Episode Transcript
[00:00:13] Speaker A: Gets a little too far here. He's gonna have to try and get himself out.
[00:00:15] Speaker B: Let me go.
[00:00:16] Speaker A: Tillery and the rest of the shots of fire. Zion is just killing the next. Zion can eat it single handedly win.
[00:00:22] Speaker B: The game by game by game by game by.
[00:00:26] Speaker A: Should be.
[00:00:27] Speaker C: Oh my God.
[00:00:28] Speaker A: Stupid. Passes through and manages to the table with Messiah tanking it up. I do not believe he just believe.
[00:00:42] Speaker B: I cannot understand this game.
[00:00:46] Speaker A: Unicorns of love. It wasn't a mutant. The Nexus.
Hello and welcome to episode 586 of the League Rundown. This is your 2025 Worlds Finals review.
That's right. Worlds is wrapped. We are officially in off season. And this episode is lovingly entitled A Record which Might Never be broken. The T1 dynasty continues. I'm your host Kangas and I'm joined by two esteemed co hosts. Up first joining us again, we got a Bickle.
[00:01:33] Speaker C: They can't keep getting away with it.
[00:01:37] Speaker A: Three in a row, dude. Three in a frickin row. And to talk about it as well we have Mr. Ms. Lpl Kunzom Nida.
[00:01:46] Speaker B: I don't know any more Korean. But you know, I just, you know, we need to bow down to our overlords. Okay. I'm just happy to be back.
[00:01:52] Speaker A: You're learning Korean because LPL got kind of.
[00:01:56] Speaker B: LPL's dead.
[00:01:57] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:01:57] Speaker B: Long live Korea.
[00:02:00] Speaker A: All right, well, we're gonna talk all about World's Finals. There's also a lot of global news going on this past week, specifically roster news. We're keeping a whole list and we're gonna save some of it for. Or actually the majority of it, we're saving for next week's episode. Just because we're in off season. We can kind of lengthen this roster discussions because a lot of it's just like the normal shuffle, but there's a few notable ones we're gonna talk about and then we have cool information about like Worlds next year, first stand next year and even some like pot changes going forward. So we'll see. Up first, LEC information. We're gonna give the one biggest piece of roster information and that is McCoy picking up Alphari as assistant coach. That's right. The call is coming from inside the house. Everyone pray for him. Coy.
No, the bigger news for McOy is that the roster sticking together. So they're gonna run it back. Alphari is really the only change that they have coming in as assistant coach.
And also they're expanding a Tier 3 roster. So MCO is really investing. They had a whole Like Stream where they talked about the vision of the team going forward, which is really cool and yeah exciting to to see them run the roster back. I mean they were a pretty good roster. Made it to Worlds, made it to msi. Hopefully they're able to, you know, find success again in 2026.
And I love to see investment in Tier 2 and Tier 3.
[00:03:30] Speaker C: Yeah. And along with that, something that notes come directly from NCOI is they're already working on extensions for. I want to say for God I'm blank for Eliolia, Jojo and Alvaro. Or they're already in discussions for extensions with those three and they've said that Merwin and Supa are dependent on this year.
[00:03:51] Speaker A: Yes, I saw extending to 2020 or through 2027. So that'd be essentially like another two year contract with the core and then others based on performance. So I love to see this type of communication from an organization and again I love it especially with all the doomer talk in NA around like the tier 2 investment, let alone tier 3.
That an org like MCO over in Europe is like actively like. No, we're signing a third roster.
[00:04:18] Speaker C: They're following the road K Corp took who also currently runs three rosters.
[00:04:23] Speaker A: Exactly, exactly.
[00:04:25] Speaker C: And I don't know if you mentioned this last week. KCorp Blue1EU masters this past season. So they will be competing in the summer.
I mean in the winter tournament.
[00:04:37] Speaker A: Yeah, we definitely discussed that last week. Thank you for the reminder. I totally forgot about that as well. We have the full format explanation for LEC and LCS again, just because I want to talk about Worlds and kind of wrap up Worlds. We'll save that for next week. But I'll add that on the notes so that way we don't forget for next week to talk about the fact that we have LEC/LCS format explainers.
Mazel. Big piece of information on LCS side. What was the big question on everyone's mind? The bell of the ball that everyone needed to know who was going to be their date for 2026 season.
[00:05:18] Speaker B: LCS.
[00:05:20] Speaker A: Yeah. And one specific player. I was looking for a player honestly. But I like the enthusiasm.
[00:05:26] Speaker B: Just happy that LCS is back. But I guess we've known that for a while now.
[00:05:30] Speaker A: But we haven't heard your excitement for it. I suppose so. So that's awesome.
[00:05:34] Speaker B: True.
[00:05:34] Speaker A: But inspired. The big question mark. So where's he going? Mazel. We now know.
Do we know?
[00:05:43] Speaker B: Like hundred percent. But it's the. The rumor is lying.
It's good.
[00:05:48] Speaker A: See it It's a. It's a rumor. I suppose it is one of the sheep esport articles which more often than not.
[00:05:54] Speaker B: But it would be sick.
[00:05:55] Speaker A: That would be at least get to keep him would be crazy. It's sick that we get to keep him. But it's surprising because it to me and maybe I'm reading into it too much but it doesn't feel like it's that much. It feels like roster negotiations or contract negotiations rather kind of fell through other places because lion would have been towards not the bottom but like more middle of my expectations of where he'd want to go. I definitely was looking at Europe.
So to me this reads something fell through with the G2 is the cases.
[00:06:26] Speaker C: That I know were with the looks of it, it's a two factor of A money and B the big rosters over in Europe. Yes, Inspired is great but they were kind of already happy with their Junglers. Like the three big teams you're looking at is yes they could make that big splash is G2, Koi and K Corp. And I think they're happy with SKU, Mon, Razer and Yike. I mean Skewmond, Del Yoya and Yike.
[00:07:00] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:07:00] Speaker A: Yeah.
The bigger1 was G2 wondering if they would keep Skewmond.
And I. I honestly thought he had a great Worlds. So after his performance at Worlds I'm like yeah. At least comparatively to other European performers at Worlds especially historically I'd say like that that was not a bad showing from.
[00:07:18] Speaker C: Plus he's a rookie, so.
[00:07:21] Speaker A: Exactly. Yeah. So trying to invest in that. So we'll see what lion or what Inspired looks like online and what the rest of Lions roster look like now that they have it rumored but expecting to have Inspired.
[00:07:37] Speaker C: So far, I believe are the two that we.
[00:07:39] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:07:40] Speaker C: Which is.
[00:07:41] Speaker A: They already confirmed that they were dropping a few. It was Lions. The support is being dropped. Top laner Serdy is dropped and. And I don't remember if they confirmed Henna was dropped or not.
[00:07:52] Speaker C: I want to say they've confirmed. Yeah, I think they've confirmed dropped everybody except Saint. Lyons is out, Henna's out, Serti's out like you mentioned and also Audie is out.
[00:08:10] Speaker A: Well, hey, Inspired Saint sounds like a very fun combo.
[00:08:14] Speaker B: I just on the topic of NA stuff, you know, Yuji just posted a couple hours ago that he hates playing on 140 ping and that he's back in Mongolia and that makes me extremely sad. And if for some reason this reaches anybody that has any power to sign a jungler that maybe Needs a visa. Sign Yuji, please, For fuck's sake. Please, please, please.
[00:08:42] Speaker A: Get the Mongolian.
[00:08:43] Speaker B: Anybody. I don't give a fuck. Don't guy play from fucking Mongolia, please.
[00:08:49] Speaker C: He'll end up in European Tier 2.
[00:08:51] Speaker B: My piece also, if we want to add, like, a little bit of LPL news, we could do that too.
[00:08:56] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, you got. I'm going to give it to Biggle afterwards because he threw a Gen G thing in there. So give us an LPL of information.
[00:09:02] Speaker B: So couple things. Not necessarily the brightest of news for any LPL fans.
RNG and FPX are rumored to be out, so we'll be back down to 14 teams. And apparently the goal now is to reach 12 to 10 teams, so there will be a lot more teams leaving. I actually think it's really good for the region. I think it was stupid to stay at 17 teams for so long. I think it was stupid to stay at 16 teams for so long.
And I think we're reaping the awful benefits of that now in this lack of really strong presence from the LPL in the last two years.
But we will hopefully get to a place where the league is, like, at least stable. But also on top of all that, we have probably one of the stupidest systems you could possibly ever think of for player acquisition in a League of Legends region.
We're going into a bidding process with teams where your bidding value is based on what you've contributed to the league itself in terms of international wins, domestic wins, and domestic placings.
And if a player refuses the bid that they were given, they are banned for two years from playing League of Legends in.
[00:10:21] Speaker C: I'm sorry, what?
[00:10:23] Speaker B: Yep. So if you don't want to go to Ultra prime and you. You're gonna sit for two years, but it's. It's really cringe. It's absolutely insane. There's a couple caveats, like, if you already have a contract, you get to keep that player if, like, imports aren't affected. So you can literally. So every team is going to have an import. Absolutely. Because, like, that it would be dumb to go bid off somebody when you could just literally sign anybody from any other region, which is probably lck.
[00:10:54] Speaker C: It is lck.
[00:10:58] Speaker B: The. The other caveat is if you didn't play in at least three games in summer.
And those are the. Those are the three caveats.
[00:11:13] Speaker A: Wow.
Wait, so explain to me, what was it if you didn't play at least three games?
[00:11:18] Speaker C: I don't know if you cut out, drafted.
[00:11:20] Speaker B: Oh, did I cut out? If you don't if you didn't play two to three games in summer split then you aren't part of the auction. Like the bidding. Oh you can just be signed and like sought after by any player. But like nobody did that, right? Like nobody who is anybody, no one of know like is gonna be sought after did that.
[00:11:37] Speaker A: How does this apply? Maybe academy players.
[00:11:43] Speaker B: It focuses LDL too. So LDL doesn't take the auction stuff to like that you can pick up and like promote anybody from the LDL without having to go through the bidding process.
[00:11:53] Speaker C: So it's just in a sense existing LPL talent.
[00:11:57] Speaker B: Yeah, pretty much.
[00:11:58] Speaker A: So, so what if you're an LPL player and you just like I'm put me in LDL for a split so that way I can get like yeah.
[00:12:08] Speaker B: Or you just quit for a split and then you can sign with any team you want to play with.
[00:12:12] Speaker A: That is so stupid.
[00:12:13] Speaker B: Yep. It's very dumb and I have a fear that it is going to destroy our league. But we'll see what happens.
[00:12:20] Speaker A: You know what, there's been a lot of things that probably should have destroyed the opiate.
Yeah, well just keeps going.
[00:12:27] Speaker B: But you know losing two of our championship organizations does really suck. So RIP and tears to RNG and FPX if that does come literally one of them being one of the very much likely world champion organizations.
[00:12:39] Speaker C: Well on to a region that is still thriving, the lck.
We have a bit of roster news there.
Obviously as we knew for Hana Life, Peanut has headed off to military service. He will not be returning next year. So Hana Life is in need of a jungler. But one team, Gen G we were pondering after that flop out in semis what's going to come next to them. Our big thought was Duro's the unknown here. What are they going to end up doing? Well, they gave us their answer. They've re signed Duro. He will be staying with the team so we'll see if they run it back or if they make changes at another position. But support is going to be stable there and not a worlds team, but a team I'm excited about because Badger brought up this player last week as a big potential name that any team would want to import.
Fearex said absolutely not. Daystar is ours and he is our mid laner. Him and Diable are going to be an amazing mid 80 carry duo for this team.
[00:13:44] Speaker A: Interesting. Also I just, I can't get over the comedic timing that Mizel just gave there. That was fantastic.
[00:13:51] Speaker B: That was awesome.
[00:13:53] Speaker A: Okay, cool. So some exciting roster Moves over in lck. Again, we're saving a lot of the bulk of it for future episodes just because a lot of it's like, oh, Navi, pick up hair support. Oh, T. Heretics drop flack and like, like little individual roster moves I think can warrant their own, like, episodes. That way we can really dive into like what the rosters are looking like. Which is the good news is at.
[00:14:16] Speaker C: The moment Targamus still doesn't have a position in the tier one region.
[00:14:24] Speaker A: Next week. Maybe by next week that will still be true.
[00:14:26] Speaker C: Please know fanatic, Please know a couple.
[00:14:30] Speaker A: Of variety topics we want to cover.
The first one is world's 2026 play. INS/ Swiss knockouts have been announced for their location in North America along with the finals.
[00:14:44] Speaker B: Moselle.
[00:14:44] Speaker A: It's gonna be in. I mean, you've lived in a lot of different places in your life, your home states. There we go.
[00:14:52] Speaker B: It's literally like where I used to go every weekend when I lived in Texas.
[00:14:56] Speaker A: That's all that was.
[00:14:57] Speaker B: The only thing to do was to drive to Dallas.
[00:14:59] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:14:59] Speaker B: So.
[00:15:00] Speaker A: So cuz it's gonna be like. Yeah. Like 40 minutes out from Dallas, like a suburb called Allen. Same place where the LTA finals were.
So that was. I didn't realize your neck of the woods. That's cool.
[00:15:11] Speaker B: What's up?
[00:15:12] Speaker A: I didn't realize that was like your neck of the woods.
[00:15:13] Speaker B: That's. Yeah. For Wichita Falls, Texas, like an hour. It's probably like an hour and a half from Allen.
And we used to go to Allentown all the time.
[00:15:21] Speaker A: Not bad. Not bad. Well, hey, maybe when. When you're there for Worlds this next year, you'll be able to swing on over. Let's go.
[00:15:30] Speaker B: Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, yeah.
[00:15:32] Speaker A: Hey, hey. We'll get there together, baby. Let's go.
[00:15:34] Speaker B: Absolutely. One day.
[00:15:37] Speaker A: So the. The big change here is this is the first time in a while that play ins, Swiss knockouts, all in the same city, only the finals will be a different city.
I don't remember exactly what it was. I want to say I saw like in the report that it's like the first time since COVID or maybe even like before COVID that that has happened.
Do we have like strong opinions on that? Personally, I don't care that much other than it's just disappointing that other cities like Toronto or like, you know, you know, more areas in the US aren't going to have as easy access.
[00:16:10] Speaker B: I have strong feelings just because I think it's awesome.
If and only if the biggest caveat is that they don't cheap out like they did with this worlds and fuck it. Just try to save as much money as they can. Scrump everything together so they didn't have to rent an arena for an extra week and like. Like make it actually feel like world like I don't know man, this world felt so bare and thin boned. Like it just went by so quickly and we. Because it did. Like we lost so many games comparatively by taking out the play in stage. By taking all these things by. You know we used to have an entire week between quarters and semis and semis and finals and now semis and quarters were literally smashed into five days or six days or whatever. And I think like just go the extra mile, spend a little extra money. Like that is. It is the biggest show of the year for our sport and we're getting outdone by fucking honor of Kings.
[00:17:11] Speaker A: Yeah, like come on, come on.
[00:17:13] Speaker B: Like come on.
[00:17:14] Speaker A: That was the honor of kings and capita at the same time. Was tragic to see like the, the difference in scope. Just finals.
[00:17:21] Speaker B: It's cool to have it in two places. Use those two places a lot. Like yeah double elim give us more games. They want more days. Like I know they won't but that like that is the only thing that makes this okay.
[00:17:32] Speaker A: Like if it's a cost saving measure, use this cost saved to do better stuff.
[00:17:39] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. Don't just pocket and give it to your CEOs.
[00:17:42] Speaker A: They will think we all know what is going to come of that.
[00:17:47] Speaker B: Yeah, I agree but that's my reasoning for like that's the only thing that makes it okay. Right? Like besides that I don't think it's okay. I think it's lame to put it in two places and have you know, probably half of the audience of League of Legends throughout North America not be able to make it to those places. Like I think that's kind of nice.
Not nice.
[00:18:05] Speaker C: I just feel bad for Toronto.
Like I can't remember what it was. I think it was worlds. They were supposed to get something and then because of COVID restrictions of travel they weren't able to do it. And ever since then they've just not had anything come their way.
[00:18:24] Speaker A: Yeah, I feel like Canada, yes they just had MSI in Vancouver which is cool but the other side of the country hasn't had anything for a very very long time. So hey maybe and this is I. I know zero information. So please don't be like oh Kanga said this but maybe like at LCS finals makes it To Toronto. Like we get three splits here.
Unlikely, because last year we only had one finals and it was only for the the third split. But who knows? With the format change, there's a potential that we do something like that. But again, I do not have any information. This is all just like, hey, we.
[00:19:02] Speaker B: Can still hope you went to Toronto.
[00:19:04] Speaker A: I was just up in Toronto.
[00:19:06] Speaker B: What you do in Toronto?
[00:19:07] Speaker A: I was doing Yu Gi oh stuffs. That's why this podcast episode will be coming to your ears. Listening a little later than normal. I didn't get back until last night, so it was a long, long travels. But Toronto's fun. I like that city.
[00:19:20] Speaker B: Welcome back.
[00:19:21] Speaker A: Yeah, thanks for having me. Thanks for having me.
So, yeah, that's. That was announced also the first stand location was announced in Sao Paulo.
Brazil gets to host an international tournament again. And this was rumored and now it is confirmed there's gonna be eight teams at this year's first stand. Up from the six. This is gonna make formatting or rather up from the five, right? Weren't there only five teams at this?
[00:19:47] Speaker C: There were five, yes.
[00:19:48] Speaker A: Which is gonna make things cooler because now we have two different regions with North America and Brazil. We have split so we no longer have one team representing. There will be two there. But then they wanted to bump it up to eight teams. It's cleaner. Number one more LCK team, one more LPL team. So congrats, LPL and lck. Their consistent domination at the international stage earns each of them an additional seed going into this event. So I think it's gonna make that way more exciting. I actually like that a lot. Lot.
Because only having like the one team not make it to knockouts, that sucked.
I also heard that it was us, but like, man, that. That just wasn't. It wasn't very fun last time.
[00:20:29] Speaker C: I'm curious to see what the format is because if it just ends up as the old MSI format of the top four teams going to knockouts, it's going to be slightly depressing when the top four. Four teams are just the LCK and the LPL and the only teams that make bracket stage.
[00:20:46] Speaker A: Yeah, I. So this is my gut feeling. I don't remember if the format was announced. So sorry. If anybody, they have not announced, like, I. I know what's going on, but from what I would guess is it would be like top six make it into the bracket and then there's an upper, lower bracket and like fifth, sixth seed are in the lower bracket.
[00:21:05] Speaker C: So that's the do it just like they do with the LCS and LEC playoffs. I could see that.
[00:21:10] Speaker A: So that type of playoff format. So that means that, like, you know, probably Brazil and like, no, don't be N A no.
[00:21:19] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:21:19] Speaker A: Maybe Brazil and NA get knocked out right now.
[00:21:21] Speaker C: I guess it's gonna be NA Yeah.
[00:21:24] Speaker A: Yeah. Hey, we'll see. We'll see.
[00:21:27] Speaker C: Exploded.
[00:21:28] Speaker A: Unfortunately, Team Liquid's looking all right. I will see. We'll see. Maybe Cloud 9 get APA. That'd be exciting.
But either way, that's going to be the.
The location and the beginning of the format for Sao Paulo and First stand.
We'll have more information as more comes out.
Also, MSI is going to be in South Korea. We don't know much more about, like, any changes, if any, to the format now that it is North America and Brazil separated again. That's always going to cause some change, but we'll let you know once we have more information there. The biggest bit of information, though, that was all just kind of like, where are things going to be happening in 2026? And some changes to the formats. The big, big conversation that was being had behind the scenes, I didn't even know about this until it broke. I don't know how far along conversations are or how likely it is to happen, but it's confirmed that conversations were being had about a conversation that has also come up in years past. Should coaches be allowed to communicate with players mid game and if so, to what extent?
We talked about this a little bit before the Podmozel. You actually had an interesting point because I initially was like, up. No, I don't think this is a good idea. It really changes exactly everything about how league is played. But when you contextualize it from, like, a broadcaster perspective, I actually thought it was kind of cool. So. So do you want to give your thoughts here and then we can kind of, like, give our opinions on it as well?
[00:22:55] Speaker B: So as, like, broadcast, I think I know Valorant has pauses. I. I've watched like, DCT and stuff. I don't know if they necessarily use their pauses, like what I'm. I'm thinking of here, but I think in League of Legends specifically, like, there is a lot of downtime, and especially as broadcasters, we use that downtime to, like, craft narratives and, like, talk about players, talk about teams, whatever, and like, set up the broadcast for some information.
And I think if the pauses are timed correctly, like, I think those can be used to be another avenue to reach those goals in, like, maybe not something that anybody can think of right off the top. Of their head now. But I think if they stuck around, a lot more innovation could come through and getting that information to the audience in those down times, like side content or different interviews or like pieces of video or whatever that comes up during that. Or even talking points from the broadcasters. I mean, like, what could they be talking about? What are they theorizing? What are they trying to figure out here?
I think it could be useful and I think it's. It changes things a little bit. And I think change is always very hard for the League of Legends community. I mean, just look at the HUD and stuff. But, like, I think it's something that over time could actually be very powerful for not only broadcast, but also for the teams themselves.
[00:24:06] Speaker A: I feel like the. The first approach I had of it was like, I don't like pauses in league, so I'm not gonna like this change. But it's a very, very different type of pause from like a technical pause. A technical pause is going to be like, oh, okay, well, we're gonna to know what's going on and then we'll let you know, you know, once we know. And like all this. Yeah, yeah. But then, like, this is a very intentional pause and it creates a very different conversation on the broadcast side is like, yeah, why are they doing this? What's the game state? What could be happening here? Getting the players on the right side? Ask your color caster. All right. If you're the coach, what are you telling your players? Because we're going to know which team gave the pause if something like that happens. So I think that the. My gut reaction, I think I was a little too fast on. And now that I've heard you kind of talk about it from your thoughts on a broadcaster side, I'm like, you know what?
As a broadcaster, I don't hate it anymore. But from a viewer perspective, I could still imagine it being annoying to be like, oh, I just want to see the game. Like now. Now we don't get to see the game happening.
[00:25:09] Speaker B: But from. Think about it from a team perspective, like, the team perspective, it's so powerful. You just reset your teams, mentally reset what their focuses are on. Like, I think you would see our teams perform so much better, especially NA teams, I think. But anyways, sorry.
[00:25:23] Speaker A: No, no, I like it. I like it. Bickle, do you have any thoughts as well on this, Sabik? Because I feel like this was a one that kind of snuck under the radar on the zeitgeist of the league community, but it's kind of a big Deal.
[00:25:35] Speaker C: We'll have to wait and see. The big thing is how it's going to be applied and what form it'll take, because right now I'm just not convinced that it's gonna do much.
[00:25:45] Speaker A: Oh, okay.
[00:25:46] Speaker C: Legit.
You already.
There's not going to be some instant of, okay, here's these big plays you should be able to make in that instant. It feels like I'm just not convinced that it's going to cause that large of a shift, but I am fully expecting to be proven wrong.
[00:26:07] Speaker A: Okay, well, we'll see if it even happens. Because that's the other thing is that these were only discussions being had behind the scenes of if this should be allowed, not anything close to like, yes, this is going forward, but if. If last year's anything to. Or rather this past year, 2025 is anything to show Riot is willing to take risks and make changes. I think Fearless Draft is a great example of that.
And then if community reception is positive, they're willing to make bigger changes. Like Fearless was supposed to only be split one. That's part of the reason, from my understanding, part of the reason LCK didn't even consider split one real. They were like, no, it's the LCK cup because it's like this kind of silly format and like Fearless is happening.
But then Global community liked Fearless enough that Riot made the change. I think it could be something similar to that where if it were to be a change, it would be like a, yeah, we're gonna do it for split one to see what happens. And then if teams like it and audience doesn't dislike it too much with all the pauses, then maybe it becomes a thing going forward. But again, that's gonna be for Riot and the teams to decide if they like it. It's just kind of cool to think about because, like, it does change a lot of how a team can be built. You no longer need as solid of like an in game leader necessarily, as long as the coach can tell the team, hey, first five minutes focus on this and then I'll give a pause 10 or 15 minutes in and then we'll. We'll reconvene on what the next strategy is.
[00:27:42] Speaker C: I strongly disagree with you there. I think this does nothing in terms of changing the need for an igl.
[00:27:48] Speaker A: So I think it changes how much you need to lean on the igl and the IGL can.
[00:27:57] Speaker B: Now, I think the most powerful use is like getting a better read from a different perspective on what they need to be doing in game. Like what what the end goal is because like, yes, you know what composition you have, you know how to execute it from the get go. But I think a lot of teams get lost in like what's happening on their screen instead of trying to figure out like what is happening outside of them. And I think that would be like the most powerful thing is the coach just come in and be like, yo, so this is what we need to be doing from here on out. Like, this is the strategy that we should now rotate to. And I think that maybe doesn't bring like, I think it's completely different from the IGL conversation, but I think it still goes kind of hand in hand.
[00:28:36] Speaker A: So relating back to the IGL conversation, I feel like what I hear a lot from teams is that if players disagree on a call that an IGL makes, and for those not aware, because we don't use that term much in league as much as like valorant or shooters, IGL's in game leader.
So it's just the primary shot caller is usually what we would call them. So if the primary shot caller makes a call and one or more teammates don't like the call, that can cause hesitation, confusion, and then sloppy play. So in instances like that, if a coach who will still be listening to the comms and hearing these conversations can be like teams not on the same page. Pause, hit the pause and I'm just going to get them on the same page. It changes like the, the primary shot caller's role from needing to like be like an alpha and like everyone has to listen to them no matter what to like voicing dissent can become more of a collaborative thing of like, I don't like that coach pause. Like, like maybe the team can call for it and then like get a second opinion kind of depending on how many pauses they get and like how long they get those for and things like that. The other big one would be for bugs because a coach watching will probably be able to notice bugs much better than players in the moment. So pausing to report bugs will probably happen more often.
Yeah, that's, that's my two cents. Let us know your thoughts in the community Discord, everybody listening along and a reminder that you can join that discord through the link in the description wherever you are listening. Also, if you want to help support the pod, we have a Patreon, we got a merch store. Throw us, you know, throw your time towards those links. Check it out if there's anything that you want to pick up because in this offseason we will have some More fun stuff happening here with all the funds that the community has been providing and also help support Ian, our audio editor, to get these out on time and also make them sound as good as they have been. So shout out to everyone who has helped support so far. With that being said, that's it for global news. It's time to hop into the end of the year Worlds. It's over. We had the finals happen this past weekend. I was watching it from a hotel room in Pittsburgh at like two in the morning. I watched game one of the opening ceremonies, went to bed because I had work the next morning and then watched it at two times speed the rest of the game. So a bit of a more abbreviated world Finals. That was so sad because I was like, man, I want to just watch it but I'm going to be dead tired and I am at work. So like I should be responsible.
[00:31:09] Speaker B: Do what you got to do.
[00:31:11] Speaker A: That was a hard call, dude. Like, and I was there with Emily. She's my director on the Yu Gi oh shows and she used to be producer for NaCl Tier 2. Me and Miselle worked with her and she was also having the same thing. We were like texting each other like, should we stay up? Like, no, we shouldn't.
Yeah, it was funny, but it was a full five game banger. Before we get into that proper though, we got to talk opening ceremony. That's a big part of Worlds. Let's go. Bickle and the Mazel. I want to get your guys's thoughts. Overall, were you satisfied with the opening ceremony? Bickle.
[00:31:47] Speaker C: Ups and downs.
[00:31:50] Speaker A: Literally. He went up and he came back down. It's crazy.
[00:31:54] Speaker B: Or the.
[00:31:54] Speaker A: The DJ guy did. I don't even know who that was. Do we know who that DJ was?
[00:31:58] Speaker B: That's on you, bro. It's anima.
[00:32:00] Speaker A: That's anima. Okay.
[00:32:02] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:32:02] Speaker A: Cool.
[00:32:03] Speaker B: Good for y m a.
[00:32:04] Speaker A: Was. Was he part of like the world's anthem or like any other yeah songs.
[00:32:08] Speaker B: Oh, part of the mix he also create. He was a co creator on the opening ceremony.
[00:32:14] Speaker A: Okay, well maybe that's information that.
I don't know. I. That that was lost on me. I was like, oh, I'm happy be a Bickle are on the same page then.
So ups and downs for big. A little hit or a little miss? Mizel, what are your thoughts?
[00:32:33] Speaker B: I feel like mine's going to be a little long, so.
[00:32:36] Speaker A: Oh.
[00:32:37] Speaker B: So firstly, anybody. I actually thought that was pretty cool. I think the use of like the, the moving up in the. In the stars and stuff with Zinzel. Like, I think all the animation was so sick. The.
The.
The second song, I forget her name. Chris and stuff. Like the song Bite Marks. Like, God, that was so sick. And like, it recreated a little bit. I don't think it was obviously as grandiose and crazy as the elder dragon, but it recreated that feeling in me, right? Like that aw. Feeling that we got the first time we saw that fucking elder dragon flying around the room.
I thought that was all really cool. I thought, like, the animations, again, everything was super sick. Like, the setup of the show, the stage and everything.
I got to say, for Jem, being labeled as the Taylor Swift of China, she did not do a great job.
I don't know if it was a pitch thing or there was something wrong, but, like, she was not reaching the high. You could tell because she was, like, adjusting her pitch.
[00:33:39] Speaker C: I think there was a tech issue and.
[00:33:42] Speaker B: But, like, she was not hitting the highs that that song needed. And I feel like that was really tough, especially for somebody that's like, so lauded in the Chinese community.
That kind of sucked. But besides that, I thought the opening ceremony was pretty good. I still think it got completely outdone by the honor of King ceremony, but for a world ceremony, I thought it was cool. Like, I thought there was a lot of moving parts. I thought the scenery was super sick. The use of, like, the 3D tech with also the animated stuff was really cool. I don't know how it looked in person, but I heard it was even better in person.
But I think compared to, like, when I look at the memory of, like, world's opening ceremony, I look back to 2022 and how shit that viewing experience was in person.
And like, then seeing, you know, gods last year, I think it was really good and I think this one was. Was pretty good. Pretty good. I just like. I think the gym part makes it a little shit, but see everything around it was really good.
[00:34:38] Speaker A: I didn't mind her vocal performance. My favorite part was again, the bite marks where, like the top down view, there's all the dancers on their own, like, platforms and when they, like, they were like, fighting, they would like fake slash each other. And the bottom platform LED would like, look like blood splatter. I was like, that was sick, dude.
I like that part a lot. And I did, like, the tie in with the Lord, the whole like, Xin Zhao zahin lore thing. Even going back to the beginning, the first cinematic for the season open of the year was like the whole LeBlanc Vladimir, like, having otacon that game that happened. I don't. I didn't play a lot of it. But there was like the Balatro type game that they had.
[00:35:19] Speaker C: The card game.
[00:35:21] Speaker A: The card game was Otacon. All of it. I didn't like fully appreciate it until world it was telling one consistent story. It felt so separated because we're in and then we go to like the whole spirit blossom theme. But it was like the no Leblanc has Otacon kidnapped and then now she's using him for a purpose. And we see how she like traps Otacon and like gets this demon. And then it connects to the Xinjiang lore which felt separated later because she's using otacon to try and get to the Darkin to. And now they're both dark can kill a demon and then now is Xinjiang is canonically dead because he like gives himself up to the Darkin. And like the previous spirit, Zahin that had like used the the blade before. Really, really cool. That's like probably not exactly so sick.
[00:36:12] Speaker B: If you want a little breakdown. It's actually really cool.
[00:36:15] Speaker A: He's an ascended, right? Like was he like a man?
[00:36:17] Speaker B: And then he's literally like like kin of Azir.
He was the only person that was not corrupted by the Darkness.
All his powers freely and him and Yunara teamed up. If you didn't watch the comics, like, it's so worth it. The comics were so good, but they were literally like a tag team duo. Taking down all the dark. And he killed all of his brothers. He literally was the sword to Yunara's capturing.
And then he didn't trust himself so he wanted Ynara to kill him, but Ynara refused. And so he exiled himself to wander the world by himself for eternity so he wouldn't fall to a corruption.
Wait, so how old origin story? Huh?
[00:37:01] Speaker A: How old is Yannara then?
[00:37:03] Speaker B: Ynara is like super ancient. Yeah. She was the protector that like first upheld the like Dark and Oath.
[00:37:10] Speaker A: I guess she was in. I didn't get that from the cinematics.
[00:37:13] Speaker C: She's over a thousand years old.
[00:37:15] Speaker B: The. The comic is really worth checking out. The like, go check out the comic. It's really beautifully art. Like art. And it's really good.
[00:37:22] Speaker A: All right, we'll do.
[00:37:22] Speaker B: We'll do.
[00:37:23] Speaker A: Because I love the story from the cinematic and like all the in game stuff.
[00:37:26] Speaker B: We're finally back in narrative for League of Legends.
[00:37:28] Speaker A: Let's go. And and then again, that relating to the opening ceremony of showings in Zhao turning into Zahen. I thought that was cool. And Then going up into space and seeing all the past world moments. I love how the global team approach because this is something that we think about on the LCS a lot is like how do we blend game and esport? Because at the end of the day esports kind of is like an ad for the game and we haven't done like very clear strategic pushes for that at the like local level for lcs lec, stuff like that. Like there's tie in events and stuff that happen. But we don't like blend the esport with the in game stuff very much.
I think Worlds pulled it off in a really cool way that I wasn't expecting and I personally thought was satisfying. So that was, that was my takeaway from the opening ceremonies.
But now opening ceremonies were only an opening ceremony for the main event which was the finals. T1 and KT's telecom war at world finals we wrote KT off. We thought, me and Bickle, I believe both thought that they would be the weakest eastern team at Worlds going into the event.
And wouldn't you know it, they're able to make it to finals only dropping what, two games? The entire world's event, I want to say. Or was it. Was it one game?
[00:38:55] Speaker C: They dropped a one game. It was one game going into finals because they dropped the game against Gen G and other than that they were undefeated.
[00:39:04] Speaker A: Yeah, because they went into semifinals not dropping any games. That's crazy to think about. But they were up against T1 and Mizel. What do we say about T1 and the skins team?
[00:39:17] Speaker B: They.
They made sure to fire up their computers in Antarctica and give everybody 15% stats. I think Faker got like 30% stats this year. I think they just really had to push it to the true. I. I heard there was like a big explosion in the. In Antarctic Circle that like I think they just pushed it too hard. But he won. So it worked well.
[00:39:37] Speaker A: The explosion was because they were pushing Faker stats too much. And then.
[00:39:41] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah.
[00:39:41] Speaker A: Once it exploded, Yushi actually had to carry. So he was the one that got MVP and gets the double skin. They meant to give it to Faker but unfortunately the hardware, unfortunately the, the.
[00:39:51] Speaker B: You know, the routing got messed up.
[00:39:52] Speaker A: And like the data centers were using too much water. They ran out of water for the data centers. Man, what can he say?
[00:39:57] Speaker B: Congratulations to Faker. He makes good on the the three peat. Which I think exactly is, is a real cool story in itself. I really want to be dedede to win but I think that arc of like literally time is a circle. And he had another opportunity to make a 3P that's like never thought to have been possible. And he actually makes it happen. Like, that's. That's crazy.
[00:40:18] Speaker A: And that was the kind of inspiration for the name of this episode. A record which might never be broken. We'll talk about that a little bit more later. But first I want to get thoughts on the games themselves because, I mean, man, T1 were resilient in that game one. I thought it was over.
[00:40:35] Speaker B: But then if you ever get T1 to 2 1.
[00:40:38] Speaker A: Yeah, well, never give T1 dragon fight like that. Like, KT had such a good stranglehold of the game until. What was that? Third dragon or something? It's like 18 minutes in. And from that moment on, T1 just took over owner and Thor and just saved the entire game.
[00:40:53] Speaker C: Zinzao and Vesa.
[00:40:55] Speaker A: Yeah, the one two punch owner just soaked up so much attention. And Doran actually stepped up when they needed him the most. I felt like he didn't have the best performances every single game, but like that Game one, if he wasn't able to do what he was doing on Ambassador, they lose that game.
[00:41:11] Speaker C: Honestly, Doran was pretty solid throughout the finals until.
Well, the reason everybody thinks he didn't do so well is because you look at the second half of game five and Doran just decides to have a happy little game after getting a big lead.
[00:41:24] Speaker A: Also, he was a bit in lane versus perfect in game one also. But again, he brought it back online in the big moment.
But he's the reason that multiple people had to shave their heads, right? Wasn't it like Dom?
[00:41:37] Speaker C: And it's Dom and Cage. Dom has shaved his head. Caedrel will shave his head.
[00:41:42] Speaker A: Incredible. I love. My favorite part of that saga was Dom tweeting out. You know, I didn't think I was going to be a coach for an LCS team when I shaved my head. Should have thought this through.
And that was great.
[00:41:54] Speaker B: He joins a long line of Cloud nine bald people. True.
[00:41:59] Speaker C: Doran gets his world title. That's.
That's crazy.
[00:42:04] Speaker A: The last member of Gen G to not pick one up is Hovi DRX.
[00:42:09] Speaker C: Not Gen G or.
[00:42:11] Speaker A: Sorry, sorry. Yes. Yes.
[00:42:12] Speaker C: Yeah.
2020.
Was it 22?
[00:42:19] Speaker A: I don't remember the exact year, but that was 2022.
[00:42:22] Speaker C: It was either 21 or 22. It was the DRX roster of God. Who is top on that?
I'm completely blanking because that top laner was.
[00:42:32] Speaker A: Well, top laner for that DRX team was Doran.
[00:42:35] Speaker C: You're oh, my God. I'm gonna. Yeah. It was Doran, Pioshik, Chovy, Deft, Carrier, and now everyone but Chovy has a world's title on that roster.
[00:42:47] Speaker A: And Doran had to get it with Carrier picking up his third as well. Because we remember that. Yes, it's Faker's third, but it's also the rest of the Cores world's title. It's Faker's sixth overall. Yeah. Crazy. Crazy. And. And again, I want to go back to that game one because the fact that T1 were able to bring it around. KT won the next two games. There is a world if KT. And yes, it. It's always like this big long, like. Oh, but if they had won game one, that would have changed everything for the next two games. But there's a world where KT could have three zeroed this.
[00:43:19] Speaker C: Yeah. It's crazy to think about the second that dragon fight happened and T1 were able to come back after being down 3k gold. I didn't care what was gonna happen in games two through five. The series was over.
[00:43:33] Speaker A: It really felt that way.
[00:43:34] Speaker C: It was dumb. Like, you cannot give T1 any space to breathe. I think KT's only way to win this series was as a 3 0.
[00:43:45] Speaker A: But shout out to KT for at least getting two more wins because I was worried it was going to be a 3 OT one at that point. Once they came back, I. That's what I was like. I was like, all right, I'm going to bed. I'm gonna wake up to a T1 30 quick game or quick series.
But it wasn't. I mean, KT actually were able to win two in a row and shout out BDD game two. First Mel game in competitive. That was. I believe. I remember hearing the casters say that on cast or at least like. It was not something he's known for, bro.
[00:44:16] Speaker B: They knew that T1 had the tech.
[00:44:18] Speaker C: He needed to deny it. It was a big takeaway.
[00:44:21] Speaker A: Deny it from faker and popped off 12, 5 and 6. Had a couple of like rough laning moments because he was hard focused by owner and faker in the early game, but absolutely recovered and. And had had a great performance.
[00:44:33] Speaker C: Yeah. It was his first ever male game in competitive.
[00:44:36] Speaker A: There we go. Yeah.
[00:44:37] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:44:37] Speaker A: That's that. I remember hearing them say that. I was like, that's insane. On the way world's finals when you just threw a game to T1 and are down in the series, you're pulling out Mel. So like, first competitive Game, bro.
[00:44:49] Speaker B: That champion is busted, dude. Like, there is no way, dude, that that champion is so good.
[00:44:56] Speaker C: Mel. Game two, they pull out the Dr. Mundo.
[00:44:59] Speaker A: Game three, 100% win rate, baby. It never lost a game at worlds or at least worlds.
[00:45:06] Speaker C: At least Guma had a Guma had a fun Yunara game.
[00:45:12] Speaker A: Yeah, a little bit of fun. And hey, that might be the skin he takes after that performance in the fight.
[00:45:18] Speaker C: That's phenomenal.
[00:45:19] Speaker A: Yep. Deactom and Peter kind of bodied Guma and Karia and. And cuz again was just unkillable. Like, there was one fight where it looked like T1 were gonna win the fight. Cuz was like the only member left alive and he's just like 1v3s the rest of T1, it's like, holy, dude. Mundo's crazy.
[00:45:39] Speaker C: You just can't kill him.
[00:45:40] Speaker A: Can't kill the mundo. And like, who was supposed to kill the mundo? Yara is probably the one that you need to be, like, doing dps, but he was so far behind. But like, fakers on Victor not necessarily known for being able to take down tanks, especially not like, mundo owners on Viego, he's looking for resets not on the mundo and other people and won't be able to do that much damage. Doran's on Renekton and Doran got destroyed in this game. Like, this was the really rough one from him as well.
But yeah, that put KT up 2. 1 in the series.
And then I. When T1's backs are against the wall, dude, something just turns on. They. They just like, can't lose.
[00:46:20] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:46:23] Speaker A: Game four, it was faker on a nivea.
Not something I expected to see faker pull out. I know I'd put that as like, my, oh, this is gonna get played at worlds and ruin solo queue experience.
I don't think it's anything close to doing that. But it did get buffed going into worlds and it was cool to see players like caps and faker pull it out. But Gumayushi on the. The callista was the big one.
Yeah, dude. Dude. Like that. Especially after MSI where it was so bad. And then playing in world finals was like, oh, no, are they gonna end? Like, is it.
[00:46:56] Speaker B: Is it gonna be bad again?
[00:46:57] Speaker A: But no, they. They popped off. That was crazy.
[00:46:59] Speaker C: I'm sad because we're not gonna get it. I really want a guma renata skin. I'm not goom. I really want to carry a renata skin, but we're not going to get it.
[00:47:08] Speaker A: What do you think He Goes for Nico.
[00:47:10] Speaker C: I think he goes Nico.
[00:47:12] Speaker A: Yeah, probably.
I wonder who owner goes. Nocturne maybe.
[00:47:19] Speaker C: Maybe we've talked. We talked about this beforehand. This is going to be fakers 9th skin. I think we said. Yep, something like that. If we do not get a faker Gallio skin, I'm quitting.
[00:47:37] Speaker A: It's gotta be gal.
[00:47:38] Speaker C: This has to. That goes in game five. Gallio again he.
There were multiple players that have nightmares about faker Galio. Like.
[00:47:51] Speaker B: This has to be area finally gonna pick luck.
[00:47:55] Speaker C: He can't. He didn't play it.
[00:47:56] Speaker A: He didn't play it. Yeah. So that's why we're thinking that Nico. I know.
[00:47:59] Speaker C: Just gotta win again.
[00:48:01] Speaker B: But so.
[00:48:02] Speaker A: So game five. I freaking love these kinds of drafts. It's Gallio Camille. Especially in fearless we see going later in the series. This is a classic like combo but it doesn't come up much in competitive play in recent years because there's just like hard. It's kind of hard to fit Camille into comps often. But I love it when you go to L classic codes. It's like yeah, two circles lock the smolder in one. The second one will land guaranteed. Like you're just plus bullet time over the top from the bullet time over the top plus a pantheon ulting in as well. Like you are just going to kill whoever you click Camille ult on. And it doesn't really matter how laning phase went. Surprise. It went great for Doran. He was up against the Yorick, perfect Yorick and he was able to just like be way more impactful around the map. And BDD tried his hardest on smolder in the game five, but it was not meant to be. He even like Flame horizon faker doesn't matter because again you. You like are just gonna get one shot every single fight. He had the Zhonyas too to try and stay alive, but it just wasn't enough.
And Gumayushi's bowl times I think was a big reason why he won mvp. He was given title of mvp meaning he will get two skins. Is that when did that start? The last year he gets a second.
[00:49:22] Speaker B: Skin Last year with the Silas yone.
[00:49:25] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:49:27] Speaker C: With DRX they started it with mvp. It's a prestige skin. So for King and and for Zeus there they had the prestige version of their normal skin. For faker last year they changed it to the prestige skin is a completely different channel champion.
[00:49:43] Speaker A: Interesting. And now I guess Kumi Yushi just gets that too. So going forward I. I like it.
[00:49:49] Speaker B: What would be funny if they didn't do it for go, they're like, nah.
[00:49:52] Speaker C: No, I was faker. Faker special.
[00:49:54] Speaker A: That would actually be kind of good, bro.
But speaking of the faker legacy now, like, history was made. Six world titles, three in a row for four of these players.
And that. That brings up the question and the inspiration for the title of this week's episode. Can anyone ever beat this? And if you think yes, how long will it take before we see that big? Will you say no? You think no?
[00:50:22] Speaker C: Just no.
[00:50:24] Speaker A: They would have to win four worlds in a row for somebody to beat this record. Let's just tie it.
[00:50:28] Speaker C: The only people that can beat this is if T1 does it again next year.
And that's it.
[00:50:35] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:50:35] Speaker B: Don't you fucking put that in the world.
You fucking do it.
[00:50:39] Speaker A: The skins teams gonna run out of any ideas for skins. They're gonna be like, fuck it, just throw sweaters on them. I don't know.
[00:50:45] Speaker C: It's gonna get to the point that faker can't pick another skin because every champion he plays, he already has a skin for did well, hey, he could.
[00:50:52] Speaker A: Pick a second Ari skin, you know, Boom, let's go.
That. Yeah.
[00:50:58] Speaker B: So.
[00:50:58] Speaker A: So the question of, like, if it can happen, I think it's like a below a 1% chance that it would happen, but technically nothing's impossible. It would require a minimum of four more years of worlds, and more likely like a decade. I don't think that we see it happen before, like, the2030s with the current landscape of esports, and I think that that's going to require, like, a renaissance of league esports before we see that. Something where it's like, oh, a whole new generation of kids are now being raised by the pros that won, like, the first couple of years of worlds or, like, competed, and now they're raising kids that are getting into league esports like that. Maybe once we get to that level, we'll start to see.
[00:51:40] Speaker B: So you're saying being good at League of Legends is transferable through genes?
[00:51:44] Speaker C: To be honest, Kangas, I see it the exact opposite way. I think the only way this happens is if league hits a slump and it just gets to a point where the.
Where the player base isn't as large and just all the players get collaborated into one strong section. That team just goes on a run. That's the only way I see it happening. But I just don't think it's going to happen ever.
[00:52:06] Speaker A: Very low chance. Mizel thoughts? Can it happen? Will it happen? When would it?
[00:52:13] Speaker B: If I kind of lean more on your decade thing. But that's if league survives that long, I think. I think it is possible.
[00:52:20] Speaker A: Okay, cool. But it's just crazy that it happened, man.
[00:52:23] Speaker B: Like yes, three in a row and it almost happened twice.
[00:52:27] Speaker A: You know, it did almost have a.
[00:52:28] Speaker B: Kind of fucking nuts.
[00:52:29] Speaker A: This could have been four in a row if it weren't for a drx. Like holy crap.
So yeah, history made crazy record. And another question it raises. This is something I was talking about with some people at the Yu Gi OH tournament that were tangentially like they knew about League of Legends. They knew who Faker was and it was just like a who in history.
Can we even compare Faker to in terms of accomplishment, consistency, form?
One name came up that I actually think is a pretty accurate one.
So I'm going to say it and then I'm curious if either of you have other names.
[00:53:09] Speaker C: I have a name.
[00:53:10] Speaker A: Magnuson.
[00:53:12] Speaker C: That's.
[00:53:14] Speaker A: In terms of how long he's been good and how consistent he's been good and like how dominant he's been when he was. Is at his peak.
Magnus Carlson is somebody that I think we could compare current Faker to and it happens to be somebody who's still alive and competing as well. But if we go further back in history, I'm not a big like traditional sports guy. I'm sure that there are other. Yeah, I had a traditional Brady.
[00:53:38] Speaker C: I had a traditional sports. Well, Brady, honestly Brady fits it to a table with the era of dominance at his young period into a period of being really damn good, never getting it done, into a period of winning again like to a T. That fits it exactly. The name I was looking at was Wayne Gretzky.
[00:54:00] Speaker A: That's the hockey player, correct?
[00:54:02] Speaker C: Yeah, that's the hockey player. The undisputed goat, like many of his records will never be touched.
[00:54:08] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:54:09] Speaker C: Because if you separated his assists from his goals, him, him and points would be the number one player. Him on just assists would be the number two player.
[00:54:18] Speaker A: That's crazy. Wow.
Well that, that's the type of player that we're talking about here with Faker is that like nobody's going to be able to match his record other than save maybe like carrier owner Gumayushi because they all share the three peat and if they keep playing longer than Faker who by the way extended his contract through 2029 then like you know, they're. They're the closest that could even try and match a six title like record.
[00:54:48] Speaker C: In all honesty, those, those three players are building a Great legacy.
I think the fact they've did it with Faker holds them back a little bit in terms of how impressive it is.
[00:55:00] Speaker A: Right?
[00:55:00] Speaker C: Like, because everyone's already saying, like, okay, now they've all won three. Where do they sit in terms of the greatest jumps, the greatest AD carry, the greatest support? It's like, yeah, you won three with Faker.
What can you do without him? I want to see that before.
Yeah. In the same.
[00:55:18] Speaker A: Was this, you know, like, hey, court or semifinals? Sure. But, like, that's not enough.
[00:55:24] Speaker C: Owner.
[00:55:25] Speaker A: No, that was quarterfinals, right? Yeah, it was quarters.
[00:55:27] Speaker C: Yeah. Owner is now sitting alongside Bengie as well. We've won three titles with Faker.
[00:55:35] Speaker A: That's pretty funny, actually.
[00:55:38] Speaker C: But that is the big conversation people are having now is where do those three sit in their independent goat position rankings.
[00:55:46] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly. And, like, it's tough to know until they move on, but I don't know if they want to move on or if they should move on. Because you're right. The only team that you don't really break this record is this team just writing it back.
Crazy, crazy, crazy, crazy.
[00:56:05] Speaker B: I think.
[00:56:07] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:56:08] Speaker C: Owner and carrier have contracts through next year, and Guma and Doran are both expiring this year, and we know that they have.
[00:56:19] Speaker A: Was it Smash?
[00:56:20] Speaker C: Was their Smash is there. Yeah. AD carrying Academy, who looked very good.
[00:56:26] Speaker A: When they promoted him up. So we'll see. Guma did just give them another world championship and did get MVP of the series, so wouldn't be surprised if they give him another contract and extend it. But they have another option to look at if they want to.
[00:56:39] Speaker C: They'll extend this entire squad.
[00:56:42] Speaker A: Was that.
[00:56:42] Speaker C: They'll extend this entire squad. I don't see Guma ever wanting to leave. And I think Doran will be back. If they want him back.
[00:56:50] Speaker A: If they want him back. Exactly.
[00:56:51] Speaker C: And if you win a title, you're going to resign him and mazel.
[00:56:55] Speaker A: Can we talk about how well Kelsey Moser's tweet aged where it was like, true the Faker at the press conference. It's like you won an unprecedented, like, another back to back.
What's next? He says, give me Doran.
[00:57:08] Speaker B: You got him a ring, bro. Now, just. Honestly, they could just sell that spot. You just put anybody top of.
[00:57:14] Speaker A: It's all.
[00:57:15] Speaker B: It's like. It's like going to space. You know how, like, rich people pay to be like, that extra seat on a space.
You just. You get to. You spend billions of dollars. You get to be a world champion. Oh, my God.
[00:57:26] Speaker C: Chovy's gonna Roll.
[00:57:27] Speaker A: Slop to top Joe Marsh. Oh, no.
[00:57:30] Speaker B: Just put Joe Marsh put. You know, we could put Monte Cristo in top lane. We could. Dude, we just put anybody.
[00:57:39] Speaker C: That's what IG's owner did. Back with the rookie.
[00:57:42] Speaker B: With the rookie in there. Put Mark Z. Mark Z deserves a world championship. No.
[00:57:46] Speaker A: Don't take my commissioner away. Not the man who Zimmers.
[00:57:49] Speaker B: It's just for. It's just for a year, dude.
[00:57:53] Speaker A: Dude, if Chovy Lane swaps to top lane just to win a world champ title with faker, that would be the most.
It's honestly depressing story. Like, he can't do it in mid lane because faker's there.
[00:58:06] Speaker B: It. I'll leave mid lane.
[00:58:08] Speaker C: Like, I mean, back in 2018, WXZ subbed into the IG roster to play a game and won. Why couldn't Joe Marsh do it?
[00:58:18] Speaker A: Oh, no.
Joe Marsh sends out a public statement. So I communicated with the coaches and we all agreed.
[00:58:25] Speaker B: Best move.
[00:58:27] Speaker A: Oh, man. All right. Well, congratulations to T1. An unprecedented, unparalleled level of dominance in the League of Legends history books.
Crazy. Crazy.
[00:58:41] Speaker B: Ready to learn Korean?
[00:58:42] Speaker A: Get ready to learn Korean, buddy. We have been for a while. Korea is back on top. Four Worlds in a row now. I believe they've won LPL. Was it 2021 the last time they won?
[00:58:52] Speaker B: Yeah. Yep.
[00:58:54] Speaker A: And we'll see. I mean, again, I mean, Harcourt goes out to the LPL and the. The players because with this new, like, roster building thing like going on, who.
[00:59:04] Speaker B: Knows if they're gonna be able to.
[00:59:05] Speaker A: Build rosters that can really push and compete with. The league is dead.
[00:59:12] Speaker B: Dead.
And by leaving teams probably take like four years.
[00:59:16] Speaker A: True, true, true, true.
So, Skins, what do we think? What do we think everyone's skins are gonna be? We already mentioned Gumayushi being Yannara, Carria being Nico, Faker being Gallio. What do we think for owner and Doran?
[00:59:31] Speaker C: I think Doran goes ambassador.
[00:59:33] Speaker A: Oh, that would be good. Actually. Wait, didn't he already confirmed that I. Now that you say that, I think that there was a sheep esports article that said he confirmed in Bessa already.
[00:59:41] Speaker C: Oh, did he confirm it? I thought that was the way he was leaning.
[00:59:44] Speaker A: I think.
[00:59:45] Speaker C: I think my initial thought was it's either Ambessa or Camille, but I wouldn't be surprised if he confirmed it one way or the other.
[00:59:52] Speaker A: I kind of want owner to go Xinjiao. First off, banger Xinjiang game. Also, it fits the lore so well that Xinjiang is dead. And he says no, make a Skin for him. I think that'd be kind of cool. Otherwise, I would love Pantheon also. I'm a big Pantheon player, arguably a Pantheon main, so getting another one.
[01:00:13] Speaker B: I think it'd be hilarious if that man played Mundo a single time in his entire career, and he chose Mundo.
That would be amazing.
Funny and, like, they could do so much with it in terms of, like, lore and like that. Like, I. I think it would be.
It would be so goddamn.
[01:00:34] Speaker C: I could definitely.
[01:00:36] Speaker B: He also was the one that hit himself on the head. No. Is that Zaya?
[01:00:39] Speaker C: That was Zayos head with the trophy. That was Zay was last year.
[01:00:44] Speaker B: But, dude, that. Yeah, because they did that with the Nars skin. Right.
That shit's so funny, though. I think it'd be hilarious if not that. I think J4 is a good one because they could do some really cool artwork and artistry with, like, the standard and, like, stuff like that.
[01:00:59] Speaker C: Am I crazy, or does he already have a J4 skin?
[01:01:02] Speaker B: Does he?
[01:01:03] Speaker C: I think he went J4 last year.
[01:01:05] Speaker A: Oh, maybe I do remember, like, a flag dropping down and having a. A team logo under it. I. I guess Maybe that was T1. It's so hard. Do they have so many skins at this?
[01:01:15] Speaker C: No. I'm crazy. It was a. They have a vice skin. He has a vice skin.
[01:01:19] Speaker B: And the Jarvan skin is the s. Is the SSG our X1 or whatever? SSG? Yeah, there you go. Because they just released a new chroma for it.
[01:01:27] Speaker A: And also Fnatic, Right? Technically, fanatica.
[01:01:30] Speaker B: Yeah, well, technically.
[01:01:34] Speaker A: Hey, it's up there.
[01:01:36] Speaker C: The one thing I'm sad about is the fact that. Hold on.
Is the fact that Doran's not going with Camille. I would have loved to see the clock. The Krugs in the Camille skin.
[01:01:51] Speaker A: The what?
[01:01:52] Speaker B: I think.
[01:01:53] Speaker C: Do you not notice?
[01:01:54] Speaker B: That man should just be happy he's getting his skin in the first place.
[01:01:57] Speaker C: Do you not know this kid in the lck?
[01:02:02] Speaker B: Whatever you choose for me, he didn't.
[01:02:03] Speaker C: Do it as Camille. He did it as Gwen, so it wouldn't even happen. But he died to Krugs in the regular season.
[01:02:08] Speaker A: I know he died to Krugs, but I didn't think it was on Camille, so that's why I was.
[01:02:12] Speaker C: It was not on Camille.
[01:02:13] Speaker A: Okay. Okay.
[01:02:14] Speaker C: My mind was telling me it was the same game. He stole otacon, which I know he did as Camille, but no, that was separate.
[01:02:21] Speaker A: Well, hey, let's just say whatever skin it is, put Krugs in there somewhere. That would be hilarious.
All Right. But there we go. That is worlds in a nutshell.
T1 did it three times in a row. KT gave them a hell of a fight though. So I think KT can leave with their heads held high. Obviously it sucks to lose when you're that close. BDD almost got it done.
[01:02:43] Speaker B: I've got a question.
[01:02:44] Speaker C: Yeah.
[01:02:46] Speaker B: And this is gonna suck.
[01:02:47] Speaker A: Okay.
[01:02:48] Speaker B: I think it's not gonna happen again. Does BDD ever make it back to this point?
[01:02:53] Speaker C: No.
[01:02:53] Speaker B: I think.
I think. I think it was a one shot attempt. I. I think it might. I love bdd. I love his story, I think. But I. I don't see him in this team returning again.
[01:03:06] Speaker C: This team.
I.
I don't think any of the men back on this stage, if anyone was going to, would be bdd. But I think this was really their only shot. Unfortunately.
[01:03:20] Speaker A: Impressed me a lot as well.
[01:03:21] Speaker B: All the way from the depths of team W E, baby.
[01:03:24] Speaker A: If Cuz gets to play Mundo every game, like if they just take the fearless rule away for him, then maybe he also makes it.
[01:03:31] Speaker C: But we'll see who is the team?
Who is the team that finally ends this T1 dominance?
[01:03:41] Speaker A: It's gotta be Genji, dude. Like, there's no freaking way that they throw three years whatever team.
[01:03:47] Speaker B: So there's rumor that the 2021 EDG is coming back together.
[01:03:51] Speaker A: Oh, okay.
[01:03:53] Speaker B: Which would be so banger because a lot of like, it's so funny. Jj, he. He didn't play the last split, so he's technically not in the auction. Mako is in free agent talks now as well. Viper is rumored to come back to the lpl. Flandre got let go of Al and scout is like probably out at JDG or taking a break.
So there's a possibility, you know, they put it together, it could happen. We'll have two. Two legendary world championship rosters coming back to try to win everything.
[01:04:28] Speaker C: In the peak of Faker's career, he won three world champions. In the next great Goats career, Chovy Faker won another three championships.
[01:04:37] Speaker A: Dude, it's so disrespectful. Manchovi's got to get it done. I believe.
I believe in Show V. What does.
[01:04:43] Speaker C: He have to do?
[01:04:46] Speaker B: Because for the past not do bad in the finals.
[01:04:49] Speaker C: For the past two years, Gen G has had an ungodly dominant LCK into choking out at Worlds. Is there anything they can do that will make people believe in them at Worlds?
Like, do they have to go undefeated when it works the regular season?
[01:05:08] Speaker A: No. At that point, none of that matters. Just make it to Worlds again and do good at Worlds. That's all they have to do.
[01:05:15] Speaker C: But there is nothing they can do going into next year's Worlds that will make you believe in them.
[01:05:21] Speaker A: No, probably not. Yeah, just win, dude. Win forehead.
But Gen G might be rebuilding as well. We don't know. We just know that Duro is coming back. So we'll see. And I did like Duro. I thought he showed me.
[01:05:37] Speaker C: I saw a rumor somewhere I don't put too much stock in.
Would be my guess that if they're going to make a change, it's jungle.
I think I read something about there being interest in Gen G Cannabi, but we'll see.
Interesting, because I seen it said that he's likely heading back to the lck.
[01:05:57] Speaker A: We'll see if that is true. That will be more offseason rumors, roster rumors for future episodes. But for now, guys, every year it sucks when you have to realize and accept.
No More Competitive Tier 1 League of Legends for the rest of the year. We have about actually like two months.
That's crazy to think about. Like two months basically of time before.
[01:06:24] Speaker B: That's a lie.
[01:06:26] Speaker A: That's a lie.
[01:06:28] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:06:29] Speaker C: Demacia Cup.
[01:06:30] Speaker B: We have Demacia cup, baby.
[01:06:33] Speaker A: You know what? Hey, that can save us because we can actually talk about that. Then for episodes next week and probably the week after, we'll do some more like roster rumor stuff. Maybe we take like break weeks just because it will be around the holidays and sometimes that can be tough to schedule. But hey, Demacia cup can come in again. We have plans to do more off season tournaments or at least when I say we have plans, I mean I will start formulating plans with the rest of the guys here on the team to figure that out here shortly because.
[01:07:00] Speaker C: They'Re probably like Angus has an idea and is not told about it yet.
[01:07:03] Speaker A: At some point, you know, we'll start playing that.
[01:07:05] Speaker B: Yeah, at some point.
[01:07:06] Speaker A: Yeah, at some point. We had a fun little tournament last year with 500 bucks on the line. It'll be very similar this year. Maybe a little more. And maybe it'll be even more welcomed with all the doomer talk going around with Tier two right now. But again, shout out everybody who has supported us on Patreon and through the merch store. Your funds are going directly towards stuff like this that we can do for the community and help give back a little bit. So yeah, with that being said, that's another year of competitive Tier one in the books, at least for the world's schedule. Thanks so much for tuning in, everybody. It was a lot of fun. It was a shorter worlds, a more condensed schedule. But hey, it's still was an exciting time and history has been set. If anybody wants to leave a review. Mazel. For this specific episode, how many stars would you recommend that they leave?
[01:07:58] Speaker B: So you take the amount of times that Faker has won worlds and you put minus one behind it, and we all know class that that equals 5.
[01:08:08] Speaker A: Minus 1 for winning with Dora.
[01:08:10] Speaker B: If you want cheaper T1 gear, you go buy the 5 star gear now that they have 6 stars and all the new stuff's gonna be coming out. So, you know, go give us five stars. Just like that old stuff you can get of.
[01:08:23] Speaker A: Do you think. Do you think that stuff's gonna be like, collectible? Like, does that make five star more.
[01:08:29] Speaker B: If, like the faker skin is getting more value and more value trophy ads to the faker skin in the first.
[01:08:35] Speaker C: Two years, they had to rework it twice in a row. That's just hilarious.
[01:08:40] Speaker B: Crazy hilarious.
[01:08:42] Speaker A: But like, imagine you had a one star SKT jacket. That's got to be worth something, right?
[01:08:48] Speaker B: You think Faker spits at you if you. If you wear that?
That's. That's the thing that breaks him.
How dare you?
[01:08:56] Speaker A: How dare you.
All right, well, thank you for that, Mizelle. Leave us a five star review. It helps us get noticed. And again, you can join the community. Discord. Support the pod through the links in the description, wherever you are listening. But really what I want you to take away from this episode is that we love you and we will see you next time.
[01:09:16] Speaker B: Bye bye.
[01:09:17] Speaker C: See you. For title number seven.
[01:09:31] Speaker A: Sam Sa.
