Episode Transcript
[00:00:12] Speaker A: Gets hit Kimmy kids a little too far here. He's gonna have to try and get himself out. Let me go. Tillery and the rest of the shots of fire. Zion is just killing the next Zion can eat it single handedly win the game by game by game by game by should be.
[00:00:27] Speaker B: Oh my God. 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 585 of the League Rundown. This is your 2025 World Finals Preview. I can't believe you blink and it's already here. World Finals around the corner. And this episode is lovingly entitled I know not what weapons the telecom wars will be fought but I know it will be awesome. I'm your host Kangas and I'm joined by two esteemed co hosts. Up first, fresh out of the can we got Badger.
Can we.
[00:01:35] Speaker C: Can we. Can we get that E word going?
When are we legally allowed to do that?
[00:01:40] Speaker A: Oh, I've been excited about KT since they won quarterfinals. Okay. And I've been saying it publicly and I haven't been assassinated yet. So I take that as.
[00:01:49] Speaker C: Oh they have. They haven't sent the trucks after you yet.
[00:01:51] Speaker A: No, not yet. Although I think Emily Rand might slap me when she gets back. We'll see.
Also joining us on the cast today we have Bickle. Welcome back Bickle.
[00:02:01] Speaker B: They can't keep getting away with it.
[00:02:05] Speaker A: T1 yeah. You were the one that said it before we went live. Four worlds in a row. Dude.
[00:02:13] Speaker C: Just the fact that Faker if he's made worlds. The.
[00:02:18] Speaker B: The.
[00:02:18] Speaker C: The.
He's made it to semis every single time he's been at worlds. Like that's insane.
[00:02:26] Speaker A: This is his what eighth finals appearance.
[00:02:29] Speaker C: Finals.
[00:02:29] Speaker B: This is for eighth finals appearance. He' five of them so far.
[00:02:37] Speaker C: No. Yeah, he's won five. So he's five and two in finals to this point.
[00:02:44] Speaker A: Just hearing that record like that's a normal record for like regular season or for like oh like in a our match our orgs match efforts of this org. It's 5 and 2. He's 5 and 2 at World's Finals. Like yeah, that is.
[00:02:56] Speaker C: I'm just trying to think like who are the teams that it's what G2 and DRX are the ones that or GRX beat them in 22 and then Samsung Samsung.
[00:03:08] Speaker B: Yeah the Samsung Samsung in 17.
[00:03:10] Speaker C: Yeah yeah and then Dom1 knocked him out in 21 and then G2 knocked.
[00:03:16] Speaker B: Him out in 1919.
They didn't make Worlds in 14.
In 1818.
[00:03:27] Speaker A: Yeah, I remember that being a big deal in 14. I wasn't watching back then, but they had just won in 13, right? And then.
[00:03:35] Speaker C: 14 Samsung 1 in 15. So much better than everybody at that point.
So, like, what Blue and White genuinely were were heads and shoulders above everybody else in the world. So, like, they just had to get that. They had to lock onto that third spot, and it ended up going to Najin, which the Najin team was like, all right. It was just kind of a fluke that they did. They got in over skt, but that's beside the point.
[00:04:01] Speaker A: Hey, hey. TSM got a game against one of the Samsung teams.
[00:04:04] Speaker C: Was it blue that they got Blue Trolled it, so.
[00:04:08] Speaker A: I know, I know. I've heard White and Blue, genuinely.
[00:04:12] Speaker C: White and Blue. Those games that they lost to C9 and TSM were some of the funniest games. If you go back and watch them again.
[00:04:23] Speaker A: I. Maybe one day I will. I honestly, I've been feeling like we should get, like, the crew together and just go back and watch Old Worlds games. I think that'd be a really fun time, honestly. We could do one live for just like an episode of the podcast. Just record it. Put the audio in of, like, the cast in the background. That'd be kind of fun.
But obviously that's a lot of world stock right at the beginning. But that's because it is the world's finals preview episode. Surprise, surprise, it is KT versus T1. We're gonna get more into that in a minute as well as kind of what happened in the quarterfinals and semifinals for this to be the matchup. But before that, couple of global news things to hit. Roster season is in full sw.
The dominoes are falling, gentlemen. A lot of things going on here.
Up first was probably the biggest news for North American roster stuff since JoJo going to EU. And this news just dropped.
[00:05:18] Speaker B: Today.
[00:05:19] Speaker A: It is Busio going to eu.
We got kc, the French organization, signing Busio as a support. He is dual citizenship North America as well as Polish. So he's not even taking up an import slot, which is obviously really good. It makes him very attractive for EU rosters. We knew it was being rumored that he was looking at EU options. I didn't want to believe Badger. You were right, though. You actually fully believe you go to eu, but not the team that you expected.
[00:05:48] Speaker C: Yeah, I. I heard.
So G2 was another team that was linked to Busio from what I heard through the grapevine of stuff. So I, well, they're. I, I. The way I figured out about it was I was at work today and the one group chat I'm in was just like, oh my gosh, Busio is going to Europe. And I'm just like, oh, she too got him. And they're like, no, Casey. And I'm like, wait, huh?
[00:06:16] Speaker A: What did you say?
[00:06:17] Speaker C: This is like people who are just like, you know, just casual, like league fans. We, I mean, we watched like the world's games together with them sometimes and everything, but it's just like the idea that I'm just like, wait, hold on.
[00:06:29] Speaker A: Hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on.
[00:06:30] Speaker C: I'm like. Because I was joking with them. I'm like, oh yeah, G2 busio incoming. Haha. While we were like, watching the, the G2 TES games. But like, I didn't mean it in like a serious manner.
[00:06:44] Speaker B: Like, honestly, G2 Busia was what I was expecting.
[00:06:50] Speaker A: Yeah, that's what Badger was saying. I didn't know if that would be it.
We were talking about the implications of what that roster would look like. Because what I had been hearing is Inspired and Busio were kind of being shopped around as a duo because Inspired wanted to play with Busio again, which would mean maybe Casey looking inspired also. But they already have Yike. And Badger, you had mentioned that the like article had mentioned Yike being.
[00:07:14] Speaker C: I thought there was something that said that, that Yike was still on kc.
[00:07:18] Speaker B: Yikes.
[00:07:19] Speaker C: I may be wrong.
[00:07:22] Speaker A: So. Well, he's on kc, but like, is he gonna be on there next year? Is Right. Right, Right.
[00:07:27] Speaker C: I guess that's good that he is.
[00:07:28] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:07:29] Speaker A: Okay, well, if that is the case, then that means that that would not be the Inspired booster duo going somewhere together. And that still Most likely be G2 inspired at that point. Unless inspired says in NA, I don't expect that.
[00:07:43] Speaker B: But rumors are that he's expected to stay in NA because he's too expensive.
[00:07:48] Speaker A: I mean, that could be.
That would mean most likely it'd be a team like Shopify Rebellion that's able to get him or my guess, finds others, another, like, investor or something. Then TL could maybe pick him up. And if it is TL inspired Quid, that would be hype. Holy crap.
[00:08:06] Speaker C: Serdi. Serdi inspired quid.
Yawn. CoreJJ as a roster.
[00:08:13] Speaker A: Sign me up. I'd be a fan.
[00:08:14] Speaker C: I'm down.
[00:08:14] Speaker A: We already, we already kind of teased that. That was one of the other things was Quid pick it up. By Team Liquid. This was dropped. APA had an interview and I remember him in the interview talking about how like, Team Liquid was still letting him, you know, stay in the office and like, you know, practice at the office and like, be around while he's looking for other teams. But Team Liquid themselves have not made an official statement confirming quit, or at least not that I've seen. So that this is, as of right now, still one of those kind of sheep esports rumors. But it's not outside the realm of possibility. Like, I feel like this is a reasonable place for Quid to land.
[00:08:48] Speaker C: It makes sense.
[00:08:49] Speaker B: I think it's all technicalities right now because technically contracts don't end until like mid to late November.
[00:08:57] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah.
[00:08:58] Speaker B: So everything does. Horrible commitments.
[00:09:01] Speaker A: Yeah, it does make sense based on what happened last week where Team Liquid was like teasing Quid, you know, on social media of like, please stay in North America. Like they had some kind of meme tweet and then APA quote retweeted it just with a thumbs up emoji.
[00:09:15] Speaker C: It's pretty funny.
[00:09:17] Speaker B: I think it was said like the final three teams that were fighting for Quid, maybe it was four, were Team Liquid, Shopify, I want to say lion and K Corp with a four.
[00:09:31] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:09:31] Speaker B: Remembering probably.
[00:09:33] Speaker A: And I still, to my understanding, Shopify Rebellion are the team in North America that are going to have the biggest budget this off season. Which is surprising to me that they weren't the ones able to get Quid. But in the.
The article, it did cite that Quid said playing with Core GJ was a big, you know, influence on that. And if you remember last week on the episode Badger, when we were talking about it, I specifically said that. I was like, if Quid chooses Team Liquid, I think it's because he'd want to play with somebody like Core jj. Yeah.
Yeah. So cool to see. We'll see what Quid's able to do with Team Liquid if that does actually go through a couple things. Moving another Mid laner here. One of the hype ones from this past year. One rookie of the year, Loki.
He is staying in Korea and not coming back with C9. Whoop, whoop. That news also dropped, I believe, either earlier today or maybe yesterday. Yesterday, yesterday, yeah. Bickle. I know that like Loki in general, we were just talking before the podcast went like, like there's not a lot of NA Mids left. And yes, he's not an NA Mid, but he was doing so well here. So it does kind of hurt to see him go.
[00:10:38] Speaker B: It's it falls in line with the whole Busio thing that I'd mentioned earlier. This is just so sad for NA in general. All so many of like the big talents are being just drained away. They lost JoJo last year, they lost Busio this year. They may lose Inspired still.
Loki just left. It's like congrats. You just had like a solid year and a half and now everything is going down the drain.
[00:11:06] Speaker A: Yeah. Hey, watch. We're going to just sign a bunch of new Korean challenger players and then they're going to leave us in the year.
That doesn't actually sound better. I don't know why I phrased that like a good thing. Anyway, speaking of Korean players, Lion has some movement going on on their roster as well.
I mean we've been talking about 30 on other teams. They did make an official announcement. I know he was only like a sub coming in for basically because they couldn't get Zamudo's visa sorted out. So Serdi was playing for them in split three last year or this past year, but he is now no longer with Lion. They made an official post saying goodbye and Henna is also gone from a Lion. So that is two players on their roster.
Saint I would say is probably, well, I guess they are a Latin American org, so more like Audi Land would be their, their big one.
I believe we already talked about the fact that Lions has been a let go as well. If we haven't covered that, then that happened as well. So it's definitely big shakeups at Lion. Like they're full rebuilding this roster basically.
And this roster, man, every time this past like two splits, it was like, can they do damage? They, they're, they seem like a good team. Like they have good individual players and sometimes they can make some, you know, leads happen in games. They just can't close it out. And it was always like a question of when, not if, because they do it at some point, but they just never actually did it.
And yeah, I guess a rebuild could be in order for them. And it clearly from their opinion was.
I believe that's it. From what I've seen. I didn't notice any EU moves, but we probably missed something down the line for K Corp.
[00:12:46] Speaker B: They did. Just along with the Busio rumor they are having Reapered as their head coach. I don't know if he mentioned that.
[00:12:53] Speaker A: I did not mention that. But yes, thank you for the catch.
[00:12:55] Speaker C: We were talking about it before that it's just like as much as the Busio is a positive, it just feels like the Reapered move is like a negative for me.
[00:13:05] Speaker A: I did, I did see a tweet, a quote retweet of like the news that Reaper was going and it was like it's like a Faustian bargain with the devil type thing where like Casey was like we want boost you. I was like, well then you have to take Reaper.
Pretty funny. If anybody is unaware, Reapered is a long standing coach in North America. He's been with C9 for pretty much the entire time. Was he a team liquid at any point? I feel like he might have had a four way foray with them but either way mostly C9 and always known for being like decent but throughout the last couple years kind of got a reputation for being a lazier coach that didn't actually put in the necessary prep prep to get his team good.
[00:13:49] Speaker B: No time with team Liquidity Dev time with 100 thieves though.
[00:13:52] Speaker A: 100 thieves. There we go.
[00:13:54] Speaker C: Yeah, that's what it was.
[00:13:56] Speaker A: And I mean I you can see it with how to C9 performs. They're always better in the first half of the year and then worse than the second half of the year in my opinion. Revert is good at building rosters and getting players together and I know a lot of the Korean players want to work with him but he just doesn't, you know, follow through throughout the year. Like just consistently C9 rosters do worse in summer than spring. Well, what's the one thing that has been there the whole time other than blabber? I suppose you could also point a finger at Blabber if you're one of the Blabber haters right now, but it would be Reapered as the coach. So we already knew that an Arrow was going to be head coach for C9 going forward and Dom being the assistant coach now we know where Reaper is headed. So thanks for that catch Bickle.
Other Variety Topics we won't cover these too much for today. We're just going to let you know that they happened and then cover them again. In the off season the 2026 LCS format dropped. We know 2026 is going to look like. If you haven't seen that yet, you can check out the social media or the primer. I think there's a primer on the league LOL esports website or if you just want to wait, we'll talk about it in like a week or two once world is all wrapped up and kind of go through everything of what the three split schedule is going to look like. Tldr it's going to actually overlap directly with lec. So NA and EU are going to have mirrored splits in the. I believe the only the third split you is doing something different in the second split. But they're going to be very similar throughout the year and for the first time in a couple of years we have the exact same format in that third split which is really cool.
And it, it's much simpler. It's gonna be way easier to follow. We will not be complaining about it as much.
[00:15:36] Speaker C: Oh my God.
[00:15:37] Speaker A: And it's all gonna be what am.
[00:15:38] Speaker C: I, what are we supposed to. What am I supposed to do now? I loved complaining about the, the, the format for what was the lta.
[00:15:47] Speaker A: Now the artist formerly known as the.
[00:15:49] Speaker C: Artist formerly known as the lta.
[00:15:53] Speaker A: Yeah, I don't know. We're gonna have to I guess talk about the games and stuff and actually have to talk.
[00:15:57] Speaker C: We get to talk about the games and like you know, do that.
It's crazy.
[00:16:03] Speaker A: Yeah, crazy actually. I, I can't just blame you know, being boss at my job at the format being terrible now. I have to actually we, we can't.
[00:16:12] Speaker C: We can't use the, the ignorance of, of our actions for.
[00:16:18] Speaker A: No more finger pointing, no more finger.
[00:16:20] Speaker C: Not understanding what the hell is going on all the time.
[00:16:23] Speaker A: And who knows, maybe we'll see more videos from Mark Z now because he, he like kind of hit. Hit in the closet when the LTA stuff was going on because everyone was so mad.
I like it when he's a front facing.
What's his commissioner. There we go. That's a word. I forgot the title.
[00:16:41] Speaker C: Whatever his title is.
[00:16:42] Speaker A: You know I'm bad with words. I probably picked a. The incorrect career to go into, but that's besides the point. Uh, anyway, for anybod, if you notice any news pieces that we missed, make sure to let us know in the community. Discord. You can find a link in the description wherever you are listening. And also if you want to help support the pod, we got a Patreon and we got a merch store. You can find links to those also both in the description. So with that said, how y' all feeling about hopping into worlds and talking about the quarterfinals, the semifinals and most importantly previewing the grand finals.
Let's go.
[00:17:18] Speaker B: We're here.
[00:17:19] Speaker A: It's it, it's time. We already talked about Gen G hle last week because just the way that scheduling worked with when we could get the podcast out.
It was a little funky but we still have three other quarterfinals to talk about.
Bickle. Do you think any of These quarterfinals are like burning narratives that you really want to cover outside of the. I mean the big one would be T1AL because that one did go to the 5. That was very exciting.
[00:17:44] Speaker B: Arguably the best series so far at Worlds.
[00:17:52] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:17:52] Speaker A: I mean I'm trying to think what would the competition would be.
[00:17:55] Speaker C: Yeah, I know T1AL is definitely the best series that we had at World so far.
[00:17:59] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:17:59] Speaker C: It was based on the fact that T1 backs against the Wall had the narrative of like faker hasn't missed semifinals at Worlds anytime that he's been there. And I know we, we talked about it. Do we talk about on the proper show or do we do it on the pre show where we talked about the. All the.
[00:18:20] Speaker A: It was, it was a pre show. The. The Mundo. Yeah, Mundo pick. So if anybody wasn't aware, Owner, the jungler for T1 had never played Mundo competitively before. But he pulls it out in game five because G2 had played it and they were 20 with it so far at the tournament and it has now maintained win rate. Owner got the win with a first time mundo pick on stage.
Crazy.
[00:18:48] Speaker C: It's really close to being the highest win rate champion.
[00:18:53] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:18:54] Speaker C: Based on all the metrics at this point. Yeah. Like we're so close to it.
[00:18:59] Speaker A: I would say across all the games played, I would want to like count it as the highest win rate from our prediction, at least five games. So if it's played one more and wins, I feel more comfortable. I think it'd be like an asterisk next to it if we gave it now because it's like I was only played like four times out of like 50 games at Worlds.
But it is, I think a good pick in a lot of different drafts. And it worked out for them. They were able to pick up the series and beat Al.
[00:19:24] Speaker B: Honestly, the Mundo wasn't even the biggest thing in that draft. It wasn't looking amazing.
Faker's Mel just.
[00:19:35] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:19:36] Speaker B: What can't he do?
[00:19:40] Speaker A: Lose very good quarterfinals at Worlds. He can't do that, I guess.
[00:19:46] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:19:47] Speaker A: Yeah. Lose the lvl.
And also, I mean I did make a big point of the Mundo pig. That was not the reason they won that game five. So I'm happy that you did kind of highlight the. The bigger reasons is that faker on the Mel was incredible and it was looking rough for them for a bit, but then T1 was still getting the objectives and was able to, you know, close it out at the end. But I mean there were, there were rocky moments there where it Seemed like Al actually could take the series and get the big win. Hope was having a big performance. But then faker just says, nah, dude, I'm.
I'm a champion designed in 2024, so you're gonna lose.
[00:20:26] Speaker C: In case you were wondering, I'm still really good at this game. And then.
And then he fakered all over him and all that. So he did.
[00:20:35] Speaker B: I will say though, there is now an argument for who is the greatest player of all time.
Is it SKT faker or T1 faker?
[00:20:42] Speaker A: Ooh, yes.
[00:20:44] Speaker C: I love. I love that this is a thing now that we have to be like, you know, is it. Is it T1 faker or is it SKT faker?
[00:20:53] Speaker A: Like, look, SKT faker never made world's finals four years in a row. T1 faker did. So that is, you know, that is true argument number one for T1 faker. Boom.
[00:21:06] Speaker B: But the argument for SKT faker is he.
That is the time where the gap between him and the second best player in the world was the largest. Even looking back at 2017, that was peak faker backpack years of get in my bag, we are going far. He's the only reason they made it to Worlds finals that year.
That Gallio still gives Uzi nightmares.
[00:21:33] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. The Gallio play.
His syndra back then was filthy. His little Blanc back then. Ooh.
But I will say that we got shades of that in that game five versus Al. I think that he was like the.
[00:21:46] Speaker B: Definitive securing otacon with the Mel.
[00:21:50] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:21:51] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:21:51] Speaker A: And then that fight just kind of snowballed into their inevitable victory.
[00:21:58] Speaker C: So that. Yeah.
[00:21:59] Speaker A: Out of the quarterfinals. I do agree that that was the. The highlight. I was still looking back at, like, what were the other series I thought were really good.
I remember. I'm trying to remember which of the knockout stage games it was or the. Yeah, the. The Swiss stage. I mean, there was one series in there that I remember really, really liking, but it's besides the point. That's too far back in my memory banks and I can barely remember stuff from yesterday. Anyway, going on to the other series and quarterfinals. Bickle, or rather Badger. We did not do the best job predicting.
We both thought CFO was going to go really far. And then I panic, changed my back to KT instead of cfo. And I was rewarded for it because they did, in fact, later.
Yep, Trader.
But I am sad to say that CFO narrative did end early.
Badger, how'd you feel about CFO overall? Because I know that you. We were both big fans of them. But you were in particular like a big believer in, in CF what they would be able to do.
[00:23:04] Speaker C: They, they came and they put their name out there and had a really good performance. I'm not gonna fault them for, you know, falling flat in the way that they did. I mean, especially against a team that is, you know, playing, playing for a world title on, on Sunday morning. Like, I mean the way that they lost those games like BDD and cuz they, they showed up and they came ready to play. Like everything that CFO wanted to do KT was doing better than them on that day. So.
[00:23:42] Speaker A: And that really CFO still did the same thing where like they put driver in for a game and then rest for the, the rest of the game. Yeah, I feel like in a way they need to figure out, they need.
[00:23:54] Speaker C: To figure out their like rotation of top laner and stuff. Like I know that you have like your dedicated like Scion player, but like, okay, Scions out now. Now what?
[00:24:05] Speaker A: Like, yeah, it's tough if your job is to play one game and then let the other guy come in and play carries. But they committed to it and I got them to the quarterfinals, but it couldn't get through the KT narrative. I want to give shout outs. I think Hong Kong had one really good game and the first one on Aurora and Doggo had good games on the other two, but other than that it did look tough for them.
[00:24:26] Speaker C: They just couldn't, they couldn't match the games that they needed to.
So.
[00:24:32] Speaker A: And I think that perfect in general is just playing perfect. Very, very.
[00:24:37] Speaker C: As a prospect, I've been, I've been excited about his rise. I was excited for him coming out of challengers, especially when they, they brought him in as the starting top laner for the team. I thought he was really good early on and knowing how he was, you know, a rookie coming up and like he just had to shake the rust off. He had some rough games early on, but once he was able to diversify his champion pool and kind of be this, this pseudo world beater top laner, I mean we saw him on, you know, Bruisers, he's played tanks, he's played carries, he's.
[00:25:10] Speaker A: He went, he's 71 and 8 on Renekton.
Yeah, like, he's, he's pretty good.
[00:25:15] Speaker C: Like, like I'm excited to see how he is going to be against Doran because it feels like Doran's potentially one of those players that like kind of is on the back foot a little bit maybe for T1 like he's not going to be the priority of the team. So, like, maybe Perfect's gonna have a really good showing in this finals, but who knows? I'm.
[00:25:36] Speaker A: Yeah, I am very excited for KT and how they're gonna look going forward.
[00:25:42] Speaker C: Boom.
[00:25:42] Speaker A: I said it again. I'm telling you, I don't think I can curse them because I was a CLG fan. So I got all the curses out there.
Immune to the whole KT thing, but it's a work in theory.
G2 versus Top Esports also happened. G2 took an unceremonious departure from Worlds. That was not the showing that they wanted to to give or the performance that they wanted to give. It was a 3 one for top esports. YouTube at least got a win, but it was still felt very heavily top favored in the lanes that I was worried about.
Kanabi in general just kind of like gapped. Skumond and Labrov also had a lot of Lebrov moments in. In those games.
The win that they got. Schumann did look in like on Invincible. That was one of the mundo games that they won and they continued that wind record.
And then we saw that again later when owner brought it out. But outside of like the fun pick of the mundo, we didn't see the rest of the picks work out like the. The Ivern comp. Skuma just fell really far behind and they just couldn't like, get on top of top esports comp.
[00:26:48] Speaker C: You know who would win that game?
[00:26:50] Speaker A: Poppy Jungle. Yeah. Was that.
[00:26:52] Speaker C: You know who would win that Ivern game?
[00:26:54] Speaker A: Inspired.
[00:26:55] Speaker C: Inspired.
[00:26:58] Speaker A: But I will say I give credit to them. Back against the wall, Hansama Didlock in Draven, which is a ballsy move when you're on elimination at the world stage. That was pretty cool. And then he proceeded to get gapped.
[00:27:10] Speaker B: By Jackie Love to a pick Jackie Love. I mean, to A pick Draven and to B, do a Draven main and Jackie Love.
[00:27:17] Speaker A: Yep, yep.
[00:27:19] Speaker B: That was decision.
[00:27:21] Speaker A: But to your defense from the earlier statement, Badger. Yeah, I feel like inspired throughout this series. This is the series that you're like, yeah, G2 uninspired because you give inspired any of the champs that skew Bond played. And I think the games turn out very differently.
[00:27:35] Speaker C: Well, yeah, like, definitely like watching those games, I'm just like, huh?
If Busio had inspired are on this team.
[00:27:44] Speaker A: Like, if that was Busio Bard instead of actually did Lebrov play? Yeah, he played Bart in the win.
[00:27:52] Speaker B: But yeah, it was not the reason they won.
[00:27:54] Speaker C: I was gonna say, like, it didn't seem they won. So but like even like Le Brav Nico or like Le Brav Rel, like it's these like busio champions. You're like sitting there looking at it and it's like, like man.
[00:28:10] Speaker B: And this is the sentiment went around online that despite making it farther this year than they did last year, last year's G2 was absolutely the better team.
[00:28:22] Speaker A: Yeah, they had a worse draw in Swiss for sure. But this year they just didn't look like they had a lot of fight. And it shows in how the games went. I mean outside the game, they won. The first game was kind of a blowout. But like games 3 and 4, low kill games until the end, nothing was really happening. And then Top Esports just blows them out in team fights and wins. And it's like that's what, that's what they showed. Like that that kind of sucks that we didn't see a high octane, high action version of G2. We didn't see a team fight winning G2. We didn't see A macro win around the map G2. They just kind of like tried their best in lane and then lost peacefully. And then one big team fight was. Was it? Or maybe not lost peacefully. That is taking away too much. They maintained they were like pre even throughout the games. But like if you can't perform then at the final moments it doesn't really matter.
[00:29:12] Speaker C: Right.
[00:29:15] Speaker A: So that's. That's enough about the quarterfinals though. The ones that advanced were Gen G. We already had covered that last week. Then it was KT taking on CFO Top Esports over G2 and T1 over anyone's legend. Which meant that the semifinals matchups were Gen G, KT and then T1 Top Esports.
It was Gen G getting a chance for revenge against KT who knocks them into the lower bracket of the LCK summer playoffs. And Bickle. What. What happened to Gen G? The team that had dropped like three best of series in two calendar years.
Dominating Korea, crushing at other international events. Save last year, Worlds.
[00:29:59] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:30:00] Speaker A: What happened?
[00:30:01] Speaker B: Well, Gen G does what they do best at Worlds. Choke?
[00:30:06] Speaker A: No.
Ah, surely not against kt.
[00:30:11] Speaker B: Exactly. Against kt.
[00:30:14] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:30:15] Speaker A: Gen G fans, man, they have to be some of the saltiest on the planet because this team, dude, they're so dominant until it matters. Until that pivotal moment. And it just goes to show, nothing that happened earlier in the year affect like, like really matters when it comes time for the world's Meta. Like if the world's meta doesn't hit, if you can't answer the pressure of that stage.
It doesn't matter how good you were back home when you were playing there. It matters what happened this time around. They even. They brought out all the tricks they tried Chovy and Nivea, they did like, like the Lucian Brahm bot lanes. We saw a bunch of different top laners come out from Keane and it was enough for one win. I mean, they were able to pick up the win where they're. They had like the Chovy on Galio mid lane and he was just all over the map. That. That one was impressive and Ruler had an incredible performance there.
But outside of that, Ruler was pretty quiet. Canyon was pretty quiet and Chovy got Giga gapped by B D D. Game.
[00:31:21] Speaker B: One was really close, really back and forth. But like you said, BDD just gapped the hell out of Chovy Keen. His scoreline does not show. It was playing like a man possessed for these first two games.
Trying his best to do whatever he could for the team.
They couldn't take game one. Game two, like you mentioned Rulers, Ezreal goes insane and just carries and gets them there.
But then they just disappear for games three and four and they just get shellacked into the ground.
[00:31:54] Speaker C: Chovy was getting actively hunted in game three, which is something that I have not seen this year. Like hit.
[00:32:02] Speaker A: Somebody put a hit out on that man.
[00:32:03] Speaker C: They did. They're like, I want. I want his head on a silver platter and say no more famous.
[00:32:13] Speaker B: The series was 1:1. But when you got to game three and BDD manages to solo kill Chovy as they're coming back from a replay, you're like, okay, there's a problem here.
[00:32:23] Speaker C: It's like, hold on a second. Wait.
[00:32:26] Speaker A: And then it gets worse. When you look at. Before you even get into the game, when you just look at the draft of game four and you're like, oh, God, our damage dealers are Anivia Lucian and we have to get through a mundo and an Ornn health bar.
Like that is such a tall task. Your wind conditions basically keen on York in a side lane, which it wind conditions in 2025 being side lane play very tough. Yes. You have Infinite Wave clear with Anivia. So like it's. You can also just try and turtle up and maybe scale. But like you're scaling into Cassiopeia Orn.
That's good. Not the best game plan. Anivia seemed good against like a lot of stuff. Like Kalista hates playing into Anivia because there's. You're slowed and there's wall. Cassiopeia can struggle in it. But then the moment cuz locked in Mundo, it's like, oh, Nivy's gonna need like four items before you can do anything about that guy.
[00:33:22] Speaker C: Yeah, it was kind of rough for them to play the game at that point. Like it was.
They tried their best, but they were just slowly bleeding out at that point.
[00:33:33] Speaker A: Hey, the Mundo pick, it's real, it works. And it got KT a win in the semifinals, which meant that for the first time. And how long has BDD been playing?
10 years. Over 10 years.
[00:33:46] Speaker C: 2017, I think was his first year.
[00:33:51] Speaker A: Okay, so close. Getting close to 10 years, but first time in a long time he has made it. Or actually first time ever in a long time as a player now making.
[00:34:00] Speaker B: It to world 2016.
[00:34:03] Speaker A: Absolutely.
[00:34:04] Speaker B: 2016 was CJ Entus.
[00:34:07] Speaker A: Yeah, he started at the beginning of 2016. That is. This is his end of his, you know, going into that 10th year. So, yeah, crazy stuff from BDD and KT. Anybody who was worried, anybody who didn't want to believe, anybody who didn't want to get excited, well, first off, you can take credit if you didn't do any of those things because that's how fandom works.
But hey, at least you're rewarded. KT fans, they oftentimes get kind of on kt. For anyone who's not aware or doesn't follow all of Korea, the way it's been explained to me as a very casual Korea, you know, knowledger. That's not a word. Anyway, KT is like the CLG of. Of Korea, right? Where it's like, yeah, they are a historic organization. They've been around for a long time. They have these rivalries with T1, hence the name of this, this episode, you know, the. The telecom wars.
[00:34:55] Speaker C: It's a telecom war.
[00:34:56] Speaker A: SK Telecom. And you know KT Rolster, which is actually. Is it K Telecom Rolster?
[00:35:03] Speaker C: Is that what it is? Korean Telecom.
[00:35:04] Speaker A: Yeah, Korean Telecom. There we go. The telecom wars.
[00:35:07] Speaker B: You know, the legacy of kt. Finger boom.
[00:35:10] Speaker C: Finger bang.
[00:35:11] Speaker A: Finger bang.
[00:35:12] Speaker B: Finger bang. Sorry, no.
[00:35:13] Speaker C: Finger boom. Yeah, your finger boom. Finger bang.
Cuz that's. I'm like, oh, yeah. Wait, I'm like, no, the other one.
[00:35:19] Speaker A: But Badgers confusing it with his Friday night plans. Anyway, they always, you know, are in the conversation, but we're never able to like, do it, get across that hurdle and like really get that win. And now seeing them in the World's.
[00:35:32] Speaker C: Finals, 2018, KT being that team that was like, okay, if they get past IG they win worlds, like.
[00:35:39] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:35:39] Speaker C: Being the most true, like KT story in League of Legends that you could possibly imagine. Like, like scores, last. Scores, last heist. Pretty much like having all of these factors going into it and then it's being like, oh, it's just, you know, BDD and these cast offs from all these other teams joining together. It's the, they're, they're basically the misfits.
[00:36:03] Speaker A: Like, they're the underdogs.
[00:36:05] Speaker B: I think three of them have been benched this year.
[00:36:08] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:36:09] Speaker B: I think perfect duck Dom and three.
[00:36:11] Speaker C: Of them have been benched on KT Rolster this year.
[00:36:15] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:36:17] Speaker A: Wait, I didn't know that. That's amazing.
[00:36:19] Speaker C: Yes.
Oh, jeez.
So needless to say, there's, there's, you know, there's hope and then there's whatever the hell you can say about this, this team. Because the fact that three of them have been benched at one point or another this season, if this team wins worlds, like, this would be okay. This beats the 2022, like DRX story.
[00:36:50] Speaker A: Yeah, it's, it mirrors it. I think it mirrors it.
Beautiful thing about DRX is they had to play through plans. They had to play all the way through, you know, the knockout stage and you know, make the run against T1. The one thing I would say that makes this stronger than DRX's narrative is look at who they're against in the finals. We'll talk about the other semi finals briefly, but we already mentioned T1 in the final.
[00:37:14] Speaker C: DRX was against that T1 in the finals.
[00:37:17] Speaker A: Yes, but that, it was a different T1. That was a rebuild T1. That was a bunch of rookies on T1. The question was, can T1 win another world?
Now they're against back to back world champions.
[00:37:30] Speaker B: Before we go into T1, I have one question about Genji. Where do they go from here?
[00:37:36] Speaker A: That's a badger question. I, I, I'm not sure what the options are.
[00:37:40] Speaker B: No.
[00:37:48] Speaker C: I don't want to say anything that'll get me in trouble.
[00:37:51] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:37:54] Speaker C: But do you look at other options from Chovy? I don't think he's, I don't know. Like that's, that's, that's the first name that comes to mind is just, just what is Chovy doing for you?
Like, I understand, I understand that's a very blasphemous thing for me to say.
[00:38:12] Speaker B: That's really tough.
[00:38:14] Speaker C: But like, this guy has been the center of your project for all of this time.
[00:38:21] Speaker B: At this point and mine personally, my mind went to gen G. Tarzan reunite that Tarzan chovy duo. That was back on Griffin.
That's where my mind went.
[00:38:38] Speaker C: Oh, oh, okay. We're just rebuilding Griffin. I'm okay with that, honestly.
[00:38:45] Speaker B: Hell, if you want a new. I think Duro was great, but if you want a new support, just bring over Kyle with him.
[00:38:55] Speaker C: Yeah, I don't know. I'll.
I, I, I'm. This might be a sit down in the off season kind of thing and just be like, all right, what can we even do at this point? Like, what's the what. What gets us out of this?
[00:39:09] Speaker B: It's so tough because if you sat down going into this year and said, hey, make your dream roster. Budget does not matter. Pick any player you want.
It's basically gen G.
It really maybe.
[00:39:24] Speaker A: Say is over Keen.
[00:39:28] Speaker C: Like, no, I still, I don't think it's keen.
[00:39:31] Speaker B: I, I Keen is the player I would not move off of, period.
[00:39:36] Speaker A: No.
[00:39:37] Speaker C: Yeah. I wouldn't touch key.
[00:39:38] Speaker A: I wouldn't. Would it be Duro then? Because I know Duro was like one of the the lesser proven players that they brought on.
[00:39:44] Speaker C: Yeah, but who are you gonna get? Like, who is available at this point carrier anytime soon?
[00:39:54] Speaker B: Kyle's the only one that comes to mind because if you're.
Yeah. If the LPL is going down that hard, you may see Koreans coming back.
[00:40:01] Speaker C: I mean, Tarzan, Kyle, I. That means Canyon's gone. But I think Canyon just slots into HLE at that point.
[00:40:10] Speaker B: Yeah, he just takes that spot because.
[00:40:13] Speaker C: I mean, peanut's gone.
[00:40:15] Speaker B: So, like, yeah, there's now a jungle spot in the big leagues of the LCK now. So somebody's got to fill that.
[00:40:23] Speaker A: The last nut.
[00:40:24] Speaker C: The last night has officially ended.
[00:40:27] Speaker B: I know Kanavi was terrible against T1, but maybe.
[00:40:32] Speaker A: Well, it's an interesting thought. I, I do, I do like the idea of it, but in the sake of keeping us moving for kind of the, the rest of the semi finals conversation, that could be an off season thing. That could be a fun. Right, because we're gonna also be doing that with like a lot of the the 100 Thieves players and maybe we do like a full roster.
[00:40:48] Speaker B: Speaking of Kanavi and top esports.
[00:40:51] Speaker A: Yep. The other semifinals, great segue right there. It was T1 versus versus top esports and T1. What are they known as? Other than two time reigning World champions and the greatest org to ever exist and the org that faker's on and all the other things.
[00:41:08] Speaker B: They are known as the father of the lpl.
[00:41:11] Speaker A: Absolutely they are. And they got to play two LPL teams in a row and they truly fathered top esports. Al was close. They had their bags against the wall. That was a rocky game five.
This, this is a three, zero shellacking, dude.
[00:41:28] Speaker B: Depending on how finals goes, you might be able to argue that Al versus T1 was the real finals. But we'll see.
[00:41:37] Speaker A: It would be again, depends on how the finals goes. But like that could be the best series at Worlds. And usually that is kind of where.
[00:41:43] Speaker C: People do, you know about it, what fakers record against the LPL is now and best of five series at worlds. What is faker's record against the lpl?
[00:41:54] Speaker A: I would guess it's like so.
[00:41:56] Speaker C: So just.
[00:41:57] Speaker A: Just in. In best of fives or fives, like.
[00:42:01] Speaker C: Series score, best of fives.
[00:42:05] Speaker A: I'm gonna go 13 and 1.
[00:42:09] Speaker C: 13 and 0?
[00:42:10] Speaker B: Yeah, it's 13. He's never lost against the LPL.
[00:42:13] Speaker C: He's never lost to the LPL in playoffs. At 1.
[00:42:16] Speaker A: I thought that they got knocked out by the LPL in one of them.
[00:42:19] Speaker C: But no, no, we talked about it before, remember? Yeah, Samsung and DRX beat them in the finals. G2 and what was it? Dom 1.
[00:42:33] Speaker A: Oh, you're right.
[00:42:34] Speaker C: 2019, G2, 2021, Dom 1.
[00:42:37] Speaker A: Which.
[00:42:37] Speaker C: Both of those teams won worlds, so. Yeah, so technically speaking, T1 has only been eliminated at world worlds by the team that won Worlds.
[00:42:47] Speaker B: G2 did not win worlds.
[00:42:50] Speaker A: Wait, good point, good point.
[00:42:52] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:42:52] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:42:53] Speaker A: Don't get him too excited.
[00:42:54] Speaker C: Yeah, you're right, I forgot. 2019, G2, the bed.
[00:43:00] Speaker B: Like.
[00:43:03] Speaker C: My apologies, My apologies.
I will get back to slandering you at some point, don't worry.
[00:43:09] Speaker A: Well, hey, we can get back to slandering top esports here because again, it was a 300 win for T1. The one thing I will give top esports. I saw a lot of people online talk, talking like, dude, top esports, how'd they even make it this point? Like they were so fraudulent, they looked so bad, the gameplay was terrible, but they never stopped fighting. Dude, this team, when you're down O2 to T1 and the games went the way they did and you still in game three, draft the way they drafted and play, the way they played, they did not hear Nobel and I gotta respect the hell out of that. Jackie Love on Draven. Dude, what is it with Draven when your backs are against the wall? This time it didn't work out for him. But Jackie Love on Draven, they went for the orin. We've been seeing a lot more Oren Kanavi gets like a couple of crazy early game kills and then just kind of into his face off in it once we get past 15 minutes. That was sad.
But like if you just looked at the score lines you'd be like, oh yeah, got. They just got crushed. But then you watch the game and you're like they won the early game. Then T1 wrestled it back from them. But even when T1 had the lead, top esports never stopped looking for the play and trying to find something. And I got like I, I'll give credit for that. Credit where it's due.
[00:44:30] Speaker C: I mean think about all the talent on the team that's been had success at Worlds. Like they there this is not a team to keel over and die slowly.
[00:44:41] Speaker A: So yeah, they do not know the.
[00:44:43] Speaker B: Definition of play safe. They go in and they will keep.
[00:44:48] Speaker C: Going in and they're like, they are like how I use the cfo. There's never been a bar fight that they didn't want to get into Analogy. That's just top esports too. Like yeah, they, they, they live and die by the bar fight.
[00:45:04] Speaker B: That exact. That argument is why I'm really Sad that the 3:0 match for Swiss Stage wasn't CFO versus Top Esports.
[00:45:13] Speaker C: Oh my gosh.
[00:45:14] Speaker B: That would have said a record best.
[00:45:16] Speaker C: Of three worlds ever. Like genuinely speaking, like the kills per game would never be higher in any.
[00:45:23] Speaker B: Exactly sort of fighting at worlds. And it is something to note. Jackie Love has been very open about dealing with some health issues.
So we don't know what comes next for him. This may very well have been his last hurrah and if so, hell of a player.
[00:45:42] Speaker A: Yeah, I think that it's tough to have it be a 30 on your way out, but I still think in a way they can hold their heads high and say we went down fighting and we went down to the two time Iranian world champions who just get the world's buff.
[00:45:59] Speaker C: Genuinely one of the like modern godfathers of, of ad carry with like the new generation with like ruler and Gumayushi.
[00:46:11] Speaker B: Because you got the old gods of Uzi and deft into that transition into the ruler plus Jackie.
[00:46:19] Speaker C: Yeah, it was like which transitions into Goombao Uzi daft into this new breed with like Ruler and Jackie and and I mean depending on what happens.
[00:46:34] Speaker B: I mean Jackie won worlds as a rookie.
[00:46:36] Speaker C: Yeah, Jackie won world.
[00:46:37] Speaker A: That was his rookie year.
[00:46:38] Speaker B: That was his rookie.
[00:46:40] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:46:40] Speaker B: That IG roster is absurd.
[00:46:44] Speaker C: Oh yeah.
[00:46:44] Speaker A: I mean that, that was when LPL was hitting its stride and it's it's tough to see a region like that because I. I think that it Worlds only gets more exciting if we have actual competition. But. But LPL just has not truly been a competition for LCK in a while. I guess. BLG did push T1 to 5 games in one world's final. So I don't want to.
[00:47:04] Speaker C: The thing that we said at the beginning of all this where we thought that LCK was going to widen the gap to the point that the.
The LPL was going to be closer to whoever the third region is rather than, you know, Korea is kind of starting to come into fruition a little bit.
[00:47:22] Speaker B: I mean shout out to Cubby before ms, before msi he called it. This entire year at MSI and at Worlds the LCK did not lose a series. A best of five to a non Korean team. They have only team killed themselves at both major tournaments.
[00:47:42] Speaker C: Yep.
[00:47:43] Speaker A: That is crazy. Dude.
What a wild step.
But I think it is indicative of the gap between LCK and and everybody else right now. And no surprise, it's an LCK Worlds finals. Not only that, it is a telecom world's finals. And for anybody who doesn't know the kind of why the telecom wars is a thing, I think that that has hasn't been super relevant in recent years.
[00:48:10] Speaker C: It was definitely more something I remember, really relevant.
[00:48:14] Speaker A: Yeah, in Korea it has still kind of been relevant, but again it almost feels like before CLG had their comeback it was like the old CLG TSM rivalry where it's like ah, is it a rivalry? One team just always wins.
So for anybody who might not fully know the the context here, Badger, what is like the telecom wars and kind of the history behind it.
[00:48:37] Speaker C: So back in starcraft, Brood War and pro league like SKT and KT were two of the bigger names in starcraft in Korea.
And so you have like El Classico between like Fnatic and sk, which is a dub of what's going on with what is it Real Madrid in Barcelona or whatever it is. I care. I don't know European football as well as I should to use this analogy.
[00:49:07] Speaker A: I cannot help you out there, brother. I'm sorry. So.
[00:49:09] Speaker C: So like the El Classico moniker was not used for SKT and KT since it's South Korean telecommunications and Korean Teleco, the Korean telecommunication company, both sponsoring these teams. So they just called it the Telecom War and that name has stuck since Brood war in the mid two in like the 2000s. And that's just any time that we get SKT or T1 now that they are. And KT Rolster.
It has been dubbed the Telecom War.
So it's just the moniker name of the rivalry that's been instilled for 20. Oh my gosh, almost 20 years at this point.
[00:49:48] Speaker A: Yeah, it's a big deal. It's a transcended titles and it is just, you know, again, indicative of how cool this finals is because Bickle like this is a historic moment that we get to see the fourth finals in a row for a team. And T1, if they win it, this would be they them beating their own past record of only one team's ever gotten two world finals in a row. And it was skt.
[00:50:16] Speaker B: It's absurd that they're going. They've made. They've already broken their own record by making four finals in a row.
[00:50:23] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:50:23] Speaker B: Their old record was three in a row. So they broke that. And now they're trying to break their own record of most titles in a row of two into three. That would just be absolute insanity. I think I saw it correctly that if.
If T1 wins, this faker will have more titles than any region. If you remove his titles from Korea, he will have more titles than any other region.
[00:50:51] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:50:52] Speaker B: It's absurd.
And something to note for the telecom wars. The most iconic play in league history, arguably of Faker's history.
[00:51:03] Speaker C: Faker versus.
[00:51:04] Speaker B: Was it? Yeah, that was his helicopter.
[00:51:06] Speaker A: That was SKT versus KT. The Faker.
[00:51:10] Speaker C: What was that? 2013 finals.
[00:51:13] Speaker A: ZVZ mirror match.
[00:51:15] Speaker C: Best of blind pick. Best of.
[00:51:18] Speaker B: Bring back blind pick. Bring back blind pick.
[00:51:20] Speaker A: And that was a reverse sweep. Right. Wasn't KT up 20 in that series?
[00:51:23] Speaker C: Series to start 2. I think it was a 2. 1, 2 1. The. The SKT comfort zone being down 21 in a series.
[00:51:34] Speaker A: Well, either way, I mean. And one other piece of his history here. I love that we have had league for so long now that there's all this history to it. This is guaranteed a 10th world's title for Korea.
It is Korean team versus a Korean team. They have nine titles as a region. This guarantees 10. LPL has three.
EU has one technically from the first worlds and LCP has one technically from the second world with type A Assassins. And then whoop, whoop. LCS has done.
But you know, that can always change.
[00:52:07] Speaker C: You know, LCS has the MSI final.
Yeah, technically, I think. Right, True.
[00:52:15] Speaker A: Yes. CLG and Team Liquid would. Yeah, yeah.
And one semifinals appearance at Worlds. But again, it just shows how dominant Korea has been historically.
[00:52:28] Speaker C: Both C9, C9, 2018 and C9. I thought I made semi finals in like 20.
[00:52:36] Speaker B: I want to say they did.
[00:52:40] Speaker C: There was. I thought there was 2018.
[00:52:42] Speaker A: Didn't TSM make semi finals at one point? Point? No, I thought they had.
[00:52:47] Speaker C: I'm gonna be honest. No, it's. It would be C9 both times.
[00:52:50] Speaker A: Okay. Okay. I can't remember because the 2018 was the big one. I don't remember when they would have done it again.
[00:52:57] Speaker C: I thought it was 20.
[00:52:59] Speaker A: Is it 2014? Maybe it was before I was watching, like 2014 or 15.
[00:53:02] Speaker C: Oh.
[00:53:05] Speaker B: Actually, no.
It's just one. Cloudon's made quarters a bunch of times in Europe's had a bunch of semi appearances, but NA's never hit it. Aside from Cloud9. Making. Making this gotcha. Also, by the way, that KT SKT matchup was a reverse sweep. Indeed.
[00:53:23] Speaker A: That was. Yeah, I was hearing about that. I didn't see it, like, fully, but I've watched that game five before and I remember them mentioning that in the game, so.
Well, that's all the history behind it. And I'll talk about expectations going into it because it is. Is still a mountain to climb for kt. I think they got the narrative buff. They're the scrappy underdogs. They're this team of rascals put together.
Three of them have been benched throughout the season. You know, nobody had faith in them. Nobody believed in them. Here they are at the world's finals against the Goliath of league esports. Does that mean that KT is the team that can take them, is T1 only, you know, fallible when they're up against the underdogs like DRX and now like kt? Or do we think that this is just going to be kind of a T1 swap or stomp? Before we do predictions, I just kind of want to talk generally about how we think the matchups are going to go. So let's just go top to bottom for. For top. Lane Badger, I want to start off with you. Who do you think takes this one? Who do you have advantaged?
[00:54:28] Speaker C: I think it. It's really close just because.
Z God. Wow.
First slip up. There we go. Let's go.
Doran as a player, historically, once he's gotten into the big moment like this, has kind of not lived up to the expectations.
And I mean, you're going against Perfect, who's practically, you know, playing in his first, like, deep international run at this point, has a myriad of styles that he could play, but I just think, like, Doran just the Experience going into it is. Is the moment gonna be too big, like for the misfits of kt is the thing that I'm gonna say throughout all.
[00:55:11] Speaker A: Do they choke? Do they have the. The mental to maintain it? Because like T1's been there before.
Right. But other than Doran. And I'm happy that you bring up that part about Doran. It's just convenient. We're starting with top laners here. Doran. If you remember at the beginning of the year it was memed on. I remember jokes being like if I.
[00:55:29] Speaker C: Made jokes about Doran.
[00:55:31] Speaker A: Yeah. Like if imagine T1 win Worlds with Doran. Like how crazy would that that be? Like fake can. Can faker carry door and stuff like that.
[00:55:39] Speaker C: Does it prove more that top lane doesn't matter or that Doran is actually a good player? More. More.
[00:55:45] Speaker A: It's more to cover next week.
[00:55:49] Speaker B: Side note, this has nothing to do to us, but I find it hilarious that two major content creators in Cage Roll and I will dominate before the year even start. Bet their hair on the fact that T1 would not repeat with Dora.
[00:56:04] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:56:05] Speaker C: Yep.
[00:56:05] Speaker B: And they may be about to go bald. That's amazing.
[00:56:09] Speaker A: That would be incredible. And I think that if anything, maybe Doran's just motivated by spite because of those bets. And honestly, I. I mean it's partly joke but also partly true that like when people don't believe in you, sometimes that gives you something to prove. And also it definitely helps to have T1 like owner Faker Gumi Usikaria around you.
But if there were a weak point, I would argue it is going to be Dorian and it would be perfect to. To take advantage of that. So I like that for top lane for Jungle Bickle, let's get your thoughts. It's going to be cuz on KT vs owner.
[00:56:47] Speaker B: Both these jugglers have been playing really damn well as of late. Cuz is on a fantastic streak, but owner Badger has just been the guy to step up when you need someone for the longest time.
And I think he's going to continue that streak. I think the jungle goes to T1 in this case.
[00:57:07] Speaker A: Okay, any. Any big insights for. For you Badger to add?
[00:57:12] Speaker C: I think the strong point of KT rolls for this tournament has been BDD Cuz being able to play the map, which for them is great that you're doing it, but at the same time you're now playing against, you know, faker and owner who've been incredible at running the map in this tournament. So mid Jungle this, this year has just come down to the concept of mid jungle, of how you're playing it between all of the objectives that they've added into the game. So are.
Is KT going to be able to have one last big series out of bdd? Because realistically speaking, going into this series, BDD is the MVP of worlds. Like, yes, by far.
Like this guy, I. He's, you know, I always called him one of the four Horsemen of like Korean mid lane. And he's never really had anything to show for it at this point until like, like now. Like, can he get a title? Can. Can he cement himself as one of these, like, great Korean mid laners in the legacy of it at this point?
[00:58:29] Speaker A: And the four of horsemen being Faker, bdd, Chovy and who else?
[00:58:34] Speaker C: No, Chov's not on it. Well, yeah. Ch actually, yeah. So faker, showmaker, show and showy.
[00:58:42] Speaker B: And like, that's the thing that you mentioned that is like, not this year because he's been playing so but like last year and coming into it with the rise of Zeka, people had kind of been wondering, is BDD falling out of that Four Horsemen role?
But BDD heard those complaints and said, no, this is my throne.
[00:59:02] Speaker A: Although I would argue Zaka can overtake showmakers. That's. Yeah.
[00:59:06] Speaker C: No, not show maker choke.
You think Zeka overtakes showmaker?
[00:59:12] Speaker A: I think so. I know you're a showmaker, Stan. I'm not gonna get into that conversation.
[00:59:16] Speaker C: I think I might be showmaker guy.
[00:59:18] Speaker A: We're not getting into that one. It's okay. So anyway, you already brought us has.
[00:59:21] Speaker C: An advantage over owner in the jungle depending on how hard they index their resources into doing it. Because genuinely speaking, Cuz has been carrying games for this team, but that's also been on the back of the getting the assistance from mid lane from Peter and support. So it just depends on how they play about it. But I think, I think I would slightly in cuz right now.
[00:59:44] Speaker A: So I mean, you. You mentioned how impactful it is for the mid lane that is next up. And I'm going to start off for this one. If it had been if you'd asked me the question of like, which mid laner wins between BDD and Faker. And he would ask me, like right after KT versus Gen G, I would have said, oh, BDD for sure. Like, Faker's still playing well. But like BDD is so good and he just gapped Chovy, like he gets this.
But then I saw Faker vs Do and I was like, oh boy. And like, also Faker versus Al too. It's like, dude, I don't know anymore. I like Faker. There was a tweet that went out Jojo Pua and tweeted out Faker crazy. That Faker's playing in his prime something. And people are meming on him like, no, you did. Like, this is not prime Faker. It's, it's, I don't think it's far off. Like, Faker actually is terrifyingly good right now. I think it's still a slight edge to BDD based on how hot he's looked. But I, I could see Faker still showing up and, and winning this mid lane matchup. But let's get pickles thoughts and then Badger's thoughts to round out mid lane.
[01:00:55] Speaker B: This is the matchup to watch of just two people on the peak of their game right now.
But like Badger mentioned, BDD is the tournament's mvp. KT would not be here without bdd. If Katie want a shot of winning this finals, BDD needs to be on his A plus game.
[01:01:17] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely.
All right, Badger, bring us home for the mid lane.
[01:01:24] Speaker C: I mean, on one side you have the, the, the man who is, you know, personified league of Legends as a whole, and he's one of the greatest players that's ever played any game at this point relative to how successful they've been in it. But on the other side, you have this upstart who I think the community as a whole hasn't given enough credit to at this point. I, I, I'm, my heart wants to go with BDD because I've just been a huge BDD guy his whole career. But like, at the same time, on the other side, Faker just extended his contract for four more years. This dude's prime is like, is. It feels like it's been a lifetime at this point. Like, genuinely like my entire adult lifetime time. Like, this guy has been really good and just, you know, winning world titles, winning domestic titles, winning MSIs, women winning all these tournaments and stuff like that and just proving why he's the class of the game. So I, I, as much as I would love to go with BDD right now, I think I just have to go with Faker.
[01:02:35] Speaker B: And Faker's prime ends when he says it ends.
[01:02:40] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah. At this point, they're going to let that guy play until his fingers can't hold a keyboard and a mouse.
All right, Mid lane is going to be the key, de facto matchup to watch. Make sure that you have your eyes peeled there let's go to the bot lane though.
I don't remember what the rotation was so I'm going to throw this one to Badger Ruler or sorry not ruler.
Guma Yushi. There we go. That was my slip there. Guma Yushi versus Doom. Who takes takes it.
[01:03:10] Speaker C: I as much of a huge duck Tom guy as I am. I love everybody on this KT team but I just think you know Kuma two time world champion and he's playing championship lineage that he comes from just.
It's just Gooma all day.
[01:03:26] Speaker A: Yeah. I think Guma despite being benched earlier in the year and T1 still looking very good. Guma still got it and that maybe a fire.
[01:03:34] Speaker C: He genuinely. This is the biggest actually maybe maybe support but this might be the biggest gap between the SKT and SKT play or the T1 player and their counterpart on KT.
[01:03:51] Speaker A: Interesting. Bickle, do you concur?
[01:03:53] Speaker B: I'm right there with him. It's funny to mention we mentioned that 3 of KT had been benched this year. People forget Guma was benched this year.
[01:04:03] Speaker A: Yeah. Crush.
[01:04:03] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah.
[01:04:05] Speaker B: That very brief period of time.
But yeah, yeah, it's.
This is. This bot duo is where T1 should have the largest advantage.
[01:04:19] Speaker A: Okay. And the duo. Well, let's get to support then. Why do you think also for Peter versus Caria.
[01:04:25] Speaker B: Carrier has been warming up and we saw him start to kind of get back in that form that we saw his peak potential late against anyone's legend. And in that series against KT there's just. I'm not KT. Against top esports there are just so many champs you can't give Carrier or else it's like well, we're just going to lose the game.
And Peter's good. Peter's great. He's had really good moments.
Peter's not Carrier and it's. It's so tough because yeah it's.
I mean you're going up against gods.
What can you do?
[01:05:08] Speaker A: Yeah.
It feels like the most impossible task for kt. They. Their win rate in the telecom wars is abysmal. They are against again two time reigning world champions. This is T1 one's fourth in a row.
And when the belief is at the lowest is apparently when KT does the best. So who knows it does sound like.
[01:05:32] Speaker B: We'Re not getting excited for KT so maybe they have a chance.
[01:05:35] Speaker A: It does sound like that and I, I'm. That brings us to predictions. Let's talk about who we think actually wins this series.
I'll go first.
I Have.
This might surprise some people based on how I've kind of of been talking about the teams and who I've been cheering for so far at Worlds.
I have T1 taking this series in a 3:1 fashion. The reason I have T1 winning it is because the Skins team has a lever they can pull that gives them 10% more damage in team fights and or at least that's. I believe it. That's my tin foil eye conspiracy. I'm. This is not official information at this point.
[01:06:15] Speaker B: There's going to be more T1 skins than there are champs in the game team.
[01:06:19] Speaker A: Right. It's crazy. Faker's gonna have like as many skins as Ari soon.
But one of them is Ari.
But I. I actually do. Aside from the memes there, I think that just T1 are too clean and they had two gifted of a tournament run.
Two LPL teams, no Korean teams on their side of the bracket. And then the team that they have to face at the end is not. Not gen G. It's not hle the two teams that were, you know, better than them in the regular season, at least in split three.
It's kt, the team that are the scrappy underdogs.
So you're welcome, KT fans. I am predicting T1 Badger. Let's hear your prediction though. Who you have taken this.
You know.
[01:07:06] Speaker C: The coin flip went to kt so.
[01:07:09] Speaker A: Oh, you just flipped a coin coin.
[01:07:11] Speaker C: No, they. So the side select coin flip for finals once kt. KT is blue side game one which means T win wins three zero.
[01:07:21] Speaker A: Whoa. Okay. Wow.
[01:07:23] Speaker C: Why?
I, you know, it's a very good question. Just, you know, next question, please. I'm not doing any analysis on this. I.
[01:07:34] Speaker A: Fair enough.
[01:07:35] Speaker C: I have too much invested in this series emotionally at this point to be able to give logical reasoning behind this.
So I'm gonna politely decline to.
[01:07:52] Speaker A: You are allowed.
[01:07:53] Speaker C: Yes.
[01:07:53] Speaker A: It is a free, free country free podcast. So you're good.
[01:07:56] Speaker C: You're good.
[01:07:57] Speaker A: Do you have any more insight though?
[01:07:59] Speaker B: Now what it sounds like is it sounds like badgers rooting for a very specific team but is trying not to get excited and is pushing it down and playing it out.
[01:08:11] Speaker C: Listen, I'm going to be on a weekend getaway with my wife.
I'm taking the iPad and luckily there is, you know, a room that I can sit in and panic over this series the entire time that I'm watching it because Lord knows if I got, you know, anxiety watching the countdown clock for, you know, the 2016 NBA Finals, the 2016 Game 7 of the world Series as a Cleveland guy, just seeing the personification of Cleveland sports and esports on the precipice of glory just to have the opportunity snatched out of their hands. Hands and crushed right in front of my very eyes once again in the most Cleveland fashion that I could possibly imagine. Then I know it's gonna happen.
So that being said, T130, just so that you know, my disappointment is immeasurable and my day is ruined at that point.
[01:09:16] Speaker A: Fair enough. Fair enough.
Wait, Pickle, did we, did we get you your like official prediction? So yeah, I was gonna say. I don't.
[01:09:27] Speaker B: The last time we saw this sort of miracle run by an underdog was back in 2022.
In that time, T1 had just come off beating back to back Chinese teams going into the finals as the favorite where an underdog team from in DRX came off of beating arguably tournament favorites Chovy led Gen G into the finals for a five game banger before finally capping it off with a win.
My heart wants to tell me that's the road that KT is going to follow and that finally we're going to see BDD come out on top with the title.
But my head says that's just not happening. This is a T130.
[01:10:17] Speaker A: Oh man, the bait and switch right at the end and. But again, you're welcome KT fans, because you know that that's better, right?
[01:10:31] Speaker C: Yeah. Yeah, sure. Let's go with the idea that, you know, Bickle and myself have the ability to uncurse an entire franchise known for being cursed over their fans being, you know. What about the team?
[01:10:47] Speaker A: So excited. I think, I think the word you're looking for was excited. People, people have been excited about Katie before.
[01:10:54] Speaker C: Kangas. I will fly to California.
[01:10:58] Speaker A: Like I said, Emily Rand I'm pretty sure already has a bullet with my name on it. So you'll, you'll get here and I'll be.
[01:11:04] Speaker C: Tell Emily that if she needs backup, let me know and I will. I will be on the next flight out to.
[01:11:10] Speaker A: Okay. To la.
Understandable. Understandable.
All right, well that's our predictions. It seems like we all, all are believing in T1, even if we all are secretly thinking of something else. But you know, we're just gonna not curse anybody today.
Let us know who you think is gonna win World's Finals though. In the community. Discord. I'd love to hear people's thoughts and reasonings and then just get everyone talking about worlds. I can't believe it's almost over. This has Been the fastest world ever with a very condensed schedule. And this week has then because of it's been so fast back to back, this week off has felt crazy. Like, I can't believe it's still, what, four days away from World's Finals. Three. Three nights or something like that.
Oh, my God.
[01:11:52] Speaker C: What do we do?
[01:11:54] Speaker A: I will actually be at a Yu Gi oh tournament in Pittsburgh. So if there's any YU fans out there, they're going to be going to the YCS Pittsburgh. Come say hi.
Yeah. Yeah. But you know what?
[01:12:04] Speaker C: If they lose, I'm driving to Pittsburgh on my detour home.
[01:12:09] Speaker A: I. Maybe I should have said that.
Anyway, I will be watching World's Finals from a hotel room on my phone. Actually.
[01:12:17] Speaker C: Fun.
[01:12:18] Speaker A: Like a viewing party.
[01:12:19] Speaker C: What? I was in Pittsburgh the night the 2013 SKT KT Summer Finals was.
[01:12:28] Speaker B: Oh, wow.
[01:12:28] Speaker C: I was. I.
You know who won that series? Skt.
[01:12:34] Speaker A: Yeah, I was gonna say. What does this mean in a reverse?
That means. No, that means you can't come to Pittsburgh. You can't come to Pittsburgh because.
[01:12:41] Speaker C: Bad juju you being there.
[01:12:45] Speaker A: All right. With that being said though, Pickle, if people wanted to leave a review for the podcast, how many stars. What do you, in your humble opinion, recommend that they leave for us?
[01:12:56] Speaker B: They should leave the number of stars as the number of games everyone wants to see in Grand Finals.
[01:13:03] Speaker A: Abso freaking lutely would love to see a full five game series.
Would this make the fifth world's title for T1? No, this is the sixth.
[01:13:16] Speaker B: This would be the sixth.
[01:13:18] Speaker A: Okay. Yeah, that's. That's also wild.
[01:13:22] Speaker C: So also the stat that I wanted to bring up this point because, you know, everyone is definitely thinking about this, even though I. This was conversation was 45 minutes ago ago. If Mundo is picked in finals and wins the game, it will officially be the champion that has the highest win rate at Worlds meeting the qualifier of five games played for the Crystal ball.
[01:13:46] Speaker B: Nice.
[01:13:48] Speaker A: Do we think owner runs it back?
[01:13:50] Speaker C: Yes.
[01:13:50] Speaker A: Or do we think Cuz would play it?
[01:13:52] Speaker B: I think cuz plays one of them.
[01:13:53] Speaker C: One of them will play it.
[01:13:54] Speaker B: They've both already played at this tournament.
[01:13:56] Speaker C: Yeah.
[01:13:56] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:13:58] Speaker C: They're both dead.
[01:13:59] Speaker A: Yeah.
[01:13:59] Speaker B: Yeah. We do have our casting crew for the finals. It is Drakos Kobe and this is great. This is Chronicler's last cast. He gets to cast Grand Finals.
[01:14:12] Speaker A: Yep. He. He is retiring. We covered that earlier. Chronicler, a beloved color caster over in the LCK region.
He announced earlier this year that he was retiring at the end of the year.
This was his last World and yes, gets to cast finals and it's a telecom war.
Beautiful. And it's the 10th world title for Korea, the region that he's been covering for many years. So poetic for him.
[01:14:40] Speaker C: Thanks for catching for Korea is a wild thing to think about, right?
[01:14:45] Speaker A: I remember when we had our 10th worlds and that was a big deal. And now here we are five years later and it's like.
[01:14:52] Speaker C: Yeah, I remember everyone said that the LPL had caught up.
How did that work out for you boys?
[01:15:00] Speaker A: Not quite.
But with that being said, that is it gonna be it for this week's episode. Thanks for tuning in, everybody, to our world's coverage. We'll have a World's Reaction episode next week and then it's gonna be off season stuff. So we'll have a couple of fun announcements coming going forward. We did a little offseason tournament last year, hoping to do another one this year. So we'll have some more information hopefully coming out over the next couple of weeks for that one.
But Worlds, set your calendars, set your alarms, set your predictions, and good luck with everyone's crystal balls. Just remember this, we love you and we'll see you next time. Bye bye, everybody.
[01:15:40] Speaker B: Peace sh.
[01:16:08] Speaker A: Sam.
