League Rundown - Episode 577: The Finals before the Finale

[00:00:11] Speaker A: The amazing gets hit. Kimmy kids a little too far here. He's gonna have to try and get himself out. [00:00:15] Speaker B: Let me go. [00:00:16] Speaker A: 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. [00:00:42] Speaker B: I cannot understand this game. [00:00:46] Speaker A: Unicorns of love. It wasn't a mutant. The Nexus hello and welcome to episode 577 of the League Rundown. This is your 2025 LTA split three week seven review and LEC split three playoffs week one review. This episode is lovingly entitled the Finals before the Finale. I'm your host, Kangas and joining me, I have two esteemed co hosts. Up first, fresh out of the can. [00:01:28] Speaker C: We got Badger, Hollow Knight, Silk Song. I know. So I know we talked about this. I don't know if we can't remember if we talked about on podcast. I did not play Hollow Knight 1 and I jumped in this Silk Song. Yeah. I was doing an experiment with my co workers. They're all huge Hollow Knight fans and we were talking about it. I'm like, yeah, I've never actually played Hollow Knight one. And they're like, they made two. They made Silk songs so you didn't have to play the first one leading into it. I'm like, okay, so I'm trying it and I am getting my ass kicked on shit that I should not be getting my ass kicked. And I. I just keep saying like, oh, don't worry, you'll get better as it goes. I'm like, yeah, but y' all have like a full game up on me of experience with it and so. [00:02:08] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, it's great. Oh, you can play Elden Ring without playing Dark Souls. Like you don't. [00:02:13] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, exactly. [00:02:17] Speaker A: That's actually really funny. I'm playing through Hollow Knight 1 right now. I. My goal was to finish it before Silk Song. Did not accomplish that. I've been doing a lot of other stuff, but I am in the end game of Hollow Knight. There's obviously like multiple different endings or at least I. I say obviously. I've been told there are multiple different endings based on like how much percentage you beat the game and certain things you do. So I don't know like how close I am to a complete ending, but I at least am getting close. Like the finale of the game. Very fun game. Excited to try Silk Song. Haven't done it yet. But also joining us on the cast this week, we have a Mr. Mazelpl. Hello. [00:02:53] Speaker B: Excited to be back? [00:02:55] Speaker A: You've played Hollow Knight, right? [00:02:57] Speaker B: No, I haven't. [00:02:58] Speaker A: Oh, you have not. Okay. [00:03:00] Speaker B: All right. [00:03:00] Speaker A: Are you gonna try it out now that Silk song's out, or do you want to do the same thing Badge is doing? [00:03:03] Speaker B: No, I would want to play Hollow Night first. I thought about buying Silks on. I was like, I'd rather play Hollow Knight first. [00:03:09] Speaker A: Yeah, I'm of the same mind. I like to play games in order like that. Sometimes I will do it out of order. But like I, I. Witcher 3 came out and I was like, well, I gotta play Witcher 1. [00:03:20] Speaker B: You really don't. You really don't. [00:03:22] Speaker A: I did play Witcher 1. I had fun with that game. I thought that game was a. Was pretty dope. It's janky as hell, but it's pretty fun. [00:03:29] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:03:30] Speaker A: Then I played Witcher 2 and I got stuck very early because I, I had like a chip on my shoulder. I wanted to beat it on hardest difficulty. [00:03:36] Speaker C: That game was difficult if you, if you weren't prepared for it. [00:03:40] Speaker A: Like. [00:03:40] Speaker C: Yeah, it actually was insanely hard. [00:03:43] Speaker B: I just cannot wait to sink my teeth into Borderlands for. [00:03:47] Speaker A: Oh, that release. [00:03:50] Speaker B: It came out at 9am this morning. [00:03:53] Speaker C: I thought it came out to 12 hours now. Nope. [00:03:55] Speaker B: Yeah, it came out at 9am this morning for PC at 9. 9pm tonight for a console. [00:04:00] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:04:01] Speaker A: Maybe that's why. Because yeah, I was gonna get on Switch too, so. And I, I checked the shop. [00:04:05] Speaker B: Oh, don't get Borderlands on switch. [00:04:13] Speaker A: 2077 ran perfectly fine on the Switch too. Just gonna say it, you know, but however you're playing it, if you're members of the community and you're gonna be playing Borderlands 4, let us know your thoughts on it. We gotta play Steve Community Discord. Oh yeah. We can do co op on that, right? Yeah, yeah, Well, I guess only if I get on PC though. [00:04:30] Speaker B: No, no, I think it's cross platform beautiful. Sorry. [00:04:34] Speaker A: I'm gonna be hanging on my couch with my pro controller. I'm trying to make an active effort. Part of it is like a little, it's not really sunk cost fallacy. That's not the right term. But part of it's like I bought a Switch too. I need to freaking buy games to. [00:04:48] Speaker C: Make it worth the purchase. [00:04:50] Speaker A: Right. But also it's just fun to play on the couch. And like I, I'm having so much fun just going out there because then Sam, like My roommate, when he's coming out of his room to like get food or something, he'll see it. Oh, and like come over and chill on the couch. You're like, we're just like playing couch co op games. Or just like I'll like pass a controller like that type of fun. Like playing a game with somebody else there you don't get when you're playing on PC. So yeah, you should get it on. Switch to Misselle. Bring your switch to over and then we'll play it together. [00:05:17] Speaker B: I see, I see, I see. [00:05:19] Speaker A: There we go. All right, well, that's enough talk about games that are not the game that we're here to talk about for the podcast that is League of Legends. Quick update around the horn. World's qualifying teams are already starting to come in. World is right around the corner here. Pretty much every region is in the the finale of their playoffs to determine their world's representatives. No LCK or LPL teams, at least from my understanding, have been determined yet. Correct. Guys. [00:05:45] Speaker C: I mean, but yeah, well, I get. [00:05:48] Speaker A: Oh, wait, true. Yeah. Gen G, Did Auto qualify? Basically, like halfway through the split. They're not listed on the leaguepedia page though, which is interesting. But either way, according to leak media, we have. [00:05:58] Speaker B: Because they have to make it to playoffs, right? Technically. [00:06:01] Speaker C: Oh, they're already there, huh? [00:06:05] Speaker B: But is the season the regular season? [00:06:08] Speaker C: Regular season's over. They're in the first round of playoffs right now. Are they? Playoffs is already going on right now. [00:06:14] Speaker A: You know what? [00:06:14] Speaker B: Maybe they're gonna wait till the playoffs started. [00:06:16] Speaker A: Regardless. Regardless. I'm just gonna say Genji are making it because if they don't make it, that would be the crazy league. So LTA, we got FlyQuest as the first seed from LTA North. We're going to talk about how LTA North Conference finals looked this past weekend shortly. But then we also have Vivocade stars from LTA Sewell as the first seed. So VKS, welcome to Worlds. LEC has two teams already. Based on how their playoff round one went. G2 and MKOI are going to be two representatives for LEC. They're just gonna be playing for seeding order now at this point and then waiting to see who that third team challenging them is. We'll give our thoughts on who that can be again shortly. But LCP, the fifth region did pretty well at MSI and we got CTBC flying oysters along with PSG Talon. Both already qualify in four worlds. So six official seven, because I believe. [00:07:19] Speaker C: Yeah, Genji qualified on July 23rd beautiful. [00:07:24] Speaker A: So maybe they just, you know, forgot to add it back then and somebody thought they did. So they're not. [00:07:28] Speaker C: No, it's. If you look at the. If you're on Leaguepedia on the world's page and you go to the participants thing, they're in the qualified for playing stage because technically the. Their lowest possible seed is fourth because they. They could still. Yeah, they could go. They could just bomb out of playoffs and they would be the fourth seed and they would have to play China for. For the play in. [00:07:50] Speaker A: That's a good point. I did not realize that they are on the sheet. It's just. Yeah, a little bit below all the other ones. Thank you for that catch. So 17 is already guaranteed going to be present at Worlds in some capacity. Other news things, let's go around the world and get our updates on what other teams could be a mazel lpl. What's the update going on over there? Who are the favorites to make the run either for the LPL title and then also for Worlds? [00:08:15] Speaker B: Well, so far Top Esports and BLG are looking like the dominant forces. They have already booked themselves into the upper bracket finals and if they win there, whoever wins is going to guarantee themselves at least one of the seeds for the lpl. Just depends on which one it ends up being. They have looked ridiculous. BLG is back to their ways. They had to sacrifice Shadow. He got to play one game to start the start the playoffs. They got absolutely molly whopped. He got subbed out and now all of a sudden they all are playing the video game like normal. It's actually crazy. They're like they're going back to the old BLG ways where they're just like forcibly trying to hands check every single team they come up against and they're coming up the better of it. Like, their early games look like absolute trash, but then they just find clutch moments in a lot of these fights. Top Esports looks a little bit more consistent for sure. I think Kanavi is having a field day with the switch to the kind of assassin jungle setup that we've had a lot of the Qiyanas, Naafiri, Zed, stuff like that really coming to a fold between the two junglers. So I really want to see what that upper bracket is going to be like. But they're already one step away from the grand final and then JDG just beat EDG last night to ensure that they move forward in the lower bracket. They'll be facing Weibo here very soon. A matchup that we know very well EDG are out now completely. They fell 3:2 to JDG. The next couple matches that we have going are Nip versus Al because Al found themselves in the lower bracket after losing to Weibo 3:2 in the first round. And IG also lost to BLG in the 3:1 fashion just the other day. And now they're in the lower bracket too. And so only of AL or IG are going to be able to move forward if AL beats Nip, which is crazy to think about. Obviously there's still like championship points to think about. So it's not necessarily doom and gloom for either of them because they both placed pretty well in the previous splits. But it's still something to think about. [00:10:13] Speaker A: That is very interesting, but it's looking like top esports. And you said BL or not? [00:10:18] Speaker B: Blg. Blg. [00:10:19] Speaker A: Oh, it was blg. Oh yeah, yeah. [00:10:21] Speaker B: Told you. They sacrifice a jungler and all of a sudden they're really good. Shadow hasn't been seen since that night. That's all I'm saying. [00:10:28] Speaker A: Oh, has everybody checked out? Do we know how his health is now? I'm concerned. [00:10:34] Speaker B: They found a pentagram in the back. I don't know. [00:10:37] Speaker A: And a piling or smoking pile of soot in the middle of it is crazy. [00:10:42] Speaker B: There was a shadow on the wall. [00:10:46] Speaker A: All right, well, Badger, what's going on in the lck? We know Gen G's at least very minimum gonna be fourth seed and have a chance at fighting China's fourth seed. But what else do we think for LCK and how things are shaping up in playoffs for world's contenders? Is it still just T1hle is kind of the next two in line? [00:11:04] Speaker C: Yeah, pretty well. So we had the first round of playoffs and T1 and Damwon of course went to five games because Damwon plays to the level of their opponent. After they lost to Fear X in the play in stage, they promptly came back around fear xp nonchim3 1 to make it to the actual playoffs itself. And then Damwon beat Bro and Nongshim. So Nongshim is out. So King and will not be going to worlds this year. And yeah, that's a wild thing to think about. [00:11:38] Speaker A: Another world champion. [00:11:39] Speaker C: Fear X is insane because Diablo and Vikla have been insane in this playoff run. They did just lose the KT roll through the other day though. So we first round of playoffs T1 beat Dom 132 KT beat Fex 3 1. Gen G had of course the selection between KT and T1. And surprise, surprise, Kate, Katie Rollster was the pick Wild. I know, that's crazy. Why would. Why would they do such a thing? So Gen G versus Casey is the first matchup in the upper bracket. And then the second matchup will be Hanwha versus T1. Pretty much. Winner of Hanwell T1 is, I believe, guaranteed to go to worlds, if I'm reading this correctly. Yeah. Because they'll make upper finals. [00:12:35] Speaker A: They would be top three through fourth. Right. The qualified. They don't have like another tournament afterwards. [00:12:40] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. Because this is all for it. And then so. And then on the bottom side in the loser's bracket to have to run the entire gauntlet to make it either DAM one or Fear X would have to win three straight best of fives to make it two worlds. If I'm reading this correctly. [00:13:02] Speaker A: So well, there's four teams that make it in. So you just have to. You'd have to win one. Two. [00:13:08] Speaker C: They'd have to win two. [00:13:09] Speaker A: Yeah. It's only two best of five prey Worlds. Right. [00:13:12] Speaker C: Just prey on the. Actually, yeah. They would just have to make it to round three because round three would technically be top four. So. [00:13:20] Speaker A: But that means you're beating like Katie or one or HLE or something like that, which is going to be tough for either of those teams to do, but not. Not impossible. So it's not like DK and BFX are out of the picture yet, but. [00:13:31] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, yeah. So. So we had. Playoffs are Saturday and Sunday morning are the upper bracket games. So JJKT Hanwha T1 is Sunday and then next Wednesday is the Dam 1 versus Fear X series, which is a weird time to have that. I'm not going to lie is. [00:13:54] Speaker A: But I got to ask you a question, Badger, because based on how Worlds format works, it's Swiss rounds. Seeding is like first seeds versus fourth seeds, if we're assuming. And actually maybe this is a question I can ask Mazel as well. What team are NA fans rooting for so that we can get get a lucky fourth seed draw as our. As Fly Quest's first seed. You want. We want Weibo from LPL. Who do we want from LCK? [00:14:21] Speaker C: I mean really realistically speaking, KT of those top four teams. But if they draw, I think. I think Dom1 would actually be a really good draw into some of the NA teams just because Lucid and Showmaker just run the map really well and I think they could exploit mid jungle out of. [00:14:38] Speaker A: No, no, I'm saying we. The. The one that we can beat the best. So don't, don't give me that. Give me the right. [00:14:42] Speaker C: Right, right, right. O well then it Fear X. Like, yeah, Fear X goes on the miracle run and then VICLA repays the favor to NA by losing the 4. [00:14:53] Speaker A: Versus 1 villa versus fly quest at Worlds. And losing would be poetic. [00:14:59] Speaker C: That'd be so funny. I would, I would actually end the, drink myself into like a a coma and wear my Prince jersey while this is all happening in real time right in front of me. [00:15:12] Speaker A: But that would be incredible. [00:15:13] Speaker C: It'd be fine. [00:15:15] Speaker A: All right, cool. Well, thank you for the, the updates, gentlemen, for LPL and lck. We're going to keep our attention on that. Even closer now as we're getting into that world's conversation time of year. By next week we'll have LPL representatives guaranteed for Worlds, right? [00:15:31] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:15:31] Speaker A: Okay, cool. So we'll have at least a bigger update. Every region will have at least one team that is guaranteed representing the region. Depending on the seeding, they have to finish out their playoffs, but they'll at least be there. Other news going around. Humanoid has left Fnatic. Boby has been playing for Fnatic for the last, you know, split here. And now Humanoid officially does leave the team. So we'll see if any teams pick him up going forward. That's the news in Lec Some a little small thing happened here in NA Mizelle. I I little birdie told me that sometimes you should just shut up and and not talk about something that you are not qualified to talk about, specifically when you're streaming in front of an audience and specifically when that thing is something historically just handled poorly by gamers, let's put it that way. What happened? Can you catch me up to speed? [00:16:33] Speaker B: Pueblo made some of the dumbest remarks I've ever heard from any single fucking human being. I think his sexist remarks on Stream, talking about how women shouldn't play on their period, they should have a second account when it's that time of the wrong time of the month, which is just the worst thing you could possibly say. But also, yeah, like, how stupid can you be to not only do that and have that mindset behind the camera, but also to do it on camera. I just think my thoughts of this guy have gone through the fucking basement. I will not be supporting him again. I don't care how awful his apology was on Twitter and the fact that he's not being really punished for it, at least as of yet, but immediately going from one of the highest highs as a Player as. As a fan of a player to. I don't even want to think about this guy when he's playing the game. I hope Gakkos gets the spot over him in the long run, and I hope that his career ends up coming to an end. [00:17:28] Speaker A: Any percent speed run tank in a career. He's. He's going for the record right now. And it's one of those things. Pretty baby Dokla has been on a field day with that news that just drops. That was a couple days ago. And it was one of those ones where, like, I watched the clip and I was like, it starts off and you're like, that was weird. But, like, I guess you're trying to, like, make a point that, like, women need more support in gaming. But then he just keeps talking and you're like, oh, no. [00:17:55] Speaker C: You're like, oh, no, please. [00:17:58] Speaker A: Not going. [00:17:58] Speaker C: What? [00:17:59] Speaker A: I thought that was going. He's like, yeah, like, women just don't receive enough support at esports, especially around their time of the month. I'm like, oh, wait, wait, wait. [00:18:06] Speaker C: Hold on a second. [00:18:07] Speaker B: No, no, no, no. [00:18:08] Speaker C: Wait, wait, wait. [00:18:11] Speaker A: So, yeah, as. As somebody who grew up with three sisters, I was around plenty of my sisters having. Going through incredible things. [00:18:21] Speaker B: They. [00:18:21] Speaker A: They accomplished many things. Women do not just their lives don't end when they're on their period. They could actually accomplish a lot. And that's a very, very like 1950s mentality, like, type of misogyny. So that was very disappointing to hear from Whipo. So, yeah, awkward moment for the scene. Awkward moment for him. He has been suspended for their first round in playoffs versus Vivocade. It will be Gakos playing. No confirmation on if they're gonna play Bwipo going forward. I imagine they will. Just because they want to win and do well at World as an organization is really a weird thing to have in Flyquest because they also have, like, women teams competing in other esport titles. So it's like, are they gonna platform him or are they just gonna go with GAT Goes? It might come down to how GAT Goes performs versus Vivocade. We'll see. But other variety topics, check out WASD controls or WASD Controls, if that's how you call them. They are on the pbe, so if you have a PBE account, go check them out. I've given them a go and they're fun. I don't know if I'm gonna make the change. I'm a support player, so I don't know. They don't really feel like they elevate support very much. But Mizell, as the resident AD carry on the cast, are you gonna be trying to, like, transition to WASD controls? [00:19:40] Speaker B: Oh, hell yeah. As long as you're not playing Kalista. I think it's gonna be so OP for ADCs. [00:19:47] Speaker A: I didn't think about Kalista. Honestly, that, yeah, that would be kind of weird. Only have like eight directions to jump in. But yeah, I mean, like the ability to kite some mid laners are gonna love it too. Like Orianna, Cassiopeia, anybody that you want to be able to strafe and throw abilities out a different direction, really get a buff from the WASD controls. Also, I have come full circle. I always say wasd. When they said WASD in the video, I was like, what? It's not called wasd. And now I'm like, it's kind of fun to say wasd. So they won me over. It's WASD controls now. Badger, do you agree? [00:20:21] Speaker B: I'm a WASD believer. [00:20:23] Speaker C: I'm a wasd believer. [00:20:25] Speaker A: And that's fine. That's fine. That I will. I will monopolize the fun of saying WASD on this quarter. Other than that, that's all the news that we got for right now. Let us know if we missed anything. You can let us know in the community Discord link in the description wherever you are listening. And also if you want to help support the pod, you can support us through our Patreon or through our our merch. Stop league-rundown shop.forwall.com links to both of those are also in the description. Let's talk about some League of Legends now. We had two different playoffs going on this weekend. One of them was a wrap of the LTA North Conference playoffs, also known as the elimination phase. If you notice the broadcast, we also just kind of gave up calling it the elimination phase exclusively because every team was calling it that. Every player was calling it playoffs. Every, like, fan was calling it the playoffs. We were like, like, you know what? It's the North Conference playoffs. We're just going to call it that now with like the asterisk elimination phase afterwards. But that wrapped up to determine our seeds for the teams going into the LTA championships and also knocking out the one team that was not going to be attending. And then LEC had their first round of playoffs. So let's start with LTA north over here in America. Badger going through LTA North. I guess we don't really have standings to catch up on here. Just talk to me about the Weekend we had three series. What was the first series? How to go. [00:21:50] Speaker C: So the first series of the weekend was C9 versus 100 Thieves. And by God, did it get spicy. We had some. We had the return of mid lane Viego back to the. Back to the States. We had a Vladimir in game five. We had, you know, God, it was. It's. It's exactly what you want, right? [00:22:16] Speaker A: Didn't Ayla play Tariq? [00:22:17] Speaker C: Yeah, that's what I was like. I'm just like trying to think of, like wrapping my brain around it. There were a lot of 5 tariffs. Yeah, it was, it was fun picks. We had, you know, quid getting to play melee champions again. You know, a lot of melee champions got the Akali and Kaliyon and the Viego itself. So I don't know, it was just. God, there's so much that happened this weekend with like the games that I'm like trying to like wrap my brain around. [00:22:48] Speaker A: Like, there was a lot going on. I'll give you kind of the synopsis of C900 Thieves. It was a back and forward brawl throughout the series. Very entertaining and honestly, it kind of felt like C9 should have been able to win if Blabber just didn't get picked up. At the very end of Game 5, there was a very interesting tweet that went out ahead of the show. So on that Friday, we had this like, segment where hey, chat like or like the social media and chat. We asked them to give us questions or topics to talk about and then we address community topics on the show. Sometimes waiting room does that. One of them was, if C9 loses, it's time to move on from Blabber because this is now multiple splits, multiple years that he's either choked or just not been able to get them there. So at what point are we gonna like, accept that Blabber's part of, like the issue and all of us disagreed with the take on the cast. But then in the moment, it was C9 blabber that gets picked off. He's playing trundle. He's hang hovering around mid lane. He gets pantheon ulted behind because he's spotted out, dies. That's Baron. And that's just the game right there. So thoughts? I want to get both your thoughts on that take. It was a very hot take that C9 should move on from Blabber. He's like their franchise player, Goat of Jungle in North America. But it's. It's an interesting topic regardless of if you agree or disagree with it. So Mizal I want to get your thoughts on kind of like how the series ended and the conversation around Blabber right now. [00:24:23] Speaker B: I think it's just too much of a conversation. I think he deserves a lot of the respect that he gets. And while I think it has been a little bit tough, I don't think Cloud9 have fostered an environment that he does well in. Maybe so, like, a change could be good for both, but I don't think that Blabber is bad. I think he's just had some bad moments. [00:24:44] Speaker A: I agree. I also. Well, I'll give my thoughts afterwards because I want fresh opinions here. First Badger, what are your thoughts on the. The blabber situation with C9? [00:24:55] Speaker C: They. Why would they get rid of him? I mean, I totally understand, like, oh, he. He had some bad series and they haven't been successful with him. So what? Only one team can win? [00:25:07] Speaker B: Like, they. There's. [00:25:09] Speaker C: They still are a team. That's. How many times. Okay, how many times have they missed worlds since they came into the league in 2013? It's. [00:25:17] Speaker A: They have missed it, I believe three times. [00:25:19] Speaker C: Three times. [00:25:20] Speaker A: And this is the first ever time that us. Back to back years. They've never missed back to back years, but now they have. [00:25:28] Speaker C: See, I think people, it's just. That's an overreaction at this point. You know, you. [00:25:34] Speaker B: I think there's a lot of blaming that can happen for that series, and some of that goes to Bot Lane. For me, I like, I think, yes, there's some stupid bonehead decisions made by Blabber, but I think it was a team game and a team loss. [00:25:46] Speaker A: Yeah, I think one cool thing, I got to interview Blabber after the series for the losers interview. Really, really tough moment. I mean, you can tell on camera. And also in the moment next to him, it was weighing on him because he knew, like, what he did and like, how that all ended. But he did give props. He was like, this wasn't a Game 5 loss because of draft. I know a lot of people are going to talk about that because it was a wacky draft, right? Like, it was kind of crazy at the end there. But he and the team felt confident in the composition that they were drafted and was like, you know, Nick Smith takes a lot of the heat for us, but, like, that one was on us. That one was not on him. Him. So I, I like hearing it when players are willing to kind of shoulder that responsibility. And I also, I am of the same mind. They don't need to move on from Blabber. First off, I don't even think there's a better option out there. So it's like what are they going to do? Import a jungler from somewhere? No, I would much rather them stick with blabber. And also I just agree that like it's an overreaction to say that he's the problem. He's. He needs to go. So. But I still wanted to get your guys thoughts on that. Overall. That was the first series one Thieves. They won it. The heist continued. We had this whole bit running through the weekend of like how many heists are 100 thieves gonna get? They had another one on Saturday. Mizell, what happened on Saturday's broadcast? Shopify Rebellion verse 100 Thieves. [00:27:06] Speaker B: That was a doozy. Remember how we said earlier on in the year that we were like or I guess even not that long ago or like Contracts at Battle Fox if you know, if they show up and they could take any team. I'm not gonna lie. I think five chairs were empty in that series. And against Ghosts is 3 0. For 100 Thieves they looked super dominant. I think Shopify just didn't look good across the board. I think the connections between Pal Fox and Contracts were very questionable. We didn't really get much of a step up from anywhere else. I think Bevoy got a bit gapped as well in that series. But 100 Thieves took a holistic 3. 0. [00:27:43] Speaker A: Exactly. Yeah. It did not look like there were many moments that Shopify Rebellion were actually, you know, pushing it against 100 thieves. And then the big moment was in game two. Quid. Okay, first off, Quid hits a five man. Yone old awesome. Second of all, Palafox Brain controls his entire team to walk into a room. That's. [00:28:07] Speaker C: Why are you. Why are you walking into Ryzalti there when like you see yone on your. [00:28:12] Speaker A: Screen like, yeah, play goalie and like, like either sacrifice himself or just like distract quid so that the team could get away. [00:28:21] Speaker C: But yeah, but like I. [00:28:23] Speaker B: The. The series was over before it was even over, bro. I. I was coming out of game number one. I was like anytime you see a vibes difference of that much between the two teams, you already know the series is over. Like you. The entirety of 100 Thieves was laughing. They were joking. They were running all over. They were going a little bit too ham. But they were having fun with it. It's Shopify. Every time you look back over, they looked like they were on their deathbed. They were about to die and they did. That's unfortunate. They did place third but it's very very much telling like early on in that series that 100 Thieves was going to win. [00:28:56] Speaker A: And it sucks for Shopify in the sense that that's two third place finishes in a row. This team has talked very publicly. Members of the team have talked on interviews and on different content pieces that like they are not satisfied in third place. They want to make sure want to prove that they can do better. Hey third place back to back finishes isn't bad but you know it's not satisfying for for their kind of expectation of themselves. Contracts pulled out the Zach game three that was kind of exciting, fun to watch but he got doogied on by river on the Lee Sin. Awesome to see Lee Sin come back in. Also FBI's Lucian. Dude, we got highlight play level gameplay from FBI this split this year on his illusion. Big bvoy as well. I think Lucian in general is just like a very high powered pick in North America at least I'm hearing around the world it's not as popular or only played in certain comps. But here it feels like when our ad carries feel like playing it, they're gonna play it and they're gonna pop off on it. So that's always fun to see. But yeah, 100 thieves they carry that momentum in. They get the chance to step up to the champs. Fly Quest crushed the upper bracket 30 in Team Liquid 3. One in Shopify Rebellion and they only dropped one other game. It was a 31 win for FlyQuest in the LTA North Conference Split 3 Championships. But man was it actually pretty close. Like this was the game number one. FlyQuest had to come back. They were behind a significant amount of gold here. But then it was Masu really stepping up. Having a monstrous performance on the Ynara Busio finding really good engage to shut down this. This one was the Bwipo, you know, finding the solo kill on the Dokla in the bot lane and then them pulling the trigger on Baron. But then hundred thieves, even though they get the Baron they all get basically wiped afterwards and the game's pretty much over after that. But until that moment it was actually pretty 100 thieves favored. So that was tough to see. Oh we didn't even cover the the drama going into this one so. So there's a whole story, a whole like arc here that happened in finals. All the player walkouts. I got to do the player walkouts. Really fun. But one notable thing happened Badger what happened or rather didn't happen during player walkouts. [00:31:14] Speaker C: So you know, normally you have your Lane opponent on the other side that you get introduced at. I get with at the same time and you go out like either shake hands, give him a fist bump, something like that. Bwipo went for it. Dokla Stone Cold just, just denied it. Just nothing. Didn't acknowledge him whatsoever. Moved out onto the stage. [00:31:34] Speaker A: Yep, no fist bump. In response to Bwipo, Bwipo gave a look. Audience chuckled. Twitch Chat said, huh? And then the series began. Game one, it was Dokla actually stepping up, getting monstrously fed. But then at the very tail end of the game, bwipo's able to 1v1 him. Despite Dokla's lead. It was Rumble into Mbessa. So if Mbessa has old and has everything available, it is hard for the Rumble to win that. But then Dokla dying solo in the side lane is kind of the catalyst for FlyQuest winning that game. So that was like, oh, this is gonna be good. Like, Dokla had a really good game one until the end and now he's gonna be angry and step up. And then, yeah, in game number two, it was Tank V Tank. Docla's playing Cassante into Bwipo's Scion. But dude, Dokla was playing this lane so aggressive for a Tank. I've never seen that aggressive of a Kasante trying to find Solo kills hon Scion. But it was mostly the kind of FBI quid show here. FBI on Senna was just like insane. This guy is probably his like best pick right now in the meta. And then Quid on the Aurora as well, having a really, really, really solid performances. And they just punished Masu over and over again. They had a better lane swap early and then every time Masu was anywhere on the map, river on VI was there and Masu just could not play the game. Game got really far behind. And that was kind of the catalyst for 100 these winning game two. So boom, even series. Then game three rolls around and by this point, FlyQuest because they were in their groove. I mean, game three was so dominant, I don't even remember the score. Was it. Was it one kill for hundred thieves? Did they only pick up one? One of the games? They only got a single kill. I think it was this one. [00:33:21] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, obviously. [00:33:25] Speaker A: Yeah. Right. [00:33:26] Speaker C: Enter for the team 100 of the deaths. [00:33:28] Speaker A: So this was the one that this was. There was a lane swap from 100 Thieves. They had FBI, Ayla and River on Nafiri around the top side versus BIPO's Aatrox. And Ayla does the worst turret dive. [00:33:46] Speaker C: Turret Shots before Bwipo even moved from underneath his turret. [00:33:50] Speaker A: Yeah, he went too fast under turret before the wave got there. Took two turret shots, ran out of range, went back into the turret once the the minions were under there and he tanks the turret shots instead of the Nefiri. He gets hit by Bwipo's Aatrox chains, flashes and then still is in range to get pulled back and dies to Bwipo's Q3. It's like, oh my God, no. So that one was. That one's not a dope club. That that one bubble got fed because of other things happening around the map. And then things did not look good at all for Enter Thieves. And after that again, it was just all Fly Quest. Game four was kind of fun. We got Gigaflex with Quid going Lee Sin Mid and River going Zyra Jungle really messing up the draft for Flyquest. But it didn't matter because Quid mid dies Level one teleports mid dies to an inspired level two gank and then the game's just kind of over from that point. So interesting finals. I I feel like there's a huge level of just weirdness that happened in this finals afterwards again, when they're doing fist bumps, Bwipo goes to Dogle. Dogle does not fist bump Bwipo. That aged very well into the week, I will say, as part of the reason he's out of tear. So Mizelle Badger, I want to get your opinions. Miselle, rate the weirdness of this series out of 10 between the Flex picks, between the like not fizz bubs, between like the weird plays going on, what. [00:35:23] Speaker B: Would you rank it weirdness level? [00:35:26] Speaker C: I mean, I don't know. I was, I was having fun against the wall. At least admit definitely 100. Like you know what it we ball dude. [00:35:34] Speaker B: I was having fun with it. [00:35:36] Speaker C: Called the Yone Band. Like just like, you know what I'm saying? Gonna do just, just gotta pull out the lease in, you know, that's what's gonna get you to the promised land. [00:35:44] Speaker A: He had played it twice before in pro games and was 02 on it. So now he's 03 on it. Unfortunately I saw the vision just didn't work out. [00:35:54] Speaker B: I mean that's what it comes down to, right? I think by I tweeted it after the series, but I, I, I know you called Blabber the Goat Jungler of NA earlier. Unfortunately, I do not think that's any more the case and hasn't been for a while. Inspired is the best Jungler by far heads and above every single other jungler across the entirety of the western regions. [00:36:16] Speaker A: Yeah. Okay, when I say best na, I mean like, NA player. Like best of the. [00:36:21] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah. [00:36:22] Speaker A: North American. [00:36:22] Speaker B: Well, you know, it's fired as like an NA player now. He's been here a lot. This guy literally gaps every single series he's in. It is insane how much of an influence he has on every single game. It like, it's just so impressive. And even in the games that they lose, I. I don't think a lot of the time it's because of him. [00:36:40] Speaker A: Yeah, he in game four on Trundle, ganked three times in five minutes. [00:36:46] Speaker B: Every lane. [00:36:48] Speaker A: Every lane. Got two kills and multiple summoner spells and was still farming at the rate of a zyra y. That was crazy. Like, I don't even understand how he did that. It was just so efficient. So. Yeah, I definitely agree. Inspired is kind of our shining star on FlyQuest at this point. Scary to think his contract is up at the end of the year. So let's see. Fly Quest. What kind of ritual sacrifices they're willing to make. Hey, maybe they can save some money in top lane now. You know what? [00:37:23] Speaker C: Not rostering two players, that's crazy. [00:37:25] Speaker B: Geckos to the moon. [00:37:28] Speaker A: All right, but that's how last weekend went. Congratulations to Flyquest for a back. Back to back title run. They win split two. They win split three. And they got revenge for Hundred thieves who actually knocks them out in split one. That was a surprise upset that hundred thieves was able to take that one in split one. [00:37:46] Speaker B: Can I talk about the elephant in the room? [00:37:49] Speaker A: Okay, yeah, yeah. What's the elephant? [00:37:51] Speaker B: And feel free to evoke the. Is it the fifth Amendment? I don't know. I've never had to do that. If you want to, you don't have to say anything at all. I promise if we. If you're just quiet. We know and we will move forward, Kangas. But I got to bring up the fact that FlyQuest got to lift a trophy for what was one of the most underwhelming finals I think I've ever seen in my entire life. Up there with last, like, first split finals too, which was very awful. But this is like the end of the. This is the last LTA North f like series in this entire year that it's lta Championships next as we do not play another LTA north series. They've lifted a trophy for I don't know what. And I think in a way I would rather see them not lift the trophy and just have a normal exit. But, like, I also see the reason of wanting to make it feel special because it's the last game for them, but I think we kind of just went down the middle, and it made it so much worse. So I don't know, Badger, if you want to talk about that, we don't have to, but we can move forward. Leave Kangas out of the conversation. But I just. I. I asked everybody around in different discourse, like, if I'm not crazy, right? Like, it's weird to lift a trophy for that series. [00:39:09] Speaker C: Yeah, I. I mean, so, like, the real. The sports ball example of it is, like, they do trophy ceremonies when you win, like, your conference for baseball or, like, something like that. Like, this is, like, we're. We're so far away from them even being. I mean, I don't know. I think it's weird. [00:39:29] Speaker B: Like, good for you. [00:39:30] Speaker C: You won lc. [00:39:30] Speaker B: They didn't win anything. Like, like, you get first seed, you get an immediate spot going forward. Right. But, like, you still have a tournament ahead of you. [00:39:38] Speaker C: I know. It's. I think it's so weird, especially with the new format and everything. [00:39:44] Speaker B: You're gonna walk away with two trophies in the span of, like, a month or less. [00:39:48] Speaker A: Yeah, span of three weeks. I won't give, like, too many thoughts. [00:39:54] Speaker B: But I will share. [00:39:55] Speaker A: No, I mean, I'll share the thought from the. The broadcast side of storytelling. It was difficult to, like, to. To give this weekend, like, the gravitas that it deserved while not giving it a hundred percent of my energy, because I knew there was more coming. For example, the player walkouts. I knew I was like, I'm gonna do this for Flyquest again in a couple of weeks. So, like, like, what do I say about them? I don't want to give the exact same walkouts back to back. So I have to say something slightly less grandiose than what I'm actually gonna say the final time. So it really made it. But also for me, like, personally as a broadcaster, I was kind of auditioning to be, like, I have to do a good enough job that they can see the vision that I should do this for the finals as well for. For lta. So it was, like, a really weird balance. And talking to some of the others, I won't, like, name names of broadcasters, but in general, that was a not, like, foreign thought for. For everybody involved with the product was, like. It was tough. It was difficult to, like, to know what we were supposed to do and how we were supposed to. To kind of, like, Balance the. The grandness of the moment. So, yeah, I can understand it beaten a little awkward if on low flat, because, you know, you're right. Three weeks from now, we're gonna do it again. So. What a format. Fun times. [00:41:25] Speaker B: It's okay. It happens. I just. It's. Yeah, I just, you know, I had the thought. Whatever. It happened. And again, like, I think there's a world where it's okay to be grandiose in that situation and label it as. It's the regional final. Like, that's a big moment. You just, like, you bring out the red carpet, you make it a big moment, and that's. That trophy. Makes sense, right? Because like. Like Badger was saying, like, all those regional. And even, like, the chant, like, the. The conference titles. Right. Especially in NFL and things like that, those are celebrated moments. It's not as celebrated as the big time, but it is still celebrated. And I think there could have been a world like that, but it felt like we were too scared to go all the way into that avenue and make people think that we're overdoing it for this. But we also wanted to show a little bit of effort. And so it's. It's just like, again, it's one of those moments where it just, like, lands in the middle and. And you don't get the best of either world, but that's it. [00:42:22] Speaker A: I can see that for sure. But I can also tell, again, that on our end, we were also in our feedback meeting, like, who that executed. [00:42:34] Speaker B: So you guys got some good heads over there. [00:42:36] Speaker A: Yeah. And. And the. The big takeaway that we all left the meeting with was like, okay, well, at least that was a learning moment, and now we just get to do it big for actual finals. So, like, the. The. The Silver Lighting is that going forward, none of what we just did, like, ruins what we're about to do. So. [00:42:56] Speaker B: And who knows? Maybe that'll be the last time you ever have to do that. If they change the format, what a. [00:43:00] Speaker A: World that would be. Could you imagine. Could you imagine if that was the case? [00:43:04] Speaker B: RIP America's challengers. What? Sorry. [00:43:08] Speaker A: We all just wake up next year and it's like, did 2025 happen? I don't think it happened. I think that was actually just like, what's the lca? Yeah. What? Well, hey, there is still the LTA happening, though. It is the championships now with the top three teams from LTA Sewell versus the top three teams from LTA north going up against each other. First two weekends will be here in Los Angeles. And then the finals weekend, which will be all teams that are going to worlds competing. It will just be for seeding order and also for crowning the first ever LTA champion. That will be in Dallas, Texas, three weeks from now. Kicking things off though, we have two best of fives. The beginning of the cross region player rather cross conference play. Oh man, the difference in conference and region. I say the wrong word all the time. Cross conference play. 100 Thieves versus Pain kicks things off. And predictions wise, there's a lot of faith in North America. Badger, I'll buy some time for you here so you can throw your predictions in. Mazel actually has 100 these three 2. It I have 100 thieves 3. 1. I have a little more faith in them, but I do think that like players like Teton are very exciting to watch. So I wouldn't be surprised if this did go longer. Especially because 100 Thieves is a team that kind of plays to the level of their opponent. Similar to, you know, I forget which one of you said it, but there was a JDG or one of the LPL teams. I think you said Miselle. I think the 100 teams I said about that one. Okay, there it is. But either way, badger now has 100. Thief 3. [00:44:38] Speaker B: 0. [00:44:38] Speaker A: Actually. [00:44:41] Speaker C: I, you know, I like, I like the lta north versus lta school thing, but like I just feel like there's a huge gap between north and south right now. I don't know, I haven't done enough prep on the the south teams. But like everything that I've seen, it's just, you know, they, they, they play to try and hand stiff and that's like their, that's their overreliance on the game. And it just feels like, you know, know 100 Thieves and Shopify are teams that can just do the hands game better than you can do the hands game. Plus have the brain aspect of it as well. [00:45:18] Speaker A: Sure. Mizzell, I'm curious if your thought process is similar to mine. The reason I have 100 thieves dropping a game is because again, they play to the level of their opponents. And Hundred Thieves often win games in NA by sucking the enemy into these hands check situations. So if they're against a Brazilian team, that also does that. I think that there will be games that get out of control because sometimes like if you just lose an early fight and they start to snowball, yes, you can out macro as well or like take better fights later on. But like I think Pain are good enough to at least get one. And miselles is that kind of where you were coming from as well. [00:45:54] Speaker B: I guess a little bit for me. I think my NA bias tilted it over the edge for me on this one because I do think that 100 thieves can lose this. I think Pain definitely look like the better team out of the two, which is hilarious because we'll talk about the next game recently in my vote there. But I think Pain can look really good on the day. I think they have really good like hands in a lot of fighting situations. They just don't put themselves in a good place to set that up in a lot of cases. So I, if a good 100 thieves shows up, I think it makes the difference. I think then Maybe it's like a 3. 0, but. But I expect a little bit of chaos. I expect the fandom to also just be very much in Pain's favor even if we're in the LA studio. And I think it's going to be tough for 100 Thieves, but I want them to win. So I voted three. Two. [00:46:45] Speaker A: Okay. All right, next up we have SR versus Red. And as you would kind of tease there, you actually have red rebellion are dead 2 shopify by bellied are dead. Their world's run is or world's chances is are over. And also a final win here or rather finally a win here for the south over the North. A reminder, the south cumulatively in split one picked up a game. It was an 81 record. North versus south. Mizelle already has been five and five on the first weekend here for split three. That's very exciting and I think there is some evidence. I mean look at how Will Furia did at MSI. They pushed G2 to five games. Also, I know Fury is not here, but like Red had a hell of a run in the south playoffs. Kind of having a similar run to 100 Thieves just getting three out in the finals instead of three one. [00:47:39] Speaker B: Yeah. And they, they took down some of the NA's best developmental talent to get to this point for Red. So I think it's, it's really big to highlight that. But I, I just think Shopify are done Z's. I, I, I don't know. I'm probably wrong. I will hold that accountable to myself. Like I'm probably wrong. But we've had crazy stories across every playoffs. Obviously LCK is just now starting LPL. We've already had some crazy upsets with Al and Ig getting taken out in the first round. NaCl has had crazy playoffs. We even had some craziness with 100 Thieves run in the regional playoffs for LTA North. Something's gotta happen and I don't think Fly Quests are dropping in that upper bracket. So I just. I just have this feeling. Feeling. I just have a feeling. And yes, it's going to be 5 gamer. I think it's going to be a tough one for Red. I think they could just get three zeroed on the day of contracts. Decides he wants to win. But I think it's going to be crazy. [00:48:37] Speaker A: I mean, going back to your earlier point of just how defeated Shopify looked after game one in their series versus 100 Thieves. If that's the mental of the team right now, yeah, I'm worried for them as well. I have them winning at 3. 1. Badger, you also have a 3. 0. So you're doubling down on NHS. [00:48:54] Speaker C: I'm doubling down. I've seen. I've seen this story before and I. I liked the ending, so. [00:49:01] Speaker A: Well, fair enough. That's our thoughts on LTA Championships. We no longer say LTA north now. It's no longer El Tan. It's now El ta. I don't. I hate that. Nope, it's just LTA because now it is the cross conference play to determine the world's representatives. One more spot up at Worlds. It is going to be Vivocade. It is going to be FlyQuest. Everybody else, these four teams are fighting for that one last spot available. But we'll talk more about that next week once we see the winners of round one. For now, it's time to hop across the pond over to EU and the lec because we also had playoffs begin for them. I know we kind of like unofficially wrapped NA's playoffs because it was the North Conference playoffs, aka elimination phase. This is the official LEC playoffs round one. We're into best of fives and we had four of them. Badger, we got treated to a marathon of LEC with a super duper week. That's what I call it when there's four games. That's the first time I've ever Super duper we. I'm gonna call it that from now on. A super duper week. Yeah, these. [00:50:10] Speaker C: These three best of fives were just so great to watch. [00:50:14] Speaker B: Well, there are four. [00:50:14] Speaker A: That's why I'm saying super. [00:50:15] Speaker C: Well, it is. [00:50:16] Speaker A: There's an extra one in there. Oh, oh, you're saying the ones that no one should watch. [00:50:20] Speaker C: Okay, can we. Can we call giant X versus BDS a best of 5? That. That looks like a beat down. Yeah, it looks like. It looks like a slaughter. [00:50:30] Speaker A: You know what that looked like Badger. Looked like my boys showing up. Let's go, gx. I'm riding that momentum. [00:50:35] Speaker C: Genuinely, though, like, it is insane how much worse that group is. [00:50:41] Speaker A: Is like. Yep. [00:50:43] Speaker C: If you look at it from top to bottom, just like, holy. [00:50:47] Speaker A: Every single group 2 team lost. I believe G2 is the only one from group B that won a series. Every other group B team lost their series to the group A teams. Yeah, it was a. It's a little bit of a diffie, but walk me through kind of what the weekend looked like. It started off Friday with Vitality versus Team Heretics. And before that, also shout out to the cast. It was the three of us last week and we got 100 prediction rate for LEC. So everything did just basically do we actually. [00:51:17] Speaker C: Oh, yeah. Because we all picked. [00:51:19] Speaker A: We all picked group A team. [00:51:21] Speaker C: We picked all the group A teams at G2. So it was pretty easy at that point. Yeah. So we started the weekend with Vitality and Heretics. Quite the matchup on paper when you think about it. I mean, it's. It's. It's the B team of France versus the B team of Spain just, you know, clashing. What? Am I wrong? Coy versus Casey. Like, yeah, we got. It's like, all right, let's break in the JV. The JV, you know, French versus Spanish Civil War. [00:51:56] Speaker B: Like. [00:51:59] Speaker C: So vitality wins 31. Just. I, I. It was close at times, but vitality just had the grasp on the series the whole time. I mean, I, I, you know what? [00:52:19] Speaker A: You know how to summarize this one? [00:52:21] Speaker C: Fl got a game one got a. [00:52:23] Speaker A: Pentakill and they lost the series. [00:52:25] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:52:27] Speaker A: Was like, literally, this should have been a 3 0. Game 1 was a base defense. They were at their nexus turret. [00:52:31] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:52:32] Speaker A: And then he wins a fight. They push out, they get a pentakill in mid lane, close out the game. And game one's like, we've heard. [00:52:39] Speaker C: We've heard of the Teddy 400Cs Siver Wincon. I've never heard of the Flacked 500Cs Aphelios 1. He finished the game with 25 over 25 and a half thousand gold. Yeah, he had 506Cs. He went 122 and 2 lose. [00:52:55] Speaker A: I didn't even notice that. That's. [00:52:57] Speaker C: Yeah, he was. He was the actual Nexus turret itself. Like, he was. No, he was the fountain laser at that point. Like, who am I kidding? He was six. He was six full items against a team that just wanted to dive into Aphelios, which is, you know, exactly what Aphelios wants you to do into him. [00:53:15] Speaker A: And he played that last fight very well. He earned that benta kill for sure. [00:53:19] Speaker C: Yeah, it wasn't one of those. That was. Oh, I'm slapping him with the wallet. Like it was actually an earned one. [00:53:25] Speaker A: Like, yeah, like everyone's diving onto him. He had a flash out. I thought he died in the middle of it because like there's five bodies on him and you can't see his Eldar. [00:53:34] Speaker C: But unfortunately that was like the only shining, shining light of that series for him. Vitality was able to handedly take the rest of the series. Carzy. Carzy and Fleshy. Fleshy, a player that we were just like, yeah, I'm just like, all right, you know, Fleshy just, you know, our imt. Fleshy came over. [00:53:56] Speaker A: I was worried about Niski leaving. I was excited for him to stay a support, but Fleshy has actually looked pretty good on this. [00:54:01] Speaker C: Yeah, the pike in. The pike in game four was disgusting. Like I. You have the mental advantage at that point if you're just able to pull pike out in game four of the series and just be like, all right, we win. [00:54:15] Speaker B: Just, we're good. [00:54:16] Speaker A: Eu classic at this point. So that was series one Vitality. Do take it. Three one. Then like you said, gx. Bds. This was just a beat down, man. Man, GX just made BDS look embarrassing. I've not been super impressed with the. The development of Ice and Nuke. I really thought that these two showed a lot of promise and they have not maintained that momentum. [00:54:40] Speaker C: Yeah, I. It feels like everything that they could have done to like mess up the roster over, you know, the last 24 months, they managed to do. I mean, like, Ice is a player. He. Ice is like a player that I feel like if he goes to a different team, gets in a new environment, it might be like the Rahel effect of just get him into a new environment. Get him in an organization that actually kind of seems like it cares because it feels like bds like the back half of this year. This has been like, you know what? We're just going to make it to make it to off season, see what we can do about the roster and then go from there. [00:55:20] Speaker A: You're right. Dignitas is gonna sign Ice in this off season. [00:55:23] Speaker C: Oh, my gosh, no, please don't do that. [00:55:27] Speaker A: Please. Yeah. Not a lot to talk about in that one, but we do want to get into this next one. G2 versus K C. Very exciting match. A rematch here between these two organizations. This was also the first hurdle for G2, they made quick work of Fnatic in group B really proving that that group was fraudulent and now we're like okay, but how do they look against Casey Badger? How would you say the kind of number one team in EU is looking right now? Now that we finally got to see them against one of the top teams. [00:55:59] Speaker C: In the region, we can confidently say the G2 is back. Like I mean they, they had their moments. Game on clad, you know, just, just trying to come out with a haymaker. And you, you definitely mean he definitely. [00:56:14] Speaker A: They were having fun with it, man. They were played LeBlanc Captain LeBlanc in game one of Fearless. And once I saw LeBlanc clad I was like oh this is old G2 baby. [00:56:23] Speaker C: I was like oh G2's got their, G2's got their swagger that they have back. It's it. Yeah. I think once they got that like first game out of the way, just the haha he funny game like like give Casey a game to give them false hope pretty much. And then it was just you know, beat down after beat down after beat down. They're definitely, I think going into this the rest of playoffs they're yeah, they're auto qualified because they won the series. I think the, the stress is going to be less lessened or the burden is going to be lessened at this point and they can just kind of go back to playing the G2 like loose. I don't want to say loosey goosey but like definitely the old G2 way of just hey, we have all these stupid ridiculous picks that you probably aren't prepared for playing six. Good luck. [00:57:19] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:57:20] Speaker C: Yeah. Caps Cap Ziggs in game four. I was like oh okay. I, I, I guess he's just a Ziggs player now. [00:57:30] Speaker A: Sure. On volley Bear like full tank volley. Well I guess he built like a little AP early but like full tank volley bear. Yeah it was, they got picks right now. [00:57:38] Speaker C: G2, they got picks. They got, they got, they're back to having champion oceans. It just felt like they were you know, pretty one dimensional there for a while and just not executing well. But like it's good. It's honestly as much as we like clown on EU and stuff like that when like G2 and like MCO and Casey because like Casey is not a bad team in any regards. Like I G2, G2 might just, it might we we call it EU a one team region for the longest time just because G2 was so dominant and like this KC team, I mean they're still good. Like Vlad and Kiss, I think are just insanely good players. And like K is. K is like this world class potential top laner that they. They. I. I still cannot believe is on this team. By the way. Like, it's just weird to see Casey. Casey K all the time. [00:58:23] Speaker A: In a weird way, he did almost feel like the weak link in this series. Yeah, we're kind of the one ones that were dropping the ball more often than not. But I mean, they are against G2. I agree with the sentiment that they are still a good team and will be fighting for. [00:58:37] Speaker C: I think they'll be fine. They. They should be. If they don't make it to Worlds, then that's. [00:58:43] Speaker A: That would be kind of. [00:58:44] Speaker C: I think they're. I think they're favored over the. [00:58:47] Speaker A: Over fanatics. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. But that leads into the last series of the weekend. And Mizelle, I gotta ask you a point blank question here because this is always fun. How many Merwin, notably my favorite top laner in eu, how many meta picks do you think Merwin played in 5 games vs Fnatic? Give me a. Give me an estimate here. What's your guess? [00:59:12] Speaker B: One. [00:59:13] Speaker A: One. Close. It was two. He did play two. I would say actual like normal top ladies. [00:59:21] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:59:22] Speaker A: Varys game to Akali. They flex the Akali up top lane, which I know, like isn't completely out of left field. Like it has been played top lane. [00:59:32] Speaker C: Akali's good at. [00:59:33] Speaker A: Right. It's not popular in the top lane. I wouldn't say it's meta. Yorick is kind of meta right now, so that one's aside. But then the Rek' Sai also coming out here, which has been getting more popularity, finally ending with Mbessa is like, okay, all right, dude, you get the Ambesa game because you got gone through a lot of these others. He didn't play the lulu, so I'm gonna hold that against him. But still very fun. Game one. [00:59:56] Speaker C: Oh, no. We didn't get to see top lane lulu. Whatever will we do? [01:00:00] Speaker A: Hey, dude, I. I might be the only person in the world that cheers for that, but I'm gonna goddamn cheer. All right. Also, speaking of 400Cs Siva games, that game one did go quite the distance, and that was one of the fanatic wins right there. They found a really solid team fight around the dragon. Poby having a pretty good Orianna, but outside of Poby's Orianna game, I actually did not. Look, I. I just. I don't think that Poby has really Stepped up to the other top mid laners in the league. Like once you see Poby versus JoJo or Vladdy or versus CAPS, suddenly you start to see the cracks in the armor that is Poby. And yeah, some of those guys. [01:00:43] Speaker C: I know that he is not adapting to you very well at all, but, but you also have to remember he's 19. [01:00:50] Speaker A: You know, that is, that is a good point. Very young player. It's very, very young. [01:00:54] Speaker C: I, I, I. We have a tradition of, you know, reading birthdays of players in the past just to feel old. God, I, because I just looked up his thing. Do you know when his birthday is? Do you what year his birthday is? [01:01:09] Speaker A: I mean if he's 19, it would be 20 or 2006, right? [01:01:13] Speaker C: February 7, 2006. [01:01:19] Speaker A: That's a couple months after the Xbox 360 was released. That is a couple months before the Wii and PlayStation 3 were released. [01:01:27] Speaker C: He is, he is younger than the Xbox360. [01:01:30] Speaker A: He is younger than the Marvel Cinematic Universe. [01:01:34] Speaker C: That's true. Because Hulk did come out before. [01:01:36] Speaker A: Oh, I think that was 2007 or maybe 2008. [01:01:40] Speaker C: Okay, I thought Incredible Hulk was 2005. [01:01:44] Speaker A: That's the first one. But that one's not part of the MCU canon. It's later. It was the second Old Hulk with Edward Norton. That would, that's considered canon. Okay. [01:01:52] Speaker C: So yeah, that's 2008. All right. Never mind. We derailed. Yep. [01:01:57] Speaker A: Gat Ghost is though. But we're not going to talk about that. It's fine. Really close here is between these two teams. Regardless, upset on Game 5. Smolder 8, 3 and 3 still not able to carry the game. Kasupa Zeri was just that much better. Also Jojo Zigs has improved a lot too. So it's interesting to see a lot of these LEC teams have leaned on the Zigs in playoffs now more and more. [01:02:24] Speaker C: I hate that word. I hate the Ziggs is starting to become meta again. I'll be honest. Like there's just something about that champion that I'm just like, I hate watching Ziggy Zigs. [01:02:35] Speaker B: Like really? [01:02:37] Speaker C: Maybe it's. Maybe it's the. Maybe it's the PTSD of Jenn Air gabes that go 60 plus minutes and it's just watching Farm over and over again and clearing waves. But like, hey, at least we didn't. [01:02:50] Speaker A: Get Ziggs with Siver. That that would be the most cursed timeline. But we did get a full weekend of LEC games. That is four best of fives in a row. It is Vitality GX, G2 and MKOI picking up their wins, meaning that MCO and G2 will have a date in the upper bracket finals. Both of them already qualifying for Worlds. There's one more world spot on the line between Fnatic gx, Casey and Vitality. Now, with that said, let's talk about next week's predictions, because we have three best of fives ahead of us for lec. Starting off with Casey versus Vitality. We all have Casey taking this one. Although Bazelle the Frenchman actually has Vitality picking up a. Oh, wait, right, the right. Yes. The French. French team. [01:03:31] Speaker C: French. [01:03:32] Speaker A: Is there any kind of, like, I don't know how sensitive is because I don't know the history between, like, French Civil Wars. I know that they've had them, but, like, are we allowed to call this that? Like, I don't know if that's okay. [01:03:43] Speaker B: Wow, Kangas. You heard it here first. Kangas wants to pull out the guillotine for life. [01:03:47] Speaker C: I was gonna say let them eat cake. Is that what you're saying? Like, Vitality is gonna eat cake for one game? Like, come on. Fun. [01:03:54] Speaker A: Yeah. Shouldn't Vitality win then? I mean, if they're like the. The oppressed team in the lower bracket. I don't know. Anyway, it's the French matchup between Casey and Vitality. We all have Casey taking it. Then it's MCOID versus G2. This one is really exciting. The two teams that won in the upper bracket. It's G2 going through the gauntlet. They had Fnatic as their last opponent in group B. Then they go into playoffs and they immediately go up against kc and now immediately after that, M. Koi. So they're kind of running the competition here. Last chance to see if we can put the brakes on the G2 hype train. I think it's a five game series in G2's favor. Badger agrees. G2, but with a three 1. Mazelle actually has MCOI. [01:04:36] Speaker B: 3. [01:04:36] Speaker A: 2. You got, baby. I just wanted to see how long you were going to go there. That was. I think that was a good amount. That was an appropriate amount. [01:04:47] Speaker B: Bro's getting that MVP I called at the beginning of the year. He's gonna get it. [01:04:51] Speaker A: Wait, you're right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So. So we're all JoJo fans right now. [01:04:54] Speaker B: Also. [01:04:54] Speaker A: I gotta give a shout out. Hawk has not been on the podcast in a very long time. He's very busy these days. But he did actually get both of his predictions Correct. I gotta give shout outs. I know it's a bit of a tangent for elton. He had 100 Thieves disband after a playoffs lost to Shopify Rebellion. [01:05:10] Speaker C: Oh, I forgot about that. [01:05:12] Speaker A: Technically they did. It was announced that they were leaving after they lost. Lost to Shopify Rebellion. That was crazy. [01:05:20] Speaker B: And then playoff series. [01:05:23] Speaker A: It wasn't. But still. Still. I'm gonna allow it. [01:05:26] Speaker B: Caveats. [01:05:27] Speaker A: I'm gonna allow it. It was close enough. And then for lac, he said, somebody is kicked from Fnatic by Summer Split Humanoid. Literally. [01:05:35] Speaker B: You are picking and choosing your wins here. Okay, but it's by summer splits it, I guess. But he wasn't kicked until just now. I'm just saying. I'm just saying. We're gonna bring the real. Gotta break the reals. [01:05:53] Speaker A: Okay. Yes, Humanor was active roster, but he didn't play a game. I would say these are both at least 75% of correct predictions. [01:06:00] Speaker B: Because I like Hawk. Then. Sure, I'll give it to. [01:06:04] Speaker C: I forgot. I kind of forgot. We did those at the beginning of the year and I forgot. [01:06:08] Speaker A: I just wanted to give a shout out by anyone. [01:06:11] Speaker C: One is pretty good. My. My EU one is a little rough, though. [01:06:14] Speaker A: Your NA says Loki wins rookie of the year. C9 misses Worlds again. Wait a minute. Holy. That's actually a banger one. Oh, that's crazy. [01:06:24] Speaker B: I think mine's pretty good too. [01:06:27] Speaker A: Mizell had 30. Might be a little far off on that. [01:06:35] Speaker C: Might be maybe a little off on that one. [01:06:37] Speaker A: Maybe a little off on that. We'll see. But anyway, back into the LEC predictions because that was a slight tangent right there. MCOID versus G2. A little split on the cast, but for Fnatic GX, it is Fnatic 3. 0 for Badger, Fnatic 3. 0 for Mizel, and Fnatic getting 3. 2 by GX for me. Let's go. I'm all aboard the GX hype trade, baby. [01:06:58] Speaker B: That's gonna be wrong. [01:06:59] Speaker A: Realistically, I think Fnatic should win this, but I just was not convinced against their series. Series versus either MCOIL or G2. G2 looked even worse. I think GX, this was the. The two teams that I was like, I don't know which is fourth, but I think it's gonna be between the two of them. I think Casey beats either of them for that third world spot, but I think that this is actually a very close series. I just have been rooting for GX all year. I'm gonna keep rooting for them, but yeah, I could see this one going either way. That's our predictions. That's L. Ec baby. And that is another episode of the league rundown. Thanks so much for tuning in, everybody. Badger, I'm actually gonna put you on the spot this time because. Yeah, Badger, if somebody wanted to leave a review, how many stars would you recommend they leave? [01:07:47] Speaker C: I would say the same amount of stars as target. Most had deaths in game five or game four of G2 versus KC, which would be five. [01:07:57] Speaker A: That's. That's a good amount of death guess, is it? It's a good amount of stars at least. [01:08:01] Speaker C: I mean. I mean, he only went. He went 050 on Maokai. Mickey X went 08 and seven on Mai. So, you know, that's like. [01:08:10] Speaker A: That's pretty good rookie numbers arguments. That's rookie. Those numbers up to Mickey numbers. [01:08:14] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:08:15] Speaker A: All right. But if you leave us a five star review, it really helps us get noticed. Thanks so much for tuning in to another week of the league rundown. We have LTA championship officially kicking off. We have LEC playoffs continuing to see who else will be representing them at worlds. But most importantly, we have an amazing audience who we love and we'll see you next time. [01:08:38] Speaker B: Bye bye. [01:08:39] Speaker C: Bye, everyone. [01:08:53] Speaker A: Sam sa.