League Rundown - Episode 570: The last split of LTAN (cope)

[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. The Nexus. Hello and welcome. Oh, no. We're gonna start that. That was crazy. Oh, hell. [00:01:12] Speaker B: Whoa, Nelly. Whoa. [00:01:14] Speaker A: All right, all right. Ian, edit that one out. Okay. Five, four. Hello and welcome to episode 570 of the League Rundown. This is your 2025 LTA Split 3 preview episode and it's lovingly entitled the Last Split of Eltan Cope. Cope, Cope. I'm Kangas, your host. I'm joined by two esteemed co hosts. Up first, Mr. Mazelpl and soon to be birthday boy. [00:01:48] Speaker B: Yeah, that's me. Also. Wild of you to say that, but I love it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's like when we say in game. In game. Yeah, sure. [00:01:58] Speaker A: Actually that would be a good title also. But no, it is still called Eltan. And no confirmation of anything changing anytime soon. [00:02:09] Speaker B: That's the double back on it, just to make sure. [00:02:11] Speaker A: Happy to have you. All right, well, also join us. You heard him chuckle. We got RMC joining us as well. [00:02:19] Speaker C: Yeah. And Kangas, I'm glad that you've come to see the light of LTA south and that they will become the new overlords and the LTA will just become LTA south after the split. [00:02:28] Speaker A: Oh, that's yes. Last split of LTA and because we will get absorbed by LT Sewell, they're not going to change it back. Still going to be called LTA Sewell. In fact, now it's going to be called LTA G. LTA Global. League of the Americas Global. We're going to colonize the world. All right, enough of that. [00:02:49] Speaker C: Oh, that's the LEC British thing. [00:02:52] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. True, true. All right, let's get into some of the roster news that happened. There's a lot of news around the world. Actually, Sorry, before roster news, let's get around the world to what's going on because we have some leagues already playing right now. LPL has started. So what's going on early on in the season and kind of give us the overview of LPL for split three. [00:03:13] Speaker B: All right, well, you know, top esports are looking like top esports in regular season it's going great. We're like a week and a half in like a weekend now. Almost on the half mark. BLG and AL still haven't played, but they'll play this weekend. There's some really funky funny stuff going on with rosters. Rosters were changed within 24 hours of the deadline of the split for multiple rosters. [00:03:41] Speaker A: And when was the deadline in in relation to day one games was the day before. [00:03:47] Speaker B: So yeah, that's last the 18th or whatever. And then I guess. Well, the deadline was the 17th. But some big natives. There's a gigantic rumor going around. It's yet to be confirmed. There's a giant rumor going around that Shadow from FPX is going to be the new BLG Jungler and that Beechuan is getting kicked to the curb. Oh, TT also just swapped for a new Jungler so there's no way he can go back to his old home. So he was just like. It was like an actor who got flown out to LA and then was in one movie and then they were like, nah, we don't want you anymore and just got turned into yeah, you know, didn't have a place to stay bomb. We'll see if that actually goes through. But that's like the major rumor right now is that Shadow is going to be the new jungle for BLG. But top he sports looking really good. They're 3, 0 to start. It's double round robins though the groups have changed a little bit from last time. The bottom two that were in group ascend from last split are now in group nirvana. So TT and Nip are fighting for their lives in the bottom group. The way that the playoffs work out is the bottom four and the top four of each group group respectively will face off in the play in again just like last split for a spot in the playoffs. The top four in group ascend, which would be four of the best teams would just get straight into playoffs just like last split. But this time for group nirvana it's. It's double round robin. It's not single round robin this time. So there is still only six teams. So it's still, you know, only 10 games or whatever, 10 series. But it's way better than one round robin to decide your fate in split two. That was so now at least a lot more games for people to see a lot more of the teams. But so far things. The top four at least or top three right now are top eSports, Weibo Gaming and Invictus Gaming. But we're still very early into the split. [00:05:46] Speaker A: Yeah. So the top four, if they go into playoffs right away when. How long of a break do they get before playoff starts because they're still. [00:05:53] Speaker B: Less than a week. No. So. So the way that the gauntlet used to work is that the teams that got buys started because we used to have a gauntlet gauntlet, like where it was like teams come in and then each placement you had gotten in the regular season got you further into the bracket where top two in the old season would get a four round bye and not come in until double elim. But now everything is double elim and even the top teams start in the first round. So it does matter on seating, on who you're going to be facing when they come in from the plans. Like the seating matters there. But there's no. There's the only buy you're getting in all four teams will get the same buy is just the time that it takes for play ins to play out, which is four days because it's four days of one. Best of five. [00:06:41] Speaker A: Okay. Interesting. [00:06:42] Speaker B: Yeah. So it's, it's definitely changed a lot. But we get double elim all the way across instead of before. It was like three rounds or four rounds of no double elim into double eliminating. So it's a lot more games for the playoffs, which is cool. Cool. [00:06:56] Speaker A: I like that. Well, thank you for the LPL update. Mazelle. We also have RMC here who does English coverage for LTA Sewell, the other half of our region in the Southern Conference. You mean give us the update here. What are some of the big storylines going on in LTA Sewell ahead of split three that you want to highlight? [00:07:20] Speaker B: What are they? Rmc? What could they. [00:07:21] Speaker C: I mean, they're matching LTA north terms of scheduling, so we haven't started. We'll start this weekend as well. So it's been mostly just offseason stuff that's been happening. The two big key pieces. One was Istral and the divorce that happened between those two organizations. They had four CEOs between the two of them. Way too many. It wasn't working. Est prenup they did not. Which actually created. Well, I say did not in terms of their players because it did create ripples throughout the league with quite a few of them leaving. Now the interesting thing about the divorce was that people thought Astral was going to take 100 Thieves spot and I do think they thought that might happen. But ultimately what ISers end up doing is they've now joined LRN North. Oh, LRN, which is Liga Regional north, the Tier 2, or the northern side of the LLA, which will compete against the NaCl. [00:08:11] Speaker A: Yeah, I was gonna say that competes versus NaCl for promotion. So Disguised is gonna have to fight against the top NACL and the top LRN teams to hold their spot going into next year. [00:08:20] Speaker C: Yeah. And Isrus grabbed some, like, fairly big name talents for Tier two. I mean, I say big name, it's like Summit, right? Like Summit is debatable whether or not you think he's great among some of the other players. I. They took Cody with them as well from the LTA south, which is, funnily enough, not actually from Israel. He was actually on Leon. And then they also have Ghost Winsome. [00:08:51] Speaker A: The other name I know from that. [00:08:52] Speaker C: Yeah, Winsome, who got dropped from Loud, is now with Astro trying to go through there. And the Jungler is. Oh, I'm blanking on this. Soul Snake is their jungler. [00:09:03] Speaker A: Who Liquid Snake guy. [00:09:06] Speaker C: But yeah, yeah. So that was one of the big pieces. The other one was that the L. The LTA south won the Jungle off season war. We picked up the Jungle prospect from the lta, and that is Griffin coming back from Korea where He's playing on T1 Academy, T1 rookies. He's down and he's with Loud. He went to the team where Winsome didn't pan out and now he's there on Loud, which is epic. They've already released a video which is partially in English. It's awesome. I think Griffin's such a great fit for Loud. Loud is like that superstar team. Everybody's living like the superstar life, and Griffin just feels like he fits right in there. Like, that trailer looked like it was filmed in a club. [00:09:48] Speaker B: I'm actually so sad that he didn't get signed by LTA north organization, but maybe this is much more, like, approachable than the JoJo trade. Because JoJo, like, I feel like. I mean, maybe it's just like a regional difference, but I feel like JoJo is. Is going to be okay there. I think I would hope that Griffin's idea is to try to still get onto a top LTA north team and kind of use this to springboard himself. But Bear another big talent. [00:10:15] Speaker A: God, I think, yes, I'm sad that he's not immediately in LTA north, but I have not by any means lost hope. I fully imagine will be next year. It was an awkward time to like, become a free agent because what teams were looking for a new Jungler, maybe Team Liquid. Like, if Yuji but they just like really committed in Yuji. I don't think they're gonna drop him. Maybe disguise if they want to drop Xu. They already dropped Abadag and Scary Jerry though, so they've shaken up a lot of the roster. And from what I understand, like, it seems like Xu's kind of somebody that they wanted to invest and commit in. So like, I don't know, like a team that it would make sense for him to join right now. But this off season I think for sure they should pick him up. [00:11:02] Speaker B: That's awesome. [00:11:03] Speaker C: They could have gone for him. Like they dropped Serdy. Like, yeah. Who they're supposed to build around Lost or the split this year. I don't see why they wouldn't be willing to drop Shaden. [00:11:13] Speaker B: I just hope it's going to be like, hey, look what you missed out on. Come fucking get me with the bag, bro. [00:11:20] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Hey dude, could you imagine if like Loud makes it to Worlds and then we have Griffin at Worlds? That would be sick. [00:11:28] Speaker C: You know what would be even funnier though is that if that happens, it probably mean that LTA south got two spots because they are not the strongest team. And if that happens like that, that would be a slap in the face of the North. And the north did just. Their second seed team did lose the furious. Of all of you who are saying that, hey, LTA Cell stole a spot. Fury approved that they deserve that other seed for MSI for the LT with a bet. [00:11:52] Speaker A: Okay, so C9 game. [00:11:56] Speaker B: Yep. [00:12:00] Speaker A: They're looking at C9 to be the one, I think. Favorites. We'll talk more about LTA north expectations for power level here shortly. But thank you for the LTA school update. Regardless. Rmc now some roster news for anybody, kind of. This is of course a semi off season episode just because we're previewing LTA north. So it's gonna be a little information dense and thankfully there's a lot of information that we can densify this podcast with. Is that a phrase? I don't know. [00:12:29] Speaker B: No, but I'm here for it. Nothing I would say on broadcast. [00:12:34] Speaker A: Densify together everybody. Roster news. Let's get into it. Serdy, we already mentioned now it is 100% confirmed. Before it was a sheep article expected but now Dignitas has come out, they made a video. Serdi is going to be not playing for them but streaming for them and. [00:12:52] Speaker B: Had to be watching all of their games, which the whole time I just think is hilarious. He's going to be sitting there like, how do you Keep a straight face. [00:13:00] Speaker A: Right? Especially with how that. Did you guys watch the video? Like the announcement video? [00:13:04] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. [00:13:05] Speaker A: Rmc. Have you seen it? [00:13:06] Speaker C: No, I did not. [00:13:07] Speaker A: Oh go go watch that but make popcorn first. It is funny. Just comedy. What they let that kid get away with saying in like an official org backed like goodbye. [00:13:21] Speaker B: They get as much hate as they expected with it. [00:13:23] Speaker C: The funny part, I haven't watched a video but I've already seen some people's reactions and the biggest one that I kept seeing was that the media team is not equal to the org which by the way makes no sense to me and I don't have contacts. I didn't watch the video yet. But the fact that that is the primary discourse I'm seeing around it already makes me very curious. [00:13:42] Speaker B: They have Silvik's productions is like they. [00:13:45] Speaker A: Do have Silvik's productions. Yeah. Let's just say. Let's just say this. He was very honest. [00:13:51] Speaker B: Let's go. [00:13:53] Speaker C: I mean that's already speak man that's like letting APA talk sometime. [00:13:57] Speaker B: I feel like he didn't even say anything that bad. Like no, he could have definitely gone super far into it but I still think it wasn't that like it I've seen all this Israel oh my God he laid the smack down blah blah like all he said was that the everything was bad which yeah I mean. [00:14:14] Speaker C: That'S probably the streamer buy off right? That's why Serdi gets to stay as a streamer for Dig. [00:14:19] Speaker A: But still what he said was more than what pretty much any org where a GM reviewed the footage before getting posted what allowed to say but there's still no replacement confirmed. That's the crazy thing about this. We start games in three days no official confirmation for who their top laner is going to be the rumor is expectation is Photon who was T1 Academy he played on Vitality so if you recognize the name probably from that but then recently TCL Back to back 5th 6th place finishes in playoffs so not even doing super hot in like the the regional leagues over in the EMEA. [00:14:55] Speaker B: 30 died for wasn't he first all. [00:14:58] Speaker C: Pro team for LEC 1 split when. [00:15:01] Speaker A: He was in LAC fake reason remember that but maybe maybe I'm just like not because again that was like probably three years ago and I have them yeah old fish if it's not within the last year it will not wow. [00:15:13] Speaker B: Way to nonchalantly call trash. [00:15:16] Speaker C: That's fair but I was just thinking like you know to go from even if he's not first opera. I'm pretty sure he was like one of the all pro teams to go from that to TCL and not even do well in the tcl. [00:15:26] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. So we'll see. We'll see how things go for him. But that's not the only top laners that we're gonna have our eyes on for potential roster issues right now because Lion Zamuto coming in, big signing. We are excited about that. A tier two player with a, you know, fun take on the game. Replacing Licorice, longtime veteran, but rumors of visa issues. It's unconfirmed as to if he will play in week one or not. So it's expectation to be a sub for week one if these rumors are true. Okay, well, we'll see. From. From what I'm hearing, they are still hopeful. They're still fighting to get him in, but it's looking like Canadian visa issues for. [00:16:09] Speaker B: Thank you, Trump. [00:16:10] Speaker C: Is it possible for a streamer from another org to sub it? [00:16:18] Speaker B: Could it be a good idea? [00:16:21] Speaker A: Rmc? You know, I actually. There's a name that comes to mind. I can actually think of somebody. Yeah, yeah, yeah, right. Surely we all. We're all thinking TF Blade. [00:16:32] Speaker B: I just. I'm just like, can we. I'm sorry, I'm gonna go back to the surrounding thing. Like, it's just so unbelievably sad. This man is not like, he's gonna be. Whatever. Going back to his roots. Like he said, Whatever. I am so unbelievably sad that this man doesn't get to keep practicing for another entire split. Like, yeah, it's. I don't know what it'll do in the long term for his growth, but not having that extra split under his belt sucks fucking ass. I feel like it's so stupid. [00:16:59] Speaker A: I feel like Serdi would have thrived in an environment like OG C9 where, you know, it's just five really gifted mechanical players or I guess four with like one big brain and high to kind of corral them all together. And they just kind of blazed through solo queue, blaze through challengers, made it to lcs. I feel like that type of environment is where I would see Serdi thrive. Instead, he got put on Dignitas. And yeah, I imagine some mishandling going. [00:17:29] Speaker C: On there, but, oh, GC9's a bit tough. I don't know if Serdi had the balls. Right? [00:17:34] Speaker B: I just. I hate how much of a trend. And this is not just because of sturdy, but it's more multiple players over the last two years that like their debuts go wrongly and then you talk to them after and they're like, yeah, I like I had to completely change the way I played the game and like conform to the way that the team wanted to. It's like if you pick up a star player in any sport, you want them to play how they got there, right? Like you want them to play in the way that they're strong with the way that they know, the way that their instincts let them play. And the fact that we have had so many failures of huge prospects because they just say, well, the team didn't want me to do what I wanted to do. [00:18:13] Speaker A: Signing the actual fuck a pitcher with a mean curveball and saying throw a fastball. [00:18:18] Speaker B: Yeah, you're signing them for the purpose. [00:18:21] Speaker A: Of what they're good at. [00:18:22] Speaker C: And what pisses me off the most was dig specifically is that they were supposed, they said they were going to build around 30. Like 30 was their star signing. And then they didn't at all build around him. It was like, okay, sure, you can argue Shaden was, was picked up to play around 30, but the way they made shade and play and the way the team opted to finally play was not for 30 whatsoever. [00:18:42] Speaker B: And he says that in the video big time. Like, okay, it's like one of his main points and that's what brings it up is like when you talk to these players like Ken V, like all these other players that have had shots, even Spyrax all the way back in the day, right? Like he talked to them, that is a major reasoning of why they feel like they can't have success, why they can't feel comfortable. And I just think our teams are just not doing the right thing. If that's a constant that's happening with multiple big prospects like that, that's just not normal. [00:19:09] Speaker A: I will say I think that part of why I see this being a trend is that most of the orgs that will sign the rookies, the new guys, the inexperienced players that have kind of a silver bullet play style where like this is how they play the game, is they're being coached by one coach and that one coach, if they don't see the game that way, they're not going to be able to work with a player that well. Because a lot of these coaches have been coaching for a decade and have big accolades and then you put them in a room with this rookie and say like, oh, make it work with the roster. I think that's why like energy, I, I go back to this all the time. That clg into energy roster did so well is they had so many coaches, everybody to work with each player, communicate with each other, come up with the game plans, come up with the draft plans. The amount of resources those players had was incredible. [00:20:01] Speaker B: And it's not to say that you can't show. Yeah. It's not to say that like a player shouldn't conform in certain ways, but when you have to change holistically, like you gave the explanation of like the baseball player, like, you don't see that like all the time. So I don't know. It's really interesting. It's infuriating, but it's interesting. [00:20:20] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:20:20] Speaker C: I think infuriating is more accurate and interesting for me. [00:20:24] Speaker A: Well, that's Lion's top lane. Yeah. [00:20:28] Speaker B: Huh. [00:20:29] Speaker A: Okay. [00:20:31] Speaker B: Zamuto's gonna do really good. He's gonna do so good. [00:20:35] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. We're gonna have a clicker for every time that we actually have the serde information come up. [00:20:41] Speaker B: You know, dude, I can't. I can't wait to watch those 30s watching the top lady be like, what the is this guy doing? I can't wait. [00:20:51] Speaker A: I have, I have a little ding though, for every time Serdy comes up. We're gonna add another one there for that comment. But now moving. [00:20:56] Speaker C: Challenge accepted. We've got to bring up Serdi every time we can. [00:20:59] Speaker B: I'm angry. [00:21:02] Speaker A: Well, unfortunately, the news doesn't stop with just the top lanes. It's also an entire org on the way out. 100 thieves has been confirmed. They put out their own statement. Riot has confirmed this as well. They are out of the league. We knew this year and this was on the mind of every 100 Thieves fan. If they were paying attention. The wording was okay, there's a guest team for disguised and a provisional team. 100 Thieves. They had already taken the buyout essentially to sell their franchise spot. But Riot had not found somebody to replace them immediately. So 100 thieves still have the capacity. They still had the ability to keep competing in the league. But now it seems that they are no longer going to be a provisional team. They will be heading out and their spot will go to somebody else. I have not heard any information on who the buyer is, but I mean, the likely suspects. I know rmc, you were already talking about, you know, maybe like a lta south team picking it up. Otherwise some of the north organizations, like sentinels you had mentioned earlier off, off stream. Like envy was thrown around the conversation. I. I don't know. I have no information. But we'll keep our kind of Fingers. [00:22:11] Speaker B: If you want the leak, just DM Kangas. [00:22:14] Speaker A: Yes, yes, of course. But I think just pour one out for 100 thieves. I. I feel so bad to see them go. And I know that there was a Reddit post going around too. I don't know if either of you saw it, but this makes seven organizations that have left since 2023. Two years, seven orgs have left, and a rebrand so that even the league has technically gone. And now it's something new. That's a lot of change over a very short period of time. Yeah. Miselle brings me back to 2023, when the walkout was maybe gonna happen. [00:22:57] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:22:58] Speaker A: All the teams wanted to drop their academy team. Crazy how much worse it's got. [00:23:04] Speaker B: Yep. Man, it feels bad. [00:23:10] Speaker A: Yeah. Just. Just for Hundred Thieves fans out there and for. For myself as well. How about we all say something nice about Hundred Thieves, Our favorite memory of the org or something that we liked about them around and being in the league. All right, what you got? [00:23:24] Speaker B: The heist is the reason I started watching side content in League of Legends. And I think the heist was one of the coolest pieces of content that League of Legends North America has ever put out. And I missed the original heist. That's 100 Thieves content piece, if you don't know. [00:23:41] Speaker A: Yeah, no, I. I like that they had really good content for a really long time. They started, but they were like the. [00:23:49] Speaker B: First that like made the. The like vlogs approachable in a lot of ways because like Liquid had whatever the that was called. I don't remember they had some show that they did. But yeah. I don't know. Hundred things had a way about the cinematography that was really good. [00:24:04] Speaker A: Was it TSM Legends was that they're like. [00:24:06] Speaker B: That was also tsm, but they took a lot of lessons from heist after heist started getting a lot more popular earlier than them. [00:24:14] Speaker A: Yeah. TSM Legends was much more like documentary, whereas your ride heist was more vlog. It was more like approachable and impersonable. And I. I think that actually rmc you go, do you have one first? And then I can say mine. [00:24:28] Speaker C: I had a roster that I really liked back in the day from them. It was one of the probably rosters where they had Someday and Anda on the tops of the map and they had. [00:24:37] Speaker A: Yep. [00:24:38] Speaker C: Ryu in the mid lane and Afromua support. I think it was the ADK was. I think it's Cody Son at the point. That roster was a hell of a lot of fun also. Thank you. Under Thieves for showing us that Abu Dhabi actually knows how to play the game in North America at some point. Yeah, that was like 2020, something like that. [00:24:57] Speaker A: That guy won a championship and then made finals again. [00:25:00] Speaker B: He went to worlds for any finals in the first split that they were in the. Or in the. In the. In the league which I think is so crazy. And they had those sick ass Miami like the like vibe cop setup going on with like the teal and the pink. Oh my God. [00:25:16] Speaker A: That was. That was gonna be mine is their first split. France. This was just a great time to be a league fan. I mean it still is. I don't want to be too doomer and be like oh, it's all done. But like man, what a special time that was. When franchising first happened. There was so much excitement around it, so much investment happening into it. This new org with this hype, new content, this cool new owner comes in aphromoo who like my favorite player of all time. I still stuck with CLG but I considered moving over to 100 Thieves and putting my fandom there. And they make finals in their first split. I was like God that was so cool. They got three zeroed real fast. But. But that was also cool because like in. In the orgs history that was the fastest 30 in N A history. But then fast forward 3 years, 2021 summer they 30 team Liquid in the finals and beat the record. They beat TL faster than TL beat them in 2018. So like that was pretty cool also. [00:26:17] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:26:18] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:26:19] Speaker B: The good old days. [00:26:20] Speaker A: I will miss 100 Thieves in the league. I'm very sad. [00:26:23] Speaker B: Me too. I'll always have the. Probably one of the best jerseys to ever come out of league esports is the. The like polo. Oh, I mean that one was really good but like the polo like long sleeve one that I have is so good. [00:26:40] Speaker A: That is pretty cool. I like that one. [00:26:42] Speaker C: The opposite of love isn't hate, it's apathy. And for all those reasons, as much as I loved 100 Thieves in the beginning, I hate them now for leaving. So. [00:26:50] Speaker A: Oh, okay. [00:26:51] Speaker C: Same with tsm. Same with tsm. [00:26:54] Speaker A: Well, no, TSM was good riddance. Yeah, that one. Yeah. [00:26:57] Speaker C: But you love them in the beginning and then they became something. Okay, maybe you don't as much but. [00:27:08] Speaker A: But I understand the sentiment you're trying to say. So poor one out for 100 Thieves. Sorry to all the 100 Thieves fans out there, but I'm sure that you will be paying close attention to where this roster ends up who takes the spot and determining where you want to put your allegiances next. Maybe it's over in the lec. Don't put over in the lec. But maybe it is. There's also a lot of Ross rumors to talk about over there, so let's hop across the pond and cover that news before we get into some of the more variety topics. Up first, Niski signed to KC in kind of a weird verbiage on their, like, announcement. It's. He's like part mostly positional coach, it seems like, but also like a sub mid laner. So they could. If Laddie's struggling, they could put in Niski. But also gonna be playing support. [00:27:54] Speaker C: Yeah, he was. [00:27:55] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. And I guess he didn't want to do that. I was excited for the role swap. I wanted Niski to continue and commit to that, but it looks like he was not interested. Or maybe vitality. [00:28:04] Speaker B: He's like, wait, people do this professionally that. [00:28:08] Speaker A: Right? Gross. So that one's gonna be kind of odd. We'll see if Niski actually gets any play time or if he is more of just like, there to help Vladi out. I. I love positional coaches. I'm a huge, huge supporter of if a roster has the budget, sign positional coaches. Because anytime a player has issues that they need to work on, it's so much harder for a head coach to help them out with that or even other members of the roster to have, like, unbiased information going towards them. So I like having kind of like positional coach because they can work one on one. And also it can be a voice. They can be, you know, a voice of reason for that player, but also to defend that player. Because the more I sit down on scrims, the more I realize not every player sees the game the same way. That's natural. But how players communicate about how they see the game differently and decision making that they do, I think that that's always beneficial to have another voice there to kind of mediate that. So, yep, that was my little spiel. Excited for Niski. We'll see what happens there. Fnatic also had some information come out. I mean, this was already heavily rumored. We expected this fully, but now again, they have confirmed it as an organization. Goodbye, Humanoid Wave. Goodbye, everybody. He's a scapegoat. Getting punted out the door. And Poby confirmed in. That's right. Poby, who has been in the T1 ecosystem since 2021, getting some stage time shared with Faker, but mostly just kind of playing in Faker's shadow. Well, no longer in the shadow. He is at a tier one org. Are we excited about Poby? I know that there's really like hot takes on. On this signing. I don't know where everyone is. Rmc, let's get you first, then Mizel. [00:29:41] Speaker C: Wait, Just go for. Poby was the guy who got completely scapegoated because Faker got injured and then they didn't win a single game. [00:29:47] Speaker A: Right. [00:29:47] Speaker C: With Poby. [00:29:48] Speaker A: Yep. [00:29:49] Speaker B: Yep. [00:29:50] Speaker C: Okay. Okay. [00:29:51] Speaker B: He's replacing. [00:29:53] Speaker C: You know what? I. I actually think this is kind of good for Boby because he needs to get out from under the shadow of Faker and that whole event, so he really does. If you're gonna do it, might as well do it in the oec. I think that's a. And it's Fnatic. A good team in a way to do that with. I think Fnatic is still a good team. So. Yeah. What that does to Phobe, though, in terms of his development, I don't know. But at least it'll be good for his reputation. And I think he'll do fine the split, at least. [00:30:17] Speaker A: All right. [00:30:20] Speaker B: What happened, bro? He was like one of the best mid laners in the lec. He was rivaling Caps. [00:30:30] Speaker A: I think he was. I. I don't know if he's missed out on like an All Pro voting in. In top three, at least in quite a while. He has. Has had some inconsistencies, but his high level is very high for the region. [00:30:45] Speaker C: Well, we're talking about missing an All Star or an opera vote. He missed last splits. Opera vote. [00:30:51] Speaker A: Oh, did he? [00:30:53] Speaker C: Yeah, because it was because Vladi. [00:30:57] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:30:59] Speaker C: Oh. [00:31:00] Speaker A: That's all they. That's all we needed to expose Humanoid. [00:31:04] Speaker C: I guess. You saw, you solved it. That's what. That's what happened to Humanoid. [00:31:08] Speaker B: And Humanoid goes teamless now, right? Or does he? Is he rumored to be on another team? [00:31:13] Speaker A: No, no. The rumor is seamless. He might be. I don't remember if I saw that he was going to be like, again, one of those kind of BS Co streamers for the Org. Like, I think technically he's not dropped. He's just been moved to inactive on the roster. But he is still with Fnatic from my understanding. [00:31:28] Speaker B: But maybe the level really that bad? Like, is it enough to justify this? [00:31:33] Speaker C: No, I don't. I don't think he's the weakest mid laner in oec. Lost blitz. [00:31:37] Speaker A: Yeah. No, I mean, there are many teams like Rogue should be looking at Team Heretic should be looking at vitality should be looking at him. GX arguably should be looking at him. Like there's a lot of teams that should want to pick up Humanoid. So yeah, we'll see what happens with that. I think it's a bit of contract jail from my interpretation. I don't know all the information, but that's what it seems like from my perspective. One other bit of information for lec roster stuff for SK irrelevant is just that he's out in the top lane and Rooster is in. I had to do some digging on this guy. I hadn't heard of him, but he spent four years on HLE Academy, so almost similar to Poby. Same amount of time. Four years with T1. Rooster was four years with HLE in the top lane. I don't really have any other information on this guy though. Does anybody else happen to know anything about Rooster or is this going to be kind of like a learn as we go? That's fine. I'm happy to learn players. [00:32:33] Speaker B: I'm so curious that the continued reliance. I mean, I guess if you think about like the town pool is definitely dwindling a little bit, but definitely seems like LEC is going back into a import from Korea phase. [00:32:46] Speaker A: It. It is interesting to see that trend because I've noticed that as well. And you know, why not talk about it? I feel like there was a generation up until like 2017, 2018 where LEC very intentionally is around when they rebranded to LEC from EU LCS that they really were investing in their own talent and then we were trying to grab their talent. That's where we got players like BWIPO players like inspired. I mean, people forget Bipo was a rookie the year that they made it to Worlds and that finals. So NA was poaching a lot of their players and then they were replacing them with their players. Like it was like, oh, cool, you take our guy. We have another one in the EMEA system to promote up. And it was like a really cool time to be like, oh, LAC is kind of figuring out local talent, but over the last two years they have been importing more and more, which is very interesting to see. [00:33:33] Speaker C: And I feel like as, as people from na, we can warn you. Don't. Don't do that. It does not. [00:33:37] Speaker B: Yeah, that doesn't work long term. Guys. Stop it. [00:33:41] Speaker A: And I, from my understanding, it started because there was a shift in 2023, two years ago, NA teams were hemorrhaging money, didn't want to spend. So that's where we were seeing players like Yan get promoted, players like APA get promoted. Finally, teams like Team Liquid was choosing to promote talent instead of importing everybody. And then that's where LEC teams still had budget to work with and were importing more. From what I'm hearing, LEC budgets are going down this year and into next year. So it's interesting that they're still importing regardless of that. But, yeah, who's to say? I'm not the GMs. I'm not looking at the budgets, but we'll see if it works out for them. Because again, it did not for us. All right, that's all the roster news. That's all the roster rumors. So just to catch everybody up over in the lec, the roster changes. It's Poby and Mid Lane, Rooster and Top Lane for BDS sk. We already covered this, but three new players with DNDN and Top Lane, Skins, Jungle Abadaka, Mid and then Vitality. Actually, I don't know if I put this up there, but Vitality. Niski's out. Fleshy is in. Remember Fleshy guys? That was funny. Yeah, he's gonna be playing for a Vitality now in the support position. But with that being said, there's a couple of variety topics to cover up first and kind of the inspiration for the name the title of this week's episode. I don't know if this is just in my head or if you two would agree. I've been seeing more and more vocal sentiment of people opposing LTA and the rebrand and saying, let's go back to LCS and cb, lol. And people just kind of doing the same thing we did with Twitter. Right? Same thing we do with, like, HBO Max, where you just refuse the rebrand and keep calling it the old thing. Is this in my head or do you two also agree? And you've been seeing the same thing, bro. [00:35:30] Speaker B: The. The people behind the scenes and the broadcast and also at Riot Games, all still call it lcs. Like the fact that you have the people that are on the product and behind the product, making the product run on a daily basis, still call it the old name. I think that's just a signifier. What the hell is going on? [00:35:48] Speaker A: Yeah, I'm not gonna name names, but there are. The last meeting that we had this week. I don't know if I heard lta. We're all gone to the lcs. [00:35:59] Speaker C: I. I find that funny because I have seen more of that on social media, but it's almost. Okay. I was gonna say almost exclusively from the North. That's not true, but it's overwhelmingly from the north side of things. Like, the south seems to be content to just ride the year out. I mean, there are some people, obviously, you know, who are saying, oh, give us back CB Law. Like Fury did really, really well. You know, like, we, we can stand without the north, but I think a lot of the. The south viewers right now are just kind of sitting back, letting it happen. At the end of the year, I suspect the south would be a lot more vocal, depending on how things go. But for now, what I'm seeing more in my timeline is people from LTA north want LCs back really, really, really badly, and they want it now. And I'm actually curious why. [00:36:41] Speaker B: Like, why Feedback, man. [00:36:43] Speaker C: Is it just between splits that they get louder about it? Because I remember after first and a lot of this conversation came up as well, but off the first time, everybody's like, split one was a joke. Like, don't take it seriously. [00:36:53] Speaker B: Just building up over time. Right. Like, I think it's just happening because the sentiment is already there. [00:37:00] Speaker C: Okay. [00:37:00] Speaker A: Yeah. And also we've seen our region at internationals twice now. And for me, that's. And I'll speak on this. I think as a member of the broadcast, I try and hold back some of my opinions, but at this point I'm happy to just be honest about it. It's didn't feel good at MSIC and lta. Like, that just didn't feel right, man. Like it's. I. I know it's the first year and maybe it'll change. Maybe if they commit to it in like two or three years, it'll feel normal. But I don't think even by next year it's gonna feel normal to have LTA when LCS has existed for, you know, as long as it did. 15 year, I guess 12 years, 13. Somewhere in that range. Yeah. So I, I would love for the LCS brand to come back. I will publicly say that it's not my decision to make. I will still happily cheer on the LTA and do my best to, you know, put on a good product there. But it's. It's not like it's. I have an issue with the format. I'm actually. It sucks to not have three teams at Worlds, but the bigger issue for me is the name. If that might be weird, maybe I'm alone to that. But like, if we just call the LCS and cb, lol, I would, would then people would start complaining more about, I think the. The world seeds and stuff. But If I have to choose a battle, I would rather have the name Bank. [00:38:23] Speaker C: Yeah, no, I'm with you. Like, as much as I personally don't mind the merger, in terms of gameplay, I. I fully agree. I wish to just give the identities back. Like LCS is so much history behind it. Behind it. Yeah. Like, give it. Call it lcs, call it cb. Lol. Heck, if you want give back the loa, you can call it the Americas for regional reasons. Right, right. Like when we're talking about the seating, but instead of the North Conference and South Conference, just call it OCS and CB lo, man. [00:38:49] Speaker A: Yeah. And I think. And this is. This is maybe gonna sound like it's backtracking from my previous statement. I am okay if at international events it is called the League of the Americas, as long as each region gets its own name. Because then we're just going to call them the LCS and the cb. [00:39:08] Speaker B: Lol. [00:39:09] Speaker A: If the logo is lta. But all the casters, all the analysts, all the talent are just calling them the actual names. Like, that still feels better than. Than what we have right now. [00:39:19] Speaker C: So, yeah, I think if I compare it to, like, apac, for example. Like, we talk about, you know, the LCP as a league, but then we're talking about the individual teams. Like GAM is a Vietnamese team. Right. Like, when we talk about cfo, they talk about it as a Taiwanese team. Like, they still keep their regional identity. Yeah, exactly. And I think that that's what we're asking for with LCS and cb. Lol. We're not saying, hey, don't lump us as a region or. Most of us aren't saying that. Most are just saying, like, just give us the names back. Like, the north is the lcs, the south is CB Law. That's it. That's all we're asking. [00:39:52] Speaker A: I will say this, though. If they go back and change the names, if Global allows that, then people will start complaining more about the format and the merger. Because right now I think it's like a pick your battle type of thing. And this is the. The easier one to win by far. So it might be a little bit of opening the floodgates from Riot's perspective, but I hope that they see it being worth it because maybe they'll just. [00:40:17] Speaker C: Hold off for a year while the south catches up. Because I think we've already seen that the south is benefiting from this merger quite a bit in terms of skill level. [00:40:23] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:40:23] Speaker C: And they just finished a boot camp, actually, where the top four teams went to la. Ironically, Actually the top team, Furia didn't get to boot camp in la, but the other the three of the top four did and Furio got to play at msi. So they get arguably well not arguably, they get better international experience. [00:40:41] Speaker A: Specifically, lion streamed some of their matches versus I forget which team they were up against, but if you want to check out any of that, you can check out Lion's Twitch page. And it's cool that that org really leaned into it. It makes sense there they were an lla org so I think that they're happy to kind of spar with some of the teams from LTA Sewell, but I wish more teams had done it. But at least they did so that's cool. If you want to check out any of that content, One other bit of news thing before we hop into our predictions for first week of LTA north we have Fantasy back baby. By the time you are hearing this podcast we will have a new community Fantasy. I haven't built it yet, but this is my reminder to myself to make it right after we get off of this podcast. But yeah, we we had some awesome members in the community competing last split. If you did not get a chance, you last split and you want to hop in, please come join. I'm gonna get a podium finish this time. I'm calling right now. I'm not gonna whiff one week and forget to change my roster and have three ineligible players that weren't even playing that weekend. That was a bad look, but as long as I don't do that, I think I'll be better. But there was also a new point system updated to go read the Primer for Fantasy. The spark notes is that you are incentivized to pick players from different teams. I don't remember the exact breakdown, but I want to say it's like a 5% point boost on your total depending on the number of players you have from different teams. So it's if you have like four players from one team and then one player from different, it's a 5% boost. If you have five players from all different teams, it's a 25% boost. I'm pretty sure that's what it is. But again, read the primer. Really cool. I think that's a great change because because it decent advises. The oh Fly Quest is playing dsg. Lock in all Fly Quest players because good chance you're going to get some points. [00:42:32] Speaker C: So if it's all from the Same team, no bonus 2 teams 5% 3 teams 10% 4 teams 15%, 5 teams, 20%. So just 5% for each. [00:42:40] Speaker A: Okay. Up to 20. Yes. Yes, that would make sense. Cool. Thank you for. For the fact check. [00:42:45] Speaker C: But also the. The pick and play thing. There's like a bonus for doing that. That as well. [00:42:52] Speaker A: Oh, interesting. Yeah, I must have skimmed over that. Speaking of that, that's going to be the next thing we talk about is the. The format for. For NaCl. So is that something that would kind of bridge well into that rmc, or do you think that this deserves its own thing for. For fantasy. [00:43:08] Speaker C: It would bridge into it. Yeah. So you can go ahead to format and then. Yeah. [00:43:12] Speaker A: All right. Well, before we get into the format, that's it for the news topics we had for. For the week. If we missed anything, make sure to let us know through the community Discord. You can find a link in the description wherever you are listening to this podcast or if you just want to join the community, come hop in. Also, thank you to everybody who supports us on Patreon as well as our merch shop. You can find links in the description for those as well. Okay. Now, oh, there's one other thing to update everybody on because I forgot to update it earlier, and that is points percentage for predictions from last split. Congratulations for the LEC prediction winner, Badger. He's not here on this episode, but he got a 79 prediction rate because he was there for two weeks and predicted those two weeks. But still, you know, credits where, credit where it's due, and then also shout out to Bickle for getting first place for LTA north predictions with a whopping 79 as well over there. I got 75 for LTA north, but a little less than Bickle. And I only got 62 for LEC, but at least I was above 50% for. For both regions because sometimes they struggle to do that. Rmc, do you want to. You want to explain yourself at all here? [00:44:25] Speaker C: Yeah, so that. That was a not so slight jab at me for not getting 50% in the OAC side of things. In my defense, I was only on, I think like twice during the regular seasons. [00:44:39] Speaker A: I think it was the same amount of times as Badger. Actually, maybe Badger was on three times then. So if you're only on twice. Yeah, because I'm looking at the. The numbers here. Yeah, I think that makes more sense with playoffs sometimes, like, there's less matches and stuff, but either way, hey, you know what? We're rooting for you for this split. [00:45:00] Speaker C: LEC has never been my main focus. [00:45:02] Speaker A: True, true. Also, Badger, despite getting first in LEC got last. Last in LTA North. [00:45:06] Speaker C: Yeah, there you go. Yeah, he's a LEC specialist. [00:45:10] Speaker A: I. I guess, I suppose I don't know if he would describe himself as such, but. All right, boom. That's a little update. Now it's time to talk about LTA North. Before we get into predictions though, we'll give you the primer of the format. It is a little confusing, to be honest, but we're going to do our best on broadcast side at least. This is a big part of our meeting was how do we explain this and make sure that people understand what's going on. So hopefully if you're watching the show, it'll over time come naturally to you. But rmc, it's the same as LTA South. So do you feel confident to run through it or would you prefer me to do it? [00:45:43] Speaker C: I can try running through it and you can tell me how that stacks up to how y' all were talking about in broadcast to run through it on the Gringos Liberal podcast this morning. So I kind of split into three phases. The first phase is the sort of pick and play phase and it lasts three weeks or three games because every team will be playing one best of three each week. So in the first three weeks, the bottom four teams will get to pick their opponents and that starts in week two. So actually, let's start in week one where week one schedule is set. The first seed from last split will play bottom seed, so on and so forth. So you get big gaps after that. After the first week, the bottom four teams will get to pick their opponents in week two. [00:46:21] Speaker A: And for, for anybody tuning in on Sunday, stick around for the end of the show after the final series because the plan is to do it live at the end of week one and then at the end of week two. So I, okay, I have a lot of stuff that I would like to do, but we're waiting on production to, to give kind of their guidance as to what that's going to look like. So I. [00:46:43] Speaker C: But yeah, if Dig lose their game, you should reach out to the streamer. I, I hear he's hard hitting, but yeah, so basically the, the bottom four teams will get to pick their opponents for week two and then they will play in week two. Another best of three. The bottom four teams after week two will get to pick their opponents in, in week three. Now we mentioned in sort of LTA fantasy that there's some bearing on that. So if the team beats their chosen opponents, they get extra bonus points as well. So that will Last, I believe for the first. For the first three weeks. And then after that it gets a little bit complicated. So after three weeks, yes. Not all the teams will have played every other team. Each team will only have played three other teams. But we go into elimination phase after that, which effectively looks a lot like our regular playoffs. The bottom four teams will be playing a single elimination playoff. The top four teams will be double elimination. So they get a buy in the first stage and start in an upper bracket. It's technically still pick and play, but because of the format, realistically, only the top seed gets to pick. Right? Because on the bottom half of things in round one, in the lower bracket, your fifth seed picks who they want to play between six, seven, and eight, and then the other two just get to face off effectively in the upper bracket, first seed will get to pick their opponent, and then whoever's left will face off. And it just plays like a regular double elimination bracket for the top four and single elim for bottom four. [00:48:05] Speaker A: But it's not a traditional double elim in the fact that it's not like, oh, you lose, so you get put into a spot in the lower bracket, there will be again, like a decision to be made there. So stick around because that's going to be baked into the show. And kind of like part of the. [00:48:20] Speaker C: Show, do we get a spoiler on how they decide who is like the first one to pick between who the better team is in? [00:48:29] Speaker A: So from my understanding, it is always higher seed. Oh, so if you lose in the upper bracket and go into the lower bracket, you can still choose depending on if you're the higher seed versus the other team from the upper bracket getting knocked down, who you want to match up against. Like where in the lower bracket you want to slot into too. [00:48:47] Speaker C: Oh, so the first. The. The pick and play phase actually matters a lot then? Right, because first seat will always get to pick their choice in elimination. Dang. Okay, that changes things. I. I did not know that. But yeah, so it actually matters the. [00:48:59] Speaker A: Way I understood the. The breakdown, but again, it is confusing. [00:49:03] Speaker C: Okay, so that part's not. Not 100. [00:49:05] Speaker A: Okay, I'm like an 80 on that one. But there. There is a chance that I misinterpreted. [00:49:10] Speaker C: That's fair. But if. If that is the way it is and Kangas 80 is a pretty high probability, then yeah, pick and play phase actually matters a lot. Like you want to be the 100. [00:49:20] Speaker A: And also you can only slot. You can only choose an opponent that is in the pick and play phase. You can only choose an opponent that is higher seed than you. So during the first three weeks, the teams that are losing, you can't be a seventh seed team and pick the eighth seed team. Not that it would work because we go up, up in, you know, reverse order anyway. Yeah, but if there was some weird thing that happened then, like you have to pick somebody above you in the standings for the first three weeks. [00:49:45] Speaker C: Okay, yeah, that's fair. That makes sense. And then the final phase would be the regional, the cross conference championship portion. So the top three teams from the elimination phase who survive will go to cross conference where again, it's, it's kind of just like an elimination bracket with the. The first seeds from both north and south getting an extra life. They'll have a juggernaut match up top and then the second seed from the north will face the third seam from the South. The second seed from the south will face the third seed from the north. And they will play through sort of a gauntlet bracket on the lower end of things. This does mean that both north and south are guaranteed one team at Worlds. There are three spots at Worlds and the first seed from north and south is. They're pretty much guaranteed already a spot at worlds. [00:50:33] Speaker A: Yeah. Just based on how the bracket is shaped. If you get first seed in your conference finals, then you, you slot into the part of the bracket that will guarantee you at least a third seed in the regional finals. Which is the, the third phase here that you're talking about now. [00:50:53] Speaker C: Yep, exactly. So basically, first seed in all phases matter. There are no freebie games whatsoever. And yeah, there will be representation from both north and south. Guaranteed a world. [00:51:05] Speaker A: Yes. All right. Great, great, Jeff. Great stuff. Great job. Great stuff. [00:51:10] Speaker B: If we're trying to make legal legends and esports easier to follow, that just ain't it. [00:51:14] Speaker C: Yeah, right. [00:51:15] Speaker A: Okay. [00:51:16] Speaker B: So, so wild, dude. [00:51:18] Speaker A: The way I'm gonna talk about on broadcast and what I'm going to talk about in this podcast as well is that same like rmc, there's three phases. The first phase is a very short three week season. Just a quick little like semi round robin. Then the second phase is our conference playoffs. Teams will be eliminated. It's called the elimination phase. But I'm just going to call it the conference playoffs because there is a split winner at the end of our conference playoffs, at the end of our elimination phase. If you've listened to the verbiage on broadcast from Split one and Split two, we have no champion. It's not. You're winning a championship. You are the split one, winner split two, winner split three, winner will be here at the elimination phase. But the championship is won in the cross regional phase, which is the third one. So think about it as like a really short season. Our own conference playoffs for the top three teams in our conference playoffs. We'll get to go to the inter regional tournament to see who's going to worlds and then also win the championship. Boom. There it is. Still not, like, simple, but I think it's like my head grasps it a little better when I think about it as like the weeks, you know, four through six or four through five. Oh, no, now I'm forgetting that one are basically just like our playoffs for the north. And then the top three from our playoffs will go fight the top three from the south to win the championship and also get world spots. [00:52:51] Speaker C: Yeah, it is four weeks, but I think there's like a Friday thrown into the last week. Like, it's a super week on the last week of the elimination phase. [00:52:59] Speaker A: Yeah, something like that. [00:53:00] Speaker C: Yeah, it's like 3, 4, and then regionals is. I don't know how long that is. [00:53:04] Speaker A: Yeah. And also the. The final phase, the regional championships will be in Los Angeles until the finals weekend, which will be in Texas. So we get a road show. That's awesome. I'm excited for that because we have not had a proper roadshow in quite a while. All right. Mazel. Any questions? I feel like you're the one that could, like, just say this didn't make sense. [00:53:31] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, it kind of doesn't. I mean, it does, right? But, like, it's dumb that it's that hilarious. You know, if you ask somebody to say that two times in a row, I bet it would be different both times. It's like one of those, like, you know, when you whisper down a. A phrase or whatever down, like, telephone people. [00:53:50] Speaker A: Dude, we. We talked about this for like, an hour yesterday, and I still don't know if I got it right. But I did my best. I did my absolute best. [00:54:00] Speaker B: No, you guys are great. It's not. It's not you guys. [00:54:02] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. It's really simple, Miselle. What you have to do here is just carry the 2 dot. [00:54:09] Speaker B: Cuz imagine. Imagine if you're trying to get, like, a new fan into split three for, like, the most pivotal moment. Like, all the storylines should be coming to a head, all the narratives. Like, this is everything that your entire year is building up to, and you have to spend, like, three hours explaining it to somebody before they can even get into the Teams. [00:54:28] Speaker C: Okay, so here's. Here's the easiest explanation for anybody who's interested and has a team they're rooting for. Just win. Done. [00:54:35] Speaker A: Yes. [00:54:36] Speaker B: Yep. [00:54:36] Speaker A: Easy. And if your team is 100 thieves, just doesn't matter anyway. [00:54:44] Speaker C: That would be the. The second funniest timeline of 100 Thieves wins everything. [00:54:49] Speaker A: Dude, it would be the third freaking time. Energy wins. Goes to Worlds. They're not around anymore. Remember when Clutch went, bro, they weren't around anymore. [00:54:59] Speaker B: Lta north and Slash lcs. Is that the funniest outcome is always. What happened? How did LCS end? Minions won the game. [00:55:11] Speaker C: Let's go, my brother. [00:55:15] Speaker B: Funniest, stupidest, most dumb possibility is always the possibility that NA gets. [00:55:22] Speaker A: So. So hear me out. This. This is our worlds. Then Fly Quest bombs out. They have to bomb out Gat Ghost. Doesn't work. We. We haven't even really talked about that. But he's gonna be here, Remember? And then 100 Thieves wins a split. But who else else is there disguised? They go to Worlds and then they have to also defend their spot. But. But the relegation tournament I believe happens before Worlds. So they. They get relegated and still have to go to work. [00:55:55] Speaker B: Dude, how does that even work? Did they think about that when they made these rules? [00:55:59] Speaker C: The biggest joke is the south has been worrying about that all split long. Because I was. Our guest spot in the South. Was. Yeah. Which won the first split in. In the south so unironically. That was actually a conversation that was seriously happening in the south that our guest team. [00:56:19] Speaker B: Actually still go to Worlds and play. That's so interesting to think about. [00:56:23] Speaker C: We confirmed that because it was an actual conversation. Yeah. [00:56:26] Speaker A: That would be crazy if they're like, oh, you got relegated. All right. The team that beat you in relegation gets to go to World. [00:56:37] Speaker B: How funny would that. [00:56:39] Speaker C: It'd be even funnier if they got out of like the. The play ins or whatever. Like the base stage is at World. It's like they actually do. [00:56:45] Speaker B: Well, dude, could you imagine NA viewership goals, bro. [00:56:51] Speaker A: Yep. Peak NA viewership. [00:56:52] Speaker B: How to get your heart broken. But na special. [00:56:58] Speaker A: Speaking of the. Of the format here, I want to. I want to throw my pitch that I gave in the meeting today to the two of you and I, our viewers to see if. If you think that there's any legs to it. So, Mizel, this was inspired. Do you remember when we did the how high are the stakes bit? And it was just green screen and you're just flipping a stake and you keep elevating. Like you start on the ground, then you're on a mountain, then you're up in like a airplane, then you're in space. And that's how high the stakes are getting. Stupid bit. Really stupid. But this is kind of like inspired by that. So it's. The bit is called where are we? And it's, it's like Jad or Emily or Raz or somebody would be like, alright. So I know that the format can be a little tough to follow sometimes. So here's Kangas with a segment. Where are we? And then we just have, you know, like there's all the different screens in the studio. We have like on one screen the first three weeks, another screen, the next block and then the final one be like the championships. And then I'm wearing like Explorer gear at, at varying levels. So like the first week be like, oh yeah. So we're, we're in week one. It's very simple. At the end of this week we're gonna have like the bottom two teams picked their, their opponents. Right. And it's every time the segment is just a format explainer, like mini segment of where we are. But my outfit changes throughout. So I start wearing like normal kind of clothes and then I'm like in like a road trip attire and then I'm in like a backpacking and then I like by the end I'm like in a spacesuit, right? And go. Go like mountain hiking. Like, like throughout all the. Each week my outfit changes for the bit as. Where are we in. In the. In the tournament or in the. The split. What. What do we think? [00:58:39] Speaker C: Notes unironically. I actually think that's a great idea because I do think people will get lost. So I love the idea of actually just bringing it up and making sure people know where we are and the, the present format that you're currently doing. Love that. And as to the Explorer bit, that's going to be hilarious. [00:58:56] Speaker B: They should just have you bring or like have the roll the telestrator into random spots in the studio. [00:59:04] Speaker A: Where are we? Well, I'm in the, the elevator. But where we are in the split right now. That's good too actually. All right, all right. I might, I might pitch that as well. I'll give you credit, of course. Of course. [00:59:19] Speaker C: No one day should just do it from like the. Oh, like you don't save myself. I was gonna say you just do it from home with Missella. [00:59:27] Speaker B: No webcam. [00:59:28] Speaker C: Like we are out in the weeds right now. [00:59:32] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, let's, let's do the NACL stuff where we go on site. We. Let's go to the local park and set up a camera. So we're gonna run around. [00:59:39] Speaker C: No bad. And they can have Mazelle and, like, his cowboy outfit. Bring back on the farm on the range. Right on the farm. Yeah. [00:59:48] Speaker A: We're gonna be here for another, like, 30 minutes. All right, well, on that note, Poor went out for NACL content, and thank you so much, everybody, for listening. Mezel, if somebody could leave a review for how many years that riot invested into tier 2 broadcast? Do you know how many years that. [01:00:11] Speaker C: Wait, Are you sure you want to do it that way? [01:00:13] Speaker B: Yeah, I don't think it's going the way you want it to go. [01:00:16] Speaker C: I think. You know what? Give us a star for each of the letters in Serde's name. We got to bring Sturdy back. [01:00:21] Speaker B: There you go. You're right. How many letters is that again? Five. [01:00:27] Speaker A: Five letters. If you can give us five stars, it really helps us grow the podcast to get notice. Oh, man. [01:00:32] Speaker C: This was. [01:00:33] Speaker A: This one got a little off the rails at a certain point here, didn't it? But thank you, everybody, for tuning in. This has been another episode of the league. [01:00:41] Speaker B: We didn't do predictions, did we? [01:00:44] Speaker A: Oh, my God, you're right. We didn't do predictions. [01:00:48] Speaker B: Just like mini segue. [01:00:52] Speaker A: Where are we? Where are we, guys? I don't know. All right, let's do predictions. We have four best. Wow, we are really off the rails. Up first on Saturday to start off the day, Fly Quest versus Disguised. We all have Fly Quest. You gave a game to disguise. [01:01:11] Speaker B: Yeah, baby. [01:01:13] Speaker A: That's crazy. You think Dark Wings and. And Rahel. [01:01:18] Speaker B: I love dark Wings for how much he committed to that content. Yes. His line was so, like, from the heart. Just. [01:01:26] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:01:26] Speaker B: Laying it all out there. That's my goat. [01:01:29] Speaker A: Great introduction to the scene. For anybody who didn't see. Go check out on YouTube or social media, wherever. LTA put out like a bro. [01:01:37] Speaker B: This is my time. [01:01:38] Speaker A: Western. [01:01:39] Speaker B: Western themed. [01:01:40] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:01:41] Speaker C: And shout out. That was a cameo from Jose Dio and Titan in there too. From the. [01:01:45] Speaker A: It was. That was great. That was awesome. I'm imagining from their time up here doing the boot camp. [01:01:51] Speaker B: So, yeah, they mandatory. Mandatory meeting. [01:01:55] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:01:56] Speaker B: That all teams have to do. [01:01:57] Speaker A: But we all still agree Fly Quest has taken that one. The second series of the opening week, in my head, in my mind, was going to be an exciting one, but I don't know, with the rumors of lion and their difficulty with Zamuto and maybe not having Zamuto in, I'm actually gonna just say it's a C920. I mean, I. I thought maybe a 2:1 if the lion had their full roster, but if they have to get an emergency top lane sub, I don't know, you know, quality free agent they're gonna get. [01:02:25] Speaker B: When a certain information was brought to light, me, I had decided then and there that C9 would 2.0and it came from the heavens. [01:02:41] Speaker A: Somehow. Somehow. Before we started streaming or recording this podcast episode, you just. You learned something. [01:02:47] Speaker B: Just. I. I had a piece of information. I had a vision. [01:02:52] Speaker A: More like a flashback, I guess or. [01:02:54] Speaker B: A hot flash I wanted to. [01:02:56] Speaker C: Or a flashbang, something like that. [01:02:57] Speaker A: It was uncomfortable when whatever it was. [01:03:00] Speaker B: It might have been a flash. Everything went white for a little bit. [01:03:05] Speaker A: Lost your sense of balance. [01:03:09] Speaker B: Right now? [01:03:10] Speaker C: My. My prediction came from before that. So it wasn't just today. I predicted lion one zero based on events that had recently transpired. [01:03:19] Speaker A: They're going to win the first game, lose the series then is what I'm hearing. Okay. Okay. [01:03:23] Speaker C: No L is going to win 1 0. Right. It's the best of one. That's where C9 loses. So that's what up until build. [01:03:28] Speaker A: So unfortunately not. Hate to break it to RMC. [01:03:30] Speaker C: It is back to C92. [01:03:32] Speaker A: It is. Okay. All right. All right. Happy that you're back on the side of reason. [01:03:36] Speaker C: This is how I into my predictions for. [01:03:38] Speaker A: This is true. [01:03:39] Speaker B: You do get really all aligned this week. I'm actually looking through except for one which. [01:03:45] Speaker A: And this next one is the exciting one. This should be the best game, best series of the weekend, or at least the closest. It's Team Liquid versus Hundred Thieves. These two or exactly feel like they give us bangers. More often than not, they match up against each other in multiple finals by this point. We already talked about earlier the history of 100 Thieves versus TL but it also continued into split one in this year. If you forgot about that already, I am the one against the grain here. It's team looking across the board. Two one for everybody. But I have 100 thieves taking this one and I think part of it is that these players, they better be freaking hungry, man. I know river. This is his kind of farewell tour. There's been been heavy rumors of him going to military service and then not coming back. He has not 100 confirmed it, but he has on footage said it's likely. So I think he's gonna be motivated to win again and everybody else around him is gonna be motivated because they're not gonna have a team next split. They get this Is their. Their tryouts. [01:04:42] Speaker B: You know, it's a 50. You either get. You either get bare feet up on the dashboard or you get driving in a NASCAR race from this. I don't know. I don't know. I'm very. [01:04:53] Speaker A: You think it could be just like they're coming coasting now? [01:04:55] Speaker B: Yeah, but, like, I mean, some of them might be. Some of them aren't. Like, I don't know. It's gonna be really interesting. [01:05:00] Speaker C: It will be. [01:05:01] Speaker A: But I think all these players, because all their contracts end, none of them are gonna have an org guaranteed if they want to continue playing and competing. This is a tryout split for them to show that they still got it. So I think they'll be motivated. And with Team Liquid not looking as good with Yuji, I'm just gonna say it. I'm excited for Yuji. I hope they grow and that he gets better. They had one good series versus Shout. [01:05:22] Speaker B: Well, they better have gotten the belt out. If you didn't watch that off season content with some of the things and like, the. The off season interview that Spawn had and talk about some of the things that went wrong and like, the trust issue there better have been the crack of a belt and I better see the best TL I've ever seen. [01:05:40] Speaker A: I hope so as well. I think our region's always better when Team Liquid is doing well. And this is an exciting roster to cheer for. But I still think right now, gut feeling, 100 thieves. [01:05:51] Speaker B: I just. I just can't believe the things that happened with that team last split and the fact that there was, like, dysfunction from the likes of Core, JJ and Impact as well, which is just so crazy to me. [01:06:06] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:06:06] Speaker B: And like, that. That shit can't happen like that. Then it can't happen again. [01:06:12] Speaker C: It's okay, though. I watched the trailer. Mizzle and Quid made a huge mistake. He did not slash mute in the trailer. So they read APA's all chat. So I believe Team Liquids got the edge here. [01:06:21] Speaker A: Wait, this is a good point. Actually, this is also APA's tryout because if he gets smashed by Quid. [01:06:27] Speaker B: Hello, Toasty. [01:06:29] Speaker C: Yeah, Maybe we see T.L. quit. Nick split. That's awesome. [01:06:32] Speaker A: I mean, we'll talk about that. [01:06:34] Speaker B: Imagine APA on another team. That hurts my brain. [01:06:37] Speaker A: It does, dude. [01:06:38] Speaker C: Honestly, I'm on Shopify. [01:06:41] Speaker A: I actually. That would be very funny. Yeah. Speaking of, Shopify is the final series of the weekend versus dignitas. We all have Shopify 2. Oh, dig big Stinky. They don't even have a top laner right now. Hopefully they do by the weekend. They have not announced anything. [01:06:55] Speaker B: I say what I want to say. I would be fined. [01:06:59] Speaker A: Fair enough. All right, did. Is that everything now? Mizel, can you check the doc? Have we gotten through all the information? [01:07:03] Speaker B: Yeah, I think there were five points that we needed to get through. Get through. Just like the five stars you should give to this podcast for this episode. [01:07:10] Speaker A: Thank you. Thank you for bringing it all together. Thank you for reminding me that we have covered arguably the most important part of the podcast. Thank you, everybody for listening as well through all of our just ramblings today. But this has got to be one of my favorite podcasts that we've recorded in a while. This is all vibes, so thanks for sticking with us, everybody. Just remember, remember, if you can take anything from this podcast, it's that we love you and we'll see you next time. [01:07:38] Speaker B: Bring back lcs. [01:07:41] Speaker A: Oh, wait, that was the wrong one. There we go.