League Rundown - Episode 564: Trust the process

[00:00:12] Speaker A: Gets hit. Kimmy kids 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. The Nexus hello and welcome to episode 564 of the League Rundown. This is your 2025 LEC LTA Split 2 Playoffs Week 2 review. This episode is lovingly entitled Trust the Process. I'm your host Kangas and I'm joined by one esteemed co host. We only got one today because there's a lot of other playoffs going on with other leagues at a lot of our podcast members are on but we have rejoining us again. It's rmc, baby. [00:01:36] Speaker B: You know Kangas, I know it's been a while since I've been back, but you know, I didn't, I didn't feel like we needed to make it this special that I get a solo episode. You know? [00:01:43] Speaker A: You know what? I just wanted you to have a full platform to make up for the lost time. You know, just because otherwise you're, you know, if there's two other people, you're only getting like 25% of the time to talk. I wanted to give you a full 50. 50. [00:01:55] Speaker B: Fair enough. So I guess we're talking all TSL tonight. [00:01:58] Speaker A: You know what? We actually could, we definitely could less relev for right now because we're not gonna have any overlap between the, the regions conferences. But as we head into msi that will become very, very important because we're gonna need to know what's going on down there. But the big thing is LPL playoffs are going on. So like Yanni Mazel, both busy with LPL playoff stuff. A lot of the guests that we would usually have on are also busy with LTA playoffs and also LPL playoffs. And then Badger just didn't want to come. He was busy with. I don't remember what it was. Badgers just busy tonight. Oh yeah, yeah. But we have the two of us and we'll get through the episode just fine. A couple global news things to cover up first. Usually we do like the LPL LCK updates. We don't really have that actually, you know, LCP update. You actually brought a story here because something fun happened in the lcp, right? [00:02:52] Speaker B: Yeah, because I think LCP was like one of the first regions to sit to qualify one with the representatives. So they just had their upper finals this last weekend and it was between CFO and Talon. So CTBC flying Oysters and that was our first reverse sweep under the full Fearless system. As far as I can tell. I believe so if I'm wrong, somebody correct. [00:03:15] Speaker A: Spent some time looking at it. We haven't had that many best of fives in full Fearless, but from what you could find like an lpl, lck, lcp, lta, south and north, we haven't had. [00:03:26] Speaker B: We haven't had five games. [00:03:29] Speaker A: But from what you could tell, this was the first reverse sweep, which is kind of cool. I like that. I think that Fearless adds such a different element and I think reverse sweeps theoretically in my opinion should be like more common. But I don't know, maybe the counter argument would be like the better teams will have the bigger champ pools anyway. But my thought process is like some of the best teams only play one style. So if you get them off that style, theoretically other teams should have a chance. [00:03:54] Speaker B: And I think for me personally for Fearless 2, one of the benefits I was thinking of is that you can actually play strategically where you kind of throw certain games. If you, if the other team gets too many meta champions or OP champions, you can just throw the game and just burn those champions and just pick all the other meta champions that don't work together just to get it out of the system potentially. [00:04:10] Speaker A: Didn't that happen somewhere? I remember seeing something on Twitter about a team drafting like five mid laners just to fuck over the mid lane champ. [00:04:20] Speaker B: I think it was. Was it NACL last year when they were doing the modified. When we were playing with the modified Fearless last year and I think it was 80 carries that they were burning through. They were playing ad carries like top mid bot. [00:04:34] Speaker A: I remember something this year. I don't remember what region it was, but that is something that like I would love to see teams explore more. Especially like, we'll talk about it later. But if you're like a dignitas playing against a team Liquid dude, how funny would it have been if game one you just say draft, Ziggs, Tristana, Taliyah, Arelli and Sol, you're going to lose the game. But Apa will have nothing to play for the rest of the season. [00:05:00] Speaker B: If you're gonna do that, you have to mute Apa though, just to watch him maul. [00:05:05] Speaker A: That would have been the funniest possible thing. They could have done. Instead, they gave us, weirdly enough, the closest series that we had. All lta playoffs so far. Again, we'll cover that later. But cool to say that LCP had a reverse sweep and that Flying Oysters are making it into msi. [00:05:24] Speaker B: Yeah. So there's actually more to that story because not only did they pull the reverse swee, but the way it happened felt like something out of a movie. So apparently Talon was up 2 0. And at that time, Dogo, the ad carry for CFO was just like, okay, Hong Kyu, mid laner. The young prodigy mid laner. Like, we're losing. You know, we're struggling. We don't know what to do. Just pick whoever you feel like playing and just stomp. And Hong Kyu just goes like, I want Camille. And apparently the whole team freaked out because he's never practiced Camille with the team. And apparently he's not playing it in solo queue either. And Hongq is a mid laner, so everybody's like, what are you talking about? And your coach Chow is just like, okay, if that's what you want, I trust you. Go for it. So they picked first times Camille with the team and actually won. And that was the start of the comeback story. [00:06:07] Speaker A: What was the matchup? What was the mid lane he was playing against? [00:06:09] Speaker B: Oh, I can't remember. [00:06:11] Speaker A: Let me see if I can see maybe rise. Like, what would Camille be really good into? [00:06:15] Speaker B: See, the. The story came out after. So I don't know if like he even like, I don't know if they just randomly chose to do it or whether that's crazy. [00:06:23] Speaker A: That's like a caps, hey, pick me vein kind of moment right there. Yeah, sorry. Looking it up right now. [00:06:33] Speaker B: I'm trying to find it right now. [00:06:34] Speaker A: But yeah, I feel like it had to have been some kind of mage because like, otherwise, even like Cassiopeia, I don't know if you'd want to play Camille into. Because my ass was annoying. [00:06:44] Speaker B: Oh, it was the inter silus. [00:06:48] Speaker A: Oh, okay. No, that would work. Yeah. Silas cannot handle Camille. Oh, God. Okay. You know what? I like it. That sounds kind of fun. A first timing it on stage, much more bold. But I guess that means that we can expect some fun things from CFO come MSI time because, yes, they did qualify in as well as G2 was the team that qualified last year. [00:07:09] Speaker B: I think G2 was the first team to qualify. Right. So it's funny because I saw the story like on my. On my timeline from Chison, who's like, who was in Charge of the LCP in the past, back when it was PCs. But I'm looking at the scoreboard now and it says it's game four, not game three, that they did that with the Camille. [00:07:27] Speaker A: Oh, interesting. [00:07:28] Speaker B: But yeah, well, I mean they're still. [00:07:30] Speaker A: Backs against the wall. They still had to win that game regardless. But that's cool. That's cool to see. Yeah. And again, let us know in the community discord if we're wrong and there has been another reverse sweep in Tier one. We weren't able to find another instance of it. But yeah, we, I, I was thinking about taking some time to do a LTA south update but because we're gonna do a bigger in depth update coming into msi. Can you just give me like spark notes? Like what's going on in playoffs? Like is, is it going according to expectations? Is Jose Deodo out? Because I know that that was like a big thing that their team wasn't doing well. [00:08:06] Speaker B: They actually survived. Jose Deodo seems to still win it. He's on the lower bracket for now, but they are improving and they're up against a struggling Vivocade Stars. I mean it feels kind of similar to what's happened in North. The teams are expected to win. Are winning for the most part. I mean you can argue Shopify versus 100 Thieves. We'll talk about that later. But I think by and large the south is kind of going as expected. So nothing too, too crazy in the actual playoffs. There's lots of craziness happening outside of playoffs. Teams that have lost have decided to completely wipe out their teams and restart their rosters. [00:08:38] Speaker A: Oh, but that's interesting. [00:08:40] Speaker B: Yeah, that. That will be more for the off season. I guess. [00:08:43] Speaker A: I was thinking about that. That like so, so one piece of information. I guess we can just get into kind of roster news here. So dsg, we were covering this last week on the pod. DSG making roster moves already. They confirmed dropped Abadaga. I don't remember if by this time last week we had confirmed that Scary Jerry was benched, but Scary Jerry's benched and they have now already confirmed Rahel from SK is going to be coming over to D. The AD carry that they picked up and theoretically like that that takes up an import slot. Abadaga was an import. So they now Rahel takes Abadaga's position and then they have Castle. Of course they need to have somebody who doesn't take an import slot mid. I was thinking they probably get a Brazilian player. Like if there's not big Mid lane prospects here in NA that they're confident in. I know Toasty is the one that everyone talks about. I think there would be high likelihood. But Toasty got signed to Dart a team. I forgot their. Their name, the org that he's on. But they are. They're legitimately trying to qualify into the lta. Like, that's that org's goal. So I don't think they'd want to give up Toasty to the team that they're competing with for the spot. [00:09:55] Speaker B: Dark Zero as like the second roster for. [00:09:57] Speaker A: Yeah, Dark Zero. There we go. Okay. Yep. [00:09:59] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:09:59] Speaker A: So I don't think Dark Zero is inclined to give up Toasty to their competitor that they're trying to take the spot from. So I think it's more likely that DSG actually grabs a Brazilian mid laner. Are there any Brazilian mid laners that you think might be on the market right now? [00:10:12] Speaker B: Actually, funny thing, it's rumor. Okay, so there's the guy who's often called Brazilian faker. Tenones like that 10 ons that kaboomed alliance he posted on Twitter today, like a sad face. And the last time he did something like that was when he left Pain for Loud. So people are wondering if he might be getting dropped from loud. Potentially. Loud is having their own internal issues as well. No, no, nothing confirmed yet. This is all strictly rumor. [00:10:38] Speaker A: Okay. Yep. Just rumors. [00:10:40] Speaker B: Last year, when the merger was happening, tenants reminded people, hey, I can speak English. So I'm just saying, like, if. [00:10:46] Speaker A: If Tenones ESG would be wild. Yeah. [00:10:51] Speaker B: Because him and RoboBo were the two people they. People were thinking might end up in the north after the merger. [00:10:57] Speaker A: Yeah. So, I mean, that makes more sense to me than Abadaga. And if you have now Rahel as kind of your. Your firepower in the bot lane, I think a player like 10 ounce could actually fit what they need. So. [00:11:10] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:11:10] Speaker A: Interesting. Interesting. Well, keep your eyes out, everybody. I haven't heard anybody else talking about the potential of a Brazilian player coming in to dsg. Yeah. But I think that that's something that is on my mind. I'm like, I feel like that makes a bit of sense. So that was the only roster news that I saw. Did you see anything else for roster. [00:11:29] Speaker B: News from the north? Not that. No, that I can think of. [00:11:34] Speaker A: And I know we already covered leaving Vitality next or from last week's episode, so there was like a whole thing he. He came out with mutually parting ways. So go check that out. Otherwise, a couple other fun things happened. We know where LTA split three finals is gonna be. It is official. A roadshow is coming to the North. This is where we will see the the north and the south teams compete for seeding going into worlds. So the first place finishers from the north and the south will the. The way that they get slotted into the bracket automatically guaranteed that they'll go to worlds. It's just undecided if they're. They'll be third, second or first seed. And then every other team from the north and south is fighting for that one other spot available for. For world's representation but that's going to be in Texas. So shout out Texas I believe. Was it Dallas? Dallas? [00:12:33] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:12:33] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:12:33] Speaker B: There's been a ton of league related events in Dallas this year. Like a lot of collegiate stuff happened in Dallas too. [00:12:38] Speaker A: So interesting. I know that a Call of Duty major or Call of Duty, like championship, something happened in Dallas. I know that there was like a TFT event in Dallas. So yeah, clearly esports. Dallas is like really trying to get esports to go there. It seems like it's been successful at the venue so far. So I'm excited to go. I think it's gonna be a lot of fun. [00:12:58] Speaker B: Yeah, I'm just happy like road shows and stuff like that will be happening too. [00:13:01] Speaker A: Like are you planning to go? Do you think you can make it? [00:13:04] Speaker B: I actually just had a conversation on my stream this today. I don't know if I can. I. I generally travel like maybe once a year. I kind of used up my budget doing the NECC in Texas. San Antonio though, not Dallas. So I don't know if I can. And also like I spent more money on the MSI because that's up here in Vancouver which is long term for me. Understandable. I don't know if I can make it to LTA north finals or LTA Finals. [00:13:30] Speaker A: Well, if you can, would love to hang out. Wait, what days are you going to msi? I realized we did not coordinate this. Let's just coordinate alive on the pod. Okay, sure. [00:13:38] Speaker B: I have tickets for July 1st and 7th, but I know that there are still tickets for like most days and I live like on this in one of the cities around Vancouver. So. [00:13:48] Speaker A: So I am going the fifth, seventh and eighth. [00:13:52] Speaker B: Hey. Okay. I'm there on the seventh as well so perfect. [00:13:54] Speaker A: All right, so let's hang out on the seventh. [00:13:56] Speaker B: Yeah. But on the other days as well, like again if you, if you want to hang out, if any of y' all want to hang out. Guys, I, I love. [00:14:02] Speaker A: I am down that's Sunday the 8th. I just want to explore. I don't have. I'm not going to the. Well, there is no show on the 8th for some reason. There's like a. A dark day there. But on the 8th, I was like, you know, I'm just gonna like check out downtown. I want to go see the sights, see what it's all about. [00:14:18] Speaker B: Yeah, Vancouver is like a food capital. Like there's a lot of food. Almost any type of cuisine you want, you could probably find here. [00:14:24] Speaker A: Okay. Also, if any members in the community, let me know in the discord if you're going to be there, I would love to say hi at the venue if, if you're there any of those days. Okay, cool. Well, planning aside, there's other news to cover because actually, you know, let's cover the all pro stuff first. LEC did their MVP shout out to upset. Winning MVP for lec. Kana was second. Vladi was third. So two members of KC almost getting in there. Surprised that Kalista actually with how popular he is, didn't get a nod in the top three. I think that that would have made a bit of sense. But upset. I mean, okay, it was an upset. [00:15:08] Speaker B: Apparently I didn't. I don't know. But it does. It does feel like a bit of a surprise. [00:15:13] Speaker A: Yeah. I feel like if it had been literally like call list con of Vladi, I would have been like, okay, sure. Like I think I put up. Would have probably put like Vladdy first and then like Kana and then Kalist. But upset. Getting first is kind of crazy to me. No members of G2 on here, which is also kind of crazy. I don't know what's going on over in the lec. [00:15:37] Speaker B: How do they decide who's mvp? Like do they vote? Is it like the all pro teams here in lt? [00:15:42] Speaker A: Yeah. So there was a. There's a voting battle. I actually can pull it up right here. So there's broadcast partner, which is like a tag that you can be given which seems to be like, like, like their third party companies to help out with the broadcast. Then there's journalists, there's on air talent, there's pro coach and staff, and then there's pro player. Okay, so each team gets a coach and a staff vote. Each team gets a pro player vote, which actually now that I see that, I think that's the same in na. I think that just do get two technically. One from the coach and then one from the the player. [00:16:23] Speaker B: So they just went collectively scrooge too. [00:16:26] Speaker A: So I'm looking here. So, like, first place, I'm seeing, like, upset. Upset. Collist Khan of Lady Upset Kana. Upset Kalist. Kana. Kalist Kana. Vladi Khanna Carlson. What the hell's up? That's crazy. So it actually is a pretty big spread with a lot of callists up here. Then second place, I'm seeing a lot of Kalists. Third place, I'm not seeing any Colette. Maybe like one or two. I honestly don't know how Kalist didn't get on the top three. That kind of doesn't make sense to me. But Upset had, I think, still the majority of second votes and then enough first to just get him in there. [00:17:09] Speaker B: Wow. Okay. [00:17:10] Speaker A: That's how it looks like when I'm looking at the. The ballot here. So you know what? Cool. Good for Upset. We'll talk a little bit more about how their lower bracket run went in a bit here. But lta, we had our All Pro actually announced. We did a full All Pro here in the North. First team All Pro. You want me to. You want to run me through it here? Rmc. Who. Who got it? For anybody who has not heard yet. [00:17:34] Speaker B: Okay, so on the first team All Pro, we had Bwipo inspired quad Masu and Busio, so. Oh, my bad. Yeah, that's the first. That's not first team, Oprah. That's just the first team in the regular season. My bad. Let me. Let me check again. It's Bwipo inspired quad Masu Busio for first. [00:17:51] Speaker A: That's still just Fly Quest. There's no way they got all of them. Did they? [00:17:57] Speaker B: Yeah, they did. I have feelings about that, actually. Now is the time to talk about it. I think Jan was robbed. [00:18:04] Speaker A: Yeah. So we had talked about this on the podcast. I'm pretty sure, if I remember correctly, somebody can check me because the votes are public. I'm pretty sure I still put Yawn first on my ballot, but most people still just thought that Masu had it, I guess. And, you know, to really double down on your anger that Jan didn't get it, second team was Sanitos, Blabber quid, Sven, Vulcan, so C9, but then quid instead of Loki. So Jan didn't even get second team all pro 80 carry. [00:18:35] Speaker B: It's. It's just so wrong. I. I don't understand it. Like, look, okay, I'm not saying Masu or Sven are bad, but it's like Yohn just does so much. Like, that man is like a hard, hard carry. And Masu, on the other hand, like, Sven and Masu have their supports with them. Yone doesn't usually have CoreJJ with him. Like, CoreJJ is there for the beginning, and then after that he's kind of like, okay, you're on your own. And heck, there were games like yuji's debut where CoreJJ didn't even start in lane. He was just like, yo. And you got this right? No, doesn't matter. I'm leaving anyways. And you're on still card carries. [00:19:09] Speaker A: Yeah, I feel like. And it also comes down to the whole, like, Masu is playing on the best team. Sven is playing on the second best team. Now Sven has Thanatos and Loki and Blabber. Masu has, you know, Bwipo and Quad, who I also, I think arguably shouldn't have gotten first team mid, but then even like Inspire too. So like, there's other carries that are threats. I don't think that Yawn on Team Liquid has had much help. There was like maybe two or three games that APA was the primary carry and is why they were able to win the games. But generally it's Yawn that's hard carrying and getting team look at across the finish line. [00:19:48] Speaker B: Yeah, I don't know. I just feel really like. It's really weird that he ended up as third again. Like second I could live with, but third is weird. And then the third all pro team. We should probably talk about that one too, because I think that's the one we'd have the most dispute probably. [00:20:02] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. Run me through it. [00:20:05] Speaker B: Oh, crap. I just closed the window. Sorry. [00:20:07] Speaker A: Okay, I'll just do it. It's Impact. River, Loki, Yan, Core, jj. So Impact, we have been flaming this guy all split and he somehow gets third team all pro Top lane. Now Fudge, I think, is the only legitimate competition. Shout out. Fudge. He actually had a really good turnaround split. We memed the hell out of him last split when he was like hitting Zhonyas in the middle of the jungle with nobody around him. That was. That looked awful. He's actually looked much, much better, this split. And yeah, somehow Impact stole it from him. [00:20:42] Speaker B: I think it just comes down to like, if you're on a winning team, people think you're performing better. Also, Kangas, the reason why I accidentally closed the window was because I was checking the source of it and I did find your ballots. [00:20:52] Speaker A: Okay, what did I do? Fact check me. I'm. I thought I put Jan first. Who did I actually put? [00:20:57] Speaker B: You put Sven first. [00:20:59] Speaker A: Wait, that's crazy. [00:21:00] Speaker B: And you didn't put Yawn second. [00:21:02] Speaker A: Oh, my God. I'm just lying to everybody. [00:21:04] Speaker B: You win, Sven Masu, then Yawn. You're the problem, Cacus. [00:21:10] Speaker A: No, no, actually Yawn. Third pro, third team, all Pro makes a lot of sense to me. I think that that actually is exactly where he should go. And, you know, if you really think about it. Damn. I don't remember, like, who I put where on my bell, but I remember being difficult with bot Lane. I also put a lot of thought into Jungle. Contracts is my third third all pro Jungler. Instead of river, who did get it, I shot a River. I think he also. There's no, like, issue with him being in the conversation too, but I just wanted to give a nod to contracts because I think he's had a great split as well. [00:21:43] Speaker B: So those are the two I kind of agree with where I think they kind of got robbed on. On the third all Pro. Like, I get why it happened again, like, winning team, easier to just say, hey, you know, Impact and River better. But I think especially in light of what we saw in the playoffs too, it's kind of funny to me that, like, yeah, river ends up beating Contracts when he kind of got mugged by Contracts and then. Yeah, well, Impact actually had a good playoff, but yeah, his regular season really didn't feel like he deserved an opera. [00:22:14] Speaker A: Yeah, it's a regular season award. The only category was the fan vote, which is like one column in the entire thing that goes past the regular season. You've. We've. That vote was open through the first weekend of playoffs, but that, like, doesn't skew the numbers that much. [00:22:32] Speaker B: So funnily enough, actually, yeah, 13 all pro for the fan vote was Contracts. [00:22:37] Speaker A: Oh, let's go fan vote based. Well, I mean, I think that first team, second team, third team. There's, like, differences that I would argue, but in general, I don't think this, like, the only egregious one in my mind is Impact. But even then I would. As poor as he looked, still probably put him fourth. Like, Sniper didn't look fantastic either. And like, what are you gonna do? Put Serdi up there? You know, like, top lane was a bit of a rough one for. For this play, but that's how all pro shook out. There was one other big global news thing that we wanted to cover. Let's global more. Just focus on the north here. We were talking about it a little bit before going live, so we already shared some of our thoughts, but I want to kind of read captured that conversation we had. Rmc Because Travis Gafford put out a. A poll. There was like a Twitter post and then a poll and then a full YouTube video about the LTA rebrand and essentially arguing that it's just been a failure and that it should be reverted. Obviously you can't change that. It would be so hard to say that we're two different regions again. Like we can still be one region with two conferences. But the names, the branding, the marketing should go back to LCS the North and then CB as the South. That's been a conversation on a lot of people's minds. I. I want to hear your thoughts on it though, before we. Before I kind of give mine. [00:24:05] Speaker B: Yeah, I. I do think that the. There's no doubt in my mind that unfortunately the LTA rebranding has not really succeeded. And I do agree with what Travis Gaffer was saying that, you know, there's just not. It just was not well executed in the first place and people are not really catching on to it. People are still referring it to us, LCS and CB law. But I just want to remind everybody as well, the merger is not just two regions. There was actually a third region that got completely shafted. LOA existed guys, and it just feels really bad that they don't even mention anymore. The other problem for me right now is the timing of what Travis Gafford's bringing up right now. Look, I get roughly six months in, it's half year, but split wise, we're at the end of split two, which is super weird as well. Or we're not even at the end of split two. We're still in the middle of playoffs or split two, but. But split two is the non cross conference split. So it's kind of hard to talk about the LTA brand when this is not the split where the LTA brand is doing anything. It's like after split one, which is too short and after split three. So while I do think the conversation to be had is valid, perhaps not necessarily at this time, maybe after split three would be a better time to evaluate the full impact of the LTA rebrand and what it means to sort of the respective of regions and conferences involved. [00:25:20] Speaker A: I understand that where you're coming from of like it's a little early to make decisions right now and I do not think in any world they're going to revert back for summer. Like I don't think split three is when a decision would be made, but I think it is. Knowing the riot timeline and riot schedule, I think it's Very important that the conversation starts now, because if it starts at the end of split three, instead of at the end of split two, there's going to be Worlds, and Global Team is the one that's going to be making this decision. At the end of the day, Global is going to be fully focused on Worlds. And then after Worlds, there's like, a month, and then everyone goes on winter break and they have, like, three weeks off. So I. And, like, if they make the decision that they are going to revert it back, they need to use every amount of time that they have after Worlds to be communicating this and getting that. That ball rolling. Because we just saw what happened this past offseason when they made the decision to rebrand. And the only thing that we had between LCS Finals and then the winter break was like a blog post, was like one post that then they put out on their socials. There was a link you went to. It explained everything. There's gonna be this new format. Here's what it is. Like, gonna look more information to come. Months of nothing, and then January rolls around, and then we start talking about it again. But it's like, holy. That, like, if you're gonna do a rebrand of an entire league, like, that is not how I imagined that you would do it. So. Sorry, that be ranting a little bit. [00:27:09] Speaker B: No, no, that. That's valid. I'm just wondering what I say next. Can we put what I say next behind the paywall? Because if I'm gonna get canceled by Ryan, I'd like to at least make somebo. [00:27:18] Speaker A: Pretty sure that Riot will never hear anything that we say here. But to be fair, to be safe, you could also be, you know, hold your words. And also, to be honest, I'm holding back my words a little bit here, too. Anything that I'm saying here is. What I would also say to the Global team is like, I just, man, like, think about the timeline of what. What happened. Like, that was not good. [00:27:39] Speaker B: Okay, I'll put it politely then. I fully agree with you. Yeah, I think that, well, that's fair. That they do need to then put in the time that perhaps they didn't put in initially with the. The first planning of this. This merger. And to think about how they wish to proceed with this merger, that's a diplomatic way of putting what I wanted to say. [00:27:57] Speaker A: Yeah. And I think that is fair, right? Like, it's not, like, that's unwarranted criticism. It's that if you. If this was something that Riot believed in and really Wanted like I would have imagined that there would have been more, you know, muscle behind it, more budget behind it. It now understanding kind of that budget has been tough to come by across the esports industry as a whole. Like not just Riot, but everywhere. That one, it's like, okay, I, I, I understand. But at least like social media push and like making videos and content and like just, just constantly re recycling the same message over and over again and just trying to amplify it as best you can. It really didn't feel like we got that type of push. So that's why I say it's good that the conversation would start now because hopefully that means that that would not happen again. And it's not like a end of split three. Hey, good news. We're going to revert it back. More news to come. Nothing again until January. [00:29:04] Speaker B: So I just fear that it might start prejudicing people prior to that as well. Like the, the discourse around it has been largely negative. Yeah. And understandably, I mean, that's literally the results of the poll state that people weren't happy with the situation. So understandably it's negative. But I do wish that split three will get a fair shake first and we'll see the cross conference and how that works now compared to split one when everybody didn't know what on earth was happening. And then maybe I'm fingers crossed, hoping that the whole Texas thing really works out, that, you know, a lot of the southern fans might come out as well into Texas. I don't know if that's going to be an issue with travel visas and whatnot, but I'm hoping that the turnout is good and that you get to kind of see the passion which I think Riot was hoping to get with the merger. Because the south goes wild, man. Like, people see the videos of what happened at like Worlds and MSI with like the Brazilian fans and all that. Yeah, that's nothing compared to what actually happens in their arenas. Right. Like, people who went down in split one to their inner saw, like the craziness that was happening. Like they are setting off like fireworks and stuff outside on the approach. Like every time Payne walks in for grand finals, like, there are videos of their fans just lighting fireworks, drums with like, it's like a mini festival out there when the teams walk in, you know. [00:30:14] Speaker A: Yeah. And I would love to capture that as well. I don't know if we lose that by changing back the branding because again, the argument is not like a structure thing, it's just a brand and marketing thing. Give CB LOL back. CB lol. Give LCS back. Lcs. [00:30:33] Speaker B: Yeah, but then LCS will never get to see the CB LOL magic. [00:30:38] Speaker A: Well, why would they not? Because, like, if the format stays the same and like we still have the cross conference play, we're still competing for international spots, we still travel down there, they still travel up here. We're just called LCS and CB LOL under the LTA umbrella. And then once we go to international now, boom, we're the Americas again. Like, I, I actually don't see that like detracting necessarily because I think the. [00:31:06] Speaker B: Idea is that if it's CB Law vs LCS, then it will be exactly as it was prior, where CB Law just cares about CB lol. And sure, you might get some people who are fans of the LCS teams the same way we get LCS viewers who are fans of LCK teams, for example. But you won't get the hardcore fandom. And I think, for example, Shopify has tasted a little bit of that fruit with SEOs, right? The viewership for SR games tend to be higher because the south watches a little bit, you know, and they're like when SEOs went down to the south, even though he wasn't playing on the team at the time because of visa issues, right? Like, he gets a lot more of a warmer welcome. And you can imagine what Shopify might get if SEOs is actually playing, you know, and he's actually coming back home, as it were, to Brazil as an example. So I think that was the idea of the LTA was to get the fan base actively invested, which I don't think will happen if it splits the CBLO and ocs. Now, don't get me wrong, personally, I. I am kind of in favor of returning everything to the way it was as well, but I am also willing to kind of wait for Split three out to see if there's any benefit to this merger so far, because I do feel like Split one was not at all a good indicator of what's happening and split two. Again, this is a separate conference split, so this tells us absolutely nothing. And if anything, I think it's certain of nostalgia back to when it was LCS and cblo. And that's why many people are a bit more missing the old days as a rule. [00:32:29] Speaker A: I. The way I see it is I. I want to be authentic to what the fans want. And from what I hear about Brazilian fans is that they don't. They didn't want the merger either. I don't think the majority Again, this is the, the Travis poll that he put out. It was like 3% of people said yes, they're excited about LTA. Like 20 say ambivalent. The rest was like 75, 78 somewhere in that range that were saying no, I hate it. And to me that says, you know, I, maybe that will change over time. But I, I, I don't think that either region wants to be combined with the other one. And I think if we're trying to be authentic storytellers on the broadcast side, I vote lean into that. Like, okay, I think it's fine for us to be rivals, not friends. Like for us to be fighting for the spots to represent our our conference at the international stage as opposed to giving to the other side. And then I think that makes it a bigger deal if you know, Brazilian team is able to make that in because I they're not happy about it. If we're not happy about it, why should we pretend like it's it's fine, you know. Yeah, yeah, that's a lot of time on that topic. But I, I'm happy that we spent that time on that topic because obviously that's a big thing that a lot of people are about talking about have been pondering for the past couple of months. Let us know your thoughts in the community. Discord Also shout outs to some members of the community. I have the updated Community Fantasy points. Apollo still in first place with 1042. Pacific still in second place with 1035. I am still in third with 1014. So I'm I think I caught up a little bit over this past weekend but the fourth place is pretty close behind me as well. So again I could get overtaken at any time here, here. But shout out to everybody in the community who is still actively playing Fantasy if you want to join the community and you have not yet, there's a link in the description wherever you are listening. And also if you want to support the pod, we have a Patreon and we have a merch shop. Links to those are both in the description as well. And with that said, let's hop in. Rmc we got two different regions to cover. We spent a lot of time talking about global news but we also don't have that much to talk about in terms of the regions because we're in playoffs so only a couple of matches happened each way. Start in the north because oh boy, what do we even talk about in the LTA north we had two series and we still have not had a game five. Fearless ah heartbreak on the bright side. [00:35:13] Speaker B: It'S not all according to script or plan. In the north, at least there. There was some surprises to did trip over Dignitas a little bit true. [00:35:25] Speaker A: Slightly. Just slightly. [00:35:27] Speaker B: Just a small trip. [00:35:28] Speaker A: So we had the two series that happened was Team Liquid versus Dig and then Shopify Rebellion versus Hundred Thieves. Out of those two, if you ask anybody, which one do you think is gonna be the closer series? I. If you said TL Dig, I would have questioned your sanity because Shopify Rebellion 100 Thieves seemed like hands down the one that could have gone the full five games. Instead, that was a three victory for Shopify Rebellion. It was not a fluke when they beat 100 Thieves in their earlier best of three this split and then they just kind of crushed them here. The game one was close. Game two had close ish moments. But then game three was just a statement from Shopify. Whereas Dignitas is the one that actually pushed Team Liquid at least to a game four, which is the most we've had. Yike. Which one do you want to start with in terms of just kind of giving your thoughts on the series? [00:36:23] Speaker B: Let's start with TL Day because I think that's the more straightforward one. It's a kind of quick summary. I mean it was expected. Tl they still have their issues. I think Spawn was a little bit more negative than I expected actually about the. The state of tl. I think they performed about where I expected. Like, yeah, they have screw ups, but they're still a strong team. [00:36:43] Speaker A: Yeah. So we had gotten a chance to talk with Spawn and he basically said that like. Like I. I think it's a bit of cope. But he did say that, you know, they're happy to have gotten dropped into lower bracket because every like the team agreed that they weren't in championship winning form. So this gives them more stage games, more best of fives to get specifically Yuji caught up with everybody else. Which fun fact, Yuji played all four games. That's kind of exciting. [00:37:10] Speaker B: Yeah. And I remember like a lot of people were like, oh, you know, well, not a lot of people. Certain specific people with lunch fan bases was basically saying, oh well, better start like packing his bags because he's de. He's done. Yuji played all four games, including the game where they played Sejuani, which is a traditionally an empty champ. I want to highlight that, you know, Spawn already said this was part of the game plan. They picked Yuji because his champion pool overlaps with Shayden's. So they can try and pinch Seiden's pool by having Yuji play. And it's not like Yuji doesn't know how to play Sejuani. [00:37:36] Speaker A: Yeah. So last weekend, when we had interviewed Spawn, he said the plan with Yuji is play two games, and then Umpti comes in for game three, regardless of results. But then the insight that we got from this week was they actually changed that plan. And specifically, like you said, Champion Pool overlapped better with Shaden, so they actually wanted to run Yuji for all of the games to take away some shade and picks, which Sejuani is also a shade and pick. He does like that one too. [00:38:03] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:38:05] Speaker A: So I. I think. Cool. Cool stuff there. In terms of Dignitas's win, that they were able to pick up that one. The comp was just ridiculous, man. Like, Maokai plus Nico meant that they could just like, check any brush at any time with Saplings and the Niko clone. And then Kayney on the Jayce. Those shock blasts were just lethal. It was literally like, we got to a point in the game where it was just, you know, both teams naramming it like normal, and then Kaney just lands, like, three shock blasts, and then Apa just kind of gets picked off by a Maokai ultimate, and then the game's over. Like, okay, cool. But then after that, Team Liquid really brought it back on. It was like, right, okay, ap, you're gonna play Ziggs, and you're gonna play Tristana, and that's gonna be it. But game four was actually kind of exciting with Impact. Impact actually had a pretty good series. The Renekton game was awesome. And then Silas, he pulled out freaking Silas for game number four. [00:39:09] Speaker B: I mean, if it is a really good pick into the gnar. It just felt like out of left field because was it. It's not an Impact Champion. And I know. Has Impact ever even played that champion before? [00:39:19] Speaker A: I think it was his first time since he played on EG. I want to say it was spring 2023. Production was talking to us about that during the series when. When it was locked in. So it had been a very long time. But props where it's due. I know I. I've been very critical of Impact, but he did look very good in that series, and it was cool to see the Silas come out. [00:39:40] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:39:42] Speaker A: But that means Dignitas out his stylus, though. [00:39:44] Speaker B: You know what? The win. He's played it. Okay. You're right. He hasn't played it since, like, 2021 in Ichi. But you know what? His win rate is on the champion. [00:39:52] Speaker A: Was it 4 0? Why am I thinking 4 0? [00:39:55] Speaker B: Yeah, because it was 40 till this last weekend and now he's made it 5 0. It's 100. [00:40:02] Speaker A: Baby. Let's go. [00:40:03] Speaker B: Yeah. The other thing I really like too was Yawn's affiliate Slowly. [00:40:07] Speaker A: Yeah, it was a really good Felix. It was Lulu, right? [00:40:11] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, into Lucian as well. Like into Lucian. You're a little bit afraid that fellows just gets run over in lane. But the. The comp that Dignitas is trying to play, it was very short ranged besides the Lilia like scroll seed. So like the. The failures pick when it came through, like, I don't even think of Aphelios anymore in the bot lane. Like when you talk about bottling champions, like, Aphelios is not even on my list. And when he picked it, I was like, wait, this actually genius spawn is brilliant. [00:40:39] Speaker A: It worked. It actually worked very well. And it got Team Liquid their win, which means that they continue in the lower bracket. And a fun story that we were following kind of on the broadcast side. This is the potential to be the exact same lower bracket run for Team Liquid as they had last spring. They got knocked into the lower bracket. [00:41:00] Speaker B: It. [00:41:01] Speaker A: And then they played Dig and then they played. Oh, they might have played Hundred Thieves actually. So I think 100 thieves losing actually ruins that because now it's Shopify Rebellion instead. Actually, no, no, because. Because I think it was NRG They. They beat. They beat Dig and then I think they beat nrg, which technically is just Shopify Rebellion because of Contracts and Palifax. I'll have to double check that again. But either way, I think it's funny that like Team Liquid could just do the run back again on another way. [00:41:31] Speaker B: I'm pretty sure it was 100 thieves because the way that y' all were talking about it on broadcast, it looked like mirror for mirror matchups all the way through. [00:41:39] Speaker A: But it was reliant on Shopify Rebellion 100 Thieves series going the correct way. [00:41:43] Speaker B: Which I don't remember correct. [00:41:45] Speaker A: Which way that needed to go correct. [00:41:46] Speaker B: Was Hundred Thieves winning was what should have broadcast. And then. [00:41:50] Speaker A: Well, you're. You're. I don't trust my own memory after the whole Yawn fiasco. [00:41:55] Speaker B: I remember that specifically because I am an SR supporter and I was hoping SR would win. When y' all were like so confident that 100 thus was going to win, I was like, I don't know about that one. [00:42:06] Speaker A: Yeah, feel so vindicated. Well, let's talk about shopify rebellion then. Cuz. They had a 3. 0. Holy dude. I think the only game that was really entertaining here was game one, right? Like 100 Thieves were in a lead. But then B voice Senna, dude, that scaling was ridiculous. [00:42:25] Speaker B: And I've said this before, B Boy and CEOs are a good bot Lane. I think they. They were struggling with kind of how the team needed them to play. Like, B Boy is not necessarily like your huge carry player. He's not your yawn. Right. But give him a good foundation that he can just play an ad carry in a teamfight and he won't carry you. And that's kind of what happened when you give him senna. Also, I often say this, but when two teams play the exact same style, which this was looking like it was going to be both them kind of want to brawl. If both teams are throwing rock, Whoever throws rock harder wins. And that's why I felt like the series broke down the way it did. Like watching that game one, I was like, if 100 Thieves do not change their play style and they keep brawling, Shopify just beat them in game one. They're going to beat them the remaining games. And that's. That was how it felt like it happened. Like, first time Shopify beats them, it's close. And then after that, they're like, okay, we got the hang of this. We've got the confidence. We'll beat you harder. And then by game three, Shopify Rebel. Sorry, 100 Thieves still didn't change their stock. Well, they still went for like a brawl comp. And by then, no one's just like, okay, okay, but with smolder. [00:43:25] Speaker A: And then they just bent over and lost everything because they still brought with it. [00:43:30] Speaker B: You've got a smolder sit back and scale. And they were just throwing themselves in. [00:43:33] Speaker A: Like anno sniper's ribbon too. His 100 win rate finally lost a game on it. That was tough. Yeah, yeah. [00:43:44] Speaker B: And. [00:43:44] Speaker A: And I actually echo that. I do remember saying on the podcast last week that this. I thought it was going to be like a 3 go either way. Either 100 Thieves 3 oh Shopify or Shopify 3 ohs 100 Thieves. So I went the 100 Thieves route, but I was like, if 100 Thieves lose, I think it's a 3.0for Shopify. It was exactly that. Yeah. I think that both these teams are pretty swingy when it comes to series. So yeah, that was LTA north this past weekend. That means that ahead of us, Team Liquid and Shopify Rebellion advance in the playoffs in the lower bracket. And Will have a Best of 5 days Date this coming weekend. But first, we have the upper bracket with Fly Quest versus C9. Let's talk expectations and predictions here. We both have FlyQuest taking it. I actually have a 3.0. Okay. For my prediction, you have a 3. 2. You think it's gonna be close. And my 3.0 is predicated on the fact that every time I think a series gonna be close, it's not. And it's a sweep anyway. So I'm just like it. Let's just go with that trend. I have no analysis here. I'm just. I'm used to being disappointed at this point. [00:44:51] Speaker B: That's right. I still have hope and I'm hoping we get our first game five. [00:44:54] Speaker A: Dude, I would love it. I hope that you're right. I'm also trying to do a bit of a reverse curse here. So hopefully if I predict three. Oh, then we'll get five games. [00:45:01] Speaker B: But fair enough. Yeah. Because I don't think the other one's gonna go five games. So I'm hoping this. [00:45:06] Speaker A: Yeah. Team Liquid versus Shopify. Wait, what I have with three. Oh, you have Shopify three. One. Okay. Wow, you really are a Shopify believer. I am. [00:45:18] Speaker B: Shopify is a Canadian company, and B Boy and Serious are from the South. Like, okay, I know B Boy is technically Korean, but he most recently played in the South. Yeah. And I think they're a good team. And more importantly, look, if Palafox stops inting, I genuinely think Shopify is actually a good team. And this. That series against Hundred Thieves, Palafox not only stopped inting, the man was a hero. So if he pulls that crap against. [00:45:40] Speaker A: APA when I winnable, I'm happy you bring that up because that's something we hadn't covered yet. Fudge had a good series again, and then Palafox had his first fantastic series. Yeah. Outside of like mistiming the Annie's stun off of the sniper's tp, like he just didn't quite hit it and then dies. That was like the only big oopsie that happened in that series. He got a pentakill to close out the series on the victor, which is awesome. Awesome. So I actually do agree that, like, now that Contracts has two solo laners that he can rely on, he also looks much better. But I still. I need to see more tape from pal Fox before I believe fully. [00:46:22] Speaker B: That's fair. [00:46:22] Speaker A: Yes. That was one good look. But I. That's not enough for me to say, like, oh, he's back. [00:46:26] Speaker B: Yeah, no, that's right. For. Actually funnily enough about pal Fox there. There's a player in the south called House who's actually currently in Tier 2 and just got knocked out this week. But House is known as like the. The regular season. Like he's. He's a mid laner. He's great in the regular season and then he chokes in playoffs like randomly. So some people were saying that pilot Fox is the reverse house where he just like sandpaths the entire regular season and in playoffs he just randomly clutches out certain games. [00:46:52] Speaker A: That's pretty funny. And also I. This is an old narrative at this point, but there was this running bit that like APA struggles into pal Fox. Palafox is like a really good matchup versus apa. Now that was was rookie split APA like two summers ago. But still, you know, maybe. Maybe there's something there. [00:47:11] Speaker B: Yeah. With Yuji, maybe he gets that. That feel of rookie. You know, back with his Maryville compatriot. You know, who knows? [00:47:18] Speaker A: Think about UG's run. By the way, outside of Shaden, Yuji had to play against blabber and now he's gonna play against contracts two of like the na goats right now. He hasn't played inspired yet, but if he has to play inspired that's gonna be crazy. But yeah, Yuji's really got the gauntlet ahead of him here. [00:47:35] Speaker B: Oh, contracts once already. Albeit with the help of core jj. [00:47:38] Speaker A: But you know what? Actually that's a very good point. I forgot that this was the matchup that core JJ just made contracts life miserable. [00:47:46] Speaker B: Yeah, I don't think it happens the second time though. I 100 don't believe. [00:47:49] Speaker A: Yeah, you don't. Dude, if I want Core Game 1, if. If Shopify don't ban Poppy. I just want him to hover Poppy and then not pick it. Just get in their head. Just like with them, you know, if. [00:48:01] Speaker B: They do that, I want a camera on Revan the entire time. [00:48:05] Speaker A: Oh, did you just do the air guitar again? [00:48:08] Speaker B: Remember the best reactions win or lose. [00:48:10] Speaker A: Like when his teams rapid reactions are fantastic. Oh yeah. Okay, cool. Well, that's lta north this past weekend and expectations for next weekend. So now it's time to hop across the pond and talk LEC because LEC has been going through their playoffs much faster. They've had three series a weekend and that means that they're gonna have their finals this coming weekend. It's. It's happening. It's right around the corner. Like holy crap. Yeah, that was fast. So the. The series that we saw this past weekend we had Fnatic vs GX KC vs Team Heretics as Fnatic and KC both got knocked it down from the upper bracket to play against their opponents there. And then we did see Fnatic vs KC Fanatics EX and KCT. MeritX went basically how we expected it. I thought Casey would look a little better against Team Heretics. I actually think that was probably the closest series in terms of just like overall gameplay. Fnatic just had a big oopsie team fight vs. GX and then got Giga punished for it. But that game was close and they probably should have won it anyway. They just had like missed time to engages. But then Fnatic vs KC is the one I really want to talk about because what the hell happened, Fnatic? Man, like, wow, that was just sad to watch. [00:49:33] Speaker B: It's funny because we talk about Fnatica as a team that like makes mistakes. We don't expect them to take series that clean. It just felt like all their mistakes got concentrated into one series and Karma and Corp just like opened a can of a pass onto them for that. Like every single mistake, they're just absolutely punished. [00:49:49] Speaker A: So game one, it was Kanna and Yike, I think that were the big ones for me. Their team fighting was so clean. Callist also a Draven and got like an early cash. You just couldn't get be touched the rest of the game. But like, it was Kana and Yike in Teamfight specifically that I wanted to highlight versus Fnatic. There was this one where it's like. I want to say, oh, man, I'm blanking now on what their comps were for game one. Let me, let me. It was so. It was, yeah, it's the Jason, the Wukong and like Kana gets a little split from the team. This is around Dragon. They're fighting and Khan is like over the wall. Not the Dragon wall, but the wall, like on the right side approach to Dragon and he's getting chased by the Pantheon and the Scion and it's like any other team. Like, if I'm watching lta north team, I'm like, oh, they're just gonna sack the Jace and probably like try and get the Dragon or just run away. But no, Yikes says, fuck it, I'm going in, baby. And he like goes in his Wukong. It just saves Kata's life. They turn it around and actually kill Razork. And it was like a huge moment. I was like, okay, that was cool. And then like Kalist and Vladdy were just free firing his Draven and Hui the rest of the fight. So that was really cool to see. Just like how they navigated the team fights. Also shout out Kana who stole a dragon with Chase, which was just random and then helped him get soul which is a kind of a win condition for them there. Game two though, Vladdy pulls out the Zoe. Dude, Zoe was filthy good. Red didn't like have the insane KDA or like the big carry, just the stats. But if you watch the gameplay, those bubbles were just setting up every play basically. And then Humanoid just couldn't side lane as rise like he was. He just like never actually went to the sideline. He was always trying to group up but like they're trying to engage into a Gallio Xin Zhao and like every time they threw out engages, they just couldn't do anything. And then Humanoid just short range rise just getting blasted by his own and just like couldn't fight. And then game three, it like Fnatic got ahead early. They had like a three for one and Razor gets really ahead on the Nefiri. But then they just like don't contest Grubs despite having the early lead. And then they're like hovering grubs and then they get chased down and just die after Grubs are taken anyway and it's like what the hell? And then they like get a pick by the the bear and they almost like, like get back into the game because Vladi just dies. But then Yike steals the Barrett. Like Casey are back in it and then they win the game. It's like what the guys like Fnatic what happened? Like you're. You're not team fighting well. You're not split pushing or playing the side lanes well. You're losing random objectives to like junglers and even like Jay like it just felt like Fnatic fell apart everywhere in this series. Series. [00:52:41] Speaker B: Yeah. Again, all their mistakes just concentrated into one series and they just got absolutely dumped on. Now do I think that they beat Carmine Corp on another day? No. But not. Not all three like this. Like this. This was just. Yeah. [00:52:55] Speaker A: Also not. [00:52:56] Speaker B: Oh yeah. I want to highly say like the fact I know that this is playoffs and that the MVP was like a regular season vote. But come on. The watching coal list. Yeah, series as well. 921-8-6, 9 to 11 against upset. [00:53:10] Speaker A: It was incredible. Kalis had a great performance. His Kalista was great. And I think that yeah, upset. There was a really funny meme that was going into the series. It Was like, like yike. Rookie split wins the split kist. Rookie split wins the split upset split 17. Trust the process. It's actually what inspired the title for this episode. He still has yet to make that push. Very, very funny. Very, very funny. He won mvp. Did not win out in the lower bracket. Casey made quick rework of Fnatic with a you know what three zero, you. [00:53:52] Speaker B: Know what upset needs. Instead of trusting process, he needs the run it down tea from the league rundown shop. [00:53:59] Speaker A: Oh, that would actually work great. You know, we'll get that shipped over to him. Oh my God. So that's how last the weekend for LEC went again. I think that the KC team Heretics game was actually the one that I liked the most. So if you want to go back and watch one like Fnatic Casey, it was just watching fanatics struggle. So that one I didn't have as much fun watching. But I think KCT Meritics. I'll give nods to that surprisingly close surprise. So let's talk about this coming weekend then. MKOI versus kc. We get the rematch, baby. The winner of this will go to MSI because the top two from EU make it and then also the winner gets the challenge G2 for the title. I actually, I don't even know if they give a title out anymore. Technically it's not like a split. Like you don't get a. I don't think you get a trophy because I think the trophy's only at the end of the year now for pretty much everybody. Like that was the big change. Change. But you're split two winner, which is kind of cool unless other EU fans know. I, I weirdly I don't like watch the ceremony after the games. I just watch the games. I'm like cool and go on and do other stuff. So I never saw if they actually picked up trophies last year. But it is going to be McCoy versus Casey to kick things off. Predictions wise, we both agree KC3 or 3 2. So we think it's gonna be close, but we think Casey takes it, which I gotta say, mazel would be very disappointed in both of us because he really believes in JoJo European. [00:55:31] Speaker B: Yeah. And the thing is, the last time these two teams met in the playoffs, it was the only five game series in the OEC playoffs and it was McOil who took it 3:2 at that time. So I kind of get it. Maybe it's recessy by okay, not maybe it is recency bias for me. Like watching Casey, you know, more recently makes me feel like they've improved. And you know, also the last I saw McOil was up against G2 which. Which understandable. Like it is GT so to be fair, I think it's recey bias. It could go either way. I. I wouldn't be surprised if it's 3:2. Either way. I think it is very close. I'm just feeling a bit more Casey. [00:56:06] Speaker A: Right now seeing how K and Yike are playing the map together and then just considering that it's vlad and kist versus yes, JoJo's good but Supa like I think. I think that Casey should take this Koi hit rolled high. They hit hard the last time they played against each other in the series. But I don't think that's gonna happen again. I actually wouldn't even be surprised if it was like a or a three one. Like really I'm giving generosity to. I'm Koi saying three two. But realistically I think it's. It's maybe even like more one sided for Casey. [00:56:39] Speaker B: Okay. I would be surprised if it's 3 0. I think I'd be okay with like any other outcome. Pretty much, yeah. [00:56:46] Speaker A: I mean I hope it's not three. I hate three zeros. I feel like game fives is the whole reason that we do this. Speaking of. And yet winner of this goes on to play G2. Don't think we're getting a game five. [00:56:58] Speaker B: Well, what exactly do you predict? Not just not a game 5 Kangas but sorry, what exactly do you just say you hated? [00:57:04] Speaker A: I hate 3 O's and I got G2 30 in Casey in the finals. Regardless of who makes it finals, I think they're gonna 3 0. G2 have just been scaling and looking much better. Caps is back in form. I think that finally, finally they're figuring out kind of how they want to play junk jungle as G2. So skewmon's getting on the same page as everybody else. Labrov hasn't had as many in games. And then Hansama Broken blade are still Hansaman Broken blade. So I think that G2 are kind of like scaling up at the right moment right now that they should be able to take it. [00:57:39] Speaker B: That's fair. [00:57:40] Speaker A: That said, KC3 0 is probably gonna happen now just to completely ruin my reputation. [00:57:45] Speaker B: Yeah, that'd be hilarious to did I gave GT3 one like I gave one game to Casey because in my head it was like MCOID took a game off G2. And I'm saying that G2 and G2 has been improving. But I'm saying KCB Temcoy. So sure, they get at least one game as well. Right? So hence. [00:58:04] Speaker A: Okay, yeah, fair enough. [00:58:05] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:58:06] Speaker A: Or we get a little circle of suck. You never know. Although I guess that circle of suck would mean that. How would that work if G2 beats Koi, but KC beats Koi? That's not a circle. That's just like a child. Yeah, that's just bullying. Yeah. Okay. Well, I guess it kind of falls apart either way. That's our thoughts and expectations going in to this weekend for lec. Make sure to check out the finals for LEC because they'll get a little longer break before going into msi. But the big one is that on Saturday, MCO versus KC will determine the second. Second team from EU to represent the region at msi. I would love it if it's coy. Don't get me wrong. Because then JoJo, we get to see JoJo at MSI. And that would be, I think, just cinema. [00:58:54] Speaker B: Come home, JoJo. Back to Canada. I know. [00:58:57] Speaker A: Yeah. And he's motivated to do it too. He had an interview over there where he was like, dude, I gotta go home. Like, I gotta. I gotta win and go home. Like, this is the biggest opportunity. So clearly they're motivated. I think that Koi, maybe they pull an upset. But I still, still, definitely favor Casey here. But let us know if you agree or disagree and why by voicing your opinion in the community. Discord again, Link in the description wherever you are. Listening along. Rmc, thanks so much for coming on. Dude, it was. It was, you know, episodes. [00:59:26] Speaker B: Was just the two of us. [00:59:27] Speaker A: Can always sometimes or always sometimes. That's just oxymoron. Can sometimes be difficult. I had a lot of fun with this one. I think this was great. [00:59:34] Speaker B: I'm glad that I could entertain someone. Kind of get. [00:59:37] Speaker A: Did we have a two man podcast already together? I feel like we did, right? I want to say crazy. [00:59:44] Speaker B: You know what, Kangas? [00:59:45] Speaker A: I'm crazy. [00:59:46] Speaker B: I'm gonna say no because it feels like I never get enough of you. So we couldn't possibly have had a two man. [00:59:52] Speaker A: Damn, butter me up. That was a. That was a good. That was a good line right there. You know what? I would actually rate that like a five out of five. Honestly, no notes. Which coincidentally is what you should leave this podcast review if you have the time. Drop us five stars or thumbs up whatever you can on whatever platform you're listening. It really helps us get noticed. But with that being said, that's it from the league rundown for another episode. Thanks so much for tuning in. Everybody remember that we love you and we'll see you next time. Oh, yes, Daddy. Usually people say bye, so I was waiting for you to say bye, but I was like, all right. Why? Just got hit it, Sam.