League Rundown - Episode 582: The Annual Rundown Worlds Awards Predictions

[00:00:12] Speaker A: Gets hit Kimmy kids a little too far here. He's gonna have to try and get himself out Living O Tillery and the rest of the shots of fire. Zion is just killing the next Zion can eat it single handedly win the game by game by game by game by. [00:00:26] Speaker B: Should be. [00:00:27] Speaker C: Oh my God. [00:00:28] Speaker B: Stupid. [00:00:29] Speaker A: 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. They're Nexus. Hello and welcome back to the League rundown. This is episode 582. And this is your 2025 Worlds preview part two. That's right. We're having a two parter come out here ahead of Worlds this year and this one's lovingly entitled the annual rundown Worlds awards predictions. We love doing this every year where we talk about all kinds of awards that we've come up with throughout the past couple of years. And then we'll also cover some of the global news and surprise, surprise, some play that happened this year because we're recording this after play and started. You'll probably be hearing it once Swiss Stage has started. But we'll get our first thoughts regardless. That's a long title. I'm your host Kangas and joining me are two esteemed co hosts. Up first, fresh out of the can, we got Badger. [00:01:50] Speaker B: Congratulations to ig. They do not have to swim home. They can walk. [00:01:55] Speaker A: They can walk and shout out. Okay. I saw some people already put them as like the fastest eastern team. [00:02:01] Speaker B: I know. [00:02:01] Speaker A: That doesn't count. [00:02:04] Speaker B: I put the caveat in of my other team because. Okay, okay, good, good. Yeah. [00:02:09] Speaker A: Well, I have to put another team in there for anybody who did that. But I did see some people try to cheese it, but we also have him. You heard his voice there. Bickle. Welcome back to the cast. [00:02:16] Speaker C: Somehow plans was both unexpected and expected at the same time. [00:02:21] Speaker A: A little bit, A little bit. We'll talk about how things went. But first some global news around the horn. Couple of roster shakeups already happening here and the first one, not really a roster shakeup, but Badger a team has been confirmed. Question on everybody's mind in the LTA soon to be back to LC was who's replacing 100 thieves. We got our answer. Was it who you expected? [00:02:44] Speaker B: Yeah, honestly, I mean there's. There's names that were floated around that I heard. There's names that were floated around that you heard we talked about on the pre show if you want to listen to that. [00:02:54] Speaker A: Yeah. Brazilian team Is TSM coming back? [00:02:56] Speaker B: It's tsm. Is. Is there a Brazilian squad that's going to step up? Is anyone going to jump ship or jump over or anything? And then. No, it was just Sentinels. Honestly. Sentinels was the move. As soon as 100 thieves said that they were out, I was thinking, oh, I wonder how soon it's going to be announced that Sentinels is joining the lcs. I was thinking this like back in like April, like. Yep, I. It's been so long. Sentinels, very competitive, Valorant organization. That is what they're known for at this point. They have like teams in like Marvel Rivals and other games like that. [00:03:29] Speaker C: Just don't pay attention to how Champions went. [00:03:33] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, don't. Don't mention how Champions went. That. That one hurts. [00:03:36] Speaker A: Shout out nrg, baby. World Champions over there. Energy World. [00:03:39] Speaker B: Literal world Champions, but no Sentinels. Strong organization with strong ties and other games. So Valorant, they. I mean, they're Sentinels, obviously, but in Overwatch League, there's San Francisco Shock who won titles. Yeah. The Shocking Sentinels are under the same parent company, so Andy Miller is the one that runs the show for that. Oh, no, wait. No. [00:04:03] Speaker A: Energy. [00:04:04] Speaker B: It's energy. Yeah. You know what? [00:04:05] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:04:06] Speaker B: I thought I sounded really smart there for a second. I can't remember who. Sentinel. Sentinels is actually the Phoenix one, people. That's. That's back into it. So. [00:04:14] Speaker A: Okay. Okay. [00:04:16] Speaker B: Yeah. Phoenix 1 is basically back in the LCS. [00:04:18] Speaker A: Shout out. Mike. Mike Young. Young. [00:04:20] Speaker B: Mike Young. [00:04:22] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:04:23] Speaker B: Mike Young. [00:04:23] Speaker A: I think Sentinels were a far and away one of the expected teams to come in. If it's not Sentinels, I would argue maybe like Phase Clan and I would like financially. [00:04:34] Speaker C: No, no, no, no, no, no. [00:04:35] Speaker A: I'm just. I'm. I'm not saying who we want. I'm just saying who is even around, like, what orgs exist that have never done League in the past. Like optics tried it didn't work out. TSM's gone. CLG is gone. Like all other orgs have left, eg, nrg. But like, Sentinels had never really tried League before, but now they're going to give it a go. [00:04:55] Speaker B: I was wondering if we were going to get. And I know the time frame of it and this is something that we'll talk about later. I know Luminosity was trying to qualify. Like, I was wondering if like, well, Moist, I guess is partnered with Shopify, so that doesn't work either. But like, I was wondering if some like, streamer organization or like, I don't know, if they would want this audience. But there's a team called Wild Card and one of the big figureheads of that is Amaranth, which I don't think Riot wants Amaranth anywhere close to any of their products at this point. [00:05:36] Speaker A: But just like, yeah, I don't know if they would go for a team like that. But a Wildcard had done really well in the past and things like proving grounds like the Tier 2 tournament scene. So they've been around for a while. But I think Sentinels just makes the most sense out of it. [00:05:49] Speaker B: 100% makes the most sense. [00:05:51] Speaker A: That were like thought of. I could have seen them heavily rumored to be coming back. That also would have been like, yeah, love it or hate it. Like they are a big brand still. But I think Sentinels also make sense. Big old sound like you're gonna hop. [00:06:03] Speaker C: I could have seen them going the if they wanted to try and pull the international card. Maybe go for Crew LA Latin American org to try and boost that a little more. [00:06:15] Speaker A: Yeah, but with the if it's a Latin American org, sure. The thing about the Brazilian teams is that we've known that it's going back to LCS internally for a couple of months. [00:06:24] Speaker C: That's what ruled out mibr for me. They were another one on my mind. [00:06:28] Speaker A: But that's doesn't make sense. Would be looking at it anymore. I mean maybe still, but less likely. [00:06:34] Speaker B: I. But honestly, I would love the name MIBR in In Likely Legends, but I think they would most likely be, you know, CB LOL instead. [00:06:46] Speaker A: So yeah, they have a Dota team, right? That's. Or is it Counter. [00:06:50] Speaker B: Counter Strike. [00:06:50] Speaker A: Trying to remember. Okay. [00:06:51] Speaker B: Counter Strike and Valorant are the two organizations that they're known for. [00:06:56] Speaker A: Again, mostly shooters. It's really tough for organizations that have like a shooter fan base to come into League of Legends and do well. Just ask Optic Gaming. Like the biggest one. They did not do well. Even 100 thieves. You could argue they started league, but then they really heavily went into the FPS kind of genre. And from what I hear their audience connected more to that than they ever did to the league side of things. But you know what? Either way, welcome Sentinels. Happy to have you. Very curious to see what the roster is going to look like because that's the next question now that we know the org. What players are they going to sign? Will they be able to get people like Quid to come back and keep playing or is going to go to like the highest bid or something? [00:07:35] Speaker B: Yeah, I know that they've Already said that they weren't going to be trying to be competitive in 26 and that they were going to look towards 27 immediately. [00:07:43] Speaker A: All right, welcome APA Sentinels. [00:07:47] Speaker B: I think I. I'm gonna go out on a limb. I'm gonna put my. I'm gonna step out on the plank and I'm gonna put it out there. I think Sentinels makes a Godfather offer to smash from T1 Academy and Daystar from Fear X Youth. [00:08:04] Speaker A: Whoa. Okay, Smash. I know. I don't know. The other player days, are they a top laner? [00:08:11] Speaker B: Day Star is a mid laner fraud laner. [00:08:13] Speaker A: Okay. [00:08:13] Speaker B: He's basically. Basically the best way to describe him is if he was. I actually. I think he has the potential to be like quad or quid levels of player from this last year, then get destroyed. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So, like, I think he can come over in this next flock of like LCK challenger players that have come over to na, like, let those two get a full year of tier one play underneath their belt. Maybe they come out and they surprise very early on and they can set themselves up so that they could be the staples, the corner pieces for this organization. And then you just build the talent around them. [00:08:56] Speaker A: Okay. [00:08:57] Speaker C: I was also thinking, if you wanted somebody to build things around at the start, what better rock is there to maybe start out with? Impact. [00:09:05] Speaker A: Ooh. Yeah. I mean, he's already, you know, that's. [00:09:08] Speaker B: A name that I thought about too. Impact, win some Impact. Like as you're like veteran guys and you bring over Daystar and Smash and have those two get integrated into the team and then you just have to find a jungler that can speak Korean. That's an NA player. That's the hard part we have. [00:09:29] Speaker A: Does Griffin speak Korean? I don't know. [00:09:31] Speaker B: I think Griffin, honestly, that would not be a bad move for Sentinels. [00:09:36] Speaker C: Honestly, I can definitely see Griffin Impact. [00:09:38] Speaker B: Day star, Smash win some. I think that roster can compete by summer of next year. [00:09:45] Speaker C: Yeah. If Griffin doesn't resign and CB law with Loud, he will end up with an LCS squad. [00:09:52] Speaker A: He did already announce moving on from the team. Oh, he did that. Went out today saying like, yeah, I'm heading back home then. Yeah, he's a team happy to see he's LCS bound. Expecting he's going to be on an LCS team next year. Yeah. Other things though, I mean, Sentinels, obviously we can keep talking about that, but for the sake of time and getting to Worlds content, we can talk about Sentinels for a long time. After Worlds as well because we're going to have plenty of time in the off season. But there's a couple other roster rumors and shakeups going around. Team Liquid apa. I had already kind of joked about him going to Sentinels. Rumored that he's going away from Team Liquid, that they're dropping him. He posted a tweet of him wearing a McDonald's hat. And then there was also like a sheep esports posting, like rumor that he's getting dropped. Nothing confirmed that I've seen so far, but expecting that he's not gonna be on Team Liquid. Team Liquid I know was heavily looking at quid. It's a bidding war for quid right now on 100 Thieves Shopify. Rebellion's very interested. Team Liquid's very interested. Dignitas like everybody wants quit right now, but it doesn't stop there in North America because C9 also had a swap up where they brought in some new coaching staff. You know, changes in a row we already covered as head coach. Now Bickle, who's the new strategic coach for Cloud 9, you know, he's this. [00:11:17] Speaker C: Guy that some people might have heard of, a very polarizing figure, used to play professionally. It's actually a pretty big co streamer now. His name's I will dominate. [00:11:28] Speaker A: Ooh, interesting. Very, very interesting. Dom to strategic coach. He had been doing content with them, a co streamer for them. We had heard reports he was helping out with the team a lot and that the team greatly credited him for some of their successes. I know that they struggled and bombed out right before Worlds, but that they actually enjoyed working with Dom. So interesting to hear. Badger, what are your thoughts on Dom moving from a content creator role to a strategic coach role? [00:11:58] Speaker B: I think if you have somebody like this, I mean, what is. So what is Cage roles like role within Los Ratones? Does he do anything on like a coaching side with them or like. [00:12:11] Speaker C: I think he coaches? Yes. [00:12:13] Speaker B: Okay. [00:12:13] Speaker A: I believe he does. I don't think it's like active or every day, but he is like, he helps out. Yeah. [00:12:20] Speaker B: I think that Dom is like the perfect fit for a team. Like as long as he's like, I mean, we've. So the name that I keep thinking of as an old school name that was like a content creator journalist, worked in the kind of the scene and then he worked with the early C9 teams. Alex Penn is a name, kind of worked with Riot for a little bit there. Like we've seen people like that step into a role with teams. Hell, I mean, Alex Penn did it with C9. Dom could do it with C9 too. Like if you have a player who's a former player and has done analytical content and like players can respect him, like as long as the team respects him, I think he will do really well. [00:13:06] Speaker A: Okay. I mean, I, I'm not super excited for it. I am happy for the team that they at least have somebody that seems to care a lot. Like, you watch his content, he cares a lot about the scene and wants it to do well. And C9 is kind of the last of the teams that really has any kind of brand. I know FlyQuest is currently like the top dogs. Team Liquid sometimes are up there, but C9, out of all the orgs, I think just, you know, temperature check in the room. Anytime you go to like a live event, they still have the most active fan base and the, the biggest connection with their fans. So bringing in like a content creator to help out with that. Anero is always great on camera. Dom's gonna be good on camera. Like it really feels like this is going to be the kind of like fan facing team in the, in the lcs. The return of the lcs. So best of luck to them. I. I don't remember who said it, but somebody mentioned controversial figure. I mean he, he says a lot of random online. He pisses a lot of people off. He doesn't really hold back his opinions that often. So I think, you know, whether you love him, whether you hate him, if you're indifferent, at least it's going to provide content. So that's kind of where I stand is, you know, as a broadcaster, my job is to just tell the stories of the teams and we could definitely do that with Dom as a strategic coach. So that's a lot of the roster news and shakeups in North America. There was one that we were following over in EU Team Heretics. A lot of shakeups happening over there. Bickle, I see that you added one, or I believe this was you that added it, but coaching staff changing, a couple of players rumored to move. So what's going on over at Team Heretics? [00:14:46] Speaker C: Yep. So over at Team Heretics, some rumors, some confirmations, a lot of things flying around. What we do know is they have a new head coach. His name is Hidon. He previously was doing some work with Fnatic, before that Giant X and Excel. He's been around the block. He's there. In all honesty, let's go hit on for being there. He's not a name that excites anybody, but he's a name that's kind of a known quantity, but Team Heretics is looking at making some roster changes rumored and I don't know if it's confirmed, but rumored to be dropping Camilo and Carlson. I believe they're solo laners and replacing them to see what's up, but Camilo already apparently has a landing spot coming up with KC Blue. [00:15:32] Speaker A: Yes, these were I think it was actually Reddit or maybe a sheet B Sports. I don't remember who, but somebody broke this rumor that Camilo Carlson heading out and the Camilo was already, like you said, landing over at KC Blue, which is interesting to think KC's academy team would be looking at somebody like Camilo. But either way, best of luck to the two of them. Team Heretics struggled a lot and they have been struggling a lot. So a lot of shakeups already early in the off season for them. That's it though. For roster news, some variety topics that we want to cover before we get into our kind of Worlds Awards and also reaction to the play ins, the world's music video and song released very, very close to the start of Worlds. Might I add, it was like the day before the play Ins started is when we finally got to see it. So let's all give our anasads. Badger, I want to get your thoughts and I'll get Bickle and then I'll give mine. Badger, how do you rate the music video and the song for Worlds this year? [00:16:29] Speaker B: So top half song video. I really like all the callbacks they did. I I think it's probably my favorite video since Rise, if I had to be honest. [00:16:39] Speaker A: Ooh, okay. Did you buy into I I honestly didn't notice it. I I think people were overreacting but I'm curious if you thought the same. I saw people online talking about like oh it's so EU biased. Like EU is like the main character of this. And I was like, I don't really see it. Yes, Caps is in a lot of it and they show a lot of EU moments and kind of they showed. [00:17:03] Speaker B: The shy with the the atrock play in the river against G2. Like yeah, oh oh it's so, it's so EU biased. Oh my gosh, there's such fans of G2. Yeah, yeah, the shy like single handedly clapping like G2 in 2018. [00:17:21] Speaker A: Maybe you could be on the positive side and the negative side of historic plays and unfortunately G2 have just been in a lot of those. [00:17:28] Speaker B: I mean everyone, if you're going to be honest, everyone's like losing their like in this stuff and Faker's just rid a comet. Like come on. [00:17:35] Speaker A: Like dude, that was my favorite part when he's just coming down on that comet. It was sick. Okay, but you said top half of the song and you really, really like the video. Let's get your thoughts. [00:17:48] Speaker C: Video was solid. Big fan. I do think it's definitely up there as one of the better ones. I'm always privy and happy when I see kind of those big moments of Worlds kind of brought to the screen. So seeing the Azir shuffle from figures, seeing the shy's Aatronics like, yep. Love these moments. To see the song is definitely a different angle from what they've done in the past couple years. So it's taken some adjusting to. I think it was fine. I think it's a good ballad. It's just. Does a ballad fit as a world's theme? [00:18:26] Speaker A: It's yeah, I 100% agree. It's a ballad. Not like a catchy pop song or not even that. Like past ones have been pop songs but they all. On the first or second listen, I'm like, ooh, I'm already starting to sing along because it kind of conditions you. Like legends never die. Right? Like there's these moments that you want to belt out. This one has less of those. But I still really enjoyed the song. I actually do like the song a lot. I think it's just going to take more listen throughs than normal for me to start singing along to it. But I'm okay with that. It's a world song. I'm going to be listening to the song for the next month like on repeat. So. And there's a couple of moments I can already tell are like, yeah, that's gonna be like a banger. Like if I pull this out at karaoke. Oh yeah. Is there's gonna be some fun moments in there. So I music video though. I honestly like, I love it when they show past plays at Worlds. I loved Faker on the Comet and part of it is just they've made so many of these over so many years. I felt like I didn't see anything new. Like anything that really like Rise was so hype because it was like the first time that I was like, oh, they're really showing what happened last year at Worlds and like reliving all of it and now like hyping up this year and this time around it wasn't exactly that because it was like more historic moments and celebrating 15 years of world. Like they had that tag at the end. They showed Shoe Swee at the very end. Shout out Season one World's Winner or Shoe say sorry. Yeah, I wasn't watching. Yeah, fake fan over here. But I. I just didn't feel like it did any that wowed me other than faker right in the comment. I do want to specify faker on the comet was awesome. So I'm actually higher on the music than I am on the video, but I still think both are good. I think that the hate is getting online. Every world song is going to get hate because you're never going to make everyone happy. People will chill out over the next month and start to appreciate it more for what it actually is. I think what it actually is is pretty damn good. [00:20:26] Speaker C: So I think it was also more likely to get hate right off the bat because there was already that kind of trouble coming in because of the late rewrite with bwipo. So people are already hyper fixated on it. So they're gonna look for problems with anything. [00:20:40] Speaker A: Yep. Yeah. And I'm not gonna lie, I didn't even like really notice anything. Like it didn't seem like there was a glaring missing aspect. I know it sucks not have NA represented. I am an N. A caster. I love this region. It sucks not see like one of our players there. But like Levi was there for like five seconds. Like like other regions also barely had. So at the end of the day I'm like for what we did get, I think it's fine. Like NA doesn't have these gigantic narratives at Worlds. Our biggest ever Worlds narrative is probably just CNI knocking out the the last lck team in 23. A freak. 18. 2018. Yeah. So like. But even that that series didn't have like a defining play or moment. [00:21:30] Speaker C: If you're gonna pick a moment, it's the or Baron Steel with the auto from Licorice and that's about it. [00:21:38] Speaker A: True, true. That would be crazy. But either way, let us know your thoughts on the world's music video and song. Of course everyone's gonna have them in the community, so you can let us know in the community. Discord. Other things happening though. Let's get through these pretty fast. Congratulations to DSG for defending their spot in the LCS next year. The promotion tournament did happen. Last episode that we recorded we kind of gave a preview as to what's happen and now this episode we can confirm DSG did win vs LG without a doubtfully hinted at that. But they. Yeah, they kind of crushed him. [00:22:14] Speaker B: It was not close. I really wish Mazal was Here so I could be like, so luminassi weren't going to drop a game. Am I right? [00:22:23] Speaker A: Yeah. So every time Azell would like wax poetic. Is that the term, wax poetic about lg, I always give him a, like, I give him his space. I've been there as well. As a tier 2 caster, you gotta rep the team, rep the boys. But I, I like to remind myself because I have so many times over hyped Tier two players getting promoted up to tier one that in a way it makes you a little more jaded and be like, the difference in competition is way more extreme than I think a lot of people realize. Like, look at scary. Jerry was a top three Academy ad carry and he was probably the worst player we've seen in Tier 1 since Niles. Like that was. He was bad. Like that, that was bad. And, and like again, top three in Tier two. So it's, it's a big difference from Tier two to Tier one. DSG were able to defend their spot shout out to Dark Wings and Xu who had a couple of rough moments. But I think those two guys actually carried their own when the. Everyone expected Rahel to perform, everyone expected Castle to perform. But I actually think that it's pretty cool that the younger guys that people didn't expect to do as well actually held their own. So other than that, we have a couple of worlds things to kind of tease before we get into it. But I also see something else here that was just added congrats to Fear X on their Asia Masters win. So I guess they were able to pick up the victory over there. [00:23:55] Speaker B: Beat. Beat Damon in the finals. I kind of forgot about it just because the tournament was just so Mimi at this point. So it was fun. Beats DAM one in the final three. Two Like I. It was top three lck. Lck, lck. So it was oh Ferrix, Dom one and then who was the other team? Nonchalant. [00:24:16] Speaker C: Nongshim. [00:24:17] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:24:20] Speaker A: So wait, this is a tournament between LCK, LPL and LCP, right? [00:24:25] Speaker C: It was 567 of LCK, 567 of LPL and 4 and 5 of LCP. Basically the best teams from those regions that did not qualify for Worlds. [00:24:34] Speaker A: Yeah. And. And top three being lck, I think it was proves how deep LCK goes. [00:24:41] Speaker C: It was LCK all the way. [00:24:43] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:24:43] Speaker B: The only games that there is the LCK lost one game to a region or to a team that was not an LCK team and that was Dom 1 losing to Weibo in the group stage. Yep. [00:24:57] Speaker C: They lost that series to nothing. And then Weibo took a game off of Nongshim. Yeah, but those are the only games that the LPL took off the lck. [00:25:07] Speaker A: Yep. That is painful. Oh, my God. Yeah, that's what we call in the industry a schlack. So, hey, congratulations out LCK and shout. [00:25:18] Speaker C: Outs to the next big 80 carry coming out of Korea. Diablo. [00:25:21] Speaker B: Diablo. Yeah. Oh, yeah, No, I think Diablo is probably gonna get looks at from like, oh, yeah. Other higher up Korean teams. [00:25:34] Speaker C: He's. He's that good. [00:25:38] Speaker B: He's really good. [00:25:40] Speaker C: Like, he's the type that if one of these Korean teams bombs at Worlds, he's the answer. [00:25:48] Speaker B: If, if KT underperforms at Worlds, it's gonna be KT dobble next year. [00:25:54] Speaker C: Oh my God. KT dobble with BDD would be disgusting. [00:25:59] Speaker B: I'm already excited. Oh, fuck no. [00:26:03] Speaker A: All right, so now, now we don't get excited about KT magic thing. No, that's the thing. We get excited about them now. So that way they bomb out at Worlds and then they sign him for next year. Boom. There we go. Fans, you're welcome. Other Worlds stories though, breaking. Before we get into actually some of the games that we got to see, we're hearing rumors 100 thieves are going to have their first game as of recording this episode, like tomorrow morning, technically like 2am, 3am depending on where you live. And we're hearing the 100 thieves have had a rough start to Worlds. There was an interview with Nam man and Ayla where he was talking about, yeah, I mean they just don't have the support staff. Like 100 thieves let so many people go. They did not think they were gonna make the Worlds. Then they did make it to Worlds. They had to figure out visas. River was screaming from Korea while everyone was in China. And everything is just kind of falling apart at the seams for 100 thieves. So you best of luck to them. That's tough conditions to be in. And from talking to players, tough conditions around an event heavily weigh on players and teams way more than you would imagine. I like, I got to host an episode of Pros in Split 2 talking to like Fudge and. And Bwipo and I believe it was blabber. And they all talked about how unfair or they didn't. None of them said unfair, but they all said how op it was that Team Liquid had a facility in Brazil in Split one. And basically crediting Team Liquid having that facility to them winning the split. They were like, yeah, Team Liquid, we're not the best team, but they had the best facility at the tournament that we were at. So they got all the nice stuff and like we're in the better spot to win. Whether you agree with that or not. Pros seem to believe it, so pray for under thieves. You know, they're, they're gonna need some divine intervention. They were already underdogs as third seed from NA going in, or rather from the Americas going in. But things are looking even more rough. And then Badger, we actually had here some cool news about the play ins, which we'll talk about very shortly. But this is a nice segue into it because it broke viewership records. Do you hear about that? [00:28:10] Speaker B: No, I didn't, I didn't see anything about viewership records, honestly. [00:28:14] Speaker A: Okay, well, the number, it was day one viewership records of Worlds, which is kind of cheating because usually day one is like, like random play ins teams. This is like air quote play ins. It's T1 versus IG, but it peaked at 2.5 million peak concurrent viewers. Not an all time world records. Not even close. But broke records for day one. Again, asterisks next to it, but I still think that's cool. Bickle, do you feel like this series delivered on a tournament record viewership breaking record for plans? [00:28:50] Speaker C: Absolutely. I think it overcame a lot of people's expectations for multiple reasons that we'll talk about. And I think this will likely stay as the viewership record for this Worlds until we either get a very hype Swiss stage matchup involving probably T1 versus Gen G or until we make it to quarters. [00:29:11] Speaker A: Yeah. Or maybe like a T1 versus BLG if we get something like that. [00:29:15] Speaker C: Fair. [00:29:16] Speaker A: Get the Chinese viewership in there as well. [00:29:18] Speaker C: Basically a T1 match, a T1 match. [00:29:20] Speaker A: Versus a good opponent. Maybe not their first round opponent, depending on how you view them. But Badger, I know that you had had a bit of a rant prepared here because the plans happened. Surprise. It was T1 versus IG. We all predicted T1 to win it. T1 did win it. The only takeaway I really had from the series other than LCK's 4 seed is so much better than LPL's 4C seed was. He would actually kind of look vulnerable at certain points. I, I don't think that they're gonna be like big favorites. I mean, no surprise they are fourth seed coming into this worlds and maybe I'm ranking them too harshly here, but I actually felt like they were very beatable. But Badger, you, you had a little rant prepared about the Play ins and how things shook out afterwards with the draw show because do you want to rip the band aid for anybody who's unaware. [00:30:11] Speaker B: So na's boys, let's be honest for a second. So coming into the tournament I had Han. Let me pull this up. Let me make sure I have my list correct when I say this. I listed the teams out. I spent a lot of time this weekend watching games, just kind of going over stuff I had. So my top I'll do. I'll just read the list that I had because I know we usually do like this long thing. So I said gen G1 blg2 han was 3 t14 al5 cfo6 kt7 top 8 fly 9 g210. [00:30:52] Speaker A: And then so this was just power ranking. [00:30:54] Speaker B: This is like coming into it how confident I feel about these teams going into day one of Swiss. So sure I have that. If you'll notice, I said BLG and T1 at the top of the list. And I did not say Fly. It flies in the middle there. But Haunted Thieves is kind of towards the bottom. [00:31:17] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:31:18] Speaker B: Tomorrow morning we get back to back we get Billy. Billy Gaming versus Hundred Thieves and Fly Quest versus two time defending reigning world champion T1. [00:31:32] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:31:33] Speaker B: For the first round, which this can work out really well for fly quest. 100 Thieves, they're the sacrificial lamb at this point, you know. Thank you, thank you, thank you for showing up today. One of worlds. [00:31:44] Speaker A: All we need, all we need from 100 Thieves is to knock Fnatic out of Worlds. That's all we need. [00:31:49] Speaker B: That's their purpose. [00:31:53] Speaker C: That's fine. [00:31:54] Speaker B: Yeah. I think, I actually think 100 thieves is the worst team. [00:31:58] Speaker C: Hundred Thieves is the worst team at this tournament. [00:32:00] Speaker B: At this tournament. Yeah. It's really bad to admit, but I did have. [00:32:05] Speaker C: I'm gonna be honest, it's not even close. [00:32:09] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:32:10] Speaker A: Brings me pain. [00:32:11] Speaker B: So. So this works out really well for FlyQuest because they are playing the play in team who had to play four extra games of tape that they can go in. So during the pre show I was talking about this and I was gonna do a rant in my car and record it and then post it on Twitter or something like that and just, just throw it around just so that people could watch it and see if I'm valid in my idea when I say this. Fly Quest getting fly quest, getting T1 at the start is really good because if they had a plan going into it of like, okay, here's our overall game plan for each team that we think that we need to do. Because going into this, especially with the switch stage thing, your scouting team is scouting every single opponent that you could possibly be playing in the first round, doing like a big thing for them of, like, gotta start out strong. We'll go with what we can for all of the other teams, like if for potential draws down the line. But the big focus you want to start with is those teams at the beginning. So then T1 is on that list. I mean, they had the extra team of like ig, but like, let's be honest for a second, ig, you just have to get the shy on top, Lane Varus, and then just kind of beat the shit out of him at that point. The shy will beat his team for you if you let him do it. So. And that's pretty much what happened. [00:33:27] Speaker C: And he did. [00:33:28] Speaker B: And he did. Like, have you ever seen the meme of like the people, like playing tug of war and then like the one person on the other, like the other colored shirt is on the other side and yeah, like, what the fuck's going on? That's T1 and the Shy on that side and IG is on the other side. Because the Shy was actually actively helping T1 the entirety of those games. [00:33:46] Speaker C: Like, I mean, he did play T1 Varus. He had to T1 Varus. [00:33:51] Speaker B: He did. Did so. But Fly getting their suspicions that they could have of their game plan going into it of like, okay, here's how we could beat T1. [00:34:01] Speaker A: How. [00:34:01] Speaker B: Here's how we think we can beat T1 if they have their team go back and look at those games and just be like, all right, here's what we think. And then if they need to change it, adjust it, or if they have their prior suspicions confirmed at that point, then they feel like they're in a really good spot and that puts them in the 1 0. And so then, I mean, you could draw, you could want to draw like a secret whales or like a CFO who are favored in those games. Like, you would want to get one of those teams that are on the lower end of it at this point. But realistically speaking, you're. If you're FlyQuest and you beat T1, you are praying that G2 beats top one so that you could see how top esports is. Like, because like, you're thinking, when you're thinking of Fly getting it out, you're looking at the teams that are like the lower end eastern teams. You're looking at kt, you're looking at anyone's legends seeing how exploitable they are in their games. You're looking at top esports because top esports is viable. I mean, they have 369 as their top laner. That's he roll a three or six or a nine. That's the meme that's been going around for a long time. You're looking at those teams. You don't want to use your bailout cards of like, like secret Wolves psg. You don't want to use like the Coir fanatic, like breaking break glass in case of emergency. You want like a G2 because G2 when they are 10 or they're 1 1, like, if they're in that stage, they are gonna pull out the nutty and you have. There's no point in you trying to, like, face them later on because when their backs against the wall, they will pull out all the cards. They will have something that they've got there. They've got their break glass in case of emergency button on the other side of it. So you're trying to pull G2. If you pull G2 in the 1 0, I think FlyQuest has a really good chance of getting out because then later on down the line, you will have 100 thieves that you could team kill in the region. You'll have the secret Wolves card. Or like, if you think like, hey, we're better than CFO and a best of three, I don't think that's the case. I'm going to be 110% frank. Like, you have these other options that you can use down the line. You want the stronger teams to get your draws early on in the tournament so that you are able to kind of make sure, like, okay, that team down the line, we don't have to worry about playing that team. Potentially when we are 1, 2 and it's a best of 3 or 22 and we're struggling to get out. And we pull like, we pull like anyone's legend. And like the options are like anyone's legend, like CFO if they get there. And then like, I. I don't even know. Like, you. You can simulate the draws as many times as you want. You don't want one of those stronger teams, teams back against the wall, these world beater teams to get to you. You want to play them early on. Just take your licks early and then recoup because realistically speaking, the draw can go anyway. Are you expecting to go 3:1 potentially? Can you? You just have to be 3:2 and make it out like you saw what they did last year to Gen G as a team. That was one of the last teams to make it out. [00:37:24] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. I, I'll say it this way, the. The fact that, first off, you're saying there's a chance, so I appreciate that. [00:37:30] Speaker B: Second of all, I, I genuinely. Any team, like, I. I could see a world where 75, maybe, maybe 10 of these teams, 10 or 11 of these teams can make it out just like. [00:37:41] Speaker A: Well, I mean, if you're. [00:37:42] Speaker B: If you're on that tier of, like, teams where you can go three and two and you're just relying on the draw, like, this is what makes Swiss Stage so interesting, because the draw show is more important than some of the games at this point. [00:37:54] Speaker A: Exactly. And that's how we've made it out the past two years. If you look at energy, you look at FlyQuest, the teams that we beat, I'm pretty sure both of them made it out without beating an Eastern team. In fact, I'm actually pretty positive, confident. [00:38:07] Speaker B: That that's the case. [00:38:08] Speaker C: That is very true. [00:38:10] Speaker A: We be technically now like LCP teams and we beat. [00:38:13] Speaker B: We beat ourselves Fly. [00:38:15] Speaker A: Ourselves Fly. [00:38:16] Speaker B: When they made it out last year, beat, lost a Dom one, beat psg, lost to Hanwha. Btl. [00:38:24] Speaker A: Yeah, right. Like, holy shit. And the year before Energy, it was very similar, although we just had one less series because we beat G2 in the 21 match. [00:38:34] Speaker B: Yes. [00:38:34] Speaker A: And got out a little early. But again, we beat G2 in a two out of three to make it into the knockout stage of World. So it heavily, heavily favors people to get a lucky draw to make it out. No surprise. We're gonna be praying that we can somehow do that three years in a row, though. Is that gonna happen? We'll see. We'll see. All right, Badger, that's all I'm gonna give you for the rant, though. Thank you for that. People will probably be upset that you didn't record a longer one in a more. [00:39:02] Speaker B: I might do that after the pod. I. I mean, honestly, I might just sit down and just be like, here's 15 minutes on why the draw. The draw is so important for the next five days. [00:39:13] Speaker C: Honestly, in round one, you want to play good teams, but not great teams. Great teams aren't going to be there at the end. And the good teams you want to. [00:39:20] Speaker B: Have already burned Your matchup against T1 is the perfect team to draw in round one if you're fly. [00:39:27] Speaker A: And I think a lot of people would be like, what? But I understand based on your. Your logic, like the arguments that you've given actually reinforce that. It's just crazy to think that like the defending world champs. [00:39:37] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:39:38] Speaker C: You want T1 or Top Esports to start because then they're to be there as your 1, 2, 22 matchups. [00:39:46] Speaker B: Exactly. Yeah, exactly. So why don't we just PSG talent early on and it's like, well then. [00:39:53] Speaker A: Because then we're gonna get Gen G round two. [00:39:55] Speaker B: Because you're gonna get Gen G round two and that's gonna snowball into T1. In a. [00:39:59] Speaker C: In a one, I was gonna say. Cuz then you get Gen G round two. And then when you finally get to that two two matchup, welp, you still have to play T1. And now you're there. [00:40:07] Speaker A: There's a, there's a, a phrase that we use in Yu Gi. [00:40:11] Speaker B: Oh. [00:40:11] Speaker A: If I'm allowed a card game reference, Anybody who plays Magic or Pokemon probably understand if you lose your first round in a big tournament, it's fine because you're like, well now I'm just gonna farm the tables. Because if you're undefeated, you're only going against other undefeated people. That makes it way harder than if you're going against people that at least have one loss on their record. But that's not even a guarantee that Flag Boys are gonna lose to T1. They still could beat them. And, and still good because that means that they won't get to rematch them later. They'll. They'll find a different team if they ever. If they like go one one or two one or something like that. So that's a long rant on kind of how the. The. The plans looks or rather the. The draw for round one looks. There'll be a new draw every day and a lot of games every day. We have the schedule ahead of us. I also. I forgot I wanted to cover our top eight. We all put predictions in. In for the last episode and we can just cover them real quick. Of the eight teams that we predict to make it out, I'll go through mine fast. My three O's are Gen G. HLE. My three ones are BLG, T1AL, and my three twos are G2FLY and CFO BADGER. Who you got? [00:41:19] Speaker B: So my three O's. I have BLG and HANWA. I have Gen G. Didn't you put. [00:41:25] Speaker A: Gen G as your number one team? Why are they three one? [00:41:28] Speaker B: What's going on? They just, they, they. They have the propensity to do just the, the ability to drop the 11 game or the 1o game. Very easily. I think they just. There's gonna be something that happens. It's actually no. The two zero game. They. I think they're more likely to lose the 20 game than to win it. At this point. I. I don't know what it is. There's. They're gonna play Hanwha. Han was gonna have their number that day. And I think they just get out. It's just. It's. All right. [00:41:55] Speaker A: Well, there we have it. [00:41:56] Speaker B: So three ones. I have ones gen GT1 and CFO. I think actually Bickle has CFO as a 3:1 team as well. Just to spoil yours too. I'm just trying to think who if I have them higher than everybody else. But for the three twos, I have G2. I have Top Esports and I have KTR Ulster. [00:42:20] Speaker A: Okay, cool. [00:42:21] Speaker B: And I do not feel good about that last pick. But. [00:42:25] Speaker A: But I putting KT in is. [00:42:27] Speaker B: I was between them and Fly and I just think Fly just gets draw. They. They. They get the victim of. We really should add victim of the draw or something like that. [00:42:38] Speaker A: No, no. It said we used up all of our luck the last two years with our good. [00:42:42] Speaker B: We need. We need. We need. [00:42:44] Speaker C: We need a fly quest going for. [00:42:46] Speaker B: Who gets the worst draw. Like. Like. [00:42:49] Speaker C: Oh, we had draw last year. [00:42:52] Speaker B: We had the, like the bottom deck or like bottom of the deck deck or something like that award. [00:42:58] Speaker A: I mean, if you want to add that as another award. Yeah, Happy to vote on it. [00:43:02] Speaker C: Sure thing. Give me a second. [00:43:03] Speaker A: And while Bingo's doing that, why is. [00:43:06] Speaker B: The victim of that, though? So, yeah. [00:43:09] Speaker A: I was gonna say 100 Thieves gets it. 100 Thieves gets the. The luck because. [00:43:16] Speaker C: So for three zero teams, I have Genji and Hanma life as well. My three one teams are T1 BLG and and CFO. My three. Two teams are G2, anyone's legends and top Esports. I am also not hopeful in regards to how things will end up for flying. Regarding this draw, we do have predictions also from Random Minion, Yanni and Mikko. Out of all the teams, we only agree universally on four of them getting out. [00:43:50] Speaker B: Wow. [00:43:50] Speaker A: Wait, that's crazy. [00:43:52] Speaker C: We all say Gen G gets out. Hlet1 all say Gen G, all say Hanwha. All say T1 and all say BLG. Other than that, we all vary. Badger doesn't trust anyone's Legends Esports very. [00:44:09] Speaker B: I think anyone's Legends are the biggest frauds coming into this tournament. [00:44:13] Speaker C: Yep. I don't trust KT and neither is Kangas and neither which is Good for. [00:44:20] Speaker A: KT fans, by the way. You're welcome. [00:44:24] Speaker C: But Fly Quest, some in, some out. G2, some in, some out. [00:44:29] Speaker A: Yeah, I, I have both of them. I actually have G2, fly and CFO making it out 3, 2. Which is a wild prediction. Very unlikely. But I think there's enough room. And the bottom teams from LCK lpl, I think that. [00:44:42] Speaker B: I think the bottom bottom of like LPL this year for like the world's teams. I genuinely think like BLG and TOP Esports, if they can get their together. Like the only two teams from LPL that I think are actually like I. [00:44:55] Speaker C: Thought about this coming in and I think it's a sad state of affairs. I think we leave this world saying the LPL is closer to the west than it is to the lck. [00:45:06] Speaker B: I, I, you know, I'm honestly in. [00:45:08] Speaker A: Agreeance with that that I did watch the LPL finals. Finally I got around to checking out that five game best of five. Yeah, there was some really bad play that was happening on my screen. I mean obviously they still mechanically very good at the game. [00:45:22] Speaker B: And even then like this top esports lineup this is man, if, if this top esports lineup was playing in like 2022, I would be so excited about it. But it's 2025. We need to kind of, you know, get past that at this point. Yeah, like IG was IG is like the 2021 Chinese Super Team. Like. [00:45:44] Speaker A: I mean it really is. Yeah. Like if you look back. All right, well that that's the players or the teams rather that we have making it out of the the Swiss stage into the knockout stage. Happy we covered that. But let's get quickly through our predictions for day one. These will all have happened by the time you're hearing this episode. But we can put a little bit of our money where our math is and our predictions ahead of time. [00:46:07] Speaker B: We're all in agreeance except for two games. [00:46:10] Speaker A: I believe so. So it's going to start off worlds officially the Swiss stage of 2025. The 15th anniversary of Worlds. The banger of Vivo Cade stars versus Team Secret whales. For some reason they decided to kick. [00:46:29] Speaker B: Things off with this started. [00:46:30] Speaker A: Honestly I don't know man. It doesn't make any sense. [00:46:33] Speaker B: Anyone's legend as like the opening game would be so good but then at. [00:46:39] Speaker A: The same time would be hype as dude like fly t1 would go crazy because get all the the west viewers checking out even like EU fans inspired. [00:46:51] Speaker B: Like even G2 vs top like a really good opening match. [00:46:55] Speaker A: G2 vs tops is another fantastic choice, but that one's happening much later. But let's get through. VKS versus Team Secret Whales. We all have Team Secret taking it. CFO versus Fanatic. That's another one that is. It could be exciting, but with a hype around CFO right now, we all have them taking it as well. [00:47:10] Speaker C: These first two series are going to be bloodbaths and it's going to be amazing. [00:47:14] Speaker A: Oh, you think so? Yes. [00:47:16] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. [00:47:17] Speaker C: It's going to be chaos. Is going to be bloody and is. [00:47:19] Speaker B: Going to be Secret. Secret and CFO are so fast when they play the game. Like if you think like LPL aggression like out of like another region, it's definitely these two teams. They will. Okay, they will. They will take. There's not a. There's not a bar fight that they don't like the odds in at this point. [00:47:41] Speaker A: Okay. All right. Well, hey, I. That makes it the least exciting because that means we won't fall asleep right at the beginning of Worlds because we're just stay awake for a while to get to the teams that we actually cover here. [00:47:51] Speaker C: The fact that one of VKs and Team Secret Whales is going to be in the 10 pool next round is hilarious. [00:47:57] Speaker A: That is very funny to me. Yeah. But again, CFO Fanatic. We all have CFO taking that one. Kt. Coy, Badger, you're making the card. Cardigan Carnival. Sin. Carnival. Sin. [00:48:11] Speaker C: Cardinal. [00:48:12] Speaker A: Cardinal. There we go. Thank you. I just had a stroke live on the cast. Cardinal sin of believing in kt. What the hell is this, man? We all. [00:48:19] Speaker B: I don't believe in Casey. I just don't believe in Koi. [00:48:22] Speaker A: I. I think that nothing to do with confidence in Katie. [00:48:27] Speaker B: This is literally zero confidence in Casey. I think that Coy is one of the weaker teams coming into Worlds. I just. I like the roster, but I just. Every time I just like, look, I'm just like, is this team really like. [00:48:44] Speaker A: Look, I'm just saying it. Merwin's gonna pull out. Lulu. Top KT's gonna have no idea what the fuck's going on. They're just gonna be stunlocked in draft. We can win that way. Boom. [00:48:53] Speaker C: This isn't faith in kt. This is faith in bdd. [00:48:58] Speaker A: That is fair. [00:49:00] Speaker B: BDD is. I. Yeah, I. It's faith in BDD against Jojo. [00:49:06] Speaker C: I honestly think BDD is just the second best mid laner at this tournament. [00:49:10] Speaker A: I. [00:49:10] Speaker B: You know, I wanted to say that, but I didn't know how much flack I would get. [00:49:14] Speaker C: No, I'M with you. I'm with you. [00:49:16] Speaker A: We'll talk about it later. We'll talk about it later. Okay. Because we got some awards to give out. I'm sure his name will come up. But we're not even halfway through the matches. BLG vs 100 Thieves. We all love BLG. I think this is gonna be the fastest game of day one. I'll even add that I do not think Hundred Thieves will put up a fight. I will still be cheering for them on social media and of course live at night room. But heavily expect BLG to win this fly T1 this is the first one that we have some disagreements on the podcast. T1 should be favorites. Obviously defending world champions. They just bodied ig but again I thought they looked fallible. I didn't think that they looked like a, you know, world's defending team against. [00:50:00] Speaker C: I'm gonna put a slight asterisk there. They looked fallible in the first two games. Then they warmed up and oh God. T1 is back. Fly Quest has to deal with a warmed up team. [00:50:11] Speaker A: Best of one counterpoint was not gonna play Varys Top Lane either. [00:50:17] Speaker B: I don't think we'll even playing or is it geckos? [00:50:19] Speaker A: It will be BWIPO player. [00:50:21] Speaker B: Yep. [00:50:22] Speaker A: Also slight issue have a chance. [00:50:26] Speaker C: My issue in looking at that is flyQuest biggest strength is their jungle support court. You're going up against owner carrier. [00:50:35] Speaker A: Yeah. Those guys are like mid owner is. [00:50:38] Speaker C: The best performing jungle in the world right now. [00:50:42] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:50:43] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:50:44] Speaker A: But best of one we can pull out some cheese. We have four games of tape on them on this patch from a couple of days ago. I think if ever Fly Quest were to beat them it would be here. Not in a best of three or best of five later. So I actually. [00:50:58] Speaker C: Oh, I completely agree with you. If they have a chance to beat them, it's going to be now. [00:51:02] Speaker A: Yeah. Whether you think that that means that they could beat them or are likely to beat them is a different story. We obviously disagree on that. I do think Fly Quest have enough firepower to take them down in a best of one and then Fly Quest can pull vks for our round two opponent and you know, have have the lucky draw. Boom. I'm sending it all up. Next up, HLE versus anyone's a legend. We all think HLE take this one. Anyone's legend. A bit of FR G2 top esports is where things differ. Again, I am just fully on the Yani hype train of Top Esports. Basically. I don't think I didn't put them to make it out of a Swiss stage, but I think that they can peak really high and G2 in their current form. I just don't know if they're gonna be able to match the craziness of what Top Esports tries to do. Because G2 will try some like, oh, we're gonna send like two people top lane to dive and they're like, cool. We're just not even gonna have somebody top and we're just gonna five man force like a two turret push. Top Esports does some wacky stuff. So I actually have them taking this one. But Badger, you Disagree? You think G2 wins it? [00:52:09] Speaker B: I think G2 has been having whatever. Whatever G2 is going to roll out. They've had cooking in the pot for the last three weeks at this point of they have this specific idea of where the Metas are going to be at for the tournament. They've been screaming on the patch for a while and they're just like this specific comp in particular. We're pulling out for game one. It's going to be some, some wacky. It's gonna be. I don't even. I can't even predict at this point. Like, I just have a feeling G2's gonna. [00:52:38] Speaker A: We're beyond Pike. Pike is not even on our radar. [00:52:41] Speaker B: We're not gonna. We're beyond Pike. I don't know what like caps and full lethality. [00:52:46] Speaker A: Xin Zhao support. Boom. [00:52:48] Speaker B: Yeah, something like that, sure, whatever. But I just think G2 has whatever they have for like their opening sequence draft ready to go and they're just going to catch Top Esports by surprise and they're going to win the game and then it's going to look rough for G2 after that because they go into the 10 pool and they're not going to get secret Wolves or VKS winner. [00:53:10] Speaker A: I. I will say I know I just joked about like support. That's not really where they do crazy stuff anymore. It is in the top lane. Broken blades Champool has been very unique and flexible and if 369 champions just rolls low, if he rolls a three or a six, broken blade actually can beat him. I think he has to roll a nine to win that. Especially if G2 give broken blade counter pick. So keep your eyes on that, especially for the G2 fans out there. Then we close things out with Gen G versus psg. We all have Gen G taking that one. So yeah, Bickle, you were right. There were only two disagreements fly and G2 being underdogs in their series, but still some faith in them from the cast. Either way, day one of Worlds right around the corner. I cannot wait. It's gonna be super fun. But that brings us to our award predictions and Worlds bets. We do this every year. It's the title of the episode. It took us a little longer than I expected to get into it, but still, we can each take our time. We'll each get a category to introduce, we'll give our own pick, and then we'll hear everybody else's picks as well. You might have heard some of these categories before. We do them often, so strap in. And also don't forget to let us know your picks for some of these categories in the community. Discord. You can find a link in the description wherever you are listening. But without further ado, let's talk awards. Up first, the classic we do it every year. I think this is the one that actually started the awards show ceremony. This is the original podcast. This is the originator, the Rundown Night Hood Award AKA which player is over hyped. Now this could mean it's obviously named after night because of the first year I believe he was at Worlds. Really hyped up to be like the best player that we've ever seen in the God given game of League of Legends. And he did not do well in his debut world's appearance. So it doesn't have to be a debut, but at least has to be somebody that has been heavily hyped up that we don't think will actually deliver on it. I have and this is gonna probably piss off a lot of people. I got Zayas, dude, I have not. I can't remember a top laner this hyped since the shy and I really do think that like there's enough good top laners at this event that Zayos is going to really struggle. We saw him struggle in the Doran at times and I know that he's also smashed door and he smashed people in lck, but I don't think Zayas is like like as consistent as people say. And now I haven't seen every LCK game and I'm sure the Badger, who's a big LCK fan, Biggle is a big LCK fan. Would love to educate me on this, but this is my hot take. Zayas is overhyped and he will not deliver on said hype. Bickle, what are your thoughts? Oh wait, bad. Okay, Badger, if you want to hop in, you go first. [00:55:57] Speaker B: So, so there's if you rank the Tiers of players. Like if you do S A, B, C, D tier. There's only 2s tier top laners at this tournament. It's Keen and Zeus, like genuinely those two are, are a tier above everybody else. Like he's a former world's World final mvp like, and he hasn't shown signs of slowing down. His role has definitely shifted a bunch coming into this Hanwha team because he's got, you know, he's got Viper and Zeka that the team can play around so he doesn't have to feel like he needs to be the one that's carrying. I mean, if he wants to take over a game though, he can take over a game at any point. I, I, I have him for an award coming up down the line, honestly, so I think you're crazy. But hey, you know what? [00:56:54] Speaker A: The more you hype him up, the more overhyped he is. So this is just good for my arc. Bickle, would you care to overhype him more? [00:57:02] Speaker C: Honestly, I think badger hit all the topics. He is one of the most dominant top laners we've seen in such a long time. He's the only player now not on T1 that is the two time reigning defending world champion. He was the finals MVP two years ago. He's just that good. We saw him on an international state stage at first stand and he smacked every single person that was there around while blindfolded essentially, like it's not close. He's just that good. [00:57:40] Speaker A: So you can't hype him much more than you already have is what I'm hearing. [00:57:44] Speaker C: Yes, he is one of the best top laners in the world. Full stop. [00:57:49] Speaker A: Ever. [00:57:50] Speaker C: Yes. [00:57:52] Speaker A: Perfect. All right, keep it going, keep it going guys. This is good for my argument. It, okay. Will it happen? Who's to say? It's up to Zayas, but you cannot deny he is giga hyped and now he's got to deliver because if not, I think he wins the category. But what do you guys have? A badger? You have somebody that I, I don't think this guy. Oh, I accidentally just. [00:58:13] Speaker B: Oh man, you just, I don't think. [00:58:15] Speaker A: This guy should be on the list because I don't think he's been hyped very much at all. But I'll let you defend it. [00:58:21] Speaker B: You fans are super hyped about this guy and I, I, as much as I love creating more enemies in the European Union with the gamers as well fans, I, I, I will have to say it's Broken Blade. I, I just think this guy is. [00:58:36] Speaker A: Is. [00:58:37] Speaker B: There's top laners like Driver and rest from CFO are just in tandem. Like, the sword and the shield are so much better than broken blades. You've got. I think Dokla is better than BB at this point. [00:58:51] Speaker C: Whoa, damn. That's. [00:58:53] Speaker B: I. I don't know. I just think he's gonna come in. [00:58:56] Speaker A: And he's gonna try. [00:58:57] Speaker B: He's gonna try and step up. He's it. It. Okay, quote the Wire. If you come at the King, you best not miss. And boy, this boy is going to miss. When it comes to this turn, there's. [00:59:08] Speaker A: No way that originates from the wire. [00:59:10] Speaker B: But what. You come in the King, the best not miss. [00:59:14] Speaker A: You come at the king. [00:59:15] Speaker B: A word of advice for you, Boo. You come at the King, you best not miss, man. [00:59:19] Speaker A: Okay, sure. Yeah, but, Omar, let me go back to the core. Let me go back to the core. This is Overhyped Award, the Knighthood award. I don't think Broken Blade is anywhere close to how much hype Knight was receiving or any other player really that has been, like, eligible for this award before. Like, I feel like you have to be at a certain level of hype to. To be included. I just don't think BB's there. So that's my opinion. [00:59:50] Speaker B: Respectfully. You also said that Zayas was the most overhyped player. So, like. [00:59:55] Speaker A: But at least he's. At least he's hyped, you know, Disagree. [00:59:59] Speaker B: Okay. Like, I. I think BB was getting, like, votes and stuff like that in some people's top 20s. So, like, I just. Okay, I. I don't know. I. I must be hearing different things from you. [01:00:09] Speaker A: So now if you said inspired, I would have been like, okay, he made top 20. Did BB make the top 20 list? I don't. [01:00:17] Speaker C: No. But B is not any. [01:00:19] Speaker B: So I'd have to choose somebody from the top 20 list. I mean, originally I was going to say. I was going to say hope, but. [01:00:26] Speaker A: Like, you know, okay, bb, I'll give it to you. But if. [01:00:32] Speaker B: If. [01:00:32] Speaker A: If you come back and be like, see bb shit the bed, I'm going to be like. But there was an asterisk next to the. [01:00:37] Speaker B: Okay, fine, whatever. [01:00:40] Speaker A: So. And if Zayas performs like, like the third best player on his team, I'm gonna be like, see, I told you. [01:00:47] Speaker B: Oh, my gosh. Yes. Zayas, the. The. The guy, he only made semi with, like, two other people that have won world championships was the third best player on his team. [01:01:00] Speaker A: I'm stacking the deck in my favor. Let's go Biggle, I want to get your thoughts up before we move on to the next category. [01:01:06] Speaker C: So two things. One, I do agree. I think BB's a bit of a striker that I. I don't reach us. I don't think he's too. [01:01:13] Speaker B: Do you want me to hyped up? [01:01:14] Speaker A: I will say no, it's fine. You feel bad. [01:01:17] Speaker C: I can see it. Like there is some hype there. He pulls out all these weird and wacky picks that he's done extremely well in Europe with. And come the international fans are saying. [01:01:28] Speaker B: Why isn't this dude in the conversation with eastern top laners? And then he's gonna actually get to play Eastern top laners. Like, yeah, that's all I'm gonna. That's my. That's my case. I'm gonna stick to it. [01:01:40] Speaker C: And also on a literature point, you are correct. The quote does that wording of it comes from the wire. The quote itself originated from Machiavelli in 1532. It started referencing the king in 1843 from Ralph Waldo. [01:01:54] Speaker B: And I was not gonna pull out my fucking history political science like double. Double major bachelors on. On kangas at this point. But I would just. [01:02:06] Speaker A: I was doing. I didn't understand half those words. So that's good that you didn't. Yeah. [01:02:12] Speaker C: But anyways, for my rundown award, I have somebody that has that is both hyped up by the community. Extremely many consider him the goat in his position of all time. But if you look at a bit more from a professional point of view of some people, the large knowledge of the team are saying he could fall off. I'm going with Canyon. [01:02:36] Speaker A: He's okay. [01:02:37] Speaker C: Honestly, at the start of the season, everyone's talking about how the weak point for Gen G had been how their bot lanes performing. Right now, Canyon's the weak point of a stacked Gen G roster. And I think if they fail to win worlds, it's going to be because of him. [01:02:53] Speaker A: And he's unfortunately in a tournament with a lot of good junglers. [01:02:57] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah. [01:02:59] Speaker A: And Skewmont is there too. [01:03:01] Speaker C: Like what when they meet T1 in the semifinals and they lose, it's going to be because owner beats up Canyon. [01:03:09] Speaker A: Yeah, could. Could see that for sure. All right, well, there we have it. Zayas, Broken Blade and Canyon Badger. Since I ripped apart your opinion so much, I'll let you introduce the next category. [01:03:20] Speaker B: So the next one is the Please bench the Kench Award, which is the Please don't make this champ popular in my solo queue. And I. I feel Like, I have a pretty good answer at this point. Point. Actually, I think most of the answers across the board are pretty good. I I knew kiana jungle was a thing coming into this tournament, and we've seen it in. I believe river played it. [01:03:47] Speaker A: Yes, river played it, and I think he might have been the only NA player, but he was hover. She was hovered a bunch and people were, like, considering her a viable pick. [01:03:56] Speaker B: I think kiana jungle is. If you play kiana jungle in solo queue, unless you have have the the hands of. Of like a Korean jungler, I I'm gonna say it. Don't play this champion solo queue because I just think she's. I I just don't want to see it. Like, she's annoying to play against. Like, the kiana on my team is like Iron 4, and the Kian on their team is literally like, if, if. But if chovy was a jungler and has is up like 24cs on my jungler and is killing everybody in their lanes, I just. I Please, please just don't let this chip popular. [01:04:43] Speaker A: It's one of the scary ones because if you see it on the enemy team, you're like, oh, we can't let them snowball. And if you see it on your team, you're like, oh, we have to hold their hand, and they're probably not. [01:04:51] Speaker C: Gonna know what to do. [01:04:53] Speaker A: So, yeah, I definitely understand that one. Biggle, who you got? [01:04:57] Speaker C: I have a pick, and then I have a slight side note that I would put, but it doesn't necessarily fit the category. My pick is rek'. Sai. Specifically Rek'. Sai Top. It's been popping up a lot more. It's just really annoying, and I don't like it, and it has a tendency to be really shit sometimes, so I just don't want to see it on my team. My side note is it doesn't necessarily fit the name of a champion. Champion. I hate that lane swaps are coming back. I hate it. [01:05:25] Speaker A: Oh, so you're just gonna include lane swaps? [01:05:27] Speaker C: Lane swaps in its entirety? [01:05:29] Speaker A: Is that gonna happen in solo queue? That's the. [01:05:32] Speaker C: That's why it doesn't fit as much. It's this. I don't like this concept. [01:05:36] Speaker A: Okay, fair enough. [01:05:37] Speaker C: So my pick, though, is rexai. [01:05:39] Speaker A: Rexite is a solid pick. Some people hate rexai. I I Rex has got a special place in my heart. When I first started casting, it was like, rek' sai Gragas jungle Meta. [01:05:47] Speaker C: Give me a jungle that's fine. Just not top. [01:05:50] Speaker A: Just not Top. All right. My one's a little wacky. I think it's gonna be picked like once or twice in at Worlds and because it's so niche, people are then gonna start playing it in solo queue and I just hate playing against Anivia. It got buffed on the Worlds patch. Not to the point where I think it's gonna be meta, but again, it's gonna get picked like in one game and then people are gonna be like, oh, Olivia. They're like, just start spamming it. I'm like, no, I hate this champion. It just does nothing. It just clears waves Forever is going. [01:06:20] Speaker C: To pull this out in a best of three series against an Eastern team. And it's gonna be the one game they went against the east in that series. They're gonna lose one tube, but they're gonna win in the Anivia game or. [01:06:29] Speaker A: I, I swear to God. Quad would also play this pick. Like if, if they had three more seconds instead of zillion at msi, they would have picked Anivia. And it was even buff back then. But yeah, so that's my one. Next up though, Bickle, introduce our third category. [01:06:47] Speaker C: Next up, a well known, familiar one. We have the Airport Speedrun award for the Western team with the worst performance. [01:06:56] Speaker A: Yup. Who's your pick? [01:06:59] Speaker C: I mean, I've already said I think they're the worst team in the at this world championships by a solid margin. I have 100 Thieves. I think they go.03. More particularly, I think they go 01,01 and then, then their best of three, I think they go.02 and go home after four games. [01:07:16] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. I feel like I, I have them the same. I have a hope that they can maybe do something to like a fanatic or a koi, but with what I'm hearing behind the scenes, yeah, they're, they're pretty cooked right now, so I have to agree. I also put 100 thieves with badger. [01:07:32] Speaker B: Who you got? I have vivo keyed. I just, I, I think them and 100 thieves are on the same tier. You just, I'm not inspired by any of these teams coming into the tournament. I, I, I think they're going to be the team that every, they're going to be the teams that everyone wants to draw until they are eliminated. It's, yeah, it's not looking good. When you're, when you're the, when you're the team that the west and the east are both, like, hoping that you draw. That's, that's kind of rough. [01:08:06] Speaker A: Rough. [01:08:08] Speaker B: I will Say, though, I kind of forgot to mention this earlier. Did y' all see that KT was. [01:08:14] Speaker C: Screaming koi as it was announced and like happening? [01:08:20] Speaker B: And they're like, well, gotta cancel. [01:08:23] Speaker A: That is very funny. I like that a lot. [01:08:27] Speaker B: So, yeah. [01:08:31] Speaker A: All right, well, that's our thoughts there. 100 days VKs. Just a lot of hatred towards the Americas in general. Wow. Well, let's go guys. Our proud region. Hell yeah. Next up, I'll introduce this one. It is the longest walk award. Similar to the airport Speedrun. It is the eastern team with the worst showing. Now, IG was the meme answer. Now they. They're not at Worlds. They were in the plans. They lost in the plans. The actual answer I put was kt. I am gonna bless the KT fans by not believing in them, but I also still honestly think that they're just gonna bomb out. I do not think gonna. [01:09:05] Speaker C: They're. [01:09:05] Speaker A: This seems any good. Bickle, do you agree I'm with you. [01:09:10] Speaker C: On KT2 parts in the fact that I do think KT is the weakest Korean team there. And also you can never have faith in kt. It will never go well. [01:09:25] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. [01:09:26] Speaker A: It's bad as Badger I'm sure is very aware. So Badger, who did you put? You. You agree with this, right? Keep kt. [01:09:31] Speaker B: I said, I answer. But I. I also think anyone's legend IG doesn't count. I know. That's the. That's why I was just like, oh ho ho. I'm going to pick IG because they're going to be the only team that gets knocked out in play ins. And then I think it's anyone's legend. I. I just as I look up down on team, I just am not inspired by what this team is going to bring to the table. I think, I think Shanks has just been on the down. There's some games in LPL where he could easily be reported for match fixing coming. [01:10:05] Speaker C: I wonder what could possibly have triggered Shanks's downfall. [01:10:10] Speaker B: Imagine wild. I couldn't imagine either. So. But I, I just champool stuff. I just think that like this team is. Wait. I feel like I'm missing Shanks and I'm missing mixing anyone's legend and top up. But yeah, no, I think anyone's legend just like, like you have FL Top Lane who's just a rock that is like corroding into a pebble at this point. I think hope is just like not that great come coming into this too. I just don't think like up and down on the map. I just think this team is kind of rough. [01:10:47] Speaker C: It's all on Tarzan. [01:10:49] Speaker A: LPL teams are like reverse kt. [01:10:52] Speaker B: The. [01:10:53] Speaker A: The. The more you hate on them, the stronger they get and the more hyped they actually. No wait, they're the same as KT then. And the more you hype. [01:11:00] Speaker B: I would like that though because get like Bickle and I were saying earlier, it's just to the point that it just feels like we're at a point where the LPL is like getting closer to the west than they are to the lck. Like. [01:11:14] Speaker A: Yeah. Okay. Well Badger, I. I'll say it's your order now. So whether the LPL is close to the west or not, we have more awards to hand out here. What is our next award in the fifth? [01:11:29] Speaker B: So the next one is the get in the bin award, which is for the player that has the biggest lane kingdom throughout the tournament. And so hard back on Kangas earlier for his knighthood, I chose Zeus as my get in the bin just because I think him and Keen are the two best top laners coming into the tournament. They might match up at some point and I think think that Zayu's will get the better of Keen. I just. I. I don't know. I just think there. There's going to be games if they play. I'm just trying to think what's the. If anyone's. If Hanwha plays like vivo keyd at some point for some reason. Dear God, that's gonna be. It's gonna be a bloodbath across the map. But I really. That bowel will just like, like it it the. Remember the. The was it LEP the 017 and 3 and 3 games meme where he's just kind of like smiling through the pain at the camera like that's going to be B against Z if he plays him. [01:12:40] Speaker C: If we see the Oscar in that showed up against McCoy show up against him. [01:12:47] Speaker B: Oh God, there's just so many potential like. Like just coughing baby versus hydrogen bomb top lanes. That could happen once Z lines across from somebody. You're telling me Hero O2 from Secret Whales isn't just gonna get absolutely bodied like in a. In a TF Blade like versus a plat top laner game during all those like rank one streams like unranked to rank one streams that he had like you. It's yikes. [01:13:20] Speaker A: Look, I'm just saying you're really hyping up Zayas. Some would even say overhyping. But you know what? That's beside the Point. Bickle, who do you have as you're getting the bin nominee? [01:13:31] Speaker C: I mean, this is such a boring answer, but it's the right answer and it has been the right answer for the past God knows how many years. It's chofy. [01:13:43] Speaker A: It's hard to argue against Jovi. I almost picked Jovi. I wanted to pick Shelby. I decided to be a different for the sake of being different. I put bdd, but I think Chovy's probably. [01:13:52] Speaker C: I'm gonna be honest, Kangas, I was scrolling down to change my answer to bdd, but then I saw you had already changed it. So I'm like, well, guess I'm riding with Jovi. [01:13:59] Speaker A: Okay. Yeah, you know what? You know we can handshake on that one. I think both are good choices. Chovy should probably be the. The correct one. Both these mid laners are just so freaking good, dude. It's crazy. [01:14:10] Speaker B: They're really, it's. It's insane. Like, I'm so excited to see them on the international stage again. [01:14:17] Speaker A: Just high chance we see more of Jovi than we see a BDD based on the strength of the rest of the team. But that's still to be decided. Bickle, we have another category though. What is our next category to get? We do. [01:14:29] Speaker C: It is the I'm not locked in here with you category for the most underrated team coming in. And I feel like there are answers. There are three possible answers for this and we have chosen we' across the board, I think. [01:14:46] Speaker A: So unless there's a crazy. Somebody rips a line of cocaine, says fanatic, you know, that's the only other. [01:14:54] Speaker B: I think we actually have the three. [01:14:55] Speaker C: Answers that are like, we have the three correct answers. For me, I have Europe's once great hope into their only hope, into not looking to the best into their only hope again. G2. [01:15:10] Speaker B: Yep. [01:15:11] Speaker A: And Badger, who do you have? [01:15:13] Speaker B: I. I have the sneaky eastern team that I think can make the most noise. I have the CTB CTBC flying oysters. I just think this team like the more I watch this team, I. I have them as my sixth like power ranked team coming into this tournament for a reason. This team is so good. [01:15:38] Speaker A: I think that CFO is. I almost put them as well, but in my mind I was like, it almost feels like they're not underrated at this point. So it was similar to the BB argument where it's like I, I respect it but I feel like there's no already a lot of respect given to them. [01:15:52] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:15:53] Speaker A: Yeah. So I put Fly quest, which Is the. The rounding out the three CFO G2 fly quest. Everyone's gonna be looking at these three teams of like they're the number one seeds from each of their respective regions. How much damage can they do? I feel like Fly Quest are very underrated across the board right now, despite how excited NA fans are about them. But yeah, I. I still think that they. They could do it. So I have Fly as my underrated team. Hey, one of these teams has to do well now. Dude, could you imagine a world where all three bomb out? That'd be so sad if all three bomb out. [01:16:29] Speaker C: My question is, who the hell hell gets that eighth spot in quarters? [01:16:33] Speaker A: Hobie, I keep memeing it, but I just want to see Poby versus Faker and I don't see a world where they match up in Swiss stage at this point. Like it's got to be so I. [01:16:44] Speaker C: Mean, all you need to happen is to have a fly quest beat T1, then they're both one and get drawn. [01:16:49] Speaker A: Wait, never mind. It's gonna happen tomorrow night. Tomorrow night. Boom. All right, next category here and our second to last category is the left Legends never die. AKA the breakout player of worlds. The person that we think is gonna really make a difference and turn heads, get people's attention, get people talking about them. I have him as the new top laner for T1, the one that did not win the past two worlds. The new guy on the block, I got Doran. I think that this world people are finally gonna start putting some respect on this boy's name and he'll really step up and show that he can actually carry the rest of the team. [01:17:26] Speaker C: Team. [01:17:27] Speaker A: I have nothing to base this off of. Is purely vibes and zero analytical thought. So please do not put any monetary value or. Or any. Any type of online wagers based on the information you get from me, at least. Bickle, who do you have? [01:17:47] Speaker C: I have. Well, first off, for yours, Doran is in such a hard spot spot. Because if T1 do not win worlds again, the blame will be on him, even if it shouldn't be. [01:17:59] Speaker A: Yeah, but he's going to be the. Wait, maybe that's it. The breakout player. As in the the fans break his legs out after pause. Okay, I don't want to. So the fans might actually do that. I don't want to joke. [01:18:12] Speaker C: Yes, Bickle, my breakout player is a bit out there. It's related to my underrated team for two reasons. Well, one, my answer is skewmont the jungler for G2. And I think he has looked so much better ever since MSI that I think he's going to come back and be like okay, this is more of what I can do and actually put on a solid performance. But this is also that would be interesting. Fly Quests FlyQuest Want this to happen because I honestly think the only world where where inspired stays with FlyQuest next year is if G2 keeps Skewmont. And they're only going to keep Skewmond if he breaks out at worlds. Otherwise it's G2 inspired next year. [01:19:00] Speaker A: So this is the NA bias prediction, is it you're hoping Skewman does well? [01:19:06] Speaker C: It is half hope for Inspired to stay in A and half a genuine thought. I think SKU Man's going to to do well. [01:19:14] Speaker A: Ooh, okay. I mean for a rookie player that would exactly huge deal. [01:19:18] Speaker C: My answer would have been what Badger put if I didn't feel this player had already broken out at first stand slash. MSI who? [01:19:27] Speaker A: All right, well, little teaser. Badger, who do you have? [01:19:30] Speaker B: I have mid laner for CCBC Flying Oyster Hong Kong. Who? We talked about it earlier year BDD coming in as the second best mid laner in the tournament. I think this kid's the third best mid laner at this tournament right now. I I think it goes really chovy bdd. Hongq. This, this kid was no night, no. [01:19:57] Speaker A: Quid, no caps, no wow, no faker. [01:20:01] Speaker C: Hey Kangas, guess when this kid was born. [01:20:07] Speaker A: 3Pm Pretty much a year. Oh oh, a year. Yeah. 20, 25. Or no, that's this year. 2005. [01:20:21] Speaker C: He was born in 2007. He's 18 years old. [01:20:24] Speaker A: Oh my God. Wait, that's crazy. [01:20:26] Speaker C: This is his debut. No, not right. [01:20:29] Speaker B: No, he. So he joined, he joined joined the the league last year in July and then this is his first full year. He won player of the player of the year for the LCP this year and it was not even close. This kid is just styling on people. I mean they were so close to making first stand finals and msi like I don't think MSI was a good meta for him. But like I think coming into this world, I think this is the perfect. He's a control mage player that could play the Assassins. He's got incredible laning. His side laning is immaculate at this point. He works really well with with Junja in controlling side lanes. His roaming potential is immaculate at this point. This kid, you're gonna see Hong Q in these first couple games. Like I, I. He's just gonna just destroy teams like he's gonna single handedly win games for the CTBC team and people are gonna be like, whoa, this Hong Kong kid. I'm not gonna say it's zeka levels of like carrying them to a world championship, but like it's zeka vibes of like how much potential like meteoric rise this kid can have over the next couple of weeks during this tournament. Tournament. [01:21:51] Speaker C: He is, I mean the breakout player of the year hands down. And when his contract runs out, he is going to have offers from every single region. [01:22:04] Speaker B: I genuinely think, yeah, he's, he is the best player from the lcp, slash whatever it was vcs. Like he's the best APAC player that we've seen probably ever. Like genuinely. I don't say this with like, like think of like all of the hype that Maple had back in the day when he. [01:22:31] Speaker C: Not just like Maple. This is peak Maple. [01:22:34] Speaker B: This is peak Maple. Like he's better than peak maple and he's 18. Like his potential to grow over these next couple of years. Years is insane. [01:22:44] Speaker C: If he stays in the lcp, I genuinely feel he will end as the greatest player the LCP has ever seen. [01:22:54] Speaker A: Yeah, that, that is like. I think the, the cool thing is that he's from the region that Mabel kind of made the pop off from essentially and can really follow in that legacy. I like seeing young players like this come in. I think everybody loves that. Like oh, the, the new kid on the block narrative narrative. So let's see. Legends never die. Will Hong Q cement himself as a legend at Worlds 2025? But there is one more category to give an award through Badger, I believe that's you in rotation. So you get the honors of the last one. What is the award? [01:23:26] Speaker B: It's the. Not another Pantheon award which is the highest pick band champion and you two have the same answer. Which is something that I thought I was going to go with. But I just think that, that when you think about what is going to happen in this world, I think Jarvan is going to be 100 pick man. He is the best jungler in the game. He is strong against immobile ads. If we are seeing, you know, jinxes come out. If you see a jinx, there's no reason in the world why Jarvan will not be big man. [01:24:00] Speaker C: There's no way Jinx gets picked with a Jarvan still available. [01:24:04] Speaker B: Yeah, like, like you have to. If you have any inkling of wanting to play immobile, hyper carries at all during this, you. You have to get rid of Jarvan. He is just the Best jungler by far in the game. [01:24:23] Speaker A: Yeah, and especially in a fearless meta, I don't see a world where he won't find his way into a draft. Although weirdly enough enough in best of ones is when he could get dropped because if people are picking like different stuff for the best of ones, that's a higher likelihood. But once we get the best of three, best of fives, he's gonna be picked or banned in like every single series. It's just weirdly enough that in the best of ones is maybe where we see like a game or two where he's not full presence. [01:24:52] Speaker B: I I even then I think it's I think he I he is genuinely one of the only champions that I think is red side ban for like the entirety of the tournament. [01:25:05] Speaker A: Well, hey, it's a good pick. I respect the hell out of it, but me and Bickle agreed on ours. A Bickle, Why don't you let the people know? Who did we pick for our highest pick Ban rate champion? [01:25:16] Speaker C: We picked probably one of the most prevalent pro play champions of all time. The Shreman Lord himself. Azir. [01:25:26] Speaker A: Yep. He was featured for Faker in the world's video. He got buffed on the world's patch. It wasn't a big buff, it was just some W damage but still like this guy's just always going to be prevalent at Worlds and the fact that he got even just a small buff going into the event shows that riot is also they like it when he's meta worlds because it's just cool to see the best mid laners in the world pilot this champion. It's a fan favorite for sure. [01:25:51] Speaker C: He is one of the common comfort champions for I want to say almost every single player at Worlds with a small asterisk if your name is Knight. [01:26:02] Speaker A: I mean hey, Busio can even add his name to that list he played. [01:26:06] Speaker C: Don't remind me about his Azir support. [01:26:09] Speaker A: How fun was that? That was crazy. [01:26:11] Speaker C: It was terrible. I think it was a zero support and a Heimer Nayer support. [01:26:17] Speaker A: Yeah, it was not good either way though. I think A0J4 are both good choices there. So I will not mock or belittle Badger for this one even though I feel like that was the the trend today. But that's all of our thoughts and all the awards that we had to give out. Again everybody let us know yours if you agree with any, if you disagree with any, if you feel like we vastly overlooked a clear obvious choice, let us know in the community. Discord, you can Find a link in the description wherever you are listening along. But that's all that we had planned for this episode. By the time you're listening to this, world proper will have started, but hopefully not too much earlier. Hopefully we can get this still out the day after the first day of games. And then you can catch the part one and part two of our worlds preview so that you have all the information you need about worlds as it is starting up. I am just so happy that it's here, guys. It feels like this one snuck up on us. Like, does anybody else feel that this was like a really fast ramp? [01:27:14] Speaker B: I mean realistically speaking for to pull back the curtain. The games start in an hour and 18 minutes, so. [01:27:21] Speaker C: Yep. [01:27:22] Speaker A: Oh God, they do. Wait, that's crazy. [01:27:24] Speaker C: They start in just over an hour. This world feels. Feels like a weird one in all honesty. [01:27:30] Speaker A: It does. It really does. Yeah. Hey, but even if it feels a little odd just because of the speed of it all, it's still world season, baby. I best time of the year outside of Christmas for me. So yeah, strap in everybody. Hope you enjoy the games as much as we will all enjoy the games. And we'll be back. The group stage lasts a little over a week, I believe the Swiss stage. So we plan to be back at some point. Maybe we'll do a check in halfway through, but most likely we'll do another episode once the Swiss stage wraps to preview into the knockout stage. So be keeping your eye out wherever you listen to podcasts and if you can as well, you can give us a star. Who do I want to throw under the bus this time? Bickle, I haven't done it to you, I don't think. [01:28:18] Speaker C: Ever. [01:28:18] Speaker A: So Bickle, if you wanted to recommend people leave a number of stars for the podcast on the review, how many? How many would you recommend? [01:28:25] Speaker C: You can give us a star for each player of 100 Thieves that is about to be curb stomped into the ground by BLG in a couple hours. And that would be all five members. [01:28:37] Speaker A: You know what? Watch Hundred Thieves win that now after we completely like disrespected them over and over again this episode. [01:28:44] Speaker B: If that happens, I want somebody to give us a two star review and say it's because. Because of this reason. [01:28:51] Speaker A: Yeah, it's like only. Only top lane and mid lane got gapped. Actually it's probably gonna be like bot lane and top lane, but yeah, but. [01:28:58] Speaker C: There is a small gap between rounds three and round for games go until the 19th and then they have a break on the 20th. And 21st and then are back the 22nd, so we might get an inch midterm episode there. [01:29:11] Speaker A: Good shout out. Yes, we'll try and sneak one in there. Thank you for that. Yeah, I been a while since I looked at the schedule proper. Cool. Well, be looking out then next week for a halfway recap of how Swiss Stage is going. But for now, everybody get ready for world's best time of the year and just know that we love you and we'll see you next time. Bye. [01:29:31] Speaker C: Bye. [01:29:52] Speaker A: Sam. [01:30:18] Speaker C: It.