League Rundown - Episode 578: GET KALUNGA’D!

[00:00:12] Speaker A: Gets hit Kimmy kids a little too far here. He's gonna have to try and get himself out. Living O 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. [00:00:48] Speaker B: It wasn't a mutant. [00:00:50] Speaker C: The Nexus. [00:01:07] Speaker A: Hello and welcome to episode 578 of the League Rundown. This is your 2025 LTA split three playoffs week one review. And LEC split three playoffs week two review. This episode is lovingly entitled Get Colunged and I'm your host Kangas, joined by three esteemed co hosts up first joining us once again. Welcome back, Bickle. [00:01:29] Speaker C: Hello. [00:01:30] Speaker D: And I'd just like to let everyone know the bidding for Quad for quid will be starting at $10 million. [00:01:37] Speaker A: 10 million? Honestly, that would be the biggest esport contract. Nobody's got that kind of money these days. Everybody wants to find that kind of money for quid. Oh my God. We'll talk more about his performance soon. But first up next member of the cast. Far from random in our hearts, but random in his title. We got random Minion, Caster, get cologne. [00:02:00] Speaker B: Good baby. [00:02:01] Speaker A: Dude. All right. If anybody can gloat, it is you. You do cover the South. [00:02:05] Speaker B: To be fair, my favorite team died. They were dead on arrival. So there was something. Yeah, I'm a paint. Actually, I'm a Pain fan. You know, that's a team that genuinely would actually make great use of quid. [00:02:20] Speaker A: Oh no. We can't lose quid to the South Conference. Get out of here. Never mind. [00:02:24] Speaker B: Join big. We're the Tiger King of Brazil. The CEO of Pain actually owns Tigers. [00:02:31] Speaker A: I don't want to talk about it. All right, Yachty, Yachty, please uncurse us right there as you're the final member on the cast. [00:02:38] Speaker C: I don't know if I can uncurse. It has been seven weeks since I last made an appearance. There's a long time I don't even know. I don't even know the current memes that are going on here. [00:02:51] Speaker B: Wait, this is the first time. Yanni, I own the same podcast. [00:02:54] Speaker C: Oh my God, you're right. [00:02:55] Speaker D: You can't. [00:02:56] Speaker C: Yeah, you can't get rid of me, rmc. You just can't get rid of me. [00:02:59] Speaker A: Today day. [00:03:00] Speaker B: I've spent the whole day with Yani and you know What? I love it. I spent time with Yanni yesterday too, so it's all good. [00:03:04] Speaker C: That's beautiful. [00:03:05] Speaker A: I love it. What were you guys doing? [00:03:06] Speaker C: We were doing the promotion tournament. The NACL promotion tournament? [00:03:10] Speaker A: Hell yeah. I missed that today. But I plan to go back and watch the VODS tomorrow before going into the Ryan meeting. [00:03:19] Speaker B: Spoilers. [00:03:19] Speaker A: Do you guys know if you're going to be potentially coming out to LA to do anything? Because I know that the. The finals are. Or. No, not. Not in. In Mexico City or are you going to be able to. [00:03:30] Speaker C: That's. That's for the other promotion. That's the other promotion tournament. That's the. That's the tier two to tier one promotion tournament. We're doing the tier three to tier two one. [00:03:41] Speaker A: Oh, okay. Okay. [00:03:43] Speaker C: I wish, bro. [00:03:44] Speaker A: I'm completely lost on the timeline right now, but either way, happy that you guys got to hang out today and happy that you're still hanging out later. If either of you need to send like a secret message, like you're getting just real sick of each other, just shoot me a DM with the word pineapple. I don't know what that means. [00:03:58] Speaker C: Got it. [00:04:00] Speaker A: But with that said, let's get into the news for the week. Going around the world. [00:04:05] Speaker D: Yanni, it was supposed to be to Kangas, not me. [00:04:11] Speaker A: You know, Bickle, you. If you want to, like, you know, be the mediator here, I'll play the middle. [00:04:17] Speaker C: I hate rmc. I mean, pineapple. It's funny. [00:04:22] Speaker B: It's funny. [00:04:23] Speaker C: It's funny because I actually just dislike pineapples. [00:04:26] Speaker A: Oh, not even. Like you're allergic, right? No, no, no, no. [00:04:29] Speaker C: I just don't like them. I don't know what it is. [00:04:31] Speaker A: All right, well, I'm gonna hold that against you for the rest. [00:04:33] Speaker C: Yeah, so are all of my lovers, I'll tell you that. [00:04:41] Speaker A: Well, ironically, they should be a bigger fan of you have pineapple. Anyway, LTK has a couple of teams qualified for Worlds. We got Gen G, KT and now H L E. You heard it right. Gen G is still in there, but highest fourth seed. They. We expect him to do better. But there were double upsets there, Bickle, because, I mean, LC K plays did not go how we expected it to in that round one. [00:05:07] Speaker D: Not in the slightest. So for anybody that was keeping up with our wonderful tally through the regular season, Gen G finished the regular season 29 and 1. That is unheard of. Like, they were unstoppable. And the only team that was even competitive with them in the slightest was T1 yeah, that is. [00:05:29] Speaker A: I think it's got to be the most impressive year performance from any LCK team domestically in the history of the league, right? [00:05:37] Speaker D: Oh absolutely. Like the only thing that compares is them last year when they were just as dominant. Like Gen G is on a tear as of late and T1 was really the only team that was competing with them. But coming into playoffs T1 did show a big bit of shakiness. They only managed to beat out DK round 13 2. They did have to play in round 1 due to Hana life having a really strong round 1 through 2 back before MSI. But then round 2 happened and Gen G got to pick their opponent. They either had to play T1 or KT. Anyone in their right mind is going to pick KT because you're not going to do what KT did and pick T1 and get yourself three. Zero'd like they did years ago and have never lived down. Or do what Cloud 9 did and pick, shopify and eliminate yourself from Worlds because you will never live that down. So of course Gen G picks the easier team. They're 29 and 1. They haven't lost the series to anybody but T1 in the longest time. [00:06:37] Speaker A: And what happens they a little KT miracle baby. [00:06:44] Speaker B: They got Kalunga. [00:06:48] Speaker D: They got columned to. To be more precise, they got BDD. [00:06:54] Speaker C: Better mid laner wins. That guy is really good. [00:06:58] Speaker D: BDD finally has some support. They managed to pull off the massive upset against Gen G and move on to Worlds. [00:07:09] Speaker A: Yeah. Now they are I believe minimum third seed, right? [00:07:14] Speaker D: Correct. They have guaranteed themselves at minimum third seed will not be taking part in the play in against the LPL fourth seed. They've locked themselves into the main stage at World and on the other side of the bracket Hana Life T3 O's T1. That's Hana Life have look shaky ever since MSI. T1 have been looking strong ever since MSI and Hana Life just showed up and smacked the out of them. [00:07:43] Speaker B: Yep. [00:07:44] Speaker D: And what this means is so the LCK obviously has a lower bracket. Gen G based on winning MSI and also based on being first seed guaranteed themselves worlds no matter what. The lowest they can get is the fourth seed. HanweLife and KT have locked themselves into the third seed minimum. The lower bracket has DK playing Fear X and the winner of that will play T1 for the final spot at Worlds. There's a world where T1 does not make Worlds. The two time defending champion, three time finalists lists in a row may miss out on it. [00:08:25] Speaker A: But yeah. [00:08:26] Speaker D: If they do beat out DK versus Fear X which we expect they play Gen G and the loser of that will be the fourth seed and have. [00:08:36] Speaker A: To go through play ins versus LPL's fourth seed. That's just one best of five before world start. So we say play ins. [00:08:44] Speaker C: Very nervous laughter yeah. [00:08:46] Speaker A: Playing the final but yes, that is bizarre to think that one of the two teams that going into playoffs were expected to be like number one number two seed the finalists it's one of them that's going to be that fourth. [00:09:00] Speaker D: One of the situation teams will assuming they beat the LPL fourth seed which isn't a given but they look stronger is going to be a Pool 4 team at Worlds alongside with likely the LEC 3 seed, the LTA 3 seed and the LCP 3 seed. [00:09:20] Speaker A: I'm calling it right now. I'm calling it right now. Sorry, I'll let you go in a second. G2 is going to pull T1 round one. [00:09:26] Speaker B: Yeah. I was going to say hilarious. It's going to be T1 at 4 seed and they're going to like those odds. Oh man, that's going to be headless. [00:09:37] Speaker A: Can I also just say by the way, do it. They're like all right, we got to do it now. We got it. We got to make the win. [00:09:43] Speaker B: From first seed is too easy guys. Or from second Siege is too easy. We gotta, we gotta go lower. We gotta go deeper. [00:09:48] Speaker D: Does T1 versus IG break every single viewership record for world's play ins if it happens? [00:09:55] Speaker C: Almost assuredly. [00:09:57] Speaker A: I think it has almost honestly just T1 being there against anybody should break that record because T1's I correct me if I'm wrong. I don't think T1's ever been. [00:10:06] Speaker D: They've never been through plans. [00:10:07] Speaker C: No. But you also have to remember like the players that are on ig right. Like that's the Cheyenne rookie and Mako and Gala ways there too but you know is not in the same breath as those guys. [00:10:18] Speaker D: We don't talk about way. [00:10:19] Speaker C: I mean we talk about way but you know he just. You go that away when we talk about everybody else. [00:10:25] Speaker A: Yeah, he's. He's way down the list of priorities. [00:10:28] Speaker C: Hey, I mean way way. [00:10:31] Speaker A: But again we say playas very loosely. It is a single best of five but still determines the last team that will be at groups or rather Swiss stage at Worlds. So crazy what's going on in the lck. But also LPL just had a team qualify in Yani. What's happen into the LPL Brand. Yeah. [00:10:49] Speaker C: Congratulations to blg because BLG has made it into the finals, they have locked themselves a spot. We pretty much knew that they were going to get in, whether it was, you know, getting to the finals, winning at all, championship points, etc. Etc. So there's much more interesting things that are going on over the last week since the last episode aired. So Top Esports played against Weibo Gaming in the upper bracket because Weibo Gaming had beaten al. And Top Esports ended up moving on to play against BLG where they lost the blg. Now Top Esports are the final boss of the lower bracket. Elsewhere going on, we had JDG defeat Weibo Gaming. We thought that Weibo might have had the. The summer run, the surprise summer run that Xiaohu has been on lately. Unfortunately, when it comes to at least the LPL grand finals, they will not be there any longer. Then of course, we had Al down in the lower bracket after beating Nip. They beat up on ig. They three zeroed. I. They clapped ig. Nobody thought that was going to happen. Nobody thought it was going to be a 3 0. I mean, Al has been all out of sorts recently, and they've. They've looked just poor. This is not the same team that we saw at MSI. And you know, for what it's worth, even though IG took a loss to BLG 3 to 1, I personally thought that IG was going to win what I thought was going to be a close series, but they were far and away. They've been the better team for the last month and a half to two months. And. And they got absolutely stomped. Right. And then what ended up happening is AO plays against jdg. JDG was a team that we left dead to rights. They were bleeding out. They. They just had no redeeming qualities about them. And yeah, they beat EDG in the first round. Then they beat Weibo, and the road had to end somewhere. They lost to al. So now what we're awaiting is Saturday morning we have Top Esports versus anyone's legend to determine the last spot in the LPL grand final. The winner will take on blg. The winner will auto qualify into worlds as well. So it's gonna happen as the first. [00:12:58] Speaker B: Yes. [00:12:59] Speaker A: It's the first season grand finals. Champion is first seed. Second seed is by championship points according to the league pd. [00:13:04] Speaker C: Correct. Correct. And then we have the regional finals, which will determine first place will get the third seed. Second place will get you to the play in. So what's going on right now is it's JDG and Weibo on one side of the bracket and IG versus whoever's left over that hasn't qualified in the. [00:13:24] Speaker A: Is that based on championship points? [00:13:25] Speaker C: So that gets you into the regional? It does. Now what's really interesting to note is that the IG match, whoever seed three is, whether it's the loser of you know or you know, however it ends up shaking out with the points, I don't really have the points off the top of my head. That's an auto qualification match. So even if you lose that match, you will at least be in the final match for play ins. Meanwhile, on the other side, JDG and Weibo only have one life. [00:13:53] Speaker A: Interesting. [00:13:53] Speaker D: I have the points off the top of my head, so my goat. For. For actual of note, in the LPL playoffs, BLG has locked themselves in because as you mentioned, the lowest they can get in championship points is second, which is still an auto qualification for world. Top Esports can only make worlds in playoffs like this. By winning, they cannot get the fourth, the second seed if they make it to finals but lose to BLG and BLG takes the title, anyone's legend will still have more championship points and qualify as the second seed. [00:14:25] Speaker A: Interesting. [00:14:26] Speaker C: Top Esports has to win it all or play the gauntlet. [00:14:29] Speaker D: Yep, yep. And four regional finals. Like you mentioned, the third seed is what's up in the air right now between anyone's legend and Top Esports. IG has locked themselves fourth, JDG has locked themselves fifth, Weibo has locked themselves sixth. So third and fourth will play. Winner of that will guarantee themselves the third place spot at Worlds. And the loser of that will play the winner of jdg, ADG versus Weibo for the final spot at Worlds. In play ins. [00:14:57] Speaker A: If you're confused at home, don't worry. I'm looking at the league PD page and I am also. I kind of get it. If you're confused at home, just like a weird way. [00:15:05] Speaker C: I got you. If you're confused at home, expect to see BLG al Top Esports and IG showing up to Worlds. Expect to see IG in the play in spot. Who knows there's a chance they're not. But just expect to see those four teams around World's times. If JDG or Weibo happens to get there, something has gone horribly, horribly wrong. [00:15:27] Speaker A: All right, noted. [00:15:28] Speaker D: If JDG gets there, it's because pays continues to be a monster. [00:15:31] Speaker C: No, if. No. If JDG gets there, it's not just because of that. But it's because that scout will stop playing the game like he owes people money. This guy has been. [00:15:40] Speaker D: He does owe people money though. [00:15:41] Speaker C: But he doesn't anymore. That's the thing. Scout has been probably one of the worst mid laners in. In professional league of Legends in 2025. This guy's been. This guy's been awful. This guy is like not the same scout. Like if you hit nameplates you'd be like, who is this random awful pro? This must be chorus or this must be like high chow from lng one of the worst teams in the league. No, no, it's. It's scout. He has been truly, truly awful. [00:16:12] Speaker A: Interesting. It actually brings up a funny point when you say that like to remove the nameplate. There was a zale. I was having a conversation with him a couple weeks ago and he was, he had a pretty hot take, but I was like, honestly, I think I kind of agree with it that if you take like some of the best teams in the world, like let's take T1. I know they're not like one of the best currently because they've been struggling, but like historically, right, like everybody knows T1, everyone glazes how they play the game. Remove the name plates and then just tell people this is an n a match. Nobody's going to be able to spot the lie. Everyone's just going to believe you. And maybe like 0.1% of people would be like, no, actually this is. They're not playing. Like any na people like us would. [00:16:53] Speaker C: Realize that, but I think the average. [00:16:55] Speaker A: Watcher would not maybe. [00:16:58] Speaker C: I definitely think that everybody here could determine who you are watching. That's actually a pretty interesting content idea where you grab other casters and do that. That's. That's pretty interesting. [00:17:08] Speaker B: I'm actually curious because I feel like we know the players at least in like North America or our region of choice and would recognize some of like, like the hallmark things they do. Like the way Bippo draws for example. [00:17:19] Speaker A: The way inspired draft would be a big one. [00:17:21] Speaker B: The way Paula Faker like breaks his own ankle. [00:17:24] Speaker D: You know, you could get any region that. [00:17:31] Speaker A: That's, that's one of the. That's kind of where this conversation started was like, take name plates off watch na teams. Can we guess who is who based on oticons? No, I think it's like impossible. Yeah, everybody plays them as bad. Maybe C9 and Flag was played them a little better. But even that C9 had some bad ones. [00:17:48] Speaker B: Yeah, I was gonna say, like, I think you can tell the difference between north and south at Octacon. North. I don't know why OTA north throws a bunch of datacon. The south throws at Baron still like otacon's generally fine down there. [00:17:58] Speaker C: Oh, you know, the south just always behind the. Always behind the north man behind. They're still throwing a Baron. [00:18:06] Speaker A: They're not following our innovation. Yeah. Throwing it Otacon more. Okay. [00:18:10] Speaker B: We're only catching all the dignitas right now. [00:18:15] Speaker A: Other things for world qualifying teams in the lta, we still just have FLY and Vivocade Stars. We'll talk more about the bracket later on. LEC. We still have G2 MKOI also. We'll talk more about the bracket. Both of those regions have one more seed available that the playoffs are competing for. But lcp, we actually have three teams now. [00:18:36] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:18:36] Speaker A: Rmc, talk to me about the the LCP teams. [00:18:39] Speaker C: The. [00:18:39] Speaker A: The three that have qualified so far. [00:18:40] Speaker B: Yeah. So I think the big surprise is who didn't qualify for lc. [00:18:44] Speaker A: True. [00:18:45] Speaker B: Because we, we knew CFO qualified a while ago and then of course TSG Talon also kind of made it up there. So we, we knew they were going to qualify. So it's just a lower bracket that we're kind of watching. And you'll notice that there's a specific team that I didn't mention. Cfo, Taiwan. PSG is also from Taiwan. Usually there's, you know, DFM who's contending. Spoiler. They weren't contending this round. Gam, who I don't even remember the last time GAM didn't make an international event. [00:19:14] Speaker A: But it's been a long time. I, I off the top of my head, I would gut feel and say like four years since GAM has not been at the international stage representing the region. And it's crazy that they didn't pick it up. Although it is a pretty big org for the region that did qualify, right? [00:19:30] Speaker B: Well, kind of. Yeah. So they ended up playing against Team Secret Whales and they got swept by Team Secret Wheels. Like they got three zeroed Secret Whales as a team. I mean they are kind of a newer team because there was Team Wheels and there was Team Secret and they only recently merged. Like I think it was just. Yeah, this year that they kind of merged together into Secret. [00:19:50] Speaker A: Interesting. Okay. [00:19:51] Speaker B: So yeah, there are like the, the roots of the orgs have been in Vietnam for a while, but like this is the first time, the first year like they're playing it as Team Secret Wheels and they qualified. So congrats to them. A bit of A big surprise, I think, for a lot of the fans and followers of the lcp. [00:20:08] Speaker A: I just know Team Secret as an org, like an esports org. They were playing in Wild Rift. They were playing in, I think, Valorant as well. So a lot of Riot titles. So at least they have like, some, you know, fan base built up. But it is interesting. I hadn't heard about the combining with Team Whales, so that is news for me there. But either way, congratulations. They get a chance to go to Worlds now and actually compete here against the best of the best. Has seating been determined? I'm actually, I'm looking at the league. [00:20:41] Speaker B: No. Only CFO is. No CFO is in the grand finals. [00:20:45] Speaker D: But CFOs in the finals. [00:20:47] Speaker C: And so they're locked. [00:20:48] Speaker D: One or two teams are playing. [00:20:49] Speaker B: Yeah, they're locked one, two. And then PSG Talon versus Secret Wheels right now is fighting for two, three, and then subsequently one to. [00:20:56] Speaker C: You know what I think is really crazy? [00:20:57] Speaker A: Get anywhere. [00:20:58] Speaker C: But yeah, I think it's insane that GAM did not win a game in playoffs like they. They were. Oh, they went.05 in playoffs. [00:21:04] Speaker A: Oh, true. [00:21:05] Speaker B: Because they lost. [00:21:06] Speaker C: They lost the PSG and they lost. They lost the Team Secret. I mean, like, it seems like this seems like a incredibly difficult road. You know, it feels like they. They had a really, really tough road. Right. I mean, I guess that just shows, like, the talent level at the top of the LCP is really, really strong. Right. These are. These are teams that you would expect to be able to show up to Worlds, like cfo, like PSG and, you know, this team, Secret Wells team. I. I'm. I'm actually very curious because I haven't really watched a lot of tape, but I see they got a lot of really young players. Their jungler just had his 18th birthday yesterday. Like, you know, like this guy, like. All right, like, I want to see what you can do. You know, I'm. I'm happy that you're going to Worlds, it looks like. [00:21:48] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:21:48] Speaker D: I mean, also, as of note, the last time GAM was not at Worlds was in 2021. [00:21:55] Speaker A: Four years ago. There we go. [00:21:57] Speaker B: On the dot. [00:21:58] Speaker A: My gut was right. [00:21:59] Speaker B: I remember well when Team Wheels went to Worlds in 2023, they were one of the younger squads there too. So not the first time for the Oregon, I guess. [00:22:10] Speaker A: Yeah. Anyway, pour one out for gam. Pour one out for the Vikings. Pouring out for dfm, the teams that fell in the LCP playoffs. But celebrate cfo, PSG and Team Secret, who will be representing the region and I believe that's it for all the teams that have qualified so far. Again, we talked a lot about LPL and lck. We saved the LTA and LEC conversation because that one's going to be coming up next here once we get through. Just a reminder that if you wanted to join the conversation about your opinions on the world's teams or the representatives or if there's anything else that we missed global news wise, let us know in the community Discord, you can find a link in the description wherever you are listening. And also if you want to support the pod, you can find a link to our Patreon and to our merch shop also in the description. Go check it out if you're so inclined. But with that said, now let's talk about the other two regions, the main two that we cover on this podcast. Kicking things off. We've started at NA the last couple of times, but we're going to start LEC this time over in Europe because we had three best of fives and we do not have any best of fives this coming week. So we don't even have to do predictions. The format is so weird in Europe for their playoffs. They took a break before playoffs and now they're taking a break in the middle of playoffs. But it does make things a little more simple I suppose, in terms of just covering the games. Bickle, we had three best of fives. Any big upsets in your mind? We didn't get your predictions last week, but I want to start off by just saying like did it go how you expected it to go? [00:23:36] Speaker D: Yes. [00:23:37] Speaker C: Okay, that is all right, good job. Pack it up. [00:23:41] Speaker A: It went almost how we expected to on the cast as well. I had GX winning. I'm very sad that they dropped their series to Fnatic and especially the 30 because we already talked about that a little bit before even going live here. Like after game one it was like. [00:23:55] Speaker D: Series should have been a 31 but GX doesn't know how to close out games and choked away a yeah, I I think it was like an 8K gold lead or something like that. [00:24:06] Speaker A: It was 10. It was literally a 10K gold lead. They were taking the inhibitors. There were two inhibs down. [00:24:11] Speaker D: They were taking not only the inhibitors, they were taking the Nexus turrets. [00:24:15] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah they got a Nexus turret. Isma on Xin Zhao is like just, just free tanking like 8 auto attacks from an Azir soldier gets down to 100 health runs away sniped by redemption to go into his GA then dies and then boom. GX is back in the game and are able to, like, push back out of the map and then win it out. I was like, what the hell are we doing, guys? [00:24:37] Speaker D: To summarize, the ev. So all the favorites won here. All the favorites dropped a single game, except for Fnatic. They should have dropped a game, but GX pulled the gx. [00:24:48] Speaker A: They dropped Spiritual. [00:24:50] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:24:50] Speaker D: Casey dropped to Vitality because they pulled out some Morgana Mid Tech that actually worked out pretty well. And then couldn't capitalize off anything off of that. And then G2 was just G2. And Koi, unfortunately, had JoJo pull a JoJo too many times. [00:25:06] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:25:07] Speaker A: Hey, JoJo's also the reason they won that one game though, so I'll give him credit. [00:25:10] Speaker D: You live by the JoJo die by the JoJo rounds. [00:25:13] Speaker A: Yeah. RMC, it sounded like you wanted to hop in with something there. [00:25:15] Speaker B: I was just saying Morgan is becoming more meta now, so. [00:25:18] Speaker A: Oh, are we seeing that played in. In the South? [00:25:21] Speaker B: No, not in the south yet. We're usually late to the party, but. [00:25:24] Speaker C: It'S been played in the lpl and Ock. [00:25:27] Speaker B: Yeah, Ock's playing. [00:25:28] Speaker A: It has. I didn't know. [00:25:30] Speaker C: In fact, it's also being played in Tier 3, Tier 2, North American League of Legends. Shout out. [00:25:36] Speaker A: Hey, you want to plug the stream real quick? We didn't plug it earlier. Yeah. If you want to tune in to watch a promotion tournament. [00:25:44] Speaker C: Yeah, you know, if you want to tune in to go watch the promotion tournament, you can do so at Twitch TV. Slash NaCl. [00:25:51] Speaker A: There we go. [00:25:51] Speaker B: Might be over by the time this airs. [00:25:54] Speaker A: There's a chance. Hopefully this is out by tomorrow. [00:25:55] Speaker C: This is out by tomorrow. [00:25:57] Speaker B: You'll be here for finals. Yeah. [00:25:59] Speaker C: You know, depending on the time it gets out, you know, who knows, you might actually be able to see two series. But you know what? They saved the VODs. So you can go. You can go watch. [00:26:07] Speaker A: True, you can always go back and rewatch them. But yeah, the. The drafting Morgana is fun to see coming in, but I agree with the G2 MCO that it was live by JoJo, die by JoJo. He had the one big play where they're able to win the game that they did win. But in general, they just kind of got hands checked by G2 in a lot of situations. And I'm still loving the way that G2's drafting around, especially in, like, early games. In Fearless, they're not going super meta like, they're picking up kled. They're picking Up Volibear early in Fearless. And what this does is it leaves up a lot of OP stuff later, which then makes it really hard for your opponent to draft because typically they're like, oh, we don't have to worry about then like the Pantheon Ban or like the Xin Zhao ban because they're gone early in the series. But if you're just not picking them, then you kind of have a lot more options later on. So it's interesting to see G2's approach to drafting, but you're telling me G2's. [00:27:04] Speaker D: Getting advantages through their unique drafts? I swear I've never heard G2 do that before. [00:27:10] Speaker A: Dude. Pike support. I don't think anybody else plays that. That's crazy. [00:27:14] Speaker B: You literally saw Frosty pull it up. [00:27:16] Speaker A: I was gonna say, except for Frosty. Yeah. Do you want to talk about it? I don't want to talk about that one. [00:27:22] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:27:26] Speaker A: But either way, it is going to be G2 as kind of the. The big bad bosses of the LEC summer playoffs. They did take down MKOI in the upper bracket, so now the lower bracket looks like Fnatic versus kc. The winner of that will go to Worlds the minimum. They would be his third seed. So that is a world's qualification. Best of five. Also a season ending best of five. If you lose it, you're out. Then winner of that will take on MKOI. Winner of that will take on G2 in the finals. We'll give our predictions for that going into next week's episode though, just because again, there's for some reason not playing this coming weekend. So let's just kind of split things up there. But I want to give or kind of get. Get your thoughts Bickle first before we move on here. How strong do you G2 look now? Because the big test was like, oh, they were group B. They smashed fnatic. Everyone else in group B sucked. So we're not going to know how good they are until they play MCO Casey. Well, guess what? They played Casey round one. They played McWay round two. They only dropped a game to each of them and looked really solid. So do we think G2 is like back at like world's scary version G2? [00:28:32] Speaker D: G2 is definitely catching their strides at the right moment and have really been ramping up ever since msi. They've kind of been getting things rolling, Ramping up their drafts, ramping up their play. They're looking really good and should be the LCK LEC first seed, no questions asked. [00:28:50] Speaker A: I think LCK first seed. That'd be cool. Yeah. [00:28:53] Speaker D: Lec, first seed, no questions asked. I think they should beat any of these teams in the finals pretty handedly. And if they do, we might see G2 have a decent run at Worlds again. [00:29:06] Speaker A: Like, they're looking strong until they face T1 as their first round opponent, which would, again, be hilarious. [00:29:13] Speaker D: Somebody's got to bite that bullet. [00:29:15] Speaker A: Somebody's got to do it and it can't be whoever else he cased. First heat is. So maybe it's a blessing if we get LPL. [00:29:25] Speaker D: First seed versus T1 in round one. [00:29:28] Speaker A: Crap. [00:29:29] Speaker C: Oh, that would, that would be number. I mean, that's, that's like a very real thing that could happen. LPL does not. Does not play the cleanest games, especially compared to like years past. [00:29:40] Speaker A: Typically first T1. Yeah. For some reason T1 just like cannot lose LPL teams. It doesn't happen. [00:29:46] Speaker C: Yeah. Because it's like, it's not that hard to beat them. Just don't get sucked into their aggression. [00:29:52] Speaker A: Sounds a lot like NA and South America. Yanni, I want to get your thoughts too. What do you think about G2's current form? [00:30:00] Speaker C: Oh, I think G2 are playing really, really well. I think Skumonda has just been that guy. I had a lot of confidence in him early on and I, you know, I was really sad to see. Yeah, I mean, this guy's been playing really, really well. I think he's been fantastic. I thought that this guy has been. I thought he entered for a little bit in the middle of the year, but, like, so far, I mean, like, things are. Things are pretty good over there, I have to say. I, you know, It's a different G2. You have to keep that in mind. It's not the same G2 from years past. Right. They're. There are a lot of differences. Even though some of the players are the same. It's the way the game has changed, the way these guys have adapted. But. But overall I think they're pretty good. I don't think they're gonna do the usual G2 thing where they're gonna really show apart at Worlds, but I mean, like, I don't think that Europe should be upset that, like, G2 is probably the best team in the region right now. [00:30:47] Speaker A: Oh, I. Yeah, there's no way EU fans are gonna be upset about G2 being back on form. That's kind of like the best they can do internationally right now. [00:30:56] Speaker D: On the opposite side, we get a Fnatic versus Casey. Which fan base Chip crashes out harder when they get eliminated. From. [00:31:03] Speaker C: Oh, there's gonna be a big crash out. [00:31:07] Speaker B: Be used to it by now, so. [00:31:10] Speaker A: Okay, I want to go back. We touched on this a little bit last week. The way to early season predictions for LEC and lta. Did we have anything about like, FNATIC or kc? RMC had kind of a troll one about Casey. Fans will be the cause of an instance of Twitter intervention for me as a callback. Oh, I had Kalist has a scandal, but it swept under the rug. Has that happened? I've not been keeping. [00:31:34] Speaker C: I mean, how would you know if it was to get swept under the rug? [00:31:38] Speaker A: Well, you know what? My head cannon says it's already happened. [00:31:40] Speaker C: So I'm gonna go. [00:31:41] Speaker A: That one is green. [00:31:42] Speaker C: My goat. [00:31:42] Speaker A: There we go. [00:31:44] Speaker C: That was beautiful. [00:31:45] Speaker A: Thank you for the reminder. No one can prove me wrong because in my prediction, there's a. There's a back door. Oh, yeah. I'm not seeing anything else here. Although Mazel does need McOida win because he said JoJo will be the best mid in the the league and. [00:32:02] Speaker B: Caps kinda. [00:32:04] Speaker C: Okay, hang on, hang on, hang on. You can be the best player in a role and not win at all. True. [00:32:13] Speaker B: But you should be going all five and four. It's the best mid in the region. [00:32:17] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:32:20] Speaker C: Now, all right. Now, the thing is you do. I will say I, I, you know, I do think that you're right because you do need to beat Caps to be better than Caps. But I'm just saying if you can't. [00:32:34] Speaker A: Take him down, I'm just saying you. [00:32:35] Speaker C: Don'T need to be the champion to be the best player. [00:32:40] Speaker A: Sure, that is fair. Almost across the board. The one thing, something about mid laners in Europe. Dude, if you're the best mid in Europe trip, I think that you just almost always win. Although I guess that maybe isn't the case for Casey in split one. [00:32:53] Speaker C: Ah, whatever. [00:32:54] Speaker A: You know, my argument's not very strong, but I'm also not arguing for Mizell because he's the one that you'll have to defend himself later on. That's it for lec, though. It'll be like I said, FNATIC versus KC for their world's qualifying match. We'll talk more about that next week and our expectations and predictions for that. But that lets us hop back across the pond here to North America and LTA League of the Americas the first week where that title officially sticks. It is not the North. It is not the South. It is the Cross conference playoffs. LTA is combined. We now have gold everywhere, which is the official color of the lta. A lot of people forgot that from Split One, but we finally got to see the Brazilian teams up here in Los Angeles the first two weekends. That was this past weekend and this coming weekend it's going to be in la and then the finals weekend is going to be in in Dallas, Texas. Get your tickets now if you have. Not yet. Yeah, Yeehaw. I'll be there. Come say hi. I'll also be there this past weekend. Oh, nice. Nice rmc. You're gonna be there? [00:33:57] Speaker B: No, I'm not. Unfortunately, I'll be there in spirit. [00:34:02] Speaker D: It's a bit far, so I don't think that's gonna happen. [00:34:05] Speaker C: How far is it? [00:34:06] Speaker A: We'll start driving now. I think you'll make it in time. [00:34:08] Speaker D: I gotcha. Okay, I'll head over now. [00:34:09] Speaker C: All right, we'll see you soon. [00:34:11] Speaker A: Well, after the podcast. After the podcast wraps. Podcast, we're gonna see a a North versus south matchup for both of the series this past weekend. 100 Thieves versus Payne Shopify Rebellion versus a Red RMC. I'm going to set you up to talk about this one because obviously you're one of the south coast streamers covering the English coverage of that league. So shout out to you for for doing that this whole year. How proud are you? Let's just get the cat out of the bag. Red candidates. Kalunga. The second series of the weekend did pick up a series win versus SH. Shopify Rebellion in a 32 victory. How's it feel? [00:34:51] Speaker B: It was predicted. It was foretold and also was very Brazilian. So to be fair, this only feels like half a win of the south of the north because Shopify had Bvoy and SEOs who did come from the LTA South. Just so they still have a lot of the tendencies. Funnily enough though, we're actually pretty proud of them. Bboy breaking a record for highest DPS them ever in the north ever. [00:35:15] Speaker A: Yeah. On. On Ezreal of all champions. I believe it was the Ezreal game. [00:35:18] Speaker B: Yeah. When on. When you. Oh yeah, you're. You're on the Atlas desk when they. They were talking about how, oh, Ezra doesn't do that much damage and then people breaks records with it. It's like, okay, oh man, yeah. [00:35:30] Speaker A: 1800 something. That's so much damage. Like when it's over a thousand a minute, you're like, that's a lot of damage. 1800. [00:35:39] Speaker C: That's a lot of damage. [00:35:41] Speaker B: If not for B Boy, Red wins in four. Four games out of five. Yeah, like, B boy went absolutely ballistic to keep them in the series. No, it was. It was a good series. Red is a good team. And the best part to me for Red was that that's not even their ceiling. Like, I think Kaze actually kind of trolled a little bit on his mage champions and he didn't get his assassins. So. Yeah, there's. There is. There are higher ceilings for that team. I also think Shopify Rebellion, Palafaker or Palafik choked again. That. That is an issue for Shopify Rebellion. [00:36:14] Speaker A: Yeah, the. The mid lane was the weakness for Shop Fire Bell in. He lost four out of five early laning phases, and even in that one that he was ahead. He then proceeds. He's on Cassiopeia. He's winning the matchup. I don't even remember who his late opponent was at the time the matchup was Ari. Okay, so. So he's on Casper Pia. He's like, winning trades early, hits level three, bullies out. The opponent pushes a wave in and then proceeds to drop two waves in a row by just running around with God Drags doing nothing. [00:36:46] Speaker B: And it's Cassiopeia, no boots, apparently. No problem. Like what? [00:36:50] Speaker C: Be careful. He's gonna. He's gonna tweet at you, bro. [00:36:53] Speaker B: Come at me, bro. [00:36:55] Speaker A: I mean, at this point, obviously that's a call back to him tweeting about his. His. Or not even tweeting in the interview. Casters. He did not do himself any favors in that last one, though, I will say, because he was the definitive weak link. I know that we said Bevoy had one really monster performance on the ezreal. I think Fudge also was the other, like, more consistent performer on the team. He had, like, one bad game out of five, but it just wasn't enough when they had, like, contracts flipping tails on the day, unfortunately, alongside Palafox flipping all tails, like, five tails in a row. That was. [00:37:31] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:37:31] Speaker B: And to be fair, I heard some people like, talking smack about Fudge. I don't think Fudge had a bad series by any means. [00:37:36] Speaker A: I don't think so either. [00:37:37] Speaker B: Yeah, FNB is really good, guys. He's like the best Brazilian top laner to never win. And I know that sounds like a joke, but he genuinely is always, like, a top three candidate. Guy was in the world's. Was it 2020 or 2021 video. Like, freaking riot. Even thought he was gonna go Worlds that year. Spoiler. He didn't. [00:37:53] Speaker C: But unlucky. [00:37:55] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:37:56] Speaker A: That is unfortunate. Yeah. You were saying this is his first like small eye international because it's across cross conference between the north and the south where one region technically, so this doesn't count as international competition, but it essentially is. [00:38:10] Speaker B: He's never played outside Brazil for any of these tournaments. [00:38:13] Speaker C: Good for him. Good for him. [00:38:14] Speaker A: Yeah. And he looked great. Yeah, looked fantastic. Kaze also looked really, really good. The mid laner Doom the Jungler impressed me, especially his Xin Zhao game. That was incredible. Like Red showed up. I honestly think this could have been a 3 0. Because if you look back at how the series started, Red were up a lot of tempo in one specific moment in the game where they find two kills mid and then they proceed to three man dive mid turret and they all die for it. And if they just don't dive that turret, they just get herald. They get waves crash. They can take a turret with the herald and if they just play more calmly in that game one, they could actually probably snowball that into a win and then they won the next two after that. It's like this could have been a 3 0. Luckily for Shopify, they were able to, you know, capitalize on a dive, dive, very over aggressive dive, and then, you know, turn around that game one. But that was close. [00:39:06] Speaker B: Yeah, but if they played that way, they wouldn't be red. Red is like the, the quintessential LTA south team. Like they play very, very aggressively and they, they are a fuel steam. Like when they are ahead, like they, they start making these sort of plays. But that's how they get ahead in the first place. And that's one thing that people have actually praised their coach for, is actually tempering them. If you can't believe it, this is the more tempered version of Red compared to what we might have seen in the past. So props to Red T. Yep. And the best part of this is going up against 100 thieves. I'm actually not that like I think it's doable for red because 100 Thieves play South American style too. But 100 Thieves has only learned this style. Red was bored in this style. Like they don't know any other way to play. So if 100 thieves go for just like constant skirmishes and fights, I think we're gonna see an even crazier Red candidate show up. My only concern is the mid lane matchup because when Kaze fails to get Pryo, sometimes Red stalls out a little bit. But if 100 thieves get the mid lead and then decide to try and start skirmishing elsewhere, there's a chance that like FNB and Rebelo and Frosty start getting in and kind of are able to answer back and pull things even again. [00:40:16] Speaker A: I mean, that's a little preview for predictions. We'll save the actual number later on, but I'm sure you'll be repeating some of that information for kind of the defense. But I think that Red, they proved that they're scary, man. Do they have a style of league and are they good at that style of league? Does it have anything to do with like big macro plays? No. Does it have anything to do with like massive draft gaps? I didn't really think there was like big draft gaps throughout the series. It was really just like, we will fight you. And that's the Brazilian style. I love to see that style and I love that they did it because the other series did not go that way. 100 Thieves versus Pain. Slow bleed of a game one. 100 Thieves. I don't even think there was like a kill for the first 10 minutes or something. It was crazy. [00:41:01] Speaker B: I don't know what you're talking about. Brazil only sent two teams in a dead body. Like I, xd, xd. [00:41:07] Speaker C: I. I do, guys. [00:41:08] Speaker B: I'm a paid fan. I'm a paid zetchie. I swear. I finally got their jersey too, which they don't even sell outside of Brazil. Shout out for. Shout out Dia for getting it. Oh, bringing it back for me. And shout out Igor for getting it to Dia when he went to Brazil. But yeah, no, Pain. Pain was a corpse. We did it like going in. [00:41:22] Speaker A: They. [00:41:23] Speaker B: They got here because other teams choked against them harder, but they did not look like a top three team. In fact, teams are saying that if Loud had, you know, if Red didn't choke and randomly just screw up their first round of playoffs, Payne would not be here. But Pain are here and they shouldn't be. The only player who's actually playing is Titan. Everybody else just. I. I don't know why they're here. Also, as a Pain fan, I'm not surprised if Roma gets true. And that's crazy because pain have had four mid laners. Almost the fourth mid laner in 12 years or 13 years. 13 years for pain gaming. [00:41:55] Speaker A: That's crazy. Wow. [00:41:56] Speaker B: And the fans are calling for his head right now. So 100 thieves. [00:42:00] Speaker A: Good. [00:42:01] Speaker B: Just saying. If you need a team, Payne's got money. [00:42:05] Speaker D: Maybe Payne's gonna have to fight Ludwig and Steve first. [00:42:10] Speaker B: But. But Ludwig and Steve have. Have, you know, Tigers. Do they have hot chicks? Do they have. [00:42:18] Speaker C: I'll tell you what Liquid doesn't have. They don't have Hondas. They don't have Hondas. Have you. [00:42:22] Speaker B: Have you looked at Griffin's Twitter recently? [00:42:25] Speaker C: I will say before, before we move on to the other series, you want to know who the real winner of the Red vs Shopify Rebellion series is. It's riot. [00:42:34] Speaker A: Who? [00:42:34] Speaker C: It's riot. You know, because of this, because of this, the result of this match, we are never, ever, ever getting a hope of a split north and south ever again. [00:42:47] Speaker A: Yeah, this was exactly what they wanted in the pudding because split one. The argument against it was, oh, the south teams picked up one single game versus the north teams. That is like ridiculous, right? Eight and one record day one under these pains three zero. It was up to an 11:1 record. North versus south south. Now it's a 13 to four record. Still very favored. But that's a series win for the South. That is against the second or, sorry, the third seed from the North. I guess it's second C versus third seed for south versus North. But still, like we did not expect that. [00:43:28] Speaker C: I will say something that goes right with that. I will say let's. [00:43:33] Speaker A: Let's start with Bickle there and then we'll go down because I feel like everybody just wanted to. [00:43:37] Speaker D: A big thing that goes with that is everyone's argument is why is the LTA south taking away a world seed from the LTA North? The third seed of the of NA just proved they are not better than the LTA south and therefore the seed should rightfully go to the LTA South. [00:43:57] Speaker B: Okay. [00:43:57] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:43:57] Speaker B: I mean, I have stepped in here because that one's the pet peeve. We didn't take a spot. Y' all lost a spot or we lost. I'm also North American, but the LTA north lost the spot. The LTA south didn't take your spot. They already had a spot. [00:44:09] Speaker A: Yeah, that's another way to put it. Yanni. [00:44:11] Speaker C: The one thing that I will say is I don't think the. That this will end up being all bad a. With proper refinement and logistics tuning. The only problem is we don't really often see that happen. [00:44:29] Speaker A: But what do you. What do you mean? Do you mean from the side of Shopify? [00:44:34] Speaker C: No, no, I mean mean for the format as a whole, like potentially seeing a similar thing next year, you know, with proper refinement and everything like that. This. This can be. This can be really good. But, you know, it's not something that we often see. [00:44:49] Speaker A: So my, my opinion on it is that I, I try and think on the positive side when I can. [00:44:55] Speaker C: Of Course. [00:44:55] Speaker A: And I know that in general the, the sentiment around LTA and the rebrand from LCS has been negative. It's been a little doomer. It's been, oh, we lost a world seed. It's been, oh, like, like viewership is down, the league shrinking, money's leaving, you know, all these negative, you know, you know, thoughts. If you think about it from the perspective of the south, though, yes, it's also still annoying because they lost some teams. They didn't lose a world's representative though. And now they get a chance to compete against us if we, if we remove the history. And I know it's hard to do, especially for the long time LCS fans. I, I'm not saying like, like your feelings aren't valid and that you can't be upset about this happening, but if you try to just think about this from the current landscape, I think it is good for the north and south to be competitive. It. It is. It makes things way more exciting when we do have a rivalry with each other. And it is not a stomp every time if it is a true rivalry. And we don't know if the north teams are going to beat up the south teams every time. That makes every cross conference play way more exciting. And hopefully if we stay, because I agree with Yanni, I think that we're just going to stay with this combination of north and south going forward. Whether they change back to lcs, CB will names, that's a different thing. But like, the format will probably stay the same, at least in terms of a cross conference. At the end of the split, I want to see more of that. Give me half of the freaking year as that and let more teams make it because then it just gets way more exciting and that makes us unique compared to the. [00:46:30] Speaker C: The other reason with you on that one. [00:46:32] Speaker A: Some. [00:46:33] Speaker C: Yeah, again, I think like a shorter. [00:46:36] Speaker A: Split, like first half of the split where it's like a single round robin and then the bottom two teams maybe drop and then the top six from each, like get a chance to compete against each other. I think that'd be kind of cool. I know logistically it's very expensive, so probably not gonna happen, but like, that'd be cool. [00:46:51] Speaker B: Yeah, I'd be down for that. [00:46:54] Speaker A: All right, well, congratulations to Red Canid's Kalunga for inspiring the name of this episode. We got Kalunga. And also for picking up their first series win against the north. Making things very exciting. There is a world. And we will learn shortly, this coming weekend, we will learn if Brazil for the first time ever gets two teams to worlds. Red candidates Kalunga only need to win one single best of five to make history for Brazil. They got a tough opponent to do it. So let's talk about next week and our predictions for it. In the lower bracket it's going to be 100 Thieves versus Red Candid's Kalunga. That's actually happening on Sunday. The first series though is going to be the upper bracket which is number one seeds FlyQuest versus Vivocate. So let's start with the number one seeds. We all have Fly Quests across the board. Badger and Yanni have 30 for Fly Quest. RMC and Bickle have 31 for Fly Quest. I have Fly Quest 32 because reminder that Gakos is playing. BWIPO is still on suspension due to his comments last week. It is Gatos. That is why I gave them the entire series. And I. I honestly think I'm giving enough respect to Red Stop Laner. I'm giving them two games because I think the Geckos has a high chance of. Of getting gapped every single game. And the team's better. I think Flag west as a whole is better. But if your top laner is that far behind. See a world. Oh, yanni goes vivo. K32 switched it up, bro. [00:48:28] Speaker B: You. You can't be doing this to me, man. I. I can't have you out helping me. [00:48:33] Speaker A: That's crazy, dude. [00:48:35] Speaker C: I'm going to be completely honest with you. [00:48:36] Speaker D: Pineapple. [00:48:37] Speaker A: Pineapple. [00:48:37] Speaker C: I. I think. I think this team, this Flyquest team looks night and day with and without bwipo. I have seen them without Bwipo and they look bad. I. I know 0% win rate with Gakos and I. And I know that the rest of the team is really good. But I think the biggest thing about Fly Quest is not that they are five really good players. I think it's there five players who know how to play together very, very, very well. So I actually think that Evoke Stars can beat them. [00:49:12] Speaker D: I think it's 50 win rate for Geckos. [00:49:16] Speaker A: So what? [00:49:16] Speaker B: Biggle? [00:49:17] Speaker D: I think it's a 50 win rate with Geckos. I think they've played two games, won one and lost one. [00:49:21] Speaker A: Okay, okay. Oh, sorry. The stat was that they were undefeated with BWIPO until recently. But. Yes, yes, yes. [00:49:31] Speaker D: Because in this split they had had dropped no games until playoffs when they played Shopify. They subbed in Gat Ghost, lost that game and then in finals lost a single game to 100 Thieves where they lost With Bwipo with Pipa. So they've technically lost the game with both player once. [00:49:50] Speaker C: If you're losing. [00:49:51] Speaker D: Have they only played two games with Geckos? Yes. [00:49:54] Speaker C: If you're losing to Shopify with Geckos, you're losing a Vivo keyed Stars with Geckos. That. [00:50:00] Speaker A: That's actually my concern. That's why I have it. 3, 2. I still think FlyQuest are better overall to take it. But also, that being said, I don't know. Oh, I even said I give credit to Red Stop Laner. I meant Vivocate Stop Laner because rmc this is all based on just kind of like your expectations. I haven't seen a lot of Vivocades tape and like how they play. But you did mention that their top laner is the only one that Red Stop Laner was not able to like, you know, beat Heat. So. [00:50:25] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:50:28] Speaker A: Is that how you say it? [00:50:30] Speaker B: I think technically it's well. But I just go. We just gone ball. But it's probably ball. Yeah. Ball I think is actually how it's supposed to be pronounced. So some of our Anglicized versions of the name, like we. We ran it past Riot Brazil and they were like, yep. We're like not quite the same. Like we've called Dinkato. Dinito, please. It's actually Jin. [00:50:52] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:50:52] Speaker B: Titan's a bit different because he said in an interview once before that he prefers like the English pronunciation. I don't know if that still holds true, but that's why I call him Titan instead of Chiton, for example. But yeah. Or like Damas. We call him Disamis. But it should be like. I think is actually how. [00:51:06] Speaker A: How do you say Miru? Is it Miru or Miru? [00:51:10] Speaker B: Mir. We. We say Miru. [00:51:12] Speaker A: Miru. Okay. So you add the extra IRU at the end there. [00:51:15] Speaker B: Mirror you. Yeah, I guess. I mean he's. He's Korean so it's a little. [00:51:20] Speaker A: Yeah, that. That one is. Is not as much of like the Portuguese pronunciation issue. [00:51:25] Speaker D: So that Reunion inspired versus Trimby. [00:51:30] Speaker C: True. You know, I just went to Miru's page real quick just to, you know, look up. Look up his leakpedia and one of his trivia statistics is list of games with players going 000 on the winning team. He's playing a professional game where he went 000 and one. [00:51:49] Speaker A: Wait, who? [00:51:50] Speaker B: Not. Not in. Surely not in the South. [00:51:53] Speaker A: Easy. [00:51:55] Speaker C: He copied the South. [00:51:56] Speaker B: Right. [00:51:57] Speaker C: Where did he do? [00:51:58] Speaker D: No, it was in Turkey. [00:51:59] Speaker A: Okay. [00:52:00] Speaker B: I was like, no shot. Somebody gets 000 in in the south. And wins. [00:52:04] Speaker C: No. That's so funny. [00:52:05] Speaker A: Also I just got a shout out. I just. How do you do that? [00:52:12] Speaker D: That's impressive. [00:52:12] Speaker C: Can I change my prediction? Wait a minute. Hold on. [00:52:15] Speaker A: Yes. [00:52:16] Speaker B: Sure. [00:52:16] Speaker A: If you want to. I don't know. [00:52:18] Speaker B: Oh man. Miru's mirror is good. Miru beat Kaze. Miru made a fool out of Kaze. Bo beat FNB like Cade. Honestly. They're the big reason why I was hesitating to put Kade over. Fly Quest is actually the bot side. Cuz Masu is a teamfight monster like Absolute Beast. And Busio. I'm sorry Trimby. I think Busio is better than you. I. I think Trippy is really good and the macro has been really good. But between Busio and Inspired. I just don't think Trippy gets the traction he normally gets with the Samus. And yeah, that's why at first I had Fly Quest. But I forgot Bwipo wasn't playing with Gakos. I think it's probably like 3:2. But since Yani put 3:2, I had to put 3:1. [00:52:56] Speaker C: You. You can also put 3:2. [00:52:59] Speaker B: No. No. I gotta go. [00:53:02] Speaker D: As we talk about players that have gone 0, 0 and 0. Only one person in NA has ever won while going 0, 0 and 0. And it is exactly who you would expect. [00:53:13] Speaker A: Balls. [00:53:14] Speaker D: It is Impact. [00:53:18] Speaker A: It would be amazing actually. Wow. [00:53:21] Speaker C: More like no Impact. [00:53:23] Speaker A: Wait. [00:53:24] Speaker B: No. There's. There's Keith from echo fox. [00:53:28] Speaker C: Keith McBrief. Yes. [00:53:31] Speaker A: He's done a 000 into the weeds here. This is. Kid. You're blowing my mind right now. [00:53:36] Speaker D: I missed that because it was under nalcs back in 2017 though. Also you can include nacl. You had hoon do it. [00:53:44] Speaker C: Cranking Hoons. Another name for cigarette around here. Bros out here. Cranking Hoons. [00:53:51] Speaker B: Well. [00:53:51] Speaker A: Well. All of that aside 000 records aside. It's gonna be a tough battle for FlyQuest. Tougher than if they had had their starting roster. If Bwibo had not shot his career in the foot due to statements made and mindsets had. So hopefully FlyQuest can still pull it off with Gankos up there. I think that only silver lining is that they had Geckos this summer. I mean what a freaking time to just have a top laner as a six man. [00:54:18] Speaker C: For real. [00:54:18] Speaker A: Who would have guessed? [00:54:19] Speaker C: Very. [00:54:20] Speaker A: But there's a good chance of Evocade can actually take this one. Now let's talk about the next series because this is the one that theoretically should have been closer on just paper based on like split performances and what we just saw from Red versus Shopify Rebellion. 100 Thieves are versus Red Candid's Kalunga. The winner of this will go to Worlds. Will go to Dallas for a chance to compete for the first ever LTA Championship. And yeah, we got a lot of hundred Thieves love here. It's mostly 100 Thieves. But RMC does still believe in red. Which means RMC, you have Brazil versus Brazil. Oh wait, no no. Because FlyQuest would have to play red. [00:55:01] Speaker D: Winner of 100 Thieves red. [00:55:03] Speaker A: But you have Vivocade making it to finals and then you have Red making it to Dallas and finals weekend and world. What's your reasoning rmc? How do you have Red take in this one? Okay. [00:55:14] Speaker B: Why is 100 Thieves good in LTA North? Because the team fight and they just pick picking fights that teams aren't used to. So you think that 100 Thieves is good at team fighting. But no, they merely adopted it. Freaking Brazil. The South. They were born in the teapot, molded by it. They didn't see the freaking macro until literally 2022. [00:55:34] Speaker A: I haven't looked at a mini map for eight years. [00:55:36] Speaker C: Years. [00:55:37] Speaker B: They used to not take dragons to like 15, 20 minutes literally. And red is like the quintessential LTA south theme. So if you're looking for a fight Rid are gonna be there to welcome it. [00:55:46] Speaker A: And counter point. [00:55:49] Speaker B: Good. [00:55:49] Speaker A: Sorry, sorry. You finish. Finish your thoughts. [00:55:51] Speaker B: I was just gonna say the only sort of trip up I might I see that might be coming is probably just Quid River. [00:55:58] Speaker A: Yes. So I guess two counterpoints. One, I agree with that. But the bigger counterpoint point because 100 thieves are used to fighting all the time for everything. They are uniquely suited to play against Brazilian teams. So ah, this. [00:56:14] Speaker B: Who's fighting back? The only team that fought back I feel like regularly this way is probably just Shopify Rebellion. And yes they did beat Shopify Rebellion. But it was a closer match. And didn't Shopify beat them earlier in the split as well? [00:56:30] Speaker A: They did, yeah. So that was the first series that Dokla was playing all three games. 100 Thieves picked up one game versus Shopify. But that was like brand new with Dokla. They were getting used to having him on the roster. So before their miracle run truly took off there. But again, I still think the point stands. 100 thieves are a 1 of the only north teams that can play the Brazilian style and often does play the Brazilian style themselves. So I'm expecting very explosive gameplay way more than we saw. Versus Payne Pain just didn't really do much. Versus 100 Thieves whereas Red did a lot versus Shopify Rebellion. Hopefully. This is explosive. I have a three one, Badge's got a three one, Yanni's got a three one, Biggle's got three two and ARMC you have a three two. So none of us think it's a sweep. None of us think that NA is dominant anymore, especially versus Red. Candid's Kalunga who just Kalunga us a few days ago. Any final points? Bickle, I feel like we haven't gotten your thoughts here on this matchup. Any final thoughts on 100 Thieves vs Red? [00:57:28] Speaker D: Not really. I do think this is going to be a bloody and exciting matchup, but I do think you hit the nail on the head. The difference maker in this is just Quit River. Like they're, they're on a roll right now. They're looking great. This is Rivers theoretical. It hasn't been confirmed but it's heavily rumored this is his last hurrah in a sense. So to send him out going to Worlds would be a hell of a way to end it though I could definitely see a world where Steve tries to show up, throw a bit of money his way and say hey maybe, maybe stick around a little an extra year. Come join quit on Team Liquid, you know. [00:58:02] Speaker A: So, so 100 Thieves did post a video. I know this is something that like community wide, I don't know how many people saw but they posted a video last month. Actually I think it was even back in July where River on camera said to the camera I can no longer delay my military service. I'm going back to Korea to do military service at the end of the year. So yeah, put the rumors to bed. Said he's doing it now. The unconfirmed thing is if he is retiring or if he will try and come back to pro play after because there's always a chance he could try and make a comeback. But he according to him on video did say at the end of this year he's going to military training. [00:58:40] Speaker B: If he was going to just getting. [00:58:42] Speaker D: Just as many offers as quit after this. [00:58:45] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah but if you want to go AWOL river and just never go back to Korea. Brazil is a nice place. [00:58:49] Speaker C: I hear. [00:58:51] Speaker A: Escape down to the south like many have before but to the point of like the mid and Jungle being the difference maker. Yeah, Quid and River are the best players on 100 Thieves. Quid and river are the reason that they smashed Pain and I do not think that Doom and Kaze are going to be able to keep up with them. The Concern I have is top lane, actually. I really do think Dokla could struggle here. And yeah, I just gotta again give credit to Red and how they were able to play through their solo lanes and snowball leads through them. So that's my concern. Yanni, any final thoughts here on LTA and predictions for this this coming weekend's games? [00:59:28] Speaker C: Honestly, not really, man. I' Although I will say 100 thieves. 100 thieves always sketches me out and everybody walking in, in the city in like New York is a good example. And you see those scaffoldings and you're like, that doesn't seem very stable and yet you see people working on it and it's like, well, I guess it is kind of stable. [00:59:48] Speaker A: That's how I feel about an OSHA certified inspector. So I'll just let them do it. [00:59:52] Speaker C: That's how I feel about 100 thieves, man. I just feel like at any time this team could just and just have an awful, awful showing and yet somehow some way they're stable enough to not implode. I think that you've added an extra. What's the word? I'm looking for an extra note of stability with Doko playing in the top lane specifically. And I think river and Quid should just be enough to, to get them over the top. Stop. [01:00:26] Speaker A: All right, so an agreement with the mid jungle argument for 100 thieves. Either way, I'll tell you, I'm casting this series. I am. This has got to be like the most excited I've ever been for a cast in my life. Because last heist, either the heist continues or for the first time in history, two Brazilian teams are going to worlds. Very, very exciting implications for this best. [01:00:54] Speaker C: Honestly. [01:00:54] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah. But that's it for lta. Let us know your expectations for them as well as your thoughts on LEC. And again, we'll do predictions for LEC's playoff continuation, or rather playoff finals next week ahead of the podcast. But join in the conversation in the community discord. Again, the link for that is in the description wherever you are listening along. And also reminder, Yanni, if somebody wanted to leave like a review with a number of stars to help us get the podcast noticed, how would, how many would you recommend? [01:01:27] Speaker C: You know, it's a really great question, Kangas. And I'll, I'll spin it with another question. How many games did the candidates and Shopify play? [01:01:38] Speaker A: Okay, so Shopify 1, Candidates and the Canids and Shopify 5. There were five games. Wow. [01:01:43] Speaker C: Five games. Wow. Wow. You know, you could rate something five stars. That might be a good idea. [01:01:50] Speaker A: I like the sound of that. I like the sound of that a lot. Yanni yes, if you could leave a five star review or a thumbs up or whatever rating metric your podcast app listening website Doohickey has, please leave. It helps us get noticed, helps us get out there. We are now one of the only League of Legends podcasts with hotline League leaving its just the dive and us covering lta at least primarily. I know there's a couple other ones out there on the more global scale, but primarily focusing on LTN lec. It's it's slim pickings at this point. So happy to help everybody out there who enjoys listening other people's thoughts on League of Legends. Happy to give our opinions but most importantly everybody who is listening along. We wouldn't have the show if it weren't for all of us. You that helped and tuned in week in week out. We love you and we'll see you next time. [01:02:43] Speaker D: Peace. [01:02:44] Speaker C: Bye bye. [01:02:47] Speaker A: Yes Daddy Sam Sa.