League Rundown - Episode 563: Game 4 fearless? Must be freakin’ nice.

[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. [00:00:50] Speaker B: The Nexus. [00:01:07] Speaker A: Hello and welcome to episode 563 of the League Rundown. This is your 2025 LEC LTA split two playoffs week one review. This episode is ultimately entitled game four fearless. Must be freaking nice. I'm your host, Kangas, and I'm joined by two esteemed co hosts. Up first, we have fresh out of the can, it's Badger. [00:01:31] Speaker C: This is where I would say something witty and wonderful, but unfortunately I didn't come prepared today. So this is my filler. [00:01:40] Speaker A: If this is the energy you bring into the episode, strap in. [00:01:44] Speaker C: Yeah, we're in for a banger. [00:01:47] Speaker A: No, always. [00:01:47] Speaker C: I'm so. Hey, surely, surely it's bringing the same energy as, you know, lta Game Fours. [00:01:53] Speaker A: But true, you know, non existent. True, true. Also, don't call me Shirley. Also joining us once again, we have Donning. Okay, so you're not Mr. Mezelle Pl. But you're like Mizelle. You're LPL Junior Juniorani. It's Yanni. We got Yanni on the cast as well. I'm workshopping it. [00:02:17] Speaker B: We'll figure it. I was trying to think of it off the top of my head too. [00:02:21] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:02:21] Speaker B: You know, if you wanted to do the, the. The. The Yanny Laurel thing, you could have been like Laurelpl or something like that, you know, to. To kind of like play on that. But still okay. Yeah, you know, it's still not perfect. It's kind of hard to make it work with Yanni. But what can work is this episode. [00:02:39] Speaker A: With Yanni covering the Chine chain. Annie. No, that just sounds like inappropriate. [00:02:46] Speaker B: Or that sounds like that. [00:02:47] Speaker C: But yeah. [00:02:48] Speaker B: Kicked off the broadcast, brother. [00:02:49] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, I don't think that has a meaning, but it definitely sounds like it would have a meaning in certain circles. Anyway, Yanni, thank you for being on here with us, just the three of us today. But that's all that we need to talk about the league action. This past weekend. There was a couple of duds, let's be honest. But there were some cool things to talk about, specifically over in the Lec I want to get ahead of it right now. A lot of people probably already noticed from last weekend I misread the schedule and there are actually three games a weekend for LEC up until the finals weekend. So they will be ending one week before LTA North. So just quick little update. It's not the exact schedule. I was wrong. I thought it was. So there's one series that we didn't do predictions for, but we'll definitely talk about it on this week's episode. But before that, let's get around the world and get caught up on news happening everywhere. Let's get the LPL update, this time from Yanni, who's also a member of the LPL unofficial English broadcast. [00:03:43] Speaker B: Hell yeah, brother. All right, so we had some qualification matches for the playoffs. Because of the way the format worked, the top four teams, that was Top Esports, blg, Anyone's Legend and JDG were automatically seated into the bracket stage. And then the top two teams from Group Nirvana and the rest of the teams from Group Ascend played each other in qualification matches. We have finished all four qualification matches and we have our winners and our losers. So in the first qualification match that I covered, Invictus Gaming defeated EDG3 Games to nothing. I applaud EDG for showing some fight in game one and game two. But by game three, that series honestly could have just been an email Rookie got. [00:04:25] Speaker A: EDG was from the group Nirvana. [00:04:27] Speaker B: They were from Group Nirvana. Yes, they were the. So this was the David versus Goliath matchup, right? The fifth seed out. [00:04:32] Speaker A: No upset is what I'm hearing. [00:04:33] Speaker B: Yeah, fifth seed out of Ascent versus second seed from Nirvana. I mean IG was the only non top four team to get double digit wins in the regular season. And Rookie just got mvp. All three games he played out of his mind. Qualification match two was FPX versus Nip. Nip. Notably having Doin B in the mid lane and FPX in a five game series took it three games to two. And what's really important about that is the losers end up in group Group Nirvana. I'm sorry, the losers end up in group Nirvana for split three. So Doinby is now in group Nirvana, which is. Which is a big shock to be honest. [00:05:15] Speaker A: Didn't he have like a pretty good start to the split? [00:05:17] Speaker B: He did so in split one. He was the MVP for split one. Like dude was playing out of his mind. But once the meta. Once the meta turned over and there was more. No more lane swaps. It just. It wasn't working. Because you know, he's not the strongest individual laner and a side leaning is not really great at times. You know, it's not all on him. Aki has been pretty, pretty poor. They're ad carry leave. They put the game on his shoulders and it feels like every game is so close to carrying and he just missed positions and. And that ends the game. So nip down into the doldrums. In our third match we had Team W E versus lgd. LGD being the number one seed out of Group Nirvana and twe won that match three games to one. Nothing really too crazy to talk about there. Monkey, Taehyun and Vampire are really, really turned up. This split have been really fantastic players of Team wwe. And then our final match, which is one that we thought wasn't going to be close, but then thought it could have been close. Weibo Gaming, who for the roster they have have just been on the weirdest slide in the World vs ThunderTalk and Weibo 30 Thunder Talk. Thankfully we thought for a minute that they might not. [00:06:33] Speaker A: That's no. Titties out. [00:06:36] Speaker B: Yeah, titties out. Unfortunately, actually, he's out. [00:06:39] Speaker A: Yeah. I'm not gonna say it. It's fine. [00:06:41] Speaker B: It's okay. So Weibo gets to move on. Not really too much to talk about there. However, the teams did select the their. The teams that they're facing off against. The top four teams they get to pick. Top Esports elected to pick FPX when most people thought that they would prob. You know, team we. Because FBX has been a scrappy team that has taken some games off. But Top esports not afraid of that. Then anyone's legend elected to pick Team wwe. JDG got to pick Weibo Gaming and then BLG was left over with ig. So blg IG definitely going to be the matchup to watch coming up. That is going to be. [00:07:20] Speaker A: Yeah. What day is that? [00:07:21] Speaker B: Saturday, the 31st. It'll be the second match of the day. Oh yeah. So we're doing. We're doing BO5. [00:07:28] Speaker A: Wait, by Saturday is that gonna be in like morning, Like Saturday morning? [00:07:32] Speaker B: Saturday, yes, Saturday morning. [00:07:34] Speaker A: Okay, so. So for anybody, like if you're east coast, that's gonna be like 4am or something. Maybe 6am yeah, there's west coast. [00:07:41] Speaker B: So east coast. East coast is expected 2am 5am start times. But these are best of fives so I highly doubt they're going to be 2am into 5am Maybe that first match, like 6:30. Yeah, maybe that first matchup Top Esports is far and away better than FPX. But that last matchup, BLG versus IG, you're not going to want to miss that one. That one is a certified banger. [00:08:06] Speaker A: All right, well, make sure to check that out, everybody. If you can't watch it live. I know it's tough. At least catch the vods afterwards or the highlights at the very least. [00:08:15] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:08:15] Speaker A: Thank you for that though, Yanni, for the LPL breakdown. Badger, what's happening over in the lck because this is another region now obviously expected to do very well at msi and we're starting to see some of the teams that should be front runners to represent these regions. [00:08:29] Speaker C: Well, we thought we were. And then Hanwha is 1 and 3 in their last four series and the only team they beat is DNF, who should just do not finish the season at this point. [00:08:42] Speaker A: Is that what their name stands for? Do not finish? [00:08:45] Speaker C: Well, it's the DN Freaks. Formerly the Afrika Freaks. And then so currently, I mean, I'll. [00:08:53] Speaker A: Just find out for not making that joke again. Let's go, Yanni. [00:08:56] Speaker B: I tried so hard. [00:08:57] Speaker C: Freaking. Freaking it. Or something like that. So, okay, Genji played Hanwell on the day after. And 1, 2, 1. So Gen G has now secured the number one seed going into the playoff bracket. So all they need to do is one win one of two best of fives that they could potentially play and they will be at MSI. So they are 16 and oh, they have a 32 and four game score. They have a plus 28 on the season and you know, of course a 16 series win streak. Second place right now is Hanwell, who is 12 and four. Which this gets very interesting at this point because T1 is 11 and five right now. And as we're recording Hanwell life and T1 play in exactly seven and a half hours. [00:09:51] Speaker A: Ooh. [00:09:53] Speaker C: So if T1 wins that, that puts the pressure on Hanwood to beat the Fear X. I mean, I think they'll be all right. And T1 plays the noodle boys of Non Shim, so they're going to be in a little bit rougher spot. [00:10:10] Speaker A: So where are we in the LCK that are we not in their playoff bracket? [00:10:13] Speaker C: We are in the last week. So the last week of games starts this like tonight into tomorrow and it runs through Sunday and then playoffs will start after that and it's just gauntlet playoffs. So it'll take pretty much just a week and a half to get. [00:10:28] Speaker A: Does that mean that like LC or T1, if they can beat HLE, then they will take second seed and then. [00:10:35] Speaker C: They have a chance. They will have the game score on them. They will most likely. I'm. I'm actually. It'll be close. It just depends on how the. The other series for both teams play out at this point. But just running through the table, I mean we have the six playoff teams locked. It's the six that you expect. Genji's currently sitting first. Han was sitting second with T1 sitting in third. And both, both those teams play each other at this point. Both are guaranteed top three locks. So even if whoever loses that series will probably end up being the Gauntlet boss. And we'll just have, you know, a couple, just two series. I believe it is to get into msi. I'll have to take a look at the here in a second as I run through the rest of the standings. So Nongshim, Katie and Damwon are all locked for playoffs as well. Nonchalant is fourth, Casey is fifth, Dam 1 is sixth right now. And they're 9 and 7, 9 and 7 and 8 and 8 respectively. So there's a chance that any of those teams could finish well above their standings, including Domwan playing Non Shim on the last day in the last series. So that could potentially be. That could be a big one for them as they would be, you know, potentially moving up in the bracket, especially considering Katie Rolster has to play Gen G this week. And Something tells me J.J. is not going to want to drop a series. [00:12:02] Speaker A: So if Jen G can pull it off, I mean, that's a big story from LCK Stills that they just have yet to drop a series. If they do at the very end, that'd be so sad, man. [00:12:11] Speaker C: Yeah, they JI plays KT Rolster and the corpse that is the okay Savings Bank. Brion, bro, Freak, whatever. They have the longest name in East. [00:12:24] Speaker A: That is a very long name. Yeah, I just. Bro. That's a fun one. Yeah. [00:12:28] Speaker C: Okay. Bro is the. Basically the name of the team we have. [00:12:31] Speaker A: Okay. Bro and dnf. [00:12:35] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:12:37] Speaker A: That'S crazy. [00:12:38] Speaker C: So. But so the way it works out is Gen G will play whoever C2 is. Winner of that qualifies to MSI and the loser of that goes into a second qualification match and becomes the Gauntlet boss. So. And then third seed will be, you know, so it's five place. Five and six play each other. Winner plays four, winner plays three. Winner plays whoever loses the match between Gen G and second place. So it's going to be very interesting. It starts on the seventh, ends the 15th. So in an eight day stretch, there is a chance that one team, if they run from fifth, six all the way up to the top, will play four best of fives in like seven days. [00:13:18] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, I feel like that always happens in LCK and lpl. We've had that too. It's just like I was seeing this like a breakdown of percentage. I. This was the LTA SAS guy, Leo. He's been on the broadcast a couple or on the podcast a couple of times. He put out like a. A tweet breaking down the percentage of total possible games that a league could play and then the order of like, who has the highest percentage of their possible games played. I think LCK was in first and then LTA as a whole was second most of that. [00:13:50] Speaker C: There have been a lot of two in LCK this split, so. [00:13:53] Speaker A: Yeah, but. But then the, the crazy thing is LTA was all combined into one. But when you looked at the number of games total possibly played in LTA north, it was under a hundred. And when you looked at the total possible for LCK, it was like 330 or something. LPL was over 400. Dude. [00:14:17] Speaker C: Yeah. Oh yeah. It was so many crazy. [00:14:21] Speaker A: Oh my God. Yeah, we're gonna get throttled at MSI pretty much no matter what happens. That's gonna be nuts. So with that said, look forward to that everybody. But thank you for the update for what's going on in LCK as well as lpl. We'll keep our eyes on that because it's going to give us a better idea of kind of who the competition is going into MSI. At some point we'll do like an LCP catch up, but that one's much harder to follow and we don't have anybody on the broadcast who's like or podcast who's kind of dedicated towards that. So we'll do something closer to msi. A couple roster pieces of news happened. It is offseason for a couple of teams in the leagues now up first, DSG has been making moves this past week. Scary. Jerry has been benched as of recording today. They said that he's still going to be like actively helping the team and streaming, but that it makes me think that obviously they're not going to have him start. They're going to be looking for 80 carry options. But the bigger thing is that they have officially dropped and parted ways with Abadaga. The mid laner is out of there. Goodbye, Felix. He had a good run in N A back in his prime. Then he had a rough split into a really good split in the LEC when he made it to finals with sk. And then, you know, Casey Blue wasn't doing it for him. He took some time off and came here and did not look good in na. So we'll see if Abadaya is able to bounce back in his career. Or maybe this is it. You never know. I mean if you had that bad of a performance in a region theoretically as like weak perception wise as LTA North, I could imagine LEC teams not being enthused or looking to pick him up. But another, a more sad one, Yanni, I you just told me about this one earlier today. I didn't even know this news. [00:16:07] Speaker B: I did. [00:16:08] Speaker A: Vitality made a change. [00:16:11] Speaker B: They did. They dropped Nisky. The single split support experiment has ended. They're gonna bring in Fleshy to replace him. Fleshy was a guy who played in. [00:16:25] Speaker C: And out League of Legends. [00:16:27] Speaker B: Yeah, he certainly did. He played yep. Back in early 2023. Didn't really get too much of a fair shake, but since then it's kind of bouncing around various EMEA rosters. Super massive. He was on KC Blue for, you know, the entirety of 2024. I was on Vitality's B team at the end of 2024 into 2025. So he's gonna get a shot to try and fix Vitality's issues. [00:16:58] Speaker A: All right, we'll see if it works for him. Obviously they were disappointed they weren't able to make playoffs. I still felt that Niski was good. I was actually excited for his development, but I mean maybe he wasn't happy with the roll stop. I don't know too much behind it or if there's more to the story, but I would not be surprised if it turned out to something like nah, he wants to play mid lane for a team so Vitality needs to make the change. But again, well if more information comes out for that we'll share with everybody. That's it that we have for roster updates for right now. If we missed anything, a reminder to let us know in the community Discord. You can find a link in the description wherever you are, listen as well as shout out to members of the community in the fantasy. We have our own little rundown community fantasy and we still have a top three podium of Apollo Pacific and myself. But Apollo Pacific well taken or taken much more ground than I am in recent weekends. Apollo's up to 9:57, Pacific's at 9:51. I'm at 9:13 and I'm about to be overtaken as well. So we might have a new podium going into next weekend. But shout out to everybody who has been actually participating in that and also everybody who supports the podcast. You can do so through the Patreon or the Merch shop. Both of those links are in the description as well. All right, there we go. We got through global news. We got through the community plugs. Now let's talk about League of Legends. The reason everybody is here tuning into the podcast, we're gonna kick things off in North America for the LTA north, because, honestly, we can get through this one pretty fast. This was two weekends, or rather two best of five series this past weekend. Neither one of them went three games. Oh, my God. Badger, talk to me about the matchups, who played who this past weekend, and then kick us off with that first series, how things looked. [00:18:55] Speaker C: So this weekend we had Shopify Rebellion versus Fly Quest and Cloud 9 versus Team Liquid. And. Oh, wait. Shit, the C9TL series just ended. Oh, fuck, that was quick. Oh, damn. [00:19:13] Speaker A: You didn't have time to, like, cook a pizza. [00:19:14] Speaker C: I didn't even have time to, like, have a proper, like, introduction to it. Like, C9 just ended it. Like, they just walked up and up, smashed them, like. [00:19:23] Speaker B: Meanwhile. Meanwhile, we're not sure if the Fly quest Shopify Rebellion 1 has actually ended yet. [00:19:28] Speaker C: I was gonna say true. They actually had to. They actually had to move Shopify and Fly Quest to the. To freak's basement to finish those games because they were going on so long and. And C9TL needed to start their series. [00:19:42] Speaker A: And that's the wild thing, is that the FlyQuest Shopify 3o was way closer than the C9TL, which is not what I expected. So start off with the FlyQuest Shopify one, because Shopify, man, did they just lose two games of league of Legends. There was a joke that Jet made on broadcast when we did our prediction segment where he predicted everyone did Fly Quest 3. Oh, he did Shopify 03. Classic comedy. I know, I love it. But that actually was the most accurate prediction because Shopify should have won game two. Could have won game three. They lost both of those games. B Boy in particular, having an egregious game three on the Zaya, autoing a blast cone at the final elder fight setup and then just dies in the pit, and then the game's just over. It's like, what the was that, dude? Like, just a completely unforced error. But otherwise, Shopify did push them pretty hard. And I will Say, I think again, shout out to like players like contracts players like Fudge who really have been stepping up as the split has gone on to show that they still have it. Even if Palafox is really struggling. B boy is really struggling too. [00:20:50] Speaker B: Shout out QSS. [00:20:52] Speaker A: Okay, yes. Two QSS's were purchased into a Mordekaiser. You cannot QSS Mordekaiser Ultimate. And did either of you catch the name in interview? Did you see it? [00:21:03] Speaker B: Yes. No, I didn't watch the interview, but I did watch the. I did look at the trend. The transcription that I believe Arsh usually does over. [00:21:13] Speaker A: Yes. So do you want to educate us all on the. The reasoning behind it from Shopify? [00:21:19] Speaker B: Oh my God, brother, it is. It is real bad. Yeah, actually go put it. [00:21:26] Speaker A: Pull it up. They didn't know. They. [00:21:30] Speaker C: They just didn't know. [00:21:32] Speaker A: I think it was SEOs that was being interviewed. If I remember correctly, whoever it was was basically defending the team thinking like, wait, no, they. They said it did. Like, because Arch asked directly shout out Arsh from name and he's been doing great interviews over on their kind of a publication. And he was just like, you know the QSS does not work on Mortal, right? He was like, no, I'm pretty sure it does. And they're like, no, it doesn't work like that. They changed it a while ago and the player was like, oh well, like Palafox called it. It was like, hey, don't forget to pick this up. [00:22:02] Speaker B: I pulled it up. I pulled it up for the exact question and answer. [00:22:06] Speaker A: Okay. [00:22:06] Speaker B: Yeah, this is talking to SEO's question, why did bvoy and Palafox buy qss? It doesn't work on Mortal sales. I think QSS works right on Mordekaiser. It does. No, no, no it doesn't. They changed it a while ago. Really? I think it works. Are you sure it doesn't? Everyone was talking about it. Oh, so we're trolling. I didn't know, to be honest. Probably Christian and Bevoy didn't know either because I remember one time Fudge said Christian Mordekaiser as all and Christian said, I'm fine, I have Q. So I think he probably thinks that it works and he probably loses the 1v1. To be honest, I didn't know that. So Christian B Boy probably did not know. [00:22:46] Speaker A: That is so funny, dude. League of Legends is such a deep game that that can happen. But also from what I hear, I mean again, like you never want too much, but like it doesn't surprise me that they Wouldn't like have known that. [00:23:04] Speaker B: Dude, I'm still crying over this. I'm fine. I have qss. [00:23:08] Speaker A: I'm fine. I have qss. Yeah. So that was rough. Other than that though, I again, I still think Shopify gave a better look than we expected. I definitely thought this was gonna be a more one sided 3 0, but shout out to inspired for, you know, popping off Masu as well. Got player of the series. He had a really, really solid Lucian the end he was playing that line, dude. He was playing like old double lift where he's just like frontline Lucian and Bwipo as well. One of the more like disgusting Rene games that I've seen in in a while in the north. So 420cs. Yeah, he was like 8,000 gold ahead of Fudge at one point. [00:23:46] Speaker B: It was crazy. [00:23:48] Speaker A: Like individual gold. And it wasn't even like at the end of the game, like the final push, it was like, no, this is still like, we're still playing league and Fudge just has to try and hold a croc in his eyeline with that big of a gold. So yeah, that was Flyco, Shopify, C9. TL Badger. You. You care to tell me what. What the happened to tl, man? Oh my God. [00:24:11] Speaker C: So, you know, we thought we were going into this and we thought there was going to be, you know, this. This great series. TL looked great leading into it. C9 is a perennial powerhouse. Like, oh, maybe. Maybe there's a chance that C9 can come in and this will make it interesting. And then C9 just kind of ran them over. Like the C9 Kia just ran over the carless team at this point. And TL pedestrians. TL pedestrians versus C9 KIA. Carby car beats pedestrian every single time. They had UG in for game one and game two. And Spawn said, I think in an interview with you before the game actually, that no matter what the plan was, they had, they were going to put Umpteen from game three onward. I don't know if that was just because, well, like comfort zone kind of thing or something like that, but I. [00:25:06] Speaker A: In the moment, I never know. Like, okay, is this just a coach live on broadcast protecting their player? But I did ask Inspired because he was on the desk as a guest for the day. And I asked him, I was like, is that true? Like in scrims, do they just like play Yuji and then Umpteen for game three? And he was like, oh, yeah, they actually do that a lot. So it was true that they in scrims they do that and so no surprise that they do it on stage. But also Yugi definitely seemed a little lost in the middle late game of games one and two. [00:25:35] Speaker C: Yeah, he did look lost in those games. So definitely first playoff experience against a team that's, you know, against the. One of the greatest North American junglers that we've ever seen. Like, definitely was not a good circumstance for him to be in at that point. Like, hey, good luck, buddy. Just like kind of going into it. They try to set him up in the game too with like the galio and the re dive comp with it. And it just. TL just didn't have any answers to what C9 was doing this weekend. And it was kind of a. Kind of a Swift 3 0. It's. [00:26:13] Speaker A: Yeah, that's. [00:26:14] Speaker C: It's the. It's the actual sweep of a 30 compared to the. The barn burner that was a 3L of the Shopify Fly Quest series. [00:26:24] Speaker A: I still never want to see Impact on Yorick. God, get him the off that. [00:26:30] Speaker C: That's definitely not an Impact champion. [00:26:32] Speaker A: And also Impact and Core. This was another series they've had. Core's had a couple of elderly moments. I'm gonna call. Start calling them that, dude. Elderly moments where you're just like putting a war down in a place that a support has no business being. And usually he's not that type of support. That's like one of his best streng is that he doesn't die in dumb situations. He'll die like protecting his team or going for an engage or something like that. But like he doesn't make these silly mistakes. But I feel like. I don't know if it's him or if it's Impact is sucking him into the side lane to just die with him. But there were like two moments that Impact and Core just died together and it cost him the game. [00:27:09] Speaker B: I think that's what it is. I think you're right, by the way. And you know, I. I think it might be time to take Impact out Batman. Like. [00:27:18] Speaker A: Oh, God. [00:27:19] Speaker B: Particularly difficult to watch him play. Like, I love team Liquid. It is particularly difficult to watch this man play right now. [00:27:26] Speaker A: Yeah, you know, he's. I'll tell you right now, he was not on my ballot for top for like all pro. [00:27:33] Speaker B: I certainly hope not. [00:27:34] Speaker C: Yeah, I. I was gonna say I don't think. I think he deserves to be in from at least on mine. So if I had one, I think that. [00:27:44] Speaker A: And he's the reigning MVP from last year. [00:27:48] Speaker B: Like, oh my God, I Think the biggest problem is outside of Scion, we're really in a. Or in the occasional orn, we're really in a carry top, Meta and Impact. You know, back in the day, could play these carry tops, but he shifted his play style a lot to be more of a help the team kind of player. And he sacrifices too much. [00:28:10] Speaker A: He. [00:28:10] Speaker B: He will give away too much and not play for himself and not play selfishly where he needs to. Like, hey, I'm going to play selfishly. I'm going to get my gold leads, I'm going to spike on items, and then I'm going to turn the big team fight at the end of the game because I'm strong. And it's just not something that he's really, you know, been doing when he's given the opportunity. And I mean, in this series, he really wasn't given too much of an opportunity. Right. You know, he's playing Scion, which is totally fine, totally valid. Scion's fantastic right now. Really. Definitely a Impact champion. And then he plays Galio. It's like, okay, you're really putting the ball in Yuji's hands here. And by the way, I mean this, this team composition, I fear would. Didn't really ever work because you're not. You've got the Galio to support the Xinjiao, right? But you don't have the carries to be able to help deal the damage. When Xinjiao is strong, right? Like Ari does a fine amount of damage, sure. But I mean, it takes forever for Smolder to get online. Like, you know, a different early game carry or any, any carry that has more damage in the early game would have been better. So I think that's a more of a comp issue than. Than an Impact issue. But then again, as you said, Game three, it was the. The orc. And yikes, man, I mean, he got that nice solo kill on Thanatos early and it's like, oh man, threw it away. Dad. Daddy. Impact is back. And then Thanatos just busted the door open. Said Daddy's home because he sunned. He sunned Impact this entire series. [00:29:44] Speaker A: And it made like a recommendation for series to watch. Obviously there were only two, but it made it really tough. I think the only like game that's even worth going back to watch this weekend is Fly Quest. Shopify Game two. I think that that one was pretty good. Again, it's frustrating to see Shopify throw it. And fly wise, winning the longest historic 30 in NA history is kind of funny. But Other than that, like kind of dud games this past weekend. So rough to see. Unless you're a C9 fan I suppose. Then watch that series because you can just watch your Team Doogie all over Team Liquid. [00:30:21] Speaker B: Yeah. Enjoy that. [00:30:22] Speaker A: Yeah. But that brings us into this next weekend because Team Liquid's going into the lower bracket along with Shopify Rebellion. But that the bracket worked out is in Team Liquid's favor. Team Liquid get Dignitas in the lower bracket. Shopify Rebellion get 100 Thieves. So we have the rematch of Shopify 100 Thieves. This was kind of a surprise that 100 Thieves get even knocked it down here to begin with and now they get a chance to take revenge. And I think 100 Thieves is also much happier to have Shopify than Team Liquid because this could have been a very early oh yeah. Exit for 100 thieves in the lower bracket as well. Let's go over predictions. Team Liquid versus Dignitas kick things off. We all believe in Team Liquid 3. 0 and none of us really think the Dignitas has what it takes. I imagine this can be a pretty swift 3.0as well. I maybe Dignitas take a game if Shaden gets like a comfort pick and can get ahead of like Yuji or Umpty. Either one. But I. I expect to see Yuji and Umpty. I think that's going to be the expectation going forward is that both will play in series and then shop fire belly versus 100 thieves. We're all in agreement here as well. I so here's what I'll say. I have 100 Thieves 30 alongside Yanni Badger has 100 Thieves 3. 1. I know it's probably crazy to think Shopify just beat them last best of three. Why are we all thinking hundred Thieves? I don't. I'm curious if either of you agree with me. This is my reasoning. This is either a Hundred Thieves 3. 0 or it's a Shopify 3. 1. I think if 100 Thieves win this it's gonna be swift. But if it goes long Shopify might actually have better drafting to take out 100 Thieves and deeper chant pools for for key carries and that could be a weakness for 100 thieves in a best of five. Do either of you agree with that statement or do you think that it is more one sided for 100 thieves? Because I don't think it's gonna be like a heavily one sided 3. 0. I could imagine Shopify winning this. [00:32:15] Speaker B: This. I'm with you. I'm actually. [00:32:17] Speaker C: I think there's A chance. [00:32:19] Speaker A: Okay. [00:32:20] Speaker C: Especially after how they looked against Fly Quest. And I. I mean, generally speaking, when you look that good against the best team in the region, you. You have a chance to beat anybody. [00:32:33] Speaker B: Inspires some confidence too. [00:32:36] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. And 100 thieves. The way they play league is a very fun way to watch league is they fight, fight for every thing on the map. They will never see a fight they don't want to take. And that is a very swingy play style that can get you a 30 if you're feel if you're rolling hot that day. But it can also be really bad in the series, especially as team comps get worse and worse. And I think that Goldenglue has not been drafting particularly well. I. I've seen a lot of hundred of these drafts lacking in the best of threes. Best of fives are going to be even harder. So yeah, it's a. It's a very unconfident three. Zero Thieves. I think they're the better team. But if they win the series, that's how I see it going. Okay, there we go. That is it for LTA North. That was very fast because again, it's, you know, two series to react to, two to preview. Now let's hop across the pond. It's not gonna be that much more for lec, but it is a little more. LEC had their first weekend of playoffs as well. And again, I said this at the top of the episode. We missed one in our predictions, but we will cover it. We had kicking things off Fnatic vs G2, then KC vs MKOI, and then we also had the winners of those matches play each other on Monday here in the States. It was a Memorial Day. So another reason why I just didn't think games are happening, but turns out, did anyone know Europe doesn't celebrate Memorial Day That Americans celebrate. That's kind of crazy, right? [00:34:05] Speaker C: That. [00:34:05] Speaker B: That is not crazy. [00:34:07] Speaker C: That doesn't surprise me. [00:34:10] Speaker A: All right, well, I'm trying to make conversation, guys. Anyway, happened El Classico to kick things off in playoffs. And Yanni, I want to hear your thoughts on this one first because my thoughts are outside of game one. Just disappointment from Fnatic. [00:34:28] Speaker B: Oh, without a doubt. I mean, the G2 solo laners were insane this series. Oscar and Humanoid were just getting sunned by them the entire time. Right. Except for, you know, except for that first game. Right. Like, obviously, I know you said outside that first game. I mean, you know, credit to them. They were making really good early plays. I. I give a lot of credit to Razork for the entire series. It was pretty okay for a large majority of the series, but, I mean, it was tough. Broken Blade was just winning every single side Lane fight. I mean, this dude is just putting. [00:35:08] Speaker A: Up numbers and I, you know, like the meme of TSM and like Speakers sleeping his own team with Lilia Old. I was getting vibes of that with Mickey's Engages as well. Like, God damn it. Nobody followed up on the Engages dude. Like, Fanag was just afraid to walk in every time. And it made things very, very tough when it came time for team fights. Like, it wasn't for lack of trying. Like, Fnatic were set up at Barons, they were set up at Dragons. But anytime Mickey found the flank, found the big Engage, like humanoid and upset would just get stun locked and then not do anything. [00:35:44] Speaker B: Game three was crazy though. Game three. [00:35:48] Speaker A: Game three did get a little wild, sure. [00:35:49] Speaker B: Game three was definitely wild, right, Because Fnatic were. Were in like a favorable position, right? They were like up 4k. They were winning all these fights. But then G2, because they have Poppy, they just get to take Baron, right? Because you just get to, you know, either bong Razork out, right? And it's like, okay, well that's cool. Fnatic are like still advantaged at that time though. And they have like river control at this Dragon fight. And Broken Blade comes in with the counter strike. Then Zhonya's to just make sure he doesn't. He does not die. We. We layer the CC super well. He stuns three people. Then we throw the Annie on the tippers on top of it. You prevent the Soul from going to Fnatic. And then Broken Blade and Caps were just doing side lane things. And then on the backside, han Sama wins a 2v1 while Fnatic is trying to back to allow Broken Blade and Caps just push to end the game. I mean, like, that's that Game three was absolute cinema. Was a really enjoyable game to watch, but that really felt like that once Fnatic lost that game. Even though, yeah, you're down two to one and you only need one more to lose to to be done in the series. It really felt like they were done after that. [00:36:59] Speaker A: Yeah, it was not the fanatic I expected to see versus G2. Also, I think G2 really performed better than we had seen so far in the regular season. Like, G2 is hitting their stride right now and. And they're looking scary. We'll talk about them again later because obviously they went on to the match played on, but to determine who they were playing in that match, we had KC versus M, Koi and Badger. Out of all the series that happened this weekend, where would you rank this one compared to the others? [00:37:32] Speaker C: Casey mcoy, I mean, there's got to be, it's got to be this series and then like two tier breaks and then every other series that doesn't order. Doesn't matter. Just, just watch this one. [00:37:45] Speaker A: Like, this is the only one that we can recommend. [00:37:46] Speaker C: This is genuinely the only series that you need to watch from the weekend. [00:37:51] Speaker A: I mean, we got JoJo popping off. We got JoJo not understanding what the Aurora does as a champ. [00:37:58] Speaker C: I was about to say, oh, you get, you get, you get both ends of the JoJo peon spectrum of just like, oh, hey, JoJo's popping off. Hey, wait, you're walking way too close to over our. Oh, oh no. [00:38:10] Speaker A: We also got lists getting overconfident again. I think that this is something that's going to plague a lot of young players. But Kalist especially just because from, from what I see, I don't know much about him as a person. I know that like criticism, any criticism towards players on KC is met with lethal rebuttals from the community and the Casey fans. So I just, I wonder if Kalist is getting the right type of feedback. I hope he is. I don't know what that coaching staff looks like, but he has shown the tendency to go too aggressive and go for too hot of plays. [00:38:44] Speaker B: The funniest thing in that game too, bro, is the baron fight at 25 minutes. Hits. He's hitting the Baron and then Casey like goes in. So he starts moving over. He pops the blg emote, gets in melee range of Pantheon, stunned and dies. I just laughing my ass off, bro. He pops blg and says, all right, I'm gonna go win this fight. And then just takes two hops right into melee range and they just instantly lose the fight. And then Coy gets the Baron and then immediately afterwards just goes into the mid lane. It starts hopping them. It gets flashed Pantheon stunned again. And it's like, dude, what are we doing? That one generation funny as. As the blg one. The popping the blg emote. Like I had to, I had to pause and go back. I'm like, this man did not just pop the emote hop twice and just die. [00:39:41] Speaker A: Oh my God. Classic again. Generational player, generational highlight plays as well as some low light plays. I still have faith in Koi or Sorry for Casey in the lower bracket, but they did lose this series. MCOID did it, dude. They were able to clutch it out. And I think, I mean again we saw the positives and negatives as well of JoJo. He had a couple of really clutch moments and he showed that he is able to play things like the rise and clutch moments as well, which had historically an NA been a tough champion for him in his. In his pool. So I think it's cool to see the growth of him as well and everyone else on koi. I know Merwin had a couple of rough moments in the series, but I think think he brought it back at the end as well. So yeah, shout out to mkoi, dude. Somehow they pulled it off and I. I didn't have faith. This ruined my LEC predictions. We didn't predict the third series. I would have gotten that one wrong because I would have had KC taking it and they didn't win. Fnatic didn't win. I was 0 for 3 on predictions from the weekend for LEC. [00:40:46] Speaker B: Oh, can you really give yourself 0 for 3 though? [00:40:50] Speaker A: I can because I know what I would have predicted for the one that I didn't. [00:40:54] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean that's true. But you, you just get a dnp. Did not predict. [00:40:59] Speaker A: You know what, actually I like that a little more. It won't affect my percentage at the end of the split, but that does lead into the final game. That just happened on a Monday. That was the winner of each series of G2 versus MCOI and Yanni. As exciting as the previous series was, how did this one stack up in. In Europe, guys? [00:41:17] Speaker B: So honestly, gameplay wise, I mean, it was like pretty solid, right? You know, G2 took a 31 series victory. You know, JoJo struggled at times, but what was really awesome was not only this fourth game where we get Broken Blade swing top and we get Han Sama's Draven. We also get Le Brav on blitzcrank. Right? And Le Brav hook championship this weekend. Absolutely insane. [00:41:48] Speaker A: I think he played pike as well, right? [00:41:50] Speaker B: I don't think. [00:41:50] Speaker A: Or was that Casey the place somebody played pike this week? [00:41:53] Speaker B: No, no, that was. That was Targamas ended up playing Pike. [00:41:56] Speaker A: There we go. [00:41:57] Speaker B: In the last game of the KOI KC series. But in the, in the earlier series even versus Fnatic. I mean Labrov single handedly won like game two with his hooks. He did the same thing in like game one was just so nasty with the them on that Nautilus. You really have to wonder if you're gonna keep letting this guy get this Champion. Right? It was absolutely horrific to try to deal with. We got an Elio ivern in Game 2, and Skoomon was running over this game early. But what's really crazy is that like this. This game ended up just being so close. When it looked like G2, it was all them, right? They get the ocean sou it's like, okay, well, Coy's team comp can't really beat that, right? And then they hang on and they steal Elder to keep the game alive. And they take Baron and then they get in river position for second. Elder and Scumon just properly marks Jojo kills him instantly. He's playing Nefiri. I think Jojo was playing aer that game and. And then like it fell apart from that. But you know what? Respect for them fighting back in game three because the game was really, really slow until 30 minutes. Coy just engage, win a fight and then. And then take the Baron and get their mountain soul. But that game four was. Was really not close. [00:43:21] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:43:22] Speaker B: Felt like the reverse sweep. And then no Han Solo Draven cashed out at 13 minutes with two kills. And he. He got an extra like 700 gold for cashing out. [00:43:33] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:43:33] Speaker B: You knew that game was just over from there. [00:43:36] Speaker A: That was. I mean that you're right, that the beginning of the series. A little more entertaining, a little closer, but ended on a bit of a whimper. Unless you're a G2 fan, in which case you're very happy with how that ended because G2 now solidify themselves not only a finals appearance for the LEC, which. Oh, God. G2 in the finals again, who would have guessed? But also they lock in a spot at MSI because top two teams from LEC will make it. So shout out to G2. [00:44:04] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:44:04] Speaker A: Again, showing that they seem to qualify for MSI. [00:44:06] Speaker B: MSI technically shout out team. [00:44:08] Speaker A: Yes. True shout out MSI favorites in a row. [00:44:11] Speaker C: Were they the first. Were they were the first ones to. [00:44:13] Speaker A: Qualify for MSI based on LEC format? I think that might be correct. [00:44:18] Speaker C: Yeah. I swear, it feels like they are the first team to qualify for MSI every year since like Covid year. [00:44:26] Speaker A: They like almost always make it through the upper bracket. And LEC always happens before LCs historically because they would happen, you know, a couple hours ahead of us. So. So yeah, I think that that actually does make sense that they should if they're always dominating upper bracket. I know that, you know, last split aside, but that wasn't MSI, so. But yeah, G2 is in the finals. M. Koi will be the lower bracket finals awaiting four teams that play this coming weekend. And then Koi will actually. No, no, sorry. Koi will not play this weekend. Yeah, yeah, Koi doesn't play this weekend. They are going to be playing finals weekend. So we have our two of the three finals weekend teams already decided. Again, the format, man, it really messes with me. The Waypedia lays it out, but the three series ahead of us this coming weekend start off with FNATIC versus GX on Saturday. Then we have Casey versus Team Heretics on Sunday, and then the winner of those previous series on Monday. Again, we all believe in FNATIC taking it over gx. We all believe in Casey taking over Team Heretics. I'm the only one that even gives a single game to one of the teams that loses. I think the GX can capitalize on FNAC and some of the weaknesses that they have shown in their team fight setups and lack of ability to follow through. So that's that. Again, EU is like a top four and then, yeah, really struggling. I would be very surprised if there was an upset this weekend, but if there were. Okay, let's. Let's play a fun game. If there were an upset, who do you think it's likely to be? Yanni? Let's hear from you then Badger. Then I'll go. [00:45:59] Speaker B: I definitely think it's Gian X. That's. That would be the most likely to. To. To upset Fanatic. [00:46:05] Speaker A: Fair enough. [00:46:06] Speaker B: Mostly because. [00:46:07] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, I'm inclined to. [00:46:09] Speaker B: Yeah. I think they just simply have a better roster. All right, so. [00:46:13] Speaker A: And Fanatic also sometimes just. [00:46:15] Speaker C: Are we calling. [00:46:16] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:46:16] Speaker A: Is. [00:46:16] Speaker C: Is Shopify beating 100 thieves? Is that. Could that be considered part of the upset? I mean, I know we talked about N A already. [00:46:24] Speaker A: Technically, they're the higher seeds, so, I. [00:46:28] Speaker B: Mean, that would be an upset. That. That would absolutely be an upset upset. If shop might be 100 thieves. Let's. [00:46:33] Speaker A: I guess if we considered it an upset that they beat them last time, then yes, it should still be an upset if they beat them this time. [00:46:38] Speaker C: Okay, sure. Yeah. I think that one actually is the most likely to produce an upset at this point. [00:46:42] Speaker B: I agree. [00:46:44] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:46:44] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:46:44] Speaker A: But I was talking about EU and. [00:46:47] Speaker C: Anyway, that's the problem is I don't think either season. I don't think there's gonna be any upsets this weekend. Let's be honest. [00:46:55] Speaker B: Like, the only thing that. The only upset that's gonna happen is the fact that either Casey or Fnatic are going to be eliminated. [00:47:01] Speaker A: Yeah. The only Upset that's happening is that he's going home after the next series because we. There's one other one to talk about. Casey versus Fnatic. You like that segue? [00:47:11] Speaker B: Presumably KC versus Fanatic. [00:47:13] Speaker A: Presumably Casey Fanatic. That's what we all of us are predicting. So we all have Casey taking it, but we think that this one's gonna be much closer. I think, understandably, I have KC3. 2. Yanni agrees. Badger has KC3. 1. Any big brain reason, Badger, why you think it's, like, a little less close? [00:47:36] Speaker C: Not really gonna be honest. I. I just. I. I just think that Fanatical squeak a game out. I mean, we. Fnatic was like, the two seed going in to this, like. Or were they? No, they were the one seed, weren't they? [00:47:52] Speaker A: No, they were two seed. Casey was one seed at eight and one. [00:47:54] Speaker C: That's right. Yeah. Just two seed versus one seed. You just never know. I mean, these were the two best teams going into the playoffs, and now they're do. They're potentially duking it out in third place. Like, it just. It just feels weird. [00:48:10] Speaker A: I will say, I think that as a JoJo fan, I want Fnatic to win this series because I think MCO have a much better matchup versus Fnatic than they do kc. But I. I don't think that Fnatic necessarily. [00:48:22] Speaker B: I have a question, and I might be crazy because I don't know where the. I don't know where the rule book is. How did. How did Casey ended up playing against Koi in the upper bracket? Did they pick their opponent? Because they did. [00:48:35] Speaker C: Yes. [00:48:35] Speaker B: Okay. That's what I thought, because I'm like, dude, there's no way 1v3 and 2v4 happened without them getting to pick their opponent. [00:48:43] Speaker A: Understandably, they. Smart move by G2 as their opponent. [00:48:47] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. Smart move by Casey. No offense to Coy. You know, Coy obviously a very strong team. You know, they got the job done. You know, I don't think there was a wrong selection for your opponent, to be honest. I think that you could have probably picked anybody and. And, you know, there would be positives. [00:49:05] Speaker A: And negatives to it, but maybe they're wishing they had picked G2 because they. Casey did lose to Koi. [00:49:11] Speaker B: Everybody gotten smacked by G2. [00:49:13] Speaker A: Yeah. You never know. But probably. Either way, though, that is it for lec. That's what happened last week, and that's our expectations for this coming weekend. If you agree, if you disag with any of our takes from LTA north or lec, make sure to join the community discord and let us know in there. Get in on the conversation. Let us know how you think things are going to shake out this coming weekend. Maybe GX makes the run, baby. Maybe this is GX's time. They can do it. Just take down Fnatic. Just take down kc. Freaking Yzma is the goat. You know you never should be drunk for Isma. [00:49:48] Speaker B: MSI MVP incoming. [00:49:50] Speaker A: True. It could be. It could be. We could live in that world. Unlikely. [00:49:54] Speaker B: But yeah, if I have to see Giant X when I go to MSI this year, I'm going to kind of be sad. No offense to Giant X, but I. I want to see one of these top four teams. [00:50:04] Speaker A: Yes, 100%. Well, we'll at least get G2 so we won more of the top four. [00:50:09] Speaker B: Yeah, my bad. I already forgot about that. [00:50:12] Speaker A: But with that said, top four teams. But Yanni, if you could recommend anybody leave a number of star reviews. Probably number above 4 I would guess. Do you have a number in mind of how many stars they should leave us on the review? [00:50:26] Speaker B: Well the good news is when you go to leave stars if you want to leave above a 4, you can't leave it a 4.1 on most platforms. The only thing you can do is go higher all the way whole hog. So let me, let me think. Four, five stars baby. Let's do it it. [00:50:47] Speaker A: If you could leave a whole hog five for us wherever you can leave a review, greatly appreciate it. Helps us get noticed, helps us grow the podcast as best we can. And of course we do this for everybody who listens along in the community. Thank you so much for joining me to Badger and Yanni. And thank you so much everybody for tuning in. [00:51:08] Speaker B: I got one shout out again. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah yeah. Shout out. Collegiate League of Legends finals this Saturday, May 31, 9am Eastern. Oh you know. Yeah, I'm not official part 9am Eastern. Yeah, you know I'm not an official part of the broadcast so I can laugh at that. Yeah. But you should still watch because it's going to be an awesome powerhouse matchup between Maryville University. If you don't know, Yuji was recently on that team versus Ole Miss. Ole Miss has been a very lovable. [00:51:40] Speaker A: Ole Miss made it to finals. [00:51:42] Speaker B: Ole Miss made it to finals, baby. I'm so happy. I'm so proud of those guys. I'm excited to get absolutely faced with Collamer and Raleigh. [00:51:51] Speaker A: Dude, that sounds awesome. I wish I could join you but have a fun. [00:51:54] Speaker B: You got better. [00:51:55] Speaker A: Thank you for the shout out, everybody. Go check out Collegiate League of Legends if you want to. But a reminder again, everybody who tuned in that regardless of you watch CeeLo, regardless of even if you watch LTR LEC, the fact that that you are hearing us give this address now means that we love you and we'll see you next time. [00:52:13] Speaker C: Bye, everyone. [00:52:16] Speaker A: Oh, yes, Daddy. [00:52:17] Speaker B: Oh, yes, Daddy. [00:52:32] Speaker A: Sam. [00:52:57] Speaker B: It.