League Rundown - Episode 584: The last nut ever (definitive edition)

[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. [00:00:22] Speaker B: Game by game by game by game by. [00:00:26] Speaker A: Should be. 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. The Nexus hello and welcome to episode 584 of the League Rundown. This is your 2025 World's Knockouts kind of preview episode but a little late to the preview episode. And it's entitled the Last Nut Ever Definitive Edition. I'm your host Kangas and I'm joined by only one esteemed co host. With the world schedule it has been crazy getting everyone together but we got Badger fresh out of the can. [00:01:32] Speaker B: The last night ever the Collector's Edition Collect. [00:01:35] Speaker A: Collector's Edition. [00:01:37] Speaker B: Whatever you want to call it at this point. [00:01:38] Speaker A: No GameStop award edition. [00:01:41] Speaker B: GameStop Award Edition. You know Xbox Greatest hits. [00:01:45] Speaker A: The Last Night Xbox Game pass pre order with the little trophy. Yeah, but that's because by the time you're hearing this, a couple of days of the quarterfinals will have already happened. We had hoped to get an episode out like the night of the first knockouts, but just scheduling has been a nightmare for this worlds for a lot of us. So we're getting it out when we can. So you already will have known the outcome of HLA Gen G and then this next one as well with CFO versus kt. But we're gonna give our thoughts on that one as well. And then we'll see how well they age. Because Badger how well of our takes aged so far? [00:02:26] Speaker B: Well considering you and I both thought Hanwha was going to beat Gen G and we already know. So for full context we are recording on October 28th and KT versus CFO is in four and a half hours. [00:02:42] Speaker A: Yep. [00:02:43] Speaker B: So. So we. We already. We already saw JG take down Hanwell3.1 but both of us had Hanwha originally slating to beat Gen G. Yep. [00:02:56] Speaker A: And so we're gonna honor that by with our prediction. [00:02:58] Speaker B: We're gonna honor it and say that we both got the Han was series wrong. [00:03:03] Speaker A: So. So I believed in the last nut. I thought it was. [00:03:05] Speaker B: I also believed in the last night I wanted T1 vs Hanwell in the finals. Just so we have all the story lines. The Zeus. The Zeus Dorian drama That happened in the off season. [00:03:15] Speaker A: But Badger, that couldn't work because you must understand where we're. That would mean we're entering no nut November. By the time. [00:03:23] Speaker B: You're right, honestly, no November, I should have known that we were about to enter no nut November. And that's why we couldn't have. [00:03:32] Speaker A: You don't have it on your calendar? You don't have it circled? [00:03:35] Speaker B: No. [00:03:36] Speaker A: All right. Well. All right. [00:03:38] Speaker B: Before we derail too much. [00:03:41] Speaker A: We'Ll also talk about some other global news. Things that happened. Not a lot happened this past week, but we'll cover what we noticed. Roster news. Fnatic already making changes. Badger, they were fast to drop one of their players. Do you have any strong opinions on this one? [00:03:59] Speaker B: So Mickey X is gone from. [00:04:03] Speaker A: From. [00:04:04] Speaker B: From Fnatic. And the first thing I did after. [00:04:07] Speaker A: They got knocked out. Yeah. [00:04:09] Speaker B: Like the day after they got knocked out, there's already speculation that I. Is it. Is he part of this SK like rebuild team that they're like. I mean, we could talk about it down the line. Like, I feel like there's heavy rumors. [00:04:25] Speaker A: Around that nothing's been confirmed, but I. I could imagine that. [00:04:29] Speaker B: Yes. Yeah. So essentially, to keep people up to date with it, Sheep Esports, not sleepy sports. Make sure you're reading the. The Twitter headlines about. [00:04:41] Speaker A: Check the letters. [00:04:43] Speaker B: It's so funny to see people have that because we all just keep telling people they like got slept when they posted like a sleep link instead of a sheep link. So. But so essentially there's this stack that's coming through and I'm definitely buying time. Okay. Yeah, they've already like speculated or not speculated. Sources say Mickey X is set to join SK and lec. So but it's. It's who's skiings and Mickey X is like the big names. But there's also like speculation, I think with like Wonder, I thought was one of the other ones that was really. [00:05:27] Speaker A: I heard about that. Well, we. We know SK basically rebuilt a super temporary roster going into summer split. They brought on DND Skiing's Abadaga and like, did not work. I know Kadui wants to stay. He had had like an interview where he was like, I'm just happy. I see. Yeah. I hope that they keep me around because I'd love to play for them again. Obviously. That's a very pure. [00:05:47] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, here we go. [00:05:49] Speaker A: Get me out of here. [00:05:49] Speaker B: But like, so 10 minutes after the Mickey one went live leader set to join SK gaming. [00:05:57] Speaker A: Whoa. Okay. [00:05:59] Speaker B: And then 13 minutes after that one is wonder set to join SK gaming. [00:06:03] Speaker A: Oh, no, we're just getting the retirement home together. [00:06:06] Speaker B: Yeah, I know. It's, it's, it's the washed. The washed Watch team if I've ever seen it before. So the reported roster is Wonder Skin Leader 80 carry, TBD, and then Mickey, Mickey X. [00:06:20] Speaker A: Okay. Okay. That. Actually, you know what? [00:06:25] Speaker B: That team's a solid seventh place. [00:06:27] Speaker A: Could be worse. It could be worse. I, I think that their roster, this split was probably worse. [00:06:33] Speaker B: It just depends on who the but it just depends on who the AD carry is. I think for this team, like, they need someone who's like a world beater. They don't need. They, they can't have. Well, I mean, I don't think Mickey's gonna want to ever play with upset again. I don't, I don't want to see upset play. If he's gonna play as KDA as he does. [00:06:54] Speaker A: I will defend that man for maybe one more split. [00:06:58] Speaker B: Okay, I'm done defending him at this point. I thought he was insane back in 21, and then just like, it's gotten to the point that I'm just like, I, my upset stock is, has like plummeted all the way through the floor at this point, so. [00:07:16] Speaker A: Well, the roster losers or roster rumors don't stop just there because did you notice the Team Liquid tweet that went out? This got a lot of people talking about. [00:07:26] Speaker B: Oh, the appropriateness of it. [00:07:29] Speaker A: Yeah, it was a weird one. So Team Liquid tweeted out this, like, pretty long, kind of funny copy pasta about like, like, please stay in na quit essentially was the message. But like APA just quote retweets it with the thumbs up emoji, and I'm like, that's really awkward that they still have APA on. I saw him, like, around, like, I, I, I know he's been around. He, like, they have not dropped him. I don't know what they're doing though, because, like, that's kind of funny. Kind of Mimi. But like, also really awkward to just publicly basically say, like, we want quid even though we all know that they want quid. Like, that just feels bad for apa. So what do we think? Was that inappropriate for Team Liquid to tweet out or do you think it's funny? [00:08:12] Speaker B: Dude, I think it's. I, it's so funny at this point when org's like, do these copy pastas like this, and then people are just like, hold on, wait, wait a second. You guys, you guys have somebody under contract already? [00:08:22] Speaker A: Yeah. Like, you still have an active Mid laner right now. Like, what if you don't get Quid? [00:08:26] Speaker B: Because. [00:08:27] Speaker A: Because that's. Then the thing is everyone gets really hyped thinking like, oh, this is confirmation that Quid's going to Team Liquid. Everything I'm hearing is that Team Liquid is struggling to get quid because they don't have as big of a. Of a pocketbook as some of the other orgs do these days. Long gone are the days. Whereas, oh, Team Liquid. Steve Money is the meme. Like Team Liquid has more of a bu budget. That's why they got Apa and Yawn to begin with. That was kind of the beginning of it. And it. They haven't gotten like a bigger budget from my understanding unless they get like a big sponsor to come in. They just lost Honda though, so like, that's gonna be tough. So I, I don't expect Team Liquid Quid. He's like, it would be cool. I think that's a cool roster if he does decide to go there. But in my mind the reason Quid would go to Team Liquid is if he just wants to play with core jj who from my understanding expected to stay maybe Quid. Just like I want to play with the. But otherwise he can make more money going to a lot of other places. [00:09:23] Speaker B: I. I think that there TL is like his fourth op. His fourth best option, ironically. [00:09:30] Speaker A: The meme. [00:09:31] Speaker B: The meme. Fourth best option, obviously. [00:09:34] Speaker A: Yeah. So in NA shop, Firebellion's a big one because they got the pocketbook. [00:09:38] Speaker B: Still, I think Shopify would be a. [00:09:39] Speaker A: Big one like from. From overseas. Like LPL and LCK teams are scouting. [00:09:43] Speaker B: I genuinely, I think that there's going to be at least one, if not multiple LCK teams that'll just look at him for. For mid lane because like he has good tape. Like he. He played really well at world. [00:09:57] Speaker A: He was stand out on despite the. [00:10:00] Speaker B: Rest of his team just like you know, being like a middling. Like. I mean they went 2, 3 and they had the hardest schedule pretty much. [00:10:07] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:10:08] Speaker B: Or 1 3. Yeah, yeah, 1 3. Yeah. I'm getting a mix. [00:10:13] Speaker A: Yeah, I know. I wish they had gone two, three. Okay. [00:10:16] Speaker B: They had the Fly Quest series. I. If. If Hunter Thieves had the Fly Quest schedule. The schedule, I think they probably would have made it out. I mean it would have been tough to beat CFO for that team, but I think Honky vs Quit would have been a really good match. Yeah, I would have been. I would have been geeking about it for at least like three days. [00:10:35] Speaker A: That would have been very Exciting. But all that's to say, there's gonna be a lot of speculation around Quid over the next couple of weeks. We've been talking about where's Quid going for about a month now. I mean, honestly, since the beginning of summer, because we knew. [00:10:47] Speaker B: I. I still think. I think. I think Sentinels quid and then just pull like smasher, smash from T1 Academy. If you can somehow get that. If you pry him away. Yeah, from T1 Academy. Like, that would be really good starting. [00:11:05] Speaker A: Point for Berserker for a year and then he struggled. But like, it has worked to grab T1 Academy players. The problem is it has not worked to get international success with the academy. [00:11:17] Speaker B: Yeah, it's fair players. [00:11:18] Speaker A: Yeah. But it works domestically at least. So we'll keep our eyes on that story as it continues. [00:11:24] Speaker B: I think they already also said that their goal was not to be successful. Like in 26. They want to start building. They want to go for 27, which. [00:11:33] Speaker A: I mean, I had heard very much like Sentinels was going to go for a young developmental roster. I was expecting players like Griffin, expecting players like Serdi to be picked up by them. These kind of younger, unproven guys that everyone's like, they have potential, but they just haven't had a good roster yet. So we'll see. [00:11:51] Speaker B: Yeah, I'm just trying to think like challenger challenger 80s in like Korea. I mean, like Daystar from Fear X Youth is like, I think the next like quid level player coming over if you get somebody like that. But like, like Trigger from Dongshim Academy or Smash since they already have Cipher kind of set up at that point, like, if they do a buyout for Smash. Because I think they're gonna stick with Guma as long as they want to stick with as as long as they can at this point, just based on how much success the T1 has had. But like, if you are gonna be a Sentinels fan or you want to be a Sentinels fan, start looking at LCK Challengers players. [00:12:35] Speaker A: Like you're expecting a couple. [00:12:37] Speaker B: I'm expecting. I'm expecting two LCK Challenger players. And then impact win some and then you just have to figure out jumble at that point. [00:12:46] Speaker A: I don't have faith in Impact. [00:12:48] Speaker B: I mean, again, again, Impact just for the sheer fact that they said they like the guy who runs Sentinels like he was on the dive and he said we. We don't think we're basically the tldr of it is like we don't want to be competitive in 26. We want to be competitive in 27, so we're going to build towards that. So, like, bringing in young players, like, even if it's just like, bringing over these, like, Korean challenger players and, like, letting them get their feet wet and like, tier one, like, I mean, there's still decent players in LCS for them to get their feet wet against. I mean, just. Just take a chance on. I. I think taking a chance on one of these guys is just like the. Just the move that you would want to make at this point. [00:13:35] Speaker A: Does Impact not take up an import slot? I'm pretty sure no. [00:13:38] Speaker B: He's a resident. Yeah. Yeah, Winsome's a resident. Impact is a resident. So, like, you could do Impact, Winsome, win some. Just. [00:13:46] Speaker A: I mean, that roster is gonna be that good. And it doesn't even feel developmental either. Like, that doesn't feel like, oh, we'll win in 27 Type of roster either. Unless their goal is to get the challenger players from Korea up to speed. Yeah. And then. [00:13:59] Speaker B: And then in 27, have, like, have something right, like a system in place ready to go for them that truly. [00:14:06] Speaker A: Would be like, a four Koreans and then one other guy. [00:14:11] Speaker B: It really would be. And that's the only thing. But, like, I just. There's just so many good players over there. Just like you're. You take a look through and it's just. [00:14:21] Speaker A: We'll see. We'll see. I still think Brazilian players turned a lot of heads in. In terms of scouting. I know that they're going to take up an import slot now going forward, but I think that NA players, na teams hearing kind of the talk after LTA playoffs being like, okay, some of these guys are worth looking at and they are much cheaper than bringing over, like, a. A challenger Korean player, at least, like, proportionally to, you know, what standard rates are. [00:14:48] Speaker B: Right, Right. [00:14:51] Speaker A: But, yeah, that's some of the roster stuff. Again, that all stemmed from Team Liquid. Cool conversation to have, but we'll save more of our thoughts on. On offseason stuff for after Worlds variety topics. You already kind of mentioned it. I love the Sleep Esports account. If you haven't heard about this, it is so sheep. Esports was notable for kind of coming about because of the LEC Wooloo and the lcs. What was the LCS one? [00:15:18] Speaker B: It was like, oh, gosh, Charm. [00:15:21] Speaker A: I don't know. [00:15:22] Speaker B: Yeah, LCS tv. [00:15:24] Speaker A: I think it was LCS Eevee. So there were like, the Pokemon leak accounts where I still don't know who they are. I think that they have come public at this point, they're just like, big fans, but they do journalism. [00:15:34] Speaker B: She Be Sports has, like, their actual names on there. Yeah. [00:15:38] Speaker A: And now she Be Sports. You've probably heard it before. They do pretty reputable leaks of information for rosters, as well as just good articles on, like, interviewing players and stuff. And now there is a derivative of that called Sleep Esports. If you know NBA Sentel, you'll understand the gimmick of this. Intel is like a parody account that mimics NBA Central and tweets as if it is the primary account. Same thing here. Sleep Esports is tweeting as if they are sheep Esports words, but just like funny, silly troll ones. One example was during the fly quest G2 series after game one, they said Bwipo is getting subbed out for Geckos. When questioned, Flyquest management said it's just that time of the month. So, like, you can get an idea of the type of tweets these are. I think they're hilarious and people are falling for it left and right, dude. Like, people do not understand that this is a troll account. And it's so funny. Have you gotten sleep Slept yet? [00:16:40] Speaker B: Has I have not? Because I always take a look out for it. Just there. There's the amount of times. So like, Formula one has one called Formula Fakers and it's gotten. I just like, I've known between Sentel and Fakers and Sleep just like, take that extra 10 seconds. Read the username so you don't get. So you don't get slept by. By the. The sleepy sports account. [00:17:07] Speaker A: Duffy got slept, if you remember. [00:17:08] Speaker B: Duffy got slept. [00:17:09] Speaker A: Yeah, there was a Sleep Esports article about Serdi replacing Photon on Dig. And he was like, you got to talk about this, guys. And I was like, dude, no, that's a fake account. [00:17:18] Speaker B: We were like, right? [00:17:21] Speaker A: That's awesome. [00:17:22] Speaker B: It works. [00:17:24] Speaker A: It worked. It worked. It's getting people. So if you have gotten slept, do not fret. It's happened to me. It's happened to Duffy. I guess it has not happened to Badger yet, but maybe it'll. [00:17:33] Speaker B: We'll get him one down the line. [00:17:35] Speaker A: Down the line, down the line. But bless the funny parody account, because I feel like we haven't had that many social media accounts pop off around League of Legends, and this is like a newer, fresh one that feels like it's getting people talking and having fun again. So I think it's cool. Other than that. The 2026 LEC format explainer dropped already. We're gonna save kind of our opinions on it and a deep breakdown of it for after Worlds because again, we're trying to keep conversations mostly about Worlds. I know I say that as it's already been like almost 30 for this pre show or like 20 minutes, but a TLDR is that there's going to be overlap between Tier 2 and Tier 1 in Europe, which I some people love it, some people hate it. From my understanding, the owners of the franchise, like the teams that bought into the franchise, are not happy about it, but people like Los Ratones are very happy about it because now they get to compete and actually have a shot at like making it to Worlds, which is crazy. Again, we'll give more details on that later, but if you want to check it out in the meantime, go check it out. But you know, overlap between Tier 1 and Tier 2 is happening now in Europe. All right, that was all that I had for news. Did I miss anything that you noticed, Badger? [00:18:50] Speaker B: Not that I'm aware of. I mean not that it's public information yet either, so fair enough. [00:18:55] Speaker A: Well, if we miss anything that you the listeners have noticed, make sure to let us know in our community. Discord. You can find a link in the description wherever you are listening as well as if you want to support the podcast. We have a Patreon, we have a merch shop. Links for those are also in the description wherever you are listening. With that said, let's hop into Worlds, Badger, because we have the second half basically of Swiss to cover reactionarily of like what happened and then also to preview some of the knockout stage which is to us still mostly happening. So the way that we're going to kind of talk through it is first off just kind of COVID the teams that made it out of the Swiss stage. We have the definitive top eight and they are Genji HLE KT T1. That's right. All four of the LCK representatives made it into knockout stage. A full 4 out of 4 incredible work from Korea and then we have from the lpl, Top Esports and Anyone's legend only two. So they only got half of them in. And the last two in the top eight are G2 from Europe and six CFO from the LCP. That's right. If you didn't catch up and you might have noticed there was one name missing there, Fly Quest, 100 Thieves, North America and technically Vivocates. The Americas did not get a team into Knockout Sage this year, which not only that, lost to G2 on the way there. So G2 ended our win streak. NA's win streak against Europe in best of fives. [00:20:29] Speaker B: So now LCS is technically the fifth region. [00:20:32] Speaker A: We are definitively, as of this year, 2025, the worst region in the world. [00:20:39] Speaker B: Yeah, that sucks, man. [00:20:41] Speaker A: It really. [00:20:42] Speaker B: It kind of. It really does. Like. Yeah, sucks. It just. [00:20:51] Speaker A: There's not much else that you really can't say about it. I did the math and it was. What? Like, we went cumulative. Like, four wins, five or no. Yeah, four wins. So all of N A. This isn't Vivo K but Vivocade. They didn't pick up a game, right? Or did they get one game win? They won. [00:21:10] Speaker B: Well, yeah, they beat. They beat. Shoot. Who was it? [00:21:16] Speaker A: Did they win a game in their best of three? No, they lost a blg. Oh, two. And they. They beat psg. [00:21:23] Speaker B: Yeah, they beat psg. I'm trying. I was like, they beat Fanatic. No, Fnatic beat Lost. Coy. Yeah, they beat psg. Who is. I mean, it's so much harder when. [00:21:30] Speaker A: You have to do the Swiss stage, like, bracket information rather than the. The group stage. But anyway, so this is just for North America. This isn't vivocad. You add theirs in, it doesn't look much better, but flag was 100. These went four and eight total. So 33% win record. That's rough. And, like, usually you could excuse that, but being like, well, that was the region. But, like, we had one good team. No, we didn't have one really good team. Both 100 deeds and fly quest heavily. [00:21:58] Speaker B: And, I mean, someone's gonna be like, oh, well, well, the lec. They only beat LEC teams and Fanatic or. Well, I guess Koi beat Secret Whales. But. Yeah, yeah, no, I. I mean, I. We're definitively number five at this point because we did not have a single team make it out. [00:22:19] Speaker A: And. Yes, and it's from. It's most disappointing from fly quest perspective. 100 Thieves were the scrappy underdogs. I'm still celebrating how their Worlds win because they beat BLG and they, like, had fun against T1, you know, whatever. [00:22:34] Speaker B: But, like, became a star in China. [00:22:38] Speaker A: And it's like, we had no expectations for 100 thieves. Everything I had seen was like, oh, they're. They could be the worst team at Worlds. I know Bickle believed that. I was like, I don't see a reason not to believe that. I had faith still, but I just didn't, like, expect much, if that makes any amount of sense. So, like, for their performance, I'm gonna excuse much more. FlyQuest. We had a lot of expectation for. They crushed North America surprise loss in split one. But like, yeah, whatever that was down in Brazil, people were tired and dehydrated and stuff, getting sick. But then split 2 and 3 is where FlyQuest really kicked it on. Didn't really have much Competition outside of Cloud 9. Thought, okay, they can do it. They can keep their win record against teams like G2. They crushed them at MSI. We don't talk about what happened at EWC, but the big thing being that, like, we thought. I thought many people thought FlyQuest could do damage at this world, and that's where the pain comes from, is that they just didn't look like they had fight in them. You watch their gameplay, it was slow. You watched their drafting, it was shit. You watch their player cams and they just look depressed and it's like, man, they just like, didn't. Usually I'm like, I'm okay with the loss as long as I had a reason to cheer. I don't even feel like FlyQuest gave me a reason to cheer this year. And that's the thing hurts the most. Yeah. [00:24:03] Speaker B: I mean, they gave me a reason to cheer because the cfo, my beloved. But again, I feel like I'm, you know, abandoning my NA fandom when I say stuff like this. [00:24:18] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:24:20] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:24:22] Speaker A: So pity party over for Fly Quest. Let's talk about the other teams now, because there were. I mean, everybody else doesn't really celebrate. We're the ones left out of the party. But, you know, it's fine. It's fine. We did something last week on the episode where we went through kind of three categories because it's impossible to talk about every game, every series. It's just too much. So instead we're going to kind of break it down into certain categories to capture what we think were the cool things that happened in the second half of the Swiss round. Biggest surprise was one that we covered last week and we're going to revisit it again here. So mine for biggest surprise was CFO almost 3 0. And for the second half of Swiss stage, I actually didn't feel like there were that many other big surprises. So I actually just changed it to. The more I think about it, the more I am really surprised. KT swept their way to the 3.0stage. [00:25:11] Speaker B: Right. [00:25:12] Speaker A: Like you. [00:25:12] Speaker B: You look at it and you look at some of the games that were played over, like over that. Those. The round four, Round five of Swiss and just being like. I mean, BLG did the thing where they. Well, no, they. Never mind. They Weren't in the. They went 1:1 to start. They weren't in the. They weren't in the. [00:25:31] Speaker A: Yeah, they lost Hundred thieves and then be fnatic. [00:25:34] Speaker B: I mean, Top Esports almost pulled the. Pulled the Go to. Oh, and then lose out the rest of group stage. Like, they were really close to doing it. [00:25:44] Speaker A: Feels like somebody does it every year. Yeah, but Katie, the one knock against them is that they. Two of the three teams they beat didn't make it out. And the one that they beat, two. Oh. Like you said, Top Esports, they almost bombed out. [00:25:58] Speaker B: Like, they were struggling. [00:25:59] Speaker A: They were one game away from not making it. So there's a world where KT qualified first, beating three teams that didn't qualify. So when you look at the strength of schedule, it's like, ah. But then you look at the. How they won the games. I'm like, no, I actually think that it was. [00:26:12] Speaker B: Meanwhile, you have anyone's legend who surprised Hanwell, who beat Genji, and who beat CFO to make it out. You're just like, okay, yeah, that's definitive. And then, like, kd, that's a little more definitive. You beat, like, you. You beat, you know, the second seed from lcp and then lec, and then you'd be, I mean, an LPL team. So, like, you have one there that kind of semi validates it, I would say. [00:26:36] Speaker A: But I'll still give them the biggest surprise just because I didn't even think they would make it out of the Swiss. [00:26:43] Speaker B: See, I thought they would make it out. It's just. I didn't think they were gonna do it as the fashion that they did. [00:26:49] Speaker A: But now that we've seen all of Swiss Stage, what was your biggest surprise? Badger, what do you. What do you think? Like, something that you were like. I didn't see that one coming. You know what? [00:27:00] Speaker B: Honestly, I was, like, looking at. [00:27:02] Speaker A: I might even change it back to FlyQuest. Not making it in. [00:27:04] Speaker B: Because I really thought. Yeah, I think. I think Fly Quest with the draw that they had not making it in is, like, it's huge. I mean, bl BLG making it in with the draw. They had, like, teams that. Teams that had favorable draws and yet still got eliminated very early on into the tournaments. I mean, like, I know it's like a different story when you say, like, secret whales, but, like, secret whales had, like, vks, kt, Fly and Koi. Like, those are winnable games. [00:27:35] Speaker A: Like, yep. In fact, that's what I put for craziest story, which I know is pretty similar to, like, Biggest surprise, but craziest story, I think has to be the BLG slip up. Like, they. Yeah. Pulled this draw, dude. [00:27:48] Speaker B: I mean, there are people that had BLG as the favorites going into worlds. [00:27:53] Speaker A: Like, you had them going three. [00:27:55] Speaker B: I had them going three. [00:27:56] Speaker A: Zero. [00:27:56] Speaker B: Yeah, I had them three. And. Oh, and they just decided to shit the bed. I mean, that was over night one when they lost Honor Thieves. But, like, even then, just like the fact that they lost on their thieves. They lost a G2. They lost a top on the last day. Like, wild. Honestly, I feel like BLG was the team that. [00:28:19] Speaker A: This happens almost every worlds where there's like a heavy hitter that shits the bed. [00:28:25] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:28:25] Speaker A: And this just was. [00:28:27] Speaker B: Normally. Normally it's one of the hyped LPL teams, it seems like, at this point. [00:28:33] Speaker A: Yes, almost always. Almost always there is a hyped lpl. [00:28:36] Speaker B: Sorry, Miss. Oh, I. I don't mean to. On your region, but, like, it always seems like it's one of the LPL teams that kind of fails to make it out of Swiss stage at that point. [00:28:46] Speaker A: And, I mean, was it Mizel that was saying that he didn't think BLG were the hope? He actually. I think he put it on anyone's. [00:28:52] Speaker B: He put on anyone's legend. Yeah. Because I was. [00:28:55] Speaker A: Mazel. Had different opinions on Top and al. But one of them said so. So one of them backed one of those teams. Like, I. I know that each of them backed one of those teams, so. And I mean, well said. I mean, obviously they're the two that cast at the games in the unofficial English broadcast and. [00:29:09] Speaker B: Right. [00:29:10] Speaker A: Those were the two that made it out. So. [00:29:13] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, we. And what's wild is BLG was one of the teams that we all unanimously had going out because, like, I think they. I think Biggle said there was only four teams that we all had unanimously making it. And it was like, Hanwood, Gen, G, T1, Blg. And then, like, the bottom part of it was a crapshoot between, like, CFO, G2, TOP, KT, FLY, AL, like, all of those. But, like, those teams were like the four horsemen coming in from what we thought. And then, you know, somebody fell off the horse and wasn't able to get back on. [00:29:47] Speaker A: Casey wrote up on their little pony, and we're like, Katie rolled up. [00:29:53] Speaker B: Yeah, exactly. [00:29:55] Speaker A: They got their carousel. [00:29:57] Speaker B: Yeah. Just, like, looking at, I mean, like, some of these teams just, like the draws that they had. Like, I mean. Yeah, like, BLG has to have had the easiest draw. [00:30:09] Speaker A: To then draw. [00:30:10] Speaker B: Oh, BLG definitely had the easiest draw. [00:30:12] Speaker A: FlyQuest is up there because they lost a G2 and I, you know that that is. I think the. The biggest like takeaway in the narrative that we had set up last week was like, like there's three teams that are the number one from the the three regions fighting for like who's next in line. Lcp, lec, lta. We didn't know which first seed was going to be best, which was going to be worst. But Black Quest lost to both. They lost to G2 and CFO. Yeah, pretty definitive that. [00:30:42] Speaker B: Yeah, we. [00:30:42] Speaker A: We were the. The worst out of the those three. But yeah, I think. [00:30:48] Speaker B: I think my biggest surprise honestly is if you were to make a team of like each, like if you were supposed to do like the all Swiss stage team, I think the ad carry on. That team is doggo. Like, I think that's my biggest surprise is that I would. I would go to doggo first for like player of Swiss because it would be like BDD mid lane for sure. I think I probably would have. I didn't prepare this. This is bad. This is bad things. Move on. [00:31:21] Speaker A: You know what, we could do that maybe later, but would be fun to do it with the knockout stage because then we can talk about Viper and how crazy he looked. Let's get into that because I. I have best game slash series from the Swiss stage. Slash. Technically I'm cheating because the one that I put was first round of knockouts. It's already happened by the time we're recording. If you haven't watched it. Gen G versus Hle. My favorite series of the year so far. Specifically because of game two. [00:31:51] Speaker B: Oh my gosh, Game two. [00:31:53] Speaker A: Oh God. That was a crazy back and forth and a. The longest game of Worlds. The longest game at worlds in a long time. 58. 51 was the total time on the clock. Almost a full hour. And it was a banger. Dude. There was so many team fights, so many crazy moments. I thought the game was gonna end at 31 minutes and then it goes another 30 minutes. It's like, oh my God, this is crazy. [00:32:19] Speaker B: The power of six just. Yeah, it was. It was insane. I saw that. I think mine. I mean. Yeah, that series is really good. I think Top Billy. Billy. Just like the desperation that both teams had. I mean we. We saw Shadow and Base one and as soon as base one came in in game three, I was just like, oh, this is over. Top Esports made it out. Yeah, well, Base one played night one against Hunter Thieves Lost and then hadn't been seen since until the 1. Until game 3. And the 2. 2. Best of three to make it out of Swiss against a team that you've. You've played in the LPL that knows. That knows you really well. Yeah. [00:33:07] Speaker A: I feel like anytime you see those team region kills, it can be very exciting for people not from the region because you see really high level narrative wise. People that watch that region are like, man, like, why do I have to. [00:33:21] Speaker B: One of these teams? [00:33:21] Speaker A: Plus, like we've seen this match before. But like, I. I haven't seen a lot of that. So I. I do agree. That was a good one too. Versus Billy. Billy Gen G versus Hle. No surprise. Elsa, can LPL teams give us pretty good League of Legends series? Turns out. [00:33:36] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:33:37] Speaker A: So go back and watch those if you haven't already. But that kind of leads us into the knockout stage conversation. And the reason I wanted to segue into that was because I'd mentioned Viper. Man, what a performance in that series. [00:33:50] Speaker B: Versus Gen G. Dude, he was really freaking hard. It was. It was really bad. It. He. He had an incredible series. Like, if. If I don't want to say this is like one of the best series in a losing effort that I've ever seen because it's really hard to like articulate that. But like, he played like a monster. He was actually like 1v1v9 in some of those games. [00:34:25] Speaker A: Yeah. And like his stats, I'm trying to find them right now because I know Lowly Esports was like tweeting it out. Viper had an insane. He went like 909 in game three. That was. [00:34:38] Speaker B: He was like 24, 24 four and something like that. I can't remember. I. I could easily find it. I think it's posted somewhere that I can just take a look at real fast. [00:34:52] Speaker A: Yeah, I was trying to find it. I couldn't find it. All I know is that he had. [00:34:56] Speaker B: He went 28, 8 and 24 in the series. [00:35:01] Speaker A: That is impressive. Peanut also they win the one game that gave him his 98th international win. But unfortunately this was the last we will ever see of Peanut before we went live officially here on the podcast. I know that you were talking about it that like getting a little emotional just thinking about you're never gonna get to watch Peanut and. Or Peanut play again. [00:35:23] Speaker B: Peanut, really? [00:35:24] Speaker A: Without a hundred international wins, man, if they won the series, that would have been the hundredth win. That would have been so cool. [00:35:31] Speaker B: Peanut just like is one of those junglers that like. Because there's like you have like the. All the old school junglers. [00:35:38] Speaker A: You. [00:35:39] Speaker B: You have like clear love and score and those guys like back in the day that just like Diamond Prox was like a huge innovator in jungle. And then you had like the second Renaissance. You had players like you had Peanut and then you had like Canyon coming in and trying to think like Bengi. Well, Bengi would have been in the like in the OG class. Like there's just been these tears of like this. These eras of junglers and like Peanut. I mean Peanut came in with like Nanjin in 2015 and definitely made a mark on the scene. And then of course then got picked up by the 2016 Rocks Tigers team. [00:36:22] Speaker A: Which legendary roster? [00:36:24] Speaker B: The Legendary Team of the Rocks team that was. That gave us the best series ever in semis in 2016 versus rock stars 2016. [00:36:35] Speaker A: That was the Ash Arrow from across. [00:36:37] Speaker B: The Prey Arrow, the Zyra support pick. There's this insane clip in game three where Bengi and Prey or not Prey, Biggie and Bang have this like insane 2v4 outplay and top lane. It's just. There's just so much going on in that series that like when you take a look back at it and you just. There's a reason I've watched this series like every year, like going into worlds to get hyped for it because it's literally the best series ever. I mean 2022 finals is up there now as well. Like 2022 DRX versus Gen G is up there as well. I mean but it was like that one was the. That was the. That's the series that if I ever. If someone's like, like tell me a best of five that I can watch to get me into why I should watch League of Legends competitively. I would say 2016 semis, that T1, the T1 Rock series is incredible. [00:37:40] Speaker A: That was the first Worlds that I actually truly watched also. I watched like every single game. That's when I was really getting into just viewing League of Legends and so holds a special place in my heart as well. Hard to see Peanut go. But I will say in every, you know, when a door closes, a window opens type of situation here that yes, it is sad to see Peanut retire and no longer be playing. Shout out to Duro first Worlds and he's already made it to semifinals. Wasn't this guy in the challengers league last year? Like LCK Challengers who Duro the support. [00:38:19] Speaker B: He. He was on Fear X but he was a late call up to Fear X for summer he was on Fear Ex Youth, okay, in like spring. [00:38:31] Speaker A: So I. I just know I had never heard his name until like this year. And I was like, oh, like, who's this Duro guy? Didn't really look into him, but, like, impressive. He's on Gen G. It's just one. [00:38:44] Speaker B: Of those things that he had really good tape and like, his Academy team that he was on was really good and they brought him up to the main, main team and he was still performing well. And then he. Then he of course got sniped by Gen G and he's had a couple. [00:38:58] Speaker A: Of good, good performances. He also had a couple of rough ones versus Hle, like in Game two. I think he was part of why Hanwell life was able to get some purchase back in. His Nautilus was very squishy. And then also his bard left a lot to be desired in Game 3. But I think overall the tape still looks good at Worlds. And when you're surrounded by a bunch of goats, it's gonna be easy to point the finger at the new guy and be like, well, he's struggling. But still I wanted to shout out that, you know, it's like the Phoenix rising or so, I don't know, something like that. You know, there's death and then rebirth. Here we have a new legend potentially entering the scene here with support Duro. So shout out to him. But now let's bring our attention forward to the next coming series because it's. You already mentioned it's happening tonight, but we get to talk about it before we know what happens. KT versus cfo. This is one where technically we have the same predict or same opinion, different predictions. So you predicted CFO3.1. You actually think that the Flying Oysters can take this one over kt? You know, not to get excited about KT despite them being your team. And for me, I want CFO to win. So I predicted KT3.2 and I'm gonna get excited. I'm excited about KT, dude. I'm actually really excited about them in the knockout stage. [00:40:25] Speaker B: Yeah, I just think. I just think that, like, bdd, how much is BDD gonna be able to contain Hongq and how much is the KT bot Lane gonna be able to contain Doggo and Kai Wing? Like, plain and simple. [00:40:44] Speaker A: And I don't know pound for pound how they're gonna match up. I just know that narrative buff exists for both of these teams. Like, no matter who wins, I think the story is cool. I just, man, I would love it for LCP to Make it into semifinals because like LCK is guaranteed with. I mean they already had Gen G going in but like they were guaranteed one just because of the HLE Gen G matchup. Expecting. We'll talk about predictions for. For that later. Expecting T1 to make it. I think it'd be cool for there to be another region that isn't just LCK LPL in semifinals. Because when is the last time we had a non LCK LPL team in the semifinals? Is it actually C9 in 2018? [00:41:27] Speaker B: No. [00:41:27] Speaker A: I guess. [00:41:27] Speaker B: No, I would have been 2019 finals. 2021. I thought G2 made final or semis. [00:41:36] Speaker A: Damn. I just blanking on that one. [00:41:38] Speaker B: I might be. I might be incorrect when I say that. No, no they didn't. Hold on, let me scroll through this real fast. [00:41:47] Speaker A: Either way, it takes a. It like it's been a while and. And when it happens, it's kind of a blue moon situation. Europe had a legendary run 2018. [00:41:56] Speaker B: G2 made 2022 semis. [00:41:59] Speaker A: Okay, and who'd they be in the quarters? [00:42:01] Speaker B: They be Gen G3.0 in the course. [00:42:04] Speaker A: Interesting. [00:42:05] Speaker B: That was that. But that was the BDD powerhead. It was a weird. It was a weird roster back then. [00:42:14] Speaker A: Interesting. Well, either way. Oh yeah. And then they lost to blg, right? Wasn't. Wasn't that the time that they got knocked out? [00:42:20] Speaker B: Or was that T1 sooning? No, they lost a DOM one in semis because G2 was always the DAM one killers leading into that world. And then. And then G2 lost a DAM one in semis and then Damwon beat Suning in finals. And that was the only world title for Showmaker. [00:42:38] Speaker A: Well, it shows how well my brain memory storage works. I swear to God I can. [00:42:43] Speaker B: I had to look it up because I could. I thought. I thought G2 made 2021. [00:42:47] Speaker A: But I mean you were close. You're close. I'll give you half credit. [00:42:50] Speaker B: Such a weird like time frame. [00:42:53] Speaker A: But either way, LCP has never been able to pull it off. Or at least not since like technically second year where the Taipei Assassins won. But then you know, they just haven't been able to get back up to that level. I think it'd be cool to see. [00:43:07] Speaker B: If I saw a tweet. So the global power rankings like the AWS one came out. CFO is fifth in the AWS thing and they're like the highest ranked non LCK LPL team since like 2019. G2 essentially. [00:43:28] Speaker A: And we all know how accurate the AWS stat, obviously. Yeah, very accurate. Very well, memes aside, that I think is going to be the exciting series, unfortunately I can't say go watch it tonight because you're not gonna hear this. It'll already have been out. But if you're listening and you have not yet watched it, I expect it to be a banger. Hopefully it is. Highly recommend going back and checking it out. If you are listening to this and you have already watched it, don't spoil to me because there's a chance I don't get to watch it live. I'm gonna try to, but maybe I can't because I have a birthday tomorrow and I got plans for it in the morning. So we'll see how that goes. Maybe I'll just be a tired boy tomorrow then. Next up, G2 versus Top Esports. Badger, you walked me off the ledge here, walked me down because I initially had G2 taking this. I thought there's a chance they could do it. I was like, dude, G2's coming in hot. 3 One team made quick work of Fly Quest. But then you reminded me, well, they lost the top esports round one. And also it's modern day G2 versus an LPL team. And I was like, you know what? That's all I need to be a hater. Yeah. Top Esports 6 is 3 2. You also have top Esports 3 2. Do you have any more nuance though behind your reasoning? [00:44:48] Speaker B: Yeah. So essentially my nuance behind it is I think that the ways the G2 have been successful is playing through mid jungle and I don't know if they're gonna be able to do that this, this, this series because I think Cream is the perfect neutralizing like mid laner that you can imagine for a team. And then Kanabi is everything that Skumon wants to dream of being as a player at this point and cannabis season. And Skuman is a rookie coming onto the world stage. Jackie. Jackie and Hong should be able to take care of Hansama Lebrov. 369 broken blade is a match we've seen before and it's gone kind of in the favor of 369 in the past. It's just, I think this team matches just really well into what G2 wants to do. I. It's really was, I think one of probably the worst teams that G2 could have drawn in this situation. Especially considering that, you know, they didn't. They weren't going to be able to draw Al or KT at that point. I, I think I'm ready to be wrong because I've been wrong about G2 in the past, but like it just. Everything's just pointing to like TES ensuring that the LPL still has the dominance over the LEC at this point point. [00:46:21] Speaker A: It has not been a great matchup for G2 in the past. I will say similar to, to what you were just saying there. If you are an EU fan, I think that you still have faith. You would rather get sports than like they could have gotten Gen G or Hanwha. And like they didn't get Gen G Hanwha. I think that that's a win for, for G2 and just based on the. The strength of them now maybe if you're EU fan, you're going to argue, well, we have a better matchup versus EL LCK teams than LPL teams historically. [00:46:54] Speaker B: Sure. But yeah, sure. I don't think, I don't think you would want to play an LCK team in quarters at this tournament. [00:47:01] Speaker A: Current form. I think that they actually have a shot to beat them. I have a pretty close. You have a pretty close as well. Last one is T1 versus Al and we both have full faith in the reigning world champions despite being fourth seed to take it home and beat Al in the best of T1B. [00:47:20] Speaker B: Honestly, the biggest, biggest, the biggest surprise for me this tournament is how little of a wrench this is thrown. Like a, like how much of like a deterrence like T1 actually being the fourth seed was. I mean, like, it kind of worked in the first round of Swiss just because, you know, they. Fly Quest got the unfortunate disaster of playing T1 in the first round. But like, they knocked out like IG. Okay, like, and then T1 drew, you know, fly quest in the first round. That kind of put him in the upper bracket. They got a little bit favorable of a schedule throughout. Like, all right, yeah, whatever. I think that I was. I was kind of being like, oh, man. T1 being the fourth seed is going to be the biggest storylines because it's going to create all these matchups and all these like, unfavorable matchup for teams that draw them in the later rounds because, like, I mean, these four LCK 100 thieves. [00:48:26] Speaker A: What are you trying to say? I agree. [00:48:31] Speaker B: Yeah. It's just, I. I don't know, have LCK having four strong teams, LPL having like two pseudo strong teams, and then like a third team that should have been strong. It. Oh my gosh. It just makes the Swiss stage more of like a landmine situation. [00:48:50] Speaker A: Well, again, if half the teams were monkeys in front of keyboards, then A team with monkeys and keyboards would make it to knockouts. Statistically, yeah, not guaranteed. But statistically they would. So it's the same thing with like the top teams like blg. There's an argument maybe that they're better than like, you know, a G2 or, or a CFO maybe. But like, we won't get to know that because the way that the draw worked, they lost the top esports on the way up. Now with that said, that would mean T1 again. Dude, somebody on they're really upping the game. No longer do they just have somebody on the skins department with a lever that buffs their damage by 10 in game. They also have somebody to rig the draw for them because that means that if they beat al LPL team, who do they go up Against Next? Either G2 or Top Esports on their side of the bracket. Right. Or am I reading the bracket wrong? I believe that's, that's how the bracket. [00:49:48] Speaker B: They'Re on that side because the Alt1 winner be plays G2TS winner. [00:49:55] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:49:55] Speaker B: And then winner of KT CFO plays Gen G in semis. [00:49:59] Speaker A: That is so funny. It is so funny that T1 could get either back to back LPL teams or LPL Leck. They don't have an LCK team on their side of the bracket. It's gonna be all team kills of LCK on the other side. T1 are going to finals, dude. Like, let's just talk about. Because we also predicted for. Yeah, the semifinals because those will happen before our next episode. We will get an episode out before actual finals. So don't you fret there. But we will not get an episode out before semifinals. So we predicted that it would be CFO beating Gen G. Although technically both of us had an HLE going. [00:50:34] Speaker B: Yeah, we both predict. I just, I, I mean I obviously at this point, like I think Gen G is the best team in the world. [00:50:42] Speaker A: Like, yes. If, if I could go back in, like knowing what I know now, I would say Gen G wins this. But I tried to predict based on what I expected without seeing Agen G Hle and I was like narrative of cfo. Hehe. But no, after seeing Gen G, I'm like, no, Genji probably will be in finals. [00:51:00] Speaker B: I don't want to. I, I, I love seeing Gen GT1 in huge series like this, but I'm tired of seeing it. Please just give at this point, dude, it feels inevitable. Like it just feels really inevitable. [00:51:13] Speaker A: So we both have cfo. But consider that kind of like a bit of A. [00:51:16] Speaker B: It's a cope. [00:51:17] Speaker A: It should be Gen G. And then we both have T1 beating out Top Esports. [00:51:22] Speaker B: Yeah, I think. [00:51:23] Speaker A: Or. Or G2 if no matter who makes it in, I have T1 winning that one. Oh, so does that mean Worlds is ruined? Just pack it up, send it home. [00:51:33] Speaker B: Like, I mean, we're. We're like three days away from me being able to be like, oh, it's LCK autumn again. Like. Yeah, I, I just feel like I've made the LCK autumn at Worlds joke every year for like the last like three years at this point. Just because that's what it's pretty much came down to. It's. You mean 22 was 22. The top four was DRX, T1, Gen G and JDG. Like, it's. It's T1 Weibo. Billy. Billy. JD. JDG was 23. So like it was actually LPL on him, but it was, you know. [00:52:10] Speaker A: Yeah, the BLG coming in here like helped out a bit like last year because that, that was a banger finals. All five games. T1 was still able to take it. But back then it was still. I mean, they had to be Genji on the way there. So if you want to consider like in the semifinals match, that kind of can mean the same thing. Feels like T1 Gen G at Worlds is a bit inevitable. [00:52:33] Speaker B: It really is. [00:52:34] Speaker A: But we'll. We'll be able to predict who wins Worlds on next week's episode because like I said, we will have an episode before actual finals, just not before semi finals. So we wanted to at least give our thoughts on that and let us know your thoughts that. Is T1 Gen G a hype Worlds Finals? [00:52:51] Speaker B: I think, honestly, it really is just because, yeah, the all roads lead to me line that faker dropped on Chovy last year. Was it the year before? I can't even remember at this point. [00:53:06] Speaker A: The fact we had T1 versus BLG and then T1 versus Weibo the two years before, I think makes it pretty exciting because, like, we haven't actually seen T1 versus Genji in world's finals in actually one. Because, yeah, the year before, it would. [00:53:23] Speaker B: Have been the Samsung. It would have. They would have been Samsung. It wasn't. [00:53:27] Speaker A: It would have been Samsung. Yeah, before. [00:53:28] Speaker B: Yeah. T1 versus Samsung. Because that's 2017. Because that's the year. Ambition one. That's the year that they slaughtered. They slaughtered them in the finals. Yeah. [00:53:39] Speaker A: And so 2022, T1 and Gen G were on opposite sides of the bracket. Everyone expected Gen G to beat DRX, but they lost to DRX. DRX won a world. So we didn't get T1 Gen G. Then in 2023, Gen G surprise lost to Billy. Billy who then lost to Weibo who T1 beat in the finals. And then last year Gen G lost to T1 in the semi finals. So we finally got T1 Gen G at Worlds last year. But it was semi finals, not finals. So if it was in the actual finals, I do actually I, I've come around, I think that would be hype. It just feels like, yeah, I've been told the T1 Gen G world's narrative for so long. [00:54:19] Speaker B: It's just. It comes down to the fact that this narrative, this narrative is just like oh, 2016, 2017 was back to back Samsung versus SKT in finals and this was after like the huge Korean exodus that saw all those like the Samsung Blue, Samsung White players all go to the LPL just to chase the bag. Yeah. And even then it was still like you know, those next two years it was. Was Samsung SKT in finals and it just. We. We haven't seen like two teams just be on an inevitable crash course at Worlds like this in a while. Like G2 Dam1 is one of them. JDG versus T1 in the recent history has been one. But like it's Genji, it's Gen GT1. Like yeah, normally at this point, at. [00:55:09] Speaker A: This point these seem like the big ones for sure. So with that being said, that's our expectations for World's Finals. But let us know your thoughts. Also want to do a quick touch in on some of the award predictions and world's bets that we did heading into Worlds. Reminder, we already had a couple of answers come through with Airport Speedrun Award, Longest Walk Award. I also put the most underrated team. I put. I was wrong for that with FlyQuest, Un Badger and Sorry, you and Bickle and RMC are still competing because you put CFO, RMC put CFO, Bickle put G2. So I'm gonna wait and see who makes it furthest before determining that. But I want to, I want to ask you a question because you were pretty opinionated on this when I brought it up. So I just want to get you a quick thoughts on it. The Broken Blade, the Knighthood Award. [00:55:56] Speaker B: I mean player is overhyped. [00:55:58] Speaker A: I put a player who's no longer at Worlds if you think about it. So like what are you, what are your thoughts on on Zayas? [00:56:08] Speaker B: What's the stats? Come on Link. [00:56:10] Speaker A: Oh, oh, Stats Andy. Yes, of course, of course. Reminders. I put Zayas as the overhyped player. Badger put Broken Blade, RMC put Bwipo again. I don't think he was that hyped to begin with, but I would agree. He did not. [00:56:23] Speaker B: I mean, like I was just saying in the European circles, he's like, he was. He was gonna be like, the reason why G2 made. I mean, hey, congratulations. GT made quarter. So, like, like, I'll die on the hill. That I was. I was wrong with it. But even then, I just don't think, like, he. He had the. He's had like the poppy game. Like, that's the one that's like the standout game at this point for me, for. [00:56:48] Speaker A: For broken. So the thing is, if G2 beat Top Esports, guaranteed I'm right, you're wrong. But if they lose, then I think it comes back down. [00:57:00] Speaker B: I just think, like. But like, even then, like, it's. I mean, Zayu's had the highest, like, DPM for top laners. He had the. The second highest damage share, like, highest kp. Like, it just feels like he was what the team needed. It just didn't, like, it didn't fucking matter. [00:57:24] Speaker A: But that doesn't fit my narrative. [00:57:26] Speaker B: You know what you want? You want me to fit my narrative at this point? Guess who has the worst goal difference at 15 out of the all the top laners at the tournament, it's Broken Blade. And it's not even close. [00:57:36] Speaker A: Out of everybody, like, out of every. [00:57:39] Speaker B: Every top laner at the tournament, Broken Blade has a negative 409 on average. Gold diff at 15. The next closest is Driver, who is the most notorious weak side top laner at this entire. [00:57:56] Speaker A: Boal from Vivocade has better Bowel is. [00:57:59] Speaker B: At a negative 34. [00:58:01] Speaker A: Tell me. Oscar Renan is better. [00:58:03] Speaker B: Oscar is at a negative 131. [00:58:05] Speaker A: Dude, no way. [00:58:06] Speaker B: Oscar. And so it's BB at negative 409, driver at 320, negative 323, and Flandre at negative 247. So two weeks side top laners and fucking the European, like, top lane king. [00:58:20] Speaker A: Well, I don't know about any of the listeners. I blacked out for five seconds. I didn't hear anything you said. So it's okay. We'll keep the bed alive for now. We'll see what happens. [00:58:31] Speaker B: Like, if you look at it, I mean, just like, gameplays wise and like, stats wise, I think just Zeus is probably one of the best. Was one of the best top winners of the tournament so far. [00:58:40] Speaker A: Like, got knocked out in the quarterfinals. [00:58:45] Speaker B: Whatever. [00:58:46] Speaker A: World champion. He won. Won the breakup, I think is the actual takeover. [00:58:50] Speaker B: T1 actually did kind of win, but. [00:58:53] Speaker A: Like, won the breakup some. [00:58:55] Speaker B: I. I also don't think that. I also don't think that Han was like, struggles are anything relating to Zeus. I think it kind of falls. [00:59:02] Speaker A: Oh, no, it would be delight. For sure. [00:59:05] Speaker B: It would be delight. And Zeka are the two that I would put, like, the majority of the blame on for those. For those teams, honestly. [00:59:12] Speaker A: Bit of Peanut as well, but I. [00:59:14] Speaker B: Think we don't want to kick him while he's down. [00:59:16] Speaker A: You know, he's retiring. Let's let him go out on a high note. [00:59:18] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:59:19] Speaker A: All right. But that is it for this week's episode. It was a pretty short one, but that's because first off, only two of us to give opinions on stuff. Hopefully we'll have a bigger cast for next week's finals preview as well as the knockouts review. But thank you so much, Badger, for coming on. It was awesome. Always a pleasure hanging out. [00:59:37] Speaker B: We were able to discuss the merits of bullshit awards that we give out before the season starts, so. [00:59:44] Speaker A: Oh, that's what people listen to our. [00:59:47] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. No, it's great. Wait. [00:59:48] Speaker A: Is just for us to get. [00:59:50] Speaker B: I'm so. I'm still waiting on if I can say Zeus is the get in the bin player with his. With his. [00:59:58] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. You put him as the. The biggest lane kingdom. Oh, no. [01:00:02] Speaker B: Which he did have. Like, he had it. [01:00:05] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah. But it could change. Maybe Broken Blade takes it away from it. Maybe he completely reverses the stats. If he's gonna do it against anybody, it's 369 rolling three. Three times in a row. Row. [01:00:16] Speaker B: Yeah. Okay. [01:00:17] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:00:17] Speaker B: If it takes 369 rolling threes three times in a row, then so be it. But, like, it could happen. [01:00:23] Speaker A: All right. I'm trying to close out there. Then we got sucked back in. What can I come up with here right at the. The last second? Oh, man. I was gonna try and come up with. I'm bad at doing this now. So now I know how everyone else feels, but I'm just gonna put you on the spot. Badger, how many stars should people leave us if they wanted to leave us A review for this episode? [01:00:43] Speaker B: 5 for every year it's been since EU or I guess a non LCK LPL team made semifinals, which we could possibly get. We have two chances to get that. It's fine. [01:00:56] Speaker A: I like that. I like that. I mean, hey, we have the potential technically for four different regions to have a team in the top four. Because all we need is CFO to be KT, G2 to be top eSports, and then Al to beat T1. That's all we need. We just need three upsets according to our predictions. But three upsets our previous predictions have meant anything. It's that that is the more likely thing because we have been terrible at our prediction so far at this world. But that's just how Worlds goes. And that means that it has been a fun one. It's been fun going along the journey with all of you at home. Just know this as you walk away from this episode. We love you and we'll see you next week. Everyone. Sam.