League Rundown - Episode 581: The Summoner’s Cup brings all the boys to the yard

[00:00:13] Speaker A: Gets 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. [00:00:20] Speaker C: Can eat it single handedly Win the. [00:00:22] Speaker A: Game by game by game by game by should be. Oh my God. Stupid. Passes through and manages to the table with Messiah tanking it up. I do not believe. He just believe. I cannot understand this game. Unicorns of love. It wasn't a mutant. The Nexus. Hello and welcome to episode 581 of the League Rundown. This is your 2025 World's Preview episode and it's lovingly entitled the Summoners Cup Brings all the boys to the yard. I'm your host, Kangas and I'm joined by five esteemed co hosts. That's right. We got a full house tonight. I don't even know what order I'm gonna go in. Did not think about that at all. Let's just start at the top here. We got Bickle. [00:01:31] Speaker D: All we need is a cricket and we'll be good to go. [00:01:35] Speaker A: Wait, what? [00:01:37] Speaker C: Because. [00:01:37] Speaker E: Oh, he doesn't know. [00:01:38] Speaker A: He doesn't know the bit. [00:01:40] Speaker D: I don't know the joke. [00:01:42] Speaker A: I'm confused. All right. Oh, there we go. Somebody soundboarded. [00:01:45] Speaker C: I don't know if that was on. [00:01:45] Speaker A: The Audacity recording or not, but that was good timing. [00:01:49] Speaker D: If you haven't, you should go check out the international event that's currently going on. [00:01:54] Speaker C: The ASI International. They, they, they take a cricket out and they use the cricket to determine who's going to win and lose essentially. And they. The cricket will choose depending on what side of the box he's in. [00:02:06] Speaker A: Can we do that with like the super bowl also with like a groundhog or something? [00:02:10] Speaker C: No, an octopus. [00:02:13] Speaker F: It's a World cup thing. [00:02:14] Speaker C: Yeah. The rule about the cricket is that if he's wrong, he's lying. [00:02:18] Speaker E: We're off to a great start already. [00:02:20] Speaker A: Yeah, no, this is going great. All right, let's get. You've heard pretty much everyone's voices. We also have fresh out of the can, it's Badger. [00:02:29] Speaker E: Yeah, I. Shoot, I lost my introduction. Actually, I did not read the title until you said it, honestly, so I had to prevent myself from laughing at the start. [00:02:38] Speaker C: I thought it was a pretty good one. [00:02:40] Speaker A: Shout out to the Summoners Cup. [00:02:41] Speaker E: It's back. [00:02:42] Speaker A: It looks beautiful. We also have. Joining us on this. You just heard him talk about the boys. It's Yanni. [00:02:48] Speaker C: Yeah, what's up? It's been. It's been a Little while. Sorry for my inconsistent tardiness. Party too hard at finals. [00:02:58] Speaker A: And he showed up for two episodes this entire summer split and walked away with a hundred percent LEC prediction rate. I don't know how he did it. Six, zero in his prediction. [00:03:09] Speaker C: My homework. [00:03:10] Speaker A: The highest. That was crazy. You also heard him say damn right there. We got random Minion Caster joining the cast. [00:03:16] Speaker F: Hell yeah. [00:03:16] Speaker B: I am here for the Summoner's Cup. I'm glad we brought it back. Oh, so. Pardon. [00:03:22] Speaker C: So joining the cast. We're casting. [00:03:25] Speaker A: The podcast in the cast. Shut up, Yanni. [00:03:30] Speaker B: It's a cast. If I'm here, I'm a Costa. Right. But no, I'm true. I'm glad that Yanni has a better win rate than the other Greek in the oec, so. [00:03:41] Speaker A: Ooh. All right, Yanni, maybe you'll have defense for that later. But first, let's get our guest on the podcast for this week's episode joining us for the world's preview because he knows a lot about one region and a little about pretty much every other region. We got Mo joining us, longtime friend of the pod you've been on in the past. Happy to have you back. Moo. How you doing? [00:03:59] Speaker F: Yeah, I'm doing good. I just been watching LCK throughout the entire season, so this seemed like a good time to just hop in. [00:04:07] Speaker A: Yeah, I know that we. We've been lacking somebody to really spar with Badger on LCK opinions. Happy to have somebody who, you know, is LCK is near and dear to their heart and can provide a lot more of the kind of player narratives. Because I know you've worked in the scene, maybe not with, like, LCK directly recently, but you at least, like, know a lot of the ins and outs of how teams work and have very strong opinions of how these teams will work going into worlds, at least I imagine. So. Thanks for joining us. We got a couple of news things around the world we want to get into, so I'm just going to dive right in. [00:04:40] Speaker C: Oh, yeah, before I need to clap back at rmc, because RMC forgot one very clear thing, and I did. I did double check just to be sure, but I was pretty positive he forgot that the. One of the Greeks in the LEC actually did have a pretty fantastic win rate. He plays Support for G2, by the way. Labrov is Greek, my guy. Oh, he is, yes. [00:05:02] Speaker B: Yeah, he is. [00:05:03] Speaker A: Never realized that. Okay, cool. Well, Vladdy and Levrov's win rates still below Yannis, in my defense. [00:05:12] Speaker B: Yanni, take the cake. [00:05:13] Speaker A: Best Greek. [00:05:14] Speaker B: True Yanni's 100% win rate. So still better than Lebrov. And Secondly, Labrav who G2 supports Mickey X. Huh? [00:05:21] Speaker A: I think it's gonna be boosio actually if no booy, she's too busy o next year. Okay. Actually, you know what? Now that we're on that topic, I just want to cover this because I forgot to do it last week. Official predictions and winners of highest percentage prediction rate are in from split three. Yanni, I'm not going to give it to you. Technically you only predicted. I only predicted six times. [00:05:45] Speaker C: Yeah. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. [00:05:47] Speaker B: I don't deserve. [00:05:47] Speaker A: So I give it to Badger and Mizell tying for 75% prediction rate for LEC. Pretty good. Pretty good. I was 73 tied with RMC. We were so close, man. We were right behind. And then for LTA north it was Melle at 76%. So he got. He tied for first for LEC and took it. And I think last split he was also first for LEC. So Mizell prediction king. Dude, he's not even here. [00:06:12] Speaker C: 25 and 7 overall is. Is really good. [00:06:15] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. So shout out Mizell for. For the big brain predictions. [00:06:19] Speaker D: That's why he got today off. [00:06:22] Speaker A: Exactly. [00:06:22] Speaker E: Yeah. [00:06:23] Speaker A: He's got to rest up. No, that guy's also on like LPL sleep schedule. I know that's wrapped up now. I believe it has. [00:06:29] Speaker C: We're doing asi. We're doing asi. So like. [00:06:32] Speaker A: Oh, okay. Beautiful. [00:06:34] Speaker C: Yeah. I have to do ASI on Tuesday and then Saturday or not Tuesday, Thursday. [00:06:40] Speaker D: Thursday you get to enjoy the wonderful world of crickets and cardboard cutouts. [00:06:44] Speaker C: I am so excited. [00:06:47] Speaker A: That actually is kind of bigger. I love traditions like that, so I would be all in for that. But let's get into the news. We have all of our worlds qualifying teams confirmed. We're going to talk about each and every one of them as well as expectations for the regions. But a reminder that the world's format will look like a play ins on Tuesday the 14th and then straight into Swiss stage where the first round it'll be first group versus third group teams and then teams in the second group versus versus each other. It's going to be all first seeds going into that group A along with. Oh no, no. Then. Then the second seeds and also the play in winning region's third seed are going into group B and then the rest of the third seeds will be for group C. So that's how it's shaking out there. Plus the play in winner for. For group C. As well. So that's gonna be T1 versus IG, but we've talked about that a little bit. We're gonna talk about it more. Let's talk about other global news things. Roster news. A couple of r Team Liquid. This one was actually confirmed, right, Pickle? [00:07:48] Speaker C: Yep. [00:07:48] Speaker D: Team Liquid put out an announcement they are parting way or have parted ways with one of their coaching staff. Reign over. [00:07:56] Speaker A: Yep. So the first dominant a fall over at Team Liquid. A lot of people are going to be looking at that roster because, you know, obviously Impact's already gone. People have been like critical of apa, of core jj, UG had like one split. Yan's really the only player that I think really should be like job secure at Team Liquid. Unless you wants to go somewhere else. But I guess I say first I'm going to fall. Impact was the first one, but now more dominoes falling at Team Liquid. Either way, we also had some rumors over at KC Bickle. Was this you also that noticed this one? [00:08:31] Speaker D: Yeah. There's some rumors floating around, which is to be expected when they had such a phenomenal winter split into arguably choking in spring and summer. Changes are going to be occurring. The expected one that everyone's kind of been seeing because of kind of the tension in the team. It seems like Vladdy is on his way out. And along with that, it does seem like Khana has been looking for another team. So we don't know necessarily if he wants out, if Casey's moving in another direction or if there's some more dominoes behind the scenes that we don't understand. [00:09:04] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly. So Casey expects a lot of roster shape Cups over there this offseason unless it all turns out to be rumors. But it seems like those are two that are pretty realistic based on how their year ended. That was all that we had for Ross News. If we missed anything again, you know where to let us know. But there's a couple other things that happened this past week. Everybody say I if you were personally affected by the Riot server. Yeah. So it was. Yeah. What was going on? It was a fun badger. What was going on with Orion servers. [00:09:42] Speaker E: So essentially the Riot servers on I believe it was Sunday and Monday, were getting DDoS attacks throughout the day. There was huge spikes. It affected two xko, it affected League, it affected Valorant, and most importantly, it affected the promotion tournament. [00:10:02] Speaker A: Yup. [00:10:02] Speaker E: In more ways than one. [00:10:04] Speaker D: Oh no. [00:10:05] Speaker A: Yanni, what happened to the promotion tournament that was happening concurrently with the DDoS attacks? [00:10:11] Speaker C: So the promotion tournament saw disguise versus Astral, right? [00:10:16] Speaker A: Yep. He's going to qualify a team to lcs. It's Disguised defending their spot. They could get relegated. Any other team could get promoted. [00:10:24] Speaker B: Yep. [00:10:25] Speaker C: So in the middle of the series, two games to one, Disguised is up, you know, server instability troubles hit and you know, while our great casters Cubby and Rafa were, you know, shooting the on cast, you know, as you do in long delays, you know, player cams were full screened and Cubby made a really astute observation that it appeared and really was not just appeared, but Summit was scrubbing through the VOD while a break was going on on YouTube. The VOD of the game that is currently going on and currently in a pause. [00:11:02] Speaker A: For anybody confused, this is cheating. Players are not allowed to look at VOD footage or stream footage of the game they're in, especially not during a pause where you're technically not allowed to really do anything. The tough thing was that these were long pauses, dude, the DDoS attack was happening throughout the day and they kept like getting back into the game, pausing again, back in the game pausing again. So it's not a defense. It is still cheating. But yeah, that was, that was crazy that it was just like the way that they had their player cams set up. Some of them had the screen like somewhere on one wall and then the others were on the opposite wall so you could see the monitors so you could just witness him cheating in real time. Miko, I know that we talked about this a little bit. Yumi, Mazel and Cubby the other night and you said you were not surprised, right? Like, is this like a common thing for players to do? [00:11:55] Speaker F: Oh yeah, all the time. They all, like, especially in the lower tier regions, like people are either explicitly cheating with the consent of the coaches or they're sometimes encouraged by the coaches to cheat or and this is very rampant in specific regions. Like for example, the entire there was an occasion not with League of Legends, but an entire esports of Starcraft was upheavaled because of active match fixing, where that type of like environment is very easy to create if there isn't strict regulations and like clear consequences for these type of infringements. Of course, I think cheating in this context is nowhere severe as match fixing. [00:12:37] Speaker A: And yeah, slightly different. [00:12:38] Speaker F: It's slightly different. But I do agree that. I did agree and I said this last night as well, but Summit needed to be made an example of and yeah, and I'm really glad that they didn't roll back on the decisions that they made. And yeah, the Astral had to pay the consequences. [00:12:57] Speaker A: Yeah, so Yanni, what were the consequences for Summit and Estrall? [00:13:02] Speaker C: Summit could not play, even banned pending review from the tournament essentially. So he's suspended I should say is a better word. So they played with Shintal X up in the top lane. [00:13:14] Speaker A: Nice. And that happened as of recording today. So they had to delay the series because of the DDoS attacks. They played three of the five game or three of the potentially five games. It was the best of five. DSG were up 2:1 and then they had to reschedule the rest of the games to today and Summit could not play. And then surprise, surprise, DSG wins the game. They win the series. Weird, weird situation because it's the final return, long awaited return of the promotion relegation tournament. A lot of people are excited for it. DSG had been really hyped for it. And Toast making a lot of content. He was co streaming and then this is just like. It kind of leaves a bad taste in your mouth. And now there's gonna be this asterisk because Astral were making DSG and they're. [00:13:55] Speaker C: Still it and they're still in. Well they're not done. They're in the losers bracket. [00:14:00] Speaker B: But Summit confidence the rest of it. So it's just gonna be. [00:14:04] Speaker A: Is that what the final decision was from? Because I, I saw, I heard that Summit was out pending review. [00:14:11] Speaker B: Oh yeah. [00:14:11] Speaker A: Well I didn't see he was out indefinitely unless I'm, I'm behind. [00:14:15] Speaker B: The original ruling was that he was supposed to be out for the tournament but Eschol is appealing the. [00:14:21] Speaker C: Okay, very reasonable, you know. [00:14:23] Speaker B: So yeah, yeah, we don't know. [00:14:25] Speaker A: Put out their own statement on socials. It was pretty like. I don't even know what word to use to describe it. Basically they weren't denying what he was doing. They were just like asking you to consider the human element of like it was a two hour pause and he just is like a person that was bored. [00:14:45] Speaker C: Watch anime on YouTube like a normal person or do what disguise did you. [00:14:50] Speaker B: Know what disguise were doing while that was happening? They were playing the balloon. That's a human element. [00:14:55] Speaker C: That's what you do when you're bored. [00:14:57] Speaker D: It's not only that it was a two hour delay, it was the second two hour delay they experienced. [00:15:03] Speaker A: Yeah, they got through game one just fine. [00:15:06] Speaker D: They got a DDoS in game two that paused them forever, that Astral one. And then they got another issue, game three, where this whole thing came up with someone on the screen that disguised still ended up winning. Thank God. [00:15:19] Speaker B: Yep. [00:15:20] Speaker A: And it's crazy to think that all of this happened. Maybe the cheating was happening regardless. But it was all discovered and like came out because of a freaking DDoS attack on the Riot servers. That is. [00:15:34] Speaker C: Hang on. What if it was an inside job? What if. Oh, what if Disguised did this? I'm kidding. [00:15:42] Speaker B: I'm kidding. [00:15:42] Speaker A: I'm kidding. [00:15:43] Speaker C: Now, now here's what I actually read about here. Here's what I actually think happened. Here's my super secret conspiracy theory. You guys ready? My super secret conspiracy theory. My super secret conspiracy theory is that some people knew ahead of time of the decision that was going to be made in the. The dev update with multiple accounts. And some people were very, very upset at that decision and decided to get back at Riot games by ddosing as much as they could. [00:16:13] Speaker A: Now, now that I could actually imagine. Yeah, I haven't heard any information about who enacted the DDoS attack, but it would not surprise me based on how Riot has been approaching. You know, a lot of the account sharing stuff going on right now could be. Yeah. Angry Player. [00:16:29] Speaker C: Anybody remember Derp Squad or Lizard Squad? This is a throwback. [00:16:33] Speaker A: I do not know. [00:16:34] Speaker C: This is a throwback. They were DDoS in games back in season four, bro. [00:16:39] Speaker D: I was joking when I said it was the French fans, but I. Could the conspiracy theory world here see a world where there were some French fans who off of Kimetto's very explicit feelings regarding what was going on with the lec. [00:16:55] Speaker C: Oh, did some. [00:16:57] Speaker A: Was it a global Riot thing or was it just n. It was. [00:17:00] Speaker C: It was everywhere except for the. The eastern regions, actually. [00:17:04] Speaker D: Yeah. So it was EU West. It was N a Brazil. [00:17:08] Speaker C: Dude. That's a. That's a good point, actually. [00:17:10] Speaker A: So this is what you have to do. Everybody. Everybody listening. [00:17:12] Speaker C: Tinfoil, you must eat us. [00:17:14] Speaker A: The East Rundown, Discord and vote. Was it French fans or was it. [00:17:20] Speaker C: People angry at your Levins? People angry at you Levins. [00:17:24] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Vote on it. Did Drew Levin cause this or did LEC cause this? [00:17:30] Speaker D: Drew Levin or Kimetto? [00:17:34] Speaker A: We need a debate between the two of them. [00:17:35] Speaker E: Not more aggregation, please. [00:17:38] Speaker A: I'm just trying to anger as many fan bases as possible. [00:17:40] Speaker C: I think. [00:17:41] Speaker B: I think I'm. [00:17:42] Speaker C: I think I'm tweeting that now. [00:17:44] Speaker A: You should. That sounds hilarious. Well, either way, that is. That was a really weird situation. Hopefully the DDoS attack does not continue and we are past it. Especially with worlds. I mean worlds. I imagine being on a closed server, so it shouldn't be an issue, but it just sucks to like not be able to play ranked and have all these issues, especially when it's affecting the promotion relegation tournament which is happening online. That's it for global news though. If we missed anything, you know where to let us know. Join the community Discord. You can find a link in the description wherever you are listening. And also if you want to help support the pod, we have a a Patreon and we have a Merch shop league rundown shop.fourth wall.com check them both out. It really helps us out. But with that being said, we got a lot to talk about for Worlds Proper and we're already quite far into this episode, so I want to dive directly in the way we're going to format this because I have so many voices, so many intelligent brains that know a lot about the teams and the leagues that we're about to cover. We're going to go region by region, starting in kind of perceived power ranking, which means we're going to start with lck, then we'll do L, then lcp. Actually we, we kind of talked about it briefly before going live and agreed LCP is probably the third best and then LTA and then lec, both of which essentially one team region, so don't take it personally. European fans, we're kind of in the same boat there, but just based on FlyQuest beating out G2 in in recent memory we, we put LTA first there and we're we'll cover each team. We'll talk about the narratives, the big stories, and then do some predictions at the end for at least plans, as well as who's making it out of groups. Early Swiss Stage we hope to have an episode go out next week before Worlds Proper starts, but we want to cover as much as we can this week in case we're not able to get around to it. So without further ado, we have lck. Miko, we have you here to kind of talk about all the big narratives and all the big stuff that you wanted to highlight. So I'm going to pass you the baton, let you take the podium here for a bit. And let's start off with Gen G, the top dogs in the lck. What do you think the audience should know about them and what are kind of the big narratives, in your opinion, coming into this world? When you're looking at it from Gen. [00:19:52] Speaker F: G's perspective, I think the simplest way to put it in, like long story short, is that they got Ruler back and that drastically changed the way that the team was played. And this is something that I'm probably going to just like put As a like a foundational base. But the reason why I think Gen G has had such a huge success was actually led by like kind of driven by the game itself. Where with the rise of the new season, one of the biggest changes that happened this season other than like the addition of the neutral objective feet of warfare and stuff like that is the massive nerfs into the legendary items. So this actually leads to a situation where one item power spike based teams aka T1 are much less effective in terms of their strategy. And the econ heavy teams, the ones that are maximizing Farm the ones that are prioritizing exp over like hitting a pivotal item spike and then just like kind of playing out the game in a fairly aggressive manner are much more effective. And in that way Gen G has been and will be until like another competition arises in the world. Are the masters of that craft. They happen for the past two years where they were always a team that would prioritize exp and resource acquisition over like extensively looking for side lane plays and things like that. It's not like they were will not look for it. They will look for it if the opponents make a mistake. But in versus T one who actively sacrifices temporarily side lane farm to create those flash like blitz plays, you won't see Genji do that a lot of the times. And I guess that's the easiest way to sum them up. They're better than ever before at their formula because they have bolstered their carry lineup with not only Chovy the best mid laner to ever play in the lck not in the world stage because Faker's performance cannot be ignored. But in terms of just his raw statistics. [00:21:52] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:21:52] Speaker F: In terms of his domestic performance, I think it is very reasonable to say from this point on that Chovy has surpassed Faker in terms of his peak. [00:22:01] Speaker A: Performance his and Chovy's been on Genji. He's kind of been the rock. Because you mentioned Ruler Duro's also support now last year the big roster was like paisley hens bottle. Now Ruler Duro coming in here. [00:22:12] Speaker C: How. [00:22:12] Speaker A: How did that affect their their play style? Because I you mentioned they're like the big farm heavy LCK team that just plays incredible macro. When I think of lck, I think that that's kind of the what every team in a way does at the international stage. At least compared to a lot of the western teams. So is this like just this is how Chovy wants to approach the game or do you think that Ruler Duro were big proponents in them like mastering this style. [00:22:38] Speaker F: So I think it Duro and Ruler offer something that pace and Lehends cannot, which is their comfort with front to back fighting style. One thing that Duro is very capable and he will consistently play it time and time again are melee supports. And the thing about Lehends was that while he was capable of playing these type of melee supports, he would often resort to the wacky peaks that we remember him for. For example, in Nongshim, his primary champion that he was best known for this season was Elise. He was initially like the leader, like the trendsetter of the Shen support meta as well. And Lehends will often play these very aggressive styles of play where he would often look for side lane skirmishes, look for like those small timers where the opponent's summoner spells are not up, and try to create like huge advantages through that. Duro is much more reactive. But that's exactly the way that Gen G kind of place is that they're not necessarily going to be the one that are actively playing out the map. There's the one that are just going to be consistently just playing the game, maximizing the state of adapting to the state of the game accordingly. And this idea of reactivity has this kind of negative connotation. But this could also mean that if you are very perceptive about how the game flows and you are the one that are able to identify these flows faster, the reactive team actually becomes the proactive team because they're able to identify these trends faster than the opponents. [00:24:06] Speaker A: Okay. [00:24:07] Speaker F: And this is the thing that happens all the time, especially in small, like long term skirmishes. And this is the reason why they were consistently able to take out T1. And HLE is that gen G has mastered this idea of temporarily stalling a fight or not using all their resources set at once and forcing the opponents to react a little bit more impulsively, use more resources than they possibly should, and then counter attack with their second wave or even their third wave of resources. It's very controlled. If you see Gen G fight, especially around neutral objectives, you'll see this a lot where you're like, wait, like a certain member just got one shot. Oh my God. Gen G has lost his fight. But all the other, all the other members are able to pilot through the fight in a specific way where with very little communication, they know exactly what they have to do. And because of their reactivity, they're able to turn those unlikely fights around. [00:25:07] Speaker A: Okay. Interesting to think about Badger. I know that you also watch a lot of LCK first off, what are your reactions to kind of Mika's assessment of Gen G? Because we're spending a lot of time talking about them. They are. I, I would imagine tournament favorites coming in here. [00:25:21] Speaker E: Yeah, you would. I agree with everything that Mika has basically said at this point just to keep it kind of short, sweet and to the point. Like if this team doesn't win worlds, this, this is like an abject failure after having one of the greatest, if not greatest regular season performances throughout like an entire year leading into this tournament. [00:25:39] Speaker A: Like a. [00:25:41] Speaker E: Can they win the big one is the big question. Because I mean Chovy always seems to. I mean they make it through groups perfectly fine but then he gets to quarters and it's just kind of rough at that point. So can they get the, that burden off of their shoulders coming into the tournament? I. I think the big thing is like you, they have the best player. They have the best player or a top two, top three player and each role coming into this, they're just on really good form at this point. I know that the season quite towards the end didn't quite end this the way that they wanted to, but they managed to pull off the first seed winning the gauntlet at the or going through this lower bracket run at the end of the year and leading into this tournament with a little bit of momentum. [00:26:26] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:26:27] Speaker E: So we'll see things through. [00:26:29] Speaker A: As far as to say I'm happy you bring up kind of how the year went. Last year was also incredibly impressive from Gen G. This year they dropped one series across rounds one to five of the regular season and the rounds one two were like technically spring split three five was summer split. Dropped one series not including play playoff performances, just regular season. Does anybody remember how many series total. [00:26:52] Speaker D: I was going to say from the very beginning of the LCK cup back in, I want to say January to today, they have lost a total of six series. [00:27:04] Speaker A: That is an incredible year. [00:27:07] Speaker D: The only reason they are not on the golden road right now is because they lost these LCK cup finals to Hanwha Life 3 2. If they win game five there and flip that they go to first stand sweep that tournament just like Hana Life did and are on the legitimate golden road right now. [00:27:26] Speaker C: Now they're just on the old. [00:27:27] Speaker A: I'm gonna go as far as to say yeah, they're on the old still when the golden road. If they win world, I'm giving them the golden road. [00:27:33] Speaker C: It's the olden road, guys. Come on the old. [00:27:36] Speaker A: Oh wait, you did pen that, didn't you? Yeah, there's the gold and then the olden road. Either way, I think we give them. Obviously you get credit for winning Worlds, but like holy crap, that's a lot of number ones. If you look at their Leaguepedia page in tournament results. [00:27:52] Speaker D: Also minor thing that's funny. They've lost two series to Hanwha Life this year. Two series to T1 this year. They just lost that really close series to kt. Anyone want to guess who the other team they've lost to is? [00:28:04] Speaker A: Wasn't it like a bottom tier team? [00:28:06] Speaker D: It's bro. [00:28:08] Speaker E: Yeah. [00:28:09] Speaker C: Okay, bro. Let's go. [00:28:11] Speaker E: Yeah. [00:28:13] Speaker D: Bro is the only team to have two owed them. Every other team has given has lost a game to them. Bro. 2 owed Gen G to start this year. [00:28:23] Speaker B: But Bickle that that's really bad news for Gen G because they've lost twice to Hanwha. They've lost twice to T1. If the trend continues, they're due one more loss from KT. [00:28:33] Speaker A: Yeah. Oh. [00:28:35] Speaker C: Oh no. [00:28:36] Speaker A: It's KT knocking them out and it's a series. Dude, that would be crazy. All right, well I not expected but would be funny if Gen G did in fact drop out to KT at Worlds. But I do think that they should be tournament favorites coming in. I'm happy that we spent so much time talking about that. [00:28:57] Speaker F: Let me just say one last for. [00:28:59] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, go for it. [00:28:59] Speaker F: It's just that there's one thing that this team has been doing also. There's oh. So in. In scrim settings, pre world scrims and playoff scrims, there's always that one team every season that kind of. Am I allowed to swear? [00:29:17] Speaker E: Yeah. [00:29:18] Speaker F: There's one team that over the meta for everybody. [00:29:21] Speaker A: Well, not that word. [00:29:21] Speaker C: What the hell? [00:29:22] Speaker B: Nico. Yeah, Miko? How could you say meta? [00:29:29] Speaker F: Guys looks out on the council. [00:29:30] Speaker C: Not supposed to say the script. Scrim word. [00:29:32] Speaker A: Dude. Yeah, I'm gonna have. I'm gonna have Ian bleep out the word you said. So it sounds like you said something awful. You know. [00:29:38] Speaker F: Yeah, I'll be funny, but yeah. There's one team that ruins scrim data for everybody else and I think this year it's going to be Gen G because Chovy is so talented individually that he's playing some matchups that you should not be able to play in traditional forms. So for example you like most. There's a lot of high valence in the pick ban phase and one of the most popular champions voted banned right now in the midline is Orianna. And the reason why Orianna is constantly, consistently banned is because if you. If a right ch. If a right pilot plays it, then that champion's first three levels are utter, pure oppression. So. And the. One of the most famous things that Ryze has a well known weakness of is that his level one is very weak. So it's been common practice in a lot of teams that you cannot pick rise when the opponent opponent has the opportunity to pick Orianna. Gen G has done that multiple times have won those games because Chovy is able to keep the lane either even or remove that valence through individual skill and actually even straight up win certain lanes. [00:30:50] Speaker A: Interesting. [00:30:51] Speaker F: So my ultimate takeaway from this team is if teams try to copy them, it will not work out because they do not have Keane in their top lane, they do not have Chovy in their mid. In their mid lane. And these solo laners are capable of doing certain things that I don't think a single player in the world cannot like, can actually replicate right now in their peak. [00:31:11] Speaker A: Hear me out, though, hear me out. Quad. [00:31:15] Speaker C: Yeah. Thoughts? I don't know if I heard you. [00:31:19] Speaker F: Properly, so when you say quad, the first word that comes into my mind it's. [00:31:26] Speaker A: Oh, no. Okay, let's move on, let's move on. I don't want to talk about that anymore. Never mind, never mind. All right, that's enough about Gen G, the world. [00:31:33] Speaker D: I'm just saying they went to game five last year against Chovy. [00:31:38] Speaker A: They did, they did. I'm saying it did. That have nothing to do with. Yes, but maybe it did in fact happen. That's enough about the perceived favorites at Worlds, though. We spent a little longer on them, which I'm happy about, but for the rest of the teams, we'll move a little bit faster through them. Badger, I'd love you to give me the kind of high level narratives for the rest of the team. So HLE, KT and T1@LCK and then we can get Mikko's like, more specific thoughts on some of the players or some, like, play styles to watch out for for any of them. But in general, Badger, run me through the other three teams representing LCK at Worlds. [00:32:16] Speaker E: So Han was second seed coming out of lck. Zeka Viper, Peanut is on this team. You know, it's got the big names, Delight Zeus in the top lane. Zay is coming over from T1. Was he MVP last year or was it the year before of World Finals. [00:32:39] Speaker D: Years ago, I believe. [00:32:40] Speaker F: No, it was last year. [00:32:41] Speaker D: I think last year was. [00:32:42] Speaker F: No, last year was it last year too. [00:32:45] Speaker E: Okay, so World Finals MVP coming over to bolster the top lane for this team which had. Which had Doran on it last year. Was it Doran? Yeah, it was Doran. Basically. If Gen G1 Jade 1 Gen G trips and falls in, you know, bracket stage, Han was gonna be the one to step up and take the mantle. As long as they don't also trip and fall on their face going into it. A team susceptible to potentially, you know, stumbling at the last hurdle leading into finals. Second best team or third best team in the world, depending on if you how you rate T1 going into this. KT Rolster, the Cleveland Browns of League of Legends at this point, that wins. That wins games, honestly. So as a Cleveland Browns fan and a Casey Rolster fan, it feels like getting kicked in the shins over and over again watching this team. Hopefully this team, you know, comes in, always seems to make it out of groups and then immediately gets slapped around in quarterfinals. So hopefully. [00:33:53] Speaker D: Badger, you're a KT and a Cleveland fan. [00:33:57] Speaker E: Yes. [00:33:57] Speaker D: Are you okay, brother? [00:33:59] Speaker B: Can I introduce you to Pain Gaming? I feel like you'd be a good fan for that team. [00:34:03] Speaker E: Pain is how I feel every single day when it comes to this. So perfect in the top lane because of cuz light year in the jungle. Bdd one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse for Korean mids in the mid lane. Duck Dom, who I've been incredibly hyped on since 2022, but you know, hasn't really shown at this point. And then Peter. So hopefully can perfect show up. How is Peter gonna play the map? You know, is BDD gonna use that four horsemen magic to pull off another miracle? I don't know. We'll wait and see. If not I. I'm gonna be not excited about this team no matter what. So my disappointment isn't that the ticket. [00:34:47] Speaker A: Is you shouldn't get excited. [00:34:48] Speaker E: I don't. I never get excited about KT Rolster, so. [00:34:51] Speaker A: But they. Wow. I've heard that if you don't get excited about them, they do well. So I guess that's just. [00:34:56] Speaker E: That's the problem. That's the problem. I'm never excited about this team. And they still don't do well sometimes. [00:35:02] Speaker D: Is nobody was excited about them. So they managed to upset Jin G, which got people really excited, which is why they lost every game after that. [00:35:10] Speaker A: Yeah, true, true. [00:35:11] Speaker E: Yeah. And then T1 2 time reigning world champions. You know them, you love them. It's. It's Doran Top lane owner, Jungle Faker. You might have heard of that guy. I don't know. Vid Lane and then Guma Guma and carry up Lane again. Maybe Smash will be there. As if Smash is on the six man worlds roster. Then maybe T1 will. Maybe Gumo will be like, I, I have come to play and pop off, but we'll see. I mean, they are the fourth seed. They, they probably are world favorites in my eyes, honestly, just because this team always manages to win Worlds in situations where they're counted out and then when they're the favorites, they kind of, you know, potentially fall flat on their face, unfortunately. 2019 G2 said something about that. But. [00:36:04] Speaker A: The scariest thing about T1 is that narrative wise and gameplay wise, I, I still believe the skins department has a button they can press that gives T1 10 bonus damage in a game. That's how they got into Worlds and that's how T1's gonna make a deep run at Worlds again. [00:36:22] Speaker E: They just, I mean there's always. There's also the thing that it, like this is carrier. The carrier might be the best support in the world on this meta. It just seems like a carry a meta at this point and the, the champ pool kind of favors those guys coming into it. So we'll see what happens from there. [00:36:40] Speaker A: Fair enough. All right, so that's the big picture narratives. Now, Mikko, just to, you know, save a little time here because we're already going a little long on lck. You can pick a player or a play style for each team that you want to talk about. You don't have to do all three if you don't want to. But, but just kind of how do you expect the teams to play at Worlds? And do you think any of these are going to be favorites or like pushing for a title shot? [00:37:06] Speaker F: I mean, it's really easy to just rule one team out. It's going to be kt. [00:37:12] Speaker E: Just because that wins Worlds. [00:37:13] Speaker F: No, like that won't win Worlds. [00:37:16] Speaker B: They have no shot. [00:37:17] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:37:17] Speaker E: Oh, let's say brother. [00:37:18] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:37:19] Speaker F: It's because they're just too. They're just like, like the thing that I'm going to talk about the most, I think out of these three is that their predictability, where if Gen G is a team that is really known for their reactivity and as a result of that difficulty of predictive difficulty to predict them, all these three teams actually have a very formulaic way to play the game and they kind of execute it throughout all those games. And then it's a question of how difficult it is. Is it to exploit it. Actually KT is the easiest one to exploit exploit because their map play is so obvious. No matter what happens, Cuz and Peter will always go towards the BDD side. [00:37:57] Speaker A: Peter, sorry, says instinct. [00:37:59] Speaker C: The horse is here. [00:38:01] Speaker F: The horse is here and he will always play towards bdd. Perfect will always be left alone on the island. He will int because he still doesn't know how to play side lane. And that will result in either disastrous team like positioning errors or some sort of neutral objective seating. This is something that has happened repeatedly and it's probably something that if you have not scouted it out as a world's contender, you deserve to lose. So that's the easy one out. And when it comes to HL and T1 I'm really conflicted mainly because I guess I could talk about HLE first because they're also the most predictable. Their Korean nickname is the Tank or Chunchang and it's. They kind of live that name like through and through. Because they're the slowest team out of these four. They will never ever ever actively sacrifice Farm in order to like create a like a numbers advantage lead. But it is mainly because they prioritize Farm for almost every member in their team. Zeus wants Farm, Zeka likes Farm, even Pino likes Farm and Vipers. The AD carry. He's got to have resources, right? And as a result they are the ones that often react to opponents making mistakes rather than the ones that are actively creating a situation where they could create a direct advantage. And as a result they are often like. People like to think of Gen G as like the late game kinks but macro wise and map play wise and deployment wise. Hana is actually much more farther in that spectrum them hence my idea of Genji being the most reactive. So they're the most boring to watch is what I'm trying to say. If you watch them, if you watch games, don't be bored, just blur. Just do something else until the dragons and like the neutral jets start spawning. Then watch the games then have TFT. [00:39:56] Speaker A: Up in the background. [00:39:57] Speaker F: As long as you'll be really rewarded though like their individual like plays are really really good and I was result their team fighting is amazing when it comes to T1. You know how I said that all these guys are like basically playing the same way T1 has been playing every single like I think that his team has been impacted by Fearless the least in a way and the most where one they are the circus team. They're the one that rarely play front to back. There's they're the type of team where carrier, owner, Doran and even even fakers sometimes will dive their backline, delete their carries and create a one sided like damage, like different DPS differential and win fights through that way rather than creating space, you know, like zone control, like resource, like resource control, like that type of team. Traditional team fights is not what t1 likes to do. The best example that I could give you is the way that Doran plays Sion where a lot of Sion players would just like you know, ulti into their team and you know, like create space between the front line and their back line. Make sure that the make sure that the carries don't get flanked in like very specific situations like that. No, the way that Doran plays Sion is that he will flash into the enemy AD carry, press R and temporarily knock them up so the carry and owner could use that knock up to delete that person. [00:41:22] Speaker A: That's a fun way to play. [00:41:23] Speaker F: It's the Kangal. [00:41:27] Speaker A: That is what I. Oh, let's go. Wait a minute. All right. Favorite team. [00:41:32] Speaker F: So they're hands down the most entertaining team to watch because they make every single fight unpredictable. And the funniest part about it, the ironic part about it all, is that their unpredictability is so predictable. They're the ones that will always lose to Gen G if the game gets solved out. And as a result they the common practices against this team has been just nailing support bans every single game for the certain period of time. I don't remember exactly what Bard has been banned every single game against Keria because that has been one of Those things that T1 uses to isolate key key targets and just delete them before they even press a button. So. And the hardest part about it is, is that everybody knows T1's going to do this. But since they're so individually talented, you can't stop them even if you know what's coming. So are they all going to wake up this worlds and become like individually like the best players that they could possibly be that I think they could actually easily take down Genshi. But whether or not they could do that consistently is going to be the big like X factor? I think so. Out of all these guys, I think T1 is the one that you could never rule out just because of their play style and the fact that they have the players to back it up. And Doran is the most reckless top lane that I've ever seen seen. So in that sense it seems like their play style has even Been become more extreme than in the past. [00:42:57] Speaker A: Okay. Interesting thing about I, I love a world like that. Gets me hyped. Because hearing that T1 are the most entertaining Korean team to watch because of like unpredictability. That's hype, dude. Like honestly, like the team already has the narrative of two time world champs. It's T1, it's faker. But then add that like fun play style on top of it right now makes it very. [00:43:19] Speaker F: Doran is just so reckless and unpredictable. He will it like a hundred percent. Like one out of ten plays. You'll watch him. He's like this guy's match fixing for sure. [00:43:28] Speaker A: Right? [00:43:29] Speaker G: But. [00:43:30] Speaker F: But there's that other valence where two out of those 10 plays, it's like 1v2, like 1v3 outplays where you're like oh my God, like why was this guy hated on for so long? [00:43:41] Speaker A: Love a team with variants. Love to hear it. All right, cool. So that's LCK in a nutshell then. Thank you gentlemen for talking about it. I know that that was just kind of Badger and Miko, but they are two of the more subject matter experts. But now we're going to move on to a new region with a new subject matter expert. Because if LCK are the boogeyman and expected to be favorites at Worlds, LPL are always playing that second fiddle. One of the only other regions to win a Worlds before Yanni. Honest opinion. How close are LPL to contesting LCK for Worlds this year? Or is this not going to be an LPL year? [00:44:17] Speaker C: So in my opinion, Top Esports is the best hope for the lpl and if that's the case, if that's the. [00:44:24] Speaker A: Case, what went wrong? Oh, gosh. [00:44:30] Speaker C: Okay. [00:44:31] Speaker A: So okay, well, well talk to me about the teams. Top Esports, I guess. [00:44:36] Speaker C: No, no, no, no, no. [00:44:37] Speaker D: Let's go. [00:44:38] Speaker C: Let's go bottom to top here because it gets, it gets easier. So. Or it's easy to start with and then it gets complicated. So the let me bust out the. [00:44:46] Speaker D: Trumpet for Taps for this team. [00:44:49] Speaker C: The fourth seed is IG. They are going to be playing against T1 in the plan the shy way Rookie Gala and Mako, you know this team at the beginning of the year they had JJ in in the Jungle and this was a true roster that IG put together that was like, ah, yes, we are going to contend for domestic titles and we're going to make it to internationals. Well, they have to figure out if the world's playing is good enough for them because I'm going to be real, technically an international. There is no way in hell they're going to get by T1. And it's really a shame because I think the shy has played some of the best league of legends he's ever played this year. In fact, I hold the opinion that the shy is the best top laner in the LPL in 2025. [00:45:38] Speaker A: Wow. [00:45:38] Speaker C: Yes. [00:45:39] Speaker A: He performed because I feel like Ben's the big guy lately. [00:45:42] Speaker C: Yes. So Ben had a lot of consistency issues lately, has really come on strong. Like, we've. We've kind of gone back to like a big three in the top lane. We'll talk a little bit more about that later. But I think the shy has been consistently good from split one to. To split three. And it's really sad. I think the really weak points of this team are away. And rookie, I mean, way is just not able to play well against better competition. I mean, he got his. He got his pockets ran by Kanavi. He got his pockets ran by Tarzan. And realistically, if you're gonna go to worlds, like you're gonna get your pockets ran by owner and even you, if, if you know you. You got through somehow, you would get run by a lot of these other junglers, unfortunately. And rookie, I mean, he gotten an all pro nod in split three, but I mean, this guy has just played so poorly throughout the year. And a split three, we thought like, hey, you know, maybe. Maybe the international rookie is back. Like the rookie that we all know can be really good is back. And then in playoffs, he floundered again. And I. I just don't see a world where he's going to be able to diff faker. Even though, you know, faker's laning phase and his overall early game dominance is not like what you would see out of years past. I mean, he's just going to lead his team better. So unfortunately for ig, I don't think they get out. [00:46:57] Speaker D: It is so sad that it took us this long to finally get a best of five between faker and rookie. [00:47:04] Speaker C: I agree. [00:47:05] Speaker D: So long they were. [00:47:06] Speaker C: Is this the two of the best? [00:47:08] Speaker D: This is the first ever best of five between them. They were two of the best players in the world for the the longest time and it just never worked out that we got them facing off on a best of five. We had some best of ones back at 2019 MSI. I think we had a random all star game where faker played Zach mid, but we've never actually seen them face off until now. And it's it's just not. It's what could have been and it makes me so sad. [00:47:39] Speaker C: Yeah, it's definitely. [00:47:41] Speaker A: I did not realize. [00:47:42] Speaker C: It's definitely very, very sad. But the good news is we are going to get it. I, I hopefully IG can make it an interesting series, but I, I think that they're. They're kind of going to get outclassed in the mid jungle area. You know, maybe. Maybe the shy just absolutely puts belt to ass on Doran. Maybe. But I don't necessarily know if. If T1's gonna allow that to happen. [00:48:05] Speaker A: Happen. Moving on. Yes. I like that. [00:48:08] Speaker C: Yeah. Moving on. Let's talk about anyone's legend, Even though anyone's legend are this two seed because I'm going in order of teams that I think are going to do well, and this anyone's legend squad is not the anyone's legend squad that you saw at msi. They're still the same roster. Make no mistake. They're still the same roster. But all of these guys have regressed really hard. I think one of the, I think one of the problems is this team's true carry is like Tarzan, although I think hope has played pretty well throughout the year, but like Shanks, who had just been like pretty much a role player, has taken a step back and split three. Hope has taken a split back, a step back and split three. Even Kyle, who was like a superstar support, honestly, and probably at one point in 2025, the best support in the world, has taken a bit of a step back. Flandreau has played consistently good and that's great and so is Tarzan. But if these other guys aren't going to be playing to, you know, at least a consistent level that they were playing to earlier in the year. And if Kyle doesn't really find that form, this is a team that I do think can make quarters. But I am, you know, if they are 2 and 2 and they get paired up against Fly Quests, I'd be nervous if I were anyone's legend. [00:49:22] Speaker A: Well, it's good news for Fly Quest. I like hearing that. [00:49:25] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, yeah, Without a doubt. All right, so like I said, I thought, I think a top esports is gonna do better than blg, but I would be remiss to mention BLG first because they, they, you know, they were the, the grand finals champions of the lpl. So now we'll talk about top esports. Kanavi and Jackie Love are playing the best league of legends of their life right now, and that means they're not Going to even make bracket stage because that's how it works. No, I, I actually, I'm actually hitching my wagon to these guys. Guys. Konami and Jackie Love are just out playing on another planet right now. They're just on a different level and I think that they just match up poorly into blg. I think that specifically Knight does a really good job of just putting out constant pressure and constantly hand checking and carrying these fights. And Cream unfortunately is just not the guy that can really do that. He can play a nice consistent game which is a, is really what Top Esports needs. But you know, I think the reason why Top Esports and BPLG is just because of that mid matchup. Everybody else has been fantastic. 3, 6, 9, in my opinion, second best top laner throughout the year in the LPL. He was, he's been great. Hong, who earlier in the year this guy was making plays that we were wondering if there was actual match fixing going on. We actually didn't wonder that. But he was doing, he was doing some really questionable like, like he got benched because there was this rel play, bro. I, I, oh my days, I have no idea what I was seeing. I wouldn't even make a play like that. But then after he got benched, Top Esports decided, hey, we need a new support because Crisp isn't working out. They swapped them with Weibo and Hog all of a sudden has refound his form. He's been playing great. I think that if Kanavi, Jackie Love and 369 continue to play at the level that they're playing and Hong and Cream, you know, are, are what they are. I think that this team can really go far. They will just struggle against hard carry mid laners like BLG has. [00:51:30] Speaker A: Like I guess we could even say like HLE or Gen G, maybe even T1 also. [00:51:36] Speaker C: Yeah, I, I actually think they match up pretty well into T1. Let's see. I think that, I actually think that they could match up into Genji pretty well because Chovi always runs into these problems where he, he focuses too much on, on farming at times and you know, while it appears at times he's gotten rid of that. I don't know. World worlds, we always see a different Jovi. Man. I don't know. But yeah, I think there might be some teams that they don't stack up quite as well against because of the mid lane issue that they might run into. But a team that's not going to run into a mid lane issue is blg. BLG with Bin, the Italian Stallion. Shadow in the jungle and then base one also in the jungle, Night elk and on. All right, my, my opinion of this team is tainted. I don't know how they keep doing it. I really don't. I just, I just don't think that this jungle thing can work like I know it did last year. I know they did very well last year, but they had shouldn't and they had way and Shadow and base one are not shooting way. Base one. They, they, they put base one in, in game ones to get beat up and then come back and give a detailed report. And then for some reason Shadow just decides. All right, well, that's all I need to know. I'm just gonna run these guys over. Over. They do have a couple of differing champion pools. Shadow can play carries out of the jungle a little bit more. It does give them an extra avenue of attack. But realistically I think that on is one of the big question marks of this team. The on off memes are like a big joke at this point. And like us, everybody says all the time, no, it's serious. [00:53:22] Speaker A: It's serious like msi. Yeah, lead into that also, right? [00:53:25] Speaker C: Yeah, it's serious this year when this guy is not playing to his standard. This team is going to struggle a lot. The good news though is that Elk was struggling earlier on in the year has really come back and be the Elk that everybody knows and loves. Bin was, I mean, just constantly dying on side lanes for zero. I mean like I was, this was, this was a guy that I was like, this guy looks like not, not a top three, top laner in the league. And somewhere in split two he started to kind of cut that out. And in split three he's been, been really fantastic, a phenomenal player. He's back to, I think his form from last year. And Knight, I mean even Knight started the year a little weaker than we expected. But he was still by far and away the best mid laner in the LPL and one of the best in the world. And now he's, he's humming along like we know him to, you know, the, the golden left hand. This guy is just incredible player and I expect him to do what he does every year at internationals and that, show up and give BLG a chance. [00:54:22] Speaker A: And, and that's the thing about BLG is that they always seem like they have a chance, even in the tournaments where they're not doing as well. Like this team has accomplished a lot for the lpl. If you look at the Last two years they are consistently, you know, representing the region at international events. They're going pretty deep at international events. World's finals at international events like this BLG team kind of have been the recent guys like the guys in the lpl. But it's interesting to hear that you say you think Top is going to be the better torch bearer for the LPL going into this international over blg. [00:55:00] Speaker B: I just. [00:55:01] Speaker C: Jackie Love might have. [00:55:02] Speaker D: We. [00:55:02] Speaker A: We don't know for sure. [00:55:03] Speaker C: He might have the last dance Buff. Jackie Love has been dealing with a lot of health issues and he's just really having a hard time him and he's like, I. I must keep going because I cannot physically take a break because, you know, obviously it's in the middle of the season. We don't know what his future is going to look like. He doesn't know what his future is going to look like. But I think this is the first time ever that we've seen Jackie Love cast doubt on the future of his career. I mean, you know, the guy is going to be 25 next month. I mean, he's still a really young. [00:55:37] Speaker A: Person and dude, he's getting the retirement. [00:55:41] Speaker C: He's still a really young, young person. Right. And he does have to think like if continuing to put his body what he's going through because of the way, you know, League of Legends can actually just be demanding on the body is like good for him. But also, you know, who knows, he might have a couple of years left. You know, he's still relatively young, probably middle aged by league terms, I guess you'd call it because we're starting to see players start to skew older a little bit. You know, the frontal lobe has developed and league players are actually getting better as they get older. It's kind of crazy, but it does cast some doubt over whether or not we will see him again. Again. It's not like a, oh man, like you really have to worry, but it's like a. There's a chance. So maybe he just gets the buff by proxy. [00:56:26] Speaker A: Could be. [00:56:27] Speaker E: Could be. [00:56:27] Speaker A: Well, either way, Top Esports is at the top of Yanni's list for LPL teams. BLG, I think is going to be a very popular one to watch out for as well. Anyone's legend, you never know what they can do. IG. It's gonna be tough. They got the plans versus T1 and spoilers. I don't think any of us have them winning that in our prediction. [00:56:44] Speaker C: I actually have a question. Does. Okay, so, so I know that on the leakpedia world's play in is attached to, you know, worlds, right. You know, it's not the main event, but it's the play in. Right. Some people are gonna say counts as world. Some people said doesn't count those worlds. Does faker get the. Get the world's buff? Does T1 get the world's buff when they're in plan? [00:57:05] Speaker A: Oh, wait, that's a good question. If it isn't technically like Worlds, T1's never played. [00:57:11] Speaker C: I wanna. I want to pull the room. I want to pull the room. [00:57:14] Speaker A: Yeah. What do we think? What a badger. What do you think? [00:57:17] Speaker E: Is. Is. [00:57:18] Speaker A: Does T1 get the world's buff in play ins? [00:57:24] Speaker E: They are there. I mean, I would assume so. [00:57:30] Speaker A: Fair enough. I still think that they get the skins team buff and that's what matters the most because the skins team I. [00:57:38] Speaker B: My question to that is, does. Do they need the buff to get through ig? [00:57:42] Speaker D: They don't. [00:57:43] Speaker F: They don't need the buff. [00:57:46] Speaker C: All I'm saying is, you know, if they don't have the world's. I mean, like, listen, I think that, you know, they're. They're very outclassed in mid jungle. I think everywhere else it's a little bit closer than you think. And you know, if IG elect a scheme away to have the shy like carry, like, maybe there's a world where. Where it happens, right? You would really need way and rookie to have the series that of their season. These guys would really have to revert to their past forms in order for this game or the series. I should say to be close. But it does mean that there's like a world where it is possible. Possible, sure. [00:58:22] Speaker B: But I feel like you need a T1 play in debuff rather than just, you know, average. [00:58:28] Speaker C: Maybe an IG play in buff. [00:58:30] Speaker A: True, true, true. [00:58:32] Speaker B: I think that that's the more important question. Does IG get a buff and play it? [00:58:36] Speaker A: I don't know why they would, but same either way. [00:58:39] Speaker D: It's also a sad state to say that top esports is your biggest hope when top esports is the historic international chokers of the. [00:58:48] Speaker C: Okay, so. So I'll say this. I'll say that I do not share. Like this is a very unpopular opinion. Like I. I like many, many who cover and watch, do not share this opinion that I do. I just think that BLG matches up really well in the top esports and at their. At their current form. And I. I think this team is actually like what's really funny about top esports is they've been consistent all year. They had one bad stretch in split two playoffs where they got knocked out early. But if you. And obviously you can't just. Oh, you have to take that away and hand wave it away. But if you do, this team is consistently been the best or the second best team in the lpl and it really hasn't been close. Like they've been remarkably consistent. [00:59:32] Speaker D: Comes when they show up to international tournaments. [00:59:34] Speaker C: Yes, yes. We all know swim home and everything. Like, the good news is if they lose, they won't have to swim home because it's already in China. [00:59:42] Speaker A: That's a fair point. [00:59:43] Speaker E: True. [00:59:44] Speaker D: That's a very fair point. They can't swim home anymore. [00:59:48] Speaker A: You know, I think that's why they entered in the past. They like swimming and now there's no incentivization for that. So now they'll do fine. All right, well, lpl, thank you very much, Yanni. I know there's a lot of information for you, but since those are the two big regions we expect to do well. We wanted to take time with all the team. So thank you for giving your opinions on all of them. Time to move along though, to LCP and rmc. I'm gonna throw this one over to you. You don't have to go add as deep for all the teams as we did for LPL and lck just because those are like the two top regions. I think it's worth giving thought there. But for the next three, from what I'm hearing, we're all basically one team regions. Do you agree rmc? Is LCP a one team region? Kinda. [01:00:31] Speaker B: Not really. So it's a good thing I don't have to go in depth because I'm not an expert on the region, but I do keep an eye on the region, it being my mother region. [01:00:38] Speaker C: But what's interesting to me, Singapore Shout. [01:00:40] Speaker B: Out, Singapore True and cfo. We saw CSO at MSI and I think a lot of people are aware that they can actually contest the Eastern teams. So I don't think they're that big of a shock anymore. I am expecting CFO to actually perform better than G2 or FlyQuest potentially. My interest is kind of the other teams, specifically Team Secret Whales, who I'm not as familiar with. They're a combination of Team Secret and Team Whales. The only play I really recognize from the past is Taki, their support. But in general, this team has a really good bot lane and often wins through that bot lane. So I think think that would be interesting to see. And they are the second seeded team. The third seeded team is PSG Talon, which is a team we do know and have seen at international multiple times. Ain the topping Karsa in the Jungle Maple Betty Woody. Like these are all very familiar names and we know traditionally that this is actually their usual first seed team and we know that they actually stack up well against the West. So looking at that, I do feel like the LCP is going to be sort of the. The, you know, you must be this tall to ride like they're going to be the gate between the east and the west, effectively. [01:01:47] Speaker A: Okay, fair enough. I. I think the big thing to say for LCP is that top team, the Oysters and how well they've done recently, like MSI, they were basically neck and neck with FlyQuest. If you look at what they were able to accomplish, both teams took one game off of Al or. Sorry, no, no. Oh yeah, yeah. Teams took one game off of Al. Fly Quest was in the upper bracket, CFO is in the lower bracket. And both teams were able to take out a European team. [01:02:12] Speaker B: And oysters went full five against. [01:02:15] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Game. Yeah. CFO pushed T1 to game five. I even forgot about that one. So like CFO are. The team that I think is going to be on everyone's radar is like, okay, these are the guys we should be scared of now. The other two teams are a little more of an enigma of. In terms of kind of do they stack up with the top teams in like FlyQuest and G2 and more. So it's like, are they better than the Vivocade 100 Thieves fanatics, McOids? I think already we know CFO beat McOid MSI. So like case in point right there. But does that mean that like Team Secret or team, you know, will Secret Whale. Sorry, Secret Whales. It's a full title there. Or PSG Talon be able to take out a team like M. Yeah. [01:02:59] Speaker B: And Team Secret Worlds as well. Being a Vietnamese team, they traditionally play slightly off tempo compared to a lot of other regions. Like they. They are very aggressive. They do like to fight and you know, the way. Kind of the way Mika was describing Genji, not exactly the same reasoning, but often the same result with Vietnamese teams where they. They fight a little bit early and it kind of throws teams off tempo. And teams often blow big ultimates, so. Or massive cooldowns before the actual critical fight. And the Vietnamese teams are often more used to playing without those cooldowns or having kind of planned to try and bait them out. Early their second punch often lands harder than it should. And Team Secret Whales as well. They're really good at team fighting. I think teams might get caught off guard by how Team Secret Wills plays. Watching some of the LCP matches, I did feel like they were particularly good at fighting. And considering the LCP has been playing against each other, if they're still able to kind of punch some of these teams this way, I wouldn't be surprised if they catch teams off guard at Worlds. If anything, they might be actually scarier than PSG Talon, which is seeing a lot when PSG Talon is already a known quantity. That can be a test for the Western teams, but especially for the L. I think LC might not be used to to this style of play. The LTA teams might be a little more used to it having seen the way they kind of thieves likes to fight non stop and the way like the South American, the LTA south teams also tend to fight at the drop of a hat for no good reason. I think the LTE teams might fare a little bit better than the LVC teams against Team Secret. Well, specifically. [01:04:33] Speaker A: Okay, interesting to think about. LCP is always the, you know, the region. I know this is technically like their first time as a region, everybody together, but like the teams that represent the LCP now, they've all had had like their turn doing damage. They've all had their turn upsetting, especially N A or EU teams at international events. So I think from an NAU perspective, we have to be looking at all these teams like, yeah, you can't slack on any of them. And I actually see a world where Flying Oysters make it out of the Swiss stage and actually do make it into Knockout stage. I feel like out of like FlyQuest G2 flying oysters, I probably put Fly Quest, oysters, G2 in terms of power level. [01:05:12] Speaker D: I stand by that. Back at msi, CFO is actually the fourth best team there. Oh, MSI at msi, I think they would have gotten to, they would have gone further if they hadn't gone up against anyone's legends in that lower bracket. If they had Fly Quest or blg, I think they beat them. [01:05:33] Speaker C: You know what? I think you're right. I think you're right because I think. [01:05:36] Speaker A: They all did three OBLG and FlyQuest lost to them three two. So yeah, interesting to think about. [01:05:44] Speaker D: I think they were worse than T1, they were worse than Genji, and they were worse than anyone's legend, but I think they beat any other team that was there. [01:05:50] Speaker C: Yeah, I agree they were close to the Ochi. This is a very good take. [01:05:53] Speaker B: 46. [01:05:54] Speaker D: Yes, I would. I'd say a 3, 2 series there with BLG, but I think they were better than them in that moment. [01:06:00] Speaker B: Okay, I'm on the other side of. [01:06:02] Speaker A: The street, everybody, but respect on the oysters. That's it for lcp. Now it's time to talk about the. The next perceived power ranked region. And that would be the region that has consistently defeated the only region below them in recent memory. That's right, baby. The LTA North America, along with South America combined into League of the Americas. And it's the only year that this is gonna be the merger. I mean, it's already officially announced we will be two independent leagues next year. So all the big LTA fans were like, this was a great merger. I think this was a success. This is your only moment. This is it. This is all you got? Was anyone saying that I, you know, maybe. Maybe like new fans? You know, I actually did have a fan one this year come up to me and be like, I only started watching this year. Why is everyone so upset about this? And I'm like, oh, you poor sweet summer child. [01:06:54] Speaker B: That's. [01:06:54] Speaker C: You know, I will say, I will publicly admit that I'm wrong because I believe I was on this podcast when I said that, that after Vivo or no, the cannons, after the cannons of Beat in Shopify, that, you know, they were not gonna revert the region at all because they got what they wanted. It was, you know, parody between north and South. So I'll definitely, like, tell myself I was. I was wrong there. I didn't think they were actually gonna do it. The Mad Men actually did it. [01:07:25] Speaker A: They did actually do it. Also, you know, on that point, I forgot to cover a lot of the predictions. Shout out to freaking Badger. By the way, who straight up predicted Loki wins Rookie of the year, C9 misses Worlds again. I forgot about that. And I'm just looking at it right now. That was spot on, dude. Oh, that's crazy. [01:07:45] Speaker B: That's actually crazy. [01:07:46] Speaker A: Yep. [01:07:46] Speaker E: I'll take my tip of the cap now. [01:07:48] Speaker A: You know, that's why I just. I heard like the Yanni say predictions. I was like, oh, I forgot to check those. We'll cover those again later. Okay, cool. Well, that is LCP. And now it's LTA. We have FlyQuest, Vivocade and 100 Thieves Bickle. Talk to me about the LTA. Are we a one team region? Oh, shocker. Yes. [01:08:10] Speaker D: Yes. It's not close. FlyQuest is the cream of the region right now. They're the best chance the LTA has had in quite a while at doing something at Worlds. [01:08:25] Speaker A: I mean, they made it into knockouts last year at Worlds. They pushed Gen G to five games like that already. [01:08:31] Speaker D: That was a lot of crazy run that still lives fresh in everyone's mind. They went to five against BLG back at msi. It's just a matter of what can they do this time. And it's going to be tough. [01:08:48] Speaker A: All I want, I don't even care if we make it out of Swiss. I would love to, but my bigger priority as a fan, let's just beat a freaking Eastern team, dude. It's been like 2000 days since we beat an LPL team and even longer since we beat an LCK team in a best of series. [01:09:08] Speaker D: It's really like that. It's really sad that back at first stand, Top Esports lost to every single team but still managed to. [01:09:18] Speaker A: That was ass. Oh, I hated that. So I just want Fly Quest to at least take down an LPL team or an LCK team. I think that they could make it out of the Swiss stage, but it's going to be tough. I think the. The positive is that LPL looks weaker this year than in past years. Or at least like their bottom two teams like ig. Anyone's a legend. Look. I mean, ig. [01:09:41] Speaker D: Well, they're not going to get to play ig. [01:09:43] Speaker A: Yeah, anyone's legend though is looking a little weaker. We got KT to beat up on over on the LCK side. [01:09:52] Speaker C: That's crazy. [01:09:56] Speaker A: Casey, Roasters, KT Rolsters. [01:09:59] Speaker G: Have you seen BDD survive mid lane versus pdd? [01:10:03] Speaker C: Hell no. [01:10:04] Speaker A: I think Quad is gonna do his best and I think Inspired and Busio are gonna pick Bard and Vi. [01:10:13] Speaker C: Yeah, they're gonna. They're gonna have to change his name to BTA Inst. [01:10:19] Speaker F: Something. I think. [01:10:21] Speaker G: I think this is something that a lot of people have been talking about when it comes to Inspired. [01:10:24] Speaker F: And I did, and I did watch. [01:10:26] Speaker G: Lta, so I could actually like talk about this where I do agree that Inspired is probably the best western player out of all the ones that I've seen in like, in North American iteration. I don't know that much about lac, so I'll hold my reservation there because CAPS is a person. [01:10:40] Speaker B: Yep. [01:10:40] Speaker G: But. But to say that he's as good as the top tier Easter Junglers is just. You're stretching the narrative a little further. [01:10:51] Speaker A: Okay, okay. Hear me out. Hear me out. We pushed Gen G to five games. Do you not think we could at least do that to kt? [01:11:00] Speaker G: Well, first of all, Gen G back at the like that iteration of Genji. [01:11:03] Speaker F: Is very different from the one that we have have right now. [01:11:06] Speaker A: Is that iteration of Genji better than Katie? [01:11:10] Speaker G: Well, KT did take out the current. [01:11:13] Speaker A: Gen G. Okay, Yeah, I don't like that argument that. So Miko, don't bring that up. [01:11:17] Speaker G: Yeah, and. And it wasn't. And they did it pretty. And they did it pretty convincingly when it comes to that fifth game where like BDD had one of the best performances in a very long time. [01:11:29] Speaker A: Guys, the point stands. [01:11:31] Speaker B: The. The. [01:11:32] Speaker A: When you look at the field, I think Fly Quiz could make it out. [01:11:35] Speaker G: So I do agree that KT is an easier picking than some of the other Eastern teams. I think that's not inaccurate favorite but I. I can't be confident in saying that. Okay, they're going to take them out. [01:11:48] Speaker A: I'm going to put the teams that are good teams that FlyQuest could beat in one bucket. KT, Al G2 oysters. I think FlyQuest could beat any of those teams and that's a good chance for FlyQuest to make it out. That's the point. [01:12:03] Speaker D: News also because of this format with the fact that T1 plays ignore, there will only be seven teams from the LPL and the LCK. That means between the LCP, LTA and LEC there is guaranteed to be at least one of those teams. [01:12:18] Speaker A: Yes, sir. Exactly. And if we say are like weaker teams for their regions, I think that there's also an argument that like it could be six or, or this could be a record. It could be like five teams actually. That's not a record. [01:12:33] Speaker D: Kangas, I don't think you're gonna like the badge. [01:12:37] Speaker C: I do have a question for Mo. So do you not think that Fly Quest is potentially a bad matchup for KT based on the way KT plays the game and the way you explained it. [01:12:50] Speaker G: So in terms of kt, I think one of the biggest problems that Fly Quest also has is their predictability. [01:12:57] Speaker E: Right. [01:12:58] Speaker G: 1. The person that I'm going to pick just like just straight up call out is Whipple. [01:13:02] Speaker C: Yes. [01:13:02] Speaker G: Whipple's champion pool is very limited, right? Yes. [01:13:07] Speaker A: No, absolutely I did. [01:13:09] Speaker C: On an international stage. On an international stage, absolutely. In the lta you can get away with everything. [01:13:15] Speaker F: Can you play Josh? [01:13:16] Speaker C: Never seen this man play Jackson. [01:13:17] Speaker A: Not as well as Eastern players. [01:13:18] Speaker F: But you play Camille. [01:13:21] Speaker A: Not as well as Eastern players. You're already. [01:13:25] Speaker C: You're already owing two. [01:13:27] Speaker A: But you can't say that he doesn't have counters into those. He absolutely has counters into those. He'll play Mal fight, he'll play Orange horn, you know. [01:13:34] Speaker B: But are those. Are those counters? [01:13:35] Speaker F: And he tried it and he tried. [01:13:37] Speaker G: To pull those counters against Zeus and then took Tower Agro at like first five, like into the first five boys and got solo killed. [01:13:43] Speaker A: Dude, he smacked Keen around last year. What are we talking about? What is this revisionism? He like that's bodied him in two of the games. [01:13:51] Speaker G: I clearly remember one of those occasions where he tried to do the groceries Gragas Jax matchup into the. Into CSM Miserable film. [01:13:58] Speaker C: Yep, I remember that. [01:14:00] Speaker B: I guess the question is, do we. Do you want to be able to get coin flipping with Bippo in this situation? Right. And even if Bippo flips heads, what's the rest of the team doing while Bippo is flipping heads? [01:14:11] Speaker G: Because I think the clear advantages FL has is their bot lane and their jumble. [01:14:16] Speaker B: Right. [01:14:17] Speaker G: Masu and Busu are very good players some. [01:14:19] Speaker F: And I think there's a very valid. [01:14:21] Speaker G: Argument in saying that they are even in international stages. A A plus or even like A plus players. Not S tier. That's. [01:14:28] Speaker F: That's. [01:14:29] Speaker G: That's not very fair. And inspired is also very good. But if I'm thinking about specific issues with that team, the things that they got away within the region but are not going to transition that well to international stage is Quad because ultimately he is somebody that initially had his upbringings in Korea but never made it to the LCK stage in a very convincing level. If I'm not mistaken, Quad is Soca right for people correct? [01:14:56] Speaker C: Or is that. [01:14:57] Speaker F: Was that. Yeah. [01:14:58] Speaker G: So Soca had a very. Or Quad had a very brief showing in the lck. Didn't really make a significant contribution or accomplishments. So to say that a player like that, especially in a meta where Mid Jungle is the most important duo in the entire game, has a like can come like can take out can be taken out by Fly plus. I don't really see that argument floating. [01:15:24] Speaker A: I think that saying that the meta is Mid Jungle is a prediction that is not guaranteed. We have not seen the world's patch be played for tier one. I don't believe. Right. I don't. I don't think we know that. [01:15:38] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:15:39] Speaker A: And I guess Mid Jungle is always going to be important at every level of pro play. Some metas, it is the defining thing. But I don't think. And even if it is the defining thing, that doesn't mean the team that has a different play style will automatically lose to it just because that is air quotes. The meta counter meta is always going to be a thing. [01:15:56] Speaker G: So. So the homework that T1 had to solve and that they will have to solve is I think something very similar to what Flight Quest will have to solve. Because when I say Fly Quest's champion pool, the one that I I easily I'm saying like thinking okay, I have to restrict this champ. Like this person's champo is Busio. [01:16:15] Speaker F: Yeah, I would like I would be. [01:16:18] Speaker G: Nailing Busio's bard if I am playing against Fly Quest. He's very good at the champion, he's very flexible and he enables the team to play in a specific way. Especially on his fire. That makes him very powerful. So like if these teams are doing the proper call, we're going scouting and specifically restricting these key players champos. Would Fly Quest be prepared enough and have enough flexibility to get out of those situations in a like a best of three or best of five series? [01:16:45] Speaker A: If they're focusing on Busio's champ pool, it opens up inspired and Bupa's champ pools and it opens up quads comfort champ pools. So there's always gonna be counters. This is all conjecture. I think that the my bucket I'm still confident in. Yes, we can argue the the intricacies of it, but I don't want to take too much longer on it. I just think that there is a decent chance Fly can make it out of the Swiss stage and if anything this should be one of the worlds where they have the highest chance to make it out based on the strength of the other the top two regions as well as the fact that there's only seven teams guaranteed from the top two regions ever. Or like that's the maximum that they could make it in. So there's always going to be one spot available. [01:17:24] Speaker D: And again this is all theoretically on paper. We know teams will over perform. Teams will underperform. There's still a lot to be seen. [01:17:32] Speaker A: Seen. There's a lot to be seen. I also do, just for the sake of time, want to move on from at least the Fly Quest narrative because there's one specific questions I want to ask to rmc. You covered all the south this entire year on the unofficial English broadcast. What do you think about Vivocade at Worlds? Do you, do you have any faith in them? We just saw them beat 100 thieves in the north. They took a game off of Fly Quest in the finals. What, what do you think about them at Worlds? [01:17:57] Speaker B: Do I Have faith them. Absolutely. Well, I praise them sky high. Yes. Would I put money on them? Hell no. Cade can do some damage. I think they are probably one of the higher. They're gonna be one of those teams that look like they're coin flipping their way through the tournament where when they do well, they are gonna smash. But when they are not smashing, they will probably get smashed in return. And I just think it's the way they're currently developing where I actually like the way they're developing. I think they're following a lot of the sort of eastern concepts, but their execution is still a little bit flawed and it's not like second nature to the players. So like the game they won against Fly Quest, for example, like they just absolutely smash that when they've got it right. They pay really fast and really well, but they still make mistakes. And on the world stage that's kind of not acceptable. I think they'll beat like some of the the European teams. I think they can take McCoy potentially. That one's going to be kind of iffy. I think they can beat Fnatic. I think they can beat 100 thieves. They did beat 100 thieves, so. So that's the pool they're kind of playing against, but against any other maybe. [01:19:00] Speaker A: Like a one, three bow out type of situation. [01:19:04] Speaker B: Yeah. Potentially not even winning a game depending on who they run up against. Because the problem is that the other teams I think that they have a chance against are similar pools. So yeah, the odds of running into them are a bit lower unfortunately. [01:19:17] Speaker A: I mean if they go O2, I think the odds of running into them are very high actually. They'll probably play against like a fnatic or an MCOID or 100 Thieves that they go O2. [01:19:25] Speaker B: Yeah. In which case I do think they pick up a win at least. [01:19:28] Speaker A: Okay, cool. Well, I just wanted to give you a chance at least talking about Vivocade because they're the only team from South America at the tournament. So thank you for at least giving your thoughts there. 100 thieves have no shot. They're gonna go boom in the slightest. So let's talk about LEC over in Europe. I mean we just talked about two other essentially one team regions. It's FlyQuest, it's Oysters and it's G2. I think you can put all them in a similar bucket. LEC. It is all about how well is G2 going to do if they want to have any chance at Worlds. MCOID Fanatic I think are going to be in that similar buck to Vivocade where like if they go O2 they can pick up that third win. I don't see them, I don't see MCO or Fnatic beating any of the Eastern teams unless you factor in like you know, Team Secret Whales or PSG Talent. And even then it's going to be close with those based on perceived power level. And I don't see them taking down the the top teams like Flyquest and the Oysters. So I really do think that Europe is putting all of its faith in G2. And as long as Lebrov is able to continue playing like he has been, as long as SKU Mod is able to keep playing like he has been, this team actually will do very well. The question I have is like international tournament Worlds for both these players. This was a big roster shake up for G2. They're on a much better, you know, trajectory now than they were at the beginning of the year. But Worlds is a completely different beast. So now we get to see if Schumann and Lebrov can hang at like the top, top levels. They did not look great at Ms. Hopefully summer will kind of tune them up so that Worlds they will look. [01:21:03] Speaker D: Better in regards to G2, particularly skewmond. Ever since coming back from MSI it seems like he got his ass kicked and actually learned from it because he's been an entirely different player. He's looked phenomenal, like he's leveled up so much and that's great for him. And he's been a big part of the reason the G2 was able to make the this big resurgence is those two pieces finally feel like they're clicking in place and G2 is back to being this dominant machine in the LEC. [01:21:36] Speaker A: Well it's, it's really opened up now that they have a more stable bot side and a jungle that can actually help out the map because he's not falling too far behind. Broken Blade can start smashing top lane. Caps can keep smashing mid lane. Caps is not really like he hasn't been the main, main character this summer split. I think it's has been more so Broken Blade but Caps has really still stepped up when they need him to. Hansama is for the most part consistent. So I think that like G2 is going to be a scary solo lane team. I just don't know if their bot lane is going to be able to hang with the bot lanes at Worlds this year. Based on how Hans Sama has been playing in laning phase and also Lebrov just not always having good games, he's been having way more good games than bad games lately. So I think that that's good for them. But I definitely have them. The weakest of those, like that bucket that I talked about of the G2, the fly quest, the Oysters, the Anyone's Legends, those types of teams together. [01:22:30] Speaker B: And frankly I'm actually quite concerned about that because I felt like G2 at MSI, they weren't. It wasn't the solo laners who were getting them wins. It was kind of the bot lane who was kind of holding them in I think at the introduction. [01:22:41] Speaker A: Just don't talk about Hansama Senna as long as. Or Callista. Yes. Okay. [01:22:49] Speaker B: It's fine. [01:22:49] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:22:49] Speaker B: But the problems I think at Worlds, like all the. The top teams, the teams I think that are going to make it out, Swiss all have really good mid laners, have good solo laners. Like even looking at Fly Quests, like the solo laners are really solid CFO soul laners. Okay. The top side's really solid. And then Hongq is just a beast right now. I actually worry for G2 and the in Europe or LEC as a region. Yeah. I think they're actually going to struggle quite a bit. [01:23:13] Speaker A: I feel like their solo laners are two of the best performing players on the team. And even like Fly Quest, I'd say Quad's probably the worst performing player on the team. [01:23:21] Speaker B: Okay. Actually quad's the worst. Yep. [01:23:23] Speaker C: Yeah, we're going. [01:23:24] Speaker A: By your logic. I actually think it would be like more worried for Fly Quest at that point than I would for G2. [01:23:29] Speaker B: True. I guess the problem is like, okay, Skimon has improved a lot and I think that's going to be what their performance is going to kind of hinge on because Skewmon at MSI did not look good. And I think Inspired can make up. Like inspired made up more than made up for Quad's struggles at msi. Whereas I don't. If Skond is not at a high enough level, then I think his solo laners will be exposed and then will be punished. [01:23:53] Speaker A: Important to remind people, rookie jungler coming in here in technically, I mean he was on BDS Academy last year, but first year like full time in the LEC here he's. He was born the year that a Halo 2 came out. Think about that. That's crazy young kid. So G2, definitely a lot of work ahead of them. But as long as the young players can step up, I do still have faith in them. It's just. I think that's too many variables for me. To like you said, put. Put money on. So, yeah, McOHOY and FANATIC. I'm sorry, I just don't see a world where either of them do well. But I do want to see a world where Poby plays Faker. Faker, dude, could you imagine? [01:24:36] Speaker E: I need that. That's a lot of Badger fanatics probably going to be a victim of going 0 and 3 in this tournament. But, like, come on. I need we. We as a collective, the royal we needs Poby versus Faker. Just one game. [01:24:50] Speaker G: I. I thought that Poby was going to like, be utterly terrible at Fnatic because I'm just like, I saw him, it's like, I know him from ck. I'm just like, this guy is not a real particularly, like an outstanding standing player or even that particularly good. And then when I heard that he's actually holding up on his own and. Or sometimes like straight up solo lane. [01:25:11] Speaker A: He was doing very well once it came to math play. [01:25:13] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:25:13] Speaker A: But yes, in lane, he was very good in the other. [01:25:16] Speaker G: Because I'm just like, that alone was really shocking to me because Kobe was not the best mid laner in ck. He was. He wasn't bad, but he wasn't outstanding. So, like, I think it was LS that said this where he's like, like, he, like, he thinks that this is like a perfect, like, example of like scouts just being lazy and saying, oh, this guy's from T1, so he has to be good. But. So maybe that's true, maybe that's not. I don't want to, like, point fingers because that's just not my business. But the fact that he is in one of the world's qualifying teams was like one of those signs where I'm just like, man, like, how massive is the gap between like, let's say LEC and lck? [01:25:53] Speaker A: Well, I mean, look at. Look at Quid, look at quad, look at Saint, look at Kaney. Look at, you know, like, it happens in the north here too. [01:26:01] Speaker B: No, because after this world, that gap could be the biggest gap in the world. [01:26:06] Speaker A: Yeah, I guess. Sorry. Shout out. Kaney was not a challenger player coming straight to na. But still, you know, I think like a lot of those players, the argument still stands. [01:26:14] Speaker G: Yeah. So I don't know what to think of it. I really want to see it just for the sake of like, the content tent itself. I don't think it's going to be even remotely close. And I think the only, like, satisfying thing maybe would be that little handshake at the end of the Game. [01:26:29] Speaker C: Yep. [01:26:29] Speaker G: Maybe, like, maybe that will be funny. Or like, maybe that'll be a little cute. [01:26:34] Speaker A: Watch this, though. They're gonna get smashed. But Poby will solo kill faker once. [01:26:38] Speaker G: That would be funny. [01:26:39] Speaker A: I think that could happen. Yeah, it could. It could. [01:26:41] Speaker G: Absolutely. There's no rule that it wouldn't, so it might happen. [01:26:46] Speaker A: All right, so overall, I. We spend a lot of time talking about LCK lpl because they are the two favorite regions. I think LCK much more than LPL this year. But every other region at least has one team that we're confident in. Could make a big push and make it out of Swiss stage. Realistically, all three could G2 fly and the oysters, there's space if Al or Top drop the ball. If KT or HLE drop the ball. Like, all it takes is two of the Eastern teams to drop the ball across the the seven that are there. I mean, for there to be three spots available, technically it doesn't need them. [01:27:21] Speaker D: To drop the ball. It just needs to have a Swiss draw where they're playing each other at 2:2 and then they both can't get in. [01:27:28] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:27:28] Speaker A: KT versus Al at 2:2. There we go. Boom. [01:27:31] Speaker B: There's no receding, right In Swiss. It's just straight random, right? [01:27:34] Speaker D: No, no. Re sweeting. [01:27:35] Speaker A: Yep. [01:27:35] Speaker D: The only thing is round one. In round one, you can't play and you can and you have to play pool one place pool three. Pool two plays within it. [01:27:45] Speaker A: Okay, so we need T1 to play against like G2 round one, and maybe G2 can win that. If not, we just need T1 play all LCK LPL teams for the rest of the tournament and then like knock out HLE in that. The 2:2. That's what we need. [01:28:01] Speaker G: It is very likely, you know, like, because T1 also notoriously has a really bad record against some of the key. Like he was like, for example, if T1 ever plays against Gen G and it is not a best of five, I have very little faith in that team. So, like, there might. There may be worlds where they become really unlucky on their third or like second or third round and may end up being like the team with those two losses. Like fighting to the death. [01:28:27] Speaker A: Could absolutely be. Yeah. [01:28:29] Speaker D: I will say, just looking at how the draw goes for round one, it's like, okay, congratulations, FlyQuest. [01:28:36] Speaker A: You. [01:28:36] Speaker D: You won the L, the peltier. Your options are going to be fnatic. Yes, please. PSG Talon. Yes, please. Top Esports. Okay, that's fine. Or T1. What? Yep. [01:28:53] Speaker A: Yep, yep, yep, yep. [01:28:54] Speaker D: One of these. [01:28:55] Speaker A: I'm telling you, we could get G2T1 Round 1. How fun would that be? [01:28:59] Speaker G: That would be the most ch for sure. [01:29:02] Speaker A: That would be the most G2 thing ever. And I. I'm voting for that one. I hope that that one happens. That is at least our bird's eye view. Maybe a little deeper for some of the team. Some of the regions of the teams at Worlds, though, we just wanted to do a big primer episode. It's already gone on quite a while here. It's like an hour and a half long episode. It's been a while since we had one of these. There was more content that we had planned, but we're gonna save that now for next week. The last thing that we're going to end with here is our predictions, because we only have one match that we can predict, and I already even spoiled it. Surprise, surprise. It's T1IG. Every single one of us has T1 winning it, and only one of us. Oh, two of us. Two of us have IG getting a game. Badger and Yanni both think IG is good for one game. The rest of us think T1 the. [01:29:48] Speaker E: Shy will turn on his monitor for one game in this series and then everything else else is just going to be, you know, TV off. So. [01:29:55] Speaker A: Okay. Okay. Yanni, do you agree? Do you think it's the shy that's the difference or. [01:29:59] Speaker C: I think. I definitely think the shy is the difference. I also think that we really underestimate how difficult it is to, like, three. Oh. Like a professional team that is pretty decent. That is, like, actively, like, fighting to get to the world Championship. You know, I know that I ragged on IG a little bit and in the explanation of. Of the LPL this year, and deservedly so, but I. I just don't think that it's going to be a 3. [01:30:29] Speaker D: 0. [01:30:29] Speaker C: I think that they can definitely get a game. I. I don't think they'll get anything more, though. [01:30:33] Speaker A: You know, to quote Jat, it's hard to win three games of league in a row. [01:30:37] Speaker C: It really is, bro. I mean, my match history had felt that for a long time, and apparently it was very easy for me to lose three games a league in a row. [01:30:45] Speaker A: You know, it is weirdly easier to lose three than to win three in a row. That is crazy. I think it's about. All right, well, that's a bright side for ig. It's easier to lose. All right, but with that said, that's the world's Primer episode, everybody. Thank you for tuning in and sticking with us. If there's anything that we miss, any big narratives that you wish we had talked about, we will hopefully have one more episode next week before the Swiss stage starts. It'll probably go out after the play ins, but hopefully it'll be out next Tuesday. The plan is to record on Monday with anybody that is available today to go over the teams that we predict to make it out of the Swiss stage, as well as our world's awards that we do every year. So that includes things like the Knighthood Award, the Bench, the Kench Award, etc. So look forward to that episode. That'll be a little fun or more fun episode less like information dense. But this one was kind of all the information you needed to know about the big world's teams with a big cast. Thank you so much for tuning in, everybody. Thank you for guesting everybody on the pod, especially moving. It's good to have you back, man. Where can people find you to keep up with what you've been doing these days? [01:31:55] Speaker F: I don't even know, man. [01:31:56] Speaker G: Do I even still use my Twitter that much? [01:31:58] Speaker A: I don't think you do. [01:32:01] Speaker G: I've been off the grid. So, like, I mean, I. I maybe, like, if I have time that I could come back again just to hang out, but, yeah, otherwise I'm just a ghost, man. [01:32:09] Speaker F: Like, I just. [01:32:11] Speaker C: He just made a video. He just made a video the other day on how to properly. [01:32:17] Speaker G: Yeah, I missed. Yeah, I did. Cubby sent me, like, a clip and said that. Said some very rude things about a specific coaching staff. And. [01:32:29] Speaker F: And I agree with them. [01:32:30] Speaker G: And I agree with them so much that. [01:32:33] Speaker A: What was the coaching staff. You can't just tease that. [01:32:35] Speaker G: I can't. [01:32:36] Speaker B: It's in the video. [01:32:36] Speaker G: No, I will not. [01:32:37] Speaker C: Yeah, just go watch the video. [01:32:40] Speaker A: All right, well, where can they find the video? Miko? [01:32:43] Speaker G: It's. Yeah, it's just mecolo.com. it's just my. It's just my IGN. And then you would just be able to, like, just look it up and it's just. Yep. It's just leaked videos. If you want to look for him, like, go for it. But yeah, I'm. I have zero skills and graphics design and stuff like that. You will not find a thumbnail. I'm sorry. [01:33:03] Speaker A: It's gonna be like a Miko coaching vod review that he used to do with CLG Academy back in the day. Just. [01:33:08] Speaker G: Just, you know, those were the days. I was young back then, dude. [01:33:12] Speaker A: I remember those days. Fondly remember when CLG existed. All right. And most importantly, if anybody wanted to help get the podcast noticed, more help raise the average rating of it. Rmc, how many stars would you recommend the viewers leave on their podcast listening website of choice? [01:33:31] Speaker B: Well, given that we're covering Worlds, it should leave one star for each of the regions represented at Worlds. So that's five. Korea, China, the Americas, EMEA and lcp. [01:33:45] Speaker A: Challengers of the Elite Championship of the Pacific. [01:33:47] Speaker B: Pacific, yeah. Okay, so I guess the region would be. [01:33:49] Speaker A: I do love that. Yes. Five. One for each of the regions. [01:33:52] Speaker B: And if you're from the lta, give us six stars somehow because we're splitting back to LCS and CB Law. [01:33:56] Speaker E: True. [01:33:57] Speaker A: It's so funny that we are like here's the world's format that's going to be permanent. And it's like, just kidding. All right, we'll figure that out next year though. Thank you for tuning in everybody. This was a super fun episode. Worlds is right around the corner. It's an exciting time. It feels like just it's like a mini Christmas before Christmas. It's like Halloween time Christmas. Is anybody by the way going to be staying up overnight to watch? I think I'm actually going to try 100% am on Tuesday 1. [01:34:26] Speaker C: I am wired for that stuff now. I'm going to try as best I can. I so excited. [01:34:32] Speaker A: Give it an honest effort. But I, I will probably do the thing where I stay awake for the NA team and then fall as sleep immediately afterwards. [01:34:39] Speaker C: Honestly. [01:34:39] Speaker A: Reasonable. We'll try our best. All right. Thank you for tuning in everybody. We'll be back next week to give a more thoughts onto the Swiss stage and how things will shake out. But until then, we love you and we'll see you next time. Bye bye everyone. [01:34:54] Speaker C: Bye. Oh yes, Daddy. [01:35:03] Speaker A: Sam. [01:35:29] Speaker D: Sa.