League Rundown - Episode 536: He is inevitable

[00:00:27] Speaker A: Oh my God. [00:00:28] Speaker B: Sy passes through and manages to the tables with Messiah tanking it up. I do not believe he just. [00:00:45] Speaker C: Game Unicorns of Love. It wasn't your game. [00:00:50] Speaker B: The Nexus. Hello and welcome to episode 536 of League Rundown. This is world's preview for the second to last. Actually no, this is the last time that it's world's preview episode because it is the semis review finals preview. Meaning Finals are the last day of worlds and this episode is lovingly entitled. He is inevitable. I am your host. Kangas got through that intro stellarly and joined by alongside me three esteemed co hosts. Up first we got Bickle. [00:01:37] Speaker A: It only took about a month, but you finally got there. [00:01:40] Speaker B: Hey, I think I got last week's episode in one take. Also. [00:01:44] Speaker A: Also pretty no longer jokingly. Happy birthday Kangas. [00:01:48] Speaker B: Oh, thank you, thank you. It was my birthday yesterday as of recording. So everyone go wish Duffy a happy birthday in the discord please if you have not yet you just heard him there. But we're going to save him for last because we got to go in proper order here. Up next, Mr. Mazel Pl. He might be muted. [00:02:12] Speaker D: Hello. It's nice to be here. I. I will say I'm very sad that there's only one more series. But I'm excited to see what the culmination is going to look like because I think this worlds has been one of the coolest story wise at least that we've had in a while. Besides like the 2022. Yeah. [00:02:27] Speaker B: Last year, the. The T1 going through the gauntlet was awesome. But this one I think because they accomplished it last year has made this year also hype because it's like can they do it twice? Like is. Is it going to be the back to back same roster, all that stuff? We're going to be talking all about that Spoilers if you did not catch the semifinals for some reason. But the last co host here we have with us we got with a fresh fun bird fact. [00:02:55] Speaker A: Hawk. [00:02:57] Speaker D: True. [00:02:58] Speaker C: A fresh fun bird fact. Did you all know what was my bird fact? It was the peregrine falcon, right? [00:03:07] Speaker B: Yeah. Parallelogram falcon. [00:03:10] Speaker C: Did you. I can't remember if I've already said this one, but did you know that owls are the only birds that can fly silently? [00:03:16] Speaker B: But it also means. [00:03:18] Speaker C: Fuck. [00:03:19] Speaker B: Okay, I'm going to stop you there. [00:03:21] Speaker C: Dude. I'm already. I'm already choking on the bird. Okay, okay, okay. [00:03:26] Speaker B: I believe in you. [00:03:28] Speaker C: Did you know that there's a bird of prey called the secretary bird that Just has big ass, like leg. It looks like a flamingo and it hunts like snakes and stuff and it fights by kicking them. [00:03:42] Speaker B: That's amazing. Wait. [00:03:44] Speaker C: Pretty cool. [00:03:45] Speaker B: I'm gonna google. [00:03:46] Speaker D: It's got like feathers on the back of its head that make it look like fucking. Like it's got like a ponytail. [00:03:51] Speaker B: That's. That's. It literally does. I'm looking at one right now. All right, That's a great bird fact. Thank you. Thank you for that one. I appreciate that. Well, that's the cast for the episode today. So let's hop into global news. What's been going around in the riot ecosystem? First off, reminder that it's world's finals time, baby. It is going to be November 2nd at 10:00am Eastern, 7:00am Pacific Time. So you get to sleep in a little bit longer than you had been the last couple of series. The last couple of, you know, the majority of worlds. Thank God we're past the 5:00am Pacific time start time. That was brutal. Dude. We had a couple that were 3am Right? I want to say. No, the earliest was 5am First 5am all right. I am just making things up at this point. But either way, 7:00am is going to be this final so you get to sleep in a little bit more if you're pacific time and it's going to be a great Saturday beginning of your day. Wherever you are in the States, it will be of course in London. So cool news that we have the casters for it. So look at that. Medic, Vetius and Kobe is the trifecta that gets us this time. It's. It's always pretty exciting learning the casters. It's a big honor to be brought on to cast the world's finals entrusted with that Medic the play by play. He's going to be the voice that crowns the 2024 world champion. Mazella, let's get your thoughts first. First off, have you gotten a chance to work with medic or Vetius before? I know that you've worked lcs, you've gotten a chance to interact with Kobe, but have you worked with medic or Vetius? [00:05:28] Speaker D: I've never worked with either of them but I've done a bunch of like reviews and talked with Medic outside. Like, like not like actually like professionally but just like talking about casting and stuff. I'm super hype. I think this blend of energy in the casters is gonna be really interesting because you're gonna have like the. The very hard hitting facts and like statistics from Vettius and I Think there will be a nice in between with Medic and then Kobe at least having Vettius there and obviously like the built in synergy with him in Medic. I think this combo is gonna be really good. Good. Excuse me, but I think the. The fact of the matter is like Medic is probably one of the best, like lyrical casters that we have right now. And I think the way that he uses wordplay but as well as like his final calls and teamfights and stuff is so hard hitting. I feel like we're gonna have some calls for the record books. [00:06:19] Speaker B: There is the potential for that. I'm gonna pitch something to everybody. Hock Bake, I want to get your thoughts on this one. So can we call this Trike as Medi Veddy B. Because Kobe, you know, like Medi Vetti B. What do we think? [00:06:37] Speaker A: Thoughts? [00:06:39] Speaker C: Interesting. [00:06:40] Speaker B: Cam, do you have a better alternative? Because it's. I feel I'm feeling judged based on your tone. All right, well, there we go. [00:06:51] Speaker C: It's not really. I just. I. I'm not sure how you got to the B necessarily, but. No, it's. It's like I. [00:06:58] Speaker B: Well, Kobe, you know, it's the end of his name. [00:07:00] Speaker C: Okay. [00:07:01] Speaker B: Yeah, just continue. [00:07:02] Speaker D: I got a better one. [00:07:03] Speaker B: Oh, you got a better one? All right, let's hear it. [00:07:06] Speaker D: Mebvious. [00:07:08] Speaker B: Oh, that sounds like Morbius. [00:07:11] Speaker D: Exactly. [00:07:12] Speaker B: Wait a minute. You're onto something there. [00:07:15] Speaker D: It's Mobius time. [00:07:17] Speaker B: I've got a Mebvious all over them. All right, well, let us know in the discord if you have a better tricast combination name and maybe Bickle can think a little bit longer and maybe come up with one for us as well. Pickle, do you have anything or are you ready to move on? [00:07:31] Speaker A: I'm not creative enough for this. [00:07:33] Speaker B: No, it's. No. No worries. Thankfully, you are the one keeping your eyes on all the roster rumors going around as well as news going around before we enter the roster stuff. Big news dropped last couple. I think it was yesterday actually. As of recording the official LCK and LEC format announcements for next year and what things are going to look like in 2025. So give me a rundown because they're basically the same. It seems like essentially the like schedule and structure is the same except for LCK just admitting winter is for fun. It doesn't even matter. [00:08:08] Speaker A: Yep. So change is coming through. We'll tackle the LEC first as that is the much easier one to get through. Winter is staying the exact same single round Robin, best of one All 10 teams top eight qualify for playoffs, they go through that. Winner of that will go to the new international event. Something to note. Throughout the LEC season, champion chip points do not exist anymore. Season finals do not exist anymore. Every split is, I mean every season is for the LEC title. It's just that. And that is the only thing that will determine those international events. Spring season is all 10 teams, single round robin, best of threes. Oh, something to mention for winter playoffs are fearless. [00:09:01] Speaker B: Yeah, I thought the whole thing. Well, I guess it's best of ones. [00:09:04] Speaker A: Yes. [00:09:04] Speaker B: So that doesn't really make sense. [00:09:06] Speaker A: So just winner in general is fearless. Spring, single round robin, best of three, top six teams qualify for playoffs. Top two teams in playoffs go to msi. No fearless in this summer. Again, best of threes. But they will be split into two groups where the top two teams from each group will auto qualify to playoffs. The bottom one team from each will be eliminated and then the number three team will play the number four team from the other group and the winners of those will move on to playoffs where again, best of threes. Best of five playoffs. Top three teams go to worlds. [00:09:47] Speaker B: Yeah, I don't know, I feel like that whole like two groups, it feels kind of manufactured. It almost felt like they just wanted there to be something different between spring and winter or spring and summer. And I don't know if I'm a huge fan of it. [00:10:03] Speaker C: It feels like a very experimental format where it's like we're just gonna try some stuff, you know what I mean? [00:10:09] Speaker B: Like, yeah, we want the graphic to look unique for. Right. [00:10:11] Speaker C: It's not inherently bad, but it does feel a little bit arbitrary. Some of the different things they're doing. [00:10:17] Speaker A: Extremely. Now for the chaos that is the lck. The LCK will be moving to one large spring summer split that's split in half by msi, but winter will be the LCK Cup. Now what is the LCK cup, you might ask? Well, to start the season, the top two teams from LCK 2024, Honolulu and Gen G will be in separate groups. They will then draft a take turns drafting a team to join their own group. So Han wolife being the winner of LCK will go first and they'll go back and forth with the next team, then selecting the team that will be joining their group. [00:11:03] Speaker B: Normally ever draft that you want to be drafted last because that's an honor to be the last pick. [00:11:10] Speaker A: In this case though, they will be drafting the strongest teams first because you want your group to have the most overall wins because the Best of threes they play will be against the other group. [00:11:25] Speaker B: Oh wait. What? [00:11:27] Speaker A: All of group A will be playing against all of group B. And then at the end of the group stage, whichever group has the most wins. The top three teams will automatically qualify to playoffs. Whereas the bottom team from the losers group will be eliminated. And the top four of that group plus the bottom two of the winners group will play a qualifier to play in for the final spot for the for the qualification to join regular playoffs. So the top three of the play ins will join the top three of the winners group for playoffs of the LCK Cup. I'm probably explaining this terribly. It's confusing. [00:12:16] Speaker B: My brain glazed over. Once you said they were playing the other group at that point it just kind of like it stopped making sense to me that and again how. [00:12:25] Speaker A: Yeah, it's basically Group A will will be playing each team in group B. The group that has the most combined wins between all the teams will be marked as the winners group and the other group will be the losers group. [00:12:41] Speaker B: And you're able to get straight into the kind of knockout stage by being at a winners group top half or. [00:12:47] Speaker A: Top like top three teams of the winners group auto qualify for playoffs. The bottom two have to play the top four teams in the losers group for the final remaining three spots. [00:13:01] Speaker B: Where does that make them? Seed 1, 2, 3 going into the playoffs. [00:13:05] Speaker A: Then seed 1, 2, 3 will be coming from group A. From winners. [00:13:09] Speaker B: Goofy. That's real goofy. [00:13:12] Speaker A: That means one of Gen G or Hanma Life are guaranteed to have to go through the play ins portion of the brackets. They're in opposite groups. [00:13:20] Speaker B: Yeah. Highest they could be would be fourth seed then. That's so funny. Yep. [00:13:26] Speaker A: And now. So that's the LCK Cup. That qualifies them for the next international event. The winner of that just qualifies now. [00:13:34] Speaker B: But specifically I remember them making some kind of statement that like this does not count as an LCK title. Right. Like it's different. They're differentiating it from like unofficial title that you would win through a split. Like they're just kind of not acknowledging a three. A split. Format change. [00:13:53] Speaker A: Yes. It is not the LCK title. [00:13:57] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:13:58] Speaker A: Now for even more chaos as they move into a larger overarching season between spring and summer there will be that break section in the middle. I need to double check exactly how this format plays out. But basically I want to say it's top six move into. So they will be playing best of threes throughout this entire situation. Hold on. I'm trying to Remember? Exactly. [00:14:33] Speaker B: It's okay for the LCK stuff. We don't cover all of that on the pod anyway, so we can just have spark notes for that. [00:14:41] Speaker A: Basically, the format, best of threes and rounds one and two, rounds three, four, and five. They're again split into groups where the top five from the first two rounds join one group and the bottom five join the other group. And then you play triple round robin, best of threes within your group. It's chaotic. [00:15:05] Speaker B: It's like having fun. [00:15:06] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:15:07] Speaker B: Okay, Mizelle, let's quick temperature check. Is this more or less confusing than whatever the hell LPL did through this? [00:15:14] Speaker D: Way more confusing. [00:15:15] Speaker B: Okay, that's. LPL was also quite confusing this summer. All right, well, but so they still get the same number of seeds that they had from this past year for international events. Right. [00:15:30] Speaker A: They will have one seed to the initial to the initial new international tournament like every team has. They will have two teams at msi like every team has. And then again the team, everybody will get three seeds at Worlds with the MSI winner and the MSI runner up regions being granted an extra seed. So in all likelihood, LCK and LPL will again get four seats. [00:15:53] Speaker B: Yeah. Unless again, like G2 or somebody can do damage. Maybe there's a crazy chance that an A team could make a push. Or maybe it's the Brazilian team. You never know. Maybe it's the Americas. We come together here about Eric. Yeah, true, true that. What was it? American North Conference. Ank. Get ready to say that. No word on if that's the official name change or not or if there is an official name change, but I think I'm still just gonna call it lcs. I don't know. I feel like that's. That's fun. I would miss it if it was not called lcs. All right, a lot of stuff to cover there for the format changes. If you love the format changes, you're welcome. If you hate them, don't worry. Stick with us. We're moving on to now some roster rumors again. We're just going to go through these relatively fast because a lot of them are just rumors and we're focused mostly on world. We'll cover more in depth roster changes and have big roster mania episodes in off season. So I'm just going to run through these real quick. Casey signing Yike. Interesting right there. C9 signing Loki. That was a big one. That ruffled a lot of NA fans feathers as it's yet again going for an imported mid. What was this like there? Seventh mid laner in seven years or something like that. [00:17:13] Speaker A: Something like it's their seventh mid laner since not even seven years. I want to say it's their seventh midlander since like 2019. [00:17:21] Speaker B: That's crazy. That's not even seven. Yeah, that's like. Yeah, they make a lot of changes over there. Mid lane. Anyway, back to the lec, though. GX signing Noah in June. Looks like they're sticking together. Shopify Rebellion, signing contracts and resigning B boy fanatic partying ways with Night Sh, their coach. This one is official. They did make an announcement about that, and all I could see in all of the comments was, when are we firing our general manager? Which was very funny to see. Also SK partying ways with Niski, which is official. Says he'll be taking the Split off. And Rainbow 7 and Disguised. This was just dropped earlier today. This isn't roster rumors, but this is League rumors. Rainbow 7 in disguise set to be the final America's north teams. Now, this was from Sheep Esports. So if you trust Sheep Esports, they actually have a pretty solid track record of batting, like, correct stories, correct rumors. And I don't think I'm surprised by either of these either. Mazell. I want to get your thoughts on Disguised first, because they're a team that we've covered in NACL for the last year. [00:18:31] Speaker D: I'm so stoked. I mean, it was about it, but it was a boon to have disguised in our league. It was so awesome to see so many more people paying attention to us because of that. But not only that, having, like, at least a stable presence in the league, which just felt really nice. And I think it's just going to level up that much more in the lcs. And I know Toast behind the scenes is like, very motivated to try to change the atmosphere of what professional teams are like and how they're run to some extent and trying to pull it back to more of a player centric model, more so than the kind of business model that's developed in LCS over these last years. I don't know if it works, but I'm excited to see it try. So I'm very, very stoked. And I think Disguise is a perfect addition because then now, I mean, we even, you know, think about all the other big creator teams that are floating around other spaces and stuff like that. I mean, it just opens the door for that for the lcs. [00:19:29] Speaker B: Exactly. And I know that there was. I had heard rumors that, like, oh, it was gonna be disguised, but then it wasn't gonna work out. So they had to find somebody else. I'm happy that it is looking like it is actually Disguised. Hawk, you were excited too though. Let's get your thoughts. [00:19:43] Speaker C: Yeah, I mean, I just think that this is the really obvious choice. I had heard similar things to you, Steve, where I actually had heard that, oh, it's not going to be disguised, you know, it's gonna be somebody else. Which was so disappointing to me because this just felt like the choice that made the most sense. So the fact that we are getting disguised is, I mean, just undoubtedly good for the league. It's going to be the org that brings the most eyes. It's going to be probably an org that's just overall good for the league and the players itself. I think it's overall a very good decision. [00:20:19] Speaker B: And for anybody who is not aware of Disguise, this is of course Disguised Toast. Very popular streamer. He did a lot of Hearthstone. He's done a lot of tft Streams League, I think sometimes. But he owns his own esports org called Disguised and he made a League of Legends team that entered nacl. Kind of saved us last summer basically for viewership because he's very popular streamer and he made a team which then all of their games had the highest viewership just because he streams. [00:20:48] Speaker D: And he does like all kinds of stuff to add on to it, not just being a team. [00:20:52] Speaker B: Yeah, they made finals in their first summer split. They won finals, but they also made finals and he was there at the live studio co streaming, which is really cool. So yeah, it's just. It seems like it's going to be a positive addition to the Northern Conference, America's North Conference. God, I hate that. I'm not going to say Ankh. Ank. Ank. But then Rainbow 7, that's the other one. So we knew that an LLA team was joining as well. It's looking like that will be Rainbow 7. Bickle, I think that we've even talked about this being a rumor before, but now this is like a little more solidified rumor. [00:21:30] Speaker A: I don't think it was ever a rumor before. I think we'd kind of come to the agreement that it's the team that makes the most sense. [00:21:36] Speaker D: Sure, yeah. [00:21:37] Speaker A: Reigning lla champion. And we do have a bit of rumors in regards to the roster. Supposedly they're going to be keeping Audi and Lions with them, but bringing in Licorice as their top laner, which a bit more to fill that in. But Honestly, Disguise and Rainbow 7 makes sense as the teams that you bring in for those final two spots and something that was also mentioned in the article which will be interesting moving forward is that apparently 100 Thieves has worked out a deal with Riot to be marked as I can't remember the exact verbiage of it. What is it as a let me. [00:22:14] Speaker C: Find this provisional guest team or something. [00:22:18] Speaker A: Yes, provisional guest spot. So they will not have the same status as the other remaining teams which kind of says hey, we're going to be here this year but we're going to be looking to make our ways out eventually. [00:22:29] Speaker B: Yeah. Which to me says that there might now. I don't know 100%. I don't know if that means that they give disguise like the air quotes franchise safe spot or if now there's two guest spots, would that mean that there's an opportunity for two teams? [00:22:43] Speaker D: I think they'll be looking for somebody to take a full spot. So like either 100 thieves is going to divest into something like, like take let go of their spot to somebody else and somebody will take the full spot is what I'm going to guess. Which you know, could be disguised in that case. But man, it would be cool if another, if another creator team got in there. Moist, where you at, dude? [00:23:05] Speaker C: I've been wanting not Moist in league for so long. [00:23:09] Speaker B: Isn't Moist part of the ownership or like investing somewhat in the Shopify Rebellions like thing though? I, I had heard that or maybe it was Ludwig but like I think. [00:23:18] Speaker D: That they're like some tangential ties. [00:23:21] Speaker B: Yeah. So I remember hearing that there would be some potential issues if Moist proper were to join just because there's like financial ties. But I don't know to what extent. [00:23:32] Speaker D: Like I don't get Amaranth in here with Wild Card creators. Just get anybody in here, man. I don't care. We just need to take out these business centric organizations and put content creator organizations in there. [00:23:46] Speaker B: We just need teams, man. We need a league. We need to be able to watch League of Legends. But yeah, so that that would mean the teams that we're expecting to be leaving still Immortals and NRG are looking like the top two. Both of them have dropped every single one of their players from their contract attributes. I think Energy might still have who he technically I haven't heard about his contract being dropped yet, but everybody from Worlds is gone. Everybody else from Energy is gone. So those are the heavily expected teams. Nothing official has been announced but writings on the wall in terms of that. So yeah, there we go. That's the global news. Now we can actually get into the podcast proper which is back on the world topic reminder that if you have opinions on anything that we've talked about so far with the global news, you can voice it in the community Discord. You can find the link in the description wherever you are listening along and if you are able to support us, we really appreciate it on Patreon or through our Merch Shop league rundown shop. I actually just had the hat ship. I'm looking around to see is it nearby so I can show it off on camera to everybody listening along and it's not nearby so I don't have it. But I do have the baseball cap it came in, it was awesome. I've been wearing that and been enjoying some of the merch that we have. So thanks for everybody who supports. Now let's get into Worlds semifinals have concluded and just gotta flex it 100% correct prediction rate in the two matches. It's first time at Worlds I've had 100% and that's because there were only two matches and they seemed like they were pretty obvious but the way they happen maybe not because Mazel started off with the first series BLG versus Weibo gaming. You were so convinced that when it's Weibo they're slobber knockers, it always goes the full distance and while the games were close, the series just scorecard looks like it was pretty dominant. I want to get your initial thoughts on how things shook out. [00:25:42] Speaker D: I just don't know if Weibo had the headed in the tank. I mean BLG looked good and BLG have been growing a lot over these last couple series and we've seen that like incrementally. I think this was a great display of like what they can do at their highest and like especially the scrappiness because I think that's something I've talked about before with this team but like no matter where they are in the state of a game, they will always find a way to like win team fights and things like that. And I just don't think Weibo had it in them on the day. I think that was a Weibo that was very much like chipped teeth to some extent of a version of themselves because it didn't feel like we were getting the same outplays and unfortunately Xiaohu has lost his mind in old age and he was, he was having some really rough times and I think against a team like blg, if you are missing out on a consistent performance in mid lane against night, you're just not Going to have a good performance and your. Your whole team's going to suffer because of it. [00:26:41] Speaker B: Yeah, Shahu, I think had a good start in game one. First off, game one was a really slow game. It's like 19 minutes before we had first blood. But then once that happened, they were just slapping each other around. But Weibo actually had a bit of a gold lead at one point in this one on. On the side of Bilibili Gaming pulled out the Nico support. Has had he done that in LPL before or was this like a brand new thing? [00:27:06] Speaker D: No, he had done that before. [00:27:07] Speaker B: Okay, okay, cool. But either way, I mean it was cool. It was able to do some stuff. But I think Knight was the real playmaker. He got to the smolder stacks and was able to win late game team fights. But Weibo made them work for it. They made them sweat. And I think the Shao who's Yona was a big part of that. But that's a blue side loss for Weibo in game one and that trend is going to continue throughout this series. Three blue side losses in a row is how things looked there. What was your impression of the drafting Mizel? Because when I think of like Weibo I do think of like Xiaohu kind of needing to step up and be a big factor. Lucian mid is not something that I think of when I think of like current meta. Is this like a meta? [00:27:52] Speaker D: No, but Xiaohu is literally one of the best Lucians in the entire world. Like that that was the champion that he made his name on in top lane as well when he played in top lane. But also his mid lane. Lucian, especially this year when 80s were strong in the mid lane was really good. His. His know how on the champion is really, really good. It just felt like a Weibo got backed into a corner and did what all LPL teams do and just say, hey, okay, let's just go with comfort. I don't know what to pick here. And we saw that across the board with multiple people on the team and it just didn't work out. And I think it was somewhat telling to see Tarzan's face afterwards and kind of the way he was holding himself because I will just say outright that that was not Tarzan's fault. I think there were some problems with Tarzan in that series, but I do not think holistically it was his fault. I think it was a complete and utter breakdown of like the solo lane specifically. But it's just a team that really needed to rely on momentum and showing up on the day and if they didn't, it didn't work out. And obviously it was very, very hard fought, but it was still rough. Rough outing for sure. [00:28:56] Speaker B: I gotta say, shout out to light, at least in this game too. He goes down first blood level one. But he brought it back, man. Like his Callisto is actually kind of scary. But yeah, that lose. Like imagine playing Lucian into. Let me read off BLG's composition. Lucian into Jax. [00:29:14] Speaker D: Is that very good last. The game three draft was just so bad. Like literally everything that could. Oh, game three up in their last like efforts I felt like was just so bad. Like they drafted like a full dive comp into like the full peel cop or whatever and it was just, it was brutal. But it's not only that. Like, I hate to harp on show because he's still one of the Goats and probably will go down in the LPL hall of Fame at least, but man, he's had some really, like, really bad plays this year. I'm only going to bring up the two. I mean, obviously the walking into the Zigz bomb was just really stupid of him, but if you, if you think back to the regular season, there was a game where Xiaohu literally like pinged and was calling that he was going to go for a bot lane tp play for his team. His entire team commits to a 4v5 down there. He sits in base walking back and forth the entire time the fight's going, I guess just not like really wanting to commit or not. But he was the one that called the play. The entire fight goes badly. They lose everybody and don't get a single kill back. He TPS after the play is done and it's just like these little lapses of moments where you're just like, what the hell, man? Like it wasn't just these two. It happened. There were like, there was probably three or four big moments this year that Xiaohu just seemed like he was completely out of it and that. That can't happen, right? Like you can't have those kinds of moments. [00:30:46] Speaker B: That's. That's not how you make it to World's Finals, let alone push for a world championship. The Ziggs player talking about was in game two. He's on the Lucian and there's Ziggs bombs, like the little minefield he drops down literally in the river. And you can see Xiao who just clearly not paying attention to his character model. His cameras probably off somewhere else, but he's like walking back and forth, hitting all the bombs and then just like dashes in and dies. [00:31:13] Speaker C: Like I believe the quote from K drill is he died 1v0. Yeah, that's tough. [00:31:21] Speaker A: He thought they were honey fruit maybe. [00:31:24] Speaker B: Yeah, you know, just similar looking models. But that is three games that Weibo had gold leads. Three games that they lost. Game three was the least like hopeful one for them. They only like a 1000 gold lead at a certain point. But even in that game too, still, like I said, Light was able to kind of bring it back and they were at least able to like string together a bunch of objectives. But. But at the end of the day, blg, they just win a fight. Knight goes deathless in the last two games and only dies one time in game one. So his KDA is insane in this series. [00:31:59] Speaker A: Game two is also when we see Weibo try and pull out a little bit of fanciness in draft. They draft the Maokai early and then actually flex it to top lane. But Bilibili calls it out in bands and bans out the brand jungle, despite the fact that we've haven't seen Maokai top in the longest time. And they end up going Maokai Elise as their top jungle for Weibo. [00:32:25] Speaker B: Mm. Interesting combination. This cop like needs to win early. They just do not really scale. Elise falls off a cliff. Callista, Lucian, sure, they're marksman, so I guess you can just make an argument that by default they can do. All right. Late game, but like I said, they're able to get like a bunch of the Dragons. They got First Turret. They got three of the four Dragons taken. They even got Baron at one point, but was not enough. BLG just win fights, crush them and end the game very fast after winning that fight right after the Baron. So yeah. Any final thoughts, Mizel? On. On Weibo vs Blg and how things looked. I mean, I think that overall you can say this is probably for the best for lpl because last year this did not happen way but did win the Crush in the finals. So what are your thoughts to close this out? [00:33:20] Speaker D: It's just a continuation of the globe for blg. I've tweeted about it multiple times, but it's just cool to see a team that had everything so stacked against them all last year and all this year, everybody doubting them at every step of the way. But they have literally made good on all the things that they've messed up on, obviously besides the MSI trip. But all in all, it's a team that's been growing a lot and I just think it's really cool to see them finally get this shot that they didn't get last year that felt like maybe with that experience could make this a completely different thing. But they get that shot, right? And it's the first time that three out of these members are going to get this opportunity. [00:33:58] Speaker B: And my God, was Ben feeling it. Did you see that like the clip that was going around Ben like throwing up his jersey. [00:34:05] Speaker C: That was. That was when the season a series was not over. They go up 20 and Ben is like, I'm going to throw my jacket to the crowd. Like, honestly, that's fucking base. [00:34:14] Speaker D: No, it was at the beginning. [00:34:15] Speaker A: That's not even. [00:34:16] Speaker C: Was it the beginning? I thought it was in the middle. [00:34:18] Speaker A: No, it's the intro. [00:34:19] Speaker D: It was the intros. [00:34:20] Speaker B: Okay, that's amazing then. [00:34:22] Speaker C: My bad. [00:34:22] Speaker D: Well, I vlog in their vlog. They literally. He was back there like practicing it for a while from everybody. [00:34:29] Speaker C: Like absolutely legendary. Absolutely legendary. [00:34:33] Speaker D: Incredible. Oh, geek of picture with the person that got it too. It was really cool. [00:34:39] Speaker B: Look, all I'm saying is when we talked about our awards before Worlds of who gets gets the get in the bin award. Just saying I'm the only one that put bin. I saw the writing on the wall. Actually was the writing in the title of the award itself. Nobody look at my knighthood award though. We don't talk about that one. I might have put faker. But that brings us speaking of to our second series of semifinals. Four Worlds. This was the LCK versus LCK matchup. We knew it was going to be LPL versus LCK in the finals based on how the bracket shook out. But we didn't know who the finalists would be. Now we do. T1 is able to make back to back to back Worlds finals after a 31 victory over Gen G. Bickle, I want to hear your thoughts to start things off here. First off, just insane that we said that three finals in a row for this organization. [00:35:38] Speaker A: It's absolutely absurd. Especially when you consider the fact that that this T1 roster was a game away. Not even a game because they were losing that Game 5 against KT from not even making Worlds. Like a month ago they were like the fifth best team in the LCK and now they're looking like the best team in the world. [00:36:06] Speaker B: It's. [00:36:07] Speaker A: They just become an entirely different team come Worlds and this series was just a way of them showing that as they just looked convincingly on top and were feeling themselves the entire way. Game three in particular, they just slaughter Gen G like it's not even close. Something that's nice to see is in both semifinals, Faker and Knight pull out the Akali, giving it the only win of the main stage now. And just. It's nuts. These team. This team is nuts. Game Carrier pulls out the pike again. [00:36:49] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:36:50] Speaker A: And despite Faker getting caught mid in what seems like it may turn the game, the rest of T1 pulls it all together almost aces Gen G and just pushes out to end the game. [00:37:02] Speaker B: Yeah, that game four was poetic, especially because I saw like a fan edit that. That is the same location. That was it. Worlds 2017. [00:37:13] Speaker A: Worlds 2017. [00:37:16] Speaker B: That's where Faker got caught by Rulers Verisolt in the basically the exact same location. And this time around, I mean they weren't down in this series like they were that time. But this time around he dies, but his team holds the line and actually turns the play and still wins it regardless, which is really cool. But Bahawk, you and I were talking before going live on the podcast how impressive it was. The Fakers Yone looked as good as it did. He pulled out the Akali. Like these are picks that we were almost like assuming the Faker wasn't going to be playing anymore just because he hadn't looked as good in Summer. [00:37:50] Speaker C: Yeah, no, I mean the Yone I felt like was a limit test pick in the LCK Summer split that he looked very bad on. And it got to the point where like, okay guys, we got to make worlds. Worlds. Let's just cut our losses on Faker Yone and move on. Right? But man, he made it work though. He made it look really, really good and it's just incredible. Like, like I think I had a feeling that T1 would be back coming into Worlds. I did not feel that their performance at the end of LCK summer was their final form or anything like that. Right. And I actually in my world's power rankings, I did. I had them fourth. However, I did not expect them to be on an individual level this out of control. I kind of thought they'd bring it back as a team, but I think specifically Faker and Owner have looked like maybe the best mid jungle in the world, which is not really what I had on my bingo card for T1 at this World championship. And so yeah, it's just been incredible. Something I also kind of want to add on to that as well is, you know, Gen G, they just went 3, 2 against FlyQuest right. Right before the series, then they lose to T1. Is it fair to say? I thought that Gen G looked like they were playing a little overconfident for a lot of this tournament getting picked off in situations taking fights in situations in which I felt like they could have used a little restraint. I I'm not sure how you all feel about that tape but I'm not. [00:39:28] Speaker B: Super opinionated on it. Does anybody else have thoughts on if Genji were playing it's kind of like arrogantly or cocky I don't seen quizzical looks on some faces I think that they this is still just a clear example of how it can be a debuff winning so much in this with stage because two weeks off I cannot imagine that being beneficial for the team going into this playoff bracket. And you couple that on top of the T1 world's buff the deal just gets better Faker just gets better at this stage. So yeah I think maybe just a little bit behind on what they were knew that they were capable of doing but weren't able to pull out game two they got it though. I mean game two was pretty you talk about game three being a smash. Game two was a smash gen G just crushed T1 here this was Chovy's turn to play the the re pays popped off on the Kaiser as well. [00:40:30] Speaker A: It you talk about Gen G being a bit overconfident game two comes off as an ego draft from T1. They plot the Maokai top kindred jungle Caitlyn AD carry I mean double 80 carry into jacks flexing things around just. [00:40:49] Speaker B: For fun no I think this was T1 being like oh it's red side. We let's just you know not show too much here. But then they are still able to I mean we'll say blue on game three. Yeah go for it. [00:41:05] Speaker C: I will also say you cannot convince me that pike is not like just a vibes pick because they know they're winning. [00:41:10] Speaker A: It's a hundred percent of I. [00:41:13] Speaker B: Want. [00:41:14] Speaker C: To let you finish what you were saying. I just I wanted to add that. [00:41:16] Speaker B: No no I appreciate that because it kind of leads into what I was when T1's on red side is when they do the vibes picks because I don't know if they're as confident like oh we can just win by drafting standard on red. You kind of need to have something as like a surprise pick something in the tank to throw them off guard because game three they get blue side again they crush that that was fakers the colleague game owner was just dominant on the VI just all over the place up in Canyon's business. But then game four they're back on Red side. And that's when they pull out the pike. And I think that. I think it's a little indicative of. Of how T1 approaches the best of five in this current meta. [00:41:56] Speaker A: And you mention red side versus blue side, something very significant. T1 wins the coin toss for side select in the finals. So they will likely come into the finals with blue side advantage which so far this main stage tournament. I want to say it's 57 win rate on blue side. [00:42:19] Speaker B: And I imagine BLG is the reason that red side got up to 43 because they got three wins in a row against Wave on red side. But I do think that BLG drafts very different from red side. They still draft fairly standard ons. Nico is the only like kind of out there pick. But otherwise they're still just going like Jack Skarner, things like that. Which I guess are going to be maybe harder to get red side if you're against T1. I imagine T1 will. Yeah. [00:42:48] Speaker C: I mean any competent team is Banning Jackson Skarner. Man, that was so frustrating. [00:42:52] Speaker B: Yeah, Weibo's bands were a little. A little odd. But either way, yeah, I think that T1 it's just cool to see a trend when they're on roadside that they will pick something a little out there just to see maybe. Maybe this is going to be the secret sauce. Mazell. I want to get your thoughts though on T1 and their historic third finals. This is the second time the org's done it. They were in finals 20, 15, 16 and 17. But this would be a chance for the same roster to get back to back world championship victories. [00:43:27] Speaker D: Yeah, I struggle so much going back and forth because it's awesome. Like this team is literally legendary. We'll go down in the history is probably the greatest team in League of Legends history and obviously led by Faker. I think all that's like incredible. The fact that they've made it after almost not making it all the way through and now they're back at another finals. I just don't. I feel there's something going on. There's like some superpower at work here. For some reason. They just seemingly turn it on at the perfect moments and maybe they're just superhuman. That could also be true. But my God, it is just uncanny how they find a way to make it to these moments. And the fact that like everything lines up so beautifully for them in terms of the narrative that Riot pushes for this team and that it always just comes true is just mind boggling. But you can't get away from the fact that these guys are all performing on the Rift, right? And this is a team that's very motivated by that togetherness and it's really awesome to see. And I think they're going to win another world championship. But I think it's, it's this team's legacy and history that's going to be carved out every single time we see them take the riff, which is really. [00:44:35] Speaker B: Cool, I'm telling you. The Skins team has a little button they Press that gives T1 10% damage boost. [00:44:43] Speaker D: There's somebody with like one of those giant chairs with all kinds of buttons or just pressing different. [00:44:49] Speaker B: That's how we're paying for League of Legends. [00:44:51] Speaker D: You know, I don't know what it is, man, because it's just crazy to me that the narratives line up from like months and months ago, right? Like the, the, the whole like videos, but then also like the Red Bull League of Their Own stuff that Red Bull's doing with, with Faker and with T1. It's just like there's so many coincidences, guys. I, I don't know. I'm not, I'm not a conspiracy theorist, but my God, I don't know. [00:45:15] Speaker C: Sounds like a bit of a conspiracy theory. [00:45:16] Speaker D: Maybe I am. I don't know. I got a tinfoil hat on. I didn't take it off. [00:45:20] Speaker B: No, I'm on Miss Outside. No, there's definitely. [00:45:22] Speaker D: There's some witchcraft going on. Like, it's crazy. [00:45:26] Speaker A: It's even crazier when you consider, I want to say Gen G has won the last 10 series. They've played against T1 and now two year win streak. [00:45:38] Speaker B: Yeah, something like that. [00:45:40] Speaker A: It just so happens that the first time they meet at Worlds, T1 just smacks them. Yeah, just. [00:45:47] Speaker B: Sure. I don't know. [00:45:48] Speaker A: How convenient. [00:45:48] Speaker D: There's too many coincidences. I'm just telling you. [00:45:51] Speaker B: I compiled a list of crazy T1 stats here. We've said a couple of these already, but I want to go through them just to contextualize what we're getting into this weekend. This is Fakers seventh finals. He's currently four and two in finals. This is his seventh. Seventh finals. Meaning that Faker has been in half of the total world's Finals that have even happened. He's been there half of the time and he's got a winning record. This is T. This T1's rosters. Third finals in a row. The exact same roster. This is their third finals. T1 or SKT back in the day is what they were called. Have made three finals in a row before Faker was a part of all those rosters. But other members were moving around and that also makes this the first time ever that the same roster would win back to back world championships. If they can win this SKT won back to back in 2015 and 2016. Faker and was it Defang and Bang and Wolf were there banging support that Core won back to back, but they had different jungle and top side or at least like splitting jungle ties. [00:47:04] Speaker A: Bengi was on both teams, but in the second year he was splitting with Blank. Meanwhile topside. First year they won it was with Marin. Second year was with Duke. [00:47:14] Speaker B: Yep. So this would be the first time ever that the same roster, no changes, wins other than, I guess reckless riding the bench down there. We want to give it to him. But yeah, I mean that's crazy. I think that's just so cool how historic this would be for them. But. But because we have Mr. Mazel PL with us, I want to hear the BLG narratives. What would this mean for BLG because we spent so much time on the history and the context of T1. I want to give you a little soapbox here, Mizzell, to get people hyped about why this would be cool if BLG is able to pull it off. Because it almost feels like it would be a miracle for them to pull it off with how much the narrative is on T1 side right now. [00:47:57] Speaker D: Oh, it does. And there's probably like 5% of the teaser video that's going to be about them, but this team, it would mean so much. Not only is it. I've been coining it kind of our new generation of LPL players coming to a fold or like coming together and making something happen. All the old guard has kind of been beaten down. I mean now even Weibo falling to blg. I said it earlier, they've literally made right all the wrongs of this last year and a half. The nightmares of JDG are no longer. They beat them holistically this year. You have all the failures in in the World Championship last year to Weibo, where they should have been the team to go for. They should have been the team that has this experience going into faker that maybe gives them a little bit more leeway, but they don't have that. They've been able to first of all break the record of LPL regular season in spring of most wins and win percentage. But then we got an entire different league format for the second split and they also destroyed that format and this was probably the cleanest run we've seen from a team in the LPL playoffs in the last two or three years. And this team is obviously two more veteran pieces, two very well known in the international winning column for LPL and Ben and Knight. But the biggest story is always going to be about Shun Elk and an these guys who have been working their way through shit teams to get to this point. When Shun came in for the first time, he was literally playing between the shy and rookie who had both kind of checked out and was literally the leading candidate on that team between two world champions. And then now to see years later that Elk and On have made it. El on literally was the youngest player in the league a year ago. And we have Elk who has made it from ultra prime over two years ago to now on the leading team and finally winning a championship for himself, but also winning it back to back. I this team is All Stars. This team is, I've coined them the worst generation of the lpl and they're coming to make sure everybody knows it because I I think they have a chance. It all depends on what happens on the day they're meta read. But this team is something special and I don't want the specialty of this awesome Faker lineup with T1 to discount that because this team is also legendary in their own right. [00:50:19] Speaker B: Yeah. Shout out to one piece. The worst generation. [00:50:21] Speaker A: Yep. And a few small things to add on to that. We always talk about how T1 has not lost to an LPL team at Worlds. If you look back at when they've matched up against BLG Both times at MSI, BLG's knocked them out of the two previous MSIs. [00:50:39] Speaker B: Ooh. [00:50:42] Speaker A: And along with that, I hadn't realized that the most exciting potential matchup to look at. You can look at all these lanes and say they're going to be amazing. The one that I'm really excited to see is top lane. With Ben versus Zeus. You can make an argument that whoever wins here has a very solid stake to be the greatest top laner of all time. That to me is the one position that's kind of like, okay, it's always been an open position, but both of these players have been so good for their entire career and have shown that consistency and are reaching extremely high peaks. I think a world title for Bin or a second world title for Zeus could very well go well to solidifying that spot for them in the future. [00:51:33] Speaker D: And it's not just that. It's. That's the holistic want of the LPL community. And that's a big ass community. And I think the sentiment didn't necessarily ring as thoughtfully on the English interview that Ben had where he wants to do the showmaker. He wants to bring the pride back to lpl. It has been years since we have felt as lpl, that pride of World Championship. It is something that has come so close for so long but we haven't been able to return there. And I think this team has so much backing to them, so much want, so much passion. I think that's going to fuel them a lot. And you see, you know, the guys getting kind of emotional about it as well. And I think that's very powerful in a lot of ways, more so in the kind of intangibles that it can bring to this kind of event. [00:52:24] Speaker A: And you talk about how much this could potentially mean. This would be the first time a full Chinese roster would win a world Championship. Every time in the past there have been Koreans within it. It was Viper and Scout, it was the Cheyenne rookie, it was Doinb and Kim Goon. But this would be a full Chinese roster and that would mean for the first time since season two, a Korean is not part of the team to win the World Championships. [00:52:55] Speaker B: Wow, that's wild to think about. Well, I guess when it's only been Korea and Chinese teams since then, contextually that makes sense. But wow. [00:53:09] Speaker C: Still very impressive. [00:53:10] Speaker B: Very impressive. Well, there you go. That's the stakes for blg. I just wanted to make sure that we gave them their proper right too because there's. It takes two teams to make a finals and yes, T1 it's historic, it's cool. It is totally fine. If you as a fan are going to be cheering T1. I'm sure the majority will be cheering T1 at least on the English side. Just because they're the, you know, the kind of the goats, fakers, the goat. But BLG have had a hell of a year, hell of a run to get here and I do not think it is going to be easy for T1 to take a win. I might still favor them in prediction. Speaking of, we can move on to that but I do think BLG are a hell of a team. Predictions time we got to put our money where our mouth is and say who we think is going to take the World championships. Across the board. A lot of T1 love, understandably. Hawk and Badger included. His have 3:1 T1. Bickel and myself have a 3:2 for T1 Mazell has a 3:2 for BLG. You're sticking with the LPL, baby. I love it. Well, let's start with that then. BLG. How does BLG become our 2024 world champions? How and where in the map or on the roster do they find the firepower to take down T1? [00:54:29] Speaker D: I just think finally T1 is going to be facing up against a scrappy enough team to not let them just somehow magically win team fights in the later game when the time is like when the game is even and T1 is in that game. We have seen in this track record, especially recently, like they just know how to win and a lot of that comes from those point second engages, you know, finding a way in between fights to really dictate the map. And I think BLG is going to be able to at least in some of the games. I'm not saying it's going to be a clean series, it's definitely going to be a tough fought one, but I think holistically it's going to be a team that can finally give a punch back to T1 that they haven't gotten. [00:55:11] Speaker B: I'll echo that. That T1 watching their team fights, it does seem like they are one of if not the best team fighting out world in the top eight. Like throughout the quarterfinals at the semifinals their team fighting was so much cleaner and coordinated than the teams that they were up against. So yes, I'm excited to see are they more coordinated than BLG who has also looked incredible in those types of moments. Yeah, I'll go next. I think that it's going to be a close series for all those reasons that I said and echoing Mizelle sentiment. But I think that the T1 world's buff is just too much like if you're predicting against T1, it's that that's a scary place to be. I'm happy either way. I'm not like a huge T1 Stan where I'm like oh, I want them to make all these records. I want them to like set all these precedents. It's probably good for the scene if they do like if Faker keeps witty, you know, obviously sell more skins, make more money Riot. But I still think it's really hype if BLG tackles it and brings it back to China as well. So I just think that, you know, narrative is too strong for T1. But I want to hear from you know what, it's finals. We'll hear from everybody. Bickle, let's throw it over to you next because you agree with me. T1 3 2. Why do you think T1's able to take it over BLG? [00:56:25] Speaker A: This is going to be a phenomenal series, and I don't think there's anyone disagreeing with that. But the way T1 has looked has been on another level. It's absurd. They just turn it on when it comes to worlds. And last year, T1 3 0'd an LPL team in the set in quarterfinals convincingly. Then went on to take down the reigning MSI champions 31 before going up against another LPL team in the finals. And we saw what happened last time in the classic blunders. You never get involved in a land war in Asia and you never go against Sicilian when death is on the line. But most importantly, you never bet against Faker and T1 at Worlds. [00:57:27] Speaker B: But you put 3:2, not 3:0. So I'm tired of that. Just kind of fell apart there at the end. But either way, I've it. Well, you're only gonna get more tired here because it gets worse. Hawk, you put T1 3 1. Why do you think. Did you have anything to add, I guess on top of that as to why you think BLG is only good for one game? [00:57:49] Speaker C: I have a bit to add, I suppose, which is funny because I'm actually just gonna bat for blg, I think a little bit more, which is that I actually. I talked about this with you guys last night when we were celebrating your birthday. [00:58:01] Speaker B: Steve, it said to let it. [00:58:02] Speaker C: I'm like, I think BLG can win at least one game and maybe even the series. Because if you think back to 20, 22 world finals, T1 against DRX, exact same T1 roster. And a huge problem in the series for T1 was that Pio Shik just clapped Zeus. And Ben is the greatest top laner in the world. Ben is good enough to just clap Zeus like that. I know Bickle actually said earlier that Zeus has. [00:58:34] Speaker B: For. [00:58:34] Speaker D: For top. [00:58:35] Speaker B: Wait, who did I. [00:58:35] Speaker D: Who did I say? [00:58:36] Speaker B: Pio Shik. So King. [00:58:37] Speaker C: Oh, I'm sorry. King. Yeah. Why did I say Pio Shik? Okay. Yeah. Yes, thank you. No, you're probably right. I probably said the wrong thing. I do that a lot. Okay. Either way. Yeah. So King and clapped Zeus. And that was a problem for T1. And ultimately, I think a big part of the reason why the series was hard. Right? Because I think back, like, Guma and Kario were having a good series, but Elk and On are more than good. Enough to have a good series into this 2v2. I think Knight is having the best worlds that he's had in a very long time. He can go up against faker just fine. Right. It's really just going to be the top lane question of, like, can a hands gap actually come out for blg? And I think it's possible. I think it's absolutely possible. So that's why I gave him a game, because I do think T1 just kind of looks like the better team. BLG's swaps have been really, really bad. They fell behind, or at least they should have fallen behind every game against Weibo. I thought based on the way that they played, there were a lot of holes in their game. But I think BLG has the players to maybe do it. So ultimately, I'm favoring T1, but I wanted to talk a bit more about BLG because I've talked a lot about T1 today. [00:59:52] Speaker B: No, I like that. I appreciate that. That would also make. I think. I'm trying to think back, like, to the rosters in the past. The top laners for all the LPL teams that have taken World championships are always really cracked, right? Like the shy. What? Okay, well, maybe not all of them. [01:00:15] Speaker D: There's also a little bit of superstition going behind it. I'm just saying, because obviously we haven't had many teams win two in a row, and then usually they not always the same rosters. There's been a different starting letter for every top planer that's won the World Championship. And I'm just saying Zayas wins. That breaks. That breaks it. But I'm just saying there's a track record for a reason. [01:00:39] Speaker B: Is there been a. [01:00:39] Speaker D: There's a B waiting to be added to that list. [01:00:42] Speaker B: Okay. So been safe. We can. We can add. I like that. Speaking of Finals, MVP is another little prediction that we added for fun. So that's our thoughts on who's going to take the series, but here's our thoughts on who's going to be the most valuable player in Finals. It's another honor to be awarded to you as a player. And Mizzell, let's start with you because you just said his name already. You got Ben. [01:01:08] Speaker D: My man is going to pop off. He's the only player to ever get a pentakill in the World Finals. I'm going to see him whip out his Camille once again, and he's going to take. Take Z to task. I cannot wait to watch this man pop off it's been a long time coming and I think he's got it in him. [01:01:22] Speaker B: Hell, yeah. [01:01:23] Speaker D: Literally radiating aura right now like that. I. This man is like, every time he steps out in those studios, that arena like Riot is just foaming at the mouth because he is just so perfect at all the things that he. He represents. So I think it's. It's gonna be a lot of fun that we have a character do well. [01:01:41] Speaker A: I think this is the final that Riot was praying for. I think this will be the most watched final ever. I think this will have some of the highest hype going into it. These are the two. Like, BLG is the definitive best team in China right now. T1 is T1. The amount of buildup and marketing and things Riot can do with this. They are so happy. This is what they got. [01:02:08] Speaker B: Yeah. This is great for the scene. Great for the esport that we all know and love. I'll go next. I have actually first off a spoiler. We all have different players, which I think is cool. I went with carrier the support for T1 because I feel like a big reason why T1 is going to get wins, especially if they can pick up a red side win is going to be off of Carrie is wacky support picks. I think he's going to get the bard. He might pull out the pipe. Like, I think that type of stuff is going to really throw BLG for a loop and be a big reason. Why don't you. [01:02:47] Speaker D: Man? Went 0 and 9 and 1 of championship. What do you want? [01:02:50] Speaker B: My time to talk Bazelle. I got the stick. I got the talking stick. I think carries champions is always exciting to watch and I think that he's going to get some cool stuff and that's going to be a big narrative point of like, oh, it's because of these picks that BLG wasn't ready for. Was surprised about. So that's why I got carried here. Let's go up next here. Let's go to Hawk. Actually, Hawk, you got the goat himself, dude. [01:03:14] Speaker C: He's gonna win this one for Reckless. [01:03:20] Speaker B: Faker's gonna win mvp. Shocks is gonna be on stage and say, faker, you want mvp? Jason's gonna translate and he's gonna look at Jesus and go for Reckless. Dude. That's the. [01:03:31] Speaker C: That is the dankest timeline. I've decided. That is the dankest timeline. [01:03:36] Speaker D: He's gonna make the. The developers make another ahri skin and it's gonna sell more than the. The one they put all the effort into. [01:03:43] Speaker B: That would be really funny actually. Dude, do you think Reckless gets to be up on stage? This is a side thought. I just realized because he's the sub. Does he gonna be on stage if they win? [01:03:52] Speaker C: Probably, yeah. [01:03:53] Speaker B: That's amazing. [01:03:55] Speaker D: I do want to make a little point about your carry a moment. I actually think that if anybody's a fan of Lord of the Rings that that's the sewage spot in Helms Deep for BLG because on has inted away games holistically and Karia has been able to step up a ton. I mean he. I'll just say it was the singular reason for me why T1 was able to dismantle Top Esports. Like in all three games that man was destroying the LPL and I think if there is going to be something that breaks loose, it's going to be that Carrie is running the mountain app. [01:04:28] Speaker B: All right, cool. Thank you for further solidifying my MVP pick. I. I like yours as well. There we go. Mutual appreciation of MVP picks. [01:04:39] Speaker D: I don't need pity prizes, Kangas. [01:04:42] Speaker C: Damn. [01:04:43] Speaker B: All right, Pickle, you're up last. You got the one, the only owner for your mvp. [01:04:49] Speaker A: I was flipping between where you went with Carrier because I do think he will be the biggest difference between BLG and T1 with I think he's performing much better than on has. But Jungle as a position always has so much influence over the entire game and can really be what makes or breaks a series and owner has just been phenomenal this tournament. He's really stepped it up. World's owner is a thing and has shown up and I really think that he will continue that run to solidify T1 taking this home once again. Again. [01:05:24] Speaker B: Okay. I love it. And that leaves one member, Badger who included his predictions. First off, he had the T131 and he has Zayas as his MVP. He's smoking crack. I don't know. I don't know what's going on over in Badger camp. He still probably tilted. Dude. [01:05:40] Speaker C: He thinks he's going to beat up on Ben and he's going to be the goat for that. [01:05:44] Speaker B: I think he still just tilted. The show maker dropped out so early. But yeah, okay. Either way, that is our predictions not only for how the world's finals will go, but who will win most valuable player alongside them. Let us know your thoughts though in the community Discord. A reminder that you can find a link to that in wherever the description wherever you're listening along to the podcast alongside that. It really does help us get recognized and noticed if you leave a review, Hawk, how many stars? I can't really think of. No, I'm not good with numbers. I'm not good. I'm not a math guy. How many stars would you add a math guy? [01:06:18] Speaker C: Well, Steve, I have a really good tip for you. If you want to know how many stars you should leave for the league rundown, you hold up your hand in front of you, you spread all your fingers apart, and you count them. 1, 2, 3, 4. Five stars for the pod. [01:06:34] Speaker B: Love it. All right. Thank you, Hawk. If everyone can leave five stars for the podcast, it really does help us get noticed. Or thumbs up or whatever the reviewing method is is. Thank you as well for everybody who supports us through either the Patreon link or through our merch store. World's Finals, everybody. This is it. I can't believe we're at the end, man. Doesn't feel real, but it's coming all the same. Thank you so much for sticking with us, everybody. Throughout your world's coverage. Next week's episode, we'll be talking about who won Worlds and how they did it. You won't want to miss it. But most importantly, everybody, we love you, and we'll see you next time. [01:07:15] Speaker D: Let's go, Pog. [01:07:17] Speaker A: Peace. [01:07:19] Speaker B: Oh, yes, Daddy.