Episode Transcript
[00:00:27] Speaker A: Oh my God. Sy passes through and manages to the tables with Messiah tanking it up. I do not believe he just game Unicorns of love. It wasn't your game. The Nexus.
Hello and welcome to episode 538 of the League rundown. We are in off season, baby. So this is our roster rumor rundown episode and it is lovingly entitled 60% of the time. The Pokemon accounts are right every time. I'm your host Kangas and I'm joined by two esteemed co hosts in this off season extravaganza. Up first is Beckle.
[00:01:30] Speaker B: This better be a good episode. I had to. I had to make my girlfriend stop watching the golden Bachelorette finale for this.
[00:01:38] Speaker A: As thank you. I will wave in an O7 for the audio medium that I do see ever have.
[00:01:48] Speaker B: Any nomination worthy.
[00:01:52] Speaker A: Wow. I can't believe we got that. A rare appearance of the Bickle girlfriend on the pod. That's the first time I've heard her voice.
That's incredible.
[00:02:00] Speaker B: Yeah, it's been a while.
[00:02:02] Speaker A: I've seen her draft multiple times and literally get you a win for a draft for fantasy. But anyway, that is fantastic. Happy that that happened. Happy to have you on as well. Pickle alongside Mr. Mazell pl.
[00:02:15] Speaker C: Hello. Hello. Excited to be here. Excited for some off season content. It's gonna be fun, man.
[00:02:21] Speaker A: We are like really an off season. I know. Mizel. Our off season starts kind of around October. Yeah. But like, at least we have worlds to look forward to.
[00:02:29] Speaker C: But we're deep in the winter, man. We're in the. We're in the. We're shacked up. The snow's up to the. To the waist. You haven't been able to go to the grocery store in five weeks.
I don't know.
[00:02:41] Speaker A: Gotta shovel our way out through the streets.
[00:02:43] Speaker C: To get back to when I lived in Buffalo, you know, I'm trying to remember all those repressed memories of terrible winters.
[00:02:50] Speaker A: Random side tangent. I remember seeing a photo. Did you know like the. The Mario Kart N64 level where you have like giant snow walls on either side of you?
[00:02:59] Speaker C: Mm.
[00:03:00] Speaker A: And then I saw a photo of like Japan in like the 1980s. There was like this one really famous snowstorm where they legitimately had to pave the roads. And it looked like that when you were driving down the road. And I was like, that's really funny. That's just a side tangent because you mentioned shoveling to get out the door and I came to mind. So shout out to anybody who knows. Talking about esports winter. Yeah, I don't want to shout out.
[00:03:25] Speaker C: That check on your local freelancers.
[00:03:28] Speaker A: Shout out some of the global news going around because the focus of this episode is going to be roster rumors. Next week we will have hopefully some rosters locked in because the Is the free agency, technically. Is that what it's called? Free agency opens up next Tuesday.
[00:03:45] Speaker C: I forget the official title Global contract database is open to changes on the.
[00:03:50] Speaker A: There we go. That's it. They gotta have a cooler name for that.
[00:03:52] Speaker B: But technically it's just all the contracts expire that day, so they're open to signing new deals.
[00:03:59] Speaker A: Well, next week is the player expiration celebration. We'll call it that.
[00:04:07] Speaker C: But this, they're all going to expire like rotten fruit in the fridge.
[00:04:11] Speaker A: Oh no.
This week is going to be the rumor rundown. So we'll try and get ahead of as much as we can before next week where maybe some rosters will be locked in. But last year, if you remember, it took like a week for anything to get locked in. We tried to do this whole live episode and have some fun with it and then every team heard about us doing that. It was like we're going to pull a prank on these guys and their little podcast. So unfortunately, yeah, that's how last year went faster. This week we did have some fun conversations and I remember I trolled Sam a bunch on the stream. That was great. But for now we at least have some rumors and also some fun global news to cover. Specifically T1 news. We talked about last week on the episode that the players had all mentioned that they would like to stay with T1 and run it back for a third year and. Or fourth. Fourth year, right? Yeah, fourth year. And it looks like news just dropped. T1 has extended carriers contract. Mazell. Want to get your thoughts on this? Because in my mind it's Faker and Carrier are, I think in my eyes the top two that you'd want to keep. What do you think?
[00:05:20] Speaker C: Oh, 100%. I think if you're not keeping carriers. Such a tragedy. The guy's so like he's literally just at the start of his story and he's already a multi world champion and it's not like he was a slouch in those opportunities either. So I think it's a great signing and honestly I could see him as another legacy player just like faker.
[00:05:39] Speaker A: I mean the fact that we even had a conversation last week about like best of all time in your roles and carries name was coming up. Bickle, what are your thoughts though?
[00:05:47] Speaker B: He's invaluable to that team. There's no surprise whatsoever. They extended him. He's the first person that should have been on their list to extend. And yeah, there's. He's the best support in Korea. Arguably the best support. And he's the best support in Korea, the best support in the world right now, and arguably one of the greatest of all time.
[00:06:07] Speaker A: And he's such a good support, he guaranteed his spot on T1. Who have officially dropped Reckless as their academy support.
Reckless is party ways with T1 Academy. They had a official statement go out on socials and to me, the. This signals that Reckless is probably going back to a team in EU that has been kind of rumored and I don't really see a reason why they would drop him otherwise unless they just like didn't find the benefit of having him around.
[00:06:41] Speaker B: It wasn't him being dropped by the team. He specifically said it was to go home and be near family and play in the Sweden area. So they had no issues with him. He had no issues with them. It was a big thank you from everybody. He loved being there, but it was to go back home.
[00:07:00] Speaker C: And he said specifically in the tweet to play professionally from home. So he's still looking to be playing.
[00:07:07] Speaker A: Okay, well, we'll see if his role swap to support makes him a more attractive pickup for EMEA teams or LAC teams. Either way, we will be cheering you on. Reichlis still one of my favorite players of all time.
[00:07:19] Speaker C: He's a world champ.
[00:07:21] Speaker A: Yeah, technically.
Technically a world champ. And that was his second finals, don't forget that. So you know he's up there with. With Mr. Caria. The only one one world championship behind him.
Other global news, this time getting into the LTAs the southern region. We have a couple of things here. Think card joining Furia.
Big loss for na. If this is true, is this a rumor or is this one confirmed? Has there been an announcement?
[00:07:51] Speaker B: None of these have had any sort of official announcements. This is again the Pokemon.
[00:07:56] Speaker A: Okay, yeah, outside of reckless partying ways with T1 because it was an official.
[00:08:01] Speaker B: T1 post about that. T1 officially extended Caria. T1 officially parted ways with Rekkles. Those are the only confirmations in this sort of section right now.
[00:08:10] Speaker A: Okay. Awesome. A T1 signing carrier, extending carrier is confirmed as well. But yeah, mazel. I know that Right when this news broke, you were already sad. I'm sad about this. Thinkard's like one of the big brains here in na.
[00:08:22] Speaker C: Nah, he just cares a lot. And when you talk to him, you know he's got a good head and he's headed in the right direction. I think he was a major piece to a lot of successful teams that we've seen recently in na. So it's sad that we're going to see him go to the south, but maybe that means. Honestly I was seeing some takes on Twitter earlier that it's kind of cool and good to see our coaching staffs go to the Southern region to maybe see if we can get some teams that are actually at on the competitive level.
[00:08:46] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean Thinkard has had such a long history in na.
He was on like CLG as a player, like a sub way back in the day and then was like Coach for Cloud 9, coach for FlyQuest Echo Fox clutch Gaming is kind of where he really made a name for himself.
Up to like Golden Guardians Academy. Back to CLG as a coach, then energy.
It was part of that kind of big run that they had in 2023.
[00:09:16] Speaker C: The only piece left, the next only.
[00:09:18] Speaker A: Piece left that they kept around. Remember that time that they had that photo that they were bragging about like 10 coaches on stage when they won a chance championship and then a couple make quarterfinals at the Worlds and then like a month later it's like yeah, we're down to like one coach.
Yeah, tough stuff. But wishing Thinkard the best wherever he does end up. Other than that, there was a rumor going around about a certain NA player as well, Mr.
Dola being considered by multiple teams down there in the lta. S. Bickle want to talk about Dokla?
[00:09:53] Speaker B: Yeah, Dokla obviously coming off his year with NRG didn't have the strongest performances unfortunately and it seems like he wasn't able to get that look up in the LTA north. But still some options there. We'll have to see what rounds out, but we have heard some rumors going around that he's being considered by some of the LTA south teams, specifically Vivo Keyed and Furia where we just mentioned that Thinkard ended up. So we could see that reunion of the two down there or Vivo Keyed making a bit stronger of a push. They're also rumored to be heading after Trimby from the LEC to potentially be joining them. That'd be a strong dual import duo to have there.
[00:10:35] Speaker A: That would be very interesting. And notably Dokla technically won't be like a full on import because teams in the Southern Conference can have one player from the Northern Conference that is not against their two import slots. So they can have two players from the Southern Conference, one player from the Northern Conference and then still two import slots available. So theoretically Trim B could be one of two imports that they have with DOKL coming in and then two Brazilian players as well. So that's kind of cool. If Evoked can pull that one off. Trimby DO Club, we'll keep our eyes on them. I imagine there's gonna be a lot of news coming up in the next couple of weeks here as to EU and NA players heading to that Southern region. That was one of the big kind of question marks we had is which players are not. Not like is it going to happen, but which players are going to end up in that Southern Conference, especially with that one NA spot open.
[00:11:25] Speaker B: There's a lot of spots down in the south opening up and we'll have to wait and see exactly how that comes together.
[00:11:31] Speaker A: Great for everybody except for Brazilian players. I am very sorry for the Brazilian players that will probably not have as many opportunities now. That does it for global news though, so it's time to hop into the rumor segment. Before that though, shout out to everybody in the community if we missed any news or if there's anything that you want to make sure that we cover for next week, make sure to let us know in the community discord. You can find a link to that wherever you are listening along. And also special shout out to anybody who supports the podcast, either through our Patreon or our merch shop that's league rundown shop.fourthwall.com and announced it last week. Reminder as well, there should be hopefully some information coming out publicly on our socials and then in the discord about it by the end of this week. If not, it might be delayed till next week, but we have a little bit of a nest egg from all the people supporting us and we're going to be paying that forward, starting off with the NA community in Tier 2 and Tier 3 by hosting a little tournament with a little prize pool. So I'm already working with some coaches starting to talk with tournament organizers about getting that going. So we're in the early stages of planning that, but you can expect to hear all of our voices and maybe see our faces as well when that broadcast rears its head.
There we go. It's time to hop into the rumors. We're going to start with LEC this time around. Then we're going to take a little break to play a game that I've prepared for my two co hosts and we're going to hop over to LTAN to talk talk about those rumors. The reason we Start with LEC is because there's way more to talk about here. Bickle. There's actually a lot of unconfirmed but pretty realistic rosters that we're seeing locked in, right?
[00:13:12] Speaker B: Yeah. Going by the Pokemon, the sheep, we have nine out of the 10 rosters thoroughly constructed with one that we know absolutely nothing about because spoiler alert, they might be selling their spots, which is.
[00:13:31] Speaker A: Wild when we get to the which team that is and the kind of legacy you can frame it that way that they've put on the league based on mostly in like 20, 20, 2021, those years and those runs. But let's start at the top. At least with the teams that we do know.
G2 Esports. The kings of Europe and the pride of the LEC. Their roster was Broken Blade, Yike Camps. Hansama Mickey. Mickey X, Bickle. Tell me the rumored changes Again. A lot of these were expecting to be correct. Usually the Pokemon accounts do hit more than they miss. But theoretically these things could change. So these are still rumors. We're gonna address them as such.
[00:14:15] Speaker B: Exactly. None of this is in writing yet. None of this is officially announced. Everything is still subject to change. Asterisk. But with something put out like this, it tends to be pretty accurate. They had a pretty good record last year and the year before that. And so for G2, no contracts expiring. So any changes they making are voluntary. And it seems as they are parting ways with their jungle and support. Yike and Mickie X heading out to new teams and they're bringing in two new players. One with LEC experience, one coming straight out of the Emea. Labrov, the BDS support coming in to replace Mickie and Schumann from BDS Academy, the Emea Masters winning Jungler. He has been the most high hyped up rookie jungler since Yike. So basically if G2 offers you, you are going to take it. G2 wants the best, so they are going to offer who they feel are the best. And 99% of the time they're going to get who they want.
[00:15:24] Speaker A: They really do have the pick of the litter. You want to play with Caps. If you are a EU player, you want to get on this roster at any expense. It is sad to he had a couple of really positive performances.
But when you look at international performances and where there were weaknesses, hard to argue that Yike isn't one of the players that should be put under the microscope alongside Mickey X, who's the other one that they are rumored to be replacing with Labrav. Notable from BDS proper, you know, second place Tech and kind of tied for first place summer finish, making it top three in the summer playoffs. And yeah, I mean, wasn't able to really make that push to qualify for Worlds through season finals. I think that was a bit of a disappointment, but also kind of a rough draw for them. I Mean Fnatic and G2 were the teams that knocked them out of the qualifiers.
[00:16:23] Speaker B: BDS would have been at Worlds had it not been for the fact that G2 choked against Mad Lions in the first. It guaranteed them that lock.
[00:16:31] Speaker A: Yeah. And I think they still push G2 to 5 games in that lower bracket match.
[00:16:36] Speaker B: Yeah, I think coming in everyone was like, okay, if G2 is going to make changes, it's going to be yike that's going to be the changes. They're looking for a new direction there. I think people are going to be surprised more so by the Mickey change. Mickey, not this year, but the year before that was coming off an MVP season and Labrov has been somebody who hits very high highs. Like we've seen him look phenomenal. Been the only person to really contest the high peaks of Mickie X and Hillisang. But he's also had some moments where he's not the most consistent. So we'll have to see how he can fit into team.
[00:17:08] Speaker A: Yeah, I think the big question that I still have is.
It's even a question I was asking going into last year and Mazella, I'm curious your thoughts on this one too. Just because Caps is such a notable player, like how much does Caps have left in the tank? Like realistically, how much can Europe LEC G2 expect to get out of this guy? Because he just keeps performing at a high level. That's hard to do for players.
[00:17:31] Speaker C: Yeah, I mean, I think he's going to be in the game for a long time and I think he's going to be at the top of the game in the EU for a long time. I think some players that are in the echelon that like Caps is in have the ability to look forward and say, I know I'm going to be playing for a long time. So I can take it a little bit more passively in some ways. But I think when you hear interviews from him, he's still as driven as he was when he first started. So I think it's really good sign.
[00:17:57] Speaker A: Okay. Well, yeah, I have to agree. I think that he's got a lot more in him. It's just. It's impressive how much he's already given I mean, at this point, how much longer was Perks playing before Caps showed up on the scene? Was it three years, three or four? Two. Three. Okay, maybe four. Trying to remember when perks showed up was 2015.
[00:18:17] Speaker B: 2015 is when join the LEC and CAPS was 2017.
[00:18:26] Speaker A: Okay, so only two years before.
So.
And I would say Perks his last year and a half were not his best.
[00:18:36] Speaker B: Ever since he came back from na, he's not been the same player.
[00:18:41] Speaker A: Yeah, but Caps has just maintained that level of crazy.
[00:18:45] Speaker C: How many players we can say that.
[00:18:46] Speaker A: About jk Broken Blade looks pretty good over there. Come on.
[00:18:50] Speaker C: But he didn't. Countless others. How many countless others? What happened to Prince and Vikla, huh?
[00:19:00] Speaker A: We don't talk about Alphari. We don't talk about a lot of players. All right, but that's enough talking about G2 as well. Again, that is the rumored roster. Let us know your thoughts on if this is a marked improvement and how excited you are for Skewmont as well to come in and play. I haven't seen no tape of him, but very excited to see his debut on this roster. Brings us to our next top team in fanatic, the perennial second place team. What does perennial mean? Am I using that term correctly? I don't know. Either way, almost always second team at this point. There we go. Long last.
[00:19:35] Speaker B: You're good.
[00:19:36] Speaker A: Yeah. Their roster was Oscar Renan, Razork, Humanoid Noah, June Bickle. What is their updated rumored roster?
[00:19:44] Speaker B: So contracts expiring this off season is only Oscar Renan but they are rumored to be resigning him. But parting ways with their bot duo of Noah in June and running back a little bit to a previous roster they had bringing back Upset but pairing him with Mickie x who's leaving G2. So they're going to be running with Oscar Razer, Humanoid Upset and Mickey.
[00:20:11] Speaker C: I got a question for you Kangas.
[00:20:13] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:20:14] Speaker C: How many more years are we going to get of Upset?
I actually spotlight for so many years there's not anything you can say that's good.
[00:20:25] Speaker A: 2016 I think is when he came in on Schalke. Or was it 2017? He was on Giants first. Right. But Giants became Schalke. Yeah. So I think schalke was the first time we saw Upset.
[00:20:35] Speaker B: Yep. 2017 is when he was Schalke.
[00:20:39] Speaker A: I still have faith in Upset. I still think that he can be one of the top performing AD carries in the LEC that has come back to bite me making that statement in the past. But when you look at the Carmine core roster and how they performed. I think Upset was more often than not their win condition and was not usually the reason that they were like losing games. Like, it wasn't his decisions that were straight up losing them games in at least the games that I was watching in the tape that I was seeing. So I think that this is. This has potential. If you put Upset with Mickey X to be a very, very powerful late game team, I worry maybe how they lane together. That would be the concern that I have for this combo in this pairing. But to answer your question more directly, Mizel. One more year, Upset. Get the. Get it the fuck together, you know, There we go. You know, we'll get some spice in there. Any other thoughts on this one? Pickle on the Fnatic rumored roster.
[00:21:40] Speaker B: If it's going to work, it's gotta work. I mean, upsets only finished 10th place. Fourth split four seasons in his career.
[00:21:49] Speaker A: Yeah, only four times.
[00:21:50] Speaker B: Only four times. What could possibly go wrong when he.
[00:21:53] Speaker A: Looks good, he looks so freaking good.
[00:21:55] Speaker C: Make it a sixth. You know the time he went to.
[00:21:57] Speaker A: Worlds and everybody blamed him for how the team imploded. That was great.
[00:22:02] Speaker B: I know it's not like we've almost seen this exact roster, but basically just Oscar instead of Wonder and Mickey instead of Hillissang.
Mm, yeah, totally.
[00:22:11] Speaker A: I'm sold.
[00:22:12] Speaker B: Froster's great.
[00:22:12] Speaker A: I'm sold.
Yeah, we'll see how this goes. I think this has the potential to be one of the best offseason moves or one of the worst offseason moves. I feel like it's going to be one of the extremes.
[00:22:26] Speaker B: There's no in between.
[00:22:27] Speaker A: Yeah, it's low chance that there's an in between on my end, but that brings us to our next roster. Koi, AKA mdk. But rumor is the MD is on the way out. Thank goodness, because I was really like extra uber out of funny acronyms to come up with for that. So just back. Just back to Koi. Yeah. Their last roster. Merwin, Elliot for Scowie. Super, Alvaro and Bickle. It's looking almost the same, but with one very interesting change.
[00:23:06] Speaker B: Very interesting change. They've already confirmed that they're parting ways with Frisco either mid laner and no contracts are expiring, so they just need one mid laner to stick right in there and fit in and get it running back again. So you'd imagine that like, okay, Spanish Org with all this history, they've been Spanish for a majority of it. They're gonna look at the. The EMEA master system, see if they can find A young Spanish guy to bring in. But no, we're seeing something different as they go to North America and import Jojo pune.
[00:23:45] Speaker C: Thanks, Papa. EBay.
[00:23:47] Speaker A: Yep. Arguably one of the.
Not to throw too much shade on him, but least geographically literate players that we have. So he's gonna be a great representative for North America over there in eu. If you checked out his stream that he did after the rumors dropped, there were a lot of memes that came out of that. Of him not knowing where Spain was on a map and other ensuing shenanigans.
Yeah, this one is the one that hurts the most. I mean, we talked about this in the past that losing Jojo as a region is really rough. I mean, wish him the best as a player going forward, but it's. It's tough to say goodbye. But in terms of a roster move should theoretically be an upgrade over for Scally. I mean, it's tough because we don't see a lot of like NA mid laners overlapping with EU mid laners. But I mean, it's jojo P and like we know that he can perform at that level. Yeah, this is kind of the first. This is Right. I think this is literally the first ever NA player.
[00:24:46] Speaker B: It is that's played in the LEC system. We've had Cody son go to the. Yeah, he went EMEA system before I.
[00:24:55] Speaker C: The. The one point I'll note is like, unfortunately, it's not like NA teams didn't try to keep Jojo. Unfortunately streamer money is just too powerful and Ebuy shelled out the big bucks for him. So the man's going to get his bag in EU and I, you know, I'm happy for him.
[00:25:16] Speaker A: I am as well.
[00:25:17] Speaker C: How the mid talent is and he true.
[00:25:21] Speaker A: Hey, maybe that'll get any viewers to watch more LEC because they're gonna want to be tracking Jojob and has the how he's doing.
Man, I really hope Coy make it to that first international event. Or what if he goes there and.
[00:25:36] Speaker C: Doesn'T make another international again?
[00:25:38] Speaker A: Dude, that would be three years of.
[00:25:40] Speaker C: No internationals for JoJo. Oh my God.
[00:25:43] Speaker A: Oh, could you imagine?
[00:25:44] Speaker B: I mean, MSI is in Canada this year, so hometown advance home field advantage if you can make it there. True just needs to beat G2 or Fnatic.
Totally easy to do.
[00:25:56] Speaker A: Yeah, well, fanatics, you know, they just have to hope that it's the other end of the extreme where Upset and Mickey do not work together.
I think there's a world. There's a world that they could do it. I mean, this is still the core of the third best team in EU from 2024. Or at least at the end.
Yeah. So that is one of the spicier rumors that we have. And now for the rest of the teams, it gets more, I guess, volumes. There's more. There's more to cover. So team bds, let's get over this one. Adam Shayo, Nuke, Ice Labrav was the roster Bickle. What's it looking like going into 2025?
[00:26:35] Speaker B: You mentioned how we're getting a lot more as we get lower. Turns out when a team doesn't make worlds, they're more inclined to make a lot of changes. But so for.
[00:26:44] Speaker A: Especially when everyone's contract is expired.
[00:26:46] Speaker B: Yeah, Team bs Literally every single contract was expiring. So free reign for everybody rumored to be resigning. Only Nuke and LeBron. Sorry, not LeBron. Nuke and Ice from that team. So keeping Mid and AD carry, promoting internally from the BDS Academy system, they're going to bring up Paris, who was the best performing support in the EMEA Master system. Again, BDS Academy, coming off an EMEA championship spoiler, every single member of BDS Academy was promoted to at least some LEC team. We'll see every single member of that, but. So that's where they're getting their support from. And they landed the big top lane Fish of the off season. Irrelevant from sk coming over. He was the one that everybody was looking at saying, okay, where's he gonna go? What's gonna come out of this? And okay, something not as exciting from K Corp Blue is a 113 coming into the jungle. I think we see it. We saw him like a split with.
[00:27:51] Speaker A: Astralis once we saw him on kc before KC joined. I want to say I think he was KC player. And then yeah, on Astralis in lec.
[00:28:02] Speaker B: Yeah, he played a little bit with Astralis, I want to say.
Didn't look all that impressive. Went back to the EMEA Master system. Was with K Corp Blue for a bit and yeah, is now back.
[00:28:15] Speaker A: Yeah, we'll see if he's able to have a better finish than last time when he was on Astralis. That was like the Finn leader Cabe John Hoon roster. They finished ninth place in the summer season for 2023.
Yeah, it's gonna be.
I don't know, I feel like BDS really rolled high with the Irrelevant. But then I'm not sold on the 113 and Paris, I just don't know enough about. So I don't know if that's going to be a hype pickup. Are people excited about Paris?
[00:28:52] Speaker B: Paris is going to be. I think people are excited about that pickup. He's the other. There are a couple of really hyped rookies coming in. He is one of them. If you just cover one one three this roster looks great. He's just that kind of question mark for this team.
[00:29:09] Speaker A: Happy to see. I mean I still like Nuke as a player, but I think Ice is the big one. Keeping Ice holding on to that player. One of if not like arguments for the best performing AD Carry, especially relative to the rest of his team strength from 2024. So very happy that Ice is returning.
Any thoughts on this one? Mizelle? I know Ice actually was I think Hawk that was covering this.
[00:29:37] Speaker C: No, it was me.
[00:29:38] Speaker A: Oh it was.
[00:29:40] Speaker B: Viva la France.
[00:29:41] Speaker C: Just very, very happy.
[00:29:45] Speaker A: Awesome.
Well, let's talk about one of the teams that lost Irrelevant and maybe lost a bit of this off season. Sk.
Ooh, well, gained irrelevancy but lost Irrelevant. There's something there. Well, it's going to come down to how they performed up.
SK Gaming had Irrelevant, Isma, Nisky, Rahel and Luan as their roster. Bickle, what's it looking like going into 2025?
[00:30:14] Speaker B: So they've already confirmed that they're parting ways with half this team. They've said goodbye to Irrelevant, Nisky and Luan, leaving them with only Isma and Rahel under contract. They're going to be keeping and building around that. They're bringing in the BDS Academy top and mid laner in jnx, formerly known as Gen X who has quite a bit of LEC experience as well as Rieker who I believe has like a split of LEC experience. And also for support they're bringing in Loopy from Issus, but more notably is he was a former DK Challengers player where he played quite a bit with their AD carry Rahel so they have that built in synergy already. So this is going to be a team that is purely focused around that bot lane. It feels like I'm just quickly looking.
[00:31:04] Speaker A: Up Rieker because yeah, the name does bring a big bell here.
Was yeah, Mad Lions in spring of 22.
[00:31:14] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:31:14] Speaker A: Is that correct?
[00:31:15] Speaker B: Yes. He had one seat one split with Mad Lions and then got replaced I believe.
[00:31:21] Speaker A: Okay man, short stint but we'll see if he's able to bounce back and make a run here.
Yeah, I feel like the bot lane we saw a lot of really cool things from our hell in Luan and it was a brand new. These were like the two Korean challenger players that were coming in, right?
[00:31:40] Speaker B: Correct.
[00:31:40] Speaker A: Yeah. And I think Rahel definitely stepped up. Luan had a couple of oopsies throughout the year, so I suppose it makes sense he would hold on to Rahel and try and upgrade Luan to something else.
Yeah, but that's a lot of changes. Three players are different on that roster. But that is not the most changes that we see on a roster because this next team, Giant X. Oh boy, what a shake up. Let's go over what their 2024 looked like because 2025 is going to be very different. The Antonio, oh, what a guy. What a top laner. He got that one year baby in the top lane. Yuhan in the jungle Juan. Jackie's mid Patrick bought with ignorance. Now what do you think the roster is going to look like for next year? Bickle?
[00:32:36] Speaker B: Well, we knew they had a big star that kind of came up this year in Jackie's and it turns out that's what Giant X knew because they said, okay, we have this guy in the mid lane. He's who we're building around. What everybody else? What about everybody else you ask? Well, it's a good thing, you wonder. The Antonio, the top laner who came in midway through the season has retired.
He had a split in the LEC.
[00:33:00] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:33:01] Speaker B: He's played like in EMEA for like nine years before that. So officially retiring.
07.
[00:33:08] Speaker A: 07 to that player.
[00:33:10] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:33:10] Speaker A: What, what an impact. Show up, get the experience. You can tell your grandkids I technically.
[00:33:16] Speaker C: Played in the I played on stage at the Berlin Studio. That's probably not gonna exist there. I did it.
[00:33:24] Speaker B: Yep. So congrats to him.
[00:33:27] Speaker C: Lost thing though, which is sad true.
[00:33:31] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:33:31] Speaker B: So the Antonio on his way out. Also rumored to be well contracts that are expiring are Juhan. And much to Mongoose's grin and happiness, Ignar are both on their way out with their contracts expiring. But it seems like they're also going to be moving on from Patrick, maybe keeping him on the bench or something as a sub. But we haven't heard much about that.
So that means they have four open spots for this team and they split the difference with I'd say two players that when you hear it's like okay, that's a major exciting move for them and two, that it's a bit more questionable. So the exciting portion is they're bringing in Noah and June, the fanatic bot side that's had that entire year of synergy to build up and I think people are really interested and excited as to what's going to happen with this. They're going with a bit more of a veteran jungler bringing in closer from Carmine Core. He came in in that summer split to kind of give them that punch in the gut, try and get them moving. Was able to find some success and they are bringing in a rookie as well. They're bringing in a lot from Go in the EMEA system.
[00:34:45] Speaker A: Also a Turkish player.
[00:34:46] Speaker B: So yes Turkish player, he had an okay EMEA season, but in Emea Masters in the summer he really had a breakout performance and was kind of a big reason that team GO was able to go so far in that tournament. So no surprise to see him being the interest for a lot of teams to say, okay, can we take this player with potential and build upon it.
[00:35:06] Speaker A: Okay, well eyes will be on lot. I love seeing rookies. I love how many rookies are always signed to LEC teams pretty much every off season. They are a region that just heavily prioritizes valuing players that are up and coming and showing promise at the lower levels. So let's see what lads able to do with that. But four changes is a lot for a roster so Giant X is going to have a big magnifying glass on them. No surprise they did not have a fantastic 2024 showing overall. Speaking of not having a great showing, Vitality died for last place in the summer split. Are making a lot of changes as well. Their roster consisted of Photon, Linkus, Vitio, Carzi and Hillisang. What's it looking like going into 2025?
[00:35:52] Speaker B: Bickel so expiring contacts for that team are Photon and Hillisang. They're rumored to be resigning Hillisang but not Photon, so he's expected to be on his way out. Along with this, they are expecting to be demoting VTO to their Vitality B team, but promoting Naka, Nako and Sajek from that Vitality B squad. So going all internal with their changes to the roster, bringing up their two solo laners to join Linkus, Karzi and Hilly this coming year.
[00:36:25] Speaker A: Okay, I'm realizing two changes is actually not that many. I read knock Naco as 22 players. I thought we were going to have to juggle that on broadcast. I'm very happy that it is not the case.
[00:36:38] Speaker C: Still kind of a dumb name to say.
[00:36:40] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean it looks like two names right? But all right, two changes coming in. We'll see how things look for Vitality. Obviously they needed to shake something up. Things were rough and I definitely think changing Photon is one of the must dos on this roster.
[00:36:56] Speaker B: It'll be interesting to see how this all works out as they now really have a three young guy in the top. In the top trio with Knock, Nico, Linkus and Sajek. With Carzine Hilly now playing that strong veteran role.
[00:37:10] Speaker A: And oh my God, can some rosters look rough when Hill is saying has to be the veteran shot calling. But also if everyone's willing to follow up on Crackhead Hillising plays, you know, maybe that's what you need, a bunch of rookies that aren't going to say.
[00:37:24] Speaker C: No that he's changing. He's not.
You know, that's. That's what he tells them.
[00:37:31] Speaker A: I don't know his KDA from last year, but I still, in my mental lore, I think he's got like eight deaths a game on average or something crazy like that. Unconfirmed. Bickle, you don't need to look it up. It's fine. It's fine.
[00:37:43] Speaker B: How did you know that's what I was doing?
[00:37:46] Speaker A: Well, you just, you know, you got it like that.
All right, well, while Bagel figures out actually what the KDA was.
[00:37:53] Speaker B: Fine. I won't look.
[00:37:55] Speaker A: No. All right, sweet. We can move on to the next team because this is another one that does have a lot of changes. Kind of tying question mark is the last thing we cover is unknown, but currently tying for the most changes we have. Heretics. This roster, oh boy, was it potentially good. And oh boy, did it not quite deliver. Wonder, Yankos, Zyru, Flockhead and Trymbi was the roster this past year. Bickle, what's changing on the sheet there?
[00:38:29] Speaker B: Yeah, so Heretics came in last year looking like a really exciting squad as they had reunited Wunder, Jankos and Perkz and now they are burning it all to the ground and almost starting from scratch with only Flockid remaining on this roster. They're confirmed to be parting ways with Zyru and Janko Trimby's contract is expiring.
And yeah, so they're starting from the bottom with only Flakid remaining and they're not going the route of grabbing a lot of experienced veterans. They're going young. The only person with experience to bring in is she out from BDS in the Jungle. That'll be solid there. But they're promoting from their LOS Heretics roster with Carlson in the top lane, bringing in Stend from Vitality B, who is kind of the second best support at the tournament. Right behind BDS academy support Paris. And this is the interesting one.
They have signed Camilo from Izi which isn't even a tier 2 team.
This is a player that has been playing below tier 2. He is entirely skipping tier 2 and going straight into the LEC.
[00:39:44] Speaker A: Hey it worked for Danny and NA. Maybe it works for this player. Sometimes you can find that diamond in the rough that just has that potential and has that ability to perform at the top level regardless of experience. And yeah, I mean there's a potential heretics strikes gold but they're again 2024 was pretty rough. I mean they were averaging like sixth or seventh place team throughout the year. It was like seventh place finishes in winter, then they changed out perks and they moved up to like fourth, fifth in spring, then spring playoffs, sixth, eighth in summer summer playoffs.
So yeah hopefully a shakeup is going to do wonders for them. No pun intended as their top laner is no longer with us. But that moves us now to our second to last team here. The last one that we actually have really information to give you. Carmine Core the good old kc. The roster was Connor, closer, Vladi upset and targamous from this last year. What's the roster looking like for next year?
[00:40:43] Speaker B: Yep. So they have already been confirmed to be parting ways with closer but resigning Khanna. Other than that their only expiring contract is upset. That means they're looking for a jungle and an AD carry. Well they have an AD carry. They've had an AD carry. They've been waiting for this AD carry for about as long as you can remember. As Kalist is finally of age, he is finally able to play in the lec. For anybody that doesn't know, Kalist has been the most hyped EU Masters player since God knows when.
Like it's absurd the amount of hype he's getting. If he is not the best AD carry in Europe he will not be living up to the hype. It is that level of hype.
[00:41:31] Speaker A: It's absurd for such a young rookie to actually experience.
[00:41:35] Speaker B: And for Jungle they are also grabbing the remnants of G2 bringing in Yike meaning their rosters rounding out to be Connor Yike, Vladi Kalist and Targamous.
[00:41:49] Speaker C: Some young players.
[00:41:51] Speaker A: Couple of young players right there. KC were so close to bringing it back in 2024. Atrocious winter and spring summer pretty good. They made a run for that World's Qualifying tournament and they just weren't there. I mean they just didn't have enough points. It didn't matter how good their summer looked. It mattered how poor their winter and spring looked. So they're trying to, I think, keep the majority of the pieces that were working like Vlad Econa were not dying in side lanes nearly as much come summer. They were actually playing with the team, but I think a big part of that was actually closer and it was closer and kind of being on the same page. And then it was also upset being that clutch factor. So Kalist needs to step up and be that same clutch factor and Yike needs to get on the same page with Kana, who was playing a very different game than closer for the majority of the year. And that's my concern is can they do that fast enough to not repeat history and have a good enough performance?
Although I guess also with the changing format, maybe that's less of an impactful thing.
But we'll have to wait and see how that affects Casey. I imagine it'll be a slow winter. I don't think they're going to make waves in winter, but maybe by spring, definitely by summer, my eyes are really going to be on them to be like, there's a chance, there's a chance that they could actually step up and make some damage happen.
[00:43:11] Speaker B: This is a roster from the off season that it feels like has made some big moves and can kind of be the team that wasn't there last year that possibly contends. People are feeling.
[00:43:23] Speaker A: Yeah, I could see that.
That brings us to our last roster in the lec. The only one name left and you already said teasing. We don't even know if this team is going to exist next year and that is Rogue. They had a roster of Finn, Marcoon, Larson, Comp Zoelus, and we don't really know what their comp is going to be for this next year, do we?
[00:43:52] Speaker B: Everyone but Larson has their contract expiring and that is the only thing we know about this team. We heard early on that they might be looking to sell. The question is, will they? If so, to who? If so, who will they bring in? Will there be money involved? How much of a budget will this new team have? There have been some names thrown around from different places as to to where the possible team buying is. I think there's a specific team that's been heavily rumored. I can't remember their name off the top of my head, but again, nothing is anywhere close to confirmed yet. So Rogue. Everything is up in the air, which.
[00:44:30] Speaker A: Is again, just kind of crazy considering this team has been in the LEC for quite a while. Like they are at this Point, I would argue a kind of historic team. They've what, been around since. Was it 20?
I'm trying to think when they actually joined the league.
[00:44:53] Speaker B: Let me think.
[00:44:54] Speaker A: But the fact that they have taken at least like, first place in multiple splits, even getting first place in LEC 2022 summer playoffs, like, this organization has left a mark in the EU in the.
[00:45:10] Speaker B: So they joined the LEC when franchising became a thing. So 20, 19, 29, I thought that.
[00:45:17] Speaker A: They had been in earlier. All right, well, either way, I know that that was the big shakeup because then especially by the time 2020 rolled around, it was like, oh, G2. They've lost their stranglehold over the region. And it's even like Rogue kind of stepped up as their competition. It was no longer G2 versus Fanatical Classico. It's like, wait, Rogue's in the conversation now? Mad Lions are in the conversation. They were part of this, like, new generation of players making orgs step up to G2, taking first place in regular seasons and then eventually getting titles for themselves. I mean, a 3 OG 2 in a finals, which is just crazy to think about. Even made like, quarters at that world, like, this org had a lot of promise behind it. And I think it's a little sad to see that they're potentially not sticking around.
But we'll keep our eyes on that either way going forward because like we'd said, all contracts will be expiring on Tuesday. We should have more information about the teams and locking in rosters as well as what the hell's happening over at Rogue.
Feels kind of like the Energy situation, though, where we saw the writing on the wall, like they had all their contracts expiring. There was no information on them signing new players.
And eventually we did get the confirmation. Energy's not around an na. Potentially, that's going to happen in the lec, but that's for future us to worry about. For right now. We're going to play a little mini game before I move on to ltan, because LTAN doesn't have as many changes. There's a couple that we're going to cover, but only for some of the teams. But before then, I have a wheel that I prepared and now you might ask Kangas, what's. What's on the wheel? What's going on? Why would you make a wheel? Well, there's probably a name that you noticed wasn't included in any of the roster rumors, and that is good old G2 alumni Yankos, who as of right now, Is homeless, is teamless. And that's one of the big names in the off season for the LEC that everyone's going to be talking about. So I've prepared a wheel for my co hosts. Now, there's a couple options on this wheel for what the future of Yankees could be. What I'm going to do is we're.
[00:47:24] Speaker C: Going to explain this to the audio audience that we have.
[00:47:27] Speaker A: Oh, it's going to be great. It's going to be great. There's a couple of different options. There's things like.
Like become cadrel's assistant. There's things like write a manifesto. All kinds of options for Jankos here and whatever it lands on. My cocaster, who was assigned that spin or co host is going to have to argue for a certain amount of time. Just give an argument for why this is a good move for Jankos in the offseason. Pretty simple game. I'll give one as well. In fact, I will start just as an example. I'm going to click spin the wheel. I don't think anybody can hear this, but it is making some noise and it is landing on.
Oh, I'm happy with this one. Open a pancake shop. Now, this is something. As a player, he's probably got a little bit of a nest egg built up. And what should you do with that? I think that, you know, the restaurant industry isn't going anywhere.
I would hope. I know nothing about economics, but I imagine it's not going anywhere. And you have the name Yankos. You could just name it Yankees panky. 10 out of 10 gold mine idea. So open a pancake shop specifically with the title Yankees Pankies. That's.
[00:48:36] Speaker C: What's the theme? What's the signature pancake?
[00:48:40] Speaker A: Oh, it's some like wax shape of.
[00:48:44] Speaker C: A nidalee spear and it always misses.
[00:48:48] Speaker A: That can work. That could work. I like that.
Okay, so that was my one.
Bickel, you're gonna be up next. I'm gonna spin the wheel for you.
[00:48:57] Speaker B: Hit me.
[00:48:59] Speaker A: Let's see what it lands on. It is spinning. It is spinning. And family farm. Okay. Argue why a family farm is a good offseason move for Jankos.
[00:49:08] Speaker B: I mean, like you said, Jankos has built up that nest egg. So he's okay now. He's got enough that he can support himself with whatever he wants to do. But he's been in the public limelight for so long. He was with G2, the focal point of the LEC for such strong period of time. He won an MSI. He went to world finals. He competed in so many worlds, so much lec. He's been in the public limelight for so long. It's time. He just wants to take a step back, take some time away to focus on himself and, you know, just get away from all technology. He's been focused on it for so long that just head out into the wilderness. Head out to the middle of nowhere. You don't need service when you can just focus on the farm. You've got all that area around you. You're able to.
[00:49:53] Speaker A: Farms can have wifi, right?
[00:49:55] Speaker B: He's a jungler. He's been focused on farming for so long. It's like his natural home calling.
[00:50:01] Speaker C: I'm not gonna lie. Much different take on what a family farm for Yankees would be. Because when you take like a family pet out to the farm, you know, they're usually dead.
There were two ways to return for this.
[00:50:14] Speaker A: One pickle. The whole.
[00:50:16] Speaker C: See, you just take them all out there, they're gone. You don't ever have to deal with them again.
[00:50:21] Speaker A: I mean, I was gonna leave it up to interpretation, but I was more on Mielle's side. I'm happy with the wholesome way. Oh, but there we go. There we go.
[00:50:35] Speaker C: Family friendly show. What is this?
[00:50:38] Speaker A: All right, well, there we go. That's two of them. Mizzell, you're up next. I'm gonna spin the wheel for you to give an argument for why take us all out. This is a good move for his off season. Oh, this is a fun 1. Revive H2K.
[00:50:50] Speaker C: The worst one.
This is literally the worst one.
[00:50:55] Speaker A: You know, it's where he got his. His start at the lec.
[00:50:59] Speaker C: Back with. Back with Kelsey Moser.
[00:51:02] Speaker A: Yeah, they made quarterfinals.
[00:51:03] Speaker C: Yeah, they did.
All right. All right is good. Here's the reason why this is good. Because LEC are desperately looking for a brand. They need somebody to combat all this French hype that's coming out of the LFL and H2K. They're gonna bring back Kelsey Moser. They're gonna bring back pride to the lec.
And. And Jankos is. He's gonna be. He.
He's just gonna be a guy in the building. I don't know.
It doesn't have to play, you know, but if you're surviving, definitely like a business model esque version. So I can imagine him as like the. The lackadaisical CEO that runs around like. Like a. Like a. A not awful human being version of what G2 used to have.
[00:51:56] Speaker A: Oh, that's. That's great, actually. I Like that. I like that. I. I could see Jankos doing that.
[00:52:01] Speaker C: I could absolutely see Yankees doing that.
[00:52:03] Speaker A: All right, there we go. The other options on the wheel for anybody interested. We had overwatch league. I don't even know if that exists anymore. So that would have been tough to argue. Stream for T1 join the broadcast K drills. Assistant Only fans.
[00:52:20] Speaker C: I wanted that one.
[00:52:21] Speaker A: That would have been good n a collegiate EMEA coach or Manifesto. I think Manifesto would have been fun. Only fans. Absolutely would have been a banger to talk about. But he's got options, I think is the point of the game.
[00:52:33] Speaker B: I was pulling for Cadre's assistant.
[00:52:36] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, he's got to have an assistant. Man, his streams are sometimes so scuffed, you know, just have somebody helping him out with it.
[00:52:42] Speaker C: I would say broadcast. I actually, I think like as a consistent broadcast member, I don't think Gankos is. Is. Is. No is. Is it? I don't know, like every once in a while it'd be really cool and maybe. Maybe he's different if he actually is like consistent in a broadcast.
[00:52:59] Speaker A: Fair enough. All right, well, that would have been a tough one to argue for then if you'd gotten that one. Thankfully you had to argue for H2K revival to talk about Jankos because of course we don't know where Jankos is going this off season, but we will keep our eyes peeled. That brings us now to LTA and roster rumors. There's a couple teams that we don't really have anything to talk about, so we're only going to talk about the teams that we do. Number number 100 thieves. A quick change here as this one is confirmed. Their roster was Sniper, River Quid, Tomo Ayla and ML. Who is the only player confirmed to be leaving this roster.
[00:53:38] Speaker C: You say leaving this roster? Unfortunately it's their ADC position.
Tomo and Meech are giggity gone from the roster and which is so unfortunate because Tomo literally came in and saved this entire organization and.
[00:53:53] Speaker A: Right.
[00:53:54] Speaker C: And you know, they. They want to go a different way and unfortunately Tomo will probably find himself teamless again and that makes me really sad because the guy has not gotten a fresh shot in lcs. But I'm going to guess that all the LCS teams already done watching him, so I don't know, I hope the best, but it sucks that, you know, Hundred Thieves giving way to putting. At least not giving a chance to up and coming adc.
[00:54:20] Speaker A: My hope is that he's leaving because he got another offer and Hundred Thieves as Like this kind of half guest, like provisional spot.
They're not really in a position to like negotiate contracts or like outbid anybody. I'm. I don't know how likely it is, but keep in mind he was on disguised and then he got picked up by hundred thieves and who's now in the league disguised potential roster. It's a lot of cope. It's a lot of cope. But I'm hoping that he has picked up because I still have a little bit of faith in Tone.
Looked a little rough at Worlds, but you know, it's all right. I still think he's got room to grow. Cloud nine though. A lot of stuff going on here. They had Thanos host Blabber Jojo, Pune, Berserker, Vulcan. We already know one of those names isn't going to be there, but what are the other names that won't be there?
Yeah, Mazell. I'm going to throw it back to you.
[00:55:10] Speaker C: Well, we said that, you know, Jojo has gone on to the bigger bank pastures of Ebuy. Berserker is also not going to be with C9 again, which, you know, big pieces to the puzzle over the last couple years. So it's gonna be interesting.
[00:55:29] Speaker A: Well, that, that was the thing is like, we knew a lot of people were talking about this. We talked about this on the podcast. Changing top lane is not going to fix Cloud 9. It was more of an issue of Blabber Jojo just not being on the same page. And then Berserker Vulcan not having the best lane, but also just Berserker not being that kind of IT factor anymore. He wasn't just getting Zerion winning every late game.
[00:55:50] Speaker C: So I think he got tired of the NA culture, I think. So when you hear him talk outside of like the content for C9 and stuff like that, like, I don't know, I think he wants to go back to the culture of like, I actually have to play the game every single day at a high level.
[00:56:07] Speaker A: Well, we'll see if he's able to succeed after the NA debuff, but it's Loki and Sven coming in for mid lane and Bot Lane, Sven returning to 80 carry. That's pretty exciting.
[00:56:22] Speaker C: I am interested at this again. I mean, I wasn't that big a fan last time. I know he did pretty well, but hey, maybe he gets a better opportunity here. I also wasn't a big fan of him on Dignitas, so. Yeah, I don't know. We'll see. I think it's. It's going back to home for him? Maybe a little bit.
[00:56:43] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:56:43] Speaker A: I should say returning to AD Carry at C9 as he did have this past year playing AD Carry, but now back to a team that he had played on before. What about Loki, Bickle, what can you tell me about Loki? I know he's coming from HLE challengers, I believe.
[00:56:56] Speaker B: Yep. Challengers with hle.
He was solid. He was. I will say he's not the most in demand of the LCK Challenger mid laners. There's another one that got signed by another LTA team that we'll talk about later. That was kind of the main focus for a lot of teams, the big one. But he's solid and obviously right. Yeah.
[00:57:22] Speaker A: Can't believe it.
[00:57:23] Speaker B: We'll see how he necessarily meshes here. Is going to be playing with Thanatos. Those two have not played together before, I believe, but it'll be interesting. But another big change is they're bringing in Aniro as their assistant coach.
[00:57:36] Speaker A: That is pretty exciting. Nick Smith coming from Immortals who are. They don't exist anymore.
[00:57:41] Speaker C: He's done everything. He's literally gm. He's coached, assistant coach, positional coaches.
[00:57:48] Speaker A: Kind of crazy.
Yeah. Assistant coaching for Cloud 9. I think what he brings to a team is that kind of leadership structure.
So I think that that actually is something that could be beneficial for this team, especially when you have, you know, two new players coming in. Two different players coming in.
Yeah. Cloud and I will see if this is able to fix their woes from the past two years. They have struggled in the region that they kind of have ran in the past.
[00:58:20] Speaker C: They need something, man.
[00:58:21] Speaker A: Yeah, they need a win.
They need a win. But that continues on Dignitas. What the hell is going on here? Apparently they're in the lead, but we have no idea what's going on in the roster. They had liquor speak at Jensen's Ven aisles. We know as Ven is leaving. Rumored that, you know, licorice is gonna get to a team that we'll talk about later on.
Yeah, like everything's. All the contracts are expiring. We have no information on who they're signing. Right.
[00:58:54] Speaker C: Big dig win.
[00:58:58] Speaker A: Little dig. Winter, actually. That's.
[00:59:03] Speaker C: Cold, you know.
[00:59:05] Speaker A: Hey, yeah. Shrinkage is natural.
[00:59:08] Speaker B: Tomo returns, question mark.
[00:59:11] Speaker A: Dude, I don't even know. See, that's the crazy thing is that I have not heard rumors. I don't want anyone to think about this next statement as like, oh, there's something happening behind the scenes. But like, if I'm in org and I saw the deal that a hundred Thieves got.
I'm pretty upset if I wanted out now. I had heard rumors. I will talk about this. I had heard rumors that Dignitas was a team that was considering buyout options and getting out of the league.
Like if they're in a position where they're like do I even want this spot anymore? Like maybe they're trying to bargain with Riot in some capacity Right now that's all conjecture. I don't I have any source that's coming from. It's just like maybe it could be happening because otherwise it's just wild that we have nothing.
[00:59:57] Speaker C: How low is the want for an LCS spot when an organization like 100 Thieves is wanting out and like other teams yet how did Thieves also are signing teams for other games? Like they literally just resigned an Apex Legends team when they. They had this whole mission statement of like getting out of esports. No, it's just getting out of lcs.
I don't know man. It feels real bad.
[01:00:22] Speaker A: It does feel a little bad. So yeah, we have no idea what's going on with Dignitas. We'll keep our eyes on that. If anybody has information, let us know because I would love to learn what is happening over there. I know that they're still making content. It could be sponsored deliverables, but like they have. I think even this next week they're going to have uploads going out. I know because I was in some of the videos. They asked me to come in and guest with some of the players.
I don't know if that means that they are still investing or if that means that, oh we had these last minute sponsored deliverables so let's throw those out there. Either way, a lot of question marks are on Dignitas. Let's go on to the next roster though. Shopify, Rebellion. A lot of changes to cover here and pretty much everything known, at least from rumors it was Fake God, Boogie Insanity, B boy, Zazel for 2024, Mazell. What's it looking like for 2025 for Shopify?
[01:01:14] Speaker C: Rebellion by Fake God and Toby oh by the DSG combos. I mean obviously there's still still some possibilities for resignings, but all the contracts are out. So I expect the team to be completely different and they're already confirmed parting ways with those two. So it is going to be some of the developmental pieces not sticking and unfortunately Fake God gets another stand. I don't know if he's going to find another team, but another rough stint it feels like.
[01:01:46] Speaker A: Yeah, I think so. The Shop Fire Belling was the team that picked up a lot of that DSG roster from 2023 summer.
[01:01:53] Speaker C: Yep.
[01:01:54] Speaker A: That won the split and that was like you'd said fake God, Tomio and Zazel.
[01:02:00] Speaker C: Me and Young were the other two.
[01:02:02] Speaker A: Yeah Meech and Young and they even had Insanity who's like a still like relatively newcomer to the NA scene.
And now it's looking like a lot of those are changing. A couple of them confirmed but the roster that's rumored is going to be Fudge up in the top lane which is pretty exciting.
Contracts. I'm very excited for that. Mid Lane is a question mark. B Boy rumored to be coming back with SEOs in the support role because what are your thoughts on the rumored roster?
[01:02:34] Speaker B: I think all of these players deserve a spot somewhere in the lta. Fudge was really solid when we had seen him. He just wasn't fitting that Cloud9 roster and they needed a shot in the arm somewhere so they tried a new top laner.
I think he still deserves more time playing. He'd look solid in the past. Contracts like you mentioned was the best part of that NRG roster. 100% deserves to still be in the league. Glad to see him have a spot. Bvoy was the best part of the Shopify roster was first team all pro in the spring despite being on a bottom roster. So that's great to see. And SEOs coming over from Kaboom in Brazil. He is somebody that's been around that scene for a while, has won CB.
[01:03:19] Speaker A: Law before so World multiple times on Loud Notable and MSI as well.
[01:03:25] Speaker B: Yeah, it'll be interesting to see finally a Brazilian import in the league and the big question is who's that mid laner?
[01:03:33] Speaker A: Yes, who is a mid laner? A reminder that Brazilian players do not take up one of the two import slots. If you had two Brazilian players one of them would take up the spot. But a singular Brazilian player is allowed on the roster without utilizing an import slot. So Shopify Rebellion would have B Boy and then could import a different mid laner from any region that they wanted. SEOs would count as kind of like that halfway player for the roster. Fudging contracts RNA players. So yeah, exciting for Shopify Rebellion. A lot of moves there and a lot to talk about, A lot to think about. We'll have more information once we know the Midlander though for firm opinions. But I think that Fudge contracts has potential. B Boy is still a great AD carry but but I don't know. I I was talking with Cubby about this. And Cubby was not sold. He thought the B Boy is going to be a little more exposed now that the other players around him aren't going to presumably get as much of a magnifying glass on them for their mistakes. But that's somebody else's opinion. I still have the opinion that I think B Boy was pretty good overall. So that'll move us on. Disguised entering the league and not a lot known. Honestly. Abadage is the. The one that we know. That's it.
But the roster was Tenacity. Yukino Young manui Poom. That was. And it was Tomo before Minui and again Mizel. I don't know how likely do you think it is? I. I think there's a chance that Tomo is going back to DSG because they had him as their ad carry for summer until Hundred Thieves yanked him and now they're in the league. So I think there's a world that they could bring him back.
[01:05:13] Speaker C: I. I'm not gonna lie Kangas. I think that this team is gonna probably like if they're gonna make an entrance in the league. I think it's gonna be off of like high either probably high focus players. If I would have to say it would be really cool. Like oh my God, it'd be so awesome. We get like a reiteration of some of the disguised that did win in acl. Wait, I just.
[01:05:33] Speaker A: We have Fake God. We have Zazel.
[01:05:36] Speaker C: They're.
[01:05:38] Speaker A: Yeah, just run it back.
[01:05:40] Speaker C: The sad part is is I don't think he was tied with to the players. Right. Like I don't think. I don't think this guy's toast has any like a real tie to that. That five man team. And I think if he's looking to make an entrance, he's going to be talking to the best of the best. Like he did when he was trying to come into ACL and like try to figure out if he can mold a roster that works.
[01:06:00] Speaker B: And a big thing also for Disguised is they will be competing for their spot at the end of the year. Yeah, he will have to play that promotion relegation match. So he's likely going to be looking for as you mentioned, best of the best known value talent players as opposed to possibly looking at a risk with a younger team.
[01:06:21] Speaker A: That's a good point there. Well Abadagi I think is a decent place to start if that is the goal of like hey, let's just maintain the spot. Last time we saw him it was 100 thieves right in NA when they.
[01:06:35] Speaker B: Yes, Then he went to K Corp in he played K Corp Blue. Then he played. He played Shulka.
[01:06:43] Speaker A: No, he had LEC stage time. I do remember that. I don't remember being thoroughly impressed.
[01:06:52] Speaker B: He went from Shulka to Hundred Thieves back to the Lac with Excel to Cate Cork.
[01:06:58] Speaker A: There we go. It was Excel and now rumored to be back in na. So we'll keep our eyes on Abidaki and how the rest of the roster shapes up. But that brings us to the LAN team that is now in the ltan.
That's a lot of abbreviations. Anyway, Lion Gaming are going to be in the LTAN with Summit, Audi, Kaina, SEO and Leons as their roster from last year. And a couple changes coming in here. It looks like Licorice rumored to come in in the top lane instead of Summit, which is very funny. I thought if Summit came back to the region that would be hilarious. But looks like it's gonna be Licorice. And then Saint and Henna for mid lane and Bot Lane replacing Kaina and SEO. I don't know a lot about the rest of these players. Does anybody on the POD have insight on the Latin players?
[01:07:50] Speaker B: Yep. So so much for the Latam players with Audi and Lions. So Lion Gaming is a combination of Rainbow 7 and 6 Karma. We just saw this Lion Gaming roster, formerly Rainbow 7 at Worlds. They're keeping Audi and Lions. Audi obviously that legacy player for the team and Lions has been consistent so they're sticking with that Licorice. Everybody knows known value there. The two names that are coming over, Saint and Henna are both Kore. Saint is the big name in LCK Challengers. Coming over from DK Challengers, he was kind of the mid laner that everyone was looking at as the guy that they wanted to grab. I think he was an option for a lot of teams going around that were looking at this mid laner. He ended up at Lion Gaming, I don't necessarily know how. And Henna is coming over from Bank Fear X in the lck. So he's coming from the LCK proper but he is kind of a journeyman who's been around quite a while. He's played with Fred Breon to okay bro, To Live Sandbox to Fear X. He's been a bit of everywhere. He's a good AD carry. He's not the type of AD carry you'd be like, oh my God, we're importing this guy. It's going to be great, great. But he's like, okay, sure, you're good.
[01:09:19] Speaker A: Yeah and again utilizing their best with so the way roster rules work for a Latam team, whether you are in the north or South Conference is you follow it for Latam players. So they have a tier 2 system, they have a league that can promote up and that's kind of what determines residency. So Adi Lyons being their resident players and then Licorice, they do have access to a Northern Conference player as well to bolster that. They could also could put a Brazilian player in there instead. They could have either one but they're choosing Licorice and then Satan are gonna be their two import slots. So yeah, cool to see how they're approaching roster building. I think that the Latam teams are going to be the most interesting in their flexibility of how they can build rosters.
And yeah I think that's I love the philosophy behind roster builds overall. So it's exciting to see how they've approached this one. But that's it for the ltan. God I hate that so much.
[01:10:22] Speaker C: I hate it so much too.
[01:10:24] Speaker A: Oh I'm not used to it. It's going to take a while. It's going to take a while to get used to that. But that is also going to be it for our roster Rumor rundown episode. A reminder that next week on Tuesday is when all contracts will be expiring. We have had off season in the past where a lot of news breaks on that day with everyone rushing to sign the players.
Last year we didn't have that in LEC or lcs so I think it's more likely that teams are slowing down on the big Gold Rush. Rosters are going to move slower because budgets have gone down. So it's not like oh I want to be the one to offer the most right away and lock up in because it's like yeah, it's just like less push for that type of stuff these days. You might notice we didn't talk about 100, the fly quest or Team Liquid on the LTN as well just because there hasn't been any information. It seems like likely that those will be run back rosters which I think is cool.
But yeah, as information breaks next week we will most likely have an episode. I will not be around as I will be traveling but we will have Mazel Bickle, the Usuals and potentially guest Cubby. He's hopefully going to be hopping on and talking a little bit about those confirmed rosters locked in. So thanks so much for sticking with us and off season we are into it. We got some fun stuff planned hopefully with that tournament that we've been teasing. And hopefully some more concrete information to reveal soon. But mostly for everybody listening. We love you and we'll see you next time.
[01:11:54] Speaker B: Bye.
[01:11:54] Speaker C: Bye. Bye.
[01:11:56] Speaker B: Peace.
[01:11:58] Speaker A: I'm really late. Okay. I wasn't ready. Here's the soundboard.
[01:12:01] Speaker C: There we go.
