League Rundown - Episode 576: One Last Job

[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 to episode 576 of the League Rundown. This is your 2025 LTA split three week six review and LEC split three week five preview. This episode is lovingly entitled One Last Job. I'm your host Kangas and I'm joined by two esteemed co hosts up first, fresh out of the can and this time ready to be introduced first. I hope Badger. [00:01:34] Speaker B: I actually am because I'm like looking at the LCK for the update and I've got a wild stat to drop for y' all when we get there. [00:01:42] Speaker A: I cannot wait. I cannot wait. But that will have to wait shortly because we also have our resident LPL representative, Mr. Mazelpl. [00:01:51] Speaker C: Hello. [00:01:52] Speaker A: Hello. Happy to have you. [00:01:55] Speaker C: Happy to have League of Legos. [00:01:56] Speaker A: League of Legos. Well, I hate to pull the rug under you, Ms. El. I usually give you the LPL update earlier, but Badger just kind of like asserted himself. Right. So Badger, let's go around the world and catch up on what's going on elsewhere outside of just the regions that we cover primarily on the podcast. What's going on in the lck? [00:02:15] Speaker B: So LCK just wrapped up their season and we are starting to get into playoffs. We've got the bracket all figured out. Well, almost all figured out because there's kind of a play in portion of it and I've got a wild stat for you and I hasn't crossed my mind this entire time. So you know how there's the Legend Group and the Rise group. The bottom team of the Legend group is Nongshim Red Force. Nongshim Red Force has not won a best of three and the entirety of the summer split for summer split portion of the LCK. Ooh they they went 012 against Gen G Hanwa T1 and KT Rolster. Ooh they if you put their ratings up against the teams in the Rise group they would be fourth and only the top three from Rise make it to to play in stage to make it to the playoffs for the lck. Yeah. [00:03:19] Speaker A: Why do I feel like there's a big but coming at some point here. [00:03:23] Speaker B: But they auto qualified because they were already in the R the legend group. So it's okay. They just have to make sure that they win one best of five or two best of fives against. Well they, they play okay. Brion Savings bank and the first round Damwon plays Fear X in the other one. Winner of that goes to the qualification to make it to season playoffs. Loser of that goes to the bottom bracket. It's basically it's a four team double elimination bracket. Top two teams make it into the playoffs. And we already know the top seeds for the playoffs. Of course it's Gen G and Hanwha are seeds seed one and two. T1 is seed number three and they have their choice of teams coming from the play ins. And then Casey Rolster plays who's whoever's left over. [00:04:12] Speaker A: Okay. [00:04:13] Speaker B: That's where we're at. [00:04:14] Speaker A: So one of the teams that could potentially make a dark horse run is a no good ass bad team. At least that's what I'm hearing. [00:04:24] Speaker B: Pretty pretty much. There is a world where two upsets and if you make it to upper bracket finals. Actually you just have to make it to either upper bracket finals or if you are the higher seed coming out, if you make it the lower semis. Because the top three teams actually no, you. As long as it's. God, it's so weird because Genji's already qualified and they could just go zero. They could just drop two best of fives and get knocked out and it just throws everything out of whack. [00:04:58] Speaker A: Like I. I love how complicated because I know that you know this and I know that you looking at the bracket being confused is just encapsulating every region's format for the summer. They're all random, they're all weird. None of them make sense. [00:05:15] Speaker B: I'm like trying to like get a primer of like getting an idea of what teams could possibly make it just. [00:05:22] Speaker C: Because your guys are shit regions have fucking wonky ass shit. [00:05:32] Speaker A: What's going on in LPL then? [00:05:34] Speaker C: Yeah, the real region. Oh, okay. How's. [00:05:38] Speaker B: How are those world titles going for you at this point? [00:05:41] Speaker C: Hey, they've been pretty good in the track record of things. All right. You look back holistically across history, it's still a banger. All right, lpl. We are in the playoffs. There are no more frauds. I repeat, no more frauds in the lpl. We have eliminated everybody that could possibly be bad. Except for Weibo. [00:06:01] Speaker B: I was going to say we're not. [00:06:02] Speaker A: The mic is picking it up, but I'm clapping. [00:06:04] Speaker B: Weibo. I was gonna say Weibo's in playoffs. What do you mean? [00:06:07] Speaker C: There's no one and maybe edg, but let's talk about it. We had the play in playoffs. This is the the qualifier for the actual playoffs, which obviously get world championship points just for being in the playoffs. The top eight. But we did have to eliminate some teams. NIP took a thrilling 32 victory over FPX. That was the closest series. It's hilarious. As we went down, it got worse and worse as the seeds got set more separated. That was the closest matchup. That was the final seed in Group Ascend versus the top seed in Group Nirvana. For the first time ever since this format had been introduced a year and a half ago, a Nirvana team beat a Group Ascend. [00:06:51] Speaker A: Hell yeah. [00:06:52] Speaker C: Yeah. It's actually unheard of. It finally happened and then it happened again the next night. EDG took down we 3 to 1. And EDG were the team that definitely looked a little bit stronger coming out of the regular season itself. We looked really bad. But we went from a 32 to a 3 1. Nirvana again wins. That's the last time Nirvana won because Weibo smacked the hell out of ultra prime 3.0. And JDG did the same to LGD. So now we have our playoffs set. In the playoffs, number one seed from Group Ascend gets to pick their opponent. And then we descend in order. So Group two or the second seed gets to decide, say. [00:07:31] Speaker A: Wow. [00:07:32] Speaker C: Yeah. Third seed gets to decide. Then fourth seed gets whoever is left. TS chose nip. That's why all the teams. The top team coming out of group Nevada, they chose them because they saw something and they feel really good about it. I felt like there were some other top teams that they are at least an edg. But apparently EDG scrim bucks go nutty. So they went ahead and chose Nip. AL then or IG ended up choosing EDG in the end because that's the last of the two kind of weaker teams. Then we had BLG choose jdg and AL went with Weibo Gaming. So we'll get some banger matchups to kick off the playoffs. It is Double elm, so we will see the teams again. But these best of fives really teeing up the best of the best in Split three. It's like I said, no more frauds. There's nobody that's really besides Weibo and edg. All the other teams have been really good. So really excited to see what the playoffs Have. [00:08:27] Speaker A: Okay, cool. Well, thank you for the update. Excited to watch. [00:08:30] Speaker C: Sad note. Sad note. Sad note. Sorry the editor view or at least not interview but like a video of Jackie Love on stream has revealed that he will probably be taking a break next year which is very sad but he might be. He's in the running for MVP this split so it'd be really cool. [00:08:48] Speaker A: Okay. So. So not like a retirement, just a break. [00:08:53] Speaker C: Depends. I think it's gonna be a retirement. It's, it's, it's like health issues. He's having like a lot of health issues so he says it's a break. But yeah, we'll see. [00:09:03] Speaker A: You never know. You never know. Well, we'll be rooting for Jackie Love and keeping our ears to the pulse of what's going on with that story. Thank you for the update gentlemen for both LPL and lck. Only updates I have around for either the north here for LTA or for lec. One big news dropped this past week. Dignitas, they got knocked out of playoffs. Well their, their year ends with you know, four months left in the year. They're gonna have a long break here, long offseason. They're already making moves. Dropping head coach Rigby that is right, the coach that was there, we talked about this last week. He was there for the evil geniuses fiasco with Danny and then picked up by Dignitas later on has already been dropped from the Dignitas Org this marks I believe they're like third coaching staff change in three years. So Dignitas kind of picking up that immortals trend of just changing the coaching staff often to see if they can find something that works. We'll see what their new coach is going to look like or what their new head coach is going to look like. Maybe it's Lira who was kind of the assistant coach for them while Rigby was there. Maybe it's somebody else. We are yet to hear but we'll keep you updated on what things look like over at Dignitas. Also Kaney is on trade to I believe it was Isserus. I know the Israelis got Zamuto and somebody else got Kaney. I know that Kaney is currently on trade from Dignitas to a south team that is looking for an upgrade as they're looking at their, you know, postseason as well. I believe it's is but I'll have to confirm that here. So expect moves for the mid lane as well. Whether that's a temporary trade or a long term trade. I could see a world where Dignitas try and get somebody else to replace Kaney who was not really exceptional in the mid lane pool compared to his counterparts. So that's all the way out. If we missed anything though, let us know in the community Discord, you can find a link in the description wherever you are listening along as well as if you want to help support the podcast, you can find links in the description. Description. For those, we have a Patreon, we have a merch store. However you want to help us out, we appreciate it. With that said though, we're gonna hop into this past week's games for the LTA north as well as at the end preview lec. Because what is better than a week where finally people stopped on the LTA format on Reddit and instead shad on LEC format just have a break in the middle of the season. That's what we needed. We needed some heat off of LTA north and some extra heat on lec. Just you vary things up. Keep. Keep us on our toes. [00:11:40] Speaker B: Well, it's just weird how they just. It's so weird how they do this where they're just like, yeah, oh yeah. You know, we're getting to the point of the end of the season. We've got playoffs coming up. Oh, hey, by the way, take a week off. [00:11:52] Speaker A: Just it's for Valorant, but they're not again officially saying it's for Valorant. And finally, European fans are giving the same to EU League of Legends that NA fans gave to NA League of Legends where it's like, oh yeah, air quotes. Not changing the schedule for Valorant. Sure, yeah, whatever you say, boss. Whatever you say. But with that said, at least we still have games that we can talk about for LTA north and they're games to preview next week. Wait, really? Yep. Whoa, wait, is this. Is. Are you reacting what I was just saying or is this something different? [00:12:28] Speaker C: No, no. About actually having games. [00:12:30] Speaker A: We do have games. Yes. Dude. [00:12:32] Speaker C: Thank you. [00:12:33] Speaker A: Thank you. I know sometimes we just run podcasts so that I can hear myself talking. Not one of those episodes. It's not one of this. These ones. That's not what this one is. Right now we have LTA north to kick off. First of all, and we had three best of fives that happened this past weekend. I'm realizing that somehow when I copy and pasted on the document, it did not add the third row. So while I add that Moselle, do you want to run me through the past three series that happened this last weekend? [00:13:03] Speaker C: Sure. So we started off with a beautiful day Of League of Legends. Silver Scrapes played beautifully in game number five of C9 versus D. Wait, I'm sorry. [00:13:17] Speaker A: I'm sorry. I think I just misheard you. Did you say fucking Silver Scrapes for. [00:13:21] Speaker C: Silver motherfucking Scrapes for Disguise. Of all teams actually insane. It was a lower bracket shindig and Disguise did end up falling. C9 came out the victor. Game five was very unfortunate. Who's really the other games were bangers. And that's all that you need to know. I guess then probably to my sadness, TL did not show up to the arena. Hundred Thieves did. There were some imposters. [00:13:50] Speaker B: Wait, who is the people sitting in there. [00:13:52] Speaker A: I didn't actually see too liquid. [00:13:54] Speaker C: There were some random people. I don't know. There's some random people. TL lost 3.0and are eliminated. Probably one of the most disappointing falls from grace in all of LCS/LTA north history called LCS. [00:14:07] Speaker A: It's fine. [00:14:09] Speaker C: Very, very sad. But then we had a decent banger. Although running out of steam was Shopify Rebellion. Fly Quest took them down 31 to book a ticket into the final stage of the regular season. [00:14:22] Speaker A: Exactly. Thank you, Mazel for that recap. [00:14:24] Speaker C: You're welcome. [00:14:25] Speaker A: The three best of fives, the surprisingly closest one, I think if you had asked 10 people, 10 of them would have said, oh, probably Team Liquid. Hundred Thieves is the one to go to five games. Freaking C9. DSG badger. Let's talk about it. How the hell did DSG push C9 to five games? [00:14:47] Speaker B: I. You know, I. I kind of like blacked out during the series when. When I saw Silas Jungle picked in game four that they. They just had like the combos that you're just like, huh, that's a weird combo. Oh, hey, this worked. That's kind of cool. We got Anivia from Dark Wings with the Poppy Jungle and the Scion top lanes. You got the choo choo train going and you just. You just crash the train into the wall right into your enemies. Like yeah, damn. Like what a. [00:15:19] Speaker A: That was back against the wall. It was too over. [00:15:21] Speaker B: That was back against the wall. They're just like it. [00:15:23] Speaker C: We're. [00:15:23] Speaker B: We're going to pull out Anivia into Rise, which is actually a really good matchup into Rice. [00:15:27] Speaker A: So it was awesome to watch. And they pulled off the like Anivia wall with Poppy. Use the headbutt into it combo like two or three times. [00:15:36] Speaker B: Really good. Well, I mean it. And those games, they had a really good series. In the other ones we. [00:15:47] Speaker C: Yeah, the only Game that was, like, really just hard to watch was game five. I think game one was okay at some points. Game two was all right. [00:15:55] Speaker B: Game five with the game five Larry flags. That. That game five draft from C9 is actually disgusting. [00:16:03] Speaker A: Yeah. Rexai top lane Zyra Jungle, which, if you've been paying attention to patch notes, AP jungles like Zyra have been buffed. I think Brand got buffed too, but they were small buffs. We weren't sure if they were going to impact meta, so we didn't talk about them that much on the show. But every game I would cast with Kobe specifically going in, he'd be like, do we get a AP Jungler? You know, like, he would. He was always excited because he's the Jungler, so he, like, pays attention to that stuff. [00:16:28] Speaker B: Right. [00:16:29] Speaker A: And we finally got the Zyra Jungle, and Blabber pulled it out. That was cool. But the big thing was finally the whole series. I think Thanatos really dropped the ball. Game 5 on the Rex eye of all things. He smashes Castle. [00:16:44] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. Thanos has had a rough time against Castle in the first few games. [00:16:49] Speaker A: Castle, four out of five games. One Lane outperforms Thanatos. Finally, Thanatos outperforms, and it's on freaking Rek' side. But the big story is, of course, Loki on the zone. That Loki insane, that early quadra kill in the game and just ran away with it, dude. [00:17:05] Speaker B: Yeah, that. That quadra kill happened, and I'm like, all right, I'm gonna go pick up dinner. Like, it's. [00:17:10] Speaker A: This. [00:17:10] Speaker B: This game's over with. It's done. They have no way to lock down Zeri in a meaningful manner because it's. [00:17:17] Speaker A: If. [00:17:18] Speaker B: If Zeri's in range to get Miasma by Cassiopeia, then Zeri's playing the fight terribly at that point. So it's. It was just rough. It was a slow. It was a slow death in the end. Good on disguise. Honestly, I think they. I think they can take the momentum from this into the promotion tournament and have a pretty good shot there. [00:17:41] Speaker A: That's. The big story, is that they. They have, whether they win or lose, more games to play in that promotion tournament. So, Mizell, I ask the next. Next question to you. As somebody who's been covering nacl this entire year, you know intimately how well those teams are performing. This version of DSG that just pushed C9 to five games. You've been talking a lot about how you're like, it's going to be at least close. I think there's teams in the NACL that can push disguise and take the spot from them. Do you still think so? Or do you think that I said. [00:18:13] Speaker C: From the beginning that LG absolutely destroys dsg? And I, I, I know we talked about it a little bit afterwards after they won, I said, all right, I changed my dish. I give them one game against LG if shit because, because of that series. So, so I definitely do give them more credit now. I could see it go to 5. I would still give LG the benefit of the doubt in that one. But I do give them more respect now for sure. But against anybody else, if it ends up being any other team from an ACL now there's no way it's a3.0. Probably. [00:18:45] Speaker A: And of course Luminosity Gaming is LG with a lot of names you'll probably recognize for the audience. Fake Tomio Jungle. [00:18:54] Speaker C: I believe the LCs reject sanity. Lovingly entitled. [00:18:57] Speaker A: I think Tactical and Zazel Bottling. Right? Yeah. Yeah, that's, that's, that's a song. [00:19:03] Speaker B: Man, I'd be so excited about this team 2022. But unfortunately it's 2025. Let the new bloods come in. Let Dark Wings and Xu just run the show. Rahel is going to. Rahel is going to make Tactical as it's. It's gonna be great. I'm so excited. [00:19:20] Speaker A: It makes things very. [00:19:21] Speaker C: Gotta Fear the beard, bro. Hear the beard. [00:19:24] Speaker A: Fear the beard of Zazel. I'm very excited for that promotion tournament, though. I got to interview Xu after the games on that day. He was also talking about that. He was like, this just gave us a lot of confidence that we like C9. We're gonna be a tough opponent. We push them to the brink. This just shows that what we're doing is working and that we're gonna do really well at the promotion tournament. So that's where their attention is going to be set next. Even if it was surprising to begin with, that they pushed C9 that hard. So best of luck to DSG. C9 do continue in the lower bracket. They will face the winner of the next series from this past weekend, which was Team Liquid. Hundred Thieves. We all said, or at least I said, and a lot of people I know agreed that it was like this was the one we expected to go to five games. I predicted 100 Thieves 30 last week on the pod only because of what I was hearing behind the scenes from Team Liquid Mental. But on the day, I kind of waffled and I was like, no, I still think Team Liquid can take two Games, at least, and it's going to be a close series. Holy. Did Team Liquid just not show? [00:20:25] Speaker B: That was. [00:20:27] Speaker A: That was ridiculous. Badger, I know that you're a Team Liquid fan. I know that they're the team that you've banked for a while. So sorry, I guess. [00:20:35] Speaker B: But what do you about 100 thieves? Honestly? Just. I. Yeah, this. I. I think this. I think they just need to clean house at this point. It just. It's gonna be a long off season for them. I mean, you figure Spawn's gonna be back next year. You figure? I think the only person on this. This roster at this point is Safe. Is safe as Yawn, maybe. [00:21:04] Speaker A: Yeah. If they drop Yawn their trolling. [00:21:07] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, you've. [00:21:09] Speaker A: Even though he did face check a Sejuani Ult at the Dragon Soul Fight in game three. That. [00:21:14] Speaker B: Yeah, that. That wasn't good. But I don't think you can take that. Take that. As you know, Yawn's washed at this point. [00:21:23] Speaker A: I think this was after Apa got picked three times in a row. [00:21:27] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:21:27] Speaker A: Which was rough to see as well. Yeah, the roster needs to shake. The. In terms of player contracts, impact and core JJ's contracts are up. At the end of the year, I am fully expecting Impact to not be picked up. I would be surprised to hear if Team Liquids decide to give him another contract based on how he looked. Game three pulled out the Gang plank, of all things. I was hyped going into it because it's like, oh, gangplank. [00:21:54] Speaker C: This is a throwback for him. [00:21:55] Speaker A: That's a throwback, right? This is something he's known for. And he got three solo kills, and it still wasn't enough for them to, like, actually do anything in the game. Like, they just never played around Impact, so this roster just does not seem like they know what they want to do, how they want to play the game. From what I'm hearing, Coach Spawn, he's been very vocal about how he wants to spend more time with family. That's why he's spending time in Australia and then coming back for only, like, playoff runs for the team to be in person. Would not be surprised to see if they dropped him. I know he had an interview with Neymar where he was like, we'll see what Steve wants to do from Team Liquid. But he was like, yeah, don't keep your hopes up for. For this roster or for me. [00:22:37] Speaker C: Yeah, no, that roster is getting blown up and they all know it. Yeah, 100%. I think the only pieces I could see them and I know this is going to be a shocker. Like the ones I'm guaranteed about are Yugi and John. A little bit less so than Yan because I actually think that he has some question marks going his way. I'm on the fence about core JJ but APA and impact are 1000 million percent gone. [00:22:59] Speaker A: Yeah, there's no way and mazel I know that you and I are both big APA fans. We got to cast him for a long time on this come up in Tier 2, like when he was getting into the scene and he had a good couple of of like first showings denying Jojo worlds twice in a year or two years in a row. But man, it's tough to see like just how many individual mistakes he makes in a game and just being like, oh that was, that was game losing. He's Annie. The team's prepping for dragon. All of 100 Thieves are in the line brush on the approach to Dragon or sorry, no reverse that Team Liquid are in the line brush. 100 thieves are approaching and AP just walks out of the brush as Annie and then walks back in. It's like the same thing Masu did. There was also like in Tri brush and like, like stutter stepping out of it. It's like what, what are we doing guys? [00:23:51] Speaker C: There's also like three or four times he went an entire fight without flashing or ulting. Yep, just like that. You can't, you can't get that can. But it sucks. I mean it's just showing that, you know, it takes a lot to be a pro player and sometimes some things that work really well for you don't work in that kind of scheme or you lose that. And I think, I mean he posted about it on the Reddit thread because he did like an AMA or whatever. He was like, I want to go back to solo queue and refigure out what makes me me because I don't feel like I have a style. I feel like and I can fully agree with that, I feel like he's molded or been molded into a fix anything or play anything kind of guy for Team Liquid and not playing towards what I think made him good and being kind of niche counter picks and mid lane control mages and stuff like that. [00:24:36] Speaker A: And that's. [00:24:37] Speaker C: It feels like you have to have that wiggle room of like okay, I'm coming into pro play. I need to be able to be flexible. I need to be able to play like what the team needs, what the meta is, things like that. But I also need to Find a way to express my own gameplay mechanics in the way that I play the game. And I think that got lost for them and that sucks. [00:24:54] Speaker A: And we saw how that affected players like Serdi as well. It's a very common thing for, you know, younger players to come in. Sniper, Serdi, apa, I think all received the same similar treatment where it's like they had something that they were good at. They showed us that early. And then they try and grow into something that is not that. And they struggle, which can be tough. Can be tough. But wishing the best for Team Liquid going forward. I think as a brand, as a region, we are better if Team Liquid is good. So I hope that Team Liquid is able to bounce back and find something that works for next year. But it's Andre Thieves moving on. They're gonna challenge C9. We'll talk about our predictions for that here shortly. First though, it will be the final series of the past weekend. This was the upper bracket, so elimination was not on the line for this match. But it was FlyQuest versus Shopify Rebellion. This one tough to call at the end of the day. I had a 3. One for Shopify or sorry for FlyQuest. I had Shopify picking up a game and then FlyQuest winning the series and it did go that way. I was kind of hoping for it to look closer though. I really do feel like FlyQuest outside the one game they lost, they figured out Shopify and like we're not pushed that hard. All things considered. Palafox in particular newser, that was a rough. Yeah, Mizel. We were like watching this game together. [00:26:25] Speaker C: Doing like we have the APA syndrome from the other day. [00:26:28] Speaker A: Yeah, a little bit. [00:26:29] Speaker C: Especially on that Annie game. [00:26:30] Speaker A: And I was half paying attention because I was also playing TFT and you were full paying attention and then like 1/8th playing TFT. So you were pointing out what Palifax was doing and I was like, oh yeah. Oh wow, that's crazy dude. [00:26:45] Speaker C: But it was a toughy. [00:26:47] Speaker A: Yeah. There was a lot of stuff going on there that was lacking contracts and. [00:26:51] Speaker C: Palfaxers weren't on that day. And that's. That's the thing about like a very momentum, more emotional based team is like some days they just look like they can't even compete. [00:27:01] Speaker A: Yeah. It is hard to see a team that you know the peaks they can hit and then also know the valleys that they can hit and see in an upper bracket finals them be closer to the valley than they are the peak. You're like, ooh, I really want this team to be ramping up and it doesn't, I'm not convinced that they are. It is FlyQuest. It is the hardest team in the league to play against. So maybe you give them some grace there. But I, I think, I mean FlyQuest is locked for Texas now because they their first seed. I don't know if like for Texas at Texas and for Worlds because they're first or sorry, no they have to win this next bestifies. Sorry. God damn it. I'm so bad. It's great formats, good job. [00:27:50] Speaker C: Make your format comprehensible challenge impossible. [00:27:53] Speaker A: They're locked for Texas. If they win the Next Best of 5 they will be locked for Worlds. But I don't know who the next best team is at this point. All year we thought it was C9, they've dropped the ball. Then it was Shopify Rebellion stepping up. They had a rough looking series versus FlyQuest only picking up a game which to their credit they still got a game versus flyquest but that wasn't nearly as good looking as like C9 pushing flight of 5 games back to back and split 2 and then hundred thieves is on this weird surge where like are they the next best team? Like I, I don't know. I don't know what's gonna happen pick. [00:28:34] Speaker B: Up that impactful at this point that they just like became the second best team in the region. Like if they go to Worlds like it's just so unfortunate that this is their last year because like and I mean going out on, going out after going to Worlds is I guess a good, good way to go out. But I don't know, I, I, I like keep thinking about it like I know I, I know I don't have them winning the series but like it just what's just stopping Shopify from running this back like it so C9, C9 going to five against disguise. Like you could take that as a sign that they're kind of down a little bit at this point. But like maybe Disguised is the fourth best team in the region and who. [00:29:22] Speaker A: Knows maybe, maybe there's so many the. [00:29:25] Speaker B: Way I questions that we can't have at this point. [00:29:27] Speaker A: You poised the question is Dokla the big difference maker? I actually think yes. Not because he is that much better as an individual player than Sniper. I think he is very marginally better. They're essentially in the same tier of like mechanics and lane ability in in my eyes but what Sniper does or sorry what Dokla does is he alleviates shot calling responsibility from FBI and from Ayla because everything That I hear when you listen to their comms when we do any replays, when you hear the players talk about each other, it is always Dokla just communicates. He talks to the team about his opinion of what they need to do. He gives information to the team that is important for their decision making and he just helps them get on the same page where now they can do the thing that they're good at which is fight. They are really good at hands checking their opponents. But what they were bad at before was approaching fights because they were always in a disadvantageous position when the fight started. Now that they have Dokla, he will TP early. He will tell them opponent top laner TP in it. He will say this wave fight. He will tell them the information that they need to take these fights that they've always been good at and always wanted to do. And now they have a top laner that is willing to step up and be an in game leader. Because that's what Dokla essentially is. He's an. He's a shot calling top laner which is kind of rare in the league. And I think that that has a really elevated Hundred Thieves to be like they were always great, good, they were just taking bad fights because they didn't know how to approach the fights because they didn't have everyone on the same page. I think Dokla gets them on the same page. That's, that's at least my read of the situation. This is, you know all, all conjecture, all like interpretation. But this is, I'm giving Dokal a lot of, you know, credit and respect here for like what I think he adds to the Hundred Thieves equation. And that kind of brings us to the the next statement or the next portion here because now we have week six predictions. If you're gonna check out any series from the past week, I recommend C9DSG just because it's crazy. It goes to the full 5 games. 100 Thieves. TL kind of a snoozer. Unless you are a big TL hater. Then watch it. Sure. Shopify Fly Quest. It was Flyquest for the most part up but dsgc9 great to watch this. This coming week we have three best of fives in a row. Friday, Saturday, Sunday. It's gonna start off with C900 Thieves. The winner of that will play Sunday or sorry Saturday the the next day against the Shopify. The winner of that will play the next day versus Fly Quest, C9 and 100 Thieves. Both of them have a chance to win this the the North Conference but they have to win three best of fives in a row to get there. That is a gauntlet run for them. And I'll tell you right now, I might be predicting an upset. Let's start off with the first series though. C9 versus 100 Thieves. Mazel, you have 3:1 for C9. Badger, you have 3:2 for C9. I'm the only one that has 100 these winning this one. I'm not convinced by C9. In fact, I'm convinced that they are also struggling a lot while 100 Thieves are riding Momentum. So this is very much a momentum based prediction. And that's where I'm giving a lot of props to 100 Thieves. But mazel, why do you think C9 take this one over 100 Thieves? [00:33:02] Speaker C: I just think they're the better team. I think 100 Thieves is gonna run out of steam. I think they have really good mechanics. Like you say, like their team fighting is really good. But I think C9 will just be better on the day. [00:33:12] Speaker A: All right, fair enough. Badger, anything else to add to that because you have a slightly closer 3, 2. [00:33:19] Speaker B: I don't know, I just don't have a good read on either one of these teams because it feels like C9 kind of just like sat forward in their chair in game five after they go game mode. Getting close to getting reverse swept and then like 100 Thieves. I mean, it's low sample size of the Doe Club, but they've been smacking the teams that they've been playing so far. So I. Yeah, I. I think this will be close. I think C9. I just think if I had a pencil in a team as the second best team in the region at this point, I think it's just C9 until. [00:33:49] Speaker C: I'm proven wrong, which. [00:33:50] Speaker B: Which probably will be this weekend if I'm going to be honest, because my track record's been pretty shitty this split. But hey, here we are. [00:33:56] Speaker A: Okay. All right. Well, was not able to convince either of them. But respect to the C9, I think this series should be close on paper. Next up, winner of the previous series. We'll go against Shopify Rebellion. Mazel, you're even more confident here. You think C930 sweep the Shopify Fraud. Shopify of frauds. You're hearing it here first. Then Badger has C931 and I have 100 Thieves. 3, 2, baby. I honestly think that with the momentum the thieves are riding and the form that they are currently in after their win versus lion, after their win versus TL, they are 6 and 1 in their last two best of fives. They're riding a lot of momentum. I actually have them, you know, continuing that momentum very far into the lower bracket. [00:34:49] Speaker C: That's just because you think it's really funny. [00:34:52] Speaker A: It is slightly funny. It's more depressing if 100 thieves do well in their last split. [00:34:58] Speaker C: But it would be so fun and. [00:34:59] Speaker A: They'Re not even here. It would be also. [00:35:01] Speaker C: Would be, well. Oh, my God. Okay, I'm sorry to add more to the timeline, but the timeline keeps going longer and it keeps getting funnier. Hundred thieves win the entirety of everything. They go first seed into world. [00:35:11] Speaker A: They win worlds neck. [00:35:13] Speaker C: No, no, no. Let's not get that far out of us. LTA north rebrands to LCS next year. The only ever LTA north champion is 100 Thieves who doesn't even exist. Bam. Easy extension of the storyline. [00:35:31] Speaker A: That would. That would actually be hilarious. [00:35:33] Speaker C: Funniest timeline. [00:35:34] Speaker A: That is the. I don't. Is that funny again? I'm just kind of depressed over here. [00:35:38] Speaker C: How far does it. Do you need to go before it isn't fun? [00:35:42] Speaker A: Maybe like. Well, how long has it been since 9. 11. I feel like those jokes are funny now. You know, it's 24 years, something like that. [00:35:49] Speaker B: Wow. [00:35:50] Speaker A: I'm just saying it's topical. Dude. I see those jokes all over the place now. All right, we'll give it another 24 years. Then we'll laugh at 100 Thieves being the only ever LTA north champion if they're able to pull it off. But the two of you still have C9. Mizell, why do you think C9.30, though? Like, you're really disrespecting Shopify that much. [00:36:09] Speaker C: Not disrespecting. I just think C9 are the better team. [00:36:12] Speaker A: Okay. Yeah. But I mean, Shopify just beat them three, two. You're not taking that into account. [00:36:17] Speaker C: No, I think. [00:36:19] Speaker B: I think C9 is going to go into the series if. If they play Shopify, they're going to go to that series so pissed because they lost to him earlier. Like, they know that that was like. Was it in a cash? Who's the. The coach that was on the pros episode where it was just the coaches instead. [00:36:40] Speaker A: That was Spawn Golden Glue. And I believe a narrow. [00:36:43] Speaker B: Yeah. And narrow was on there. I'm like, God, who's. I'm like, who's C9's coach at this point? And Arrow is just like. Yeah, we realized that it was like a fluke. Like, that ain't gonna happen again. Was pretty much like paraphrasing what he said. And I, I mean I fully believe it like and we've seen I go. [00:36:57] Speaker A: On these lower brackets or going to five games versus dsg. [00:37:02] Speaker B: I mean probably the losing the Shopify part. But yeah, I don't think they're probably happy about going to five games against DSG either considering that the team did not win a series until, you know. [00:37:13] Speaker A: They only be DSG in three weeks ago. That's the concerning part for me is that C9 are 5 and 5 in their last two best of fives. They're 5050 win rate versus DSG and Shopify Rebellion. So that's why again I even have them dropping 100 thieves not even making it to the Shopify rematch. But we'll see. We'll see what happens. I. That being said, I think that the earlier match I had a 3 one but I. It might be closer than that actually in my mind like I could see that one going either way. And if C9 wins, I don't imagine like I'm not surprised by a world where they could actually make the the rematch versus Fly Quest because if they don't. Guys, can we talk about that real quick here before we get to the final prediction? If 9 don't make it to the finals, we will not have had a single FlyQuest C9 game in split three. Silence. [00:38:11] Speaker C: That's crazy. [00:38:11] Speaker A: That's all we need. [00:38:12] Speaker B: I don't know what to say really. [00:38:14] Speaker A: Right. Just you can find Mark Zimmerman's public email on the right website. I don't know if you can actually but try and tweet at him. Just say please never have this format again. If that's your opinion, I shouldn't say anything about that. But if that's your opinion, you can make that statement. Finals, let's talk about it. For LTA north, this will determine first seed going into the LTA Championships which is the top three north teams and the top three south teams. And also guarantees you a spot at Worlds. So we have fly quest versus whoever is able to challenge them between C900 thieves, Shopify Rebellion. Based on Badger and Mazel. They both have C9 being the challenger. I have 100 thieves being the challenger. Mazelle and Badger both think it's Fly Quest winning the series overall with a three two for Mazala, three one for Badger. I have hundred thieves, baby. Three one. I think if anybody can possibly beat flyQuest it is the narrative buff of Dokla of FBI rivers last every year as a competitive pro gamer before his Military service where he up in the air for ever come back quid swan song an argument for why team should pick him up for next year Ayla leveling up year after year and finally winning a championship which I feel like he's been at that point where he could challenge for one for a while. This would be the moment that 100 teams could finally strike and pull it off. I'm going full heart on my prediction brain off believe in the narrative but for those that are still listening to their brain, why do you think FlyQuest takes this one? [00:40:12] Speaker C: I think they've just shown that their draft strategy and everything is just next level. I really want to see them at World. [00:40:19] Speaker B: Yeah it just feels like Cena or FlyQuest winning LTA like the north part and then just utterly dominating the whichever teams lta Sewell sends up is just. It feels like an inevitability at this point. [00:40:35] Speaker A: Yeah I I will say I think even if Fly loses this they still make worlds and if anything I am more confident in them making worlds as a second or third seed than I am in any other north team. Based on the forum that like C9 and Shopify are in 100 Thieves maybe you can add to that as well. There's a world where Sewell gets two seeds. I don't think it's a very likely. It's probably still like a 75, 25 but that's still a chance that the lta Sewell can pick up another seed. They're guaranteed one but we're fighting for that that additional seed as the north teams. And I'm just. I've seen shakiness from every team here except for 100 these. 100 these is the one that has not shown any shakiness. I think part of that is they've had a good lower bracket run. They haven't dropped from the upper bracket yet. But you know that, that aside, I think that it's going to be an interesting race for that final spot regardless who's in that spot. But there we go. That's our predictions for week six. That is the end of LTA North Conference playoffs. The winner of the North Conference playoffs guarantees a spot at Worlds and will go into Texas as well. Whereas the teams below them the next second and third seed team. So whoever's in the lower bracket finals it'll be Shopify and then either C9 or hunted these Whoever wins that, they're going to Texas to fight for that last spot at Worlds against the LTA Sewell teams. Keep your eyes on that. It Will be very exciting. Starts off in Los Angeles, then we'll end in Texas. I think we have two weeks of play technically in LA before you fly down to Texas to finish things off. But with that said, that's LTA north in a nutshell. Now let's talk about lec, the LEK League hopping across the pond to Europe. We did not have games this past weekend because their format is a format of all time. Again, just want to highlight the front page Reddit posts about that as opposed to the front rage front page Reddit post about our format in the past. They do have five best of five series this coming weekend though. It's gonna be Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday. Damn. Yeah. Strap in. Everybody kicking things off. It's team Heretics versus Vitality. We all have vitality getting this one. I honestly think that just speaks for itself. Team Heretics did not show me enough in Group B to get excited about at all. Vitality. At least we're in the conversation. They could have been first seed coming out of this group if they had just won their last series. So I think that they a much better contender there. GX BDS is similar for me. I think the GX just have shown first off Group A much harder group. I think all four teams coming out of Group A are really good, if not just decent. Whereas half of the teams from Group B are kind of fraudulent. I think BDS is one of those fraudulent teams. So I got GX is like a. [00:43:31] Speaker B: One and a half team group. Like honestly, it really is. [00:43:35] Speaker A: Yeah. Group B was a joke, dude. [00:43:37] Speaker B: It's G2. Whatever fanatic is. And then. [00:43:40] Speaker A: Right. [00:43:40] Speaker B: And then. And the. The toilet bowl like between the other three teams. [00:43:45] Speaker A: Yeah. Let me. Let me tell you this way. 4th seed coming out from Group A had a better game record than third seed coming out of Group B. That's how. That's how much group G2 just dominated group B and everybody else was splitting games versus each other. So yeah, GX versus bds. We all have GX taking that one. Although it could be a close series. There's a couple three twos. Couple three ones here, here. Next up, G2 versus Casey. Casey. Oh, hard team to talk about. They went to first stand. They were not present at MSI but they were in the conversation during playoffs to make that push for it. Can they fight with the big dogs and topple G2 which they already have in the first split? Winter split? None of us have it happening. I got G2.3 2. Badgers got 3 2. Mazel's got 3 1. So we all still believe in G2. They're riding a lot of momentum, showing that they are by far better than any other team in Group B. Group A is where things get interesting because there's more contenders there. But we all at least still think G2 will be kings of Europe for now. Which means one final prediction. Mcoid versus Fnatic Fanatic. The team that had not dropped a series until they played against G2. The team that Poby top and charts left and right in terms of stats, kda, damage per minute, CS per minute, all the things you want to see from the mid laner. He crushed them and then dropped out of top 10 in every category once he played caps. We all have MCOID crushing this one. [00:45:14] Speaker B: With a 3 1. [00:45:15] Speaker A: 3 1. Mazel does actually have a 32 at least there, so that one could be close. Mizell, I would ask you, but I know that you're just gonna say something about JoJo Pugh and. And yell some North American expletives. Probably JoJo Pew. JoJo Pugh. [00:45:29] Speaker C: I'm gonna call him puby. [00:45:31] Speaker A: Oh, there's something there. There. There's something there. We'll workshop that one. Badger, do you have any more insightful ideas as to why mcoid3 won this before I give my opinion? [00:45:43] Speaker B: I just think that, I mean, unless Poby's leveled up, I think that JoJo PN is gonna abuse that. And the. The el Yoya and JoJo Pune connection is stronger than ever. I mean, that team was also like, contending for first seed in group A and we talked about the, like, strength differences between A and B. It just they looked more convincing in their games. I just think their team as a whole is better than. Than Fnatic. [00:46:11] Speaker A: I fully agree. I think pound for pound, the only one I would maybe say is like on if Mickey has a real Mickey X has a really good series, which sometimes he has bad series, but if he has a really good series, I have him over Alvaro. And maybe you can make an argument for Oscar Redden, but Eliolia over razork every day. JoJo over Poby. I think based on what we just saw from Poby. Yes, Supa. I have critically underrated Supa throughout the year, and I've been glazing upset. God upset against G2. He tried his best to hold the line. He's the only one that looked half decent. But Superman, he is on a different level right now. So I actually think that McOID should be able to take. Take this one. 3 1. I have a fanatic at least getting a game because I give enough respect to upset but I will continue to to be the sole supporter of that man. I don't know why people still hate on that guy, but I'll still support him for now but only for a single game. I still think I'm going to take it but that's lec. That's going to be playoffs around one predictions there's four series again reminder this Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday. So there's two weekdays along with two weekend days. Make sure to set your alarms and your calendars accordingly. And with that said. Wow. This is probably the shortest episode of the league rundown we've ever had. That's it. That's all that we have to cover everybody. That's whoo. Wow. Does anybody have any like funny stories they want to tell at the end here or like any other any other games they're playing right now? I'm playing Hollow Knight. [00:47:44] Speaker B: I yeah, I downloaded Hollow Knight. I needed to kind of get into it. It's like two days before the next one comes out. [00:47:50] Speaker A: I still need to highly recommend dude, I I do you like like first off, any Castlevania or Metroid games? [00:47:56] Speaker B: Oh, I love the Castlevania. Metroid, like Metroidvania games. There's I, I'm surprised I haven't jumped on the bandwagon of it a little bit sooner at this point. [00:48:04] Speaker A: I, I, I've never played a Castlevania game, so I can't speak to Symphony of the Night or any of the classics. [00:48:10] Speaker B: But I still can't believe you've never played Symphony of the Night. [00:48:13] Speaker A: Yeah, I know, but I've played Metroid and Super Metroid. I think Hollow Knight's better than both. God. Hollow Knights are really fun game. I'm loving it right now. Cannot wait for Silksong to come out. I'll probably play some Hollow Knight later tonight as well because I'm like close to 50% through probably. So I don't think I finish it before Silksong comes out. But at least I can finish it and then like play Silksong after the weekend games or something like that. But mazel. What are you playing these days? Are you playing any other games? [00:48:42] Speaker C: No, I'm extremely busy. Unfortunately. I'm playing some league here. There's. But I have more stuff I have to get to tonight. So unfortunately I, I gotta get going. [00:48:52] Speaker A: Understandable. Well, hey, once you have time, let's get some games in together. [00:48:57] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:48:57] Speaker A: Thanks for being here. I appreciate you a lot. Mazzella. I know the audience does as well. [00:49:01] Speaker C: I always love being here. Thanks for being here this last week. [00:49:03] Speaker A: No, no, you're good, dude. Thank you for being here as well, Badger. Thank you, everybody, for listening along and supporting the podcast. Miss, I'm gonna put you on the spot one more time here because I just. Just, just psyched you out by pulling it away from you. If somebody wants to leave a review for this podcast and they had a number of stars in mind to. To leave for the review, what do you have a recommendation for a number for anybody out there? [00:49:30] Speaker C: There's this one number I'm thinking of. It's like, really? It's been pretty impactful in human history. [00:49:35] Speaker A: Okay. 420. [00:49:37] Speaker C: It's kind of bigger than us. I think it's the number five, so five stars. I think that's it. [00:49:43] Speaker A: It's a good round one. Well, is it round? It's not a round number, but it feels round. [00:49:48] Speaker C: I was gonna let you keep going with it, but, you know, it. [00:49:50] Speaker A: It's a spiritually rounded number. It identifies as round. It's half of a round number, which is ten. Everyone's favorite round number. Unless you're one of those hundred stands. Either way, you can only lose five. So leave us a five star review if you have time. It greatly helps us get notified or get out there and get people knowing that we exist as a podcast. Thank you for everybo. Left one already. But most importantly, what I want you to walk away with from this episode, the message that I want to give you is that we love you and we'll see you next time. Bye. [00:50:20] Speaker C: Bye, everyone. Yeah. [00:50:23] Speaker A: Oh, I hit the wrong thing. Damn it. Wait, wait. Oh, yes, Daddy.