Episode Transcript
[00:00:13] Speaker A: Gets a little too far here.
[00:00:14] Speaker B: He's gonna have to try and get.
[00:00:15] Speaker A: Himself out Living O Tillery and the.
[00:00:16] Speaker B: Rest of the shots of fire Zion is just killing the next Zion can eat it single handedly win the game by game by game by game by should be. Oh my God. Stupid passes through and manages to the table with Messiah tanking it up. I do not believe he just believe.
I cannot understand this game.
Unicorns of love. It wasn't a mutant. The Nexus hello and welcome to episode 543 of the League Rundown. This is our 2025 LEC Winter Preview episode and it is lovingly entitled A delectable start to 2025. That's right. I forgot to update the title. So we still have that trash one as the official title now and we're not going to re record. I'm your host. Kang has filled a little under the weather so if my voice sounds weird that's why. But we're going to get through this episode because I have amazing esteemed co hosts alongside me. Up first we have Bickle.
[00:01:39] Speaker C: Oh wait, this isn't a Marvel Rivals podcast. I think I'm in the wrong place.
[00:01:43] Speaker B: Oh, oh no. That we're going to start that one next. Never. Cuz that game is silly and doesn't require brain, so.
That's right. It's a poor man's Overwatch. I'm calling it.
No, no one's going to react to that. I feel like everybody here plays that game except for me.
[00:02:01] Speaker D: Okay, well, I think you're just salty.
[00:02:04] Speaker B: Yeah, I'm may.
[00:02:06] Speaker D: It touches like Jeff the land shark, you know.
[00:02:08] Speaker B: Yeah. All right, well we also have joining us Mr. Mozelpl.
[00:02:14] Speaker D: Hello. LPL starting soon. Make sure you tune in. We're the first international league that's gonna be playing in the new season. It's gonna be a great time, but happy to be here and happy that my apartment has not burned down.
[00:02:25] Speaker B: Yes, there are California wildfires going on right now. Thank you for bringing that up everybody. Give 07 to Mizel in the community Discord and wish him good luck. If he has to evacuate, he has places to stay. It's not looking too dire right now, but the air quality is rough.
But I also feel like LPL starts first every year. I feel like that's just like kind of always happens because there's so many games. But we'll have a primer for that baked into this episode as well. But before we get into that, up next with a bird fact. First one of the year, we got Hawk.
[00:02:59] Speaker A: And I'm starting it off with a good one. Did you all know that the largest flying bird in North America is the California condor, which is critically endangered, largely in part of habitat destruction, which also is sort of related to the wildfires today.
[00:03:14] Speaker B: Oh, no.
[00:03:14] Speaker A: Definitely hope everyone listening in Los Angeles is doing all right. Like.
[00:03:18] Speaker B: Like.
[00:03:18] Speaker A: Like Steve already said, the rest of us are kind of doing okay, at least so far.
[00:03:21] Speaker B: But, you know, endangered bird sounds like a big problem. Am I right?
[00:03:27] Speaker D: I'm sorry if you heard that. I was by fire. By fire alarm. I apologize. I missed the mute button.
[00:03:32] Speaker B: Oh, it did not pick up. Are you on fire, Bazelle?
[00:03:38] Speaker D: No, like the. The. The. Like alarm. Like the notifications.
[00:03:42] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:03:42] Speaker D: But the. The. The. The recording definitely picked it up, so.
[00:03:47] Speaker B: All right, well, you know, at some point, everyone listening will have more context than we did. If you need to get out of there at any point, just let us know and we'll.
[00:03:57] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:03:58] Speaker B: Or don't.
[00:03:59] Speaker C: Just go and stay safe.
[00:04:02] Speaker B: No, I'm gonna need you to cover LPL first before.
[00:04:04] Speaker D: Yeah, LPL first.
[00:04:06] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:04:07] Speaker B: Don't get out of here too soon. But we also have. Joining us here for the first time as an official new member of the podcast, I'm very happy to welcome in somebody who has been a guest on the podcast a couple of times. We've loved having them on, and they bring a lot of insight for a lot of teams that we will have to cover more this next year. Players will have to cover more because of the merger between the north and the south of the Americas. We have Random minion Caster, AKA rmc, officially joining the league. Rundown cast. Welcome. Rmc. Help.
[00:04:39] Speaker E: I've been kidnapped by North American braum.
[00:04:42] Speaker B: Wait a minute. Okay, you said you were going to talk about that.
[00:04:45] Speaker E: All right, I was like, I was told that the Brazilian stuff that, you know, or Butcher's Bridge, and next thing I know, I'm here in the lec.
[00:04:53] Speaker B: Like, bro, look, man, I gave you a script. You just stick to the script.
[00:04:56] Speaker D: Just.
[00:04:57] Speaker B: Just read the lines. You're happy to be here. We're happy to have you, but we will, of course, talk more about the Brazilian League, because we're gonna have to cover that, but the podcast will be still primarily focused on lta, north and lec, and maybe I did not communicate that fully to rmc, but.
[00:05:14] Speaker E: No, no, he did. I'm just kidding. It was just the best.
[00:05:16] Speaker B: He's here. He's stuck. You know, I've officially announced him, so.
[00:05:20] Speaker E: Let me read that from the script again. Oh, yes. He did it. It was just a bit.
[00:05:25] Speaker B: It was just. There we go. Thank you. Thank you. All right, let's get into the news. Before we get into our lec. Stage one pre predictions, which is gonna be the bulk of the episode. News regions begin soon. We have the start times for every single region. Lpl, like Mazel has said, it's gonna kick things off on January 12th. LCK on January 15th, LEC on January 18th. So all those within a week of each other. And then good old LTA north, baby. We are starting in January 25th along LTA south, both on the same day. Sorry, what was that? Miselle Latan, Letan, let's ass.
[00:06:05] Speaker C: For anybody that cares, the LCP starts up the 17th.
[00:06:09] Speaker B: The LCK. Thank you. Yes. Because now there are five regions. There are five regions. Of course. League of League Championship of the Pacific. Is that what it stands for? Yes. Yes, that would make sense.
[00:06:22] Speaker A: Wait, was that a real thing that I was just roasting? Is that what they named it to?
[00:06:25] Speaker E: Yes.
[00:06:27] Speaker A: Oh, I thought it was just going to be called apac.
[00:06:30] Speaker B: Wait, no, it's lcp.
You know what? I can't roast you, Hawk, because that was my first time hearing lcp and I was just gonna go with it. When you. When you said.
[00:06:40] Speaker A: When you said lcp, I just thought you were making something up, like fully or you misspoke.
[00:06:45] Speaker B: Ah, okay. No, I had full faith and my faith was rewarded. They're starting the 17th.
[00:06:50] Speaker C: You said starts the 17th. And we have actually seen the last of PSG talon. PSG is no more. Only talon remains.
[00:06:58] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:06:58] Speaker E: LCP has lost PSG. RIP.
[00:07:01] Speaker B: PSG, the long standing kind of representative. One of them from that region. So, I mean, RIP back to Petty exists, but it's gonna be a different name.
Okay, well, that is all five regions. Things have condensed every year. And now they have condensed, hopefully for the last time. Like, what more could we combine at this point?
[00:07:22] Speaker D: Unless a Global League.
[00:07:24] Speaker E: Can we not give riot ideas, please?
[00:07:27] Speaker D: The Global League Riot. Do you hear me?
[00:07:29] Speaker B: Somebody?
[00:07:30] Speaker A: One.
[00:07:30] Speaker D: One caster covers all the leagues.
[00:07:33] Speaker B: We just put cage roll in charge. Cage roll co streams every day.
[00:07:36] Speaker D: Drill just co streams all the games at the same time. It's like Academy Rush all over again.
[00:07:42] Speaker B: Oh, wait, that's a good idea.
[00:07:43] Speaker D: It's a good idea, except it's all on the screen at the same time. It's like all in little boxes and you just have to, like, zoom in on the part that you want to watch.
[00:07:50] Speaker C: You don't even get that it's all overlaid onto the same map. You just have all the action going. It's just like faded images of each summoner's rifts. Yes.
[00:07:59] Speaker D: Yeah, yeah, Right. You're getting million dollar less ideas over here because you don't make any money out of that.
[00:08:05] Speaker B: So I like to do multiple monitors. Make him like the. Is that his name? The monitor in the Matrix. In like, the Matrix or three? Like the. The Architect. Yeah, I'm like the architect in the room with all the monitors around. That'd be great.
[00:08:17] Speaker D: I think it'd be even funnier if, like, all the games were on his TV behind him and it was just him full screen all the time.
[00:08:24] Speaker B: Yep. Yeah. Green screen him into the game. That's what we need.
[00:08:28] Speaker E: Okay.
[00:08:29] Speaker B: Now we're actually giving them real good ideas. So we got to stop that because they're gonna take all of our content.
[00:08:34] Speaker D: But that's where everything already did.
[00:08:36] Speaker B: Everything starts. So if you are interested in any of those leagues, make sure to check out their debut.
Mizel, what is. What's LPL's kickoff game? Do you happen to know offhand, like, because you're gonna be, I assume, covering that. I know that, like, you announced the talent.
[00:08:50] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:08:51] Speaker B: Covering for your co. Stream of the. The league.
[00:08:54] Speaker D: ALK and Rafa are gonna be casting the first game of the season, and it is going to be OMG versus Weibo, which is gonna be a lot of fun. The. The biggest thing if we're, you know, giving a little bit of time to LPL here is it is starting. It's the first league in. In the world that's gonna be playing on the new patch. The new stuff.
Also, it's a completely different format. We've lost one team, so we're down to 16 teams, and we have split those teams into four pools, and we are diving straight into best of fives in full fearless mode. So literally out of the gate, it's single round robin groups. Every series matters, and it's best of five, full fearless. So we get to see the best of the best immediately and see how teams are adapting to it. It should be a lot of fun.
[00:09:45] Speaker B: Damn, that is going to be fun. And I'm happy that every team is or every region is doing that full fearless, too, as opposed to, like, just LPL was the only major region that did it last year. Right. And it was only for, like, a tiny part of the regular season, but I want to give you a chance to defend it. Bazelle, what were the games like during that time? Because Cubby had hot take Saying that it was the worst League of Legends he saw that year. I would say.
[00:10:11] Speaker D: I would say it's not the worst League of Legends, but it's definitely like a handicapped version of League of Legends. Right? Like, I think in a lot of cases, we were getting to the point, and Cubby was very vocal about it because I think it was absolutely true is like it just becomes a handshake style. And I think the LPL adapted a little bit. Like, especially in Demacia cup, we saw a little less handshaking in the Fearless, but there still is that essence of to ban a champion in this mode, you have to let it play it right. And in that case, you're oftentimes trading powerful picks. You're. You're giving yourself a worse avenue for one game so you can have a better avenue in the later game. And I think that's strategically interesting, but it also is a completely different take than what the normal League of Legends gameplay that we've been kind of watching for so long is. And I think in a lot of ways, like, it changes the way that teams approach the game. And it's definitely changing the way that, like, the LPL is playing, especially some of the teams and like, especially teams like JDG and especially Top Esports who have, like, a lot of flexibility in their picks and things like that. But I think all in all, it's fun, but it can be difficult to see the benefits of it, I guess.
[00:11:25] Speaker B: Sure. And what you were referencing there of the only way to ban a champion later in the series is to let it through is because it wasn't like the full. Like, especially in Best of Fives, it wasn't the full. Oh, you get 10 bands every game. You lose bands as you go through the series. Important to note, though, this, watching the primer Best of Fives, this coming winter split will be just a ton of bands. If it goes to game five, you still have 10 bands total, five for each team, along with the cumulative 40 champions that were banned from being played earlier in the series. So that's 50 champions that you cannot play going into that game five, which is going to be crazy if that happens. So.
[00:12:06] Speaker D: And that's a good change, I feel like, towards, like, the competitive nature of Fearless.
[00:12:10] Speaker B: Yeah, if we're gonna do it, might as well just full do it. Right.
But yeah, I mean, I think that viewers will have to come to their own conclusion of if they enjoy that as a viewer experience, because that seems to be the push is like, oh, it makes for more dynamic games a More fun draft so early. Less stale. Like, oh, we've seen this matchup 100 times.
Okay.
[00:12:34] Speaker D: Oh, also, little thing. We have adopted the LCP style of side selection. 1v1.
[00:12:41] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:12:41] Speaker D: So make sure to tune in and have some fun with that because we had a lot of fun with it in Demacia Cup. We only had one game that was really bad and it was like a Farm Fest for 10 minutes and it was terrible. But besides that, it was a lot of. Just a lot of fun action. So it's gonna be a very different split. It's gonna be a lot of fun and we're again the first. First competitively.
[00:13:01] Speaker B: Does anyone know if the other competitive leagues are doing that same thing?
[00:13:04] Speaker E: LCP already did it last, but lcp.
[00:13:06] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:13:07] Speaker B: Yeah. Okay. Okay. I don't. Yeah, I don't think LTA or LEC is doing that, though. No, I wasn't sure about LCK either.
[00:13:13] Speaker C: I don't believe LCK is. They have enough chaos going on for their format to start. I don't think they're adding that.
[00:13:20] Speaker B: I don't even want to look at their format.
[00:13:22] Speaker C: They have officially drafted groups, though, for the LCK cup, which is their winter split. And remember, instead of drafting the teams that are in the other group that you don't want to play, you draft the teams that are in your group because the team with the most. I mean the group with the most points has all their teams make the playoffs. It's really weird.
[00:13:46] Speaker B: Interesting. Interesting.
Well, so they at least have their groups drawn. Something that we can't say for LTA north yet. We don't know what the schedule is going to be because a lot of people don't even remember this. There's going to be a draw show that's on Saturday the 18th, where they actually draw, like who's up against each other.
And they're trying to like make that a bigger deal in winter and then even in summer. That's gonna be like a really big thing that happens as everything gets reseeded constantly. But mark your calendars for Saturday, January 18, because that's when the.
The draw show will be happening on. I assume just the LTA Twitch account again. I feel like tweeted this out like a month or two ago and then it kind of flew under the radar and then people just completely forgot about. I forgot about it until this week.
[00:14:35] Speaker C: I'm be completely honest. I forgot that it was tournament style for winter. I completely forgot. I didn't realize it was a bracket.
[00:14:43] Speaker B: Yeah, dude. After three weeks, two of the teams won't be playing for like a very long time.
[00:14:50] Speaker C: That's absurd.
[00:14:52] Speaker B: Until the second split.
[00:14:54] Speaker D: The second split, you are done. Like the last two teams are literally done. They don't get to play the third split.
[00:15:01] Speaker B: What?
[00:15:02] Speaker E: That's even rougher.
[00:15:03] Speaker B: Holy.
[00:15:03] Speaker D: Imagine sponsors and. And stuff like that. Terrifying.
[00:15:07] Speaker B: That is.
All right. Well, yeah, a lot of stuff to cover for the news of the leagues. Obviously it's the beginning of the year, so there's a lot of stuff that we haven't talked about for a couple of months. But one thing, that winter split, it's just called stage one because winter is not across every hemisphere right now. But we're still just gonna call winter because that's what we think of it as.
But it's all leading up to first stand, the new international tournament which is going to be March 10 through March 16 in Seoul, South Korea. Pickle, I want you to talk about this one because it was just kind of announced. Actually I think it was even earlier today, or was it yesterday that a whole video came out about this.
[00:15:43] Speaker C: I think that was earlier today. I could be completely wrong. But yep, March 10th through the 16th. And what we know is that when, sorry, split one playoffs and all of first stand are going to be full fearless like you mentioned. So the full 10 bands every game. We do know the format for first stand. The top seed from each region will be coming and they play a best of three round robin where the bottom team is eliminated. The top four teams then go into the best of five bracket. They play that and whoever wins that bracket and wins first stand their region will get a second buy for MSI into the knockout stage.
[00:16:30] Speaker B: Okay, can anybody explain that to me? What, what is the second buy mean?
[00:16:35] Speaker C: I think if it's like what it was previously, the first seeds of all regions automatically get a buy. So I think it means that the second team also gets a buy and that the rest would be in some sort of play in format. But I'm trying to think of how.
[00:16:53] Speaker B: That format has changed. It's no longer like the traditional groups into the. Okay, because I was still think about it from old MSI format. I totally forgot that if I'm thinking.
[00:17:02] Speaker C: Right because there will be 10 teams there, six of them will get a buy. The five first seeds and the one team that had their team when firsthand and then two teams I'm guessing here because they don't give us a format yet. 2 teams make it out of a 14 play ins then you have an 18 bracket is my guess.
But we'll see.
[00:17:27] Speaker B: Okay, cool.
Well we'll. That, that does actually make sense then because my brain was just thinking, you know, two, three years ago at this point the MSI form has been changed for a while. Speaking of though, Hawk North American fans, we got a lot to celebrate here because MSI's location was announced in the same video. Want to talk about it?
[00:17:51] Speaker A: Sorry, my mic was muted. Yeah, Torontoans disappointed everywhere but Vancouverins can be super happy because that's where MSI is going to be. And not only that, we also got confirmation that Worlds 2026 will be returning to North America as well as first stand 2026 in Brazil. So lots of great events happening in the Americas region in 2026.
[00:18:21] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean it's, it's very exciting just looking at the road map. But that I think that was part of why they wanted to include a third international event. Or maybe not part of why, but it's just a positive of having a third international event is that we also get more international events on this side in the Americas. So. But this year Worlds is set up to be in China. It's going to be 17 teams, 3 per agent plus MSI winner and second best get to send 4 teams in total which expected to be LPL LCK. But you never know. There's a chance that one of the regions is weaker and that either the Americas, Europe or the Pacific region is able to sneak in an extra seed. So.
[00:19:02] Speaker C: So I don't know if this is confirmed, but I've heard rumors going out and also just hearing the format, it makes it sound like assuming that it's the LPL4 and the LCK4 that make it. It makes it sound like we might get a best of five between LPL4 versus LCK4 determine who makes it to that 16 team main stage which would be really hype at Worlds.
[00:19:28] Speaker B: Wait, that's a good point.
That's because we don't have all the wild card air quote wild regions to fill out.
[00:19:35] Speaker C: Like everybody just gets three teams.
[00:19:38] Speaker B: Huh?
That is an interesting change.
I, I wonder if they accounted for that yet or what that's going to look like because I haven't heard any word on that. So.
[00:19:51] Speaker C: So I think Plains is technically dead.
[00:19:55] Speaker B: Yeah, there's really no reason for a play ins anymore. Unless we just want to knock out like third seed Americas and Europe teams, Pacific teams.
That would be interesting. I'm very curious what they actually decided to do with that. But we also have the 2027 locations revealed as well. Less exciting for America's as it's gonna be in Southeast Asia for first stand MSI in Europe and then worlds in Korea. But shout out to Southeast Asia. I believe that's the first event there in, like, 10 years. I think it was like 2017 the last time an international event was there. And I believe it was an MSI.
[00:20:28] Speaker C: I think it was MSI 2019 was. It was in Vietnam.
[00:20:35] Speaker B: Maybe.
[00:20:36] Speaker C: I could be wrong.
[00:20:37] Speaker B: It was. It's been a while. That's fine. I saw somebody tweet out about it, like, how exciting that was, and I agree. I think it's cool if you're a region that just never gets road shows in your territory. So hopefully that's gonna do wonders for them.
So that's all the international news going on. Which brings us into Mr. Mizelle Pl's podium section. Mizel, are you on fire or are you available to talk a little bit?
[00:21:02] Speaker D: Am available.
[00:21:03] Speaker B: Perfect. All right. So I told Mizelle he can take as much time as he wants because it's going to be a fairly short episode. We don't have as much LEC stuff to cover. So, Mizelle, what should we know about get us excited about el going into 2025?
[00:21:17] Speaker D: Well, I already spoiled it a little bit with the starting off with best of fives. The 1v1 solo match deciding side selection for the best of fives. But it is four groups that immediately start single round robin best of fives that will decide going into playoffs immediately. So you have to win your group and you only win if you're the best. The top two teams out of each group. So that means we'll have, what, eight teams eliminated after the first half of the first split. So it's gonna be rough and rowdy and a lot of these teams coming in, you know, they start off with really difficult matches. I would say there's probably two teams for each group that is going to be difficult to deal with. I'll start off going through the groups as we did end up getting them. It is group A that is filled with anyone's legend, LGD team we and top esports. I'd say the top two teams are top, obviously, who now have Kanavi as well as crisp on the team as well as anyone's legend who have apparently just really good synergy behind the scene. But they've brought in Tarzan and Flandre to pair alongside Tabe, the coach to kind of give actually a lot of fluctuation and kind of the drafting, which is going to be a lot of fun. We got Group B, which is another one that's a lot of fun. It is JDG with their new duration. They refilled their roster with four different players from 2024.
We've got OMG, Ultra prime and Weibo. Weibo brought in TN to try to pair up instead of having Tarzan there it is JDG and Weibo, the top two teams of Group B more than likely.
I think Ultra prime and OMG are gonna have a tough time. Group C though, it's Billy, Billy, edg, LNG and Thunder Talk. And this one's a little bit more difficult to to say which ones are going to be the top teams. I think EDG and part of their kind of cheap rebuild have a decently strong team. TT look pretty good with their new Korean import say Tab in the mid lane.
[00:23:32] Speaker B: That's.
[00:23:35] Speaker C: Right.
[00:23:35] Speaker D: But LNG their team, they've replaced scout with Highchow, which is a big, big, big difference in terms of skill. So we'll see how that works out. But BLG are expected to be the top team there. They've literally not changed anything. They just made way the starting Jungler. So that team should be the top of the top and looking to win the whole split. Then we have Group D which is honestly the group of life because it is fun. Plus Phoenix, who are in full rebuild mode with like 90% players that nobody knows. And then Shadow and Shear, the the upstart top laner from JDG last year. And then Shadow coming back from the grave of not playing for like the last two years to be the Jungler for fpx. You have ig, the literal super team of the Shine rookie coming back to their original organization with jj, Gala and Meiko. I mean that team is is writing their stories already.
Then Nip, who are also in an interesting position because they just signed Doinby.
So they will have Shanji, Aki, DO and BE Leave and PP God. Very interesting roster that could potentially just get a free ticket forward, but also could be a good roster. And then rng, who are also just in full like cheap rebuild mode could barely put the roster together in time. Oh no.
Who have also put Milky Way in jail.
So Milky Way is there. He's paired alongside Tong, Yuen and mid. Those are probably the only two names that mean anything for rng. It's their jungle in mid. And unfortunately for Milky Way, he will probably not see the light for a while. But those are the four groups again. First going into best of fives in the first week should be a Lot of fun, and it's full fearless, so we'll get to see a lot of champions.
[00:25:26] Speaker B: This IG roster reminds me. I feel like it's got to be like the hundred thieves roster that had, like, Doublelift and Bjergson.
[00:25:34] Speaker D: Yeah, no, for sure, it is 100%.
[00:25:36] Speaker B: Get all the OGs back together, how's it gonna look?
[00:25:41] Speaker D: It means a lot to the players, too. I mean, they've consistently done interviews where they're talking about how much it means to come back to the place that, you know, earned LPL a spot on the world map right. In League of Legends and how much it means to come back and try to do this again, try to create something special for them. And especially rookie kind of leading the way emotionally, which is really, really cool. I don't know if that's gonna mean much with their hands. The shy is still literally, like. I swear I was brought back four years to watching the shy in the side lane when I was watching him in Demacia cup, and the man just has not changed one bit, and that worries me. But the team's gonna be fun to watch anyways.
[00:26:18] Speaker B: All right. If you have a way too early, like, two teams, I guess it's only one team that's going to first stand. Who do you think your representative is?
[00:26:27] Speaker D: BLG100.
[00:26:28] Speaker B: Okay. We'll keep your eyes on BLG, everybody.
[00:26:31] Speaker C: You mentioned IG. Nothing made me happier than watching IG versus Top Esports. That first two minutes where we literally ended up with 10 kills in two minutes, it was the best thing ever.
[00:26:44] Speaker D: It was wild.
[00:26:45] Speaker B: Yeah, I didn't catch a lot, but that. That. That was a good moment.
Yeah. And where can people follow along then? Plug the. The Twitch stream and the show. You got a lot of people putting work into making this happen.
[00:26:58] Speaker D: We do. We have a giant team.
It's lpl. Underscore English on Twitter, and it's just slash lplenglish on Twitch. We're gonna be having a lot of content coming out. We actually have some really cool stuff in the works where we're going to be getting on site interviews done for our channel specifically. Not even just like a holdover from China or anything like that. We're going to be having our own interviews. We're going to be pushing out story content starting off, I think tomorrow, telling stories of each one of the teams to kind of give a little prepper on why you should follow this team or what you should be looking at. It's going to be really cool. It's going to be on our YouTube. Our YouTube is also LPL. English, please. Please give us all the love. We're doing a lot of stuff and it's gonna be a lot of fun.
[00:27:46] Speaker B: That is I, I you not more content that's gonna be out this week about LPL from a volunteer broadcast than what LTA north has put out or probably will put out as the season. That's crazy. Yes. Go support it, everybody. If you can even just subscribe to the YouTube, checking out the Twitch channel, subscribing there or following there, every click helps the algorithm whether you have anything to actually subscribe, like for real on Twitch or not. So thank you for that. Mazel.
Thank you. Now, the final piece of news to cover before we get into the episode proper. Rmc, have you been following all the crazy content creator rosters going on in the nlc, the. The European Developmental League?
[00:28:31] Speaker E: I have not been following it that closely, but I think it's a testament to how crazy their rosters are that I'm still hearing about them because right, like the whole Cage Roll roster lost their tones. They were like, we knew about them for a while, you know, like casual had been talking about them. Then Ruddy pops out of nowhere with like Perks and Jankos roster and then now Nord had the Centaurian.
[00:28:57] Speaker B: Yeah.
Down there. Yeah. Dude, these are crazy rosters and I think it's really cool that that region is doing this because I. We kind of have it here in America as well with like disguise coming in the league and even like technically Amaranth as a team which is like everyone forgets about in like Wild Card, but like it's, it's not to this extent where all these big names are still sticking around and competing. So I think NLC is gonna be really fun to watch.
Do you have a favorite roster of these though? Rmc, do you have like a favorite player that's like air quote? They're not really retired if they're still competing, but they're no longer at lec, Matt.
[00:29:39] Speaker E: Okay. I, I kind of like the, the occasional roster because Bose was on it. But then after watching kind of get wiped in the top dude script. I don't know, man. Ruddy's roster is interesting to me too because their coaches are Yamdo Cannon and I will dominate.
[00:29:54] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:29:54] Speaker E: So like that one should pump out like. And Yanko is such an outspoken player. I think probably my eyes is most drawn right now to that ready roster.
[00:30:02] Speaker B: I agree. And Yankos was a big question mark in this off season. We talked about him a lot of times is where is he going to end up. We did a whole bit on the episode where we spun a wheel and had to talk about where Yankos would end up. Did not expect it to be here, but I actually do think I put coaching an NLC team as an option. He's still playing for an NA LC team, so shout out to Jankos there. But that's it for news everybody. Thank you for sticking around. We're gonna get into the proper podcast itself now, but that a reminder if we miss anything or if you have any thoughts on what we've already talked about, join the community Discord. You can find a link in the description wherever you are listening to the podcast. And also if you are able to and interested you can support us on Patreon where you get access to bullshittery episodes as well as some other fun stuff in off seasons.
And we also have a merch store league rundown shop.for wall.com we've been using some of that funds that we've had coming in obviously for our audio editor Ian to make our podcasts sound better. Hopefully he can make my voice sound not too nasally and sick.
But also we did our own off season tournament this past offseason and then this coming off season we're going to do more stuff as well. So thank you for everybody who does support. If you are interested, those are how you can. Those are the links you can do to support us as well. Okay, let's get into it then. This is the LEC kind of preview episode, the Winter preview, where we're going to talk about our kind of power rankings, our predictions for how teams are going to do at the end of the split. It's a very short split, but then we're also going to do our way too early hot takes. Fans love these and some of them have come true so we'll see if any of them come true this time around. But up first, the LEC end of stage one predictions. We're just gonna go in order one through 10 and talk about everyone's kind of team that they have here and then we'll have some discussion about why we think that is. It's gonna get more interesting at the top here for LEC towards the bottom. We're all kind of in agreement that there's a bit of a soup of unknown where just there's a lot of question marks and we we don't have strong opinions on a lot of these teams, but we definitely have strong opinions on the top one so let's get into it. Number one.
Everyone in your mind listening, just think what team should be number one.
And now we're gonna go through the list.
If you said G2, you would agree with Bickle, Badger, Mazel and Hawk.
But you would be wrong because me and RMC have it correct. It's Fanatic, baby taking number one. Rmc, I want to hear you defend this first because I've already talked about it a lot, but I want to hear your thoughts because I haven't yet. And then we'll have the the G2 believers voice their opinions.
[00:32:44] Speaker E: Okay, so the way I was looking at it is there's been a lot of changes in the LEC and G2 and Fnatic both made two changes to their roster. But Fnatic's changes was only in the bot lane. So Oscar and Razork and Humanoid, that top side, which was I think one of their best showings, especially towards the end of the season. They're still there, so that core will be there. And first split one is going to be a very fast split. So the less changes you make, the better. Taking Upset and Mickey X, they're both good players and if anything happens, it's only going to be in one lane. So the way I look at it is least change for Fnatic. They're probably in the best position to capitalize on a short split.
[00:33:20] Speaker B: Okay, so mostly just have the players comfortable with each other. It's only three weeks. This is not who's gonna win winter split. It's at the end of a three week period. Who is going to be in first place going into the playoffs.
[00:33:34] Speaker D: This way too logical.
[00:33:36] Speaker B: It. Hey, you know what? Mine was very similar. Similar, but I guess I just. I think Fnatics can be the best of the teams for the reasons that he said. But also I think G2 just always starts slow. Like when is G2? Sure. I'm trying to remember the last time that they've been like out the gate. The best team in Europe in winter. They can win winter split. They oftentimes do, but they don't always go in first seed into playoffs.
[00:33:58] Speaker C: They were first seed last winter.
[00:34:00] Speaker B: Well.
[00:34:03] Speaker D: Yeah. How's that big brain treating you there, huh?
[00:34:07] Speaker B: I'm gonna blame it on the sickness. You know, I got foggy brain. But you know they're gonna be slow this year. So that's my excuse. Let's hear G2 then pickle. Why do you think G2 staking it?
[00:34:19] Speaker D: Give him our law, our logical answer. Go.
[00:34:22] Speaker C: I mean, it's it's G2.
Do I need to say anything else? They still have you mentioned changes coming in. They still have Broken Blade and Caps as their two solo laners who have been the best solo learners in Europe for probably two years now. And Hansamu is consistently one of, if not the best ad carry. Labrov has shown consistency that he is one of the best supports even if it's questionable if he will reach the peaks of Mickey. And they've already shown they can adjust a rookie when he brought Yike in the jungle. They're just bringing Skeem on now and going to do the exact same thing. It's G2.
[00:34:56] Speaker A: Look, if I can step in for a second, I believe it was last summer that I said something along the lines of multiple times that until a team actually proves they can beat G2, I will always just assume that G2 is the best team.
[00:35:09] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:35:10] Speaker A: No. No one beat them guys. And I don't care that they change players. Until someone actually beats G2, I will always just assume that G2 is the best team.
[00:35:18] Speaker B: I will remind you what happened in round one of playoffs in summer Hawk.
[00:35:23] Speaker A: Right. What happened in the. In grand final.
[00:35:25] Speaker B: We don't talk about. We don't talk about the. The second time they faced how many.
[00:35:31] Speaker C: Titles of G2 won in a row.
[00:35:35] Speaker B: Yeah, it's been. It's been a couple.
But. But Koi, man. Koi. Every now and then they do it.
[00:35:42] Speaker D: Yeah. Koi. Yeah.
[00:35:43] Speaker B: Yeah. Okay. Well, it's G2 as the expected result, I think. No surprise. I really do think though that there's a chance they start slow, getting Skewmond up to speed with everybody else. I think they're gonna win the split, but I think going into playoffs, I. I legitimately don't have them first seed. So let's talk about second seed now for everybody because this is where, you know, G2 first. A lot of people would probably just assume Fnatic second. Probably. Well, if you are a listener that thinks Fnatic would be second, you agree with Bickle and Mazel.
But myself, Badger, Hawk and RMC have different ones. I and Badger have KC as our second C. That's right. KC with the rookie Kalist coming in and Yike taking over the jungle position. And then Hawk and RMC have Koi. Hawk, let's hear from you first. Why do you think Koi there. That's very high for Koi.
I mean.
[00:36:38] Speaker A: Yeah, but I. I think this team is really quite good. Merwin, Elyoya, super and Alvaro have all played at, you know, reasonably High levels throughout their career. Elyoya in particular. And then they're bringing in JoJo Pune. I. I just feel like this is a team that is putting together a lot of pieces that have already played together and found success. And then they're upgrading in the role that most desperately was needed, which is JoJo Pune coming in. And I also think looking at the competition here in mid lane, I mean, obviously it's hard to compare talent directly across regions, but if I'm being honest, mid lane, aside from like Caps and Humanoid, this split looks quite weak in eu. I mean, hell Nuke was one of the best mid laners last year for bds. Right. Like, no shade, but my guy is not exactly faker. So I think Coy, actually I like what they've put together with this roster. And considering I'm not, you know, as much as I'm going to joke about G2, I'm actually not super sold on any roster in the LEC, including Fnatic and G2. I. I think putting Koi at number two is reasonable.
[00:37:40] Speaker B: Okay. And I mean, there is precedent for that. I. I just referenced it that in the. It wasn't actually summer playoffs. I think it was the summer season finals technically like to determine the world seating, but MDK at the time with most of this roster was able to upset G2. They actually did take them down in their first round. So if you really do think that JoJo Pyun is just a pure upgrade for them, then. All right, I can see it. I can see the vision and straight.
[00:38:05] Speaker E: Up, just to follow up for like what I said about the whole Fnatic conversation, Coy made the least changes. They made one positional change. So Super. Alvaro, Ella, Merwin, these guys play together. They know how to work together. If you just have to integrate one player and it's JoJo, that's. That's a really good position to be in. You know, going into a very short split where other teams have time to adjust.
[00:38:26] Speaker D: Talking about the same JoJo.
[00:38:27] Speaker B: Yeah, I was going to say, I feel like we're going to have the same points. I want to hear from you.
[00:38:32] Speaker D: I don't know. I mean, hey, the track record of, of Jojo working with teams easily is not maybe the greatest, but I.
This is a growing moment. This is a. You know, he's going to. He's going to be the bigger person. He's going to change his ways.
[00:38:47] Speaker B: All right, well, Mizel, you have Fanatic as your second one, so let's hear you and the Bickle as well. Your thoughts on my fanatic? The second best because this is what a lot of people would probably expect traditionally.
[00:38:57] Speaker D: Yeah, I think obviously Grabs is a big addition to Fnatic, but I think the reason why I have G2 over Fnatic in this list is I actually don't believe super heavily in the consistency of Upset and Mickey X. I think I maybe just don't believe in Upset as a whole. But that's just. That might just be me.
[00:39:17] Speaker B: You would be in the majority.
[00:39:18] Speaker D: I still believe. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But no, I, I think Razork and Humanoid showed a lot of good graces as a two like a two person combo, especially in mid jungle and with the meta that we had last year. So I the reason why I don't have them in the first spot is because of that Bot Lane, but I do have a lot of hope for them.
[00:39:38] Speaker B: Okay, cool. What are your thoughts then? Pickle on Fnatic?
[00:39:43] Speaker C: It feels like G2 and Fnatic are just the two best teams there and are always going to be competing near the top. I do agree that I have some questions about Upset which is really holding him back.
I mean he, he finished 10th place. Three splits in a row.
It's not good.
[00:40:04] Speaker D: Look, get him.
[00:40:06] Speaker B: Yeah, but like if individually as a performer.
[00:40:10] Speaker D: Individually is it an individual game Kangas though.
[00:40:14] Speaker C: And you mentioned obviously G2 may need some time mesh. When was the last time Humanoid looked good in the regular season? He looks great when games matter that it's winter to start the year.
[00:40:31] Speaker B: Well, I'm not changing my prediction, damn it.
But these are all good points. I put KC good old Kaiba Core as mine. My reasoning for it is again, I really need the Twitter followers. If they could please start swarming in and helping me out growth wise, that'd be great. But also Colis is just so hyped up that I think that there's a a good chance that he lives up to that hype and is able to just be a kind of new level of carry that Bot Laners aren't really expecting other than Han Sama and Ice.
I mean like maybe Rahel and Upset. I would put in a similar conversation but like I don't think that the Bot Lane competition is incredibly difficult for a rookie that's really hyped up to deal with. So I actually think the Cliffs has a chance to really pop off here and I still think that Yike is he needed to change his scenery moving on from G2 and I think that there's a chance that putting him in more of a general role playing with Kana and Vladi as long as he can link up with Khanna well enough better than closer was able to.
I think that kind of is a good a carry player and has the ability to take over games and Vladdy showed that he can be kind of a rock in the mid lane if he's played to enough. So I I see the pieces. I could actually see this clicking and I just have so much faith in what this bot lane is going to be able to pull off here. So that's why I have Casey but mostly the Twitter followers please it's x.com kangascast give it a follow number three moving on. This is where I put G2 if you notice I hadn't had G2 in my list yet and RMC based RMC also has G2 third again. They should win the split but I think going into playoffs there's a chance that they slip up a couple of times. All you need to do is lose like 12 games and then you're in this position.
But then we have BDS for Bickel Badger, Koi for Mizell and Fnatic for Hawk. You'll notice that the top three are almost the same for all of us. A couple of BDS is sneaking in here, but the top five are unanimously the same save for a singular pick. And that's kind of why we say that I said at the beginning the bottom half is it's just a big question mark.
Let's just get thoughts here because we haven't seen BDS on the list yet. Bickle, why do you think BDS breaks into top three?
[00:42:55] Speaker C: BDS keeps their strongest point which is Ice. He was the star of the show last year and is going to remain really strong there. They've promoted Paris from their Academy team who was the best support in EU Masters. Flat out he's absolutely LEC ready. It'll be interesting to see how he and Ice Mesh Nuke is not always the best mid laner but he was one of the best performing mid laners last year so he has that momentum going and they add a big name top and irrelevant who is kind of that top laner that everybody was hoping would get picked up by a stronger team and I think that makes a really good three pronged attack coming together. The big question mark for this team is still 11 3.
If he can be, if he can just be suitable, they'll be a great team.
[00:43:51] Speaker B: Yeah. Honestly if you can just hover bot side for like 80 of the game Then I think that that's what BDS needs in order for this roster to work for them. So, yeah, okay, I like that. I like that. Not a lot. I have them lower, but I think that that reasoning makes sense. Badger's not here to talk more about bds, so that is all right. Moving on, though. It's all teams we've talked about. I have Koi, Bickles got Casey Mazzella's Casey, RMC as Casey, Hawks got BDS here, and Badgers got Fnatic. And then, like, I had kind of previewed number five. It's just gonna be different variations. I got bds, we got Koi for Bickle, Koi for Badger, BDS for Misselle, KC for Hawk. But this is where things get interesting. Rmc, you have Giant X. Your whole consistency here has been like, the teams with the least changes are at the top, and then you put the team with the most changes. Breaking top five. Why do you think GX is gonna do so well?
[00:44:47] Speaker E: Okay, I'll be honest. Between, like, five through nine, it's like it gets kind of. Or five, five through eight, it gets kind of iffy for me, so it's kind of just.
[00:44:55] Speaker B: So you think the Soup starts at 5, not at 6?
[00:44:58] Speaker E: Yeah. For me, I thought, okay, sure. Because. Okay, so we'll talk about my six or who fell to my five when we get to my six, because that's where they ended up. But for me, like, five to eight was kind of soupy, and I thought Giant decks. I liked what we saw from Noah and June through the regular season. Yeah, they didn't look amazing in the playoffs, and they didn't clutch up when it mattered. But as has been pointed out, I think, by Hawk and Bickle, this isn't the clutch time. So this is where Noah and June look good. And when I look at Jackie's enclosure, I think they're consistent enough to buy that time for and space that Noah and Jun will need to really start to come online and start being the carry for the team. So I think that's actually a kind of consistent team that we can look at. I do have questions about Lawton. Top lane. I'm going to be honest, I don't know much about them, but I'm sure they're great. As long as they kind of don't drop the pit should be fine.
[00:45:46] Speaker B: Good news is that Top Lane is also relatively weak in LEC right now. Broken blade is just head and shoulders above everywhere. What else? Merwin's got his weird ranged picks. Then he got like irrelevant. Maybe Oscar Renin and Adam with his weird picks too. But like, I think that there is space for a new top laner to make some room for himself.
Okay, cool. So that's number five for rmc. It's not that different from the rest of us because number six for almost everyone else is gx. I have gx. Bickle, Badger, Mazzell. Hawks got vitality at number six.
Hawk, why do you have vitality? Break it into.
I. I don't know if this is still upper bracket of playoffs. I think it is.
I don't know. It looks like sixth place.
[00:46:32] Speaker A: Yes, I think so.
[00:46:35] Speaker B: Let's just pretend it is. Just so I sound smarter. Why do you have them breaking into the top half of playoffs?
[00:46:40] Speaker A: If I'm being honest, I think all the other like as we sort of have alluded to, I think the bottom five is significantly worse than the top five. But I think. I think Chayak Carzi and Hilla Sang are all still good.
So I mean that's really it. I don't know much about knack knack knack. Naco and I, you know, we've seen a little bit of tape from Linkus, but yeah, I, I think, I think they've got three good players and all the rest of the teams are not inspiring. So why not?
[00:47:09] Speaker B: You know? Yeah, I think that's going to be an answer for a lot of us here is. It's just question marks for the bottom half of the teams. And also I'll out myself. I am in completely incorrect about the format. I looked it up and it's just a. It's. It's eight versus first and then seventh versus second. You do that for the whole seating. So there's no teams that start in the lower bracket.
[00:47:30] Speaker D: I think it is cool though that we are getting a lot of changing heads. I mean.
[00:47:34] Speaker B: Oh yeah.
[00:47:34] Speaker D: It definitely seems like LEC is trying to cheapen their spending a little bit, but it does give opportunities for a lot of up and coming players. So it's kind of cool.
[00:47:42] Speaker E: Is it just.
[00:47:42] Speaker B: That's one way to think about it. Oh, sorry. What was that Arm.
[00:47:45] Speaker E: It's just wild to me that LEC is like kind of cheaping out their rosters a little bit and then you've got NOC with all the big names in there.
[00:47:52] Speaker B: Yep.
Well, I think that there's two reasons for that. One, content creators are building the. The rosters in the nlc so they might be more willing to actually shill a little bit more for these big name players because they know that that's going to bring viewership. And number two is if you don't get an offer from an LEC team, you don't have another choice. So the content creators are probably getting them for cheaper than they would have otherwise.
[00:48:19] Speaker C: You mentioned viewership. I fully expect when MLC has Los Ratons versus Ruddy Esports, I think that matchup is going to outdraw honestly, a lot of LEC and LTA matchups.
[00:48:35] Speaker B: Yeah, I don't think it'll be like the average G2 viewership, but I think it will beat every other team Matchup.
Not K Corp and maybe fnatic.
[00:48:48] Speaker E: Every other team. Yeah.
[00:48:50] Speaker B: Yeah.
I. I don't even think that's like, you know, I haven't looked at the hot takes yet, but they will be down there.
We will just get through the rest of these teams because we've mentioned most of them. I'll just cover them. I have for myself. S.K. rogue, Vitality, Team Heretics. Rogue is one. Bickle, what do you think about Rogue? I wasn't sure where to put them. I still have them making playoffs, but there's just so much change here. But like, they got names that you got to believe in, like Adam, Mulron, Larson, Patrick.
What do you think? What do you think? Expectations wise for them?
[00:49:26] Speaker C: They feel like the island of misfit toys.
[00:49:29] Speaker B: Yeah. You don't have them making playoffs. No.
[00:49:32] Speaker C: It like every team had announced every single player and Rogue still only had Larson confirmed. And they're like, well, I guess we'll just pick up these four people and throw them together.
Like Malrong, Adam and Execute, who's formerly known as Junghoon, have a lot of variants where they can either make stellar plays or absolutely run it down, whereas Larson and Patrick tend to be a bit more safe, consistent players.
I just don't see those styles meshing together. And I don't know. For some reason I've been so focused on the fact like for so long it was Rogues leaving the league. Rogues leaving the league. Oh wait, they're actually fielding a team. They're not going to do anything. Like, I'm just waiting for them to be golf.
[00:50:23] Speaker B: They feel like the hundred thieves of lec, where we kind of already know that they're heading out the door. But they're still here for now, but they don't plan on sticking around.
Interesting to see. Interesting to see. I still think that they can make playoffs, but it's gonna really depend on just the star power being able to step up But I think I like your analogy. The island of Misfit Toys or the Team of Misfit.
[00:50:48] Speaker A: I will say anyone looking at this roster and getting excited that Malrang's coming back did not see his tape in cb lol. Okay. I just need that to be known.
[00:50:56] Speaker B: No, he wasn't.
[00:50:57] Speaker A: RMC knows.
[00:50:58] Speaker B: Oh, no.
[00:51:00] Speaker E: We had this discussion on the CB LUL podcast and thoughts? I don't think Malrang was that bad. I just think he didn't have culture fit. That said, I do think he needs some rehabilitation and therapy after that. So I don't think there's early splits gonna be.
[00:51:13] Speaker A: I agree with everything you just said. But also, getting kicked off a CB L team is never a good career play. Okay. That's all I'm saying.
[00:51:22] Speaker B: So.
[00:51:22] Speaker E: No, that's fair.
[00:51:25] Speaker B: Okay. You know what? I might not have been aware of that.
I. Maybe I'll adjust my list later on.
[00:51:32] Speaker D: Maybe I'll adjust.
[00:51:33] Speaker B: I'll adjust it.
[00:51:34] Speaker C: The.
[00:51:35] Speaker B: The. The bottom barrel, though. Let's talk about it. Because there's one team that is almost unanimously considered to be the worst. Although I just. Who? The people that don't agree and didn't put them last have them making playoffs, which is kind of crazy to me. Team Heretics. Oh, boy.
I wanted to believe in them so much last year. I kept having faith and they kept disappointing the roster. Carlson, Cheo, Camilo, Flackett and Stend.
I have them last. Bickle has them last, Hawk has them last. RMC has them last. Mazel. You got them 8th eking into playoffs, and Badger has them all the way up in seventh.
Okay. Still making playoffs, but I think they. That has to be on average the lowest ranked team here of all of those. And I think partly to what RMC was saying, this is my reasoning. There's just so many new pieces here. It's. They only have one returning player, four new ones. And a lot of the new players coming in here are either unproven or unimpressive in. In my eyes. Unless. Does anybody think that's a hot take? Does anybody want to, like, disagree with me on that?
[00:52:44] Speaker D: I think Shayo's good.
[00:52:46] Speaker C: The other three are complete unknowns.
[00:52:50] Speaker B: Is this why you have them making playoffs? Miselle, do you just think Shayo's gonna step up?
[00:52:54] Speaker D: Yeah. Yeah, I think. I think Shayo's good. I think there's a lot of potential from the jungle position for this next split.
[00:53:00] Speaker B: Okay. I feel like we've said that about every position except for mid. Mid lane is locked in. We got good Mid Laners and Leck. See, But I think it was just notable to talk about them because if they pop off, then, hey, egg on all of our faces except for Mizel, who I guess is the only one present here who can say told you so. Maybe Badger if he's on that episode.
Okay, that'll do it for our end of stage one predictions. There's kind of like a top half soup and a bottom half soup. Top half soup. We expect like G2 Fanatic to be at the top of it. I still think Casey can pop off, but the bottom half soup, it really is just a mishmash of a bunch of different teams with no unknown expectations. Gx, sk, Rogue, Vitality, Team Heretics. They're all the ones fighting for the last playoff spots in our opinions.
So that'll bring us into the close of today's episode, which is our way too early LEC predictions and hot takes. This is a fun one. Just because none of this is serious, we don't expect these things to really happen. But it's crazy if they do. And some of them actually have come true. So let's go. Last year we had a couple of crazy bangers. I thought Casey fans would be the cause of more than one instance of police intervention at the LEC studios. I was right, by the way.
We had heretics, flops and perks retires before the end of 2024, which technically was also, I think, correct. He's not really retired, but he. They did flop and he was off the team.
[00:54:30] Speaker C: He has roll swapped to top lane. That man is retired.
[00:54:33] Speaker B: Okay, Okay. I like it. I like it. There we go. Casey unfortunately did not go to worlds as LEC first seeds. So not all these are right, but some of them we do get right. So let's go through the ones that we have cooked up for this year. I'll start off and I'm gonna keep this one a little ambiguous because I want to give myself the highest chance of being correct. I put something simple. I just said Casey's brand new star bot laner rookie coming in. Kalist has a scandal, but it's swept under the rug. I don't know what it is. I don't know what he does.
[00:55:10] Speaker D: Murder mysteries.
[00:55:11] Speaker B: He just has a scandal. But we. It's swept under the rug and we just don't talk about it.
[00:55:16] Speaker C: It's found out he has Alphari on speed dial.
[00:55:21] Speaker A: He.
[00:55:22] Speaker B: We see $5,000 sent through PayPal to Alfari five different times last year. Interesting. Interesting.
That's mine. Whether you believe it or not, let me know. Badger's not here to talk about his, so we'll cover his last. Bickle, tell me what your hot take is.
[00:55:41] Speaker C: I've gone the exact opposite. I think I have the coldest take possible.
All three playoff finals are gonna be G2 versus Fnatic.
[00:55:51] Speaker B: Oh, is that a hot take? Yeah, I. For consistency. It's like, it's hard for that to happen, but it also doesn't feel, like, unreasonable for that to happen.
[00:56:04] Speaker C: Exactly.
[00:56:07] Speaker B: I like that you labeled it coldest take.
That's good. All right. Coldest take. All three playoff finals are G2. Fanatic. That's Bickles Mizell. What's yours?
[00:56:18] Speaker D: Mine.
Mine, you say is JoJo becomes the new best mid laner in the LEC, either getting MVP or winning the league.
[00:56:28] Speaker B: Oh, that is a hot take. And I like that one. That one's good.
Okay, so that means he has to beat like he's got to beat out Cats. Pretty much, yeah.
[00:56:45] Speaker E: The modern day Feb events before on the international stage.
[00:56:52] Speaker C: I think he's like 1 in 1 in 7 versus caps or something like that.
[00:56:57] Speaker B: I don't think it's good.
[00:56:59] Speaker E: So I'm hearing there's a chance because remember.
[00:57:01] Speaker B: Here we go.
[00:57:02] Speaker C: There was that 06 against G2 when it was evil geniuses versus G2 at MSI.
It was not pretty.
[00:57:15] Speaker B: I don't want to talk about it. Let's not even do the mental math. But I do like Mazel's take, and I think that's a, that registers as a hot take. Let's move on. Hawk, what you got?
[00:57:25] Speaker A: All right. This one. Honestly, maybe not a hot take either. Depending my hot take is that someone will be kicked from Fanatic by summer split.
[00:57:36] Speaker B: I like. Okay. Ambiguous. Like mine. I can't complain about that initially.
[00:57:41] Speaker A: I will make it clear. I initially said upset, but then I'm like, that's very specific. So I, I, I changed it.
[00:57:49] Speaker C: The thing is, that's the right answer.
[00:57:52] Speaker A: I, I just feel like, look, I just feel like anytime there's one of these, like, half the team's been playing together for a while, they bring in a superstar from the rival, and then also, like, there's a random, like, surprise reunion. It never goes well.
[00:58:07] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:58:07] Speaker A: That's all I'm saying. So that, that's my hot dig. I think, I think that something's happening to this roster before summer split.
[00:58:15] Speaker E: I just love that you say, you know, that you're thinking upset is kicked from Fnatic by summer split. And then you write someone because you didn't want to be too specific. And then when you're asked what it is, you're just like, that someone is upset.
[00:58:26] Speaker A: That someone might be like.
[00:58:29] Speaker B: Like.
[00:58:29] Speaker A: Like, I'm hedging my bets, rmc.
[00:58:31] Speaker B: So that way, if, like, he gets.
[00:58:32] Speaker A: Kicked, I'm still right. But if upset gets kicked, let it be known. I said on the league rundown podcast on January 8th at 8:50pm Pacific Standard Time that I think that someone will be upset.
[00:58:46] Speaker B: Okay. Okay. I like it. Another way to word it could be, like, upset is the reason for someone leaving Fnatic, but that. That's less. Yeah, that's too complicated. I like this. Okay, this is good. This is good. That means we got one more. For the first time ever, giving his hot take way too early. Hot take or prediction, we have rmc. I'm very excited because I. I haven't looked at any of these. I don't know what it is. What is it?
[00:59:10] Speaker E: Okay, so in. In tradition, from what I've been told, I've got to phrase it something like this, Casey, or their fans will be the cause of one or more instance of Twitter intervention for Kangas.
[00:59:23] Speaker B: Wait, does that just following me count? Because if so, then we're 0 for 0 right now.
[00:59:29] Speaker E: No, I'm kidding.
[00:59:30] Speaker B: I'm.
[00:59:31] Speaker E: I'm gonna.
I'm gonna say Melrog and Larson recaptured that 2022 form, and they end up as a top two jungle mid duo by the end of season.
[00:59:39] Speaker B: Oh, okay. I like that. So does that mean that you think, like, top two, like, they're gonna be all Pro because they don't really do that anymore in lec, or do you think that they're gonna, like, maybe get top two at the end of the season?
[00:59:54] Speaker E: Like, I don't think they can get top two of that roster, but I think. Yeah, I think even if they don't do all Pro, right, Like, we can look at certain positions to be like, okay, this is. You know, these are good players in that role. Like, best enroll a lot of times. Right. And I think Malrang and Larson will be in discussion as potentially number one or number two in the LEC by the end of it.
[01:00:13] Speaker B: Okay. Yeah, it's gonna be tough. Like, there's not really, like a. Oh, a performance or a standings thing to back that up, but I do like it because it's a discussion thing. Right? Like, it's a. If we're watching the games, what are people saying? Who are. Do we think are the top mid jungle combos? So we'll just Keep our ears to the discussion then for that dig. Yeah.
[01:00:32] Speaker E: Gotta leave myself some leeway, right? Like just Scandal or someone.
[01:00:36] Speaker B: Yeah. You know. Hey, why'd you have to call out that one?
There were other ambiguous ones.
[01:00:42] Speaker D: You gotta bet your whole house on it.
[01:00:43] Speaker B: Yeah.
All right, cool. Well, there we go. That's our way too. Early predictions and hot takes. Let us know in the community Discord, which ones you think are most likely to come true. Would love to hear all of your thoughts, but that's gonna do it. For this week's episode, we have LEC starting in about a week and a half as of recording right now. So we'll actually get to watch some games. Next week, we'll do our week one preview where we actually talk about the teams and what's going on. And then we'll do the same thing that we just did today for LEC, but for LTA North. And then the following week after that, we'll actually get to preview LTA North's week one because they start on January 25th, so mark your calendars. LEC, January 18th, LTA, January 25th. If you want to check out the other regions. LPL, Mizel.
[01:01:29] Speaker D: When is it on the 12th? Yeah, 1:00am Pacific.
[01:01:33] Speaker B: Oh, it's a great time to watch. LCK is gonna be January 15th and LCP. Which hawk? Is that a real region?
[01:01:40] Speaker A: Apparently so.
[01:01:41] Speaker B: Yes, it is. And it starts January 17th. There you go, everybody. Hawk, speaking of, if people listening wanted to leave a number of stars for review, how many would you recommend?
[01:01:53] Speaker A: You know, Steve, I think there are five fires going on in Southern California right now, so they should leave five stars.
[01:02:05] Speaker B: Burn, baby Bird.
[01:02:06] Speaker D: Yeah.
[01:02:09] Speaker B: Breaking news, everybody. California's on fire. Yeah.
Anybody who listened to the Patreon episode can understand why that soundboard was relevant. Thank you guys for coming on. Thank you everybody for listening along. We'll be back next week with more league Rundown. It's a new year and we're all happy to be here. But most importantly, we love you and we'll see you next time.
[01:02:32] Speaker D: Go. Watch out. Be up. Bye bye. Peace.
[01:02:35] Speaker B: Oh, yes, Daddy.
