League Rundown - Episode 554: Cowards beware, Fearless continued

[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. 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. They're Nexus. Hello and welcome to episode 554 of the League Rundown. This is your 2025 LTA and LEC split two format previews along with the LEC week one preview. This episode is lovingly entitled Cowards. Beware fearless continued. I'm your host, Genghis, and I'm joined by three esteemed co hosts. Up first, fresh out of the can, we got badger. [00:01:32] Speaker B: You know, listen. Okay, Patreon plug. Listen to the Patreon episode. There we go. I was about to say first strikes over. Now we're getting back into the regular season and I'm like, God damn it. It's still first stand. [00:01:43] Speaker A: It's not first strike. [00:01:44] Speaker B: It's first strike. [00:01:45] Speaker A: You've led me a strike last time. [00:01:47] Speaker B: It's. We're free of the first strike, first stand. Mix up shackles. We can move on to msi, which is not the mid season tournament anymore. [00:01:59] Speaker A: True, true. We also have jod does here, the one that noticed it is not first strike and is actually first stand and put us back in. Course we got Bickle. [00:02:10] Speaker C: Yeah, with that little comment, I showed up more for first stand than team Liquid did. [00:02:15] Speaker B: Oh, my God. [00:02:17] Speaker A: Ooh. Hey. They beat EU and that, you know, that's all we needed from them. [00:02:20] Speaker C: Finished bottom of the barrel. [00:02:22] Speaker A: Doesn't matter. That does matter, but they still beat you, so, you know, I'll take what I can get. We also have joining us. [00:02:30] Speaker B: Are we? [00:02:31] Speaker A: I don't know if you're also just gonna dunk on team Liquor. Are we just dunking on Team Liquid? We c on the cast. [00:02:36] Speaker D: No, listen to the Patreon content for me, Duncan. Instead I'll dunk on. On what Kangas was dunking on before as well, which is with first stand. Now why is it still msi? Msy, that's why. [00:02:52] Speaker A: Yeah, so when MSI first came out, it made sense. There were two splits, but only one international event. So just put another international event in the middle of the year. Call it the mid season invitational. Well, now we have three splits. It's not in the middle of the competitive year anymore. So what's up with that? You know, doesn't make sense. It's no longer MSI. It's now the 2/2si, you know, working title. We'll come over either way. We got some global news to get into before we cover all of the format changes and preview LEC Week 1. Actually, kind of a lot of news. This is off season and we're also. We've been banking a couple of LEC roster change for this episode just to kind of COVID all that in one go. But first off, just confirming the LTA split 2 format has updated. That is now official. There was a lot of teasing for it. I wasn't able to say anything officially, but now you can see the whole Mark Z explanation of what the format is. Or you can just listen to this episode because we'll cover it all here. And also Le Spring Split confirmed. With the road trips now announced, which was something that they kind of covered before. There's gonna be a couple of road shows that aren't from the Berlin studios. We'll have all that information here too. But for RO News Badger, there were a lot of things going on in the lec, and now it's time to talk about all of them. Up first is actually a team bit of news here. You want to talk about it? [00:04:17] Speaker B: Yeah. So former. Well, I guess. Did they play in challenge in challengers? I think in EU challengers, I think they did. Na'vi is coming over and supposedly in negotiations to buy Rogue's spot. So we got plus Rogue, minus Rogue, plus Rogue, minus Rogue, plus Rogue, minus Rogue. Again, technically, in the timeline, I'm trying to think how many times. I'm trying to think how many times Rogue has either sold their spot and rebranded or. And then went back to their original brand in this LEC run. [00:04:54] Speaker A: But it's been a lot. It's been a lot. [00:04:56] Speaker B: Quote, unquote, new blood coming in. Maybe they'll finally get rid of that fraud Larson and not have to worry and I don't have to worry about watching. Watching him play for the rest of, you know, the year when this happens. I don't think. Did they say anything about if it's gonna happen before? I mean, it's two days away from LEC starting for Spring, so I would imagine I would have. [00:05:19] Speaker A: So. So the news broke as of this recording. I'm pretty sure it was yesterday. Like, this is pretty fresh news. So I don't imagine it's gonna be for Split two, but it could happen. In the middle. I mean, that has happened before. Remember, CLG got bought by nrg. The split, or they weren't even bought, it was like a. They were just gifted it. Right. But like, the change happened. Ownership changed. But then the next split is when the rebrand happened. So it could be something like that. You never know where, like, okay, they sell the spot. They're still rogue for this split, but now new management comes in, starts working on the rebrand. And then I think this also happened with Clutch. When they bought. Or, sorry, when Dignitas bought Clutch. They, like, had them for a. There's. There's a bit of overlap there. So there's been precedent in the past for how that looks, but I don't think that we're gonna see Navi in spring split. I think we would see them in summer if this does go through. [00:06:13] Speaker C: Out of curiosity, I looked this up. The last time we saw Novice Vincere in the League of Legends scene, they were playing in the open qualifiers for the EU challenger scene back in 2016. They did not do well before that. The last time we saw them was in champions 20. Was in champion summer 20 2012. [00:06:37] Speaker B: That's right. They played in Champions. I forgot about that. [00:06:41] Speaker D: I forgot about Champions. [00:06:44] Speaker B: Citizen Wayne was on their team, wasn't he? [00:06:47] Speaker C: How the do you know that? Yeah. [00:06:49] Speaker A: What the hell, dude? [00:06:53] Speaker C: That's a wild. [00:06:54] Speaker A: I don't even know who that is. That's insane that you just have information like that. [00:06:58] Speaker B: I'm so glad. I'm so glad everyone got see my autism happen in, like, real time on the podcast. Thank you, everybody, for listening. [00:07:06] Speaker C: Hell yeah. [00:07:08] Speaker A: Hey, I love that for you. [00:07:10] Speaker C: Impressive. [00:07:11] Speaker A: Yeah. Who's the rest of the roster? Badger. Can you name anybody else? [00:07:15] Speaker D: I can name one fully on that roster. I caught next. [00:07:19] Speaker B: It's. [00:07:19] Speaker C: It was caught next. [00:07:20] Speaker B: It was Cotton X. [00:07:21] Speaker A: What is happening, guys? This was 13 years ago. [00:07:26] Speaker B: Yeah. Champions 2012. Summer was fantastic. What are you talking about? [00:07:30] Speaker D: Co wasn't there was in there. [00:07:32] Speaker C: It was really damn good. [00:07:33] Speaker A: All right, well, that was well before my time. I missed out. [00:07:36] Speaker D: They had two CLG rosters in there. [00:07:38] Speaker B: Come on. Yeah, you. And it's said CLG prime and clgu. Like, come on. [00:07:43] Speaker A: All right, you know what? You know who wants to go back at some point and on stream, rewatch all those games with me, educate me on what I missed out on. [00:07:50] Speaker B: I'm down. Honestly, that Patreon content. We watch an old LA game. Champion. [00:07:57] Speaker A: That would be pretty fun, honestly. [00:07:58] Speaker B: Let's go back to the glory days. [00:08:00] Speaker D: Yeah. Where CU was Actually good. And they actually almost won that league. [00:08:04] Speaker A: Okay. So there's another thing that I wanted to do at some point because I recently discovered that Hawk, another member who hasn't been on for a while but will occasionally be on the podcast here, he had never seen Renegades versus no Dignitas Dig. Yeah, he never saw that game, so he doesn't know that game. And I was like, dude, I need to watch that game with you. Not. Not the highlights, not even just the moment at the Herald or at the Turret. We need to watch the whole game. It's all bad. Okay, well that's a lot of time on news. Shout out to Navi though, if they do take the spot because you know they're super historied org as you're all talking about 2012. Back in league of Legends, I know them mostly through like counter strike. I know they had a really popular counter Strike team, but still do. It's a cool org to have come in. And then presumably SK could take solo possession of worst team in the lac. So that, you know, good for them. Depending on what Navi does with the roster, of course. But a couple other player swap ups happen here. Rmc. There's a lot of it. How confident are you in just kind of covering the hot potato that has been Isma in the off season? [00:09:16] Speaker B: Isma really got passed around this. In this, let's be honest for a second. [00:09:21] Speaker D: I mean, you're talking about SK taking sole possession of bottom place. Isma might have dodged a bullet because Isma's been traded all around. I'm gonna be honest, like I was very confused about what happened because I was told like, okay, SK is trading Isma to KC Blue. But I thought Yukino got signed by KC Blue like a week and a half ago. Turns out he got traded to KC Blue because Isma is not going to be on KC Blue. After being traded to KC Blue, he's now been picked up by another team. Giant X is picking up because Closer has stepped down for undisclosed personal reasons. Hopefully everything's fine for him. So now Isma, who was supposed to go to KC Blue from from sk is now on Gynex. [00:09:59] Speaker A: And like you said, Yukino was picked up. He's an NA Jungler who's been kind of hyped up along with players like Yuji as potentially the next generation of jungle talent. Actually got scouted by a couple EU teams and was picked up by them and Bukata. I think I'm saying that right, Bukata. The KC Blue Junglers can be Playing for SK now. So SK got a new jungler. We'll see how things work out for them. Isma's over on Giant X. I think that is a strict downgrade for Giant X, so that's tough for them. But the roster news doesn't stop there either because Bickle sk, they. They just keep the hits coming. You know, they. They wanted more. [00:10:38] Speaker C: Oh. Oh, yeah. So we already talked about the fact that SK is going to have some changes, but. So tell me Kangas, who was the best player on SK this past split? [00:10:53] Speaker A: Ooh, that's not even close. It was Rahel like that. [00:10:57] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:10:57] Speaker A: You know, there was no question about it. [00:10:59] Speaker C: The only good spot on that team. The only player doing something of notice. So what is the logical step if you have one player who is playing so much better than the rest of your team? [00:11:11] Speaker A: Well, you're already gonna be Jungler. [00:11:13] Speaker C: Try and make changes around him to boost him up and let him flourish. B, keep the same roster, see if they can build some synergy. Or C, bench him. [00:11:24] Speaker A: Well, considering that they were the tied for last place, didn't make playoffs and they only had one good looking player, I would go with option A. I would choose to. You're already a new jungler. Just get some other pieces to move around and see if maybe like a better support to combo with them. [00:11:42] Speaker C: Well, congratulations, Kangas. You officially know more than the general manager of sk because they went with the clueless option. That is C. They have benched their only good player. Rahel will not be playing due to some communication issues and instead they have brought in Kaidui or Kdui or however you want to pronounce it from the EU master scene. [00:12:11] Speaker D: But hold on. Maybe there's a plan here because we see this in meat sports all the time, as Kang likes to call it. Maybe SK is playing the long con, right? It's a rebuilding split. They're tanking the season. So they get first draft pick Nick split. [00:12:25] Speaker C: I like it. [00:12:26] Speaker A: I like it. Except there are no drafts and that doesn't apply to our sport. But what I thought we said the. [00:12:31] Speaker D: Theme for today was fearless drop. This looks pretty fearless to me. [00:12:35] Speaker C: You know, certainly a fearless decision. SK misunderstood it. They thought you had to change a player every game. You just have to change the champions every game. [00:12:44] Speaker A: Oh, you're right. [00:12:45] Speaker D: Once you played a player you can no longer play. [00:12:48] Speaker A: That would be wild, by the way. But that. That actually was something that came up in discussions of like he. We saw how good things looked for the oysters at first Stand having two different top laners. What if teams start to do this? I don't think that this is that type of move where they're going to have two different AD carries to play different champ pools. But theoretically, from my understanding, Rahel is just benched. He is still receiving salary, he is still eligible to play. They just are using. Yeah, I don't know exactly to say his name. I think it's Kadui. Kadui or Kadwi. But Anyway, he's a 24 year old German EME player who won LFL Summer 2024 with JNX who is their top laner. So there's already a bit of synergy between those too. Shout out to Skewmond, Rikker and Paris who are also on that BDS academy. [00:13:32] Speaker C: So SK's got three fifths of that. They have Jan X Rika and Kadui on their team. [00:13:38] Speaker A: Yeah. Oh right. I wasn't thinking about, yeah, Rika's also on this roster. So yes, basically I wouldn't be surprised if this was like, oh, this is the only guy that didn't get promoted from that roster that won summer. [00:13:48] Speaker C: You know Kangas, I bet those three are the reason they won. They won the lfl. Not Skewmond in Paris who went on to top tier lec teams could not. [00:13:59] Speaker A: Imagine it being Skewmont. There's no way it was Skewmond. Right? [00:14:02] Speaker C: Like you know, the guy who stepped into G2 who they willingly made a replacement for after winning back to back to back to back titles. No way. Couldn't. [00:14:11] Speaker A: Hey, they didn't win that last title. Am I right? [00:14:13] Speaker D: Hey, Skuma didn't win, you know, obviously drives GT down, right? That's how that works. [00:14:18] Speaker A: He only made finals and beat them in the upper bracket. But you know, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. Yeah, we'll see how things work out for sk. But that's the big kind of roster shake up. Outside of that, I mean we already covered Niski coming in for Hilla, saying for support for Vitality. Those are the big changes in the lec. We haven't had anything happen in the LTA yet. There are a couple of rumors floating around. I haven't heard any that are like super substantiated but a lot of people are talking about it. Team Liquid could be looking at new junglers for Umpty. It would be a bold time to do it. But. But from my understanding, I don't think Impact and Core take up an import slot. So theoretically they could just sign another Jungler still have Umpty around, but try somebody else out and then just go with whoever they think is going to give them the best shot for Worlds. But I know Team Liquid is also a team that wants to make it to MSI and ewc, which will cover more of, like, kind of format. Those are kind of tied together for North America, so, yeah, yeah, they got to perform now. [00:15:18] Speaker D: I'm sorry. I. I just got to squeeze this one in because you said rumor, and that just triggered me because LTA south, that's a Rover moving down. That's a roster change that's happening down there. [00:15:28] Speaker A: Oh, okay. Okay. You know, I love it. Hey, you know what? Shame on me. [00:15:34] Speaker B: Am I right? [00:15:35] Speaker C: And if we're talking about global news, how can we not talk about the chaos that is T1? [00:15:42] Speaker D: Oh, the trucks. [00:15:44] Speaker C: The trucks are back, baby. [00:15:46] Speaker A: I didn't include a part for that to cover in this episode, but it's. This episode's mostly just kind of talking about format and the predictions, so there's gonna be a lot of meat. Let's. Let's cover it. Who wants to go? Do you just want to give us the spark Knights? Basically. [00:15:58] Speaker B: TLDR of the situation, Smash was out playing Gumayushi in the LCK cup leading into first strike, and T1 management was. [00:16:09] Speaker A: Basically like, it's first standing. So who said? [00:16:14] Speaker B: As I was saying, T1 management decided to put out a statement and say, yeah, Smash was looking really good and was the better player, but we're gonna stick with Gumayushi for the brand, basically. And everyone's just like, I'm sorry for the brand. Do you know what those four stars above your logo is? It's winning. Winning is your brand. Smash was winning. Why are we benching Smash? [00:16:40] Speaker C: Joe March himself stepped in and basically said, we're gonna play Gumayushi. It doesn't matter that Smash has been playing better in scrims behind the scenes and outplaying Gumayushi. And all things considered, we're gonna pick. We're gonna be playing Gumayushi. Doesn't matter. You know, don't listen to your coaches or people that you hire to make those decisions. You're the person in charge of T1. You can absolutely make that decision. And you sure as hell didn't add any more flames to the fire that it' zayu situation that happened over the season, because, dear God, that's on fire too. [00:17:12] Speaker A: Yeah. So it's a really bad look for a owner CEO to be coming in and making a roster Move like this against the wishes of the coaching staff and presumably the rest of the roster. My read of the situation though, because T1 has transcended esports in a way that we don't. We can't even like have a comparable example in the the north, like North America Spher I think the closest you could even think about would be like, you know, like Bjergsen or doublelift being recognized and like having successful streaming careers. But these guys are literally like on tv, they're national icons. They're like K pop star levels of fame. So from a business standpoint, if you have sponsors that sign up for your team, expecting a certain roster and a player like Gumayushi to be a face of the team and of the brand, and then coaching staff makes a change to that player, I can understand brands and sponsors being upset, but then that, that doesn't excuse the decision. It's just like giving context as to why I think a decision like that would be made. I don't think it's because of community backlash. I think that's a scapegoat and instead it's a business decision of like, oh, we have like people like sponsorship, like the money is getting affected if we don't play Gumayushi. That, that's my reason. [00:18:37] Speaker C: If it's not the fact that they've had this exact situation before and it's what gave them Gumiyushi. Gumayushi wasn't the starter when he was with T1. Teddy was. He took Teddy's job. It's what happened with Zeus. [00:18:49] Speaker D: He. [00:18:50] Speaker C: Yeah, he took that job. Top. This is a situation that T1 has experienced before, has had great success from. But instead they're saying, nah, screw the rookie. [00:19:00] Speaker A: I don't think it's comparable because Teddy was not at the level of fame and stardom that Guma is currently. Yeah. [00:19:08] Speaker D: And I think that's where. When Kangas is talking about business decisions, I think that's what exactly is motivating this. The fact that Guma's face sells. Teddy's didn't, unfortunately. And that's why this happened. Because if we're talking about, okay, if it's pressure from the fans, well, guess what? When they benched Gumayushi, they got sent trucks. When they unbench Kumayushi, they get sent trucks. So I think from a fan like fan pressure perspective, T1's going to get it. No matter what they do, any change they make to their roster, they're probably going to get hate for it. So if that's going to be the case, then there's only two things to look at. One is winning and the other is your. Your business. Right. And in this case, Joel Marsh, he made a choice for the business out of it. [00:19:42] Speaker A: Yep. I don't know if you can let us know in the community Discord, if you agree or disagree with my take. In my opinion though, it is this seems like a business call of sponsors were upset. Like I could imagine. If you're an energy drink sponsor and you give $100,000 to a team and then suddenly that team, one of their players that's like basically a K pop idol level of fame is benched for a guy that nobody knows and doesn't have a following. They're like, well, that's. That's not a hundred thousand dollar deal anymore. Like, we got to renegotiate that. And then Joe Mars like, oh, all right. Put back in the face. Right. You know, like that. That screams that type of situation. I don't know. I'm not privy to the information, but. [00:20:23] Speaker D: Yeah, but for the other teams. Hey, guys, you know, There's a good ADC out there. T1 trained, T1 approved, you know, maybe offers to be made to what organ? [00:20:33] Speaker B: What. What North American organization can ruin him in summer? That's the real question. [00:20:39] Speaker A: Lions. [00:20:41] Speaker C: Oh, God, I think they're. [00:20:43] Speaker B: No, that's even worse. [00:20:48] Speaker C: Are you ready for the one, the only Dignitas Smash? [00:20:55] Speaker D: Oh, I would actually be kind of down for that. [00:20:58] Speaker B: If Dana happens, I will watch that for three weeks and probably stop watching League of Legends. [00:21:04] Speaker A: Oh, wait, don't watch. [00:21:07] Speaker C: They have the import slot. I'm just saying. [00:21:09] Speaker B: Oh, oh, they do. [00:21:11] Speaker A: They only have K in the mid lane. Yeah, they don't have an import. [00:21:13] Speaker C: Otherwise he'd be the perfect AD carry for Isles. [00:21:16] Speaker B: No, no. [00:21:17] Speaker D: Is he going to shaft Tomo again though, like that? [00:21:21] Speaker A: Be honestly, I think if. If we're talking real chance, it would be Shopify Rebellion. They're a team that theoretically has a budget. And also bvoy has not been like the guy and also have best play for that team. I don't think he's Smash level. Yeah. Huh. [00:21:42] Speaker D: Okay, true. But I don't think because Revan and B boy have a connection like they've been on teams together before, so I don't think Revan will. Will draw. Will leave people to try like this. This team's actually built around B boy, so. [00:21:52] Speaker A: Okay, fair. Well, then it's really working. Hello, Smash. [00:21:56] Speaker C: The three teams that you think of looking to make that Big sort of impact. Just can't. Because Fly Quest and Team Liquid would both take their current ad carry over SMASH A. Because they're very confident in them and also residents and branding. And Cloud 9 already has two imports, so they can't. [00:22:14] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean. And they just got Loki and. Yeah, exactly. Changing. [00:22:19] Speaker D: Guys, hear me out. Team Liquid's got the budget. There's a player they could replace which has an import slot. [00:22:25] Speaker A: Oomti put Smash in the jungle. You're right. [00:22:28] Speaker D: Just make it play Kinship. [00:22:30] Speaker B: I hate it here. I hate it here so much. Way. [00:22:33] Speaker A: All right, well, let's move on. [00:22:37] Speaker C: This is what we were missing. This is why SK benched their. Benched Rahel. They're getting Smash. [00:22:44] Speaker A: Oh, wait a minute. Yeah, we were talking LTA North. What if it's Lec that picks him up? Noah, your days are also numbered. Damn. Why? All right, well, I just. That's going to do it for global news. We don't have Mr. Mizelle PL on the cast to talk about what's going on in the lpl. I know that their season has already started, but hopefully next week on the episode, he can catch us up on what's going on over there. But for now, we're going to be moving on to talking about the format updates. Before that, though, if there's any other news pieces that we missed or anything that you want to give your thoughts on, make sure to join the community Discord. You can find a link in the description wherever you are listening. And also, if you want to help support the podcast, you can join our Patreon or check out out our merch shop league-rundown-shop.fourth wall.com I really do. I had the idea, I think it was last week or maybe a week before, of Badger being the. What was it? The LEC hate train. And you're the conductor and like, putting that on a mug or something. Yeah. So maybe Notorious. [00:23:51] Speaker B: Notorious LEC Hater myself would love. Would love to be the conductor of that trail. [00:23:57] Speaker A: Yep. Especially if Smash goes to lec. That would be hilarious. [00:24:01] Speaker B: So I would hate it here so much. [00:24:05] Speaker A: All right, well, we're going to start off with the LTA north format breakdown. Give you all the information that you need to know. Because first off, this one's a little more confusing, and second of all, lec, it just makes more sense because we can segue that into our predictions. So starting off with North America. And after this, rmc, if you can give us the LTA south format update. From my understanding, they're Going to be identical. But if I'm incorrect, you can update us on. Okay, cool. Well then everything that applies for the LTA north format, just also apply that to the south format as well. The biggest change is that we will not have inter regional competition between both conferences because we each get to send a team to msi. But there will be EWC implications at some point here that we'll cover. Regular season kicks off not this coming weekend, but the weekend after that is April 4th and, or sorry, April 5th and 6th and surprise, surprise, surprise, we're actually gonna have a couple of Mondays as well. I don't think the first weekend we will, but by the time we get into kind of like mid split 2, we will have a few super weeks baked into the schedule. So keep your eyes on that. And it's gonna be doing the LEC format where instead of a Friday, Saturday, Sunday, it's a Saturday, Sunday, Monday. So we get Monday night league again. I'm actually kind of excited for that. But first off, it's the regular season begins with the air quote positioning phase. That's what it's being called. It is three weeks, single round robin, best of ones. We are fearless, but we're starting off with best of ones for three weeks. But the purpose of this is to seed teams in to the next phase which will be best of threes. And the best reasoning that I've been given for this is that because not every team played each other in the first split and let's be honest, first what was a bit of a Mickey Mouse split, it wasn't that serious and you know, two of the teams only got to play two series and then they were out. We didn't have enough confidence to seed teams based on the first split and we wanted to get into the group phase later. So they said, all right, best of ones for three weeks, everyone gets to play each other once and then we'll seed based on that. That's a more fair way to do it. Then we go into the group phase. This is also going to be three weeks and there'll be two different groups. Group A will have the first seeded team, team, the fourth and fifth seated team, and then the eighth seated team. And the group B will have the two, three and six and seven. I believe that's correct. From what I remember from the video, that's what it was. But the CD doesn't matter as much. It's just two different groups. Unless anybody has an update for that. Am I right on that or is that incorrect? Yeah, right. Yeah. [00:26:39] Speaker D: They did Snake draft, basically. [00:26:40] Speaker C: So perfect. [00:26:41] Speaker A: Yep. Snake drop. Right. So that's another reason why we're doing the seating in the best of ones is so that way we can make our groups relatively balanced. Right. But you might notice we're kind of a top three region. So you really want to be that first seed because then you get the fourth seed in your group and you don't have to worry about second or third. So that is actually a pretty big incentive to take first seed from the best of ones. But that's gonna be, like I said, three weeks. And that's also a single round robin within each group. And this one is best of three, fearless. Now week seven is gonna be called cross group play where the top two teams from each group will fight off against each other. So seed one from group A versus two from group B. And then seed one from group B versus seed two from group A will fight for playoff seeding. And then bottom two teams fight for elimination against each other again, cross group play. So the bottom teams will get knocked out and then six teams will go into playoffs. Those were also all be best of three, fearless. And then playoffs are going to be double elimination and the top six teams will qualify with the top four into the upper bracket and the bottom two into the lower bracket. Winner of playoffs qualifies for msi, but both finalists will qualify for ewc, which is happening the weekend after MSI concludes. Lot of information right there. Like I said, this seems like basically the LEC format, but with the convoluted dial put up to like a 9 or a 10. There's just a lot of things happening here. What you need to mostly take away from this is regular season is a mix of the first half being best of ones just to seed the team into group stage, which is the second half, best of three, fearless. And then there'll be a little cross group play to determine playoff seating. And then we have playoffs which are the exact same as lec. So hopefully I did a good job of explaining that and it downloaded into your brain well enough. But any questions from the class now? Love it. Sweet. I knew I did a great job there. [00:28:47] Speaker B: So LTA south has. There's no cross cross like north versus south games. Right? They're just. [00:28:54] Speaker C: No, there's no cross conference games. [00:28:56] Speaker D: The only cross conference thing that will be happening is trash talk. That's it. [00:28:59] Speaker A: Yes. Yeah. The next cross conference gameplay will happen for Worlds Qualifications teams in summer, but for split two, there is nothing. But on that note, rmc, what is the only difference Between LTA north and LTA south for format. Because there is one. There's one difference. [00:29:20] Speaker D: I actually don't know what the difference is. Is it not just mirrored? [00:29:23] Speaker A: Only the winner will get msi and ewc. But across the board LTA combined will have three seeds for ewc. Two from the north, one from the South. But that's it. That's the only change. So otherwise keep all that information. If you want to follow the south teams, check it out. Rmc. Where can they follow along the the games? What's the the unofficial stream again? [00:29:49] Speaker D: The unofficial stream is Twitch tv. LTA South. [00:29:53] Speaker A: There we go. [00:29:55] Speaker D: There. We will be starting up next weekend as well. Say it's basically the same start dates, the format's the same. So yeah, when LTA north starts, LTA south will start as well. [00:30:04] Speaker A: Perfect. Cool. Cool. And we'll give a full LTA north primer next week on the episode with all of our predictions and what to expect from all the teams. And who knows, maybe we will have an update on a team Liquid roster for that. But that's LTA North. Bickle, what's going on in the lec? What's that format looking like? [00:30:22] Speaker C: Sure thing. So the LEC actually had their format set up before the season even began. They don't need to make any chances changes because coming in they had already addressed the best of three situation and had it set up for the second season. So they can just cleanly reinsert fearless draft like nothing ever changed. So for their regular season they will be doing a single round raw in best of three. Pretty standard. However, what they are doing that's interesting is the LEC is going to be hitting the road for two different weekends. [00:30:53] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:30:54] Speaker C: And instead of their normal host, normal home of Berlin for two different weeks, they're heading elsewhere. They will be heading to the Madrid arena when they are hosted by movie star Coy and where we're going to get absolute chaos. They're heading to Les Arenas in France to be hosted by Casey. [00:31:15] Speaker A: Yes. Yep. It is gonna be April 26th and 27th weekend for Madrid and then May 10th and 11th for the Casey hosting and oh my God, that crowd's gonna be insane, dude. [00:31:27] Speaker C: And they've already announced the games that will be played those days. It is going to be absolutely amazing. Like the 10th through the 11th is the final week of the season. We get KC versus G2. [00:31:46] Speaker A: Hell yeah. [00:31:47] Speaker C: Yeah. It's going to be exciting. It's going to be a blast to watch. Then they transfer into their playoffs which in all honesty is it's identical to the one that the LCs that the LTA north has because it's kind of their format that the LTA north store stole. Double Elim, Best of five fearless. Top six teams qualify. Top, top four upper bracket, Top two lower. So the top four have double Elim and the top two seeds will qualify to both MSI and ewc. [00:32:19] Speaker A: Yep. I guess the only difference is that for LTA north, only one team gets to go to msi. But otherwise. Yeah, the exact same format between the two. Yeah. So, lec, I'm really excited for the road shows. Personally, I think that that's something that league needs more of, not less. I know it's a big budget thing typically, but, but for sure Casey's gonna get a crowd and I think that's cool that movie star Coy is also hosting one. So Badger, I want to get your thoughts first off on road shows and then because you're more of an NA guy, where would you love to see a road show here? If anybody could host one, where would you want it to be? No bias saying, just your hometown also. [00:32:58] Speaker B: I can't say, I can't say. Columbus, Ohio. That's crazy. [00:33:02] Speaker A: I don't think that would work. [00:33:03] Speaker B: Damn, that's unfortunate. Anyways, no, I, I think it's gonna be really cool to have the, the, the road shows for especially they chose, I mean really, they chose the two best spots. I mean the, the Koi fans are insane. And Casey, you know, your, your prediction, I guess you also said at the LEC arena when you said that there'd be at least one, one instance of police intervention that bold take that you had. Like this was last year. I think at this point that was. [00:33:38] Speaker A: Last year, which I feel like the road. True. [00:33:41] Speaker B: I think it was actually, I think it actually happened too. That's the best part. I, I think having whoever has the privilege of playing Casey in those games probably will end up being like G2 or Fnatic. So let's be honest for a second. They'll stay save, they'll save the hype matchups for those weekends. They're basically going to be walking into the most hostile environment I think in tier one League of Legends that we've ever seen before. [00:34:13] Speaker A: It's going to be awesome. [00:34:14] Speaker B: It's going to be insane. It's like, like Euroleague basketball. They like set off like flares in the, in the stadium. I, I, I mean they probably won't let them set off flares in the stadium, but it's going to be like Borderline, like psychotic. Like 27,000 psychotic French people in the crowd just screaming and chanting the entire time. It's going to be fantastic. It'll be a great thing to watch. [00:34:39] Speaker A: Oh yeah, and I. Okay, I'm googling. I want to get your thoughts on where you want it in NA next, but I'm googling it. There's no way that this is the right place. If you just google le. Arenas. Arenas or whatever. How you do overdo the inflection frame. This is like a. An ancient like Coliseum looking thing. So I don't think this is right. Does anybody know like, like have a look to what it looks like? [00:35:04] Speaker D: Hold on, I. I'll find some pictures. Give me a sec. [00:35:07] Speaker A: Okay, this one maybe on Google Images. There's another one that looks a little more modern. I wouldn't be surprised if this was actually it. But like the, the first bunch that show up, it's like an old timey looking Coliseum that would be sick if this was real. But there's no way that would be crazy. [00:35:25] Speaker B: Maybe. I don't know. [00:35:27] Speaker A: All right, well, while we're confirming that badger where. What would you be your dream location for a road show here in the. In North America? [00:35:34] Speaker B: Oh God, is there one? I mean just. Just get it out. Getting it out of the Riot Games arena would be a good start, honestly. [00:35:43] Speaker A: True. I. I honestly think one in. In Mexico City would be really cool. [00:35:48] Speaker B: Yeah, I was thinking that too. But like take. [00:35:52] Speaker C: You have Lions hosted. [00:35:54] Speaker B: Yeah, exactly. [00:35:55] Speaker A: Right? [00:35:55] Speaker B: Yeah. Lions host in Mexico. That'd be cool, actually. Yeah, that's a good call. [00:35:59] Speaker A: And then selfishly I'd say Minneapolis, Minnesota, just because we've never. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. [00:36:04] Speaker B: We're not allowed to say. Whatever, that's fine. [00:36:06] Speaker A: Okay. Minneapolis, Minnesota is a little more relevant than Columbus, Ohio. [00:36:10] Speaker B: What the fuck are you talking about, mate? [00:36:13] Speaker A: You know what? We'll go band for band Midwest later. [00:36:15] Speaker B: But we will. [00:36:17] Speaker C: We'll have a Midwest head over to the east coast. [00:36:21] Speaker A: No, we've had too many on the east coast. Let's just do another one in Texas. Why not go back to Toronto? [00:36:29] Speaker C: That'd be hype. [00:36:30] Speaker A: Actually, isn't it happening in Texas for summer finals? Wasn't that the rumor? I don't think that's been confirmed, but I remember seeing somebody talking about that. Unless it is confirmed already talking about it. [00:36:41] Speaker B: So that might be something that I. I mean, is it, is that public knowledge? I don't know. I haven't heard anything. [00:36:49] Speaker A: I don't. I don't know. I don't know. Either. And maybe I should stop speculating things that I could be you. But I'm pretty sure that that was like a rumor that went around, if not something that was just in the initial primer already. But who knows? Who knows? Either way, Texas makes sense, right? If. If it is in Texas for. For lta north, because it's like close to the south border, harder. So for any like, let's say Lions makes it right. It's going to be a little easier. Although I guess California is not hard either. But we don't want to do another finals in California. Boo. All right, well, all that is to say, well, before we move on any rmc, any confirmation on the venue? Did you find any snooping? [00:37:29] Speaker D: No. When I googled I am getting that Coliseum thing. There is a Coliseum arena. It's in Arla's front. I don't know. I don't. I don't think that's the right one. [00:37:39] Speaker A: One, but I don't think that is either. But how cool would that be if that were it? We'll try and get confirmation for maybe next episode or at least for sure leading into whatever that weekend is. I'm sure LEC will have a lot of news around that, so. But that's all. The format breakdown, if you had questions about it, I think lec, it was mostly set in stone, but lta north, that was the big confusing thing. Again, spark notes, there's three parts to the split it. There's the regular positioning phase, best of ones just to seed teams and there's a group phase. Then there is the playoffs. So there you go. So that leads us into LEC Week 1. We're kicking things off this Saturday, March 29, and we're gonna have games. It's a super week. So through Monday or. Sorry, yeah, Monday. That's the 31st, right? I think. Is it the 30th? Yeah, 31st. There we go. Oh, I should have trusted my gut. Either way, we got seven series to cover. That's right. Gone are the days of best of ones in the LEC where we have to give like 15 predictions, man. Now there's only seven to cover, so we're gonna run through them kicking off the split two as they are calling actually spring split over in lec. We got Fnatic versus gx. Not the craziest one to start off with. I will say I like it when they have day one first series. A banger. We're not gonna get that till a little, but Fanatic versus gx, we got Fnatic Two O's. Holy. Nobody's got faith in gx. Notably they did lose closer and then just picked up Isma. So that was my big reason. Bickle, did you have any other reason or is it just Fnatic looked good until the end last split. [00:39:24] Speaker C: Fnatic is one of the best teams in Europe. GX is not. [00:39:28] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. And Fanatic did take first in the regular season. I know that was only best of ones around Robin and they didn't look as good in playoffs, but still. Yeah, I'm expecting this to be be significantly fnatic favored up next though. We have one that could be a little closer. We have team Heretics versus Rogue. Now almost all of us are in agreement with team Heretics just barely edging out here. They were slightly better in the regular season last split, but rmc, you actually have Rogue taking it one this time. Do you think that they're just going to be motivated because they might get bought out by Navi and didn't show up last time. [00:40:06] Speaker D: I thought Rogue's one win last split was against team Heretics in the first week. The first game. No. [00:40:11] Speaker A: Oh, it was. Oh, wait, you're right. [00:40:14] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:40:15] Speaker A: Okay. Okay. So head to head, you think that they can still take it again? Yeah, that's. Yeah. [00:40:20] Speaker D: I mean it's a very similar circumstance. [00:40:22] Speaker A: Right. [00:40:22] Speaker D: Week one, day one. [00:40:24] Speaker A: And then they did go on an eight loss streak, didn't they? Yeah, yeah. [00:40:27] Speaker B: But they did win. [00:40:28] Speaker D: They did win. That was the one win. And they can take it to the back. [00:40:32] Speaker A: You're right. Okay. You know what? Fair. I'll. I'll give it to you there. I'll give it to you there. I still just have like zero faith in this rogue roster, man. Oh my God. Larson is just at all time lows and it just never came together for them. So I still have team here takes. But Next up is G2 versus Koi. And this one I think arguably should be the most fun game from this weekend. This would be my match of the week. I got G2 2 0. Pickles got G2 2 0. Badgers got G2 2 1. And RMC yet again saying Koi 2 1. Bickle, I want to hear from you again here. G2 2 0. Despite the fact that them and Movie Starcoi finished basically the same record. Actually exactly the same record. Last split 1 is G2 there. [00:41:23] Speaker C: I refuse to bet against them no matter the results until they have a proven track record of letting people down. And two, I. I honestly think they come into the season pissed off that they didn't win winter. [00:41:34] Speaker A: Ah. [00:41:35] Speaker D: Oh, that's fair. Yeah, Yeah. [00:41:38] Speaker A: I, I like that explanation for sure. And also I just gotta say Caps has still kind of had JoJo's number. Like I haven't been super convinced. With JoJo against the top echelon of EU mid laners, I think he's better than the bottom of the pack. He's kind of like solid middle pack right now, but he hasn't really proven that he's punching that much higher. Like I put Vladdy above him, I'd put Caps above him. I put. Maybe even like nuke, you know, JoJo's kind of like leading the middle of the pack. But still, I. I haven't below caps right now, so. But rmc, I want to hear your thoughts because you have mcoil above G2. [00:42:17] Speaker D: I don't know, maybe like I'm just out of touch with OEC, but historically G2 has always been a slow starting team. So I kind of go back to that. Like it's week one again. G2 generally is a slow starter. I think this split they lost two out of three of their best of ones to start was against Casey and what's the other team they played? They beat SK and then bds. They lost to bds which was a middle of the pack team. So yeah, I'm kind of taking the. The angle that I think they're going to have a slow start and we start Koi usually like they look pretty decent as a whole. Like I know that you're not super high in JoJo right now, but I still think they are as a A team, a good team. So. [00:42:56] Speaker A: Okay, I respect that. Yeah, the. The G2 slow start to a split has been relatively consistent. I think it ramps up as the year goes on, but it's still only split two right now, so we'll see if they can buck that trend. All right, that's day one though. I think G2MCO. That is the series that I'm going to set my calendar for. Everybody else, I recommend you do the same. I think that's gonna be the coolest matchup. Day two does have some pretty cool matchups as well though. We have Vitality versus GX to start things off. That's not like that high up there, but I still think it's gonn. I actually think that this match should be entertaining to say the least. We get a lot of roster swaps in this one and that's kind of guiding my prediction here. I actually have Vitality 21 RMC you agree with me with a 2 1, but Badger and Bickle both have GX2.1. And Badger, I'm going to call you out because you had vitality original in your predictions until I reminded you that Niski is now the support. [00:43:51] Speaker B: I don't believe in Niski replacing Hylissang. My bad, bro. [00:43:56] Speaker A: Okay. [00:43:57] Speaker B: I'm like sitting there and I'm like, okay. Like, I'm just like, oh, you know, just standard vitality. [00:44:02] Speaker D: There's a lot of mid leaders that can go support like Karma, Mel, Silas. [00:44:08] Speaker A: So we get Silas support to kick things off. [00:44:11] Speaker B: I, you know, I would love to see the first time Niski misses the like flash like magnet storm on rellation. I'm. I am going to ping you with the clip on Twitter. Angus, don't do it. I will. I will do it. And I'll be like, is this your king now or some shit? I. I will do it. [00:44:35] Speaker A: See, it's funny that you say that because hilla singh would 100% do the exact same thing, but he also would be 010 while he's doing it. [00:44:43] Speaker B: So I actually, yeah, respect my goat. [00:44:48] Speaker A: I actually do have some faith in Nizky here. That's what's leading my prediction. Because GX also, I think, made a strict downgrade in jungle. Isma for closer is not going to be a buff for them. So even though Niski's off roll to RMC's point, not for champion pool, but we have seen historically mid laners be decent supports. Who he is an example. Busio is an example in North America. I feel like we've even seen that happen in Europe as well. But like it support is not a high mechanical role and mid laners will bring in higher mechanics and other supports are expecting. It's just can they catch the brain up to like shot call and be a leader for the team at that point. [00:45:28] Speaker D: So he's a roaming mid laner too. So I think his brain is already kind of in the right mindset. [00:45:34] Speaker A: Exactly. So. But yeah, I think either way, that's gonna be a fun one to watch because we're gonna get a look at Niski for the first time here in support and we'll see if he's able to do damage against a GX that theoretically should be doing worse than last time around. Up next, though, is the other match that I'm excited for for this weekend. MKOI vs KC, the reigning champions vs Mkoy, which every time we see Koi, I mean, JoJo's just so exciting to watch. I think this roster is cool across the board. Anyway, love watching Merwin top lane, especially in fearless drafting. He's got such a fun shampoo. So this one I'm excited for, but I still have KC taking it 2 0. I don't see a reason why the reigning champs shouldn't win this, but I'm hoping that it's close. Badger, you have a KC21. Bickle, you agree with me? KC2 zero. RMC man. Again. Coy. Two one. All right. Defend yourself. [00:46:25] Speaker D: Okay. So you know I had reasons for the other two. The other two ones I don't for this. I just want Madcoi to win. [00:46:35] Speaker A: This is strict Na Bias Movie Star Coy to win. [00:46:38] Speaker C: Yeah, this is. [00:46:38] Speaker D: This is Na Bias. Mizell wasn't here so I had to. [00:46:41] Speaker A: Do it for him. [00:46:41] Speaker D: You know. [00:46:42] Speaker A: You know what? Really respect. Mad respect right there. Big. I want to get your thoughts on this match because this is another one that I think like should be a must watch for everybody. [00:46:50] Speaker C: Oh yeah. I think it's going to be exciting all things around but you don't bet against the people that just won the season and went to the finals of an international event. No matter how disappointing that international event was. [00:47:04] Speaker A: Hey, I thought they got a game in that finals. Hell yeah. But yeah, two zero for them. I. I'm in agreement with you there for. For all the reason you just gave alongside again, I think this is one of the mid laners that is just better than JoJo. So sorry JoJo did I predicted against him twice. Dude, what a schedule for Koi. By the way, G2KC for their first two games. Welcome back to the LEC Movie Star Koi. All right, and then for our final day, this is going to be Monday's games. We have BDS versus Rogue. We guess across the board for all of us. Rogue is a no good stinky team unless they're playing heretics because our MC thinks that they can pull it off again. And then we end the week with FNATIC versus sk and again we got FNATIC sweeping. Day three is a bit of a stinker. Should be relatively one sided matchups. Even BDS Rogue, we expect to kind of be one sided. But then you know fnatic sk, that's heavily one sided. So that's it. That's LEC week one. We're gonna have professional league of legends back. I feel like this was a really short off season like between first stand and now. Did we only miss one weekend of games? Two. Two. [00:48:27] Speaker C: I think two. [00:48:27] Speaker A: Two weekends Games. Okay. [00:48:28] Speaker C: Unless you Consider the LPL having started up then. [00:48:31] Speaker A: Yes. [00:48:31] Speaker C: It's only one because they're about a weekend now. [00:48:34] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:48:36] Speaker A: Well for LEC only having two weeks break since the last time we got to see an LEC team play, I think that's kind of cool. I actually like that. I don't know if other viewers will experience fatigue or anything. Let us know in the Community Discord if you think that's not enough time to recover. But I love it because it's like hey, we're back. Usually between off seasons we have like three episodes of Nothing to talk about. Hey, let's. That. [00:48:59] Speaker B: I mean maybe, maybe once. It's the. What's the gap between MSI and like summer for. I mean I guess it's. [00:49:09] Speaker A: That's also going to be I believe. [00:49:12] Speaker B: Like a two week MSI is. That is June 27th to July 12th. Holy wow. Okay. [00:49:20] Speaker A: Yes. And then EWC is the immediate weekend after that, but I think that's still only like a one weekend thing. And then summer split should start up soon after after that. [00:49:30] Speaker B: I forgot about. I forgot about ECW being or awc. The being right after msi. [00:49:38] Speaker A: Easy W is such a funny name for that though. We gotta keep that. That's. That's amazing. ECW tournament. Maybe that's the tournament that T1 since they already have their invite, they just don't even like they int for the msi. So they're freshly like practiced and rested for that event. [00:49:55] Speaker B: Oh my gosh. [00:49:58] Speaker A: Win it again. [00:49:59] Speaker D: Now they'll play a Guma Yushi for the deal sponsorships. [00:50:04] Speaker A: True. GUMO will be their streamer for that event. [00:50:10] Speaker D: That actually would not be a bad idea. Business idea for T1 where they get the best of both worlds. They get Guma's business weight, but they also get SMASH to actually start and play the game. [00:50:20] Speaker A: I don't think GUMA would be happy with that deal, but you never know. Out. But let us know if you think any of our takes are crazy for lec at least again in the Community Discord. You can find a link in the description wherever you are listening. We knew this episode was going to be a little shorter this week just because there wasn't as much to cover. It was mostly just format updates, specifically the LTA north stuff and then lec. But rmc. You know what, I'll give you a little platform here LTA South. Are there any cool ST storylines or narratives or things going on there that people should keep their eyes on? That we should keep our eyes on going into this next Split because we will have a representative from the south at msi guaranteed the number one seed will be going. [00:51:02] Speaker D: Yeah. So there's a lot happening in the south and not everything has been finalized or locked down yet. The rosters have not been locked. Some teams are still looking for players. [00:51:13] Speaker A: We're pretty close. [00:51:14] Speaker D: Have not announced the players. Yeah, we are. Which is kind of fun. But romer, formerly from NaCl Team Liquid, actually challengers, has gone down and is going to be only. Only the fourth starting mid laner for Pain Gaming. Who are the traditionals? The oldest team in Brazil. They've only had three mid laners before Roamer. [00:51:30] Speaker A: Wow. [00:51:31] Speaker D: So, yeah, they're a team that likes to develop the mid laners, evidently. So that's gonna be interesting. [00:51:35] Speaker A: Romer was one of like the best mid laners playing in the NACL for a bit there. Yeah. It was him and Quad before Quad. [00:51:42] Speaker D: Got promoted up and before he's even in there, Cody from Leviathan was already saying that he's not that good. [00:51:49] Speaker A: Oh, yikes. Okay. But that's the thing there. There was. Between Romer and Qu were the two best. It felt like there was a tier differential. Like Quad was S tier, Roamer was a tier, and then our other mid laners were like B tier and below. Yeah. So yeah, I could imagine that. [00:52:07] Speaker D: That's gonna be interesting. I mean, Cody's considered right now the best mid laner in LTA South. So him trash talking is kind of fun. Loud. Who of course everybody knows because they went to so many international events in a row. They had roster. They kicked Winsome back off their roster after playing. [00:52:23] Speaker A: Oh, loose. Some's gone. [00:52:26] Speaker D: Yep. And they. It's funny who they replaced him with because they made two changes. They kicked off both their Jungler and their support, both Korean players. And they brought back for the Jungle. They brought back an old name who Brazilians love called Shinny. Not too much of a story there, but the support's interesting because they brought back the support they kicked off for Winsome. Ready? Oh, yeah. So we're right back to it. [00:52:51] Speaker A: So that's Kai Love a good recycling story. [00:52:55] Speaker D: Yep. You can imagine the fans were not super happy about that. That idea. But you know, they've made a video. I think they actually just posted the video today or yesterday. This morning or yesterday. About their roster changes and why they did what they did. Isro, who is probably the best team in LTA south, at least the one who was our first seed going to playoffs in person, just came back from boot camp in Korea. And they are already trash talking the other teams so you love to see it. [00:53:21] Speaker A: And hey, remember they, they're the only team to take a game off of a North team and it was against the team that eventually won. So who knows what Isras Estrall could have done if they had matched up against like 100 Thieves or Cloud 9 or like somebody else. [00:53:36] Speaker D: Yeah. So obviously, you know, best team, second best team in LTA confirmed. Yeah. And, and oh, sorry, go back to loud. I Forgot to mention LA's team will be the oldest team. I think the average. Oh, I can't remember what the average age is, but I remember I think they might actually break the record or they might not be the oldest average age team in the world. [00:53:59] Speaker A: That would be kind of interesting. [00:54:01] Speaker D: Yeah, I have to double check those numbers, but I'm pretty sure that's what they said in the video, which is kind of funny. Yeah. But in general, just Brazil's influx right now. Fluxu is missing a jungler. They still try to sort that out. Red has said that is might promote their academy Jungler into. They're actually one of the only teams with still an academy team after the whole like format switches and promotion and all that. But they might start their academy Jungler. Like there's talks about it, it's unconfirmed, which is hilarious to me when their jungler has been like their oldest serving player and they basically built the team around their jungler and now they might sub him out. So yeah, Brazil's in flux, Leviathan and Israel. The LOE teams are just sitting on site laughing they're heads off because it's super funny. Yep. [00:54:42] Speaker A: Yeah, they're probably happy with how things shook out last split taking first and second seed. [00:54:45] Speaker D: So this split's looking even messier. So they look even better. [00:54:50] Speaker A: I. Okay, honest thought, honest opinion. How scared are you to watch whatever the eventual representative is at MSI for. [00:55:01] Speaker D: Lta north or South? [00:55:02] Speaker A: South. [00:55:05] Speaker D: Okay, here's the thing. Brazilians aren't scared. We're used. They're used to it at this point. So they just want to watch the world burn. But what they're going to be more upset about is whether or not the Brazilian teams put up a fight to even get there. If a Brazilian team gets there, they don't care. They'll be happy no matter what happens. But ifres Estrall wins again, I think that that's going to hurt Brazilians more. But I think Israestral would be a better team to represent us internationally. I genuinely think they're actually pretty decent. They are not that far off the LGA North. Let's put that one and reminder, the other guest slot for lg. [00:55:38] Speaker A: Yeah. When you told me that play promo. [00:55:41] Speaker D: Relegation no matter what. Yeah. [00:55:43] Speaker A: The MSI representative playing promo relegation would be hilarious, by the way. [00:55:49] Speaker D: Yep. [00:55:49] Speaker A: Oh, that's great. Although the funny thing, in a crazy world where them or disguised win Worlds, they still have to do promo relegation before Worlds. Mind you. So there is a world. So I was looking at the schedule. The promo relegations stuff happens before Worlds, which means that disguised or Iseris Estral theoretically could lose their spot but still be the world's representative and win Worlds and then not play the next. There's no way that happens. But how funny would that be? Like, holy, dude. [00:56:30] Speaker D: Even before that, the fact that if you can win your own split and still potentially get relegated right after winning your own split. That's hilarious. [00:56:38] Speaker A: Yep. I. Yeah. Oh, my God. Oh, League of Legends, man, you got to love it. Well, and speaking of, you got to love everybody listening along here. That's going to do it for this episode. Happy we could cover at least a little bit of the south stuff before closing out, but this was. [00:56:53] Speaker B: Can I drop a fun Fact about champions 2012? [00:56:58] Speaker A: All right. Only. Only if you, after dropping the fun fact, explain how many star the listeners should leave us. [00:57:06] Speaker B: So the. Yes, I could do that. So they invited all these teams over. If CLG EU would have been able to qualify through the Korean Gauntlet, they would have been the second seed in the Korean Gauntlet, even despite playing one tournament in Korea, and could have potentially qualified through Korea if they didn't have to. To. If they didn't have enough circuit points to qualify in Europe. [00:57:35] Speaker A: So that is a random fact. That is a random notable Korean representative. [00:57:40] Speaker B: Notable Korean. And in that tournament, they had five teams that would play in the Gauntlet format, which is how many stars that you should give us this podcast because our wonderful tangents and what whatnot. So. [00:57:58] Speaker A: Hell yeah. You brought it all together. Well done. Well done. Definitely worth the side tangent. [00:58:03] Speaker B: It wasn't. If you're still listening at this point, I'm impressed. Honestly, I'm not gonna lie. [00:58:09] Speaker A: True, true, true, true. Well, speaking of everybody listening, thank you so much for your time. Thank you everybody here on the pod for taking time out of their weeks to chat. League of Legends. If there's one thing that you truly take away from the end of this episode, it's not the teams, it's not the schedule, it's not our predictions. It's this message. We love you and we'll see you next time. [00:58:30] Speaker B: Bye, everyone. [00:58:32] Speaker C: Peace. [00:58:33] Speaker A: Oh, yes, Daddy.