League Rundown - Episode 535: It’s the faith that makes it hurt

[00:00:31] Speaker A: At the table with Messiah tanking it up. I do not believe he just. [00:00:41] Speaker B: What? [00:00:42] Speaker A: I cannot understand this game. Unicorns of love. [00:00:48] Speaker C: It wasn't you against the nexus. [00:01:06] Speaker A: Hello and welcome to episode 535 of the league rundown. This is another world's preview episode. Quarters in review and semis up for preview. This episode is lovingly entitled it's the faith that makes it hurt. I am your host. You can call me Kangas. And I am joined by three esteemed co hosts. Up first. We got a bickle. They made me believe. [00:01:32] Speaker D: And that's what makes it hurt so damn much. [00:01:36] Speaker A: Did you cry? Were there any tears shed? [00:01:38] Speaker D: No, no tears. Just pain. [00:01:41] Speaker A: Just pain. You know, you don't have to cry for it to be real. [00:01:46] Speaker D: Still real to me. [00:01:48] Speaker A: Really back here and really probably sad. With his crystal ball pick, we got Mister Mazelpio. I had to do it first thing, man. [00:01:57] Speaker B: Yeah, I'm excited. I get to talk about some fun stuff. Stuff today. [00:02:02] Speaker A: Yeah. Hey, at least there is guaranteed an LPL team in finals. We'll talk about that in a bit here. But we also have hot off the presses with the brand new bird fact. Hawk. Right. [00:02:16] Speaker C: Bird fact. [00:02:17] Speaker B: While he googles. [00:02:19] Speaker A: Oh boy. [00:02:20] Speaker C: Did you know that I can't even remember like what I already talked about on the pod before. [00:02:27] Speaker B: Doesn't matter because they probably won't remember either. [00:02:29] Speaker C: Okay. [00:02:29] Speaker A: I guarantee you I won't. So you're good? [00:02:31] Speaker C: Yeah. So, you know everyone knows that falcons are the fastest birds in the world, right? The peregrine falcon can reach speed. [00:02:39] Speaker A: I didn't know that. But now I do. [00:02:40] Speaker C: Oh, so the peregrine falcon is the fastest bird in the world. It can reach speeds of up to 200 miles an hour on a dive. Actually, that'll just be my bird fact. I'm not gonna tip my bird. [00:02:47] Speaker A: That's crazy. No need to. That's a great fact. [00:02:50] Speaker B: Did you know that bird's bones are hollow? [00:02:52] Speaker C: Yes, that's what helps them fly. [00:02:55] Speaker D: I mean, you could just say hawks are the natural predators of mongoose and badgers. Which are why neither of them are here today. [00:03:01] Speaker A: That's a good point, dude. [00:03:02] Speaker C: That is good point. [00:03:03] Speaker A: Badger refuses to be on episode with hawk. Apparently. I didn't realize that the two of you had bad beef. [00:03:10] Speaker C: But now you know why. [00:03:11] Speaker A: I mean, true natural predator makes sense. But the fact of the week is parallel falcons. 200 billion mph, something like that. [00:03:21] Speaker C: Parallel falcons is really fun. I like that. [00:03:24] Speaker A: There we go. [00:03:24] Speaker C: Two flying side by side actually makes them faster. [00:03:29] Speaker A: Yeah, it's like twin jets on a plane as opposed to like a singular rotor. Yeah, that makes sense. All right, let's talk about League of Legends because that's what everybody's here for. We have some quick global news and roster rumors. We're gonna go through these fast just because it is world season, so we want to keep the attention on worlds. But we also are keeping our fingers on the pulse of all these things happening over in the LEC specifically. Cause that's where most of the action is happening right now. Again, a lot of roster rumors to get through, so let's rapid fire through these and maybe talk about just some of the highlights after the fact. [00:04:02] Speaker D: Sure thing. So the only thing that we've kind of had a pseudo confirmation of came from Noah. It seems as though he and Fnatic are parting ways. Noah stated that after their series against Weibo, he wanted to step away from the team and so that it seems that is the way they are going. But after this, there's a lot of other rumors though. There is one confirmation coming from the LCK. BDD has re signed with KT Rolster, kind of the premier mid laner that was going to be on the market. No longer on the market, but LEC rumors as this is where it all is, they seem to be going rapid fire, going fast. G two we mentioned last week they're looking for a new jungle support. May have found it in Skew Mond, a rookie coming out of BDS Academy alongside Labrove, a non rookie coming out of BDS SK keeping Isma at the jungle, bringing back JNx, formerly known as Gen X, to the top lane. I think he also won. I think he was also part of BDS Academy and won EU Masters. I'd have to double check that, but I think that was the case. Heretics bringing in two more rookies, Stend and Camillo. Stend, a rookie on vitality b, the team that came in second in EU Masters. Camilo, interestingly, never played in tier one at all. He's come not even EU Masters. He's coming from tier two. So no experience in the EU master. [00:05:24] Speaker A: Scene whatsoever, which from my understanding has never happened in Lec. And the only time in lcs had happened was Danny coming up back when he was Shiro and then came up name change to Danny when he joined lcs. [00:05:36] Speaker D: Mentioning rookie 80 carries that are extremely young and up and coming. Kate Corp seems to have found theirs with callist seemingly locked in for them and the big one changing not just a player, but the entire organization. MDK, formerly mad lions, now mad lions koi now becoming just koi. They're back and seems to have found a new mid laner, imported, but not from China or Korea. They're bringing an na born boy over. Jojo. Pune going to mad Lions koi. [00:06:12] Speaker A: Absolutely wild. We had heard the rumors. We had talked about the rumors on the pod for like, the last two, three weeks. The fact that it's actually happening is insane to me. Mazelle. A lot of the discourse on the Na side has just been like, how did we lose one of our most promising mid laners, native mid laners that we've ever had? And there's a lot of bittersweetness here. Cause it's kind of cool that, like, an EU team wants an Na player, but it also sucks. One of our best players. [00:06:42] Speaker B: Get the fuck out of here, man. What the hell is that? [00:06:45] Speaker A: Hey, we've taken so many EU players at this point. [00:06:47] Speaker B: This isn't a two way street. It's a one way road to Na winning worlds. All right. I don't know where you turned off, what exit you went. [00:06:55] Speaker A: We're supposed to be taking all the talent over here. [00:06:57] Speaker B: Yeah, exactly. The shoe is not on the other foot. Take. Give our talent back. No, but it is interesting. I think it's very sad that we weren't able to keep Jojo in an a. I think papa koi just, or ebay rather, went ahead and opened up his pocketbook, and the rumors are pretty gigantic. So I can say my boys getting the payday in the bag time he goes over there. Uh, that's cool. It sucks that we're losing some talent, but it is going to be kind of interesting, at least on the. The angel on the shoulder argument to see what level he is at any U. Right. Because there's been over years conversation, he's the best mid laner. He's our best player in NA right now, and he hasn't been to an international in two years. It's going to be really cool to see him against some of that competition. I don't know about his team. I'm a little worried because I don't think there's enough veteran see around him. And I think he is a player that, especially when you hear from behind the scenes, he needs some kind of guiding. He needs the gutter ball things to keep him going straight. And so I just hope that he has that. I don't want him to fail. Right. I want him to succeed. I want him to be one of the best players and I just hope that they have support staff around him for that because I know he needs a lot of it, and it seems. [00:08:10] Speaker D: Like he had multiple suitors overall. He supposedly had an option to remain in North America. I believe from Shopify Rebellion seemed to be the only team looking that direction. But over in the LEC, it wasn't just MDK as team heretics had been there for a bit, but they ended up not winning out. And at the last minute, fanatic was interested in his services as well. But he'd already started going the direction with MDK, so that's where Jojo ended up. [00:08:41] Speaker A: I dude, fanatic. Jojo would have been so fun to cheer for, though. That would have made me a fanatic fan again. I was a big fnatic fan back during like, the reckless era. Definitely have fallen off. Like, I still cheer for them, but I'm not as like, devoted of a follower anymore. But that might have gotten me back. Yeah. Okay. That's all the LEC rumors. I do know that there's a couple things happening over in the LPL region, though. So since we have Mister Miss LPL with us, what are some of the hot rumors for rosters and changes happening over there? [00:09:11] Speaker B: We do. Well, it's really just a salty player spilling the beans on his stream, but okay, my king, Allah has divulged some serious secrets about 2025. So I've got a list here. This was all on his stream. It's all translated in English. He's a free agent, first of all. So one of the best top laners in LPL is going to be a free agent. We're apparently going to hear about doin b coming back in the next month or so, which is crazy. Cause he was literally, like, taken away from China. [00:09:46] Speaker A: Yeah, right. Like, wasn't he, like, kicked out of the country? [00:09:49] Speaker B: The biggest news, my boy JJ is finally out of fucking jail. Oh, my God. He's not gonna be on EdG next year. EDG literally kept this man in a closet under the stairs like Harry Potter. And unfortunately, he was not able to play the game. He literally was surrounded by rookies who had never been proven, who had had never even been at his level. He is a world champion, and they had him. With five rookies, or four rookies rather, going into next year, he is going to be free. He's going to be looking for big teams. I look out for him. Going to either lng or to nip. I think those are the two big suitors who really need jungle help. It would be really cracked to see JJ with some of those mid laners this guy has what it takes, and even on a shitty EDG team, he was still pulling off miracles, so I'm really excited for that. Allah talked a little bit about the drama between EDG and him. Him and JJ went into the year last year thinking that it was going to be a world championship run, or at least a championship run of the LPL. But then EDG swapped under and added three rookies to the roster at the last second. So there's a lot of ish ifs and buts going on with that roster. But the fact that we have Allah and JJ looking for new teams next year is going to be super huge. [00:11:04] Speaker A: Okay, cool. When you introed in with that, saying he's out of jail, knowing it's an LPL player, I wasn't sure if that was literal or if that was contract jail. A joke. Contract jail. Okay. I'm happy that we're able to identify that quickly. [00:11:18] Speaker B: The story, I couldn't imagine jail, not gonna lie. Goes too nice to figure out if. [00:11:24] Speaker D: They'Re actually in jail or not. Ask, are they on Rng and Edg? If they are, contract jail. [00:11:29] Speaker A: If not, it might be real. All right, I'll keep that rule going forward, but that. Okay, so we think that whoever is able to get. Would a team be looking at both of them at the same time? [00:11:40] Speaker B: I think it's gonna be separation. Cause jungle is a very different conversation than top lane right now. I actually feel like our top lane is pretty set. So Allah is gonna need to find a team that's really desperate or a team that's willing to take a chance on him, especially with the lackluster performances. He had this split and last split on EDG, he was literally tilting out of the game. He was getting subbed out because he was just pissed off, but that was also because EDG did that to him. So I don't expect them to stick around together. I expect JJ to go to one of the top teams and allah to go to, like, a middling average team. [00:12:09] Speaker A: Okay. And it's still going to be, isn't it? 17 teams in the LPL. So, yeah, a lot of teams to be shopping around for potential players. Could you imagine a league that has that many players? I remember back when I thought that lcs would expand to get to that point at some point. Could you imagine, let's just have lcs and NACL merge into one thing. [00:12:32] Speaker B: How about that? [00:12:32] Speaker A: You know, we'll just get all the teams together. We'll get, you know, blue Otter and Dragoons, goose like an ACL, dragoons, goons. [00:12:39] Speaker C: Yeah, we did. [00:12:40] Speaker B: There was a time where I was covering 17 teams in LPL and 16 teams in ACL at the same time. And it was like. Honestly, it was like some of the most fun I've ever had. [00:12:49] Speaker D: I'm. I mean, with the Americas now being north and south, we technically have 16 teams. [00:12:55] Speaker A: That's a great point. So we're almost as good as LPL now. I think that's the lesson where we're about as good. [00:13:02] Speaker B: Absolutely. Absolutely. [00:13:04] Speaker A: Which is why we about to did as well as LPL versus LCK teams in quarterfinals, actually a little better. We'll talk about that next because it's time to start chatting about worlds. That is the big thing on everybody's mind, at least over the weekend. And now we have three more days of broadcast to look forward to. We have two semifinals matches and one grand finals. But the quarterfinals was this past weekend, and we had a lot of movement around the regions, specifically from LPL side. We had a team kill and then one LPL team tackle an LCK team, meaning that it's gonna be LPL versus LPL in the upper half of the semifinals bracket, guaranteed. An LPL team makes it to the finals, and in the bottom half the bracket, it was LCk versus LPL and LCk versus lcs, with both LCK teams picking up the win. So guaranteeing a team kill down there. So we are guaranteed LPL versus LCk finals, which I think is pretty exciting. It would be more hype if it wasn't region kills or, like, team kills along the way to get there. But still, the fact it's guaranteed, I think, is kind of cool. I don't know, Mazala, do you. Do you think it's cool? I know that you're. You're kind of, like, the resident hater of team kills in tournaments like this. [00:14:20] Speaker B: I don't know. I mean, I think at this point, you're gonna have that no matter what. And I think, like, yes, it would be cool to have them step in and say, oh, no, let's switch the bracket. Let's do blg versus t one and weibo versus gen g or something like that. But in all actuality, I think that stuff needs to come before, like, the quarterfinals, right? Like, I. Honestly, if we get to this point in the quarterfinals and only these teams have made it through to this point, like, that's the point. You can't really do that because it gets all muddled. You start wondering, okay, well, if you're taking this away from this team. Why can't you do that to this team? Like, stuff like that. But if we can set a standard of, like, at least in the, in the group stage, the main event, whatever, like, not have that stuff, it'd be huge. I think it worked out okay this time around. I'm a little sad that we get another blg versus weibo matchup. There's, like, some storylines that are really interesting at least, but I don't know. It'll be curious. I'm still, still not a big fan. [00:15:13] Speaker D: Not just another waybo versus blg. We get another t one versus the winner of Msi. [00:15:20] Speaker A: Ooh, that's interesting. [00:15:22] Speaker D: It's just last year's script again. [00:15:24] Speaker B: It literally is. It literally is. And nobody waited. Nobody has been able to take out faker. And unfortunately, he's just gonna win the game. He's gonna win the whole thing. [00:15:33] Speaker A: Okay. I think, I think your best case scenario is gen g can actually top t one. [00:15:38] Speaker B: I would rather gen g versus blg 100%. [00:15:41] Speaker A: Yeah. I think most lpl fans would at this point. T one are just stepping up. They always do this at worlds. I can't believe how many of us predicted against t one last week of predictions. For the first time ever, they would get knocked out in quarters and not make it to semis. Hundred percent success rate of making it to semis at every world's appearance is insane for faker. [00:16:10] Speaker B: Can we have, like, a little conversation of, like, how, how does, how, how does, how does this keep happening? Like, like, there is no, like, looking at the track record, they did not play like this and, like, I don't know what they got. Is there some kind of, like, esports steroids, like, you could take, like, I don't know, man. It is wild. It is wild to me that they can go from looking like one of the worst teams in LCK to now being on the verge of making another run for a world championship. Like, there has to be something going on behind the scenes. [00:16:43] Speaker A: They were one game away from not. [00:16:44] Speaker B: Making, I don't know. There has to be something going also, it's no coincidence that, like, literally every teaser has t one in it. Even, like, the one that was made, like, at the beginning of the year had t one going. Like, it is just crazy me that somehow they managed to make it on the team side but then also on the narrative side, it was already all built up for them to be there. It's just like, I, there's something's happening, man. I don't know, it's crazy. [00:17:11] Speaker A: Pickle, did you have a point you wanted to hop in with? [00:17:13] Speaker D: It's just that, like you say, they're on their road to fighting for another world championship. They're not on the road for it. They are doing it. They're fighting for another world champion. And in all honesty, with the way they look, they might be the favorites. [00:17:29] Speaker A: Remaining in the tournament. There's a strong argument. Hawk, I want to get your opinions, though. How likely is it that there is somebody behind the scenes at riot in the game client clicking buttons to make sure that t one wins so that we can just sell more skins and keep our esport alive? Do you think that's possible? [00:17:46] Speaker C: I don't. I don't think that's what's going on, unfortunately. However. I mean, it is unreal. Like, Lennon's, right? Like, the fact that they keep managing to do this every year is insanely impressive. 41. [00:18:02] Speaker A: Like, they. [00:18:03] Speaker C: They looked so bad for so long, and yet they made it happen when. When it mattered most. [00:18:09] Speaker B: Right? [00:18:10] Speaker C: And so that's. That's nuts. [00:18:14] Speaker A: It is indeed a little nuts, but that is the reality that we live in. So let's go over the matchups that happened in quarterfinals. We talked a little bit about t one, but they were the third match. So let's start with number one, which was the LPL versus LPL match. So we'll get Mazzella's opinion on this one. To start us off here, LNG took on Weibo, and it was a three one victory for Weibo. Every single one of us predicted LNG, but they had the curse of not playing a game for, like, 13 days or twelve days or something before this. Not as long as Gen G, because LG played the first quarterfinals. Gen G played the last quarterfinals. But still, it had been a while since LNG had actually taken to the world stage. So, Mizel, to start us off here, what were some kind of the highlights and lowlights of this match? And why do you feel that waybo was, on the day, able to take it from LNG? [00:19:03] Speaker B: I think a lot of it had to do with the time. I think if you look at the track, and this is just in general about LPL teams, when we literally have this happen, every single split in our playoffs, our two seeds, our first two seeds get a three week break before they even play a single game. And I think we see that all of our top teams always falter. The only one that didn't of recent memory is BLG, literally, this summer. Um, but if you look back at LPL playoffs and stuff like that. It's always those top seeds getting knocked down because the momentum is super important, important for LPL teams. Not only feeling good about the meta, but also your gameplay mechanics. And I think that was very evident that not only the prep was really good from Weibo, but it just felt like LNG was not ready to play the game. And I think we could talk about the elephant in the room. Scout pretty much whole handedly losing the series for them, I think was really rough. And it was a culmination of a lot of things for scout. And it was, I don't feel like it was a, you know, staple of what his performances can bring. But in the moment it feels really bad because he was built up as the main carry. He was built up as the guy who's going to bring this team across the finish line. And the fact that it ended up in his hands and he fumbled it so hard feels really bad. I just think as in general Waybo, you can never count them out. They have some of the most premier veterans across the entirety of the LPL and their meta read has actually been half decent and light has been literally super Saiyan, uh, every single game that he'd been playing over the last two weeks. So I think it was a culmination of a lot of things. But not playing for two weeks destroyed LNG. [00:20:38] Speaker A: Yeah, it happens quite often, especially at the international level. Like, think about that. This is world's the highest pressured games of the entire year and it's supposed. [00:20:48] Speaker B: To be a positive. [00:20:48] Speaker A: You just had to watch from the sidelines for so long. [00:20:50] Speaker B: It's supposed to be a positive. You're supposed to, I got first seed, I get weak side. It's like, no, it's not a positive in our game. Like in a traditional game, traditional sports, probably you get a lot of rest. That feels really good. But in a game, you need to actively be thinking about the game constantly. [00:21:07] Speaker A: And I'm sure that, you know, scrim wise, it's not hard to get scrims if you're one of the teams that goes 30 to make it out quickly. But that's different from translating between scrims to actual on stage games. Yeah, but by the end of that, I mean, it was another yone loss for LNG. We actually saw a couple of yone losses towards kind of the tail end of the tournament. Does anybody remember what's win rate is right now? I know it was crazy early on. [00:21:32] Speaker C: I can pull it up. [00:21:34] Speaker A: Yeah, pull that up for me. Cause I'm curious what it actually is currently at. Cause we saw it won a game earlier for LNG and for scout but then they lost the last one with it. [00:21:45] Speaker C: This is just at the main event. I can't get both the play ins and the main event next to each other. Right now it's 17 eight in the main event with a 68% win rate across however many games. [00:21:56] Speaker A: It is still great. So it's still very good. Not nearly as high as play ins. [00:21:59] Speaker C: It's not nasty. [00:22:01] Speaker D: Over the entire tournament, if you want to include planes, it is 23 and nine with a 72% win rate. [00:22:08] Speaker C: Okay. [00:22:09] Speaker A: Yeah, but the first half was where the majority of those wins came in and the majority of the losses have been in the second half. [00:22:15] Speaker C: I was saying this at the beginning. I think Skarner is more broken than yone for as good as yone is. I think Skarner is the stronger champion and I think we are starting to see that as at least in the main event. I think Skarner is also rocking a pretty impressive win rate of. Across 26 games it's 18 and eight. So pretty similar, a little bit stronger. [00:22:38] Speaker D: Including planes 22 and ten. [00:22:41] Speaker C: So it's actually worse if you. Funny, but yep. [00:22:43] Speaker A: Top two or top four even champions in terms of pick priority seem to be right now. Skarner, yone, Aurora, Ash. Those are like the four really high profile champions right now. [00:22:58] Speaker D: Dead on with the percent presence. Yone number one at 93%. Skarner number two at 89%. Aurora number three at 89% and Ash is number four. Drops down a bit to 76% contested by Jackson Rell, but still number four. [00:23:14] Speaker A: Oh, jacks up there. We have seen a lot of jax. Jax especially seems to be like the Cassante or Renekton answer. Sometimes you even blind pick it. So makes sense there. Yeah. So Weibo is the one that moves on, do you think? Mazelle, again, going back to you since, you know, you're the most comfortable with these teams, watching them all year, cast them all year, do you think that Weibo is a team that has a chance to do more damage? Like what's like a series that you were confident in? Like, okay, they're looking good coming out of this. I think they can actually make a push. [00:23:45] Speaker B: I think so. I actually think they're going to give a lot better of a look towards BLG. The last time we saw these two teams was the, the freaking double three zeros that BLG did over them, which I don't feel like has any hold over the series that we're going to watch here coming up. But as a whole, I think it has always been true, and at this point, it will forever be true. Weibo always have the chance to do damage. And if BLG aren't prepping right, if they're not taking this series seriously, we're going to see Weibo in another championship. [00:24:14] Speaker A: Okay, well, we'll see what happens in the next series. Coming up. First up is the other quarterfinals. But, pickle, final thoughts. [00:24:22] Speaker D: I swear to God, if we get another way about finals. [00:24:25] Speaker B: But it's Tarzan this time. It's not way way. It's fine. The man who literally would have not Tarzan, by the way, did everybody here know that Tarzan was literally not playing all the way until may on a competitive team? Yeah, it's wild. [00:24:42] Speaker D: Do you remember what happened last time Tarzan played against t one at worlds? [00:24:47] Speaker B: Yes. I don't different Tarzan, but also just random. I already tangented about the Tarzan not playing in spring last year. Guess who didn't play in spring as well. For waybo. [00:25:00] Speaker A: For waybo. I have no idea. [00:25:02] Speaker B: Way way. [00:25:03] Speaker A: Let me guess, though. [00:25:04] Speaker B: Oh, so that's two years in a row that the jungle that they have in summer going to the world championship has not played in spring. [00:25:12] Speaker A: Secret. [00:25:13] Speaker B: I don't know, man. I don't know. [00:25:16] Speaker A: All right, what junglers didn't play this spring? You know, we'll start making a list for who Weibo could sign for next year, but let's move on to the next quarterfinals for now because there is more reason to celebrate as an LPL fan, even more for who they beat this time around. Because it wasn't a region team kill. It was Billy. Billy getting the better of Hanwha Life esports, the number one seed coming in from the LCK Mazelle. I'll give you a little bit of room to gloat here because they were a three one victory, and you were the only one to predict them to. [00:25:48] Speaker B: Actually win the series when the world needed him most. Shun showed up as Batman kindred. It was a dominating series. Honestly, in a lot of cases, I think a couple of the games were very, very interesting in terms of the decision making Hle were doing and trying to push the mold of BLG. But the thing is, I always have hope in this BLG to be able to scrap out games in games four, games five. Their team fighting decision making is ruthless, and that's what we saw against HLE. Even in that game number four. I think we got to see a lot of what makes Blg look good when they're looking good. And I know there's been all the conversation of they haven't looked like themselves, they haven't looked like their regional times on the LPL, but it is a team that they are scrappy as hell and when push comes to shove, they will show up. And especially this year, that wasn't the case last year, obviously. They overcame those demons. That was one of the biggest narratives coming into this year was are they going to be able to shake off all the stuff, all the bad that happened to them, the JDG losses, all that stuff, they literally dominated all year long. And to see them finally show up, especially in a best of five where I knew that is their bread and butter, that is where they learn and be able to correlate that kind of difference that we were talking about so much. It feels so good and so gratifying to see them actually succeed. I will say there's still some question marks and they did have to rely on that grit and that kind of tenacity in those later games. But that's the BLG I love, and that's the BLG that if they're performing like that, they'll win a world championship. [00:27:22] Speaker A: They just had to rely on elk, man. [00:27:24] Speaker B: Dude, with the LPL, ADC's man, they were tired of hearing about pays and, and Viper, the dah, bro. All four of them, man. [00:27:32] Speaker A: All four. [00:27:34] Speaker D: If you have to watch one game of League from this entire weekend, not like as a hype game that gets you the na hope going, but just as a pure great phenomenal game of League of Legends game number 400 versus. [00:27:51] Speaker C: Billy, that was just a great series in general, phenomenal. I think it's fair to say that was probably the highest quality series of the week. Obviously FlyQuest versus Gen G was fucking awesome for many reasons. But I do think like hamwa life against BLG was looking like two teams that could win the world championship. [00:28:10] Speaker A: And literally, if. Sorry to cut you off. No, no, that's your point. Not even just say like if you can only watch one game, one series, watch this. If you only have time for 30 seconds, for 1 minute, 30 seconds of League of Legends gameplay, watch the last team fight apparent between these two teams. The double galaxy. [00:28:34] Speaker B: That was the dragon fight. That was the dragon. [00:28:35] Speaker A: That was a baron. [00:28:37] Speaker D: Which then went in. [00:28:38] Speaker B: Yeah. And then that Baron fight ended up being like the ADC wonder pop off. [00:28:43] Speaker A: With like God, dude, the whole sequence was just cinema. Like elk popped the. [00:28:49] Speaker B: I will counterpoint though, and I know this was like somewhat talked about. I actually don't think it was like, that magnificent of a series. Like, in terms of mechanical. Like, if you look at the macro decision making for a majority of those games, it was not rough. It was like people running around their chicken like chickens with their heads cut off. Right. But when it came down to the team fights, to just getting in there on the field, five on five, like, that shit hit, and it was incredible. [00:29:17] Speaker D: I also hate to do this, but it's been long enough and consistent enough that we have to talk about Doran in high pressure situations. [00:29:28] Speaker B: Yeah, he's going to. [00:29:29] Speaker D: It's been four worlds in a row, three worlds in a row, where he just, whenever it gets to the biggest stage, he folds. [00:29:40] Speaker A: I hate the fact that I even said that last week in the prediction. I was like, Mazelle convinced me Blg is going to take it, not hle, because I had three, two Hle. And he gave a great argument. And then I even added to his argument, I was like, also, Ben's just going to fold over, isn't he? And, uh, yeah, I mean, I don't know, man is. It's not that Dorn's a bad player. Like, he can make it to this stage. He can be on these great teams and be that facilitator for the team, but he's just nothing the clutch factor to get them the wins in these high pressure moments. But what is, I think, great to see is that a player like Zeka was able to step up and be a little bit more of that. I mean, he has that one world championship under his belt, but a lot of that was kind of the deft storyline and narrative, and Zecha got more swept under the rug. But this is, again, his meta, his. His champ pools. He's able to play the Silas, and he had some really cool moments, especially in that game one where he just pops off on the Silas. Game four on the. Silas has a pretty good game as well. So I think that there were bright spots for this hunt real life esports roster, even in this series, but the big rough spot was definitely Doran. [00:30:57] Speaker C: I mean, I'm going to be honest, Doran's played on a lot of great teams and everything, but I do think it's somewhat disingenuous that everyone's like, oh, he just chokes in high pressure situations, because I also don't think anyone's ever thought that Doran is the best player on the teams that he's on. And I think that's a big part of it. Like, he's obviously good enough to play at this level. However, I do think it's easy to look at him and be like, oh, he sucks, or whatever because he's not showing up in these moments. But I don't think he's ever expected to. I just don't think he's the best top laner in the world. I don't think if he needs to be the best top player in the world, he should never be expected to and been, at least in my head, I would have always expected to beat Doran. So, yeah, it was not a great showing for him, but at the same time, I don't know if I'm actually that surprised. [00:31:43] Speaker A: I think it's a good way to put it. It was kind of the expectation that we had, and it wasn't that, oh, Doran has to beat Ben in order for Hle to win. The hope was that he would just kind of hold the line. But then in, you know, the later game, team fight, high pressure situations, just cousin wasn't able to do as much of that. But again, I feel like Elk just really heavily performed specifically in that game four in the big, pivotal last moment, team fights. [00:32:10] Speaker B: I will also. Go ahead. Go ahead. [00:32:12] Speaker D: I was saying just something to note. A pick that we've seen gaining a lot of popularity and priority come this world has been looking pretty solid. The Silas became a big pressure point this series. [00:32:26] Speaker B: I will say, though, Doran, he had a saving grace. There's one thing that saved him. It's something we're going to talk about a little bit later. [00:32:36] Speaker A: Is it? [00:32:37] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:32:38] Speaker A: Okay. But not right now. We're gonna mention it's the next series. [00:32:42] Speaker B: We'Re gonna talk about. [00:32:42] Speaker A: Okay. I. [00:32:43] Speaker B: Well, somebody with, like, numbers in his name and usually rolling dice, but, you know, I think they were all stuck on ones. I don't know. Yeah, we'll get into it. [00:32:54] Speaker A: Well, how about let's get into it now? Because I think that is enough of the upper half of the quarterfinals, upper half of the bracket. Let's move on to the lower half of the bracket. Whereas top esports from the LPL taken on t one, the team that was one game away out on worlds top esports was Mazelle's crystal ball pick to win the whole thing, which I know is crazy to even attempt that. Like, it's. It's so rare that anybody gets a crystal ball. Correct, but this is a little lucky. [00:33:22] Speaker B: I don't think they ever played the series. I don't know. I'm pretty sure that series still hasn't been played. [00:33:27] Speaker A: I think three, six, nine was playing a different game. [00:33:30] Speaker B: Yeah, I think what they did is they went and found, like, the first five children that they could in the audience, and then they just put them in their seats. They're like, do you know what League of Legends is? No, I don't. Here you go. I I cannot believe, and I'm the first one to hype up top esports. I'm also the one that's gonna say, I'm gonna get all meme y about it. But, like, this series is not the definition of what top esports was this year, and I'll be the first one to say that this team was dominant. The fact they went out like this is despicable and, honestly, pretty pathetic. But it is a factor where, like, it looked like this team had never played a game of league of legends before. They were making bad lane assignments. They were making bad fight assignments. Their warding was completely off. Their positioning in three mans was completely off. It literally, like, this team that had spent so much of this split dominating map states from minute five onward, literally fighting every single objective, no matter what. And being at every single fight was just non existent. And I'm still flabbergasted looking back at some of the gameplay. Like, I cannot believe what we watched. And it was just a complete and utter breakdown of all five positions. [00:34:46] Speaker A: I mean, there's two sides to every story talking about from the top esports side. It feels like break down from the t one side if we want to, like, reframe it to be more. I honestly feel like t one just ran them around the map. Like, t one just never fought top esports until the later moments of the game. Wasn't one of the games. Didn't we have, like, a 17 minutes first blood? Was that game two? [00:35:09] Speaker B: I think. [00:35:10] Speaker A: I want to say one of them. [00:35:10] Speaker B: I want to. Oh, because it was, like, 22 minutes, and it was three kills. That wasn't. It was something like that. It was pretty late. [00:35:16] Speaker A: There was one. I know that we had the record for this world, at least, of first blood, and I want to say it was in this series, because t one just didn't engage. They just, like, kept running around the map. They would just pull them to a side lane, then disengage. They were teepeeing. Zaius around to, like, get away from ganks and, like, join up and take turrets faster, and I honestly felt like t one were just playing league so fluidly, and top esports did not play the same game of League of Legends in this series and were so far behind the pace of what t one were trying to attempt and do to the point that game two top didn't even get a kill. That was a zero kill game for top esports in game two, t one. Just random. [00:36:01] Speaker B: Yeah, go ahead, bickle. [00:36:03] Speaker D: I was gonna say latest first blood in the series was at eleven minutes, so not that 20 minutes, but it. [00:36:09] Speaker B: Was, like 23 minutes into game two or three or whatever, and there was only three kills, or it was. Yeah, it was game game three. I just think. I agree with the point. Yes. Obviously coming with some bias for top esports. I think t one played a hell of a game in a hell of a series. Right. Like, their mindset, their mentality, bringing it in and executing the strategy is huge. But we had three world championships on the side of top esports. We had players who have literally been playing ten plus years in Mako, and these guys were positioning in ways that, like, no normal team at that competitive level should be positioning. Right. Like, and maybe it comes from desperation. You could see a very different mentality and kind of aura, I guess, around top esports. After that game won, it felt like they. They were just kind of broken looking for something to do. And in a lot of ways, you can look at the decisions early and especially the map state from tien and Mako in game number two and just question it, because a lot of times, Mako was on a flank that he didn't need to be on a flank for. They were getting picked off in fights where one of them was, like, literally two screens away from the other, and it's just like this kind of communication is just not there that is normally there. So while I do agree top t one had some really good execution of their game plan, it's really awesome. Helps to have a team that's just not showing up, right? [00:37:29] Speaker A: Yeah. Pickle. [00:37:31] Speaker D: Yeah. It's crazy all around. Even you look at the series. Zaius and Keria both only had one death in that series. Gumiyushi went deathless. Kerria pulled out Pyke in game three, because why not? And if your top esports down zero two have been getting smacked around. Just got a kill list game. What is your answer as a counterpick? Top lanere into Gnar? If your answer is ad on hit Kennen, it's pathetic. [00:38:07] Speaker B: Yeah, literally. I also think, like, we have seen that wild. Not even wild picks at this point. The pike. Yes. The Bart. That's not a wild pick anymore. Like, you know that he's going to play that. But when you're picking these off meta champions against LPL, there is literally a multi year track record of our teams just throwing their hands up. What does this champion do? It's like, we see that in last worlds. We saw it the year before that as well. We see it exactly in this series with both the bard but majority the pike. Like, you're literally watching players stand in front of Kerria out dodging themselves to try to get away from the bone skewer, and he is just stop standing there watching them do. It's like, you obviously have no bounds of how to approach playing against a pike. [00:38:58] Speaker A: Yeah, it looks rough from top esports aside, and thankfully, we don't have to watch that much more of that rough gameplay because that was a swift exit for the true t one advancing with their plot armor. But how long will that plot armor exist? As this was the only LPL team on this side of the bracket? We cannot get a pure run back of what happened last year at worlds. But, bigel, looks like you have the final point. Halfway wrap up this quarterfinals match. [00:39:26] Speaker D: Faker has been playing League of Legends competitively for twelve seasons. He has made semifinals at worlds in nine of those. [00:39:34] Speaker B: He's a monster. [00:39:36] Speaker D: 75%. [00:39:37] Speaker A: Dude. [00:39:38] Speaker B: His gallio in that game, in that series. Holy cow. Like, this guy is just on another level. [00:39:43] Speaker C: Do you think they just get bored during the LCK summer split and that's why they don't try or what? [00:39:48] Speaker D: Like, honestly, I believe it at this point. Like, he's nine for nine in semis appearances. If he makes finals, it'll be his third in a row. [00:40:00] Speaker A: That's wild. I didn't even think about that. [00:40:05] Speaker B: I mean, they had four. Okay, didn't they have four, or didn't they have four in a row back in their first run, was it three? [00:40:12] Speaker A: They missed their second world, right. Didn't they win their first worlds and then they missed worlds the second year. [00:40:19] Speaker D: Yep. [00:40:19] Speaker A: It might have been a run after. [00:40:20] Speaker B: That thought t one went on, like, a three or four worlds run, where they made it deep in, like, that sounds right. Because they won or something. [00:40:29] Speaker A: They won 2015, 2016. They lost in the finals. 2017. Did they lose finals? [00:40:37] Speaker C: 20 17, 20 17, 20 13. [00:40:39] Speaker D: They won 2014. They missed 2015. They won 2016. They won 2017. They lost in five. [00:40:46] Speaker A: But then 2018, they were not there. [00:40:48] Speaker D: Not in worlds. Correct? [00:40:50] Speaker A: Yeah. So they've been on a three year in a row final streak already. This would be their second time. [00:40:56] Speaker B: Crazy. [00:41:00] Speaker A: Wild. All right, well, let's see if they can do it, because they do have one more opponent before a finals appearance. Let's talk about the last quarterfinals match that happened. The number one seed from not number one seed, but the number one favorite team from the LCK. Some people saying tournament favorite team swiftly getting out of the play in stage or not playing stage, the Swiss stage, and then having 15 days off at worlds going up against Flyquest from the LCS. And it was a quick 30. [00:41:36] Speaker B: Right. [00:41:36] Speaker A: Just like everyone predicted. [00:41:37] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:41:37] Speaker C: We got embarrassed, like, every year. [00:41:40] Speaker A: Yeah. Na equals near airport. Airport. Any percent. Speedrun. [00:41:46] Speaker D: I think they switched the scripts, and I think they mixed scripts in the gen g fly quest game and the tiny sports t. One game. Something here doesn't look right. [00:41:54] Speaker A: Oh, wait, you're right, because game one. Oh, my God. Fly quest. One game. [00:42:00] Speaker B: No way. [00:42:01] Speaker A: Number one. [00:42:02] Speaker D: I mean, guys, actually, we said they take game one, possibly. We said they might sneak out a win and then get smacked three games in. So I can see that. [00:42:10] Speaker C: I don't know, man. There were people. [00:42:16] Speaker A: I did say that we would win game one because of a wacky pick as well, and Gen G wasn't ready for the meta. And what do we see? Seraphine flexed to mid lane. So. Yeah, yeah. I mean, it's all tracking mizel. [00:42:28] Speaker B: I woke up all of Rafa's apartment complex when they won, and I had to be silenced because that game was a giga banger from it a's perspective, like, obviously feels real bad. Gen G, it was really one sided, actually. And then that's, like, the whole series that it culminating in, like, punch after punch. Like, Gen G would wake up after those games from FlyQuest and, like, turn it back around and absolutely dumpster them, but, man. [00:42:58] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:42:59] Speaker B: Oh, it felt good, baby. It felt good. And it's not only that it was an Na team, it's the story behind this flyquest team. I think we're all. We all know it. Everybody's super happy about it, but it's the fact that they've gone with this developmental bot lane that has been, honestly performing on some of the best levels that we've seen at worlds. It's been really, really awesome to see, but they were also able to utilize, you know, the import rule to have actually have really strong strength in the mid lane with quad and then have extreme veterancy in the top and jungle. And so I think that just. It's a strategy that works, but it's so damn cool to see it actually pulled off at the top level. [00:43:36] Speaker C: And I think it's been said a lot everywhere for anyone that follows esports on social media. But, man, how cool is it that the star of the series was Masu? N a talent? I was casting him in tier three two short years ago, and, you know, he barely scraped into proving grounds. I'm like, you know, this kid's good, but I don't know. And then, of course, he ends up becoming the hero of North America. It reminds me of 2018 cloud nine, actually, when the guy in that series was licorice, also a rookie. I believe that. [00:44:08] Speaker A: Yeah, that was his rookie year, too. [00:44:09] Speaker C: So I think a very similarly successful rookie year for Masu, if not more successful, because he actually won a title. Incredibly cool for him and for the team, and I don't want this to come with some burden of expectations that are unreachable now. Do you think that's important? A lot of people are like, how high can a ceiling be? Like, all right, let's take it one step at a time. But he's definitely living up to the hype, and that's awesome. [00:44:38] Speaker D: Is it sad we didn't get the biggest upset in league history on, like, the 6th anniversary of g two taking down rng? Five and a half years since Team Liquid took down ig? Yes. But I'm pretty damn happy that on that 7th year anniversary, we get another misfits versus skt. [00:44:58] Speaker C: Yes, because that was what. [00:45:00] Speaker A: That was what it reminded me of. [00:45:01] Speaker C: Because it was the weird pics, too. [00:45:02] Speaker A: Yep. [00:45:03] Speaker C: Echoes of misfits. That's one of my favorite series ever. I still think of Yamana cannon speech from team vitality the following year when he says the inspiration that everyone took from misfits. And I think, on one hand, it's kind of sad that we're needing to learn this lesson again, but on the other hand, I mean, and how can you. [00:45:22] Speaker A: How can you not be happy to lose? I'm happy to lose in the way that we did, because it felt like we lost our tournament playing our game against a tournament favorite. And, I mean, we talked about Masu. I think Quad also had an insane performance in this series. Got a little flown under the radar based on how Masu was performing. Yeah, literally against Chovy. And, like, the narrative there didn't quad play behind Chovy in the developmental scene and lcd challenger. So, like, that's so cool that Quad gets to show up to the world's quarterfinals and bring it to Jovi, especially in game three when he's on the zeri and just gets to smack that Silas around. That was awesome. [00:46:06] Speaker D: We made them have to play. Skarner Smulder to win. [00:46:10] Speaker B: Yeah, that is literally what they decided on. They just said we need to go scaling in the game. If you. [00:46:15] Speaker A: If you heard, they did also win with Tristana Nidalee. [00:46:19] Speaker B: So true. [00:46:21] Speaker D: I'm focusing on the fact that they needed to say, fuck it, we scale. [00:46:23] Speaker B: I do want to bring up a word that Hawk used. I think it's super important and something I've been resonating a lot in all the conversations post the. The series itself, but the inspiration, like, I. We love this scene so much, but we all know that it's been crippled and it's been died. Like, we literally have some of our best pros leaving the scene because they can't make it as a player anymore. [00:46:44] Speaker A: Right. [00:46:45] Speaker B: And that is depressing. But then when you go on Twitter after this series or during this series, and I'm seeing the likes of Samikin toasty, like all these up and coming awesome tier two, tier three inspirational moments to come through and become to lcs, they get inspiration off this and this will feed them for years. Right? And I think that kind of stuff is so much more important than winning, losing the game, all this shit. Like the fact that we have some fucking inspiration into our tier two and tier three season because of that and because we now have players that are going to feel a lot more motivated to try to make that run. They're not all going to make it, but the fact the motivation is there is so powerful. [00:47:25] Speaker C: Well said. [00:47:27] Speaker D: Last year, everyone was saying like, oh yeah, NRG makes quarters. They got smacked by weibo. They made it in by not beating any eastern teams. And the teams they did face, they got smacked by, they snuck in. Blah blah, blah, blah. This year, flyquest, yes. They didn't beat any of the east to make it in. They went three games with hanwha. They went five games with Gen G. They put up a fight in both of those series and arguably could have taken either of them. This is the best showing NA has had in worlds since 2018. Full stop. This is the best showing a western team has had in worlds since 2020. G two, this is phenomenal. [00:48:07] Speaker A: Hard to agree. And so good to see we did it our way. Let's talk about how we actually got the wins because we haven't really broken out of the series too much. Game one, we talked about the seraphine flex pick and then we had Bwipo on Galio into double ap with the rumble re. Just unkillable. Game two, we get smacked by a Kassadin mid lane who gets gifted a couple of kills early on because inspired, Nunu tried to turret dive over and over again. That happened. But getting game three, Urgot for Bwipo comes out quad with the stridebreaker rush zeri in the Silas matchup. [00:48:44] Speaker D: Dude. [00:48:45] Speaker A: Wippo's fling of pays when he, like, sends him up into the sky. Because, like, the arcane ship happened. [00:48:53] Speaker B: It was so good. [00:48:55] Speaker A: If you haven't seen the moment, go watch it. It's hilarious. Just the interaction. Some kind of bug in the game where, like, ezreal arcane shifts while Urgot's flipping him. And he just like flies in the sky and lands back down. [00:49:06] Speaker D: Not a bug. It's just the interaction. The e hits, so it's a guaranteed flip. But the arcane shift takes him away, so he gets flipped from his new location to where he will be after Urgot's disdain. [00:49:18] Speaker B: Dude. [00:49:19] Speaker A: And is the height just like scales with the distance. [00:49:22] Speaker D: It's because it's farther away. It's hilarious. [00:49:24] Speaker B: I'm just gonna say we need that cajole moment to live for the rest of League of Legends life. [00:49:32] Speaker A: He flips it back to Korea and. [00:49:34] Speaker D: We talk about Qual in this area. Masu on the kaisa. [00:49:39] Speaker A: Yes, dude. That last fight when he didn't have sums, but he bought the Zhonyas. And he just baits the fuck out of Keene, who's on this big teepee flank. Masu walks up, keen jumps on him, presses zhonyas. The whole fight breaks out, and Masu just ults perfectly to reposition. And then it's actually Quad. Cause everyone on Gen G is like Killmasu kill Masu, kill Masu. Know some. But then Quad is just free firing on this runan stridebreaker, Zeri, and just wipes the fight. [00:50:11] Speaker D: I don't even think that was a bait because Keen wasn't on vision. He catches Masu, but Masu's quick on the zhonyas and inspired flash ease with the Skarner to get the stun on, Dikin to proc the plasma to let Masu reposition. It was so lawlessly played out, man. [00:50:29] Speaker B: Dude. [00:50:29] Speaker C: Like, dude, when Masu got fed in game three on kai. So I knew we were going to win because best chance smashed the two. [00:50:36] Speaker A: V two bottling like they earned that. Fed Kaiser to the double kill to start it off. [00:50:41] Speaker D: After Wippo TPS down to stop the turret dive and Gen G gets a bit too aggressive. Busio's flash double knock up into Kaiser's double kill. Oh boy. [00:50:51] Speaker A: Then they dive, pays under turret too, and get the kill there, like, dude, masu, Busio, Rampaze lens in game three. [00:50:59] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:50:59] Speaker A: They were then on the receiving end for the rest of the series, which is the disappointing part here, just because, like in the games we lost, we got kind of smashed. [00:51:12] Speaker B: There ain't no. [00:51:15] Speaker A: Yeah, we weren't able to slow the snowballs. We were in the games for a while in kind of like fairly even game states. But I specifically in that game five, when we're against Chovy Mazzella, do you remember what minute he reached 225 stacks? [00:51:29] Speaker B: I think it was just after. It was like 1930 or 20 minutes. It was somewhere around there. Because I know what we were talking about. The 1904. [00:51:37] Speaker A: Yeah. Which was the record in the LPL. [00:51:39] Speaker B: Were aware of, but it was after. Because they didn't skirmish. He got to 190 or whatever, and then they didn't skirmish again for a little while. Cause it was after that dragon fight or whatever. And so he delayed his stacks for a while. [00:51:54] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:51:55] Speaker D: To give people an idea of how phenomenal Flyquest did here in LCK, summer split the regular season, not including playoffs. Gen G only dropped three games. They played double round robin, best of three, and FlyQuest took two games off of them in one series. [00:52:16] Speaker A: That is insane. [00:52:16] Speaker B: That's why they're my goats. [00:52:18] Speaker A: I want to then again, bring the conversation back to kind of what this means for the legacy of some of these players. Hawk, I want to get your thoughts on this one, because even though game five was probably the roughest look, especially for, like, Quad and Masu, who had great series up until that game, Quad on the yone into the smolder just had like, a really rough cut first couple minutes and just got really behind. And Masu also faltering a little bit of in the team fights. What do you think about this? Like, what this means for this roster and this team going forward? Do you think that flyquest trying to run it back, do you think that these players are going to be, like, the top of the bidding for teams going into the new americas next year? [00:52:55] Speaker C: It's actually a tough question because I don't know if they run it back. Like, obviously, yeah, they did really well. I would love to see him run it back. [00:53:03] Speaker A: Right. [00:53:03] Speaker C: But I don't feel like this was some, like, power of friendship team necessarily either. Like they. They were, but not really. So, you know, if they end up in other places, I actually don't think that's, like, the biggest tragedy in the world. I do. I would really like to see Masu and Busio stay together, and I would really like to see inspired specifically on a top team. I think those are sort of the important things that I'm personally looking at to be true. [00:53:33] Speaker A: Now, with Jojo pretty much guaranteed gone out of Na, do we think Quad is definitively the best mid laner that we have? [00:53:42] Speaker C: That's a tough question now, probably. I guess so, yeah. I can't really think of anyone better, so I think I would agree with that. [00:53:52] Speaker A: Apa would be the only one kind of, in the conversation, too. I have quad above APa, despite what Apa did to quad in game one of lcs. Quad in one split. Remember, one split. [00:54:03] Speaker B: Right. [00:54:03] Speaker A: Like, this guy was not around for very long. His journey's been kind of crazy, too. [00:54:08] Speaker B: We had to watch him do this stuff to Nacl players bad. [00:54:11] Speaker A: Like, right? [00:54:13] Speaker B: Like, literally watching shit on people. [00:54:16] Speaker A: Just in the spring, we had players be like it. Like, mid laners that we interviewed be like, it's not fair when we have to go against Quad, man. Like, this guy's, like, on another level. [00:54:26] Speaker D: Quad went from streaming to being an NACl to being in the lcs to winning the lcs to making it out of play ins. I mean, not playings to making it out of swiss to almost beating Gen G in quarterfinals in less than a year. [00:54:44] Speaker A: That's crazy. [00:54:46] Speaker B: The thing is, now that you got to be scared about is he just got so much higher on the totem pole, and there's a big likelihood he could just go back to Korea. [00:54:55] Speaker A: Yeah, that's the thing is, he is gonna be. I don't know what his contract looked like for Flyquest, if it was a full year or if it was, like, two years. [00:55:04] Speaker B: From what I know, it's his decision if he wants to go back. [00:55:08] Speaker A: All right, let's all send fan mail to quad. Let's get some gift baskets. Let's do some fan art for him. Let's get all the things going to show our na appreciation of what he was able to do while here. Maybe he'll stay. Yeah. Also, one thing that we didn't mention at the very end, game five, shout out to inspired's fiddlesticks. He tried. [00:55:31] Speaker B: It was cool. It was cool. [00:55:32] Speaker A: I loved the theory behind it. But then Bwipo, on the set into the rumble, just wasn't really able to accomplish anything. We had the crazy baron call where. That's where the game fell apart. It was literally at that 22 minutes mark where, like, we tried to sneak Baron. They noticed contested us, because bwipo lets Keane walk down. Like, wippo could have just stayed up pushing lane, and then Keane isn't able to walk in and said, I think bwipo is even one that hits like the scryers bloom. So then it tips off Gen G that, hey, they're on Baron. Anyway. They wipe us at Baron. Get the Baron game swiftly over, literally after like another five minutes, you know. [00:56:14] Speaker B: Yeah, I just want a little, like, I guess tying of a bow audit. I think just to be a gen G kind of side of things. Doubt, like, I will say there's a lot of question marks, especially in the way that they respect their opponents. That is not going to be an issue against t one. They're going to respect the shit out of them. I think in a lot of ways you can be very proud of Gen G from Gen G's perspective of just saying, like, you were able to close that one out and the games you won were clean. Like they, they absolutely dismantle flyquest in game two, game four, game five. And I think on the other side of things, like, even if that's the case, you can still be so damn proud of Flyquest. And I was talking about inspiration, motivation and stuff for, for na, but you can also see the players in EU talking about it. It's just the fact that a western team was able to do this. And I think as a whole, like, this series will go down as still one of the greatest series in all of League of legends. [00:57:09] Speaker A: And it's inspired Wippo as well. So two european players that, you know, have made great strides for, you know, their. Their region here. [00:57:17] Speaker C: One small step for a region, one giant step for western kind. [00:57:25] Speaker A: Well, we'll leave quarterfinals there because that is the end of the quarterfinals, which brings us now to semis. There are two more series to determine the finalists and then one more series to close things up. That is right. Only three more series left in League of Legends. Legends for the 2024 competitive year. And our predictions are as follows. With Weibo versus BLg in the semifinals, we have BLg across the board. Bickle still believe in a 30. I had 30 until Mazelle laughed at me and mocked me into changing it because he's like, there's no way an LPL versus LPL series. [00:58:03] Speaker B: No, there's no way a Weibo series. That's the biggest thing, dude. They every way vote can have their day. [00:58:12] Speaker A: Well, I change it to a three two. Mazel has a three two. And Badger actually threw in his predictions with a three one. Hawk, I'm going to call you out. Hasn't gotten his predictions in here. I'll give you some time to throw those in if you want to. Let me do that. [00:58:24] Speaker C: Let me do that. [00:58:25] Speaker A: Either way, for now, I want to hear from Azelle first. Since these are the teams from your region, why do you think a three two, but specifically, why do you think BlG takes the three two? [00:58:34] Speaker B: I think as a whole, you cannot expect the series to be a clean one. Even if you look back to the double three o's that BLG had over Weibo in the playoff run of summer, this is a completely different moment, a completely different team, and a BLG who's regaining their confidence. So I think absolutely, there's going to be some fun games from BLG or the happy BLG games that we always see in best of. They typically do lose a game and it looks pretty bad, but I expect them to have a little bit more strength in terms of drafting prio. I think night is by far a better mid laner than Shaohoo. It's going to depend on how they want to utilize these two guys. But I think jungle is going to be the most important role in all of this jungle support, rather, uh, because I think shouldn't can have the better hand of Tarzan. But Tarzan's unique picks and the way that he thinks about pathing like Tarzan is one of the most cerebral junglers I have ever seen in all of League of Legends. He will pick, he will pick picks and you will have unique paths around the jungle. Unique invades and he'll always find a way. And it doesn't need to be every game. It can be one game, two games. But if you do that in a best of five, that literally wins you some of those games. So I'm very much putting pressure on the shouldn't to be a stable jungler and not make stupid decisions like we've seen him do time and time again. And I think they will do that and I think they'll make it to finals. [00:59:52] Speaker A: Okay, very well put. I'm going to throw it now over to Hawk for the other side. Not Bickle, who had the three o, because I thought maybe that would be the most extreme one that we had. But Hawk actually is bucking the trend with a weibo. Three, two. Why do you think weibo takes it, hog, sir? [01:00:07] Speaker C: Okay, I'm going to be honest. This is like at least 20% me just being a contrarian because I do think this series is really close. And I saw that you all already had BLG in the predictions. I think Tarzan is the big, biggest, big x factor in this series for Wayabo gaming. I do think he has the tools in his arsenal to keep up with Shun and the rest of BlG. I do think top is probably gonna be a little bit of a pain point for Wayabo, but a point in their favor. Is that light and on? It's on, right? Or am I confusing my supports? Yeah, light and on have been in this situation before. They were here just last year. They are good enough to go up against. [01:00:51] Speaker B: Sorry, it's crisp. Sorry, sorry. [01:00:52] Speaker A: Oh, right, yeah, sorry. [01:00:53] Speaker C: Light and crisp and then elk. Right? Cause I got to, yeah, light and crisp are good enough to go against Elk and on. And I think that's a really important thing for Wayabo gaming. I think it's gonna be a close series. I just decided to take Wayobo three, two because someone's gotta break the other way. [01:01:09] Speaker B: Well, honestly, you're in the right as well because literally Waybo can is 50 50 on winning every series they play. [01:01:15] Speaker C: So real. [01:01:18] Speaker A: All right, well, there we go. We think blg takes it as a majority, but way Bo still. [01:01:23] Speaker B: Could I just, can I just prep people? Is this even? Yeah. Okay. Anyways, I'm gonna prep people. I'm gonna prep people cuz God, there's some cool storylines. Holy shit. Gonna geek out. All right, first of all, breathe was the trade for Ben when RnG won and then they swapped the next split because Blg wanted Bren back and so breathe had to come into an RNG after having just won and then they lost over and over again. They never won anything again. Then we have Tarzan, as I'll say, tarzan had didn't play in spring and he's coming back in summer. He's looking awesome. Shun got sub back in for weight is looking great. They have night. Shaohoo. Whatever. So the biggest names have blah, blah, blah. But then like elk and mother fucking light. Two of the, I feel like, best mechanical ads that we've seen at this world going against each other like those team fights are gonna be insane. I can't wait, I can't wait. I'm so giddy. [01:02:21] Speaker A: I'm excited for you. And it's getting me excited because this is, I mean, similar to what we had said even for the previous series with BlG versus Hanwha was like, that bot lane's gonna be explosive, man. Like, that's the lane to watch. I think the same thing can definitely be said for this next series coming up here. So keep your eyes peeled, everybody. Waybo versus Billy. Billy. But that brings us to our other semifinals match, which is the Lck side of the bracket. That's right. We started the show reminding you that it would be a guaranteed LPL versus LCk finals. We just don't know which teams from each region representing, but we think it's a little split on the cast. I have t one 30. Bickle and mazelle have t one three two. Badger threw his predictions in and put gen g three, two, and mother frickin hawk put gen g 30. So me and hawk are on opposite sides. Hawk, do you want to go first? You do want me to give my reasoning first? [01:03:20] Speaker C: I mean, I'll. I'm gonna keep it really simple. As with all my predictions, it's like 35% scientific, 65% vibes. Okay. [01:03:28] Speaker A: Okay. [01:03:29] Speaker C: Like, look, there are two trends at play here. One is the t one versus gen g trend. Two is the t one at worlds trend, and we're going to see which one's stronger. I'm going full in on the gen g trend. I'm going to choose to believe this is their year, both for the flyquest cope and the fact that I think gen g has been the best team in the entire world this entire year. And so I think they're going to put away their old nemesis and make it to finals. Chovy is finally going to get the chance to lift a summoner's cup against china. [01:04:10] Speaker A: That would be a beautiful story for Chovy, but I will say, in the series against FlyQuest, felt like Chovy had a couple of games where he just wasn't really existent. And I am worried when you look at Faker, who doesn't need to even be the carry for his team to pop off and win, he's just going to be the equalizer. And if Chovy can't get a lead up over him, I am worried that the rest of t one will just spill over on the map, on Gen G esports, and also, t one's just coming in a little bit more momentum. They had a smashing series against top esports. They had more experience and more games, more reps on stage in the swiss stage, and just way more practice in the meta. The, like I'd said before, the semifinals is really when we see the meta kind of fully defined. We don't really see crazy picks after quarterfinals, typically at worlds. So I think that t one will be able to just play the meta better, but also, at the same time, you could make the opposite argument. Like, I could easily be wrong here the fact that FlyQuest was able to push them so hard because of some of the wacky picks, and t one aren't going to do that. So maybe gen g have a. [01:05:19] Speaker B: They got more t one, they got more games than quarters. Yeah, I just talk about the three two a little bit. Like, I do think it's gonna be a very contested series as a whole. I think t one just have plot armor. Like, I can't deny it anymore. I don't know what's going on. There's something in the water. There's something there. I will say. Little sneaky note. Chovy, I need you to sweep the leg. All right? That's all I need. Chovy, do it. Finish them off. It's over. You can go on to finals. You can lose. I know I have t one winning it, but if you just sweep the leg, you don't have to tell anybody. Just sweep the leg. [01:05:56] Speaker A: You would much rather have. [01:05:57] Speaker B: I don't need Johnny karate in finals. He win, he wins. He literally wins. Like, that's the script. I know that we need. What's his name? What's. What's the blonde kid's name? [01:06:09] Speaker A: Karate kid? [01:06:10] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:06:10] Speaker A: Oh, shit. [01:06:11] Speaker B: What's his name? That guy. I need. I need g to be that party from the. [01:06:17] Speaker A: How much mother's obsessed with him. [01:06:19] Speaker B: I need, I need. I'm gonna t one now. That gotta win because it's just inevitable. But if. If you can break the rules, Gen G, if you could break the rules. [01:06:31] Speaker D: I think. Okay, sickly. It makes sense to go with Gen G. They're the team that makes sense. They've had t one's number for, like, the past two years. And they. Look, if we ignore quarterfinals, they look like the better team. But this is t one at worlds, and you do not bet against Faker at worlds. That's just how it goes. Also, the fun thing is, no matter who wins each of these matchups, we're going to get a phenomenal finals. Because either you get the MSI finals rematch between BlG and Gen G, you get last year's world's rematch. [01:07:07] Speaker B: I don't want a rematch of that one. Sorry, that's. No. [01:07:11] Speaker D: You get this year's MSI rematch between BlG and Gen G. Weibo versus Gen G would be two of the most storied mid laners to never win a world championship. Going head to head true guarantees one. [01:07:26] Speaker A: Of them at least gets it. [01:07:27] Speaker D: Yeah. And t one versus Blg is, again, t one just running the gauntlet because they beat lpl one, lpl two, and lck two. Them beating the best teams in the world and just doing it again. [01:07:42] Speaker A: Also, quick note, William Zabka is the actor, and it was Johnny Lawrence. Johnny Lawrence, the name of the kid in the movie. [01:07:50] Speaker B: Gen G. You're Johnny Lawrence. [01:07:53] Speaker A: Confirmed. Confirmed. That's the script, everybody. But that's also what we think of the script and how it will go. Happy that that last series at least we had a lot of differing opinions because our predictions for last week's quarter finals were trash. So at least we'll have, yeah, some more likelihood of somebody being correct. Guarantee that at least some of us are gonna have, like, one series correct. Thanks, Hawk, for going opposite Weibo versus Vlg, but that'll do it here for this episode. Worlds, we only got a little bit left on the ride, everybody. Enjoy it while it lasts. It's more fun if you put your hands up. But special shout out to everybody who's listening along supports the podcast on the Patreon or through the merch store. Totally forgot to plug that earlier, so I completely missed the ball on the normal routine here. But also reminder that you can join the community discord. I know, right? I miss Duffy already. But Ryan, you can join the community discord through the link in the description. Wherever you are listening along to the podcast, you can also find the links to support us if you would like to. And yeah, shout out to these guys for coming on every week and chatting about League of Legends. Only a couple more weeks until it's officially offseason and we can start unveiling some of the fun stuff that we have planned for that now. Hawk, real quick, how many stars should they leave us a review? If they have the time to leave a review, I would like to see. [01:09:23] Speaker C: A big, fat five stars from everybody out there. [01:09:27] Speaker A: Let's go. Big, fat five stars. We need fat, chunky stars. That's basically like Mario Galaxy, right? They're kind of like, true, like. [01:09:42] Speaker D: On their jersey. [01:09:43] Speaker B: If they won this year, that's pretty cool. [01:09:47] Speaker A: I love how it's no longer just like regional wins stars. It's just worlds wins now. Like, that's the impressive thing for that nutty. But most importantly, everybody listening along at home, thank you so much for supporting us. We love you and we'll see you next time. Bye bye. [01:10:06] Speaker B: Let's go, Lpo. [01:10:07] Speaker D: Peace.