League Rundown - Episode 587: Let the dominos hit the *chhh* FLOOOOOOOOORRRR!!!!!

[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 the game by game by game by game by should be oh my God. Stupid. Passes through and manages to the table with Messiah tanking it up. I do not believe he just believe. I cannot understand this game. Unicorns of love it wasn't a mutant. The Nexus. Hello and welcome to episode 587 of the League rundown. This is the off season roster rumor extravaganza and this one is lovingly entitled Let the Dominoes hit the Fly. I believe your mic. [00:01:26] Speaker B: I think he peaked and it didn't even go through all the it recorded on my end. Don't worry. [00:01:30] Speaker C: Okay. [00:01:31] Speaker A: Thank goodness it recorded on your end. That's great. To his team co host I want to introduce it first because he just hit the again a peak so high it didn't pick up on discord. [00:01:42] Speaker B: We got Badger I I I hope it went through if, if we did that for all for not just in case anybody didn't hear it I said floor and but you know it's, it's fine. I'm excited to talk one of the most chaotic off seasons in a in a long time. [00:02:00] Speaker A: This has been one for the books and this is going to be multiple weeks of off season rumor kind of banked up because we wanted to keep it worlds focused and didn't talk as much about a lot of the offseason stuff that was happening. But this episode it's all focused on that and to help us talk about it we also have joining us a Bickle. [00:02:17] Speaker C: We have all the rumors everywhere all at once. Every region. Chaos, chaos, chaos. It's all on fire. [00:02:23] Speaker A: It's all cue the meme the Elmo hands out while there's flames behind him. It is all on fire. Feels like one of the more active off seasons. We've had much more earlier as well. I know in the past we've like complained about man there's like no roster news. Well hey, when it rains it pores I guess because this one has been very very fast. [00:02:42] Speaker B: Eve. [00:02:44] Speaker A: Yeah I some of the yeah I knew dominoes was going to be in the title of the the episode. I just didn't know how many dominoes we needed to reference because it feels like there's been so many impactful ones that once that one fell a lot of other stuff shook up and it's across every region so we're going to get into all of that stuff today. Strap in. It's going to be a very information dense EP because there's no like League of Legends games to cover. But we do have obviously a lot of just, you know, updates for who's going where for you in case you have not been, you know, keeping up with all of it. But there is a little bit of global news to cover before we get into that. Up first, we have a bit of a sad piece of news here. Bickle, psg, Talon, some shakeups over at that organization and their current standing with Riot Games. Talk to us about it. [00:03:33] Speaker C: So turns out you need to pay your players and really is that what. [00:03:40] Speaker A: The contract of like the contract like negotiations? [00:03:43] Speaker B: You mentioned that. [00:03:44] Speaker C: Yeah, Shocker. I know. It's a surprise to everybody that apparently when you sign a contract with Riot Games and with a bunch of players, you need to live up to that contract and actually pay them the money, which whoa, PSG Talon apparently didn't do on time and whoa. Yeah, they were significantly late paying their players, paying their coaches and apparently it became such an issue over a extended period of time. Riot didn't even work with them to try and work things out, but they just couldn't pay on time. So much so that they lost their spot in the LCP and Riot is going to find a replacement. [00:04:34] Speaker A: How crazy is that, dude? Like first off, pay your freaking players. It sucks for the players in this situation that they are not able to, you know, actually continue to play because of something that the organization did. But at the same time, man, it hurts to lose an org like talent. Like this is a historic organization. I know they just recently separated from psg. We're still saying PSG talent but technically it's like Talon. [00:05:02] Speaker C: They now they were PSG Talon. Then last year they became regular talent after the PSG partnership ended. Then midway through last year they became PSG talent again and now they're gone. [00:05:20] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly. [00:05:21] Speaker B: Disappeared. [00:05:23] Speaker A: Yeah. And so they put out like a statement on socials their reasoning and this isn't reading the statement. It's obviously be a very PR statement. [00:05:31] Speaker B: Oh yeah. [00:05:31] Speaker A: But it doesn't seem like they're dodging it. Like they are just openly admitting, per the quote. Our current financial difficulties are primarily the result of several months of delays in funding from our current financing round which was originally scheduled to be completed much earlier this year. These delays have significantly affected our esports business operations across the board. So seems like they're going into another round of funding. It is a Bad time to be an esports organization going into a round of public funding. There's not a lot of venture capitalist money going around the esports scene right now and it can be very difficult to come to any sort of, you know, funding satisfaction in the current landscape. It was already hard back in 2023 when the bubble was popping and it is way, way harder now. So if they're hoping for a round of funding to save the company, I'm worried for the future of Talon overall, but bummer that we will not see them going for Badger. Do you have any strong thoughts on this? [00:06:27] Speaker B: I mean it. So Doggo back in the day joked that he was going to have to make an only fans as his next move when he was playing for psg. So kind of makes sense now that everything comes full circle. [00:06:43] Speaker A: Funny, that was our plan for the league rundown also, but then we decided Merch Shop might be better. [00:06:50] Speaker C: Biggle, two things. One, it makes sense when you consider how goddamn expensive their roster was. They had Maple, Karsa, Betty, a bunch of legacy names there. So yeah, that's a. That ain't a cheap roster. But it also means a lot of big names are now available. [00:07:13] Speaker A: Yes, either in the LCP if they want to stay in that region, or for other regions to pick up. I haven't heard a lot of news come out recently as where any of those players might be heading, but hey, it's off season. Roster rumors are abundant as that's kind of the whole focus of this episode. So maybe their names will come up later in terms of like hypothesizing where they could theoretically end up. But that was the big one for psg. Talon, unfortunately no longer being in the League of Legends ecosystem. Another one though is an update on more of like a nitty gritty ruling here for the split of lta. North and south no longer being the same region. Separate conferences. Now they are two different regions. We have LCS back, we have cb, LOL back. But there's one region that still got headshot and that was L L A the Latin American players. There was still a question mark about like what happens with them because they were technically residents of both regions. Like every team could have one player of theirs. That doesn't count towards an import slot. And also the LLA teams like, like lion here in the north, they had to have a majority LLA players. That's all gone now because we're no longer this kind of shared region. And what's gonna happen is it's kind of like over the Next two years we're gonna see a change take effect at the end of 2027, we will no longer have basically like the action. Now I'm blanking on that, I think. I think so. The one part I do remember as I give myself time to actually scroll so I don't give you false information, is that players that have already signed that are Brazilian players or LLA players that have signed with a team and had a contract in 2025, they are grandfathered in as long as they don't leave the region. So let's say SEOs, for example, the support for Shopify Rebellion, he now counts as an LCS non import player. But if he goes back to Brazil or according to the warning of the doc, if he just leaves the region. So let's say he goes to lec, even he cannot come back to the LCS and not take up an import slot. He only doesn't take up one as long as he stays here. But it's like grandfathering them in short term essentially. And now the other one was Latam is essentially going away forever in 2028. So through the 2027 LatAm players are still kind of in this same type of limbo state that they have been, but after that they will have to claim residency either in LCS or cb. Lol. They didn't give specifications on how like what the formal process of claiming a region is in the primer, but essentially they'll have two more years of this. Kind of like they don't take them in import slot, but then after a certain amount of time they have to decide which region they are going to be in and then if they go to the other one now they're taking up an import slot. So it seemed like still one of those things in classic Riot fashion where they explain something but then while explaining it, it still raises. I mean, what do you mean? [00:10:24] Speaker B: What do you mean? Riot's been always crystal clear with all of their rulings and whatnot for big changes like this. [00:10:33] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly. But Bickle, it sound like you did you want to hop in with the point there or clarify anything? [00:10:39] Speaker C: No, I think you hit it on the head. It's the fact that it's the Brazilian players that if they are in another so Brazilian and NA players, if they're in the opposite region, they're grandfathered in. And the LLA players that are free to do as they please for the next year and change until they need to declare. [00:10:59] Speaker A: Exactly. And another example would be Griffin who was playing in Brazil this past Year is now. We'll talk about it. Rumored to be coming back to na. So he will. He's giving up his grandfathered in status. So if he tried to go back to Brazil, he would then take up an import slot. Unless the rumors are false and he's staying. You know, it's expected that a lot of these rumors are gonna be true. But hey, it's time to get into some of the rumors there because that is really the only global news that we had. Psg, Talon, and then the Residency update, LCS and cb. Lol. If we missed anything though, let us know in the community. Discord, you can find a link for that in the description wherever you are listening. Also, if you want to help support the pod, we have a Patreon and we have a merch shop. You can check out those links in the description as well. But with that being said, let's hop into the topic of today's episode. We have the Roster Mania. I think I have a. Like a. [00:11:54] Speaker B: A. [00:11:55] Speaker A: What's that called? Air horn. I got an air horn on my soundboard here somewhere. Wait, give me a second. Oh, here we go. Yeah, there we go. There we go. So we're gonna start off with rumors in the East. We are gonna spend the majority of the episode talking about lcs. I gotta stop saying LTA now, LCS and lec. But we're gonna start things off with some of the rumors going on in the east, at least some of the biggest ones. LCK will start off first here. But actually before that even, we have a retirement. Bickle, a big player this past week just announced that he was retiring. And this one kind of hurts because, man, he's got a long history in the league. [00:12:35] Speaker C: He's got a long history, a lot of longevity over in. I guess now the lcp, Vietnam's one and only legendary jungler Levi is hanging him up. And it's so sad to see Gam lose him. [00:12:49] Speaker B: He has five into the game. [00:12:53] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, that's one of the most. I would argue one of like the top five most iconic Worlds moments is the Nocturn hitting level six paranoia at five minutes in the game. It had never been seen before, and that has been referenced. That was almost 10 years ago now, actually. Wait, was it. No, it was that 2019. [00:13:13] Speaker B: Like 2018. [00:13:14] Speaker C: I thought it was 17. [00:13:16] Speaker B: Is it 17 somewhere around there? [00:13:19] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:13:22] Speaker B: And I think that was Caps's first year at Worlds. [00:13:25] Speaker C: Then that'd be 17. [00:13:27] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:13:29] Speaker A: All right. Well, either way, it was so long ago, but still it's always referenced like it's iconic and it is synonymous with Levi and synonymous with Gam. So sorry it's sad to see him go but every player has a lifespan and if they're ready to move on, power to him. [00:13:47] Speaker C: Respect. [00:13:48] Speaker A: Yeah that's. That's the big one right there. But there's another retirement badger here coming up or less of a retirement, more just taking time off. [00:13:55] Speaker C: He said he's coming back. He will be back. [00:13:58] Speaker B: So Mako said on was it on stream or probably somewhere. Yeah that was on stream. That Mako is going to take some time off from playing and then come back down the line AKA probably when one of these top LPL teams with whoever, whatever AD carry of his choice pretty much considering that there's a good chance, a real good chance that there's some AD carry switch ups. [00:14:31] Speaker A: And also important to note that with the new LPL kind of draft pool rules the only way to dodge the draft pool is to not play for a split if you did not play in the last split and that then you can just get drafted by a team. So maybe this is a way to dodge that. And he's just like I don't want to deal with all that headache because if anybody wasn't aware yeah I, I wish we had like Mizel or Yanni or like one of the LPL folks here to kind of really break down the LPL and how that works. But from what I understand is that if you want out of your contract with a team or your contract expires with a team, like if a team drops you or if your contract expires then you get entered into a pool of players and teams get to like bid on players and then you don't get a say in which team picks you up. It's just highest bidder gets you and that's crazy. Like they're just removing agency from the players and really making it cheaper for the orgs then to get players. Well presumably cheaper. I don't know, maybe it makes it more expensive but if it's bidding wars. [00:15:42] Speaker B: Then it's just the jokes that we've been making for years that the LPL teams are just these Chinese billionaires like play things that they've got I guess. [00:15:51] Speaker A: Yeah but like without a player being there to negotiate the salary I wonder if it's going to go higher or if it's going to be lower if it's just orgs bidding. [00:15:59] Speaker C: I think it depends on the player. [00:16:01] Speaker A: Yeah I, I suppose it could but either way I think that Moo taking time off but saying he wants to come back to me is like, oh, he's just trying to dodge all that nonsense because. Because from my understanding, Bazelle was explaining to me like if a player went from Tier one to tier two and played an ldl, they no longer go into that pool. [00:16:21] Speaker C: Correct. [00:16:21] Speaker A: LDL players can just get promoted up for free. [00:16:23] Speaker C: It is only LPL players. [00:16:25] Speaker A: It's only LPL players like Mako either take time off or just go play in the LDL for a split and then you're good to be drafted to any team you want to go to or you know, so who knows. But either way he has taken some time off. And that's not the only shake up over in the lpl outside of just like the roster rumors. This one's confirmed. It just was confirmed publicly this past week even though we've been talking about it for a while. Fpx, the organization has officially left the lpl. That is right. One of the world championship organizations is no longer in competitive League of Legends. It feels man, we just can't keep keep orgs around at this point. Like they just all went out every region across the world. But as part of the LPL's push to go from their big bloated 17 team peak to I'm hearing their goal is 10. They're trying to get back down to a manageable number and they're quietly allowing teams to leave that are not happy with the financial status in LPL right now. [00:17:28] Speaker C: And FPX is likely the first of many. [00:17:31] Speaker A: First of many. But it's odd that it's them because again, just like do do we have to give their world championship to you know, G2 now? Is that how. [00:17:39] Speaker B: No, that's all right. I mean Taipei Assassins isn't in the game anymore and we still talk about them like to to the ends of the earth. Whenever true the LCP does something it's hey, did you know that this was the type A Assassins region? [00:17:55] Speaker A: Also I was read the first time it was G2 that FPX beat right? And it was IG that FPX. [00:18:00] Speaker C: FPX beat G2 IG beat fanatic. [00:18:03] Speaker A: There we go. There we go. I should have trust my gut the first time. But yeah, you know what G2 fans the only that was like the big thing that I noticed was on the tweet that announced it all the comments I saw were G2 fans being salty like come on, you beat us. Like give us a rematch. You know it's funny stuff like that so EU fans are at least having some fun with this one. Also a couple other things. [00:18:31] Speaker C: These are all official things. This. [00:18:33] Speaker A: So this list of all the official ones. [00:18:35] Speaker C: Yes, this section is all the stuff that has legitimately happened and is already confirmed. [00:18:40] Speaker A: All right, well run me through some of the highlights here then. Bickle, what are some kind of the big confirmed ones you want to talk about? [00:18:46] Speaker C: One last thing in the lcp, we won't be hearing about them for the rest of today. Kai Wing support of cfo that massive team that had done amazing things throughout the entire year, made top eight at Worlds, has parted way. So CFO is going to be looking for a new support. We'll see what comes their way in that way for the lpl. The only last confirmed thing we have, Tabe, the big coach over at anyone's legend has been kind of the story for a lot of teams in the LPL is this major drafter, this big name that kind of makes swings at a team and improves them in major ways, has left with anyone's legend. There's rumors on where he could be going, but we'll still have to wait and see. And Korea, Their free agency period has already begun, so extensions are being signed that has been confirmed. Two big ones that we know of. Duro has resigned with Gen G and Doran has resigned with T1. But any player now that is not re signed is officially a free agent. That doesn't mean they cannot resign with their team. It just means at the moment they are not bound to a team. Some notable names in that pool are Berserker, Morgan, closer from Domon, Kia, there's Aiming & Barrel KT who just made the world finals. Their ad carry Duck Dom and support Peter are both free agents. Gen G Canyon is now a free agent and T1 Gumayushi is now a free agency free agent. But I mean he. He just won finals MVP. He's going to be back. T1 wants him. We all know how that works. It's. There's no way they go twice back to back losing one of their world finalists, right? [00:20:24] Speaker B: No, back to back World Finals MVPs, right? Or did Faker win? [00:20:28] Speaker C: Faker won last year. [00:20:30] Speaker B: Okay? That's right. That's right. Faker one last year. [00:20:31] Speaker C: Yeah, but I mean they lost Zayu's to Hanwha Life last year. [00:20:34] Speaker B: There's no way that they lose another. [00:20:39] Speaker C: Life. [00:20:39] Speaker A: Why do I feel like you're setting this up? Because there's another thing that's about to be said. [00:20:45] Speaker C: So rumor has it the Gloomy Yushi signing with Han Will life. [00:20:52] Speaker B: Insurance money. [00:20:54] Speaker A: Yeah, they just really want to take all that T1 magic with them. Oh, my goodness. Now this. [00:21:01] Speaker C: In response to this, T1 says, Fine, we're gonna sign another one of Chovy's teammates and just win another world championship as they sign former gen G80 carry PA. [00:21:13] Speaker A: Yep. Again, those are two rumors. But, I mean, it won't be, like, outside the realm of possibilities. How do we feel about T1's ability to replace Guma with Pace? Because I immediately, when I heard Guma rumor of leaving, I was like, oh, Smash, like, they're just gonna promote their Academy AD carry, who already played a little bit in 2025 and looked great. [00:21:32] Speaker B: There was. So my extent of seeing the news was I woke up the other day and like, as I'm getting ready for work, I just get the ding and it's just, oh, Gooma's goomba's leaving. And I'm like, oh, well, Viper's leaving. So, like, why don't they just trade? Like, I mean, T1 Viper would be an insane timeline to have right now. Like, genuinely insane. Just, just, you know, let Faker kind of go back to his, you know, play around the map, be. Be the third fiddle on the team play style that he's. That we know him that he could have. And then I'm just like, oh, well, Pais is leaving China too. Like, what if it's T1 pays? And so I went through, like, all of them. It's like, oh, maybe it's. And then I went, oh, maybe it's T1A. Oh. [00:22:34] Speaker C: We don't talk about that one. [00:22:35] Speaker B: We don't talk about that one. [00:22:36] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, T1 Viper sounds crazy. Like, just the concept of that sounds really fun. [00:22:42] Speaker B: The idea of T1 Viper is something that I would love to see happen. I don't think it's going to just based on the scope, but yeah, yeah. [00:22:55] Speaker A: But the question of, like, what about Smash? Because again, he was the academy ad Carry. That looked really good in the beginning of the year when they bench Gumayushi, big poke publicity, push back to bring back Umayushi. And then of course, he still wins them world. So probably the good call or the right call. But thought about Smash. We do have a rumor for where he might be going though, Bickle. Because if it's not T1, I do want to see Smash at a tier one region. So where do we see Smash heading next? [00:23:22] Speaker C: And like you mentioned, he's gonna be in the LCK. It looks like heading over to D + Kia to replace he who Shall Not Be Mentioned. [00:23:32] Speaker B: Yeah, that one guy. [00:23:34] Speaker A: That one. Yeah. I couldn't. I have no idea who you're talking. The. [00:23:36] Speaker B: The. [00:23:37] Speaker C: The. [00:23:37] Speaker B: The left trigger button when you. When you press the left trigger in a shooter game. That. That guy. [00:23:43] Speaker C: Yep, that. That guy. Yeah. [00:23:47] Speaker A: Okay, so a good evil defeated Smash or Smash coming in. Hopefully not as evil, but I guess I don't know much about him, so. But he could be going to D + Kia if the rumors are true. And then it looks like Gen G, one of the other kind of heavy hitters in lck, keep likely keeping the same roster, but bringing a new coach in, Coach Ryu as their head coach. Now, is this the Ryu that. [00:24:11] Speaker C: Is that Ryu? Yes. [00:24:13] Speaker A: That's crazy. [00:24:14] Speaker B: Ryu. Yeah. [00:24:15] Speaker A: That's Faker. What was that Ryu. That was the guy. [00:24:18] Speaker B: Yeah. So he was. So Ryu last year was Fear X, I believe. Was it Fear? Yeah. [00:24:27] Speaker A: Wow. So, hey, you know, maybe. Maybe the guy that Faker styled on can coach Chovy. Who knows? [00:24:37] Speaker B: They. They just. They just shake hands on the first day and be like, we have a common enemy. We know that we must defeat him. [00:24:45] Speaker A: Together with our powers combined. With our powers combined. All right, so that was a not a fully comprehensive LCK rumor mill list, but that's like the big notable ones that we were able point out from like the. The not big team. [00:24:59] Speaker B: I think the big one that I want to say is just because I mentioned his name a bunch, Daystar is rumored to go to the Fear X starting lineup. [00:25:07] Speaker C: I think they've already announced that he's being promoted. Yeah. [00:25:11] Speaker B: Is he? They already announced it. Even better. [00:25:13] Speaker C: I want to say they announced it. Yes. [00:25:14] Speaker B: Okay. [00:25:15] Speaker A: Okay. And that's one of the Korean challenger players that you've had your eye on for a while, right? [00:25:19] Speaker B: Yeah, I. I genuinely. Daystar, I thought should have been, you know, chased by like. Like we'll talk about a particular EU team that's looking for a mid laner later. Yeah. And I thought he would be the prime candidate for that team. [00:25:39] Speaker A: Okay, interesting. Well, cool to see then that he is getting the call up as well. But that brings us over to lpl, the other kind of juggernaut international region, if we can even call them that based on the last couple of worlds performances. But it is going to be a couple rumors we can cover here. Again, the big shakeup for them is just how their kind of pool works for players. It's a scary time to leave an organization, so I'm expecting more players to stick around with orgs rather than enter that pool. But the couple that we have rumors for Viper signing with blg, who are also looking to sign Shun to join Ben Knight. And on how confident are we in this rumor for. I believe it's pickled up. So. [00:26:25] Speaker C: So everybody has an understanding. There is a very. Everyone knows this. There's a very large primary resource for rumor leaks here in the English region. The Pokemon guys over at Sheep, they actually. Yeah. And they have grown to be quite reliable, surprisingly, over the past couple years. We are flying by the seat of our pants when it comes to the LPL rumors. They don't do lpl. There's nobody that really covers LPL rumors. So this is just stuff that you can try and scrounge up. So these have been the most common ones that seem to be getting passed around and have some sort of credibility to it. But it could be completely wrong. [00:27:14] Speaker A: Well, hey, it's the best guess that we have. And that would be a pretty cool roster. Viper Shoon or I guess Bin Shun Knight. Viper on. That sounds like a pretty good LPL roster right there. So BLG might be coming back in a big way in 2026. Anyone's legend who had a pretty good showing outside of their, you know, coach that we already talked about, it's looking like they are keeping the same five stars starting players, but one big player leaving the LPL and maybe heading back to lck. Badger. LCK might be getting scout back, which. [00:27:51] Speaker B: Is so fucking weird to think about right now. I'm like, it's 2025 and Scout is finally gonna go back to Korea. So. Yeah. After his worst year ever. Yeah. [00:28:05] Speaker A: He's gotta run. He's got too many people after him. [00:28:07] Speaker B: Yeah. Swim back to Ye to swim back to Korea now. [00:28:12] Speaker A: The government's investigating him right now. [00:28:14] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:28:15] Speaker C: You joke, but I think he legitimately owes EDG money. [00:28:20] Speaker A: I heard that. [00:28:20] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. But yeah. So scout rumored to go back. Supposedly part of the Nong Shim rebuild. Yeah, that's definitely the name that I thought of when I was thinking of. Of scout going back to the LCK was that he was going to go to the Nongshim rebuild. [00:28:43] Speaker A: Well, I mean, again, if it's after a bad year, you probably take. What? Yeah. If you're a player like Scott, if you just want out of the LPL and you want to get back to lck, I don't know if you're going to be as picky about which team you end up with. So we'll see if that levels up nonchalant. But Bickle, there's another player rumored to be heading back to the lck. [00:29:02] Speaker C: Yeah, and this one not as much. Coming off of a terrible year. Really solid jungler. It makes sense that with Peanut leaving there becomes a spot open in the big world of junglers. We could see Kanavi heading back to the lck, possibly to Hanwha life. Question mark. Supposedly they were fighting for Canyon, but it seems like Canyon staying with Gen G. So that would put him in Hanwha life. I guess. [00:29:32] Speaker A: Yeah. I mean that I. I think again rebuild with. [00:29:39] Speaker B: Dude. [00:29:39] Speaker A: Could you Kanavi scout together? That'd be crazy. All right, well, that's a lot of the LPL rumors. And then Tabe signing with JDG as their coach is the other one as kind of like the rumor. So we know he's leaving Al. Where's he going? Potentially jdg. So with that being said, that's the kind of the rumors in the east roundup right there. Which means that we can hop back over to the west and talk about the. The regions that are actually gonna win worlds this next year. Right? It's gotta be one of us. I think we're due. I'm pretty sure we're actually doing the LCS because LEC already won one. Technically. [00:30:17] Speaker B: Kangas hate to bring you to man. [00:30:20] Speaker A: Really? [00:30:20] Speaker B: Okay. [00:30:21] Speaker A: What? Okay. [00:30:22] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:30:22] Speaker A: What you got? [00:30:24] Speaker B: I don't think a non Korean team is gonna win worlds next year. [00:30:30] Speaker A: Okay, but what if we just bring every Korean player that's ever played? [00:30:36] Speaker B: Kang. Kang. Kang. Yes. We tried that once. [00:30:40] Speaker A: Well, it feels like we're trying it again. [00:30:44] Speaker C: Here's the thing is this time we have the Lord on our side. [00:30:48] Speaker B: We do have the Lord on our side. [00:30:52] Speaker A: Is the Lord Morgan. Is that. I don't want the Lord over here. [00:30:57] Speaker C: I don't want it. [00:30:58] Speaker A: Oh, you know what? Let's just start there because we just mentioned it. Team Liquid, pretty big changes off season. One thing that we're happy about is Jan is staying core JJ rumored to be staying as well, even though his contract is expiring. But from what I'm seeing, it's especially with Quid. In the interview he did a part of why he wanted to sign with team Liquid was to play with core jj. [00:31:20] Speaker B: So I'm. [00:31:21] Speaker C: So. [00:31:21] Speaker B: I'd be surprised looking at this lineup, honestly. [00:31:25] Speaker A: Yeah. So you know, just tell me the lineup badge. This is your team. I know that you back them. [00:31:29] Speaker B: So we went from Impact ug, Apa Yawn and core to Lord Morgan. Jose Dioto coming from isiris Quid, Yawn and Core. Like, when I was thinking of lineups for this team and I was just like, oh, you know, just. We're thinking, oh, Korean. You know, Korean top side, Korean speaking bot lane. Like, who can facilitate it? I did not think of Jose Diona. [00:32:02] Speaker A: Hey, maybe he's been taking Korean lessons. I don't know. [00:32:07] Speaker B: Definitely not the player that I was thinking of when I was just like, you know, who would be a great fit for TL the TLCK Round two. [00:32:16] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:32:17] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:32:18] Speaker A: And what's even more sad about it is that this is one. We'll kind of keep track of this throughout. But a big question mark has been around Dokla, specifically as a top laner. Where is he gonna end up if he ends up anywhere? Because it's looking actually kind of grim for his chances. There's only eight teams and a lot of top laners are seeming locked. If Morgan is locked for Team Liquid, I would have loved Dokla. Team Liquid, dude, like Dokla, Jose Dioto, Quid, Beyond Core, jj. That kind of sounds like a slapping roster right there. [00:32:49] Speaker C: It's a minor thing. Jose Dioto is used to playing with double Korean solo laners. He just came off of his time with Summit and Miru over with is. [00:32:58] Speaker A: I guess. Everything I've heard from Mazel about Morgan, though, is that he did not look good in the lpl. Like, his last. [00:33:05] Speaker B: Last year. [00:33:06] Speaker A: There was not. [00:33:08] Speaker C: He's been in the LCK and the lpl. [00:33:10] Speaker A: Yeah. I don't. When was the last time he was in the lpl? Was it. Was it this past year or the year before? Whatever tape Mazel casted. [00:33:17] Speaker C: He hasn't been in the LPL for years. [00:33:21] Speaker A: Interesting. Okay, well, either way, I've heard from people that are not excited, and I'm just less excited to see, you know, imports of this caliber coming over. If it's like a challenger player and you're hoping that they can scale, sure. If it's like. Like a goat and you're like, oh, we gotta pick them up because, like, they've. They won worlds one year or something. Team Liquid has done that before. But, like, this feels like a weird middle ground, man. [00:33:46] Speaker B: Yes. [00:33:47] Speaker A: And, like, when players like Dokla are out there, I'm like, like, how. How is this the decision that was made? That just seems weird. [00:33:56] Speaker B: It's a decision, I'll tell you that. [00:33:58] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:33:59] Speaker B: Yeah. It's one of the decisions of all time. [00:34:03] Speaker A: One of them, actually. It's con. Yeah. If. If it's made again, it is a rumor. But it's looking like what was is going to happen with Team Liquid makes me slightly less excited because Quid being signed made me very pumped for them. This makes me less pumped if it goes through. But speaking of big changes on rosters, there's gonna be a lot of them Fly Quests. I think this was one that was on a lot of people's minds. They lost Inspired, they lost Busia. [00:34:30] Speaker C: What. [00:34:30] Speaker A: What the hell is their roster going to look like in Bickle? I'm not gonna lie. If this is confirmed, at least we know four of the players. Two of them being rumored, one unknown. The core of this actually isn't that bad. Like I actually think this is kind of cool. So talk to me what FlyQuest is looking like next year. [00:34:48] Speaker C: Yeah, sure thing. So we knew their contracts with Inspired and Busio were ending. They were expiring contracts and along with that it seems like Bwipo is on his way out as well as they did post officially goodbye to Nuke, Duck and Mithy, thanking them for all they've done. So they're building up from the ground up. They're going to be keeping Gat Ghost, who they brought in partway through last year to kind of learn under Bwipo and I guess now take over this year which is expected. But also Quad and Masu as their two main centerpieces. That leaves them with a needed jungle and support. Support. They are still up in the air. They say they're going to be trying out a bunch of rookies and figuring it out from there. Supposedly they're doing in person tryouts for. [00:35:32] Speaker A: That, but those are happening as we speak. Actually it's this week that it's happening. Parth old TSM coach is actually the one kind of heading that big combine. [00:35:42] Speaker C: Yeah, but they did bring in some new blood coming out of their time in cb. Lol. They have a new head coach in Thinkard who was spending some time with Furia. But the more exciting one that everyone's talking about is their new jungler. Coming from loud after before spending some time in the T1 Academy system is Griffin. [00:36:04] Speaker A: Yeah, great. [00:36:04] Speaker B: That honestly hype dude. [00:36:07] Speaker A: Fly Quest Griffin sounds very exciting. It will hinge on what this support looks like. But suddenly there's a very young roster. I mean Masu is now entering his third year and he's going to be the most veteran player on the roster depending on who they get for support. But like that sounds kind of crazy dude, but it makes it fun to watch. Badger, what do you think about this? [00:36:33] Speaker B: I. I mean this is a. I, I'm not going to be so excited about this team potentially in like for like first stand and then for. For msi. But like once we get towards like Worlds time, like this team can make some noise. Especially you know, three teams go to Worlds from N A next year. Like they can, they could make a run later in the season. I'm kind of excited for it. I would love to see how this team scales up during the year. [00:37:06] Speaker A: This is the type of team where if, if it was like a Dignitas or I guess even Dignitas, now I have Jonathan as gm so I have a little more faith in them. But if this was like a Dignitas or a dsg, I'd be like, ah, they're not gonna do well. But the fact that it's FlyQuest is the organization and it's think Card is the coach, I'm like, oh, this is actually a very enticing roster Now Quad showed that he's gonna. He's kind of chokes on the international stage, but he's still good domestically. And then as long as like Geckos and Griffin can get their feet under them and they get a support that can set up Masu, I could see this team finding domestic success. The question being if they make it to MSI or Worlds, what do they look like there? I'm not convinced that they would have a great showing as of now, but obviously I haven't seen any tape of this roster together, so that could change. [00:37:54] Speaker C: Trust in Papa Smithy. [00:37:56] Speaker A: Trust and Papa Smithy. One team that doesn't have a big change coming is Cloud nine. Moving down the list here. There is one roster move rumored and it is in the mid lane. We know that Loki stayed in Korea. He. That was. That was announced already. He was not signing again. But who do they pick up? Bickle, because this is one that I think C9 fans have been a little split on if they like it or not. [00:38:22] Speaker C: It's. It's out of Cloud9's usual realm because in losing Loki, they gain an import slot. So people instantly think, okay, they're gonna go and try and find another Korean, fill it in or bring over some European. They're going domestic and they're going with someone with LCS experience. They're bringing over the Zigs master, Apa. [00:38:47] Speaker A: Apa has, as according to rumor, signed with a team. This is one of those ones that it was questioned. Even APA himself in interviews was like, I don't even know if we're going to have An NA native mid laner in LCS next year. Like, if I don't get signed, if Dark Wings doesn't get signed, if Palafox doesn't get signed, like those were the only guys really left. But hey, at least APA seems like he is sticking around. I'm excited. I think that getting him in a new environment and getting him in an environment with players like Sven and Vulcan, dude, we might get typing Vulcan back. Remember when Vulcan was funny? Remember when he was like actually do stuff on social media? That was awesome. And now with apa, like we might get that back. And this is just gonna be a vibes team, dude. Like, if they're having fun, then the region's going to be having fun. [00:39:33] Speaker C: We're going to get typing. We're going to get typing Vulcan. We're going to get dig seasons then. [00:39:39] Speaker A: Yep, dude, Dig seasons then was awesome. I think Blabber could use a much better like environment to play in because I think he's more of one of those like mental players, like Vibes players where the vibes are good, he does better. And I think APA can be that for a team. He can be serious when he needs to be. But also like, he is a fun guy for. For his teams, right. To play with. Like. Like if you talk to his. His past teammates, especially players like Umpty, like really credited like APA for helping out his mental when he was struggling. So yeah, excited for Ian. Let's see if he can bring it on. On C9 Badger. What the hell's going on, Dignitas? Do we know anything right now? I don't think we know anything. Right? No. Okay. [00:40:24] Speaker B: So. [00:40:24] Speaker A: Well, we know what contracts are expiring. [00:40:26] Speaker B: Because I guess we know that Shaden, Tomo and Isles are all expiring and they're parting ways with everybody, it sounds like. [00:40:38] Speaker A: Right? And they have. [00:40:41] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:40:41] Speaker A: It seems like Kaney Bickel was this like an interview or how did. [00:40:44] Speaker C: He is already. Kenny literally already played with another team for the. [00:40:49] Speaker A: Oh, just confirmed to be it. [00:40:51] Speaker C: He's gone now. [00:40:51] Speaker A: I understand. [00:40:52] Speaker C: Like, that's. [00:40:52] Speaker B: That's what. Okay. That's what you mean by that. Got it. Yeah. Yeah. I was confused. I'm like, oh, no. [00:40:58] Speaker C: Kaney did not confirm everyone's gone. It is looking like. [00:41:00] Speaker A: Yeah, we're just reading the document. Which by the way, shout out to Bickle for putting this document together. So much information, but incredibly well done. The only thing that we do know is that it's Jonathan coming in as gm, but we have not gotten Any information on what his rebuild is going to look like? I have a theory on Dignitas. We already mentioned the Fly Quest trying out supports. They are hosting a third party combine being run by this company Sid Hog that Parth owns. It's like a like his own like scouting thing. But there's a lot of players in LA from the NaCl trying out in this combine and my theory is that Jonathan's just gonna grab a roster from there. It could look like Serdi Top Lane, Kryra Jungle, Toasty Mid Sajid Bot Lane, maybe like Diamonds Support or like, like Zazel support, something like that. And it's just like grab the who's who of NaCl. If you recognize those names, you're a real one. If you don't, they're kind of all the up and coming players. 30 obviously we've talked about a lot. You've probably seen him. But like Kryra is the best jungler in NaCl, Toasty is the best mid laner in NaCl and Sajid is the best bot laner in NaCl. If you just grab those guys, boom. That's a roster right there. [00:42:21] Speaker B: Previous like heads of Dignitas potentially burn the Serdi Bridge or. [00:42:28] Speaker A: That is actually a really good point I hadn't even thought about. So. So my understanding is that players. Jonathan is one of the only GMs that players I've ever heard say oh I want to work with him. So usually GMs have really bad. [00:42:44] Speaker B: That's good. That's. [00:42:45] Speaker A: Jonathan has a good rep with players. I don't know if that's enough to bring Serdi back, but who knows? Maybe it would be okay. [00:42:55] Speaker B: Just. Just described at this point I'm just like maybe, maybe just maybe. [00:43:00] Speaker A: Good point. Like if it's not 30 maybe player. [00:43:02] Speaker B: Like the old Luminosity roster that mazel so, so heavily thought was going. Vehemently, I would say. Yeah, vehemently one may say is go are going to be on this lineup. [00:43:18] Speaker A: I mean that would also work too because then you get players like Zazel, you get like insanity in the mid lane. That can really make things exciting for sure. So we'll see. We'll see what they end up going with. I'm trying to remember who their bot laner was as well. It was the Turkish player, I believe. [00:43:38] Speaker C: No, it's tactical. [00:43:38] Speaker A: Oh wait, no, no. They had tactical attack before. Before it was rumored to be the other lens was the player. But I believe he went back to the TC deal. But yeah, Dignitas big question. Marks around that one. Shopify Rebellion. Less question marks because it's looking like only one change happening here. Palafox is out and Zinni. I. We're not sure on the name, but I like Zinni because then we can make jokes that we're. We're popping Zins in LCS next year. Coming in in the mid lane Badger, this is a player that I know you've been excited about. I think you. You've also had your eye. Yeah. Let's get your thoughts first. [00:44:15] Speaker C: He was my top Challengers prospect. [00:44:18] Speaker B: Yeah. Believe he won MVP of the summer split of LCK Challengers. He didn't. It wasn't in the playoff playoffs. Was Daystar. But I believe that Zinni was the MVP of like, the. [00:44:33] Speaker C: Right. He was the MVP of spring and of summer. [00:44:37] Speaker B: That's. Yeah, that's right. It was spring too, so. [00:44:39] Speaker C: Nope, sorry. He was spring and summer of 24 and then he was the best mid. In spring and summer of 24 and then all of 25. [00:44:49] Speaker B: That's right. Yeah. So basically this is the best, like prospect in LCK Challengers and somehow Shopify Rebellion got him. I don't know how. [00:45:03] Speaker C: Hey, you know what the answer is? [00:45:05] Speaker A: Dumb money, baby. Again, from everything I had heard, Quid only signed with Team Liquid as opposed to teams offering more money because he wanted to play with Core jj. If it wasn't for that Core JJ reason, I imagine he would have gone to Shopify. Shopify didn't get Quid. That was the first domino of the off season. I think that this is a pretty good secondary pickup. [00:45:27] Speaker B: Yeah. Oh, yeah. This is. I think. I think this is probably one of the better pickups of the off season. [00:45:34] Speaker C: Oh, absolutely. [00:45:36] Speaker B: For Western teams, I mean. [00:45:39] Speaker A: Okay. [00:45:39] Speaker B: I. One of the best ones. Like, if you had to, like, rank them, I'd say it's probably. I mean, until rosters are completely confirmed, like top five especially. [00:45:48] Speaker A: Especially if we're just not. Not even considering just the caliber player they got. But the caliber. [00:45:53] Speaker B: The. [00:45:54] Speaker A: The differential between the player they're replacing and who they're replacing them with. This has got to be one of the biggest ones because Shopify were already a top three team last year with Palafox in the mid lane. Now the question is, is this enough to catapult them up? With FlyQuest doing a full rebuild, Team Liquid doing essentially a full rebuild, and they weren't even like in a top three conversation. Cloud9 and Shopify are both only making one change. Both of them mid laners. This could be Shopify's chance. [00:46:23] Speaker B: I like, I like this roster now a ton. [00:46:27] Speaker A: Yeah. Like they could be the number one roster in LCS to kick off the eastern year. I mean more players that were top three, top two at times, and then a way better mid laner. And like with all the other top teams changing a lot of stuff. Like this could be a huge year for Shopify Rebellion. [00:46:44] Speaker C: I mean Shopify is going from the strong genius mid laner Palafox to a literal genius in zna. [00:46:54] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. [00:46:55] Speaker A: And so far not hearing any word of if Pal Fox is getting picked up. I've would. I would be surprised if he got picked up. I also based on what happened this past year with him. [00:47:06] Speaker B: Yeah, I think so. I think between TL and Shopify, the. Those are. That's. That's the two teams that are representative at first stand will be. Is one of those two teams. [00:47:21] Speaker A: I think so. I would agree with that. Unless like one of the other rosters just hits gold and like actually pops off. Like, we haven't talked about lion yet. [00:47:30] Speaker C: But I think is the dark horse there. [00:47:32] Speaker A: Lion could be a dark. [00:47:33] Speaker B: I think Lion. I think lion is third most likely for me. [00:47:37] Speaker A: Fair enough, fair enough. It's harder when you change a bunch of stuff as opposed to changing one thing. But DSG is the next team. I will get through this one fast because all we know is Castle. Castle is staying. They're resigning him. Everyone's contracts are expiring and it's looking like everyone else is getting parted with. So it'll be a full rebuild for DSG around their top laner. But again, if you noted, a lot of top laners have been confirmed. Dokla still question marks around where he could end up. Lion Gaming is next though, and this is the big one here over in lcs. And I know sorry for anybody who's like, oh, when are they gonna get to lec? First off, more teams down there, so it might still take a little time here. But also there's just so many changes in, in the LCS side of things. So by the time we get lec, we might be able to speed up a little bit here. But Lion Gaming, Badger, this is a almost full rebuild, but one player staying. So this is the team with the most shake up in the LCS going into next year. [00:48:33] Speaker B: Yeah, so last year they had Serdi, Adi, Saint Henna and Lyons. And next year, or I guess this coming year reportedly is going to be Zamuto inspired Saint Berserker Isles. What the. What the fuck? [00:48:54] Speaker A: Dark horse indeed. Pickle. We were talking about it earlier and Inspired is like one of the, if not the biggest domino to fall. And he ends up at Lion. Like, what? [00:49:06] Speaker C: He was the big domino this off season. It felt like that was kind of holding everything up. Supposedly lion wanted him, Team Liquid wanted him. Fly Quest still wanted to keep him, but apparently, again, money solves all issues. [00:49:25] Speaker A: Yeah, I guess or so. The funny thing is, sometimes it solves it in the wrong way. Like if you try and get too much money, then maybe you just have to take what's left. I don't know. A lot of information about what was going on with how he ended up at Lion. I know he did a Don Jake interview. I haven't watched it yet. So sorry. If anybody. If you, like, gave a lot of information there and people are listening, like, oh, we. We know. I will probably know it shortly. But it was surprising to see that he ended up at this team regardless. Zamuno is an interesting one because that was the top laner that they intended to play in Summer Split. They couldn't get the visa for him. If you remember that whole fiasco, that's how Serdi lion ended up happening. But then the return of Berserker. Dude, like Cloud 9. Berserker had his day in the sun, then had a rough showing when the meta shifted. And it wasn't all about hyperscale and get your bot lane ahead. But he's back. What do we think, Bakel? Is Berserker gonna be able to find success again in na, or was it a flash in the pan when he worked out? [00:50:29] Speaker C: I think he'll definitely find more success in NA than he did at the very end of his NA stint, as well as his stint in the lck. It wasn't too pretty overall. If you just look at that jungle mid 80 carry trio, it's like, oh, my God, this team's gonna be amazing. Then you see Zamuto, like, okay, it's a bit of a question mark there. We'll have to see what he brings. And then there's aisles. And then you realize, oh, yeah, there's no good supports in na. So you're kind of just grasping, well. [00:51:00] Speaker A: There was one hoping for the best. [00:51:02] Speaker C: Yeah, we'll talk about him. [00:51:05] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. So again, the support. You'll take what you can get at this point in N A. But. But the top lane committing to Zamuto, I actually, I'll give them props because that was something where I wasn't sure if they would take this opportunity to try and get somebody else. Because Zamuto was kind of like a stop gap from. From last year, but that they didn't end up actually getting to field. But no, it seems like they actually are committed. They. They want to sign Zamudo. They want to play Zamuto again. One most viable prospect for spring split in NaCl and other players that have won that award. Players like Masu Busio, even Dokla, if we go a little bit further back. So a lot of weight is actually behind receiving this award and it raises expectations for what you're able to do in the league then. So it's. [00:51:55] Speaker C: It's a minor thing. I'm trying to remember there was a period where Berserker played with Isles on Cloud nine, Right? [00:52:01] Speaker B: Yes. [00:52:02] Speaker A: I was trying to remember. [00:52:03] Speaker B: He was the initial support that he knows. It was. [00:52:08] Speaker A: It was in the lock in tournament. Right? [00:52:09] Speaker C: I think you were. I think it was winsome. [00:52:13] Speaker B: It was winsome. And then they went to Aisles. [00:52:14] Speaker C: Winsome and they went to Isles, I think. [00:52:16] Speaker A: Okay, so they. They did have a little overlap. Yeah. Because Isles was support for C9 for a while on their academy roster. But I didn't remember if they actually had significant overlap. So maybe a little bit more synergy built in there. At least some comfortability built in there since they might know some more tendencies of each other's laning and game preferences. But yeah, I think Dark Horse is a great way to describe this team. Maybe they can do some damage. We'll see. Signing Rain over as head coach. That's an interesting move as well coming in from team Liquid. [00:52:48] Speaker B: It is a decision. [00:52:50] Speaker A: It is a decision. It's an interesting one. Two Koreans on the team. So maybe, maybe he's able to help out Saint with his mentality, which I think has been rocky for lion so far. But yeah, I mean, again, I like your point of just the middle three players here give a lot of promise for what this roster could do do. So let's see if they can do it. Last team in na. In the LCS is the new team coming in here. We haven't seen anything from this organization yet because they are replacing 100 Thieves. It is Sentinels and they are just taking DSG's whole flow. That is what the roster. [00:53:26] Speaker B: They're copying their whole. Like their whole flow. [00:53:30] Speaker A: Exactly. And this is the big chance for Dokla. In my mind. [00:53:34] Speaker B: I think this is the Dokla team for sure. [00:53:36] Speaker A: This is hopefully the Dokla team. It could be a Serdi team as well if teams still want to invest in Serdi. But they don't have a top laner or jungler. They have Dark Wings. Rahel and Huhi. The bot half of the map from the DSG roster from this past year. Which to be fair, Rahel who he looked pretty good. Rahel won DSG a lot of games on his own and Dark Wings as well. Like he did fine. He didn't like impress too much, but I think he did fine. Replacing Abadage in a really rough spot for the team overall. So I think promising start for Sentinels who already said that they're going to go a little more budget here. [00:54:14] Speaker B: Yeah, I. I mean when we were initially talking about this team, this is kind of the style of lineup that I was hoping for. Like strong, younger, like prove something like mid lane and Ad carry and then stack veterans around them. Because like, I mean if they go Dokla and they already have Huhi, like maybe at that point you can have a jungler that you're just like kind of bringing up through the system as well. Because who even knows who's the. Who is potentially the jungler for this team. That's what I've been trying. [00:54:50] Speaker A: I mean you could look at players like. Like Shaden Xu would maybe be like a budget one. I. I'm hearing. I. I'm so sad. I think we've lost Yuji. I don't know if Yuji's gonna get picked up, but I would love like a Yuji of roster. I think that'd be kind of UG on this lineup. [00:55:07] Speaker B: Would be great. Yeah. [00:55:09] Speaker A: Ug. Dark Wings were hell. Who he would. Yeah. [00:55:11] Speaker C: They had the import slot so they could. [00:55:13] Speaker A: They have the import slot. Yeah. The only thing is do and who he played on Energy together. And that was the Energy roster that didn't look good. They were better with Olay than with or it's. Was it Olay or Ignar? [00:55:26] Speaker C: Yeah, it was Ignar. [00:55:27] Speaker A: It was Ignar that. That who he replaced. Right? Yeah. [00:55:32] Speaker B: So we don't have to talk about that. It's fine. [00:55:35] Speaker A: Yeah. Who knows if that's gonna work out for them or not. But I think still Doklo would be like my number one pick here. Serdi would be number two pick for. For top lane for Sentinels and then Golden Glue coming in as head coach. So that's all exciting stuff right there. That's also all the LCS stuff right there. Eight teams that took a while to get through. So just for the sake of time, I think we're gonna have to speed through a little bit of LEC here. Here but also that's a little easier because there's a couple of teams here that aren't making changes, and then the changes themselves. It's just kind of like roster swaps. Like, oh, this player just moving over here, and then the player that was there is not going to move over here. So we can kind of like do like a Venn diagram, just tracing everything that's on the Venn diagram. [00:56:20] Speaker C: Nine out of the ten teams here are pretty easy to cover. [00:56:23] Speaker B: Yes. [00:56:24] Speaker A: Yes, exactly. Let's start with the easiest one, G2. Bickle. Are they making any changes? [00:56:29] Speaker C: They are not changing a damn thing. They're running back, Broken Blade, Skew Mon, Caps, Hun, Selma and Labrov supposedly inspired Busio and He who Shall Not Be Name all asked about potentially joining up on the team. And G2 shot them all down, which is, yes, understandable for he who Shall Not Be Named. I get it with inspired and quite surprising that you want to keep Lebrov over Busio, but that's just my opinion. [00:56:57] Speaker A: Yeah, agreed. And also for anybody confused about the Hugh Shalom named, it's a player that has done heinous things, so we're just not gonna acknowledge them over in the lpl. LCK or lck? Sorry, yes. Lck. Didn't he play in the LPL at one point and then. [00:57:13] Speaker B: No, he's been lck. [00:57:15] Speaker A: Okay, sure. Okay. [00:57:16] Speaker C: All right. [00:57:17] Speaker A: Yeah. Big drama happened this past year with. [00:57:19] Speaker C: Wait, I think he had. [00:57:21] Speaker A: All right, so G2, if you were off one year. [00:57:23] Speaker C: He had one year in the lpl. [00:57:26] Speaker A: I thought he did. [00:57:27] Speaker B: Yeah. I. You know, I've kind of stopped following his career after, you know. [00:57:32] Speaker A: Fair enough. Fair enough. And we've already spent more time talking than we needed to, so let's just move on. G2, if you are a fan of their roster this past year, you're gonna be happy. If you were not satisfied specifically with some of the Labrovs into your moments, you're gonna be crossing your fingers, hoping that he got all those out in his debut year on G2 and now in his second year playing for the organization, he'll do better. Skew. Mind you give a lot more past due because rookie coming in like, like, tough, tough shoes to fill. But Lebrov had a little more experience under his belt, so you're hoping for better stuff from him. But, hey, it was enough to get them to a quarterfinal, so maybe that's enough for them. Fnatic. Oh, God. This is one of the tougher ones to talk about. Bickle. There's a Lot of stuff unknown here. [00:58:15] Speaker B: There's a lot, but there's not a lot at the same time. [00:58:18] Speaker C: There is a lot that we don't know, but also kind of know know. But in this is the team that has nothing set in stone. The only thing we know for sure is Mickey X is gone. We already knew that. [00:58:32] Speaker A: Everything that was announced frame one after Worlds, immediately they were like, yeah, he's, he's gone. [00:58:38] Speaker B: He's out of here. [00:58:39] Speaker C: Upset's contract is expiring, so we'll have to see what comes of that. But other than that, they still have Oscar and in Razork and Poby technically kind of, but he's supposedly gone as well. The big thing for Fnatic is they are trying to buy Vladdy from K Corp. Vladdy wants to go to them. They want Vladdy, KC wants money. It's just about getting that deal done. So if that deal gets done, we have a general idea of what it's gonna look like. It seems like they tried to sell Oscar and nobody wants Oscar and Oscar. Andin is gonna be riding the pine for a while. They're going to be bringing in a new rookie top laner, keeping Razor in the jungle, bringing in Vladdy from K Corp, getting a new ad carry. And they want to get Jun from GX to get him back, but they're trying to buy him. GX so far has said no. If they don't get him, they're looking at other support options. Please, for the love of God, do not bring in Targamus. But we'll have to wait and see. [00:59:39] Speaker B: I love how. You know, it's so funny that you mentioned that because Targamus was the name that I was thinking of when. I mean, that's the obvious name to think of. [00:59:49] Speaker C: He's. [00:59:49] Speaker A: No, yeah, yeah. I mean, hey, out of all the evils that have been defeated, I. Would you rather have target miss in the league still or Larson in the league still? Because I feel like, you know, maybe that's the sacrifice we had. [01:00:01] Speaker C: Can they both go chill on Team McDonald's? [01:00:05] Speaker A: Best I can do is leader has to come back. All right, well, anyway, speaking of the. [01:00:10] Speaker B: Actual mid laner, that's a little bit further down here. [01:00:13] Speaker A: Let's just go in order of of what we have on the sheet. MCO is up next and Badger. Anything big happening at mcoid? [01:00:22] Speaker B: Well, they're trying to extend Jojo, Eloya and Alvaro and from 26 and contract 8 to 27. So that's the big story. But nah, nothing's changing for Koi. I imagined nothing was going to change. Jojo. [01:00:36] Speaker A: The only thing that I could have. [01:00:37] Speaker B: Seen happening was Jojo coming back to the States to play with one of the teams, but it didn't happen. So, yeah, he's. He likes where he is, so he's going to stay there. [01:00:48] Speaker A: All right, well, hey, again, one of the teams that did well in Europe last year and was able to represent them in international competition running it back again this year. That makes G2 and MKOI. Next up is BDS Bickle. A couple of changes potentially at BDS. [01:01:05] Speaker C: Yep. Supposedly they are running back the same top side of Rooster Bakuda and Nuke. Their bot Lane of Ice and Paris have their contracts expiring and apparently they will not be bringing them back. Instead they're going to be bringing back a familiar support to the LEC in Trimby who just spent the year with vks and this looked pretty solid. And bringing in another member of KT Challengers, this one Paddock. [01:01:28] Speaker A: Don't know much about Paddock, but I do know Ice was like in my opinion, the player that ever kept this team in any conversation or in any type of stable game state. So losing Ice, I think is actually really tough. And I think Ice would be a big pickup for anybody looking for an AD carry in the LEC or if he wants to go back, you know. Either way though, it seems like BDS either weren't able to keep him or didn't want to keep him. What do we think about Patek? Do we know information about this guy? [01:02:00] Speaker B: Patek was on DRX. He's been the. He was in the DRX organization for 22, 23 and 24. Got some time on the main roster in 24, but then went back and played with KT Challengers this last year. [01:02:15] Speaker A: I mean he. [01:02:17] Speaker B: He didn't get a fair shake on in the lck. It was the DRX like explosion year. So he. He never got a fair chance in the big league. So maybe this is a good change of pace for him and it could work out. Hopefully. Hopefully. I. If not, that's kind of rough. [01:02:38] Speaker A: Could be. Could be. But that brings us to the next roster here. SK Gaming and I gotta say, sk, you outdid yourselves. Round of applause. Honestly, I didn't think it would be possible to draft the roster that I had less faith in than the last roster. They did it, but somehow. [01:02:56] Speaker B: Cup of coffee. [01:02:57] Speaker A: They're bringing Wonder out of retirement. Get the old man back in the chair. He's got a top lane again. Get him off of World of Warcraft let him play some league of Legends again. [01:03:06] Speaker C: Again. [01:03:06] Speaker A: Skiing Stain of the jungle. Abada is out from mid lane. So I guess, hey, one evil defeated. They're bringing a leader back into the mid lane. Someone who had a unceremonious departure from lec, had a really rough year and then was dropped and was able to find another team in the tier one league. I believe he was playing in tier two though. [01:03:24] Speaker C: If memory he was playing in the NLC on Rudy Sack. [01:03:30] Speaker A: There we go. There we go. A bit of a fall from Gary Grace, but hey, he's back. And then Jopa Bot Lane with Mickey X. That's right. They're losing Kadui and Loopy, two of the players that or at least Kadui as a player. He was very exciting to watch in his couple debuts. It was a big story for him. He was a bit of an older, I'd say air quotes older. I think he was like 23 or 24 or something. But he had been playing in academy or in the Tier 2 leagues for a very long time and it was like a big moment for him, him to finally be able to make it up. Bummer to see him leave and Jopa coming in to replace him. So. Man, I. I don't believe in this SK roster. Does anybody think this roster do anything? [01:04:08] Speaker C: SK continues to throw darts at the board and see whatever is going to stick. And the answer is nothing. Because what the hell is this roster, dude? [01:04:17] Speaker A: I don't understand what we're not. What do we built? We're building around skins. Like is that what we're trying to do here? Like, like I just don't see this. I. This is the easiest 10th placed roster like prediction that I think I could give and I haven't even looked at the rest of the rosters fully. [01:04:32] Speaker B: But like I just don't see, I mean anything. Yeah, it's easy. 10th place. Honestly. [01:04:39] Speaker C: I mean, yeah, I mean Wonder hasn't played this past year at all? [01:04:43] Speaker A: No, no, not at all. Again, he was streaming World of Warcraft like every day, this guy. [01:04:49] Speaker C: Let me, let me clarify. He played one series where he subbed in for Rudy, Sam, Zach for Perks, top lane. But other than that he hasn't played this entire year. And yes, perks. Toppling was a thing. [01:05:03] Speaker A: It was in fact the thing. Dude. Perks. His career needs to be studied. Not this episode because it's already going long, but at some point it will be studied. Yeah, Giant X, only one change happening there. It's looking like their supports moving Away if they lose June. That was something that we referenced earlier already. No one's contracts are expiring, but June is a hot commodity. It's expiring expected. Like, a lot of teams are trying to bid war for June right now. No surprise. I think that he is one of the best supports in Europe at this point. But if they keep him, good for Giant X, if they lose him, they will have to replace their support. Otherwise, it's still lot Easma or, sorry, lot Closer. Jackie's Noah. [01:05:46] Speaker C: Nope, it's. He's my. Ignore me. I didn't update that. [01:05:48] Speaker A: Oh, it is. Thank you. Thank you. I. I didn't know which one to go off of. A lot easier. There we go. That makes more sense. [01:05:54] Speaker C: Closer was last year, but then he got replaced by Isma when he decided to take some time off. And it's still Easma. [01:06:00] Speaker A: Yes, yes. [01:06:01] Speaker B: There we go. [01:06:02] Speaker A: Sorry for the confusion, everybody, but next up, that's Giant X. Next up is Vitality. So, Bickle, what's going on over at Vitality? [01:06:08] Speaker C: Vitality is keeping the crew mostly together. They're sticking. They got no expiring contracts. They're keeping Knack Naco, Top Lancus, Jungle Carsy Ad Carry and Fleshy Support. But they're going to be swapping out Chisek, their mid laner, for Humanoid. [01:06:27] Speaker A: Mm. Big shake up there. Humanoid. One of those players that, like, in the past had done great things domestically for Fnatic, but a bit of a choker at the international stage and even domestically, like, wasn't always the most consistent, but always seemed to become the face of the Org regardless. So we'll see if he's able to find a better spot on Vitality. I think they're replacing Shaja again. I say his name differently every time because it's. I just. I cannot comprehend. [01:06:58] Speaker B: We get the. We get the American Brain reunion. [01:07:03] Speaker A: Oh, we do. It was Carzion Fanatic, wasn't it? [01:07:06] Speaker B: No, the Mad Lions. [01:07:08] Speaker A: Oh, Mad Lions. Even in. Further in the past. Oh, yeah. Interesting. Wow. Didn't even think about that. [01:07:15] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:07:16] Speaker A: Was that the roster that won? [01:07:19] Speaker B: Yeah, that was the one that was like, super dominant in Europe in, like 22, 23. [01:07:24] Speaker C: Yeah, that was. [01:07:25] Speaker A: And then lost to the wild card team in. In Worlds. Right. Like, didn't they? [01:07:30] Speaker C: That was the year before. [01:07:32] Speaker A: Oh, okay. Okay. [01:07:34] Speaker C: It was still. [01:07:34] Speaker A: Oh, but was this the roster that happened there? [01:07:37] Speaker C: But then they lost. That was. [01:07:40] Speaker A: Were they on the roster that lost to T1 and what was like 1647? [01:07:45] Speaker C: Yes, they were part of that roster. I Want to say no? That was Niski. [01:07:49] Speaker B: No. [01:07:50] Speaker A: Yeah. Okay. Damn it. Okay. [01:07:52] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. [01:07:54] Speaker A: It would have been funny. Would have been funny. Either way, that's a big change up there. Heretics. A couple of changes here. Badger, run me through the roster, swap up with team Heretics. [01:08:06] Speaker B: Yeah. So Heretics is going from Carlson, Shayu, Camillo, Flackett, stand to trace in chaos, Sarin ice instead. So Flak, his contract is up. They are bringing in their academy, top laner, tracing, and then pulling in ice for BDS and Sarin from Galleons. Yeah, this is a team. [01:08:40] Speaker A: I. Yeah, ice is the big one because again, I think ice was the standout player on bds. So team Heretics picking him up is going to be big. Building around him with a lot of these, like, other, like, like the call it for tracing for Saren, bringing in younger or like, less experienced players. I don't know if that's gonna set up ice to be a primary carry on this team or really what the goal is, but immediately when I see ice on a roster like this, I'm like, okay, I think he's going to be the firepower, and then everybody else try and support around him. Bickle, do you have thoughts on Heretics. [01:09:13] Speaker C: Another team that I don't know what to expect. This is the second year in a row Heretics has promoted their academy, top laner. It didn't work well last time. We'll have to see how it goes this time. [01:09:25] Speaker A: Yeah. But I guess again, eyes will still be on I. Next up, a big, big shake up here. This is arguably the most exciting and hype shake up in the lec, so we can take a little bit longer on this one because there's only one more after this anyway. But Carmine, Core, KC have two very exciting roster changes. Bickle, I know that we've been talking about the. The second big domino to fall from, like, the. The west, and one of them ended up here. So talk to me about Casey's. [01:10:02] Speaker C: Yeah. So KC coming into this year were Khanna, Yike, Vladdy, Kalist, Targamas. Khanna and Targamas had their contracts expiring. We already knew there was some tension in the mid lane with Vladi, so we were expecting them to look in other directions. They did already re sign Khanna. Gave him a contract extension, gave him some more money. He's going to be one of the centerpieces of that team. But they have a new mid laner and a new support. Support. And they're both pretty significant here for mid lane. They're bringing in Kaihuo. I'm terrible pronunciation. Yeah. Kyiu from DRX over in the LCK and their support. This breaks all NA fans hearts. The FlyQuest support. Busio is now a member of the. [01:10:50] Speaker A: Carmine Corps, the second NA player ever to get scouted and signed. Signed by an EU organization. And because he has dual citizenship, he is, I believe, Polish. I think his family's Polish. He doesn't even take up an import slot. So shout out to Casey for signing Busio. It's heartbreaking as an NA fan because man, he was turning into the face of the league. It was like inspired. But then Busio as like the N A player that was the face of LCS and we lost him. Also JoJo arguably was becoming the face of LCS. We lost him. So it's, it's tough man. But yeah, so that's bougie but mid lane. Badger, what can you tell me about Kayu as a, as a mid laner? Because I, I know that this guy's like kind of hype. Like people are actually pretty excited. [01:11:42] Speaker B: Yeah. DRX challengers. DRX Challengers Mid laner coming over. I think he's, I think he's gonna do pretty well. I mean, I also think that most of the Korean challengers mid laners are gonna do well whenever they come over. So I might not be the best authority on this at this point, but yeah, I'm, I'm excited. I think this lineup might actually have, you know, one of the potentially best top sides in all of the west as well as one of the best bot lanes you know, you've got. I mean, Busio is one of the best supports, if not the best supports in the, the, the best support in the West. And then, yep, you mix him with Kalist, who's this, you know, up and cominging prodigy of an AD carry coming through and it's kind of just a wait and see thing. Like hopefully, you know, everything works out smoothly for him. But like, like this team is really good on paper. [01:12:47] Speaker A: This has got to be my front line for like who's going to beat G2 this next year. And already they looked pretty good last year. Like they, they were challenging, but especially this year, I think Colis Busio, you had mentioned it before. I don't know, maybe I missed it, but if you mentioned it there. But like Kis Busio is probably just the best bot lane in the west now. [01:13:07] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, I don't think any other. [01:13:08] Speaker A: Bot lane can compete with this. [01:13:10] Speaker B: It's not even an argument Anymore. [01:13:12] Speaker C: If Kist bushio mesh, they will be the best bot lane in the west for a long, long time. [01:13:21] Speaker A: Yeah, and we're, we're talking even like if we're looking all time best bot lanes. This could be up there with like prime Sven Mythy. Like this could be up there with like prime Reckless Hill saying this could be up there with like prime freaking doublelift core. Jj. Like I'm talking like all, all the best ever bot lane combos. This has that potential. Now they have to prove it. We haven't seen any tape yet. So this is all like oh, we're talking all hype. Maybe they crash and burn. I hope they don't. [01:13:50] Speaker B: But like I really hope they don't crazy. For the sake of the less, I hope that this team does not crash and burn. [01:13:59] Speaker C: 22 Kalist is 19. This should be a match made in heaven that brings the this team so much success. [01:14:11] Speaker A: Yeah, I. I think this is the type of team that can carry Yike's ass like his. Yike can do whatever inty he wants to do in the jungle, especially come international events. Doesn't matter the rest of this roster, if they do their job, they can just carry some games. Man, like this is a terrifying roster. K is has been a rock in the top lane since he came to the Leck Kyu or Kahu and Kalist. If Yahoo is able to do what in in lec what he was doing in Korea Challengers is going to be like one of the best double carry threats in the lec. If not just the best two carry threats in the LEC and then Busio. We know what Busio can do to control the map as a support. So this team's looking scary. It's looking very, very good. But unfortunately, man, we should have saved that for last because now we gotta. [01:15:02] Speaker B: Go on. [01:15:04] Speaker A: A bit of a different vibe here. I'll cover this. [01:15:08] Speaker B: What do you mean? [01:15:08] Speaker A: You. [01:15:09] Speaker B: You don't. You don't like the Navi changes, you know. [01:15:13] Speaker A: So Navi roster was Adam, Thager, Larson, Hansam D and Malrong. But now it's going to be a little different. A lot of names I don't rec. Well, I guess half the names I don't recognize. Mainter and Rylik come. [01:15:31] Speaker B: I got nothing for you, big dog. Honestly. [01:15:34] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:15:34] Speaker A: So Mainter is coming in from Casey Blue and Rylek is coming in from. I don't know what this is. [01:15:42] Speaker C: Bk, Rog, bk. But something to note in particular with Rylek. He actually signed with Navi when they came into the LEC coming into summer. It's just. I think it was visa issues from Turkey that he couldn't play. But Navi has been preparing that he will be their jungler for a long time time. So I think he's one of the people they want to really build around, if I'm remembering properly. [01:16:11] Speaker A: Okay, well that would make some sense then. But then we also have Poby coming in. The question was like, yeah, Fnatic getting rid of. Where does he end up? It is Navi that is signing Poby with Hansam D as ad carry and then Paris as support from the T1. [01:16:31] Speaker B: Academy system to Navi in less than 12 months in insane. [01:16:40] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:16:41] Speaker A: And a little fanatic stint in there. Just for fun. [01:16:44] Speaker B: Just the fanatic for funsies stint. [01:16:47] Speaker A: I'm still so sad we never got Fnatic versus T1 at Worlds. [01:16:50] Speaker B: I didn't. I wouldn't have won. [01:16:54] Speaker C: You'll be there next year. [01:16:55] Speaker B: Maybe. You know what? [01:16:57] Speaker A: Maybe. Maybe they'll get a chance. Maybe it'll be a finals. It'll be Poby versus Faker in the final finals. [01:17:03] Speaker B: All I know is Adam is gone and the. The evil that is Larson has finally been killed. [01:17:10] Speaker A: True. Larson. If all these rumors are to be true, I think every team has their mid laner except for Fnatic. Oh no, no. [01:17:19] Speaker B: They wouldn't do it. They wouldn't do it. [01:17:22] Speaker A: Fanatic. Remember get Vladdy. So they have to go with Larson. [01:17:27] Speaker B: They just, they, they. Listen, man. [01:17:31] Speaker A: I don't want to think about it. [01:17:32] Speaker B: I don't want to think about it either. We'll cross that bridge when we get to it. I will. [01:17:35] Speaker A: There's no one. [01:17:36] Speaker B: I can. I can make a couple of phone calls. [01:17:38] Speaker A: You know what I would rather talk about or think about is how many stars this episode should get. If people enjoyed the episode. I know it was a long one. It was very information dense. That's why I kind of gave the warning at the beginning. It's just all about where players are going to different rosters and our thoughts on them. But Bickle, if you could recommend people leave a review, how many stars would you recommend for? [01:18:00] Speaker C: They should leave the number of stars that corresponds to the number of positions. We have no clue what's happening over at Dignitas, which would be all five roles, so. [01:18:11] Speaker A: All five. [01:18:11] Speaker C: All five. [01:18:12] Speaker A: Crazy. Crazy thing about it. Although they do have like two months to figure it out. I suppose so they got some time. But yes, a five star review would be very helpful. Helps us get more noticed and get more out There. There's not many League of Legends podcasts these days. It's. Yeah, yeah. It's actually kind of sad to see the decline of things like Hotline League. Whether you loved or hated Travis Gafford, it was a mainstay in the scene for a while. But happy to keep things going here for 2025 and going into 2026. It's a new year. LCS is back. LEC is still kicking and finally broke their curse of losing to na, Making it back to quarterfinals. So exciting times all around. I know. I. Hey, you got to give credit where it's due. I say it smiling and crying inside. [01:18:58] Speaker B: You gotta get that one last dig in them. [01:19:00] Speaker C: I was gonna say it might be the last dig you can take for a while, kangas, because looking at these rosters, I don't know. [01:19:06] Speaker A: Yeah, I don't know either, man. But, hey, we'll see. We'll see. But thank you so much for tuning in, everybody. It's again off season, so episodes are gonna be. This one was a little long, but I'm expecting other ones to be a little shorter going forward just because there's less information to cover. We'll have some fun. Maybe. Maybe Badger throws us, like, a game show. Maybe we do, like, guest episodes where we bring people on and talk about roster building. [01:19:31] Speaker B: There will be a game show this off season. Yes. [01:19:34] Speaker A: All right. All right. Well, I didn't want to put you on the spot. I. I said that. Cool. [01:19:38] Speaker B: I have been workshopping it. [01:19:40] Speaker C: It. [01:19:40] Speaker B: I will. I will admit it's. It's going to be a fun one. It might be. Might be easier. Might be more difficult than the ones that I've done in the past. We'll see. [01:19:49] Speaker A: I know I mentioned before that if we do a game show, I want to get somebody like. Like Raz or Emily on, somebody who actually knows a lot about League, because I'm so bad at those. And I tell people, listen to me. Get everything wrong over and over again. [01:20:03] Speaker C: I don't know. That is pretty entertaining. [01:20:05] Speaker A: Okay, you know what? [01:20:06] Speaker C: What? [01:20:07] Speaker B: Maybe they could be rooting for your downfall the entire time. It's okay. [01:20:11] Speaker A: I. I do fill that role. I'm the heel. You know, I play a good heel. But. Yeah, so we'll have some fun over this offseason. But thanks for sticking with us, everybody, and we love you, and we'll see you next time. [01:20:23] Speaker B: Bye, everyone. [01:20:24] Speaker A: Bye. Bye, Pe. [01:20:32] Speaker C: Kik. [01:20:57] Speaker A: Sam.