League Rundown - Episode 598: Best in the West

[00:00:12] Speaker A: Gets hit Kimmy kids a little too far here. He's gonna have to try and get himself out. Let me go. Tillery and the rest of the shots of fire. Zion is just killing the next Zion can eat it single handedly win the game by game by game by game by should be oh my God. 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 598 of the League Rundown. This is your 2026 LEC and LCS playoffs week three review and it's lovingly entitled Best in the West. I'm your host Kangas and I'm joined by two esteemed co hosts. Up first we have fresh out of the can, it's Badger. [00:01:29] Speaker C: I should have thought of something we needed to say there. I was thinking oh it could have been an then I realized no, that was last week's games. This week's games were actually kind of exciting. [00:01:40] Speaker A: This is specifically LEC's finals were very very exciting. And you know the title is alluding to, you know, two best players in the west which each won their respective finals. A little teaser right there but we also have joining us to chat all about the finals weekend Mr. Melle P L. Hello. [00:02:01] Speaker B: Instead of be talking about League of Legos. Hell yeah. [00:02:04] Speaker A: And happy to have you on to give us an LPL update. It has been a minute since we've caught up on what's going on and you are my friend the last region to determine the teams going stand so [00:02:14] Speaker C: I'm having any other way. Am I right? [00:02:17] Speaker A: Yeah, we're going to save a lot of first hand conversation for next week because firsthand starts about a week and a half from now but we can still get the update on what playoffs are looking like in LPL. And then also we're going to cover all of LEC and LCS finals weekend along with some America's cup which is happening this week. And also part of the reason why this episode is going to be coming out a little later than usual just because of scheduling. I'm on America's cup. There's a lot of stuff going on this week so we are recording this Thursday night a couple nights after when we normally would. So thanks for staying, sticking with us everybody and also welcome all the new viewers. I was recently checking our metrics and didn't realize that the listener base has grown a bit ever since this past offseason where we were sponsoring the duos race that David Shynach was putting on. We actually had a lot of people come and start listening. We saw a big uptick from that. So welcome everybody that's started listening to the podcast. With that being said, let's talk about some global news before we get into the finals weekend. Up first, Badger. There's a new project just announced this past week, a specific type of project over in the lec. You want to talk about it? [00:03:34] Speaker C: Yeah. So came out yesterday about early afternoon on the east coast. The project formerly known as Los Ratons is now under a new name with a couple of new pieces. So the team is now called Witchcraft. It is four of the five members of Los Ratons with Yamato and Shaves. Still is the coaches, but instead of B playing top lane, it's Bwipo. [00:04:05] Speaker A: Oh, somehow he returned. He. [00:04:08] Speaker C: He has returned. [00:04:09] Speaker A: And. [00:04:10] Speaker C: And in a Q and A kind of stream after this all went live, Cage said that he's kind of. He's taking a step back. He's not really involved with the project. [00:04:21] Speaker A: Yeah, big bummer. The Cage Roll will not be involved. And also that they're changing the name. It's not going to be lortones anymore. That YouTube channel has a lot of followers on it. A lot of, you know, power behind it, even just from one year. But seems like the players still want to compete. But if Cadre's not interested in being involved, they're going to do it under a new banner, the Witchcraft Project. What do you think of the name Mizelle? Is it cool? Is it badass? I think it's like. I. I don't know. I'm undecided on it right now. [00:04:50] Speaker B: I think the logo and color scheme is pretty cool. I think the name's kind of eh. And also the roster is. [00:04:58] Speaker A: Yeah, I haven't looked at the logo actually. Let me, let me see. Is it. [00:05:01] Speaker B: Aha. [00:05:02] Speaker A: I see. It's just Nemesis in a hat. And that is the logo also. It's like a little guy, like a little ghoul, little ghosty in a wizard hat. Okay. [00:05:11] Speaker B: You know, just don't know. I don't know. I mean, Wipo came out and like talked about how he's like being better and whatnot. I. I don't know. I think they made a mistake by signing Bipolar. Could have gotten so many other top laners. I feel like. [00:05:29] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, it is interesting that they went for that one. I. I will say he's still a great player. So in terms of like, if they're trying to be competitive, it makes sense, but if they're trying to be like a stream community team does not make sense. So that. That's where I'm unsure like what the goals of this team is. But hey, they got 21,000 followers in 24 hours from their first tweet that came out yesterday. They're already making waves here. So they will definitely be a popular team to say the least. But again, no cage roll. [00:06:05] Speaker B: Bring back streams. Bring back both. [00:06:08] Speaker A: I, man, I wish he was still willing to compete. I'm sad that that guy only had the one year in him. But also respect his decision, honestly. [00:06:15] Speaker C: Yeah, respect for it is the big [00:06:16] Speaker B: thing because it's the right. It's the right way to go. [00:06:19] Speaker C: It's. It's a good way to go. [00:06:21] Speaker B: You got a good. [00:06:22] Speaker A: And his dream is gonna be why not bumping now? You know, like his coat, his. His solo queue streams are gonna be awesome. [00:06:28] Speaker B: So much more money and way less stress. [00:06:31] Speaker A: Yeah, he showed that he can compete, but now he doesn't have to keep, you know, grinding. [00:06:36] Speaker B: Never lost. Never lost. [00:06:39] Speaker A: I think they did lose a couple, but you know, another bit of news that happened. Roster news specifically in Tier 2 here in North America. Mazel. A sweet story dropped. You want to talk to us about Energy's shift in the top lane? [00:06:56] Speaker B: Yeah. So Zamudo will be starting for the NRG project now, which is awesome. He finally gets to actually play the video game that we've been waiting for him to play for a long time. But unfortunately it does come at the cost of the next up and rising top laner and hoarder as he was signed to the team and was let go right before they started scrims and started practicing for the season, which will be coming up in a couple, like three or four weeks. It sucks that, you know, a really nice perfective top laner is taking the place of another one. When we have so many import slots in the LCS and all this stuff going on, it would be nice to be able to see them all get a shot. And I hope to God that Hoarder finds another team of some sort of some caliber, not some shitter team because that guy deserves the world. He is an insane top laner. He is incredibly mechanically gifted and loves to play all the meta top laners that are being played right now. And I know he was pretty upset about the news because he found out through. Through the. The posts and immediately afterwards. So I think, oh. Trying to figure out how he moves forward. [00:08:04] Speaker A: I Didn't know that. That sucks. [00:08:06] Speaker C: That's really sucks. What the hell? [00:08:08] Speaker B: And so I think I just hope he lands on his feet. It's also for Zabuto, I don't think anybody should look down on Zamuto. It's not his fault. Right. Like, it's the. It's the org's fault. But in the grand scheme of things, I hope they both land spots and I hope they both look good because I really think that they could both end up in LCS at some point. [00:08:27] Speaker A: Yeah. Damn. That. That's unfortunate to find out through a tweet that you're not going to be on a team that you're expecting to. And yes, I. I got the same sentiment. That's why I said kind of bittersweet is like, it's cool that Zamuto gets another shot. Not cool that hoarder, it's at his expense. So definitely hoping the hoarder is able to find something. And also in case anybody was like, wait, nrg, they're back. Yeah, I think we talked about last week, but they have announced that they're coming back into Tier two League of Legends. They were purchased by. It was Dark Zero, right? I think that's the. The new parent company for nrg. The entire brand was purchased alongside all of their holdings and one of those happens to be clg. So if anybody that listens to the pod is in the CLG discord and saw a post that I had made in there requesting that the mods tag everybody in the old CLG discord, it's because there was a push that, hey, energy's coming back, but we might be able to convince them to be CLG instead. That's what that post was about. We were unable to do so Me and one of the the LCS producers, Manny, we're making an effort to try and actually sit down with the new Dark Zero folks and be like, CLG has a better brand in League of Legends than NRG does, even though NRG globally have a bigger brand across multiple esports. We think for that reason you should do CLG for their Tier two and resurrect the brand. Would have been awesome. They were not interested. Unfortunately, they were pretty dead set in using nrg. But yeah, there. There we have it. Some roster news over in EU Tier 2, some roster news here in NA in Tier 2. Also, one fun variety topic that happened. I saw this post on socials on the Lowell Esports social media page. I don't know if you guys have seen it in the dock yet, but I'm just gonna pretend that you haven't. If you take a guess. Globally, they put out the top five players that have the most unique champion picks of all time in their entire history. [00:10:27] Speaker B: What do you think, Fake? Well, it's Faker's Faker. I know he's number two. [00:10:32] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:10:32] Speaker A: Who's number two, Flora. [00:10:34] Speaker B: The old Snake man. [00:10:37] Speaker A: Old snake man? [00:10:38] Speaker C: Why is it. [00:10:38] Speaker A: Why is he. [00:10:38] Speaker B: His original team was Snake Esports. [00:10:40] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:10:41] Speaker A: Oh, that's very funny. [00:10:42] Speaker B: I did back in 2013. [00:10:44] Speaker A: The old snake man. Oh, my God. [00:10:46] Speaker C: I don't know why. It was the first one that came to mind for me, but unfortunately, he's [00:10:51] Speaker A: not even in the top five. Do you want to guess who's number three, though? [00:10:55] Speaker C: Is it showmaker? [00:10:56] Speaker A: It might surprise you. Tally. Oh, from my understanding, is like Tally whacker, right? [00:11:03] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:11:04] Speaker A: I think it's the oceanic player, which is very funny that he's in top three with 78 unique champions picked. Then it's. [00:11:12] Speaker B: Yo, it's. Oh, come on. [00:11:14] Speaker A: Tay as number four. Yeah, true. Oh, it's crazy down there. I don't know who Tay is. T A Y. It sounds super familiar, but it doesn't, like, jump out to me. [00:11:21] Speaker C: I should know the name, but that's not jumping out to me as well. [00:11:24] Speaker A: Let me check. Tay Leaguepedia. Who is Tay? [00:11:29] Speaker B: He's from Brazil. [00:11:31] Speaker A: Oh, yes. There we go. That is a Brazilian player. Yeah. I played for Pain, then intc, then loud Flamengo, back to intz. Yeah, that makes sense. [00:11:39] Speaker B: God, I just looking at his. His record of. Of where he played and what he played is. Is hurting my brain right now. [00:11:47] Speaker A: Oh, my God, you're right. Mid lane. [00:11:49] Speaker B: He went from mid lane to. To sub for bot lane to playing bot lane, then to sub for jungle, then to be a jungle, then to win the top lane, then went back to jungle, then went back to top lane, then went to coaching, then went back to top. What the hell, bro? [00:12:02] Speaker C: It's actually making my brain now hurt. Please, please stop. I have a. [00:12:07] Speaker A: That's incredible. That doesn't make sense in that he'd be in the top five because, you know, you play. [00:12:13] Speaker B: You believe the janitor for the team. [00:12:16] Speaker A: One player, that. One player that has not played other roles. Rounding out the top five is caps at 76. So awesome. We got that. [00:12:25] Speaker C: You know, that makes sense, too. Yeah. [00:12:27] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:12:28] Speaker A: Caps played everything for fnatic and then G2, so, yeah. Faker at 87, Flandre at 85, tally at 78, Tay at 77, caps at 76. And with that said, Faker has officially played more than half of the available League of Legends champions. [00:12:45] Speaker B: Nice. [00:12:45] Speaker A: Congratulations, Faker. [00:12:47] Speaker B: Congratulations. [00:12:48] Speaker A: That's crazy. [00:12:49] Speaker C: Wild. [00:12:49] Speaker A: That's crazy. To just like thinking about the pure numbers just breaking my brain. That's just something fun that I saw. So I wanted to throw it in there. But because we have Mr. Mizelle Pl joining us, I would love it if you could run us through what's going on in the LPL playoffs as they are the last region to lock in playoffs and who saved the best for last stand. Yeah. [00:13:12] Speaker B: Yeah. So it's been pretty interesting. We just had some big developments last night, but two nights ago, BLG were the first team to lock in a first stand appearance for our first international tournament of the year for League of Legends. They will be in the finals now after they took down JDG. 3 2. We have a big series coming up tomorrow night. But before we get to that, the series that happened last night on Wednesday was Weibo versus Al. And in all rights and contests, Al should have won that series. Weibo, off the back of a pretty incredible run already in the lower bracket took them down three one rather and it was a Warwick Jungle in game number four that that ended up winning against Tarzan's Mundo. Tarzan was the MVP of the split. There was no slouching there and I don't think this series was his fault at all. All Elk is just a metahuman. I don't know what else to say about it. He has just turned it on, is [00:14:16] Speaker C: pretty good at the game. [00:14:16] Speaker B: He has been insane. There was a stat during the regular season which was really cool. He had the top four most kills in games throughout the entire regular season. So like if you go to goal, it'll tell you like most kills in a game and it will give the player the champion. All four of them were on Kaisa and it was like 22, 18, 17, 16, 15 or something along those lines. It was actually ridiculous and he's turning it up now. I find it funny because there's a lot of narrative going on in the last couple series here. JDG obviously would have been cool for them to face off against Al would have been another Taabe bowl. But Al had faltered and it was a massive upset, I feel like for Weibo. But now they have to face against jdg who have been up and down in records against them and have given them a little bit of trouble here or there. So it'll be a really fun storyline. But the big storyline I'm following is if Elk can make it to finals and face off against blg, his old team, the team that abandoned him for the Korean Hyper Carry Viper. And he's. He's been playing like a bat out of hell. I don't know what's possessed this man. I don't know if it's because he wants to go face BLG or whatever, but he is putting down crazy numbers and crazy team fights. His mechanics are insane. And tomorrow night we will decide our second first stand representative, either JDG or Weibo. Can the CFO duo make it back to first stand? Is the question on everybody's mind in Junja. And on cue in the mid lane, but also a little side side narrative. It's JJ versus Junja once again, the EDG world champion jungle duo. JJ has always had Junja's number and he has been on 1i. There was a tweet that surfaced a year ago that was like, there's only three junglers that know what the smite key does. And it's like owner Clear Love and. And June and jj and he has been smiting smite fights like an absolute menace over these last couple series. He has had literally game defining smite fights and he's been incredible. So I wonder what Junes is going to be cooking up because I think JJ is on fire right now and all of Weibo should make it to finals. [00:16:30] Speaker A: Well, I know I'm cheering on Hankyu, so I would love to see that guy back. [00:16:35] Speaker C: Not biased or anything like that. You know, after we said that CFO was. I said CFO was going to be, you know, in world finals last year and then. [00:16:43] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. This past, like, calendar year, we have had some takes of all time, man. [00:16:49] Speaker C: Like this past. [00:16:50] Speaker A: Oh, boy. [00:16:52] Speaker C: And that's what. And that's what keeps the listeners coming back or, you know, have them run for the hills once they hear. You know. [00:16:58] Speaker A: That's a good point, actually. We do at the very least offer unique opinions on the leaks. All right, cool. Well, thank you, Miselle for the LPL update. Awesome to see. We'll be watching tomorrow night to see who is going to be the last team representing LPL at first stand. And a reminder for everybody, go follow LPL Unofficial. It's gonna be lplenglish on Twitter and on Twitch. So go check it out. Go check it out on YouTube as well. Subscribe to the channel. Check out the VODS if you don't want to stay up all night watching the live stream. Any amount of clicks will help them out. It's an awesome project, and we're honored to have Mazel, who's one of the spearheads for the project, on our podcast to kind of update us on LPL week in, week out. But with that being said, it's time to hop in and talk about the leagues that we cover primarily on this pod, and that is the Western leagues. We got lec, we got LCS finals, and we're gonna start in North America. Friday, Saturday, Sunday, we saw the lower bracket finals, low bracket semis, lower bracket finals, and then the grand finals. And oh, boy, C9, they were undefeated going into that grand finals. They were the big dogs, the top dogs. But what's a dog to a lion, baby? Because that was the story of the weekend. Mizell, I want to hear your thoughts first. Just tell us everybody, in case they weren't able to catch any of the games, what happened this past weekend in the lower semis, lower finals, and then in the finals? [00:18:30] Speaker B: Well, first of all, I just had to like, scratch my eyes, make sure just a little bit because, like, are you sure that that's not nrg? Like, are we. Are we like super sure it wasn't. It's literally like a carbon copy story of nrg. But for lie is this. This time around, I love to see was incredible. I. I think it's started off with a. A little bit of a toughie if you're a. A fan of Team Liquid. [00:18:59] Speaker A: Sorry, Badger. Yeah. [00:19:00] Speaker B: Yep, it's. It was tough. You know, honestly deserved for their choices this year. No, I'm just. It did go down 31 to TL. It was a tough loss for TL for sure. I think they're going to want that one back after their really nice win over tsg. The. The winner week before. But I think Liar were just firing on all cylinders. If Delo was gapping Morgan. Morgan felt like he had never faced a range top laner in his entire life. [00:19:23] Speaker A: We're going to talk about that a lot later on. Yeah. [00:19:26] Speaker B: And then LI just continued the momentum. I think that's the power of the lower bracket. And do even said it in his interview. He loves the lower bracket. This is his home. [00:19:34] Speaker C: This is where he lives, honestly. [00:19:37] Speaker B: Then they went on to face Sentinels. Went 3:1 against them as well. Wasn't necessarily the same type of performance from doa, but he's still pretty consistent. It was mostly inspired, I feel like in a lot of those cases. And the same could be said for their final victory against C9. 31 again. 3. 3 ones in a row. To win the championship for lock in and really kind of dazing the C9 community in the end in the finals. [00:20:04] Speaker A: And there's a couple of crazy stats that we got from this finals weekend. We're going to, you know, I'll lead with first just lying in the finals because that's like the big story. And then we'll kind of work our way back. But Inspired, this is the third org that he's won a championship in North America on and out of the 10 LCS Finals he's been in, which is counting lta Grand Finals and lta split three finals. That was a bit of confusion on the broadcast because we were counting it as he's got six titles in NA in his head he had five, but technically they were two different titles. [00:20:39] Speaker B: He made sure to correct you on [00:20:40] Speaker A: that one between split three and. And grand Finals. But that was the reason why there was a disconne connect like in the moment. It's like, wow, we're not gonna like, like fight on stage about that, right? But like there was a difference in narrative from broadcast versus, you know, the player's perspective. But the this now if you're factoring lta Grand Finals, out of the 10 finals he's been involved in, he has won six. That is a 60 win rate in finals. [00:21:05] Speaker C: That's, you know, that's pretty good. [00:21:08] Speaker A: That's insane. [00:21:09] Speaker C: Decent record. Decent record, you know. [00:21:11] Speaker B: Yeah, I just. [00:21:12] Speaker A: Insane. [00:21:14] Speaker B: Maybe I'm not gonna add this to it because it's a little bit. Debbie. I'm just like how many teams could really be successful when one person is literally dragging all four other members around the map and telling them what to do in the game? Like I don't know how successful it's gonna be in the grand scheme of things, but it's pretty damn funny to watch. [00:21:33] Speaker C: Saint needs to. Saint owes him like an entire week of like Korean barbecue at this point for his fucking performance that he had. [00:21:40] Speaker B: Clear these three minions. Go walk sideways. [00:21:44] Speaker A: Yeah, bit of in game coaching going on there. You know, this is, this is the argument against letting the coach be in comms with teams because it would ruin Inspired's whole career. You know, he wouldn't be able to do what he does best. [00:21:59] Speaker C: Inspired would be market corrected if the coaches were able to talk in game. Fair point. Fair point. [00:22:06] Speaker A: And we need the best jungler in the west. But yeah, they were able to take down C9 who were the heavy favorites. And that was such a shocker. I would say Almost everybody had C9 as the favorites to win. I had them a 3. [00:22:20] Speaker C: 0. [00:22:20] Speaker A: I was that confident in them just based on how they had looked, but man, they really dropped the ball. So again, working our way back, I think starting with, you know, I. How do I want to do this? We're already talking about frigate. Let's just keep it going on the finals. C9 gets one a game and it's their best looking one by far. No surprise there. But it's game one and then they just lose the next three in a row. And it is a systematic dismantling of pretty much everybody. I would say, like Thanatos is arguably the only one that was able to hold his own in a couple of the games. But Blabber, man, like, it's showing time and time again that he just a bit of a choke artist. I hate to say it, I like the guy a lot. But it is two finals in a row now that C9 has been in. They were in split two finals last year. And then again here we're like Blabber just chokes. He just makes bad decisions in big crucial moments and he gets punished for it. And Badger, I know that like last time there's a lot of community conversation. I haven't really seen too much of it. Has there been community blowback about like, hey, drop Blabber. It's time to move on for Blabber, because I know last year he was getting a lot of that. [00:23:25] Speaker C: I, I haven't seen anything. And it's, it's not the right move to move on from this guy. I mean, he is, he, he's the best jungler that North America has ever produced. It's not like you're gonna get any better at this point from, from this guy unless you somehow manage to steal Inspired away from lion, which I, I don't think he's going anywhere at this point. He, he seems pretty locked in onto that team. So. No, I, I, it's just the, the Blabber performance, I guess. Like, you know, he'll, he's. I just always thought it was funny that the conversation of we're in a crab meta right now and it's just really showing in these games. Like it. Yeah, no, I, I really haven't seen anything like calling for blabbers like Blabber's job at this point. So I think it's, you know, I [00:24:16] Speaker B: think, I think there's got to be some questions though, man. Like. Yeah, I don't know. Well, yeah, obviously Inspired was mind controlling him, bro. Like some of those comms that got released were just Hilarious. Like why is this guy like that decision around wolves especially like, oh my goodness, it was so tough. I don't know if it's one of those situations where like you move on from him, but he's. He's got to find better performances. I think if the rest of the year goes like this. And yes, they were dominating for so much of it. Right. But in those big moments, like, I don't know, maybe C9 looks somewhere else. [00:24:49] Speaker A: Yeah. I mean starting with game one, it was a solid performance overall from both teams. Is pretty much even up until C9 is able to kind of run away with the the for actually it was the first Baron. Yeah. It was just a late bear. It was like 31 minutes on the clock and they just find like the. The right team fight play. Thanatos has a great investor game blabbers on the mal fight. We're able to engage and get onto Saint. Berserker finally dies and then C9 can close it out. But then immediately game two, it's like blabber getting behind uninspired in the jungle. And then this was the one where Saint had his monster performance Ari into APA at the end of the game, had the all chat where he was like, how the hell do you lose this matchup? He solo kills Apa in the mid lane 1v1 and just kind of runs away with it. And from that moment on, it felt like the game was kind of over from the player's perspective. I got to talk with Inspired afterwards and he thinks that the series was over after Game 3 because C9 backs against the wall or not back against the wall rather. But like a series tied up one one they go for mel bot lane, which Mizell. I know that you get pissed off anytime you see a mage down there because you're like, don't ruin my bot lane meta. [00:26:07] Speaker B: I don't want to play against agreed [00:26:09] Speaker A: mages in solo queue. Well, I think Sven made it look very balanced because they were not able to find the place. And this time around, Thanatos is the one that got gapped. It's rare that Thanatos is gapped, but Doklo Zahen was just too strong, baby. And big Dokes big dog stonks are up, baby. Yeah, he's able to. [00:26:35] Speaker B: I know, I know. China's excited for him to be a [00:26:37] Speaker C: first thing wild that this guy was not on a team until the visa issues happened for Zamudo. Like we almost did see him this. This split. [00:26:51] Speaker A: Yeah. There's a world where Zamuto shows up and they still pop off. But unfortunately we'll never know because the visa held that Zimuta was still finding himself in meant that Dokala had to sub in last minute. But again we, we all agreed it's like if you have a last minute top laner, this is the best that you could possibly pick up. Like it's crazy. He wasn't even on a team to begin with and here he is winning another title now. [00:27:15] Speaker B: Now I just need him to make a being chilling video being chillin Dokla. [00:27:20] Speaker A: But then game four. The game, the series already felt over. Like C9 just had so little fight left in them by this point that it was like a whimper throughout the early game. First kill, first turret to lie in like relatively close. But then yeah, it just, you know, again blabber on the Wukong. He like there's two different moments where he's just disconnected from the team and tries to go back in and like use the Cyclone and just doesn't find anything for it. And this time Berserker had the pop off. Game 803 on Kaisa. Really, really solid stuff. So yeah, I think all of us, I can say pretty surprised, right? I know that you two didn't give your predictions last week on the pod, but mazel. Were you surprised by. By this finals performance? [00:28:08] Speaker B: Yeah, I would have had C932. [00:28:12] Speaker A: Yeah, agreed Badger. [00:28:14] Speaker C: Yeah, I also would have had him 3132 somewhere in that range, so. [00:28:18] Speaker A: Well, thank you for being honest both of you because if either of you have been like no, I actually would have predicted Lion 31 across the board actually. [00:28:24] Speaker C: I think that lion would have gone 3:1 in all of their series and [00:28:27] Speaker B: yeah, I knew it was gonna pop off, bro. [00:28:31] Speaker A: I gave you both the chance. While we're in our way back, the Sentinel series I think was the least exciting of the weekend. So we can kind of skim over that one because definitely the. I think the team Liquid one was the most fun in terms of narrative and payoff. A big reason for that being of course Doko's performance. But I will say in Sentinel's defense, they looked better than I thought they would. They almost got swept but they were able to bring it out in the close with a pretty unique draft. I would say like Skarner is not something that I, I think winning in, you know, best of five series here at least not even like in a game three, like if it's a game five, sure. But Sentinels kind of went deep into their champ pools and also played around Impact Yorick to great effect. Outside of that though, like nothing crazy in terms of picks or, or performances but still it's kind of like Berserker showing that he's like the best team fighting AD carry that we have in the league. Considerably better than Rahel who is also pretty good at that job. So with that being said, spark notes for Sentinels alliance. Let's talk about lion versus Team Liquid because Mazelle, you've already hinted at it. What did Doko play in the top [00:29:47] Speaker B: lane ranged top laners? Hell, imagine. [00:29:53] Speaker A: Yeah dude, [00:29:56] Speaker B: I was here for it. The vein, the, the beauties. He you know, started a little bit of beef on Twitter between Rigby and, and, and Serdy which was hilarious. I don't know if you saw that. [00:30:09] Speaker C: I did not know what happened. [00:30:11] Speaker B: Rigby said something a lot. He just like tweeted like Serdy would have never played Vayne on stage or something like that. Then Serdy went through with like a six paragraph explanation of like why Vane is viable right now and why she wasn't viable whenever he was playing. It was just like yo Rigby out of context. This is kind of ass. [00:30:29] Speaker A: That's very interesting. [00:30:31] Speaker B: Hilarious. Yeah, it was very funny. Well, but no, hey, range top laners do do crazy things against Korean top laners. [00:30:38] Speaker A: I guess they do, they really do. And it wasn't just range top laners. It was 80 carries like vein top lane Varys top lane in game number one. And we got the sideline interview with their coaches and I believe, believe it was Rigby that we interviewed who mentioned that a big focus in that early game was to limit the champ pool because you know, if you just take away more AD carries it'll hurt Yan's ability to you know, play these power picks later in the game because they get both Zaya and Varys early game or early in the best of five. Fearless. And then Badger just so happens that Dokla on Varys looked pretty freaking clean in the Morgan's renected. [00:31:23] Speaker C: I. This is various champion. I'm. I, I hate him so much. Like God I like I can't stand watch. I mean I could, I like watching him but like playing against this champion, he's so oppressive. Like this AP Varys build is. It does so much damage early for no reason. Like you get the, you get the pop off and like you lose like 30 of your health bar and just. [00:31:52] Speaker A: Well the crazy thing is he didn't even go like pure ap. It was experimental hex plate, Gwinsu's rage blade. Yeah and then Zhonya. So like yes, there is AP on it, but it's not like the dusk and dawn. [00:32:05] Speaker C: Yeah, if it was dusk and dawn it would have been even more of a. Of a shellacking. But considering it was. [00:32:14] Speaker A: I don't know. [00:32:16] Speaker C: This is. This is before the various Nerfs too, right? Or was it. [00:32:21] Speaker A: I don't remember. I think it was. I mean it's whatever was just live last weekend. Although actually now that I think about it, I don't remember if playoffs is. Is played on the live patch. They might have actually had like a stop on those ones we know in the playoffs. Either way, it was disgusting to watch. He's able to get solo kills on him more again. He dies twice the entire game in a 37 minute win where the entire team only dies four times or sorry, I only dies three times. Dokla is two of those. But it's because he's so heavily focused in the top lane and is still able to just blow open this lead. Then game two is not quite as good just because, you know, they go back into the. The cassante in the top lane and Morgan very comfortable in that matchup. But then also this was a moment where Jose Deodo kind of has a pop off the head game and a rare instance where inspired on the Malphite is not really able to get much done in the early game. Even on like Malphite level 5. He used to be like super, super efficient at just making stuff happen. This time we're not able to string that together. But then that goes into game three where what do we get? Another counter pick. This one's not a range top laner but badger. We get the elo classico counter pick. It's Irelia into nar this. And when's the last time you saw an Irelia in Denar [00:33:48] Speaker C: Broken blade. Oh, like two weeks ago. [00:33:52] Speaker A: Well. [00:33:53] Speaker C: Or whatever played it against. [00:33:57] Speaker A: Damn. He took the window of sales a little bit. Yeah, I was thinking like this is a classic counterpart years ago. Can we just pretend versus Aurelia? [00:34:05] Speaker C: Yeah, the Aurelia was the counter pick in. In 84 years. [00:34:11] Speaker A: Wasn't around 84 years ago. We're gonna need to reign that in a little bit. [00:34:14] Speaker C: No, there was. I'm pretty sure that BB played it a couple of weeks ago. Just. [00:34:18] Speaker A: Okay, well B, that's a little unfair because BB will play literally any champion and he's on the fast track to also join the top five most, most unique picks. But for lcs, it had been quite a while since we had Seen the Aurelia counter pick. It's a classic. It's very hard for an art to deal with this in the 1v1. And even though Dokla wasn't able to get like, a ton done in that one v one, early on, he drew so much pressure towards himself that the rest of the team was able to just kind of dominate the rest of the map. And also Dokal had a really clutch, like, an end of the game play where he draws people over to him. Survives for much longer than team liquid was expecting. And lion are able to close it out. But then that leads into that game four where, dude, what the hell is Camille supposed to do against vayne toppling? Like, can you. Can you think of, like, that's the neat thing. [00:35:09] Speaker C: She can't. [00:35:10] Speaker A: Yep. You hook shot onto a wall. Guess what, you're on a wall. You get condemned and are immediately stunned. You hexech ultimatum onto the vein while they just condemn you back. And it cancels out the ultimate. Yeah, it's bad. And this was like, a really slick look from team Liquid. Initially it was a last pick vein for Dokla. And until that vein came in, it was actually looking tough. It's like, ooh, it's ezreal Ari into Mundo and Galio like pretty tanky members. It's gonna be hard to take him down. And then Morgan just gets cocky and says, lock me Camille. Because they see orn, which then gets flexed jungle, which is a, you know, flexible, like pick Kobe on the cast was even talking about that. Like, yeah, no, orange jungle is not bad, but I think it completely blindsided team Liquid. [00:36:03] Speaker C: I And, yeah, I think inspired. Just doing Zeke's convergent protoplasm on so many different tank junglers. Is also. Is also really smart from him too. Just. Just, you know what it's like 5300 gold and. Or no, not even that. 50, like 100 gold and is on, like, item spikes. [00:36:26] Speaker A: And it opens up. First off, it's just a cheap build, really efficient. But also, if he's playing these tanks in the jungle, it opens up his ability to shot call for the team because he's not the one that has to execute these really high, you know, stress junglers like viego, like even xin Zhao or J4, which are a little more straightforward, but they are like bruiser carries. Nah, just put them out in malphite, put them on Orn, give him nocturne who just presses R and then like, kind of face slams. Their. [00:36:56] Speaker C: Their abilities, the combos going. Just the ability to have the go button on a guy like this who's you know. [00:37:03] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:37:04] Speaker C: Microing his mid laner while he's doing all of his jungle shit. So it works out really well for Inspired. And I mean best player in the west. Like is it him or is it the other guy we'll find tune in to tune into first stand to find out I guess. [00:37:24] Speaker A: Yeah. I mean it's between Inspired and Caps. These are the only guys in the conversation right now. There's maybe other guys that in current form are playing at a similar level, but when you look at the consistency over time of how long they've been playing this well, Inspired is putting him in the conversation with Cavs. I still think it is Caps favored. Currently he is the Western Goat right now. Until Inspired makes back to back World's Finals, it's going to be hard to overthrow. [00:37:51] Speaker C: I don't think it's gonna. I don't think that's gonna happen anytime soon. [00:37:54] Speaker A: So yeah, unlikely. But you know it's still cool to see that a player is performing at a level that is. Is being compared to. To the Western Goat. So love that for Inspired he's able to get another team another org, another title. And yeah, in great fashion too. So if you missed out on LCS finals, heavily recommend that you check out lion vs TL and then C9 vs Lion. I still think was enjoyable. It was a good finals. It just did feel like Cloud 9 were losing a little bit of heart by the second half of game three and then game four as well. Lion were just dismantling them on the Rift and I think that the TL series was a little more exciting for the fact that we had these crazy top lane counter picks which Dougla didn't really pull out for the rest of the weekend. It definitely was like a prepared for Morgan type of thing. But it worked. It worked out for him now. [00:38:55] Speaker C: It worked. [00:38:56] Speaker A: Now the big question before we move on to LEC Badger is how disappointing is this for C9 compared to past disappointments? Because at this point C9 fans have to just be used to being disappointed, right? Like it's been. [00:39:07] Speaker C: I mean the, the question that you have proposed at this point has. Has not aged very well either considering their start to America's cup has not gone well either. So full context in case you aren't watching because you know they. I don't think they've done a really good job of advertising this tournament at this point. But it's the top two teams from the cb lol and the top two Teams from the lcs. So it's not quite. [00:39:34] Speaker A: It's the second and third teams from cb. Lol. [00:39:37] Speaker C: That's what I meant. Like second and third from cb. Lol. And second and third from lcs. That's. That's what I meant. I. Yeah, I. You did what I was trying to say. But you. Thank you. I appreciate it. So it's C9 and Sentinels and then Furia and Red and C9 played Furia day one, game one and they got shellacked like cyber bullied. Especially the game too. Furio plays Yasuo Ad Carry and they just, they just gob smack bot Lane and it, it just, everything went from bad to worse and it just, it's not looking good in the C9 camp. And they almost got reverse swept today. Like there was, oh, they're up 20 and people are like, oh, C9's back, C night's back, don't worry. And then they lose two games straight and it's like, is this team gonna make it out of Brazil? Like are they gonna be a cohesive unit coming out of Brazil? Who even knows at this point? So luckily they were able to win game five today. But I'm still. I. This is the biggest fall from grace we've seen in like five days from a league team in. [00:40:59] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. Like the expectations going into finals which was last Sunday. Oh my goodness. That was only just four. [00:41:09] Speaker C: That was five days ago. Wasn't that. [00:41:11] Speaker A: Yeah. Oh my good. [00:41:12] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:41:12] Speaker A: The turnaround for America's cup was so short. So the difference in expectations from Saturday night going into Sunday, let's even just say Sunday morning of finals to then Wednesday three days later where they lose 20 to Brazil's third best team. Inferior. [00:41:33] Speaker C: Yeah, the third. [00:41:34] Speaker A: And then almost get reverse swept by Red Canids Kalunga. That's right. We almost got Cologne again. Yeah, it always happened two years in a row. [00:41:46] Speaker C: Never, never go full Colonga. [00:41:47] Speaker A: Never go full. Oh no, that's very good. I would have to use that. But yeah, it is a massive fall from race. Now all that being said, for America's cup they had to play, they had to fly to Brazil. It was like 25 hours of total travel time. They were jet lagged because they weren't even like really able to scrim before going to stage. They're tired. Apparently they're starting to feel a little bit sick as well. So I mean cop, cop cope. Excuse, excuse, excuse. But I do think these are valid. Like yeah, if you're gonna be a home team in Brazil, which is five hours ahead of LA time and the teams that you're playing against just traveled for 25 hours and have only been in the country for about 20 hours by the time the stage. Yeah, like that is a very different, you know, level of freshness that the teams are coming in with. So I will give Cloud9 grace, but it does not take away from how concerning the the play looked and the decisions looked. And I will remind everybody that we talked about this on broadcast, but it is now 6 or 6 splits, 3 years total that C9 have finished higher in the regular season than they did in playoffs. They consistently that that is consistency. A three year stretch where you are better in the regular season and then you bomb out at some point in playoffs to the point that it's just a meme now. [00:43:17] Speaker C: But when's the last time they made an international tournament? [00:43:22] Speaker A: MSI 2023. That was the last time that they won. [00:43:26] Speaker C: Okay, that's what I, I was about to say. That's what I thought was. It was. [00:43:31] Speaker A: And then losing to Energy broke them like that. It was the Energy loss in the summer finals that started the streak of just always finishing lower. Yeah, it's crazy. Crazy to think about Wild. Hopefully they can turn it around though, because I think I. I'm a fan of C9. I like it when C9's good. I'm a fan of Blabber. I like it when Blabber's good. It's just tough to see them this many times in a row now kind of choke when it matters the most. So yeah, we'll see if they're able to continue in the lower bracket at America's Cup. Sentinels are looking much better currently. But with that being said, it's time to hop across the pond because we got LEC finals. That happened as well. I think LCS finals would be like probably a B, B plus in terms of the quality of the weekend. I liked a lot of what we saw, but we didn't have any 5 game bangers. LEC. Meanwhile, it started off really slow with KCGX and a 3.0 swiftly for KC, but oh my God, the lower bracket finals and grand finals were fantastic. [00:44:34] Speaker C: Oh, it was great. This is, this is exactly what you expect from, from these teams. I mean you got G2 at McOil and Casey and I guess Giant X were also there as well. [00:44:48] Speaker A: But they were present. [00:44:50] Speaker C: They were present. They were. They were in fact in the building at one point this weekend, right? Yeah, they were there. [00:44:58] Speaker A: Yeah. Technically. [00:44:59] Speaker C: Technically. Oh yeah. Because they Played on Friday and they got immediately gobsmacked by Kate. That's right. That's right. I couldn't remember what days did. [00:45:09] Speaker A: And then Saturday was Casey mcoy a banger in front of the Spanish crowd as well. Because it was mcoi hosting this weekend. Really, really fun matchup there. And it was back and forth, back and forward. It felt like KC, we're gonna lose. Like I actually thought that McWay had it in the back pocket. [00:45:29] Speaker C: I also thought that Casey was gonna lose. I was like, oh, wow. You know, JoJo's coming out. Supa's firing really well. Having a better performance than Kalist. We know you. I was hyping up Kalispeo as the best bot lane in the west and I'm like, oh, you know all this stuff. And then they were, they weren't looking too hot and then, you know, they were just trading games back and forth and it went the distance. [00:45:56] Speaker A: It went from Elio hitting the absolute sick, nastiest Kiana ult you've ever seen in your life. Hysterics. Almost lost his entire voice just yelling el Yoya. It was I that that call. Some people were like, that's cringe when cast to do that. I thought that was awesome. I love how how much he just yelled that dude. [00:46:20] Speaker C: Especially when you're in the like home country. [00:46:24] Speaker A: Home country, home player and the team. Yeah, it's a five champion Kiana ultimate. They were winning the game. They had the gold lead already. The game was probably wrapped up. But it was just sick that he played, pulled it off. And yes, now when whenever I think of supreme display of talent, I will think of El. I used to think of Damonte, our mid lane goat who would play this champion all the time. Back on clutch gaming. [00:46:52] Speaker C: But Eloya earns that. I think of canyon, but that's also because, you know, that's. [00:46:57] Speaker B: Well, I think of Tarzan. [00:46:59] Speaker C: Ah, there he is. [00:47:01] Speaker A: Yeah, we can all think of somebody else. [00:47:04] Speaker C: There's the Tarzan and this conversation. [00:47:06] Speaker A: But from now on I'm gonna think of all you. But it, it goes from that insane performance to then game four, which has a very heavily criticized Jojo build on Ari. [00:47:17] Speaker C: So. Oh my God. [00:47:18] Speaker A: This was talked about a lot during the game post game. A lot of people Europeans love the flame. Jojo in general. So I think a lot of it is like just them on him. But it's rod of ages into cryp bloom which is a very slow to build. Not a big power spike early on. Kind of defensive. Ari and Supa was behind on Aphelios he was struggling and then you got like poppy malphite. It's like you don't have a lot of damage if Soup was behind. So the, the like refusal from Jojo to pivot to building more damage and still going. The crit bloom was like that's. That's a little awkward that he just did no damage. And you see like even when they would find these charms, they would find these like avenues to get onto Kyahu or like Kalist, they just couldn't kill him. Like Jojo actually did so little damage until he got the Rabadons but by that point it was too late. So I know that was a big point in the show. It was just disappointing to be like Jojo had a pretty good series but then that game kind of took the wheels off of them. And it's funny that like not as much criticism was laid on super for falling behind. It was instead laid on JoJo. And that's where the EU bias comes in. But I still think that there's some truth to it that like yeah. That the team did not pivot and play well enough after they were falling behind. And then the fifth game was the most one sided. Like by this point Casey just completely. [00:48:44] Speaker C: They demolished shut down. [00:48:46] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:48:47] Speaker B: Ran out of gas. [00:48:49] Speaker A: Ran out of gas. Yike pulling out the kha' Zix dude. Which I. We've seen that in lpl, right Mizel? [00:48:57] Speaker B: I don't think so. [00:48:58] Speaker A: I thought we had seen it in one of the best of fives that just happened. I don't remember. [00:49:04] Speaker B: No, no, it wasn't one. [00:49:05] Speaker C: I thought Canyon Kenya might have just played it. That's what I would. [00:49:12] Speaker A: In one of the Eastern leagues recently I'm looking at. But Yike pulling it out with Kana on a collie and then Callist piloting the Callista. They just had so much damage and so much burst between the Khazix and [00:49:27] Speaker C: the Akali and Jojo Lucid played it against T1. [00:49:32] Speaker A: Okay. Cool, cool. [00:49:36] Speaker B: It says it's been three times. The most recent would have had to been Junjo Shun in lpl. [00:49:43] Speaker A: Okay. [00:49:44] Speaker B: Because Croco hasn't played since playoffs started. But I don't even. I'm trying to double check when they. [00:49:49] Speaker A: Oh and sure I. I know it's been referenced that like it's starting to creep up in the Eastern leagues as well. But it's cool to see Yike pull it out here regardless. Goomba stomped through Supa and Alvaro. [00:49:59] Speaker B: Yeah. So it was last night or two nights ago in that JDG BLG series. Junja pulled it out or shouldn't put it pulled it out. Sorry. It went 8 and 1 before that. It was a couple weeks ago. Maybe like three weeks ago. Junior pulled it out up against Al. [00:50:16] Speaker A: In that case. Yikes. Got rookie numbers. He only went 2 and 121 and 6. But yeah, it was a bit of an unceremonious end to emcoy's season because it was a close series. It was a banger back and forward. Then KC just like Giga stomp game 5 taking some win out of the sales in the best of five. But Badger one series that did not lose the wind in its sales was the grand finals. Casey work their way back. They have to to fight through Giant X. They have to fight through Mkoy to get a rematch against G2 who sent them into the lower bracket to begin with. And holy. That was a good series. [00:50:54] Speaker C: G2 was in their bag to start this one. They. They had the Shen come out. Or there's the conversation of oh is it Shen jungle. Are we getting. Are we getting the tech? What are. What's going on with this? And then it's just. It's just BB's playing it and the. The to the. The Impessa. It's a halfway decent matchup because you just block the auto attacks. Everything's working out really well. G2 comes out firing. Wins game one handedly. Game two we see Nafiri Jungle come out from Yike. And then it's oh Yasuo top lane Mundo Jungle. The Ash Seraphine. You know this meta bot lane. Yeah. [00:51:31] Speaker A: So into Gwen Yasuo. [00:51:33] Speaker C: And the Gwen is insane. [00:51:36] Speaker A: You can't really wind wall much. Like the needle works. Sure. But I don't. Yeah. Like the snip snip still gets like. It's really tough matchup. But Broken Blade played it really well. Dude, when. When they pulled off caps on Talia Weavers world. [00:51:50] Speaker C: I don't even. [00:51:50] Speaker A: I think it was Yike. I don't remember exactly who he hit but he hit somebody with the Weaver's wall. And then Broken Blade uses last breath. [00:51:58] Speaker C: I'm like oh that was so cool. Feeling it. Oh man. Man, this is gonna be. This is gonna be a short day for Casey. [00:52:04] Speaker A: That's freaking awesome man. [00:52:06] Speaker C: But I. We were proven wrong. Came out game three. You know. Backs against the wall. Yahoo plays Ari. You get the rumble from Kana into the orname. [00:52:22] Speaker A: The early game goes in G2's favor. Like they get the first like three. I think it's like the first five kills, they're like five zero. But Yahoo. Still farming Khan is pushing in every time. Like they're winning the CS battle and getting some plates for their solo laners. And then suddenly it's like Skumon gets cut out as. As Pantheon and goes down. Labrov gets caught out a couple of times. Caps finally starts getting caught out. And then it's like, yeah, the wheels just start falling off for G2 because Carmine Core just chained together like a couple of picks and then turn that into a gold lead for themselves. [00:52:57] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:52:57] Speaker A: And then start running away with the neutral objectives. [00:52:59] Speaker C: Casey was playing the map really well. They were getting dragons, they were getting the turrets. They were just making sure that the gold trades were even and even kind of gold positive in certain situations just based on if you count like CS and like XP and stuff like that. But was the beginning of it like, oh, there's. There's a glimmer of hope in here for Casey in the finals. Like, let's see, you know, is it going to be a gentleman and sweep or are we gonna go to game five? And then, [00:53:29] Speaker A: and then game four happens and it's in G2's favor. Like, holy. This should have been a five zero. Like G2. They just kept getting like I. I [00:53:40] Speaker C: can see Dylan Falco writing 50 LEC Grand Finals in his notebook if everything goes according to plan. Like he does scrim tracking stuff. But. But yeah, no, it was like G2 [00:53:53] Speaker A: again getting first blood, controlling the early objectives. They get the. The one and only Baron of this game, but then they lose the two dragon fights in a row. The first one not really as much of a fight, more of just like a. Like a skirmish case. You're able to take it. But then that the last dragon fight turns into like a setup around the Baron. Casey win it. They don't even need the bear. And they just close out the game. Like it was that fast, that explosive and that well executed by specifically Kalist and Busio. Like very impressed with this bot. Lane and Kana lands a sick nasty like four man flash gnar old at the setup. And then Boosie was able to follow up with the quickness and like lock everyone down. Cliston Kia were free firing like holy. That was such a beautiful team fight win. [00:54:42] Speaker C: Oh my gosh. And then, and then, you know, these banger games back and forth. It's you know, good League of Legends. They're playing the map really well. And then game five happens and it's the most yakety sacks like, like oh my gosh. The. I mean there's some really good plays in here, but there are also some really bone headed moments in here as well. [00:55:10] Speaker A: This was a bare knuckle brawl, dude. [00:55:13] Speaker C: This was. This was. You know what? Screw like macro. Like forget playing the map. We're just gonna have a bar fight for game five. Like they just. They met backstage and they're like, you know what? It's. It's. There's a UFC fight years ago where the guys are just like the last 10 seconds, they just say no blocking, only throwing punches is like whatever. We don't care. This is. This is way too long. This is 46 minutes of them just throwing punches back and forth at each other. [00:55:48] Speaker A: This is G2. Win a fight, get Baron, lose some members, still get the next Dragon, then get the next Baron, use that to get the next Dragon, then somehow botch the Elder fight. Case you're able to pick that one up. Or rather not the Elder fight, but like. Like the setup around the Elder and so instead they trade for the Baron and then nothing happens for five minutes. And then another Elder into another Baron into a push and end the game. There were four Barons and two Elder Dragons in this game. Insane. There's almost 50 minutes. It was a 46 minute banger setting up for it. [00:56:28] Speaker C: There's one point where it's. It's Kana and Yahoo versus Caps and Le Brav and this just random 2v2 in. In the. Like in the river just to set up her dragon and whoever wins it gets soul and G2. Oh my gosh. There's just so many ways you have to. If you can only watch one game, watch this game. Like this is genuinely the most entertaining. [00:56:53] Speaker B: Gameplay was crazy. [00:56:55] Speaker C: Yep. [00:56:56] Speaker A: It's so hard to kill fucking Anivia. You got the Egg and you got the Zaniyas picked up and you got the. The Rod of Ages of your tanky already. Also skim on pulling out the. The Skarner as well. So we got to see a couple of Scarners between LCS and LAC this weekend. I will say, funnily enough, this was the one game that Broken Blade got pretty gapped. Like the. [00:57:17] Speaker C: The. Yeah. [00:57:19] Speaker A: Yeah. Why am I blanking on his name right now? I keep saying thinking Scarl. It's not Scarlet Kled. There we go. Kled ride Skull. The Kled pick. Not. Not really working out. I usually love Broken Blade and he's kind of wacky. Carry champions this time around was not what the team needed. But you know what they did need? Another Caps Carry dude, you talked about inspired. Best in the west when it comes to LCS caps 91 and 7 on the Anivia. The primary carry for this team. It got a little yaggedy. Sexy. But still Caps was able to get them across the finish line. And another title. How many titles is it for Caps at this point? I don't even. I've completely lost track. I've lost count. It's got to be like 10 plus. [00:58:06] Speaker C: It's. I think he's. I think he's at 11 is the number. [00:58:10] Speaker A: So many titles, dude. [00:58:12] Speaker C: It's so many titles. [00:58:14] Speaker A: Titles. He's been playing since what, 2017? [00:58:22] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:58:23] Speaker A: Was the fanatic Finals his rookie year or was that his sophomore year? [00:58:28] Speaker C: It was his sophomore year because he was at 17 worlds because I. Because he was the mid laner in the paranoia five minutes into the game game from Levi. And that was the year before he joined 100 Thieves. Oh, he was. [00:58:40] Speaker A: Oh, that's so funny. [00:58:41] Speaker C: Yeah, he was the. [00:58:43] Speaker A: I remember the paranormal. I don't remember who they were against. Okay, so that would be 2017 because 2018 is when he would have made World's Finals then. So I guess that is in the long run then. We're in his 10th year now, so like just nine. Nine years. I feel like it might even be more than 11 at that point. But still, Caps is the goat in Europe in LEC. And G2 won the finals versus Casey. They should have been able to close it out in Game 4. Probably should have been able to play a cleaner game three as well. But hey, you know, they'll take a 5. 0 at the end of the day. Who predicted it? Did any of us predict G2 still being the best at the end of the split? They were seventh seed going. Yeah. Hey, they made it close. They. They were able to make it to the. To the finals. Busio, baby. And funnily enough, we did have G2 and KC in our S tier category and we had Koi and GX in the A tier. Who were the top four? Baby, you goddamn right. It was GXG too. Just don't look at our Navi placement and don't look at our Virtual Vitality placement. Actually, vitality was kind of up there. [01:00:03] Speaker C: Hold on. [01:00:04] Speaker A: Yeah, you know what? Now that I'm looking at this again, I think Navi was really the only egregious one that we had. We had more faith in. In shifters, but that was because Jamata psyoped us into moving them up when in reality they. They were not able to qualify. For playoffs. So if we had kept them lower and had Navi higher, that would have been a pretty accurate for us in terms of power rankings going in. But either way, that's how LEC finals shaped up. What do you think, Badger? Is G2 gonna be one of the big dogs at first stand now that there's two LCK and two LPL teams? Do you think that they, like, perform? [01:00:41] Speaker C: I mean, so they're a threat. So the way that the draw goes. Mizella, correct me if I'm wrong in this situation, but I'm pretty sure LCK1 plays LPL2 and like, vice versa, like LPL1 plays LTK2. So there might be. They might be safe because they could either draw. Gosh, it would either be secret. [01:01:07] Speaker A: Is that how it works? I haven't looked. Pretty sure that's how it works, actually. [01:01:11] Speaker C: Secret. Honestly, G2 lion, like, at the beginning. Give me it. Give me. [01:01:19] Speaker A: Give me. [01:01:19] Speaker C: Eddie versus you to start. [01:01:21] Speaker A: Yeah, I. I have very little faith actually in. In lion to win that series. I mean, I'll have hope. I. I'll still be the blind N A fan, but. [01:01:30] Speaker C: Oh, wait, it's a. It's a group stage. Never mind. It's not like a big group. [01:01:34] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:01:34] Speaker B: Yeah, that's what I was gonna say. [01:01:35] Speaker C: We still have to draw. I was. I. I was thinking of. I've been watching a bunch of valorant and they just did a. They did. [01:01:46] Speaker A: I think you're right in terms of the groups. Sorry. Sorry to cut you off. I think you're right in terms of like LPL first and LCK second getting drawn into the same group. [01:01:54] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:01:54] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:01:54] Speaker B: Because it's split up. [01:01:55] Speaker A: They're gonna be against each other. [01:01:56] Speaker B: It's split up to where each group has one pool. One team, two pull two teams and one pull three team. So there will be a first seed, a second seed in each group from respective LCK lpl. And then there will also be. Be the other regions added. [01:02:12] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly. Oh, BNK ferx and it's being. [01:02:16] Speaker B: Being. Yeah, cuz being drawn by Tian and Crisp, you know, the FPX duo. So they. They're jobless, so they had to find [01:02:24] Speaker A: something, get them on the broadcast. Yeah, exactly. Well, we'll keep our eyes on firsthand going forward. Like Mizell had highlighted. We will know. Sorry, it's between which LPL teams are still fighting for it. [01:02:36] Speaker B: M. So JDG Wavo is tonight. And then whoever wins will go on to face BLG in the finals. But whoever wins this next series Tomorrow. Sorry, Tomorrow will be the second LPL representative. [01:02:51] Speaker A: So JDG Weibo, one of those two, will be joining BLG at first stand. Excited to see and excited for everybody to tune in next week to hear all about our first stand preview, where this week was all about LCS LEC and a little bit of America's cup, which we were able to cover. Mizel, we didn't get any of your thoughts on America's Cup. Have you been following along with reaction between CB, LOL and LCS? What are your thoughts on C9? We already saw. [01:03:22] Speaker B: They're frauds. [01:03:24] Speaker A: Hey, Sentinels look good, though. Sentinels. [01:03:27] Speaker B: Yeah, that's not who I wanted to look good. Hey, but Dark Wings. Let's go, let's go. [01:03:34] Speaker A: He's kind of popping off. So, yeah, we. We don't have as much time to talk about America's cup just because it's kind of like this little for fun tournament in between first stand and the end of LEC lcs. So happy to keep it just kind of in the back burner, but we'll cover more of what happens this weekend for it. But if you're listening to this and there are still games to be played, which would be Saturday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. Check them out on the LCS channel. Starts at 1pm Pacific Time, 4pm Eastern Time. Or if you're in Brazil, that'd be 5pm Your time. We got best of fives. [01:04:05] Speaker B: And don't miss the the LPL finals on lpl. Underscore English. [01:04:10] Speaker A: Check that out too. Hell yeah. Love that plug. But that's gonna be it for this episode of the LEC LCS Finals. Reaction, Badger. If anybody listening has some time in their day and wants to, you know, pay it forward a little bit and they think about giving us a review on the podcast, how many stars would you recommend for us? [01:04:32] Speaker C: They should. They should give us as many stars as caps as one titles, which is like actually like 16 now that I've done the math. But that's. That's impossible. So five will do at this point. [01:04:43] Speaker B: Just max. [01:04:44] Speaker A: We were so far off, by the way. 10, 11. It's 16. [01:04:48] Speaker C: I. I'm. If I counted this correctly, CAPS has won 16 titles in the Beast. [01:04:54] Speaker B: Hey, hey, hey. Hold on, hold on, though. Caveat. They had three splits before anybody else did. [01:05:01] Speaker A: All right, that's a really good point, [01:05:03] Speaker B: actually, those three times. [01:05:06] Speaker C: Okay, take. Take like five or six of those off just based on. [01:05:11] Speaker A: Even if we take away three years, they've had triple. That's crazy. All right, well, Shout out, Cap. Shout out both of you for coming on. Thank you so much guys for being here for another week of the league rundown. But most importantly, thank you everybody who listens week in and week out. We love you and we'll see you next time. Oh, yes, daddy. And then one for the road and [01:05:38] Speaker C: the big bigle pickle. [01:23:43] Speaker A: Boom. Didn't hear any on. On your ends, but yeah, I've got a line. [01:23:48] Speaker C: I was like, oh, God, that was awful. But it's, there's a, there's a spot there. [01:23:52] Speaker A: Nice, nice. I feel like trombone guy's never done his wrong before. So. Shout out the Tromboners. [01:24:02] Speaker C: The Tromboners. [01:24:04] Speaker A: Yeah. I miss having Ian on the podcast. It was fun. [01:24:07] Speaker C: Yeah, me too. [01:24:09] Speaker A: He had to get a big boy job though. Ugh, Imagine, imagine. Imagine actually being like an editor, audio editor for a anime studio or Crunchyroll. Although I'm pretty sure because I met up with him last year, he had moved on to other opportunities. He's like doing more third party freelance stuff because you can apparently make more money doing that rather than working for a company directly. It's like that type of industry, that type of job. [01:24:35] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:24:36] Speaker A: So yeah, he was never able to get me in. I was hoping maybe Ian can just like get me in as a voice actor. But apparently you have to be, you know, union. You have to be good at it. Come on. Gross. [01:24:53] Speaker C: Well, [01:24:56] Speaker A: heads up for today's episode. It's going to be still the reaction to playoffs weekend, but then because America's cup is going on, we can also talk about America's cup at the end. But this will probably come out before America's cup finals. But because it's later in the week, we. We don't have to do like a full breakdown of predictions or anything. We can just kind of like talk about C9 struggling and then maybe who do you think is going to win or whatever we want to talk about with it. But does anybody know any like global news that happened this past week, either roster news or variety topics? [01:25:34] Speaker C: The. The Witchcraft project got announced. [01:25:37] Speaker A: Oh, you're right. I don't know like anything about that. Does anybody? [01:25:45] Speaker C: It's basically just Los Ratones minus Bows, plus Bwipo and Cagel's not involved. [01:25:54] Speaker A: Interesting. It's kind of sad. Cage was not involved. [01:25:59] Speaker C: He, he. I don't think he wanted to do anything with it. Oh, and then there's a Mudo to energy. [01:26:08] Speaker A: Oh yes. [01:26:12] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:26:13] Speaker A: Dude, it's so sad. Did anybody watch parts Stream explaining it? I didn't catch any. [01:26:17] Speaker C: I didn't because something about that dude [01:26:20] Speaker B: rubs me the wrong way. [01:26:21] Speaker A: Oh, about Parth? [01:26:22] Speaker C: Yeah. I think he's. I, I mean this isn't the bullshitter. So it's. [01:26:27] Speaker B: People hear it. [01:26:27] Speaker C: Anyways, I, I kind of think he's a piece of. But I don't know. He just rubs me the wrong way when he talks. So [01:26:38] Speaker A: he's. He's an old head. He's been around the scene for a while. My interactions with him have been pleasant, but I don't know much about him as a person so I not gonna. [01:26:46] Speaker C: Yeah, that's the thing too is like he could be probably the nicest guy and he's like trying to help and he's like doing this like that whole like agency or whatever thing it is but like something about when that guy talks, I just don't like him. Maybe it's because he was, you know, TSM for the longest time and [01:27:05] Speaker A: it probably is the TSM bias. The TSM bias is probably, I will say I'm. I think like many my. And we can talk about this on the pod. Also, Zamudo going to NRG is sad because it means hoarder's not there. But I think it is the last chance for Zamuto because I don't know if Zamuto is going to get onto any other notable teams that would be able to make a push to like win an acl. And. And since his visa got denied twice for lcs, it would take moving mountains for a team to sign him again because that's just if you checked out like Jonathan's interviews digging to us as GM about like how difficult it is once you not only just to get a player in, but if they're denied multiple times, it gets harder every time because you have to provide more and more explanation as to why they were denied the first time. [01:28:00] Speaker B: So [01:28:02] Speaker A: yeah, it's disappointing. It seems like I don't know what it looked like from lion's end on their application, but they kind of screwed him over by not succeeding twice in a row because now it's going to be like exponentially harder to get Zamuto into the country to play for a team. So I think that in a way this is like the last shot for Zamuto to. To show that he's worth it and the team should still do it. I think if he's not signed next year, if he has a good season and he's still not signed next year, the only explanation is that it's Visa hell. So in that sense I'm happy for Zamuto. I think everybody's happy for Zamuto, but it's just sad that it has to come at Hoarder, who is also a very good top laner and is like right up there with Zamuto in terms of hype. Yeah, it's. It's like such a double edged sword. It's like monkey's paw. It's like we got Zamuto back, but it's now Hoarder doesn't have a team. Imagine. [01:29:26] Speaker C: You're not inspired by Lord Morgan's performance so far. [01:29:29] Speaker A: Dude, that was disastrous. Let's save that for the podcast though, because that's like what. We'll start with lcs. We're gonna do lcs and we're gonna do lec, and then we'll do America's cup afterwards. Lec. I did not catch the KCGX series, but. But from what I can see, there's not much that happened there. It was a three zero. [01:29:47] Speaker C: Yeah. Casey looked really good. [01:29:49] Speaker A: And then we had back to back banger series with Empy, KC and then G2KC. Both of those were very entertaining, so we can talk about those as well. Badger, were you able to catch any. All the LCS or LEC weekend? I mean. [01:30:04] Speaker C: Yeah, I was watching LEC this weekend. [01:30:06] Speaker A: Sweet. Mizelle, were you able to catch any leca? Okay. Oh, okay. Sure. No worries. I'm thinking. I'm thinking you. You go and then I'll think if I want to do that. If we want to wait for you. Cool. Understandable. [01:30:37] Speaker C: No worries, dude. [01:30:41] Speaker A: Badger, how do you. What's your schedule look like tonight? Because I think it's like a cleaner opening if we wait for him. But I don't want to. [01:30:50] Speaker C: I'm okay with too long. [01:30:51] Speaker A: Okay. Yeah. [01:30:52] Speaker C: Oh, yeah. No, I'm not. I can. I can. I can mail it in at work tomorrow. It's fine. [01:30:59] Speaker A: It's a Friday. [01:31:00] Speaker C: It's a Friday where I might not [01:31:04] Speaker A: even wear pants on the Broadway. [01:31:05] Speaker C: We're gonna be done with our whole time. Our. I mean. [01:31:11] Speaker A: Yep. [01:31:11] Speaker C: Yeah. Fair. [01:31:14] Speaker A: So I have this bit planned, but it's only gonna work if C9. Okay. So actually, it's gonna work if two things happen. Sentinels have to lose to Furia and then C9 has to beat Sentinels if those two things happen. I have a really funny bit for Sunday, and part of me, just because I think the bit's funny, wants it to happen, even though that'd be disastrous for the region. Now is when you're supposed to ask Me. What's, what's the bit? [01:31:48] Speaker C: What's the bit? Sorry, I'm. [01:31:50] Speaker A: Yeah, no, you're good. You're good. [01:31:51] Speaker C: I, I, I just saw a tweet that I had to read to see if I can get more context on and. [01:31:59] Speaker A: Well, I'll let you read the tweet once I have your attention again. [01:32:02] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, go ahead now. Go ahead. I didn't find anything out. [01:32:05] Speaker A: Oh, okay. So you see, what's the bit? [01:32:07] Speaker C: What is the bit that you have planned? [01:32:09] Speaker A: Oh, well, thank you for asking. The bit is going to be that I'm in a C9 jersey with C9 face paints and C9 tassels, because they were giving out C9 tassels this last weekend, and I'm, like, full decked out in C9 gear. And then when it comes for predictions, I say Furia three zero. And then, like, a Zale will be like, wait, really? And, like, have, like, a question, like, like a kind of concerned. Like, I want to play it up like I'm dead serious. And I'm just like, straight up. No, no, Fury's gonna crush him. [01:32:41] Speaker C: Like, it's good. [01:32:42] Speaker A: It's not gonna be close, right? And it's, it's just gonna be like a funny bit where, where, you know, again, I'm reverse cursing because I'm always wrong. So, yes, If I say C9 is going to lose, then they'll win. But then we get the visual gag of me all decked out, predicting 3 0. [01:32:57] Speaker C: Furio here. That'll go over great. [01:33:02] Speaker A: It's just in my head. It's one of those moments where if you can visualize it, you know, good chance it works out. But since we will be waiting for Mizelle, how about we stop our recordings now? I imagine Mel's will still be going, but we can just have him stop it when he gets back. And then we'll just have the bullshitter be in a separate file this time. [01:33:22] Speaker C: Sounds good. All right, so recording.