League Rundown - Episode 551: Viva La Revolution: Long live the new kings

[00:00:13] Speaker A: Gets a little too far here. He's gonna have to try and get himself out. Let me go. Tillery and the 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. [00:00:27] Speaker B: Oh my God. [00:00:28] Speaker A: 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. They're Nexus. Hello and welcome to episode 551 of the League Rundown. This is your 2025 Split 1 LEC Finals review. And because it starts a week after your first stand preview, this episode is lovingly entitled Aviva La Revolution. Long live the new kings. I am your host, Kangas and I'm joined by three esteemed co hosts. Up first we have earning his way back to the first introduced out of the can. We got bad. [00:01:36] Speaker C: Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. [00:01:37] Speaker D: That doesn't what enough times now. No, that's fair. That's fair. That's. I was just like, wait, I'm still. I'm like thinking like it's still in my head calling it first strike. And then I'm like, wait, no First Stand. [00:01:52] Speaker A: Dude, I swear it was Mark Z. Mark Z is the one that did it. He said it in a Travis video and now everyone's confused. [00:01:58] Speaker D: First strike also such a better name and it's more league related, but. [00:02:02] Speaker A: But it's like Last stand. But it's the first. It's like first stand, so you know. Yeah, okay. Anyway, also joining us alongside we have Bickle. [00:02:12] Speaker B: It took doublelifts NaCl open qualifiers team longer to beat a team of silver players than it did for T1 to beat mad Lions. Keep that in mind. [00:02:24] Speaker A: What a great reference. Shout out the open qualifiers for NaCl which are going on. Also shout out Los Ratons over in NLC for picking up their victory over there. We'll see if double is able to follow their. Their, their path. But before we talk about all that, we have to introduce as well, Mr. Mozel. P. O. Hello. [00:02:43] Speaker C: I'm very excited to talk about first stand. It's gonna be a good day. [00:02:46] Speaker A: Okay. Do you like the name though? Do you think first stand or First Strike? What? What do you vote? [00:02:50] Speaker C: I mean, first strike is Valerint, so you can't really take. [00:02:53] Speaker A: Oh, it is? [00:02:54] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:02:54] Speaker A: Oh, that's funny. I didn't even know that. [00:02:57] Speaker D: Okay, never mind then. [00:02:58] Speaker A: I'm a bad riot employee, I guess. Are you contractor? [00:03:04] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, for sure, for sure. [00:03:06] Speaker A: He too. You're a contractor. Yeah. All right, cool. Well let's hop into the episode proper everybody because we got a lot to cover. Like I said, it's the LEC review as well as first sand preview. So it's going to come out a little bit later than typical for a kind of review session. But we are planning hopefully as long as scheduling works out that we can at least get an episode put out between group stage and playoffs for first stand next week. So it just be a little weird schedule. Anytime an international event happens, our schedule gets a little wonky. So just bear with us here. But you should still see episodes be posted wherever you like to listen along. But let's get into the news because there's a couple things happening around the world. Up first we did have announcements. Not only is firsthand happening, but we have MSI and world's formats that were officially announced. So Bickle, run us through what are the big kind of like takeaways from the format announcement. [00:03:58] Speaker B: So there wasn't any official announcement. They've just added more details to the website kind of telling us what the formats are going to look like. Long story short, almost Nothing has changed. MSI, the bracket stage is still your best of five double elimination, Worlds is still your 16 teams and Swiss into an eight team single elimination knockout. Because minor regions no longer exist play ins basically no longer exist at Worlds. Play ins are going to be between the two fourth seed teams that are invited and the teams that get invited as the fourth seeds are the two best performers regions at msi. So the winner of MSI and the running up region get their fourth seed to compete in play ins at Worlds for the final spot in the Swiss stage. AKA we're going to get a best of five between the LPL4 versus the LCK4 for the final season. [00:04:52] Speaker C: For the final. [00:04:53] Speaker A: You don't know that. Maybe Casey pops off. Yeah, well, so it's kind of similar to what had happened in the past when we had it was Golden Guardians bds right as the fourth seeds from Naomi. [00:05:06] Speaker B: But that was to get the final spot in play ins. This goes directly to Swiss and at msi. So the big thing for first stand is whoever wins that tournament, their region. Because every region sends two seeds to msi, both their seeds go directly to the bracket stage. So the four teams that don't directly qualify will play a best of 5 GSL format where the team that goes 2:0 and the team that goes to 1 qualify for the bracket stage and then the remaining teams there play through a bracket. That's the five double elimination. [00:05:46] Speaker A: Interesting. Okay, I. Every time international events happen, it feels like we have to change a format because the leagues keep changing and hopefully this is going to be a sense of normalcy. I've been told that like this is basically what the VCT structure is with the five regions and it seems to be what Riot's overall leadership structure is looking for. Of like just have the five regions, no more of this minor region stuff. Everyone's under these bigger umbrellas. Just from a business sense, I suppose that makes more sense. So hopefully cross your fingers that we don't have more crazy changes going forward because it would feel nice to get back to some sense of normalcy by next year where it's like, okay, format change. Nothing sweet. Just talk about the themes then. But thank you for that one. Bagel. We also have a couple of, you know, updates on firsthand itself. It's gonna be on the new patch, which means Mizel, what are we losing? [00:06:37] Speaker C: No lane swaps, which is so sad. [00:06:41] Speaker A: Okay, so you're a lane swap enjoyer then. [00:06:43] Speaker C: I don't think it should be every game, but the fact that it is going to be completely non existent is sad to me because I think teams that are weaker can utilize it very well and use it strategically and like if we see it one in a best of five or something like that. And it changed. Like you think back to that C9 situation with the. With the Scion back in the championship, whatever was it like three years ago, four years ago? Whatever. Like those kinds of moments mean so much in League of Legends. And yes, it sucks that we saw it every single game. But as a strategy, I still think it's really cool to counteract things that can be happening in the game. So I'm sad as well. [00:07:22] Speaker A: As a team Liquid fan, I'm very sad as well. I think you had actually made the point before we went live. Like they might struggle without having those lane swaps. Badger, what are your thoughts on the lane swaps? Were you an enjoyer or not? [00:07:36] Speaker D: I think that using any resource available that you have to you in the game to gain an advantage over your opponents shows more on the prep on the back end with the coaches rather than how the players can play it out. So if you have a team that's really adept at the lane swaps and can properly utilize those in a professional game, I feel like that's an exciting thing. But I'm also a dork. So yeah, that probably doesn't Help that I actually like the intricacies of how lane swap actually worked. And I'm curious if this new method of lane swap where you send your bot lane mid and your solo lanes to the side lanes. I wonder if that can potentially creep in during. During first stand because there's people that like theorized, I mean Yamato put a video out on it. There's been a couple other people that have done like hey, here's how you beat lane swaps in the new patch. So curious to see how that works out. [00:08:42] Speaker A: Yeah, it seems like adaptation is coming. Basically the changes is top lane turrets will just say fuck you for the first like three and a half minutes. [00:08:50] Speaker D: Is it 250? It's so it's till 2:15 mid lane and that's to present prevent that random support walking mid to get level 2 on the XP to go to a different lane. And then it's 3:30 on top lane. [00:09:06] Speaker A: As well as like if the top laner leaves top lane they can't leech mid lane XP as well type of stuff. Yes. And also I think it's time mostly with waves, it's like second wave mid, third wave top or something along those lines. But basically it's. You can still swap, but it's gonna. You can't start the lane in a swap. You would have to catch a couple waves and then swap if you want to. Which really does change why you would want to swap to begin with. So it might still happen, but it's gonna look different than it did before. Also I just think it's so funny how I'm pretty sure everybody who starts playing League of Legends at some point has the idea. However they learn to play the game, they learn at some point like oh, what if. Am I the first one to have the idea? What if we just sent like two people top and like one person bottom? And now it's like the game will literally shoot you if you try. You cannot do that anymore. Fun stuff. Also a couple NACL OQ bits of information to come through the first weekend happened this last weekend I was go streaming. Mazel. You were co streaming. A lot of people co streaming. Doublelifts team won their series. That was cool. Alluded they dunked on some silver players. You can check out Doublelift's YouTube video about that right now. That's pretty funny. And then we don't expect them to really have a big challenge until this coming weekend. [00:10:25] Speaker C: So hype. Oh my God. [00:10:27] Speaker A: Yeah. It's gonna be awesome. Do we misselle? Do we see Is this like the final weekend or is there a one last one? There's one last one after this, Right? Okay. It's not the last weekend, but will any teams qualify for NACL at the end of this weekend? [00:10:41] Speaker C: No, there's still another round in the bracket. [00:10:44] Speaker A: Okay. So by the end of this weekend, we won't know the next teams joining NaCl, but we'll keep eliminating more and more. So there's a chance that Doublelift could be struggling, but I know most people are gonna be watching his journey. There's a lot of other cool stories going on there, but because we have so much other stuff to talk about, go check all that information out on social media. Watch nacl. Check it out. You can find all icons and stuff there. There's also battlefly if you want to follow along on that or any of the streams. [00:11:10] Speaker C: Good luck, soldier. Yeah, that website is a catastrophe. [00:11:15] Speaker D: So ass. [00:11:16] Speaker C: I don't understand how it's still the hub for tournament organization. It is actually so ass. [00:11:22] Speaker A: And the bracket is huge. There's 60. [00:11:26] Speaker C: Nobody's ever thought to change the UI or like do anything, but now it's always been the same. [00:11:30] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. But anyway, that is a quick OQ update. We also have a couple roster news to cover. Oh, sorry. Did you want to hop in with something? [00:11:38] Speaker C: I just like. They put out a freezer as I shout out to battle Five of that please change the. [00:11:44] Speaker A: I love it. Also had a couple of roster swap ups in the lec. In particular rumored. I don't think as of recording this has been confirmed. But it is confirmed. Oh, it has been confirmed. The SK trade YZMA for Casey Blues Jungler Bukata. I have no idea if I'm saying that right, but could be Baukata Bukata. B O U K A D A so SK was not happy with Isma and are looking to make a change. Is Casey now the farm team of of the region? Is that what we're learning? [00:12:16] Speaker C: Apparently. [00:12:17] Speaker D: I mean, LFL was the best of the minor or the. What do they call them? The. The erl. [00:12:27] Speaker A: There we go. [00:12:28] Speaker D: I said I was going to say wild card. It's like. No, it's the. I mean, LFL is. Has statistically been the best of the ERLs and Carmine core is one of the staples of the best erl. So it makes sense. [00:12:45] Speaker A: Yeah, but that was the first domino to fall so far in the off season. But making a change that early. Interesting. But they're not the only team to make a change that early because this one's a Much bigger story that dropped vitality are making a swap in the support position. Hilla saying who was not leading the league and deaths by the end of the split, mind you, but still had a lot of whoopsie games and really rough moments throughout the split. Is being replaced by a new fresh, I believe rookie support. He doesn't have any support games. His name's Niski, I think. [00:13:26] Speaker D: I think that's new right up and coming star nascar. [00:13:29] Speaker A: Yeah, nice. Nice guy. I think something like that. [00:13:33] Speaker D: I, I caught wind of this like 30 minutes before the Sheep accounts put it out. Someone said, someone said, I heard from somebody, they're like, Mitski's been playing a lot of support in solo queue. And that's what I'm like, oh, interesting. Okay, I wonder what happens. And then like the sheep report came out and I'm like, oh, that makes no sense. Okay, let's do it. [00:13:59] Speaker A: I did see probably the best argument for it that I saw was Peter Dunn. Did anyone see Peter Dunn's tweet about it? [00:14:06] Speaker D: I did not. [00:14:07] Speaker A: I'll quickly summarize. Basically he was saying it's, it's always tough and we've, we've heard this kind of like argument put for support as a position in particular in the past is like picking somebody that with good Mechanics from Tier 2 is often not what a team needs. Often what a team needs is a cohesive voice and leadership. And Niski has apparently always offered that on teams that he's been on. He's been a vocal member and putting him in the support role means that he can now focus on doing that in a game as opposed to just focusing on laning and mechanics. So Peter Dunn was a fan of it and was like, I don't like, I know people are probably gonna be confused, but it makes sense why they would make a decision like this as opposed to promoting like a younger support. [00:14:49] Speaker C: It's crazy what you do and you put mechanically intelligent players into a position that is a cohesive glue to a team. And especially, I mean you even look at Busio, right? Like Busio was literally a mid laner, is now one of the best supports in NA and is still on the come up. So I think there's actually a lot of evidence that it works out. And I'm, I think from what I've seen in comms and stuff like that in Niski's best years, I think he was some really, really good cohesive team plan, style captaining. I think it'll be really good for the team. [00:15:22] Speaker A: Agreed. And also I mean even this older reference. But Huki, another notable example right mid laner we knew. [00:15:29] Speaker C: Get out of here. CLG reference. [00:15:31] Speaker A: Hey come on man. I gotta throw him in when I can. But he wasn't necessarily the greatest mechanical player but he made the move to support and was able to provide that for the team in terms of like shot calling and in other areas. So. Yeah, well we'll see if it works out for Vitality and Niski. I'm gonna miss seeing Hella saying if he doesn't land another team because I imagine he will not. Yeah. [00:15:53] Speaker C: And I don't think there's any team for him. [00:15:56] Speaker A: I, I don't know if any team would make that jump and I guess they do have some time because we do have all of first hand to get through first. But like let's just look through the roster. [00:16:06] Speaker C: What do you think is the problem with Hill? [00:16:08] Speaker A: Because I feel like BDS if, if they want to drop peruse for him or something. So what were your thoughts? [00:16:14] Speaker C: What do you think is the problem with Hilla saying like why, why, why do you think no team would want him? [00:16:20] Speaker A: So I have heard this is all rumor and conjecture. I don't know if any of this has been confirmed but I've heard the biggest reason for his, for the team dropping him is attitude problems and they had issues with him. If you remember like Bwipo kind of made a like a tweet about him talking about what it was like playing like what he thinks know certain players with like bad attitudes. Hillsing was dropped, name dropped and Vitality apparently was having some of that as well. And there were instances in stage games where he was intentionally running it down because he was not happy with the decisions the team was making in game. So he just kind of gave up. And again that's all rumor. I don't know if any of that's true but if that is true 100 makes what happened. And the fact that they made such a drastic decision after one split tells me that, that, that doesn't seem far fetched. [00:17:19] Speaker C: It just makes me sad because it feels like there was a time when this guy was literally one of the top of Europe. [00:17:26] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely. So I still hope the best for Hilla saying I don't know if what, how much of the story is true or not, but if there is a pro player that's actively throwing games for their team because they' happy with the situation, they you got to get them out of that situation. Right. So but I believe that's, that's it for the roster news that we found. If we missed anything, let us know. You can let us know by joining the community Discord. You can find a link in the description wherever you are listening along. And if you want to support the pod, you can also join as a Patreon member or through our Merch store and purchase some Fun Swag League rundown-shop.fourth wall.com with all that said, it's time to hop into LEC Finals. They wrapped up their split last out of all of the regions. I was about to say major regions, but now there's only major regions. But they were the last ones to finish up and they only have a week to prepare for first stand because that starts this coming Sunday at midnight PST or 3am on Monday for you East Coasters. [00:18:31] Speaker D: Yeah, don't remind me. [00:18:32] Speaker A: A fun one. It's gonna be a fun one. Yeah. Sorry Badger. Best of luck for you should have. Odds are gonna be great in the morning after. But before we talk about firsthand, we got to cover LEC Finals weekend. We had three best of fives in full fearless drafting and let me tell you, they didn't exactly go how we expected. Out of the three podcast members from last week with totally nine total predictions, we got two right out of the nine possible. A big part of that is because the first series Koi vs Fnatic, Me and Mazel both had a lot of faith in Koi. RMC was the only one to believe in Fnatic, and Fnatic actually got it done. Spoilers. Neither of these teams were able to really make the push through all the way, so we won't spend too much time talking about them. But I think to just kind of this is the end of JoJo's first split, so I want to at least talk about it from his perspective before we get into the series itself though, you know, let's see you up for it Mizel Jojo as a player, if I had to give you no information about the series that happened, take a guess as to what he accomplished in this series. [00:19:43] Speaker C: That's such a weird question to ask. [00:19:45] Speaker A: That is a weird question. [00:19:47] Speaker C: What did he accomplish? I don't know. He got some. [00:19:51] Speaker A: Well, because you're the one that said he was going to by the end of the year be the best mid laner in Europe. [00:19:56] Speaker C: But I guess compared with the series, no, no, I don't think so. I think his tweet shows a lot of the background of like what his thought process is moving forward and I don't think the split was nearly good enough for him, but I think he did have an influence on the team. I think that was super important. [00:20:15] Speaker A: Okay, fair enough. I do wonder how much of Fearless kind of hurt him. By game four, he's pulling out things like Rise and I just. I don't think of JoJo as a Rise. Did JoJo ever play Rise in NA? Yeah, I really remember. Oh yeah, Badger. [00:20:32] Speaker D: I thought he. I thought he pulled a little. Pulled a couple rides games out a couple years ago, but maybe. [00:20:38] Speaker A: But it's not one of the picks that I like associate with. When I think Rise in N A players, I think like Bjergsen first Jensen, maybe even like Damonte. I feel like he played it a couple of times, but JoJo's not one of the first ones come to mind. So I just. I'm curious how much he's going to be able to improve for the next split because all eyes will be on Rise games. Oh, okay. Well, that's actually quite a lot. Wait, how much of that is tier two, though? Because I think it might factor that it's. [00:21:06] Speaker D: I mean, I could check it, but. [00:21:08] Speaker A: Like, still, you know what, it doesn't matter. Tier 2, even that like 19 is still a pretty high number, so. Okay, well, you know, for. For the JoJo perspective, I'm not entirely sure if I was convinced by his first split, but I at least have faith that he can try and scale from that. But what we learned from Fanatic from this series, it was a three one. They were able to pick it up. Games one two and then four. Is that man. I feel vindicated about upset. I'm just gonna say it again. Did this guy have a series? This guy. What was the scoreline by the end? 25, 5 and 24. [00:21:44] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:21:46] Speaker A: In four games. That might be the cleanest scoreline that I've seen. [00:21:51] Speaker B: Just don't talk about a straight who. [00:21:54] Speaker A: Talk about what? [00:21:55] Speaker B: Don't talk about his Draven. [00:21:56] Speaker A: Well, yeah, of course we're not gonna Draven because that doesn't help the stats. He went 1 01, did he? [00:22:03] Speaker B: He went 011. [00:22:06] Speaker A: Yeah. 0. Yeah. Yeah. 011. Man, when you can't get a single cash out as Draven, that does suck. But that was also super really stepping up on the callista that game. So hope for Koi going forward is that they can just get consistency more on their side. And also I think just approach draft a little more creatively if they can expand some of the champ rules, especially with how they want to play around Jojo in the mid lane. Because by that game four, things got really wacky with the focus of the draft. But I think that's also one of the strengths of Fnatic is their ability to draft in a fearless system. They actually looked pretty solid. And that leads into the second series of the day because this is the one that we want to spend the most time talking about in the limited time that we have here before. First stand. This series slaps Badger. It went the full five games, but not exactly how we expected it, though. [00:22:57] Speaker D: No. I mean, when we got into it, there was this idea. I mean, you go back to predictions. Oh, yeah, I guess. Kangas, you did pick Casey. I don't think anybody. [00:23:15] Speaker A: I'm the only one that got this right. Yeah. And so by the end of this prediction, I'm the only one that could have gotten any more right. But yeah, obviously we'll talk about finals in a bit here, but talk about. [00:23:27] Speaker D: Finals in a little bit. Yeah. [00:23:30] Speaker A: Casey come out swinging, though. Man, I thought they were gonna 3. [00:23:33] Speaker D: 0 come out afraid. Like they came out the first game, I mean, the first two games and just kind of slapped them around a little bit. You know, there was some. Some happy gaming that happened after the. After that, those first couple games. Game three. I mean, I. Zeri Zillion is a combo we have seen. Hasn't been great, but we've seen it. I mean, I just felt like they were just. They. They were feeling themselves. Maybe they were trying something because they were already up 20 at that point. So. But I think we've talked about this in the past, but like the team that comes from the lower bracket gains that momentum is winning those. Those games leading into it, like getting the series and getting just that extra stage experience. Especially for a team like this when. I mean, Clist is a rookie. Vladdy is Flatty's. This is his first split in. Actually, no. He played in summer last year, didn't he? This will be his first summer, last split or last season. But like just getting all those extra stage reps for these guys paid dividends for him in the end. Honestly, just they. They had their really good games and then it was there. Oh, we. We kind of ran it. Can we know what to do for next time to fix it? [00:25:03] Speaker A: And I think a lot of that's off the back of seller performances from. I'm going to give it. I don't know if this is a hot take. I. It's not the name that I heard everyone talking about. I think Kana was actually the standout performer for me, for Casey. When you factor in both series, the second series, I think there's other arguments. Like, Vladdy really stepped up. Cliff really stepped up. All three of those were the big names. But Kana, even in their losses, I. The. The, you know, nar game aside, that one was kind of rough. But then he's able to bring it back in the next series later in the weekend. Yeah, the. The zillion support was just kind of getting turbo dove bot side. That one was rough. And then it seemed like they weren't able to kind of shake the nerves going into that next game. Except for Kana upset and Mickey were having a very fun time in the bot lane for games three and four. But considering the fact that this was like the narrative series of, oh, every finals is Fnatic G2. It's destined to happen. Oh, fnatics down. Oh two in the series, and they even like, threw a lead in game two. Oh, they. They win game three. They win game four. Oh, silver scrapes. They're gonna reverse sweep and face G2. Like it's just going to happen. But then game five, holy man, who does step up but Kalista Vladikana? These three are fierce. And I don't know, man. Like, I. I've been bazelle. I think I heard you saying even before we went live, like, with how they're looking right now, this is a scary team even going into international event. [00:26:33] Speaker C: Yeah, I mean, I tweeted it, but I'll say it here and say it again over and over again. I think the hype around the payoff has been probably one of the greatest in league of legends esports history. And I think the guys popping off, I think the flexibility they have in draft provides them a lot, and their aggression is something I don't think teams are going to necessarily be ready for, especially eastern teams like HLE and Top Esports when we get to that conversation. But this team is just pumping, man. Like the fact that it was, yes, a ball drop by a couple teams in Europe, but they're flexing their strengths and it's really, really paying off for them. [00:27:17] Speaker A: Absolutely. I want to get your thoughts on this series, though, because it went the full five games, and I think this was the best series that we had in LAC finals weekend. [00:27:25] Speaker B: It was absolutely the best stretch of four games we could have in this LEC finals because we do not talk about game five. [00:27:37] Speaker A: I mean, you want to talk about, if you're a KC fan, 25 minutes. [00:27:40] Speaker B: Quick work, fanatic, committed War crimes with that draft. [00:27:44] Speaker A: Yeah, I do. Like, they were doing so well up until that one. And then it's just like, who's supposed to engage? How do we deal with like the Aurora in the sideline? I guess, like think Camille can kind of. [00:27:58] Speaker B: Not only that, just what the hell is a misfortune? [00:28:00] Speaker A: Lulu Bot Lane, you know, you and. [00:28:03] Speaker D: Power Game 5 of Fearless. That's what that is. [00:28:06] Speaker A: True. That was them banning Senna, Blitzcrank, Seraphine and then Carbine core. Not having to ban any supports because they banned all of them themselves. Yeah. [00:28:19] Speaker B: Because why on earth would you want to pick a nady carry that synergizes with Lulu? Like, I don't know. Siver True. [00:28:26] Speaker C: That would make sense. [00:28:27] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:28:29] Speaker B: That wasn't fun. Razork's early pathing on the volleyball. [00:28:33] Speaker D: It's not like you're playing champions that want to go into. Oh, wait, they. They did. [00:28:41] Speaker B: Yeah. It. It's certainly a draft. Razor's early pathing kind of. Honestly, Razor can. Humanoid had a happy game five. That's the way to put it. But well played by K Corp all around, especially the first two games. They were phenomenal and showed that they can compete. [00:29:06] Speaker A: Yeah. And I. I will say I still think that the strength of Fnatic was games one through four of Fearless. Game five. It got a little off the rails, but shout out to them for trying some stuff like Humanoid on Aurelion Soul in game three was a big part of why they won that Giga Fed. And that was kind of exodia in. In that composition. Mickey pulling out the pike again. It had been like a long time since he had played it, and last time he played, it did not look very good. Wasn't he like banned then? G2 say like never again, Mickey, like, you have the worst bike on the team. [00:29:38] Speaker C: Something like that. [00:29:40] Speaker D: Probably. [00:29:41] Speaker A: Everybody on G2 was playing Pike. They were. They were fighting for who got the rights to pick him. But then, yeah, we, like we said the. The wheels kind of fell off by that game five, and kc, their wheel stayed on. They roared to the finish line, bringing them to finals. The first finals for kc. A chance for Kalist to cement himself as a legend in the region. First split in. He was denied an opportunity the previous year because of the age restrictions, but now he's made it. Can he pull it off? And it's against G2, the old guard, the kings of Europe, the reigning dynasty. That seems to be inevitable. It is in fact A one team. Regen Bickle. What happened in the finals for Lec. [00:30:33] Speaker B: Viva la France happened. [00:30:37] Speaker A: Viva la revolution happened. [00:30:40] Speaker B: It was a slaughter as Caps was craps. Labrov looked like he was playing a different game. And Vladi is showing he might be the mid to finally end the Caps reign. [00:30:58] Speaker A: Yes. Claps applaud right there. I love the Vlad. He's getting his, his, his credit. The first couple weeks, like at least the first week of lac, I thought he hands down looked like the best performing mid. But then I heard naysayers, I heard doubters throughout the year, specifically around like North American fans that would occasionally catch a game be like Vlad. He didn't look that like impactful that game. I'm like, no, guys like trust this guy. This guy's got it. And oh boy, did he get it. 172 and 28 scoreline. Clist also only died two times across three games. But Vladdy really was like the name to follow in that finals. Yeah, Badger. Did you believe in Vladi? Were you a Vladi doubter or did you think he added in him coming. [00:31:44] Speaker D: Into this weekend or just at the start of the split? [00:31:47] Speaker A: Let's say maybe both. Yeah. I'm curious if your opinion changed at the split. [00:31:53] Speaker D: I think it did just because we. We've seen him against like Caps and other mid laners and he, he was okay. Like I'd say he was middle mid, like the top end of the middle of the pack, if that makes sense. So like that like 3, 4, 5, like 4, 5 range for the most part. But now I, I mean, is he the best man in Europe at the moment because he beat Caps and is going to the international tournament where they only send one team? I mean, you could say it like, can we, you know, give it a couple of weeks, see how he plays on the international stage and when they come back to Europe and switch the format up. Is. Is Europe switching the format up for spring or is that just lta? [00:32:46] Speaker A: I. [00:32:47] Speaker B: All. [00:32:47] Speaker A: All regions are switching up the format because we're going from fearless to the. The second split format. @ least as of right now, that is what the. The regions have planned. We'll see if anything changes in the off season. But for now we do know the. The format for lack. But yeah, I, I think to. To echo just the. The sentiment about Vlad and his performance. I. I feel like this guy is now definitively the best mid laner for split one. We'll see if anybody's able to step up because you're right, we got craps and finals. Caps did not have a good finals appearance and it's tough when You've been in every finals and won every finals for two years. It's like, I think he's due for a rough showing. Hansama tries best to to step up and be that carry split. It was actually Broken Blade that really stepped up and was like the big difference maker. I don't think they had that guy with the it factor this time. And it was a rebuild phase for G2. I think people don't give enough like weight to that that Labrov's new, Skew Bun's new. They need some time to get together on the same page. And Labrov really did not seem on the same page despite the fact that that Game three at least, or it was a game one. I'm actually blanking on which one I'm thinking of here. Game one. Yeah. It started off well for G2 and it was off of Labrov finding like a nice little engage bot lane. Skewmon played to the bottom side and they got a lead for Hansam early on. But Clis was able to stabilize and just kind of come back. And that was the story of the game is anytime G2 tried to do something in this series, even if they found something, it wasn't enough to truly break the armor of kc. And KC just kept getting back up and fighting again. They had the scrap factor that G2 was not ready for. And G2, with this iteration of the roster has lost their scrap factor at least in this finals. So one team region no more. I think we can officially say that. [00:34:44] Speaker B: Also have to go to Yike, who I think this gives him his eighth title out of the past nine splits. [00:34:53] Speaker C: It's crazy. [00:34:54] Speaker A: He is the only one with the record now. It was him and all of G2. So either Mickey or. Or himself or then Broken Blade, Caps on some of that. Core could try and keep that going in terms of just like being members that have this crazy long. You know, Now I think about it, I guess it would be him, Mickey and Caps that would all be players that held it. Because Broken Blade and Hans, I believe, have joined at different times. Both still have great records going into this one, but in terms of like the full roster record. But G2 lost the record. Caps lost the record. Yike kept it. He was on G2 for all those wins. And now he took down G2. And what a journey for him as well. Because anytime, like a team performs rough internationally, there's usually a player. I think in G2 sense, there were two that kind of were the fall guys. Yike was one of the fall guys. How beautiful of a story to make the comeback and be like, nah, it wasn't me. I was not the problem. There was actually a really cool. You can check out the Reddit post. There was a speech given by the coach for kc. He was addressing every player before they went out for the finals and just kind of like amping them up. And what he said to Yike was so beautiful, man. He was like, show them that they made the mistake. We, we believed in you. We're your family now. They're not your family. They gave up on you. And I was like, damn, that's gotta activate something new as a player. So credit all around. Casey, win it. Final thoughts on G2. Badger, let's get your thoughts. Is it doomsday? Do you think that they need to make any changes or look at any changes, or do you think that they can bounce back and still try it and represent the region at future international events this year? [00:36:39] Speaker D: I think they'll be all right. This, this might be a hot take to say this, but I think GT will be okay. [00:36:45] Speaker A: I. [00:36:46] Speaker D: It was just. Yeah, it was just a rough day for gamers to be a gamer as well because not only did they get three Odin finals, they. They lost VCT. The first VCT tournament of the year too. So G2 fans in shambles in both the Riot titles. But no, I mean, really. [00:37:08] Speaker C: This is. [00:37:09] Speaker D: I don't know if this is like the COPE answer to say or if it's. If, if it's just, I mean stating the obvious, but they sent one team and they. That didn't show up on the day of finals. And they're not the one team that's going. I think they'll be all right when it comes to, you know, two teams to msi, three teams to Worlds, whatever it is. [00:37:30] Speaker A: They still made finals. [00:37:31] Speaker D: They still made finals. Yeah, they made finals through upper bracket. Maybe, maybe, maybe go lower bracket next time. Ride the momentum, ride the. Ride the wave. [00:37:40] Speaker A: Lose to Fnatic next time. [00:37:41] Speaker D: When it doesn't lose to Fnatic next. [00:37:44] Speaker A: Time because then you know Fnatic's your opponent in the upper bracket and then you know you could beat them. Strategic. All right, cool. Well, that bookends LEC finals weekend. It was a little abbreviated for a finals weekend, but it's because we have first stands to talk about next here. But along live, the new kings, Carmine Core. They did it. The blue wall stands tall. And they will represent at first stand. Which brings us in to the first stand preview. A brand new international tournament for a brand New era of League of Legends. This is the first time that we will see fearless drafting at an international event. This is the first time that we will see a format that does not recognize minor regions. There are no more minor regions. Everything's been consolidated into five regions with one team representing each lec, lta, lck, LPL and lcp. And we're gonna give a quick rundown of the representatives from each of the regions so that you can have some expectation before we get into our predictions and then get ready for First Stand up. First I want to introduce, because we have a member that's covered them all split so far, the LPL representative. So I will throw it over to Mr. Mazelpl to discuss Top Esports representing. [00:39:11] Speaker C: All right, all right, all right, all right. The top Esports that comes to first stand in 2025 is already not the same top Esports that fell over in quarterfinal of Worlds 2024 against T1. At least we hope. Going into 2025, Top Esports made two significant roster changes, adding long time JDG franchise jungler Kanavi and 2019 world champ Crisp to the roster over Tien and Mako. Their laners remained the same with 369in top cream and mid Jackie Love and Bot. Their season didn't begin smoothly. They lost to Masiu Cub Grand Finals in almost a landslide victory to anyone's legend. Then they lost again to anyone's legend in their group stage where they were grouped up with Al and then going into the playoffs they were very much slighted in the lower bracket. They had many big names ahead of them, not a lot of confidence there. But then Kadavi and Crisp were both performing below their standards, kind of buffing that conversation up and a great deal of question marks going into it. But a lot of these were completely evaporated as they went through one of the strongest and most grueling best of five playoff sprees in the history of the lpl, winning five back to back best of fives all three, one by the way, in the span of a week. And it wasn't even through easy opponents. It was through nip, jdg, ig. It was even through Bilibili. And I think this team showed so much that was stacked up against them. They didn't have double elim. They didn't have anything going for them. But Top Esports relied on extremely dominant lane picks as well as utility. With the Ash misfortune through Jackie Love, they would get Crisp out, they would move him to the lanes, they would move him to Kanavi and they would find really good connections. One of the biggest things that happened in those playoffs, though, was Jackie Love returning to stardom. He's been the pillar of TOP Esports over these last five years. You think back to the IG years. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, now it's all Top Esports. And the guy was showing out not only in the 2v2s, not only in the 1v2s in lane, but in his team fights. It was some of the most impeccable team fighting we have seen from this guy since he won a world championship with IG. For many of the members of Top Esports, this was their first championship in years. Kanavi and 369 won back all the way in 2023. Jackie loves first championship since 2020, and Crisp hasn't won anything since his world championship run in 2019. And for Cream, this was his first LPL championship. Managing to put his name up there with all those greats. He went through rookie, he went through Duneby, he went through night, he went through scout. And finally get some respect on his name. TS brings better macro than any of the other LPL participants and a great deal of patience and skill. This is not the same top esports you remember from World Worlds, so be prepared. [00:42:12] Speaker A: Beautiful. I think especially Cream's journey is the one that's inspiring because I remember first. [00:42:16] Speaker C: Melee, Mids are back. [00:42:18] Speaker A: First look that we got at him was MSI 2024. And I remember him, like, not really looking that inspiring, but you constantly saying, no, guys, trust. Like, it's. It's his, like, first time at an international event. Like, give him time. Like, he's a really young player. He's still got the training wheels off. [00:42:35] Speaker C: They let go of Shieye. He no longer has a positional coach. [00:42:39] Speaker A: Okay, fair enough. But the fact that Cream has now made that journey from last year, literally not even a full year ago, where we were like, is this guy even good to. Oh, yeah, he just won lpl. [00:42:53] Speaker C: Yeah. And in spring last year, they were in the same position, but they faltered and lost so badly. So to see, like, a year later and obviously a difference because it's winter, not spring, but. But still really cool. I wouldn't say he put himself on the Mount Rushmore just yet, but they're starting to get the chisels out. [00:43:09] Speaker A: Well, he's got plenty of time. [00:43:11] Speaker C: Exactly. [00:43:11] Speaker A: Again, very young players playing for, like, a year, right? [00:43:14] Speaker C: I don't know. Jackie Love went on. On fucking on quotations of saying that he's 24 and he's going to have to retire soon because 20, 20, 25 is like the end all be all. You're too old. I'm just like, bro, I should be in the fucking grave right now. [00:43:31] Speaker A: Like, that's funny, dude. It's so funny hearing players talk about it. He's only 24. [00:43:38] Speaker C: Like, he won a world champion when he was 19. Oh, dude, what the hell? [00:43:46] Speaker A: Damn. But yeah, five best of fives in a row, each of them going to four games. Got revenge against anyone's legend as well. Even from the demasi Cup. So cool to see that run. And if you had to give just like a power level out of 10, maybe comparing it to previous LPL rosters, previous expectation for LPL teams out of 10, how would you rank this team and your confidence in them to be able to take the whole tournament, like, be the team to be. Because it's usually LPL lck, right? Like, those are the two that we're looking at as, like the favorites. [00:44:15] Speaker C: I think if you're looking particular into lhle, it's going to be a little bit of different conversation. If you're just looking for a general out of, like, how I think they're going to do, I think an 8 is respectful. I think even maybe like a 7 point or 7.5. I think there's some struggling that can happen if they don't have a firm grasp on what they need to be doing on the map. They rely on their mechanics in team fightings to get them out of dark holes all the time. Like, if you think back to a lot of their 31 victories, they probably should have been three twos, but Jackie Love or, you know, 3, 6, 9, especially in the finals, was just having an insane performance. 369 also, by the way, getting huge shout outs for his number and his Gragas, which were literally called out by Karsa back in the day when they played together and saying he was absolute trash on them. And he got a shout out from Karsa from the lcp saying, you're doing good, brother. But I, I, I'd give it an eight. I, I think, I think there's some things you can take advantage of. I think if they don't have a clear structure and how they want to play the game or their draft sucks, I think it can be really difficult for them. [00:45:17] Speaker A: Okay, fair enough. All right, well, that's top Esports, Everybody. Thank you, Ms. LPL. [00:45:22] Speaker C: Yeah, by the way, that script is something that we wrote for the LPL English, which is gonna be having a Little first stand prepper going out here soon, so make sure you keep an eye on the Twitter. [00:45:33] Speaker A: Beautiful. And also shout out to anybody who already does support you or watch the finals that llpl_english put on or LPL English on Twitch. Lpl_english on socials. [00:45:44] Speaker C: One day they'll cancel their English coverage. It's fine. [00:45:47] Speaker A: Right? All right, so that's top esports and brief expectation for them. Up next. Speaking of teams that had best of five banger runs to get their number one seed representation here because the other top dogs are coming in and they are barking loud. LCK representative H L E are in the house. Badger, how are they looking? [00:46:16] Speaker D: Well, they just completed a playoff run where they did not drop a series and they beat. They. They had four best of fives that they played and all of them went to five games and they beat, you know, little team called T1. And then they played Gen G and beat Gen G and then played Dom. [00:46:38] Speaker C: But those are no names though, right? [00:46:39] Speaker D: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, obviously, obviously t1 with this. This guy named Faker. I don't know. [00:46:49] Speaker C: You heard of this guy before? [00:46:50] Speaker A: I have. He's actually the most famous esport player of all time. [00:46:53] Speaker C: I heard he made a mouse. [00:46:55] Speaker D: He made a mouse. [00:46:56] Speaker A: I actually got that. [00:46:57] Speaker D: Right. [00:46:58] Speaker A: Yeah, well, you got the mouse. What I did. I totally. [00:47:01] Speaker C: Bro. Hook a brother up. [00:47:02] Speaker A: Thanks for the reminder. Yeah. [00:47:04] Speaker D: And then continue. So they see out there, the playoff run For Hanwha was BT1 play Gen G and beat Chenji, beat Damwon who hadn't lost a series both in group stage and in playoffs up to that point, and then beat Gen G again in the salty run back in finals. All games are 3. [00:47:28] Speaker A: 2. [00:47:30] Speaker D: They're riding the momentum. They're right. I mean, they're not riding as much momentum as Tabby Sports is potentially just based on how many series that they played in a single week comparatively. But I mean, Hanwha coming in as one of the teams that is. Is one of the presumptive favorites, if not the favorite of the tournament. I mean, when you have. When you have the God of Thunder himself in the top lane after the off season shenanigans that happened between T1 and Zeus and I mean, Zeka World champion Viper, World Champion Delight. Pretty damn good at the game. Peanut. Passenger Princess. [00:48:11] Speaker C: What. [00:48:12] Speaker D: What more can you expect from a. [00:48:13] Speaker A: Team you love when your jungler is the passenger princess. [00:48:17] Speaker D: But yeah, this team is scary Jungler as a passenger princess and in their. [00:48:21] Speaker A: Four series played actually as many games as top esports did across 3. 5. The both of them played 20 games. So similar enough journeys to get to this point. Neither one was gifted the spot. It was not easy for either of these teams. They had to fight and claw their their way to that victory across grueling schedules. So, yeah, if we had to. Same thing with the top esports team for you, Badger. If you had to give kind of a confidence meter out of 10 for how good this team is going to be at first stand, what would you rank them them? [00:48:54] Speaker D: 10 out of 10, baby. Hey, breaking news from the Hanwha camp too. Just announced 43 minutes ago. They have a new co streamer. Oh, who is Smeb? Smeb is now a content creator for Hanwha Life Esports. [00:49:15] Speaker A: That's wild. Okay, well, look at that. [00:49:19] Speaker D: I love it. [00:49:20] Speaker A: I'm trying to remember what. What team was he even on back in the day? He was like a 2016-2018. [00:49:26] Speaker D: He was on the rocks. Slash coup Tigers. [00:49:29] Speaker A: There we go. Yes, he was that. The CLG beat the Rass. Sorry. That was a fun world zone. We don't talk about what happened with Elvis, Knox, Luna, but I think that was actually the same year. Maybe I'm getting my ears mixed up, but I think that was that time. Either way, that's gonna be fun to watch. HLE and their presumed dominance over this. I think Top Esports is the big team to give them competition. But there might be a ringer, a dark horse as it were. Somebody who's, you know, used to, you know, tearing down dynasties and royalty. [00:50:09] Speaker D: Dystopias. [00:50:10] Speaker A: Bickle. [00:50:11] Speaker B: I mean, it's the French way. [00:50:15] Speaker A: It's the French revolution. Kc, talk to me. I mean, we've already covered them a lot on this podcast, but give the spark notes of what their year looks like and maybe some expectations for them. [00:50:24] Speaker B: Yeah, sure thing. So K Corp came into the year with this revamped roster, bringing in Yike and the rookie sensation that has been hyped up for the longest time in Kalist. And right away things were kind of clicking. They finished the regular season in second place with a 63 record. They looked shaky a bit at the very end there as they lost the final two games. But then they came into playoffs, all cylinders firing, smacked BDS, smacked coy, then got their teeth kicked in by G2 a little bit before running that lower bracket, as we mentioned, with a great series against KC and beating G2 back in kind of a revenge way. And things are really looking good. This is honestly the best Case scenario, KC could have. This is more than they probably could have ever thought was going to be going on. And honestly, lane swaps dying, I think is really good for this team because Kanna is a player who can do well on those carry style top lanes and Kalist is someone who came in very highly touted for his laning prowess as well. So those two being able to focus now on actual lanings, on stronger lane phases instead of just being swapped out of it could be really good for them as opposed to someone like Team Liquid who was so focused on swaps that could come back to bite them. So really, this is kind of the quote unquote dark horse of how these two younger rookie players in Kalist as well as Vladdy can perform on their first time at the big stage. As Khana, Yike and Targumus have all had experience on the larger stages. If Yike. I mean, if Kalist as well as Vladi can perform, they have a chance to be that dark horse. And I think they do have that potential. Their goal is third place, in all honesty. [00:52:27] Speaker C: Ooh. [00:52:28] Speaker A: Okay. So not necessarily. Do you think there's a chance that they could push higher than that? Because I agree. Goal and honestly, expectation from the community should be. Casey. [00:52:38] Speaker B: Their goal is third. Their expectation is third. Anything else would be an absolute shocker. [00:52:45] Speaker A: Okay, all right. Well, place your expectations. [00:52:49] Speaker C: Even a fourth place. [00:52:52] Speaker A: That's actually a good point. So is it shocking if they get lower than third? No, I like that. [00:52:57] Speaker C: I think it actually would be. [00:52:58] Speaker B: I think they'd be disappointed if they got lower than third. I think they are the clear third best team at this tournament. [00:53:05] Speaker A: Okay, all right, fair enough. Fair enough. Well, let's talk about the team that. [00:53:10] Speaker C: Maybe fourth, by the way. [00:53:13] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. [00:53:14] Speaker C: Just talking about since we're in the middle of transition from teams that actually have a chance to teams that probably don't. [00:53:20] Speaker D: Damn. [00:53:21] Speaker C: The amount of games, guys, the amount of game played difference between the regions that we just covered. Well, I guess LCP did play a decent amount of games games, but it is beyond shocking, like literally double the amount of games played from these teams. And it is just actually crazy. And the thing is, is those games that were played by LTA and by LEC were not best of fives. At least a lot of them. So bad. It's just. It's so wild. Anyways, we can talk about traditional fourth placers. [00:53:56] Speaker A: Yeah, and. And I'm happy you set it up for that because fourth place, I expectation you can argue for these next two regions, which is More likely. I think that this should be the expectation of the fourth seed and it is Team Liquid, everybody. Yeah, NA is not coming in looking very hot. I know we've done pretty well at past, you know, international events. We pushed Gen G to five games. Remember that? Remember when we beat G2 in Worlds 2023 to make it into the, you know, knockout stage. But it hasn't looked like E even in those events. I just want to remind everyone that we were underdogs going into that. We were not expected to be, you know, dominant performers. And it was always kind of a surprise and really cool for NA fans that we did that well. But I think it's kind of similar, if not even like lower expectation with Team Liquid as our representative. Quick reminder for how their journey went. First off, we had the two different kind of of portions of the LTA split. The one was just the north teams going up against each other where they actually lost to 100 Thieves in their qualification match to make it to the Brazil portion of the tournament and then had to beat Shopify. Yeah, they did that handily. But then they lost a flyquest in the seeding match to see who actually is third or fourth seed. So they were fourth seed going down to Brazil. Really leaning into that meme here. [00:55:25] Speaker C: Dude, they need to just sign Jyn right now. [00:55:27] Speaker A: I know, right? Yeah. But then even at Brazil first stand, they were the only north team to drop a game to a southern team. It was a sweep. 100 Thieves crushed Pain, Fly Quest crushed Leon. Cloud 9 clutched Loud who struggled. Team Liquid was down 10 to IS Estrall. They lost a game and then they were able to to bring back the series. But it was looking tight. It was looking actually, now that I think about that, they won game one and then they lost game two. But still they. It was. It was close that they almost lost that series. And then against Cloud 9 also pushed. They had to beat them in in a two to one fashion. And it wasn't really until finals against 100 Thieves that they looked like, okay, this team is actually good. Like they were clearly better than their opponent. They had so many chances to like step up throughout the split and it was only at the very end when they were able to. So we're really hoping we get that finals version of Team Liquid going into first stand. But part of the reason that there's less expectation for them is we've already talked about it. Lane swaps presumably going away. That was one of the silver bullets for Team Liquid. One of the things that they were the best at globally last year at worlds, and then even this split still looked like one of the teams most comfortable on that. And if they don't have that tool, I think a lot of us are crossing our fingers, hoping that Jan really keeps popping off. [00:56:49] Speaker C: Man, this split was about yawn, and I hope it continues. [00:56:53] Speaker A: Yep, you really, really turned heads. Anybody who didn't know who Jan was in NA definitely knows who he is, and even international players should have their eyes on him. I think that, yes, the bot lane competition is going to be very high, but out of anybody on Team Liquid, I'm actually pretty confident in our bot lane versus the other bot lanes. [00:57:13] Speaker C: As long as Core JJ has his head on. On a swivel. I think there were some times in the split that it looked a little bit rough, but, dude, I love it because Jan was just like, yo, I'm tired of hearing Masu's name every time LTA comes up. Yo, let me get my name in there. [00:57:26] Speaker A: Where's my drive episode, huh? Damn it. [00:57:31] Speaker C: But I love Young, but he's not great at content. It's fine. [00:57:34] Speaker A: Yeah. Hey, I always tell this every time people especially like an lta. So, like, oh, Jan's, like, always quiet. I say he's quiet unless he's comfortable. If you get that comfortable, he will give you a gold on camera, as he did in some of his interviews as well. But, yeah, again, expectation for this team, I honestly think solid fourth place. I really do think that they can sneak in because the top four teams this next week for. For first stand is going to be a best of three round robin. Each team out of the five teams plays each other once, and then that will determine who makes it in top four go into the elimination bracket, which means only one team gets knocked out here. I think Team Liquid can make it in Spoilers. We will have some debate about that later when we talk about who's likely to be last place in this split. But there's only one team left to talk about unless I guess it is the NA team. So, Badger, Bickle, I think I didn't kind of throw it to you at all. Did either of you want to say anything about Team Liquid? Badger, I know that you're a big Team Liquid fan. I know that they're your guys. [00:58:37] Speaker D: Just don't go out in groups, please, please. That's our. That is our expectation for you at this point. [00:58:46] Speaker A: Please be better than the. There's no more minor regions, but I think LCP is the only one that people are still looking at like, okay, they're a combination of a bunch of kind of minor regions in a way, so hopefully we can at least beat them. Pickle, any final thoughts on Team Liquid before we move on though? [00:59:02] Speaker B: We had touched on this briefly, but the game count, when you look at it as to how many games all of these teams have played is quite depressing for Team Liquid. Hanwha, life out of the lck. This is just single games, not best of fives, best of Threes has played 33 games this year. Sports has played 30. The LCP rep of the Flying Oyster. [00:59:34] Speaker A: Oyster, yep. [00:59:35] Speaker B: Have played 28. K Corp has played 25. Team Liquids played 17. [00:59:44] Speaker C: Jesus Christ, man. [00:59:47] Speaker D: Yep. [00:59:48] Speaker A: Oh, I was counting the series as games for Oysters. I was like, wait, I thought they were only 17. No, those were best. [00:59:56] Speaker C: Yeah, they're bestows. [00:59:57] Speaker B: Oh, no, these are individual games. Team liquid has played 8 less games than K Corp. Has played 11 less games than the oysters, 13 less games than Top Esports, and nearly half as many games as Hanma Life. [01:00:16] Speaker C: That's just so crazy, man. [01:00:19] Speaker B: I honestly think it's gonna be a problem for them alongside that loss of lane swaps. [01:00:27] Speaker A: I could easily imagine that. So. Well, we'll see if they're able to do it, if they're able to bring it back. But let's talk about the other team because you already mentioned them. The CTBC Flying Oysters. They are the last representative to talk about because they are representing the brand new region of the elite lcp. That's League Championship of the Pacific. It's a combination. We got PCs, VCS, LJL, Oceania, like everything that's, you know, remaining, basically that's not in the Americas, Europe or, you know, China or Korea is in this region. And they have a little bit of history as an organization. I mean, they were able to make Worlds 2022 and Worlds 2023. So we seen this organization around before and there's a couple of returning members or at least one big one. Rest. The top laner is still listed on the roster playing for them, so might get to see some more of that. But their journey, I didn't actually catch much of their games, if any of them actually. But I can tell you the story, at least of how they got here. It was through a bracket of gam, the vke, AKA Vikings, Esports, and then as well, Talon, which are from like the Hong Kong team, which they didn't used to be called. Talent. They had a different name, right? [01:01:48] Speaker C: Yeah, they just dropped the Paris Saint Germain. [01:01:51] Speaker A: But that I Mean, all of those are reputable names that we've seen at the international stage before. Gigabyte Marines, the, the Vikings Esports and then PSG Talent. So definitely earning their way in here as well. But I think they're obviously going to be the team that we're looking at as the team that Team Liquid can try and, you know, beat and take the spot from. And there are a couple of players that we actually have seen before. Like I had mentioned Top Laner, but most importantly Mazel. We actually have some ex LPL players. They're, you know, I believe it's mid Laner and Bot Laner. We have Junja and Dago Jungler Junta. [01:02:28] Speaker C: Out of edg's Jail where he was behind Dej for their world championship. And they actually used Junjia a lot during their run. This guy has always been pretty insane. I think he learned a lot from his time on EDG and obviously it's been many years since then. But it's really nice to see him back on the international stage. I think the guy's carry pool is just as efficient as his utility pool in terms of the jungle and how he sets up for teams. But he also himself carries a lot of games in terms of how he controls the map and things, so. So it's really cool to see Junja back on stage. I think Doggo was having some very tough times in the LPL to finish out his his splits. I think the most infamous was his Ramis gameplay from all that time ago on Ultra Prime. But he's out of Ultra Prime's grasp. Although I think they had a really good relationship, I still always believed in this guy. Even from all of his time behind Uzi and then also replacing Uzi on BLG with that super team all those years ago. But now I think he's got a little bit of his carry instinct back. I think on Ultra prime he was very reserved and like played lanes very, very passively. But from some of the games I've seen, he's a lot more active now. So I'm glad to see Doggo back on stage. I think the funny thing is the last time he made a big splash was when he replaced the ADC for PSG Talon. Going into that worlds, I think it was like three or four years ago now. So here he is again. [01:04:04] Speaker A: He's back. Also their top lane kind of situation. I believe that this is the sub that they're bringing, but Driver and Rest are the two top laners. I already mentioned Rest, but Drivers played. [01:04:14] Speaker C: Those are Two important things to do when you drive. [01:04:17] Speaker A: Yeah, well, don't rest while you're driving. [01:04:21] Speaker C: But you need to be rested to drive. [01:04:23] Speaker A: True. It's a good point. It's a good point. But rest did play a couple of games throughout the the season but they were kind of swapping them out. It looks mostly champ pool stuff. Rest plays slightly more things like like Rumble and Bessa as well as a lot of Kissante games and Smolder even pulled out as opposed to driver who plays things like the Orn Desire and then the Gragas. So it seems like when they want like a tank in the top lane to go driver and honestly utilizing this in a fearless best of. [01:04:54] Speaker C: We haven't. [01:04:54] Speaker A: I haven't seen anyone else do this but having different players with different champ pools is kind of a buff in a fearless system because like without lane swaps. Yeah, you play the jacks cool. Well now put in your top laner who doesn't play jack because is not pitched at all. I think that's actually kind of cool. So something to keep your eyes on which how they utilize their top lane swaps throughout the tournament I think will be kind of cool. But I don't really know what to give them in terms of confidence meter. I don't know much about this team so that's why I think it's going to be between them and Team Liquid just in general based on kind of reputation of the regions that they are representing. But who knows, they could show up, they could smash, they could pop off. Anything is possible on the international stage. But with that being said, that's all the teams introduced now your brains are a little bit bigger because all that knowledge downloaded. So let's talk about our predictions for the group stage itself. It is best of three round robin before we get into the playoffs where the top four teams advance. And this entire tournament by the way is happening in one week. It is a blitzkrieg of a tournament to get to the end. It's only six days total, right? [01:06:08] Speaker C: Right. [01:06:08] Speaker A: Huh? [01:06:09] Speaker C: Six days total, right? [01:06:11] Speaker A: I believe seven because we have Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Saturday I guess. [01:06:16] Speaker C: Isn't there a break day? [01:06:18] Speaker A: No, no break day. [01:06:20] Speaker B: We go straight, no breaks. [01:06:23] Speaker C: Nice. [01:06:23] Speaker A: In fact, technically Friday we have the end of groups and then the playoffs start on Friday for us at least in the states. Because it's going to be like two best of. I think it's best of fives. Yeah, it's best of fives by the time the the bracket happens and the. [01:06:41] Speaker B: Semifinals, top four in bracket Is best of fives. [01:06:44] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. It's gonna be crazy. So that's gonna be fun. That's gonna be a wild schedule. Let's talk about it. Got a lot of predictions across the board here. Team Liquid versus Casey to kick things off and. Oh, my God, I can't believe it. I actually don't have Team Liquid winning. Badger doesn't have Team Liquid winning. Bickle also agrees with us. We have KC2.1, but Mazelle holds the line. I love it. Bazelle, give me some copium. What's your. What you smoking over there, bro? [01:07:12] Speaker C: They're just gonna have figured stuff out. That's all. That's all I hope for. I think having Spawn was such a big level up. I'm expecting Spawn to go with them as well. [01:07:23] Speaker A: Yeah, I believe that's been confirmed. That he's gonna be there. Yep. [01:07:26] Speaker C: The prep and stuff that he had was so good. And with the lane and meta and, like, the entire meta literally being flipped on its head right before, I would want to have nobody else there than impacting Cord AJ on my team. I think they're gonna do well. I'm really worried about Umpteen, but I think it's gonna be fine. [01:07:43] Speaker A: That was the concern for the team. He looked much better by the time finals came around. [01:07:48] Speaker C: But, bro, you have to tweet. I don't care. I still won as a professional player. I don't know if you're having a gray split. I don't know. [01:07:57] Speaker B: Unfortunately for Team Liquid, Umpty is the worst jungler at this tournament, and it's not close. [01:08:04] Speaker C: Agreed. [01:08:05] Speaker D: Yeah. [01:08:06] Speaker A: And he's up against Yike to kick things off, who's still coming off of the reigning champion. Like, crazy record that he's got right now. [01:08:13] Speaker C: Yo, yo, Little copium. Imagine this team with Yuji, though. [01:08:18] Speaker A: Wait, Team Liquid or kc? [01:08:21] Speaker C: Team Liquid, obviously. [01:08:22] Speaker A: Okay, okay. Yeah, dude. Yuji is for anybody who doesn't know. He's a tier two player that everybody expected to make LTA this year. He was told. Because I forget exactly what the thing was, but he was told that he didn't take up an import slot. But then that was misinformation. And so teams thought he didn't. He was getting offers. But then it turns out he did take up an import slot, and so he wasn't able to get picked up by. [01:08:45] Speaker C: New info has come out, by the way. There are screenshots of both the rule sets where they include players names on one list. These are all from official, like, riot documents on one list. Saying eligibility, he's on that list. Saying yes. On the other list, he's on it saying no. So like, literally they just didn't have their together. [01:09:03] Speaker A: Oh, my God. [01:09:04] Speaker C: There's literally screenshots on Twitter. [01:09:06] Speaker D: That's actually wild. [01:09:08] Speaker C: It is awful. Anyway, sorry. [01:09:11] Speaker A: I'll tell you, I. I have this. I. I'm fine leaking this because I was just cold DM'd. I know that KC was looking at him. Him even as their jungler before they got. Yike. So this is like deep in the off season stuff. But there's. It's funny that like you say for team Liquid because like, theoretically, I know Casey was scouting UG too. [01:09:29] Speaker C: He would be so much better than Umpty. That's all I'm saying. [01:09:32] Speaker A: Yep, agreed. He played for Maryville as their jungler for. For a while. He also played for Fly Quest. Right. For. For their challenger team or am I. [01:09:41] Speaker B: For their challenges team? [01:09:42] Speaker C: He was a champion. [01:09:43] Speaker A: There we go. Yep. All right. Well, anyway, that is Team Liquor versus KC first match. Then we have Hanwell Life versus Top Esports. We're starting off with a banger to kick things off. Reminded this is Monday at midnight for us in Pacific time. For eastern time. In America, it is 3am and for folks in Europe and Berlin, that would be around, I think like 9am for you sometime in that window. So shout out to the Europeans. You're going to have a much better time watching this thing. But the day one's got two great matches because HLE versus Top Esports. Expecting this to be the finals. And little split here we have HLE for Badger, Bickle and Mazel betraying his lpl. Don't worry. [01:10:29] Speaker C: Don't worry. There's a plan. [01:10:31] Speaker A: Okay. I actually put Top Esports because I was going into this prediction completely blind. I had no idea what expectations were. Seems like a Hanlo should be favored here, but I'll keep Top Esports just for variety. I don't really have a big. [01:10:46] Speaker B: This is the God of Thunder's world and we're all just living in it. [01:10:50] Speaker C: Truly. [01:10:52] Speaker A: All right. It's a grim world. When Mazel and Badger agree on an LCK versus lpl, that means we're Fox. Yeah. [01:11:01] Speaker C: Yeah, I think. Okay. There is a huge possibility. And honestly, honestly part like a little bit more than half of the reason why I'm pushing so hard for HLE is out of spite because anytime that a team is so hyped up, they're gonna be so dar. Blah, blah, blah, blah, they get shit on. So, you know Part of me is, is kind of spitefully doing it. I still do think Zayas is going to father every single top laner in this entire tournament. But can that win them games? That's the next question. [01:11:32] Speaker D: I mean, yeah, I. We said it before we started recording, but I said this, that Zeus has the potential to go on like a Marin in 2015 at Worlds Esque, run this tournament just based on who he's playing against. [01:11:50] Speaker A: I. I think that all that setting up expectations that high, I'm gonna bring up this argument again later. They're bound to crash and burn, guys. That's what I'm saying. [01:12:00] Speaker C: That's what I'm saying. [01:12:01] Speaker A: They're bound to too. But that is gonna be a fun series regardless. So make sure that you're watching day one. Those are gonna slap. Then we get into day two. This is gonna be Tuesday, I believe it's the same schedule every day. So whatever I said for day one, just factor that in for now. Tuesday it is. Cfo. We got our first looked at the LCP representatives versus kc. So Europe versus the lcp and we all have Casey taking this one. I think it's a mix of two things. Not. We don't have that much information on CFO as well as Casey just looking really damn good in their finals. [01:12:33] Speaker C: So I think that's more so why I have this because I just think they look really good. I still think CFO are gonna be able to, you know, take games here or there throughout the tournament. [01:12:43] Speaker A: But Yeah, I got KC2 0 Mizel, you got 2:1, Biggles got 2:1. Badges got 2 over KC. But then we got Team Liquid versus Top Esports. Oh, no. We got two O's across the board for Top East. Okay. Is there any Hopium? [01:13:02] Speaker C: Yeah, for sure. [01:13:03] Speaker A: All right. [01:13:04] Speaker D: I say chance. I mean, there's a chance. [01:13:08] Speaker A: Okay. [01:13:09] Speaker C: Well, first of all, Top Esports have also been one of the most floppy teams in all of international performance for lpl. [01:13:16] Speaker A: I like floppy. [01:13:18] Speaker C: They are a completely different team now. They literally almost replaced everybody. But the organization has had trouble. I still hold every single time. I do not think that LPL will ever be just 100%. They're gonna win every game. I think there are a lot of times where lplts will falter in terms of what decision they made for draft, what meta reads they made, things like that that could go very badly. So I always give LPL losing games because I think it's absolutely on the cards. [01:13:49] Speaker A: Just not this one. One. [01:13:51] Speaker C: Just not this one. [01:13:51] Speaker A: Okay, but then. [01:13:53] Speaker C: But you Asked, is there any possibility? Yeah, there's a possibility. I'm just not saying it's going to happen this time, but there's a possibility for sure. [01:13:59] Speaker A: Respected. Respected. [01:14:01] Speaker D: The problem is we still need to figure out who's. Who's. Which region owns first stand because, you know, Korea has owned Worlds for the most part. LPL has owned MSI for the most part. Like, we got to figure out like, is this Europe's tournament? Is this. Is Europe the one that's going to be in charge of. [01:14:21] Speaker A: Well, does it change? Because we know it's in Korea. It's happening in Korea. Is that. Is home field advanced? That's the problem. [01:14:27] Speaker D: I don't know. Cuz like you. You figure sleeping in your own bed, staying at your home just. I mean, business is usual like it's a normal game day. I don't think that's like. Is that an advantage? Is that a disadvantage? I don't know. [01:14:45] Speaker A: You never know. You never know. Well, either way, that's gonna be one to watch for sure because North American fans will be crossing their fingers with expectation Top esports are still going to win that one. But next up we have CFO versus hle and no surprise here either. We got two zero. So day two is looking a bit like a dud or so, right? Day two was CFO Casey and team Liquid. Top Esports. This is kicking things off for day three. Now CFO versus HLE is two O's across the board. Then we get KC versus Top esports. This is our first look at KC against, you know, one of the eastern teams in the LPL representatives. And we still all have top esports across the board, but there's a lot more two ones here as opposed to the team Liquid where It was all two O's. I'm on the 2:1 camp. Mazel's on the 2:1 camp badge on the 2.1camp. Bickle, you have top esports 2:0. You got no faith in the French revolution. [01:15:35] Speaker B: I think Jackie Love is going to introduce Kalist to international ad carries and it's not going to be pretty. [01:15:42] Speaker A: A good point because it's going to be Kalis versus Yawn to kick things off. But then, yeah, Jackie Love is going to be presumably a stark contrast, a bit of an increase. So. Okay, that'll be cool. Up next we have kicking off day four. That's going to be Thursday. Top or, sorry, Team Liquid versus cfo. Now this is the make or break because if you expect these teams to lose everybody else, as long as they Beat their opponent here. They will be the fourth seat going in save other crazy upsets that happen. So this is probably the most, if not just definitively the most important Team Liquid series. And we have faith in them. It's myself, Badger, and Mazel that think Team Liquid can take this. Bickle actually put CFO2 1, and I'm gonna have to revoke your. Your American. America's representation card for that one. Why do you think CFO take it? Why do you think Team Liquid lose it? [01:16:44] Speaker B: I don't know of a time I've been less on the Team Liquid hype train going on doing, you know, going into an international event, I think a combination of umpty has not looked good whatsoever. Even with Spawn returning, he's been the weak link and been the reason they are losing games. Combine that with the fact that jungle is absolutely the strongest point of CFO's game with Junjia, and that really is going to be dangerous. And also, Doggo is a strong enough point. I don't think he's going to get run over by Yawn. And again, I've mentioned this before, but with lane swaps dying, that was such a focal point for team Liquid, I think it's going to throw him off. And along with that, having played so many fewer games in Fearless, I think is also gonna hurt them. I think format is a problem. [01:17:37] Speaker A: Yeah, that that's the kicker is that the CFO roster has gotten way more fearless experience. I still, I think, just favors Spawn's ability to adapt and coach this team and lead this team to a victory regardless. So that's why I have them taking this. But I also put two one. I think team lick is gonna drop a game here regardless, and this can be a very stressful series. So everyone check your heart rate during this one up next. So here's the thing. [01:18:06] Speaker B: Either I'm right or Team Liquid wins in the Americas win. So I'm happy. I can't. [01:18:10] Speaker A: You know what? Yeah, you're hedging your bets. I like that emotional hedge. Casey versus HLE is up next. And despite the fact that, you know, we've been hyping up Casey as like the dark horses, no one's predicting them to either take down top esports earlier or HLE here. I got 2:1. Badgers got 2:1. Mazel's got 2:1. Bickles got 2:0. So, yeah, I think that just kind of echoes basically the expectations that we've set to begin with. It's top esports and HLE is the. The Favorites. Maybe KC can do some damage, maybe they can find an upset, but this one arguably less likely than top Esports. With everything we've heard from Mazel about how volatile top Esports can play, and if it's not their day, they can just drop games. [01:18:57] Speaker B: So Zay is going to remind everybody why he stole Khana's job. [01:19:02] Speaker C: Oh, but. But I will say on a caveat that I think that of every LPL team, I don't think that's specifically top Esports because I think just any LPL team can lose. They did not go to a game five, so they did ruthlessly go three one in a lot of their games. It was not even close in a lot of those games. So I would say, like, that's why they're the best macro team team from lpl, because they will just strangle you out. But there is possibility anytime with an LPL team. [01:19:29] Speaker A: Good to know. Well, we got an LPL team next. This is the last time we'll see Top Esports in the round robin stage with CFO as their opponent. And oh, yeah, we all got two O's across the board for top Esports despite the fact that there are, you know, going to be 7 LPL, 6 LPL representatives because for top Esports. [01:19:48] Speaker C: But. [01:19:48] Speaker A: But a lot of LPL players in this match. That's gonna be fun to watch a little bit. [01:19:53] Speaker C: I think Junja has traditionally had LPL Jungle warriors number, but I think doggo will unfortunately still struggle like he did against Jacky Liv. [01:20:03] Speaker A: Well, this is their chance to step up and try and prove us all wrong. But for now, top Esports is the favored team. Liquid vs. HLE ends the group stage before we seed into knockout stage. And it's also gonna be an important one. Everyone's got Hle, right? Like, that's the expectation they should dominate. And for that reason, exactly, Team like is Gonna take it, baby. 20 we got. Every time we face Korean teams, man, we push them. We do pretty well. [01:20:33] Speaker C: Team Liquid almost every time. [01:20:35] Speaker D: Every time. [01:20:36] Speaker C: Every time. [01:20:40] Speaker A: I think T looker can do it and I really want them to. And if they don't, I'll be sad. So there we go. That's all my reasons. Team Liquid. Okay, so you have two one, though. So you. You do think that they're good for a game? [01:20:55] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think there's a possibility of taking at least a game. I think it could be a really good draft either getting. I still think it's something I've always thought for team Liquid if they Get a good draft. It's pretty much unplayable, right? If you give Apa something he's really confident and comfortable on, he will dominate. Like, you can see a lot of strength from the draft from this team. [01:21:13] Speaker A: So, yeah, I like it. I think that it could happen. I'm hoping that it does. [01:21:18] Speaker C: Also. What's the statement or, like, what's the phrase for first stand? Is there. Is there one? [01:21:23] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. Like the tagline. Yeah, there's always a tagline. [01:21:28] Speaker D: No clue. [01:21:29] Speaker A: Stand up first. [01:21:30] Speaker D: Stand first. [01:21:32] Speaker C: And standing. [01:21:34] Speaker B: Standing. [01:21:34] Speaker A: Stand. [01:21:35] Speaker D: I'm still standing. [01:21:36] Speaker C: I'm still standing first. [01:21:38] Speaker A: I'm still. They should just get the Billy Joel dude. [01:21:43] Speaker D: They should. [01:21:43] Speaker A: Wait a minute. [01:21:45] Speaker B: I found it. Yours for the taking. [01:21:49] Speaker C: Oh, that's better. Better than the random one or whatever that was. That one. Msi. [01:21:55] Speaker A: Just do it. [01:21:56] Speaker C: Be the unknown or whatever. [01:21:58] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, yeah, that was. That was a wacky be. [01:22:00] Speaker C: What? What do you. What? [01:22:04] Speaker A: I don't know. Be unknown. Just like. Well, we don't know this tagline, but. Okay, I still petition that Billy Joel I'm still standing should be, like, the theme of. Of the event. In fact, I might have to make an edit or something, but that's gonna do it, everybody. That's our expectations. That is the LEC finals review along with the first stand preview. I'm gonna keep saying first stand because as soon as Badger said first strike in the intro, I started freaking out. Every time I said, I was like, wait, did I say it right? Yeah, I did. [01:22:32] Speaker C: Are we going to do the next thing? [01:22:35] Speaker A: Oh, yes, yes, we. We do have one fun thing. The last predictions that we'll have. It's kind of echoed by our predictions as well. But just to solidify it, we're going to do who gets last, who wins predictions. Literally. Just. We should have another episode. But just in case we don't have the ability to do it, we're going to try our best to get another episode before the bracket stage. We at least want to give our thoughts just on, like, who the winner is going to be. So I have last place, CTBC Flying Oyster, and first place is Top Esports. That's right, baby. I'm an LPL believer this time around. Mazel has completely been my drug dealer this entire time. Got me high on the supply, and I think that Top Esports can take it all the way again. A lot of that was just kind of gut feeling, but I want to. [01:23:20] Speaker C: Add because I also have Top Esports as first place, CTBC as last place place. But this is where I think this conversation is important. That's why I really wanted to do this section, because group stage is completely different from winning the tournament. Right. So, like, yeah, even if you're seeing top esports lose to hle, which I have in my prediction, I think losing to a team like that for an LPL in general, but especially for top esports will be very important because they'll learn a lot. And I think taking a loss early and then coming back to win the whole thing is the trajectory. I see top esports going. [01:23:52] Speaker A: Okay. I actually like that reasoning. It does make sense. So much more eloquent than myself. But we do have slight differences here for Badger and Bicker. Bickle, Badger, talk to me about your predictions for last place and first place. [01:24:08] Speaker D: I don't think anybody is going to be surprised when I say this, but I have the Flying Oysters coming in last place. I have Hanwell winning the the. [01:24:21] Speaker C: The. [01:24:21] Speaker D: The. The everything Winning the everything. [01:24:24] Speaker C: Winning the everything he says. [01:24:28] Speaker A: Are you telling me that Hanma Life esports will still be standing? [01:24:33] Speaker D: That I, I, I believe at the end, Han will. Life will be singing. I'm still standing. [01:24:41] Speaker A: Okay, well, there we have it. Only slightly different than Bickle's prediction. Bickle, run us through yours. [01:24:47] Speaker B: Yep. So as I mentioned, I have zero faith in team Liquid, so I have them coming in last. And I'm in the same place as Badger with Hanwell Life taking this. [01:25:00] Speaker A: Okay, so we have split between top esports, Hanma life, and only one odd man out with team Liquid coming in last place. But that's expectations. Obviously, the teams will be the ones to decide that. You can watch along all the action reminder. It kicks off group stage Monday at midnight. For those on the west coast or if you're on the east coast in the United States or South America or anywhere, it's gonna be around 3am and then over in Europe, sometimes between like 8am 10am depending on which time zones you're in there. So make sure you mark your calendars because we'll see who's right and who's wrong with their predictions going forward. A reminder that we'll try and get an episode out for next week right before the the playoff starts. But it's a very grueling schedule. Five days of best of three, group stage straight into a single elimination, best of five, bracket, semifinals and finals happening across two days. That's going to be a lot, but we'll be along the ride. And thank you for joining us along that ride. If you can, leave us a review. Mazel again. I'm bad with math. Bad with math. And by this point. [01:26:11] Speaker C: And I was really bad at this last time. [01:26:14] Speaker A: At this point, you should be prepared because you know, I'm going to throw it to you. But what kind of review should they leave for us? [01:26:19] Speaker C: You know, I'm just gonna keep it simple. There's five stars total. I would love for you to fill up all five of those stars when you're on that sheet, please. [01:26:27] Speaker A: That's a great way to do it. Also, you could say something along the lines of there's five regions left. How many will exist next year? Hopefully still five, but for now we got five. Oh. [01:26:39] Speaker C: Oh, I don't know. With the way that LTA went, we might go back to six. I don't. [01:26:46] Speaker A: Could you imagine a world? Well, either way, leave us five star review. It really helps us get noticed. Wherever you are listening along and a reminder, you can join the community podcast or, sorry, the community Discord through the link in the description where you're listening to this podcast. We'd love to hear your thoughts on your predictions for everything going on in First Stand, but that's gonna do it for another episode of the League Rundown. Thank you so much everybody for tuning in and a reminder that we love you and we'll see you next time. [01:27:14] Speaker C: Bye bye. Bye, everyone. Go top esports. [01:27:18] Speaker A: Oh, yes, Daddy.