winnable? [01:07:54] Speaker A: You know? Okay, when you put it that way, there's a lot of nacopium happening right now. Fly quest expectations are they're going to get rocked and have to try and get out through the two and two stages. But you never know. Upsets can happen. HLE are looking like a very good team, though, and they are, I mean, number one seed from LCK for a reason. They did get an upset win over Gen G, but it was still a win regardless in LCK finals. There we go. We talked a little bit more about it, but Mongo's final point, if a. [01:08:23] Speaker B: Shirley wins this, they had the easiest way to get into a top eight. [01:08:27] Speaker A: Really? What would their path have been then? [01:08:29] Speaker B: PSG would have been PSG, g two, which arguably kind of difficult. And then flyquest. [01:08:35] Speaker A: And they took a game off of Gen G, too, on their way. Even in that two one, they would. [01:08:40] Speaker C: Have had an easy road, but I don't think anyone would call them frauds. [01:08:44] Speaker A: No, for sure. [01:08:45] Speaker B: Especially with how g two is looking. [01:08:47] Speaker A: Yeah, especially with how HLE is looking in the winds, too. It's not like, oh, they kind of were playing sloppy. They were like, nah, they're crushing the teams they need to crush and even competitive against the best team right now. So that's the two in one teams. Of course, DK top esports is also happening, but we're going to keep the focus mostly on the lcs and LEC team. So going to the one and two, we have team liquid, who got lucky again, man. They went zero two against two LPL teams, unfortunate draw. And then into the most blessed draw in the best three stage possible, they took out pain game, and now they got gam ahead of them here. Arguably the easiest team remains at the one and twos. Fanatic, though. Same thing cannot be said. They got a little unfortunate pulling away bo gaming as their opponent. So these are the two remaining lcs and LEC teams. Let's talk about them. Bickle, get your thoughts. [01:09:44] Speaker D: I can't believe I'm saying this. If Team Liquid, look how they did these past couple games. I actually favor gaming. [01:09:54] Speaker C: No way. Gam also looks like trash. [01:09:58] Speaker B: This is, this was going to be my take is if Team Liquid gets game in game three or round three, instead of pain gaming, they lose and mad Lions would have gone on. [01:10:09] Speaker C: Yeah, I agree with that. [01:10:11] Speaker A: Oh, oh, round three. [01:10:12] Speaker B: Yeah, round three. If. If Mad Lions gets pain gaming and Team liquid gets game, I think we see Team Liquid go home early and. [01:10:20] Speaker A: If Team Liquid had played the way they did against pain, against Gam, then they're going home. Is essentially the statement being made. If MDK plays the way they played against Gam, but against Png, they make it out. Yeah, I could see that argument. The only thing is team Liquid has chance to course correct. They get a couple days off and they can try and prepare and come in. So I guess that's the argument now is do we think we're going to see team liquid playing at the same level that they did against pain gaming for this next year? [01:10:46] Speaker D: That's the thing. I think they will adapt and improve, so I think they'll be okay. I'm more so saying if they played like they just did, they would not be the favorites here. Plus, yeah, gam did eliminate them last. [01:10:56] Speaker A: Year, which would be just right. So funny if it happened again. This team liquid roster is just so much better than they were last year, though. Yan and Apa have leveled up so much and, and like OMT has been just a stellar addition to the roster. It's just, I gotta again, think about impact, like, can he keep it together here? Cause impact is somebody that you need to be a rock on this type of team, and so far has just been losing in the one v one s, which is just not kind of what he's known for. [01:11:33] Speaker D: That is the biggest thing going for team looks at is I cannot see a world where impact does not improve with this break. [01:11:41] Speaker A: Like he has to get right or. [01:11:44] Speaker D: Else there's a major problem that we're just not seeing. If he keeps playing like this, there has to be something else going on. [01:11:50] Speaker A: I have more faith in impact than Apa to kind of get back together. I think Apa, I maybe chalk it up to nerves just because, yes, this is the second world, but he's still a very new player, so maybe there's some stage nerves going on. Maybe there's stuff happening behind the scenes we don't know about. You never know. [01:12:09] Speaker B: He also can't type and get in their heads because the other team doesn't know. [01:12:12] Speaker A: That's a good point, dude. [01:12:14] Speaker B: It's just. It's doomed. World stage is not Apa's playing grounds. [01:12:19] Speaker D: The good news for Team Liquid is somehow they're still not the worst performing western team left. [01:12:26] Speaker A: Oh, you're right. Let's talk about them. Fanatic, bro. With a rough looking draw way Bo picked up, they would have loved to get team liquid or PSG or even game. I think they could have gone against any of them, right? [01:12:40] Speaker D: Could not. They've already played gam, and they looked awful against Gam. [01:12:44] Speaker A: Okay, they did. [01:12:49] Speaker D: They're playing Weibo. [01:12:51] Speaker C: Yeah, they're probably cooked. [01:12:53] Speaker B: I would have loved if they got PSG, though. [01:12:56] Speaker D: Manga, if you just want PSG to get a free win, I just want. [01:12:59] Speaker B: Them not to get VlG. [01:13:01] Speaker C: I agree with you though, mongoose, because on my power rankings, I had fnatic at what, twelve and PSG at eleven. And I would have felt very vindicated if they then went and won. [01:13:16] Speaker B: I think they would have to be honest. They look good. [01:13:19] Speaker A: So let's talk about why fnatic has been looking rough. Because in their win against Gamma, let's at least talk about that, because they did pick up a win here. Very similar drafts to what we've seen, where you get like the Ziggs with ad champions elsewhere. You get the nar, you get the j four, you get the yone. But even then, it's like they're not getting these gold leads. They were actually at a gold deficit for most of this game, and it was kind of like a comeback when it wasn't like a big gold deficit. But what we know about Fnatic and Lec is they would get a gold lead and then they would throw it. And they weren't necessarily known for playing from behind. And that's how they've been playing so far at worlds. [01:13:58] Speaker D: You can't throw a gold lead if you never have it. [01:14:02] Speaker A: That's a great point. You know, I hadn't thought of it that way. [01:14:06] Speaker B: Just lose or win down gold. That's the best way to do it. [01:14:11] Speaker A: Is that. Is that how fanatic beats Weibo? [01:14:14] Speaker B: Yeah, they. They win while they're down one k. That's gonna happen. [01:14:18] Speaker A: Hell, yeah. Yeah. Love to hear that. I don't think that's likely, though. Cause typically, when you're down gold against an LPL team, they know what to do with that gold lead, and it just kind of gets worse as the game goes on in general, you know. [01:14:34] Speaker D: If you want to see what it looks like when two teams with atrocious macro face off, go watch DK versus fnatic. It is the funniest thing ever to just see these teams saying, we could play the map or we could run mid lane and beat each other up again. [01:14:49] Speaker A: It's so much more fun, but spectator sport, and then you watch them versus top esports, and you're like, oh, no. Oh, no. We don't have the hands for this. [01:15:02] Speaker B: Something's wrong. [01:15:04] Speaker A: I can feel it. [01:15:04] Speaker B: Something very, very wrong. [01:15:06] Speaker D: Why on God's green earth do you give top esports be one yone for cream? [01:15:15] Speaker B: Because it'd be really funny. [01:15:17] Speaker A: We have this smolder. [01:15:19] Speaker C: Why on God's green earth would you like cream? Bail himself out of his laning phase and just play for team fights, man. Like, I. [01:15:27] Speaker A: Yeah, this was, I think, the worst look that we've had from fnatic so far. And, you know, the DK one was both of them being silly. The game one was fnatic being silly, but then they brought it back because they just had good objective control. Got all the dragons, you know, like, they got soul quick. They got elder dragon pretty quick, as well. But then the top esports game, that was rough. Outside of, you know, making some plays onto 369, they just, like, weren't able to find any purchase in this game, and, yeah, I don't. I don't know. I think that the big thing was leaving that yone up. [01:16:01] Speaker D: I just. [01:16:02] Speaker A: I really hope that every team with these three days off can just look at the yone win percentage and say, that's a problem. If we're on red side, do not leave that thing up. Other chances for fnatic, though, like, any. Any bright spots at all, any players that we want to highlight or give some kind of shout outs to? [01:16:22] Speaker D: Noah has been better than I expected. He hasn't had those massive issue moments that we've seen in the past, aside from him, kai'sa diving into braum as kind of a Hail mary to try and take back a game, but that game was already lost, so I don't put too much on him at that point. [01:16:42] Speaker B: Had to go for something. [01:16:43] Speaker D: Yeah, he had to go for something. So I give him a little bit of props there. Humanoid man, you got to do better. Your entire thing is you show up when it matters most at worlds. He hasn't done a thing. [01:16:57] Speaker A: I think that they need to get off of the smolder meta. I don't think that that's going to be enough. I think that they need humanoid eyes. When I think of humanoid and his clutch factor, I think of things more like the mages, less of the big ad carries. So hopefully they can find some way to fit their draft a little bit better for what is going to work for this team. But I think expectations are low that they're able to take a win here against Weibo. Do we think it's higher chance the fnatic gets a win, series win against weibo than it is for fly to get a series win against Hlito? I'm going to say the same thing. 10%. Is it a above 10% or below 10% that fnatic can win this series? Bickle? [01:17:37] Speaker D: That's above. Easily above. [01:17:39] Speaker A: Okay, mongoose. [01:17:40] Speaker B: I think it's above. [01:17:41] Speaker A: All right, Hawk, this. You can do the funny thing here. [01:17:44] Speaker C: Above 10%. But I think. I think fly has a better chance against h l e. I think fnatic is uncompetitive in this tournament. I think fnatic is garbage. I really do. I don't think this team is good. And I think. I think Wayobo is still very, very solid. They've not looked great, but I think Fnatic's cooked. [01:17:59] Speaker A: I'm. [01:17:59] Speaker C: I'm really out on this team. I have been for the last few weeks. I'm sorry to fans, but if you. [01:18:05] Speaker A: Are an Na fan, you are really hoping fnatic wins because then maybe Team. [01:18:10] Speaker C: Liquid or flying, you're kind of spitting. [01:18:13] Speaker A: With that one too, so. And also, if you're an Lac fan, because that means that a fnatic win, they have a high chance of pulling an Na team too. So like, I think it goes both ways. Obviously, lect fans will have other reasons to want Fnatic to win just to continue cheering on for their team teams. But yeah, that's kind of the. The blessed scenario for the potential draw implications. [01:18:36] Speaker D: Basically, the blessed scenario is they draw each other in that sort of situation, forcing a western team out. The cursed scenario for every four western team that we've mentioned is either that they end up in the two two bracket and they draw Blg. [01:18:53] Speaker A: Yes. [01:18:54] Speaker B: They're not going to draw BlG because BlG is about to lose to PSG. [01:18:58] Speaker A: Which is the other match you can talk about it if you want, though. How does PSG do it? How does PSG do it? [01:19:10] Speaker B: If they do it somehow Ajay does not get Giga gapped by Ben and the game is somehow playable for Maple and Betty. Betty gets Kai'sa and just can roll over a game and maple somehow just goes crazy on yone. I don't know. There's got to be a lot of fuck ups from BLG. But I do think there is a high likelihood that they can get a game. I'm not gonna say they're gonna get a series win, but I think they can get a game. And if they get a game, that's a win. I don't care. I'm taking that. [01:19:43] Speaker D: I'm. [01:19:44] Speaker A: You take that one all the way to the bank. [01:19:45] Speaker D: I'm just saying, back at MSI, this series did go to five games. [01:19:52] Speaker B: PsG's good. PsG's good. [01:19:55] Speaker A: PSG. And there's a reason that we hyped them up so much coming out of planes as well. [01:20:00] Speaker C: I just realized, first of all, PSG is good. I don't think this is like a raffle stomp 20, if I'm being honest. Like it might be a 20, but I don't think it's gonna be like an embarrassment to the PCs if PSGd PSG. So if PSG wins and way of o beats fnatic, TL's potential opponents are all of a sudden very limited. Right. Because they can't rematch either of those two teams. It would either be like a probable like fly quest or like maybe a chl. [01:20:33] Speaker D: PSG. [01:20:35] Speaker A: Yeah, they can play PSG. [01:20:39] Speaker C: Sorry, ignore me. Never mind. I'm stupid. My bad. Guys, guys. [01:20:43] Speaker A: You're good. You're good. No worries. Yeah, pretty much the only team tl can't play at this point is weibo because they got knocked into lower very early and now are going to just eliminate teams on their way out or get eliminated. Yeah, that's actually an interesting point. Is there going to be any weird almost forced matchups? I guess none of it's going to be forced. [01:21:06] Speaker C: Seeming like that's going to happen. Even now that I think about it, at most you can only not play two teams, I think. I don't think there's anyone that cannot really. So what's up? Sorry. [01:21:21] Speaker A: I think it is possible like g two, right? Because like g two, they wouldn't be able to play png. Well, I guess they're right. [01:21:29] Speaker C: Most teams have played someone that's either eliminated or advanced. I don't even know if it's mathematically possible. Genuinely curious, but regardless. Oh, wait. No, it's not, because you're. You're either coming from a one two or a two one, and that means you're. [01:21:43] Speaker A: No, you could have won. Lost one, or lost one one. Wait, it's possible series played because we had that big one one. [01:21:53] Speaker C: I don't. I think with teams only not having, at most access to two teams, I think they should. There shouldn't be too much forcing. Maybe just limited options. [01:22:04] Speaker A: Yeah, I'm trying to, like, I'm just looking at real quick. I'm not seeing any obvious ones. Maybe t one. T one. T one. Top esports. They can't play png, and they can't play blg. So blg and top esports are not snipable for t one. That's actually really good for t one. [01:22:23] Speaker B: Yeah, t one's in a real. [01:22:24] Speaker A: Wow. Okay. [01:22:26] Speaker C: Unless they have to play. Wait, did they already play blg? I'm sorry? [01:22:29] Speaker D: They already played blg. [01:22:30] Speaker A: They beat blg. [01:22:34] Speaker C: Versus t one is kind of likely then, because if t one can't play those teams and then tl can't play. [01:22:44] Speaker D: Weibo. [01:22:45] Speaker C: Waybo way about, like, it kind of pushes them towards each other, doesn't it? [01:22:49] Speaker D: It increases the likelihood. [01:22:51] Speaker A: Mm hmm. [01:22:51] Speaker B: They are really rooting for DK to beat top esports and send top esports down to two. Two. Because then that'll be three teams that t one can't play. [01:23:03] Speaker A: Two teams. [01:23:03] Speaker B: Yeah, two teams. [01:23:05] Speaker A: Yeah. I mean, there's worlds where that happens. That would be hype, but it's still. There's a lot of ifs in all. [01:23:12] Speaker B: These statements, because if BLG wins, know. [01:23:16] Speaker D: And we've mentioned the other five matchups, so quick thing we've mentioned, DK plays top esports. DK's coming from that 20 bracket. Top esports coming up from one. One. Top esports so far has lost to Gen G. DK has lost to LNG. DK's run so far has, dare I say, been a bit fraudulent. [01:23:38] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:23:39] Speaker D: Top esports has had their ups and downs, but say, overall, they look pretty solid. I think they're the favorite in this matchup here. We'll have to wait and see, though. [01:23:47] Speaker A: If. If TL wins against Gam and we pull DK, I actually feel pretty good about that, because first off, I think TL, if they're playing well, can beat DK, and then we don't have the fraudulent accusations because we'd be like, hey, we beat one of the LCK teams to get out. Same with flyquest, honestly. Oh, wait, no. [01:24:09] Speaker D: There are two teams that team Liquid can draw because obviously they can't get Weibo. Again. DK is the one team them. Like, they can possibly do this. [01:24:17] Speaker A: Yeah, HlE would be crazy. But if that happens, that means Flyquest is already out. So congratulations. [01:24:23] Speaker D: If HlE ends up in two. Two. There's been something terribly gone wrong. [01:24:27] Speaker A: Something went wrong. But I gotta say, I'm still rooting for that t one match. I want TLT one for an elimination match. We talked about that weeks ago on the podesthe. That would just be so cool. I would absolutely love that. We've already been going for a pretty long time on the pod, so let's close things out, which is the games to watch. There's so many games. Everyone just give one your favorite game from the week that you recommend everyone go check out if they haven't caught that game or any of the world's games and they only have a limited amount of time. Let's start with Hawk. Hawk, what's your must watch game that you recommend everybody go check out? [01:25:03] Speaker B: Oh, man. [01:25:04] Speaker A: Go watch the. [01:25:06] Speaker C: The hle hanwha. [01:25:09] Speaker A: That. That was awesome. [01:25:11] Speaker C: The twitch game and everything. Wait, I said hili hanwha. Genji hanwha. [01:25:15] Speaker A: There we go. [01:25:16] Speaker C: Go watch genji hanwha. It was. It was really awesome. The. Yeah, absolutely crazy, man. The. [01:25:24] Speaker A: The. [01:25:24] Speaker C: All the twitch in the end. And the team fighting was crazy. [01:25:28] Speaker A: I really enjoyed, just like, there's a rematch of LCK finals. It was some really good league of Legends that we saw. Yeah, a lot of good reasons to go check that one out. I like it. Mongoose, what's yours? [01:25:41] Speaker B: I'm going to go with game mad. Game three. [01:25:47] Speaker A: Okay. [01:25:49] Speaker B: I think I just really enjoyed watching game. [01:25:52] Speaker A: Yeah, just water game. [01:25:54] Speaker B: It was fun. I don't think it necessarily a really great game. I think if you want, like, a really fun game, go watch, like, t one blg. I think that game was pretty fun, but I just enjoyed watching Gamdi. Well, I will always support the minor region teams when they're doing well. [01:26:10] Speaker A: Cool. Bakel, what's yours? [01:26:12] Speaker D: If you're an na fan who wants to live in any sort of happiness, go watch, like, the first 25 minutes of Team liquid versus weibo and then just shut off. [01:26:21] Speaker A: That was gonna be mine. [01:26:22] Speaker D: Just shut it off after that bit of time and act like nothing ever happened. But in reality, I'd say g two. Hanwha. Life is what I recommend. [01:26:30] Speaker A: Okay, that was a great game too. G 200 life was fantastic. I'm going to stick with it though. Team Liquid weibo just because it was we had so much hope, man. It was like 14 kills to four. We were five k in the lead. And then team Liquids brains just turn off and they just get destroyed in their own jungle for a Baron setup and the game's pretty much over. But it was still a satisfying game to watch from an Na fan for the majority of it, and it gave hope that Team Liquid could do damage. Avoid the team Liquid pain series though, because that might bring you back down to earth. But that's it. That's our opinions of the games you should check out. That's our opinions of how things have looked so far in the swiss bracket. A reminder, the games will begin again Thursday morning for folks in Naez, afternoon for folks over in EU. It'll be DK versus Tes to kick things off, and then Hle versus fly. So we will have an NA team. If you're a g two fan, you'll have to wait until Friday because they'll take on t one then, and then BLG PSG Weibo fanatic on Saturday, and then Team Liquid Gam on Saturday. So at least there's like an NA or an EU team on all three days. That's pretty exciting. But thanks so much for sticking with us for this week's episode. If you can drop us a five star review or a thumbs up wherever you are listening, it really does help the podcast get noticed. Thank you again to everybody who supports us, whether through the Patreon or the merch store. I still have the tab up so I can go make my purchase right now. And thank you to all of my co hosts for coming on every week and talking about league of legends, which we all so love. Speaking of everybody listening, we love you and we'll see you next time. Next time. Bye. [01:28:09] Speaker D: Peace. [01:28:12] Speaker A: Oh yes, daddy.