League Rundown - Episode 602: Power rankings are more of a guideline anyway

[00:00:13] Speaker A: Gets a little too far here, he's gonna have to try and get himself out Living O Tillery and the rest of the shots of fire Zion is just killing the next Zion can eat it single handedly win the game by game by game by game by should be. [00:00:27] Speaker B: Oh my God. [00:00:28] Speaker A: Stupid passes through and manages to the table with Messiah tanking it up. I do not believe he just believe. I cannot understand this game. Unicorns of Love. It wasn't a mutant. The Nexus. Hello and welcome to episode 602 of the League Rundown. This is your 2026 spring split LEC week two review and LCS week one review. And this episode is lovingly entitled. Power Rankings are more of a guideline. Anyway, I'm your host, Kangas and I'm joined by two esteemed co hosts. Up first we have Bickle. [00:01:28] Speaker B: Totally not panicking. Trying to figure out what exactly happened between SK and Shifters because that was a matchup that. [00:01:33] Speaker A: That happened. That was. That was a real series of League of Legends that we all got to witness. Are we sure? Well, if you didn't witness it, you're probably for the better. But yes, SK did get a win. And to help us talk about it, we also have joining us a Badger. [00:01:52] Speaker C: Is now a bad time to say that I didn't watch SK vs Shifters? [00:01:56] Speaker A: No, this is the perfect time. Because that means that you're one of the people that probably are still appreciating their eyeballs and their general sense of what a pro game of League of Legends looks like. [00:02:08] Speaker B: Just to double check. Elder and Baron are supposed to help you win the game, right? [00:02:13] Speaker A: Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. [00:02:15] Speaker B: Just wanted to double check that. [00:02:16] Speaker C: Wait, so you're saying see. Oh, well, we'll talk about it later when we get there. I would love to hear. I would love to hear a five to seven hour recap of this lovely exchange of League of Legends between these two. Yeah, fantastic organizations. [00:02:31] Speaker A: You know what? We will save that for later. I was gonna make a joke. I'll just remember it when it comes up. You know, I. I never go over well during a podcast. I don't think that's ever happened once. Yeah, here's something I didn't forget though. You know, players, when they come to a region, they're usually considered an import, but if they stay long enough in said region, they get residency. Well, Badger, what happened? Like hours after last week's conversation where we talked about LCS rosters of like, what the best roster would be if you had no imports on a team yeah. [00:03:10] Speaker C: So after we built our dream LCS rosters, Berserker became a North American resident. And it became official. Not based on anything in the contract database, but by the fact that he tweeted the picture of twisted fate holding the green card, which has been synonymous with import players and announcing their residency as NA now. So Berserker is officially a North American resident. And for the love of God, Isles better be fearful for his job right now. [00:03:41] Speaker B: I also looking over his shoulder and [00:03:44] Speaker A: Dokla, I would say, has not looked stellar this split. Like he's holding his own. He's doing what he can. But like, I think both of those or you have a lot of eyeballs [00:03:54] Speaker B: on them especially wasn't even meant to be on this roster. [00:03:57] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly. Yeah. And now they're like, oh, we had to get a last minute N A sub top laner because Zamuto can't play. Well now they could look elsewhere. It does not bode well for N A talent, I will say. Or just the narrative about, oh, N. A is just the LCK Retirement home slash LCK Developmental league. [00:04:21] Speaker C: Hear me out. [00:04:22] Speaker A: Mix of both. [00:04:23] Speaker C: There's this player over in LCK Challengers, young upstart support player rising through the ranks. You know, I know Biggle knows where I'm going. There's. There's this support player that is a role swap player named Ghost. Come over and play for Lion. [00:04:49] Speaker A: Ghost. [00:04:50] Speaker C: I'm. [00:04:50] Speaker B: Please, God, no. [00:04:53] Speaker C: As soon as I said that, I. Bickle just clocked it immediately. Exactly what I was gonna say. [00:04:58] Speaker B: Hear me out. I think I have a better offer is we know just how dominant this bot Lane was last year over in the lck. [00:05:08] Speaker C: Oh, I know. [00:05:10] Speaker B: Nobody could stand up to him. And I just think, you know, just maybe we could see life come and join Berserker. [00:05:19] Speaker A: God, is that who he was playing last year? [00:05:22] Speaker B: Yes, that is who he was playing with last year when they went, what was it, 3 and 30 or something like that. [00:05:28] Speaker A: I would rather not have that. [00:05:30] Speaker B: Sorry. 4 and 26. [00:05:31] Speaker C: Yes, 4. [00:05:33] Speaker A: A little better, I suppose. Still not on my bingo card. It does open possibilities for lion roster building. And that's very interesting to think about, but more so. I'm just curious, Bickle, what are your thoughts on like Berserker becoming an NA Resident to begin with? [00:05:50] Speaker B: I'm slightly confused how it happened, considering he left the region for an entire year. But U.S. government's gonna. U.S. government. [00:05:58] Speaker A: So who knows that that's basically where I land as well. There's some players that are imports that feel like, oh, yeah, no, no issue on my end. Like it doesn't even feel like they are from another region like Impact Core JJ Huhi if we're going like back in time, like Bjergsen Jensen like that, it's just like, nah, they're just. They're LCS players. Yes, Impact won worlds and yes, Core GJ won worlds on LCK teams, but like they've been here for so long that they feel like LCS players. Berserker to me, doesn't feel like an LCS player. And I know it's a completely Vibes based thing, but it was only, what, four years ago that he first played for C9. Was it 20, 22 or was it 23 that he first played for C9? I don't even remember. [00:06:44] Speaker B: It was 22. [00:06:46] Speaker A: Okay, 22. I guess four years is kind of a long time. It just doesn't my brain post like 20, 21. All the years blend together. So in my head I'm like, he hasn't been here that long. [00:06:57] Speaker B: Yeah, he spent three years with Cloud 9, went over to Korea for a year and came back with Lions. [00:07:04] Speaker A: Yeah, I guess a big part of that is that one of those years he wasn't even here. So it's just like. I don't know what the reason for the residency shift even is. Like, I feel like there's gotta be some kind of competitive integrity thing going on here of like. Because like, I know Busio just went over to the LEC and signed. Like he. He changed his residency to Polish so he can play in lec. But that means that he, I believe like in the riot like contract database, he can't change it back for another year or something like that. I don't remember exactly what it was. I just. It was explained to me at some point and I'm like, I guess maybe Berserker was past that year of like changing it back. Although I. I suppose he never changed it. Oh, I guess that's. That's the difference is he was always just an LCK resident, even when he was playing over here in the lcs. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. [00:07:52] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:07:52] Speaker B: And I think it's just. [00:07:53] Speaker A: You know what, I talked myself out [00:07:54] Speaker B: of it [00:07:57] Speaker A: through conversing. Once you get your green card, I [00:08:00] Speaker B: think you are legally able to consider yourself an NA resident. So maybe he was just going through the application while still in Korea or something like that. I don't know. [00:08:10] Speaker A: I suppose, yeah, that. That could be. [00:08:11] Speaker B: I don't know exactly. [00:08:13] Speaker A: Either way though, congratulations to berserker It's a big moment to to be able to change your residency and now we can claim him as an LCS player. Let's go. And that change again really opens up a lot of roster building potential for a Reliant or if they get a different ad carry like, then that means that Berserker is a really hot pickup for any other team as an ad carry that would not take up an import slot. So yeah, big, big pickup for the LCS region overall. [00:08:40] Speaker B: We all know Isles is looking over his shoulder. [00:08:43] Speaker C: Aisles is in fact looking over his shoulder right now like he had a good week one. [00:08:48] Speaker A: I mean they lost the series, but like he individually looked pretty good. He did. Yeah. I was. I was happy they're having tried and he looked great in the America's cup. Like he was I think or not America's cup in first stand first. Nobody looked in the America's cup first stand though. I thought that aisles like that he was playing better than I'd ever seen him play before. So I think Isles is actually hitting new GE and stepping up, only better [00:09:10] Speaker B: if he wants to keep his job. [00:09:12] Speaker C: Yep. [00:09:12] Speaker A: Yep. Other topics though, around the globe. Bickle. There was a a kind of a leak of some internal revenue reporting from a certain LCK team that potentially bodes well for the future of the esports industry. Talk to me about it. [00:09:33] Speaker B: I'm gonna put a pause there as. Oh, this, this team is not necessarily representative of the sports industry. [00:09:40] Speaker A: Right. [00:09:41] Speaker B: Turns out if you are the greatest league team of all time with the greatest League of Legends player of all time who is the face of League of Legends Esports, you might double. No. Bjergsen. [00:09:58] Speaker C: Yeah, I guess you might barely, for [00:10:03] Speaker B: the first time since your founding all those years ago, be able to pull in a profit. T1 has pulled in a profit for the first time since their founding, thanks to an 81% revenue increase in 2025. They did sign a rather large sponsorship deal last year that probably has a big tie in with this. So my guess is that's where it originated from. [00:10:31] Speaker A: Yeah, but I mean, it's cool that they reach profitability. It is funny when you then zoom out and realize they've been around for a long time and they've been consistently the best team or like one of the best teams in the world with faker on the roster the whole time. And they only just reached profitability with an insane revenue increase that's like almost doubling their revenue year over year. But hey, at first it's T1. They paved the way they showed the other teams how to do it. Dignitas will get there soon, I believe. [00:11:06] Speaker B: Question, I think it's. I don't know if you have the answer to this. Is this. They say since founding. Do they mean the founding of T1 or the founding of SKT? [00:11:16] Speaker A: That's actually a good point. I had not thought of that and I do not know the answer. But that would change the scope greatly because SKT has been around for a long time. T1 has only been around since 22. [00:11:28] Speaker C: Right. [00:11:29] Speaker B: Now that I say that, I'm pretty sure SKT never made a profit with their. Just never mind. [00:11:37] Speaker A: Yeah, you never know. But either way, props to T1 for showing that it is possible to make money in esports. Look at that. They did it. It's not all doom and gloom. You just got to win worlds three years in a row. [00:11:52] Speaker B: Well, week one viewership says otherwise. [00:11:56] Speaker A: Ah, what a segue. Badger, I'm gonna have you talk about this one because I'm too sad to talk about it because week one viewership across all the regions came out. And how's it looking? [00:12:12] Speaker C: It's. It's. It's okay. It's. It's fine. Clearly. Yeah, this is fine. [00:12:18] Speaker A: Yeah, this is fine. [00:12:20] Speaker C: This is fine. Um, yeah. So the. Was the esports charts put up the. The list of. Is this from esports charts? Is the one who does this? [00:12:34] Speaker A: I actually don't know. Yeah, yeah, this is. [00:12:38] Speaker C: So I. [00:12:38] Speaker A: What. What I saw was a tweet from David Shynock friend. [00:12:41] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. [00:12:42] Speaker A: Well, he put out a tweet and says all data pulled from esports charts on the tweet. [00:12:48] Speaker C: Yeah. So there's a little bit of a drop off in viewership kind of, kind of globally at this point. I mean, technically, we don't know the LPL numbers because the LPL doesn't, unfortunately have an official broadcast. Riot bringing back the official LPL broadcast. You cowards. [00:13:06] Speaker B: In that case, technically, Riot's official broadcast of the LPL had a zero percent drop in viewership. [00:13:13] Speaker A: You're right. [00:13:14] Speaker C: You know what? [00:13:14] Speaker A: True zero reported. [00:13:17] Speaker C: Zero percent reported. So just some numbers across the board. CB LOL's down 19%, LSK is down 24%, LEC is down. Or LCS is down 40% and LEC is down 50%. Yep. Yeah. [00:13:34] Speaker A: And esports charts. I know. Does include co streamers. Cadre was not streaming all of week one. I know he took Monday off. I don't remember if he took any of the other days off as well, but. But I'm attributing that 50% drop off to one co streamer not clicking stream. There's always a natural drop off. I believe the average is somewhere around like 20% drop off. 10 to 20% somewhere in that range between splits just because fatigue comes in. And then by worlds viewership goes back up and people get more interested in it again. So there's a bit of that that's just kind of natural we've seen every year. But 50% crazy for the LEC. One co streamer can do a lot of damage to average viewership. The more Concerning1 is LCS down 40%. [00:14:22] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:14:23] Speaker A: Oh yeah, that's not good. 53,000 average viewership across opening weekend of the split. [00:14:30] Speaker B: To give the LEC some leeway, you say it's all just on casual not clicking dream. I think that's one of three prongs that hit them for week one. The other prong is going to be a season wide thing in that Los Ratons is no longer part of the lec. So that's a big chunk of viewership gone. And also G2 just wasn't playing week one. So true. [00:14:52] Speaker A: Actually that's a good point. [00:14:53] Speaker B: Those are some of their biggest viewership stakes coming in. Having all of that combined together is bound to give you your worst week ever. But Los Ratons ain't coming back, so those numbers ain't gonna be pretty. [00:15:06] Speaker A: Well, at least G2 came back, so maybe that will help it. That's actually a really good point. There is that it's. There's a lot of factors for the LEC 50%. But I think the more concerns are [00:15:17] Speaker B: we sure G2 came back? [00:15:22] Speaker A: I'll have thoughts, I'll have thoughts on what happened to G2 this past weekend. They got a series that looked good and one that looked bad. But the bigger concern for me is the LCS drop off. That 40 drop off is pretty intense. Split over split. And I don't know like what the excuse is. We don't have the whole like, oh, it's lta, it's harder to find in a search bar now. Or oh, it's like it's a different time zone or like, oh, it's, you know, there's all these format changes. It's like now the formats close to the same. If anything it's easier to follow now because it's gonna be the same as lec. And also it's week one. So like I doubt format would be like the issue there. So yeah, that's. As somebody who's on the broadcast. That's something that's really scary to see because it's like. [00:16:08] Speaker B: It's because you weren't there, Angus. [00:16:10] Speaker A: Actually, wait, that's a good point. I wasn't there. I bring in 40 viewership. That's. You know, I should bring this up in my next contract negotiation. Be like, I think I should get 40% more day rate because of my contribution to the. [00:16:30] Speaker B: I hate to then pull the plug on this. What is your response going to be? Well, you also drew 50% of the LEC viewership away. [00:16:37] Speaker A: Ah, damn it. [00:16:40] Speaker C: Again. [00:16:41] Speaker A: So my delta is not good. My delta. Because it's down 50. Down 40. [00:16:46] Speaker C: Yeah, [00:16:49] Speaker B: yeah. [00:16:50] Speaker A: All right. You know what? Something to think about and something to think about in contract negotiation. But either way, we'll keep tracking that and see if your ship recovers. Hopefully it does. But generally, generally between week one and two, there's even more drop off. I think LEC, there's a chance it wouldn't be because G2 is back. And if K Drill is co streaming all the days. But with lcs, that's the one that's like, okay, well, we're gonna have to figure out something there. But that's the story for a future day. Other regions started up. LPL and LCK have started up. So Badger and also Big. I know the both of you watches, but I'm gonna throw it to Badger now. What's going on in the lck? Any. Any big storylines happening over there? [00:17:31] Speaker C: Yeah, so kind of big storylines. You know, there's this team called Fear X. You know, you might have seen them at that first stand. They have not won a single game in the LCK. [00:17:45] Speaker A: This split G2 broke them that bad. [00:17:47] Speaker C: G2 broke fear X. Let's see what else. What other newsworthy things are here? [00:17:55] Speaker A: Well, I hear that G2 also broke gen G. Because in Gen G. Yeah, [00:17:59] Speaker C: yeah, yeah, they definitely did because Jen G is only in second place right now in the LCK to this little upstart, you know, ragtag group of individuals called Kate. KT Rolster. [00:18:13] Speaker A: You put respect on that name. Those guys made finals at Worlds last. I know. Yeah. [00:18:18] Speaker C: The. The most. The darkest timeline right now is that KT Rolster is in first place and T1 is tied in the jumbled mess that is Hanjin Brion. D Kia Key Womb DRX and T1 at 1 and 2 series score. Yeah, it's kind of top to bottom. KT1 Gen G2 Hanwha 3 Nongshim 4 Nonshim 3 Technically they're tied with Hanma. DN Supers are in fifth place. But [00:18:55] Speaker A: yeah, I missed the freaks. I'm just gonna say I missed the freaks too. [00:19:00] Speaker B: We all missed the freaks. [00:19:01] Speaker C: Getting freaky with it, honestly. [00:19:03] Speaker A: These nuts freaky. [00:19:05] Speaker C: These nuts freaky. [00:19:06] Speaker A: D night super. [00:19:07] Speaker C: It's like these nuts DN DNF is so yeah, it's fine. But yeah, so yeah, like you know, just kind of a standard start, slow start for the one of the teams coming back from almost said msi. Wow, that's close enough. Yeah, close enough. We do get the barn burner coming up. That is Fred at Brion versus Gen G DK versus Gen G Hanwha versus bfx. You know, some, some kind of moderately decent staked matches. T1 versus Damwon is next Friday and that's to see who can climb into playoffs after, you know, starting slow. But there's still eight more weeks of lck so I think they'll be all right at this point. [00:19:58] Speaker A: But yeah, kind of a, kind of [00:20:00] Speaker C: a rough start for some teams. [00:20:02] Speaker A: But hey, shout out to kt. Good start. Yes. Pickle. [00:20:06] Speaker B: Just a bit. [00:20:08] Speaker A: Just a bit. Just a bit. And that's just it for the global news that we had. If we miss anything, reminder to let us know in the community Discord. You can find a link to that in the description wherever you are listening along. And also shout out to the community. We have fantasy back for LCS this split and currently in first place in the league rundown fantasy. I totally forgot to plug this last week. My bad everybody. But we still have the same fantasy group from winter split that is spilling over so there's a few people that are still in it. Join it still if you have not yet just link your account. I believe whatever points you earned for week one still will count as you join a new league. So I'll. I'll relink that in the community discord as well. But shout out to Corag for being in first place right now drafting all of Team Liquid. They just went top to bottom and coach all of Team Liquid and Team Liquid one. So they're currently in a fourth place. Yeah, I mean week one everyone's got the same budget and I don't think Team Liquid was very high pointed because of their like early departure and playoffs last. [00:21:17] Speaker B: Fair enough. [00:21:18] Speaker A: Yeah yeah. Not a lot of players are like that expensive in week one except for the people that win the split. Like I think Inspired was really up there. But also Red Fox running for second place and Puppet in third place. I'm in fourth place as castrologic Gaming. But I'm on my way up, baby. I think I can. I think I can make it. LCS we are doing a bet on broadcast for the talent across the split. Whoever gets last place in points for all the talent on the LCS show at the end of regular season. So we're going to count this going into the first week of playoffs. Whoever's in last place has to do the broadcast for playoffs in complete clown makeup and whoever gets first place gets to apply the clown makeup to whoever's in last place. So there'll be a day where somebody's dressed like a clown. Currently, Kobe's in last place. I'm in second to last place for the LCS talent, so I'll be updating everybody as those weeks go along. But then also shout out anybody who supports the podcast either through our Patreon or our merch shop. You can also find links to those in the description down below. You're the goats. With that being said, it's time to chat LCS and LEC because we got some games, baby. LCS had its opening weekend. Let's start there. Bickle, who was playing this weekend and who beat who to start things off, before we get into any of the fun games individually that happened. [00:22:46] Speaker B: Yep. Starting us off, we have a rematch of the finals with Cloud 9 versus lion, which to no one's surprised when all three games with Cloud 9 coming out on top, Sentinels disguised another three game series with disguised coming out on top. As we all predicted, despite that not really being the consensus, Team Liquid Fly another three game series with Team Liquid coming out on Top and Dignitas vs Shopify was a series that Shopify 2 owed. [00:23:17] Speaker A: That was the most anticlimactic end to the weekend because not only was it a two zero, there was like a 20 minute pause that happened going into game two and they had to fill like a bunch of dead air. And then we get into the game and the whole narrative is like FBI's gotta carry on Yannara and then he gets just giga stomped in the bot lane, dude. Like that was, I believe they even said on broadcast like it was the largest gold differential at eight minutes since they started tracking that specific stat. Which was like in 2020 globally, like ever ever recorded biggest gold differential for a bot laner at eight minutes. Yeah, B boy just smashed FBI. Yeah, but Shopify's back. Let's go. I mean like they look so much better. They did not win a game in split one. They bombed out six zero much to My chagrin. And this is a much better looking team. Specifically Zinni Badger. Your boy landed the picture perfect. Annie old, one of the most beautiful engages I've seen. Nobody followed up, nobody died. But it doesn't matter. We never left boys. [00:24:38] Speaker C: No, I. I was sitting in a call watching the game with some friends and I'm just like, man, this is the Shopify we were promised. And then there the one's just like, brother, they're playing Dignitas counterpoint. [00:24:50] Speaker B: Dignitas. [00:24:52] Speaker A: Yeah, but Dignitas beat them last time around 2 0. So like, even with that like caveat, I still think this is a big win for Shopify because it proves that they are able to win games even if it's the other bottom of the barrel teams in lcs and they didn't pick up anything last time and they looked depressed doing it. This is signs of life. Much needed. Fudge was still struggling into photon, so that has not really improved. But contracts did not throw during the series and Zinni looked mechanically and just like positioning wise, so much better. And then bvoy and SEOs were just smashing that bot lane left and right. So. Yeah, dude, what do we think? Is, is this like, is it an overreaction to say Shopify is back? [00:25:41] Speaker C: Yes, probably. [00:25:43] Speaker B: Well, you know, I. I need more than just beating up on Palafox and xu. [00:25:50] Speaker A: I'm all in, baby. I'm reinvesting. No, no, no. I don't want to hurt myself. [00:25:56] Speaker C: Maybe it'll be a good test this week. We'll see. [00:26:00] Speaker A: I did do the full 180 for my power rankings because while I was in Berlin, they shot me a message on Friday night. No, actually Saturday morning technically. And they were like, hey, what's your power rankings real quick? Because we're making the graphic. And I thought about it. I was like, what am I gonna put here? Like, am I gonna double down on Shopify again? And I was like, no, you know what? If people show you who they are, believe them, I'm gonna throw them last. And now. [00:26:32] Speaker B: So what you're saying is that split one you put them first and they got last and now that you put them last, they're about to be in first. [00:26:39] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly. That's exactly what I'm saying. Because I am notoriously the most wrong member of the LCS broadcast probably in their history. So yeah, if I just predict the one way it's gonna go the other. Yeah, that's a big story. Obviously Shopify were the only ones who went to zero, but I think the big exciting series was C9 lion in terms of just like gameplay and also just narrative. And C9 were able to get revenge. It's regular season C9, baby. They always can win in the regular. They're the ultimate value of G2. They do the complete opposite where they like smash the regular season, choke in the playoffs. G2 just are shit in the regular season. Smash the playoffs. Is this a concerning trend Bagel? [00:27:24] Speaker B: I mean they win when it matters the least. [00:27:30] Speaker A: Yes, they do. Yes. [00:27:31] Speaker B: Game one had me worried that they were about to lose when it mattered. The mo what mattered the least also. But they managed to come back after a rough game one. [00:27:41] Speaker A: Yeah. And I think that it was in very interesting fashion because like I leaning on AP is Ziggs. That's classic. But then later on like I just don't think of AP is like an Orianna player when it comes to control mage in the mid lane. It's like, yeah, Ziggs, Talia Azir, he's getting better arise. But Orianna is so important in this meta. I was actually happy to see him pull that one out because it shows that APA is expanding some of his champ pool. And yeah, I mean they were able to also kind of like win in the bot lane through the ash Seraphine, which is a notoriously tough lane to deal with. [00:28:21] Speaker B: So looking at some nice Bardolts. [00:28:23] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. Very, very good dude. Vulcan has really turned things around as well. I mean, talk about like Isles having a great performance. I think Vulcan as well has had a great performance. Our supports are really stepping up so far in LCS region. In my eyes. I will say draft wise for Lion. When I see like ash Seraphine, I usually want. Want there to be like, I guess Wukong kind of fits a bill. I usually think of like a Xin Zhao with it. Like that's the. The trinity force of Ash Seraphine. Comps to send a Xin Zhao in because he's got his old to keep him alive for long enough and then he like delivers the Seraphine ult through him. I feel like Wukong's a little squishier than that and like it doesn't have as good a defensive tool to survive, but also is I guess is more so the way that they. They played it out. They like inspired. Wasn't really lining up the angles necessarily for why am I blanking online. So it was aisles. There we go. Yeah. Yeah. For him to actually find what he's looking for. But yeah, in. In the. In the rematch C9 take it. And I think that they show that, yeah, it's just tradition that they will be the best team. We're gonna go to playoffs and be like, yes, United should win. And then they're probably gonna lose to freaking Shopify in Lion. [00:29:38] Speaker B: And in this case, inspired defense. He was playing with an ear infection and those things are nasty. [00:29:44] Speaker A: Oh, I didn't know that actually. [00:29:45] Speaker B: Yeah, he couldn't be on stage with the team because it was so he couldn't wear full headphones. So he had to be off stage without the team playing. [00:29:55] Speaker A: I did not. Wow. Somehow I missed all of that while I was watching. Because I was watching that while, like, LEC ended. And then I was hanging out with Vettie Fit and Odo at Betty's place, watching on my phone. So we didn't have the volume on. I was just watching the game kind of passively. So I guess I just missed watching [00:30:15] Speaker C: with the volume on. Kangas. What? What the heck? [00:30:17] Speaker A: Well, we were playing Riftbound at the same time. [00:30:19] Speaker C: Well, that explains a lot then. Never mind. [00:30:22] Speaker A: Also, Odo and Betty could not be bothered. Finn wasn't invested. We were watching it together. Okay. Well, yeah, that was the rematch, I guess. Big caveat there as Inspired had an ear infection. So that will change. I guess. Kind of the narrative a bit crazy then that they even still won Game one. Especially in the fashion that they did any other fun matches. Bickle, in your opinion, for LCS this past weekend. [00:30:53] Speaker B: It was fun seeing disguise just blow open Game three on Vayne in like five minutes. Like, yep, this game's over. [00:31:00] Speaker A: That was crazy. Yeah. Although. Oh, yeah. [00:31:05] Speaker B: What is Smolder mid still a thing? [00:31:11] Speaker C: I mean, it can work. [00:31:12] Speaker A: I don't know. [00:31:15] Speaker C: Is it. Is it meta? I don't believe so, but it could work. [00:31:19] Speaker A: Yeah. It's like, it's one of those things where if you want an AD in the mid lane to open up AP Elsewhere. Sure. But that's not what they did. Like, they did Gallio into the Rumble. [00:31:33] Speaker B: They had solo AP Top Gallio and that was, yeah, hybrid. [00:31:36] Speaker A: Because I feel like they opened up. Yeah. If it was like Lilia Jungle or something along those lines, I'm like, okay, sure, you know, you're letting AP sneak somewhere else. Or if they went like a mage in the bot lane. Sure. But I feel like he didn't do anything for this draft in particular. But Call Me, he took full advantage. I mean, the YONA into this molder. He just smashed that match up. I was pretty impressed with Call me overall. And Castle is just looking Dominant right now. Like, he made impact look like a. In effect also has just not been that impressive. But Hambock's Skarner in game one, dude, that. That guy was unmovable, that he could not die. And Cryra is still showing that as a young jungler in the league. When he falls behind, it's the same thing as Griffin. I think both of them have the same tendency. If they fall behind at any point, they really struggle to stabilize. They do great with tempo and the like, momentum behind them. But then if they lose that momentum, they don't like, adapt their game plan very well. It's more just like, oh, throw an alt or like, force an engage to try and get back into the game as opposed to, I'm gonna like, avoid you until I'm strong enough to do something. [00:32:52] Speaker B: FlyQuest needs to learn what the phrase play slow, we scale means. [00:32:58] Speaker C: Yeah, no all gas, no brakes. [00:33:02] Speaker A: I mean, it's a fun play style, but we saw it at the RA versus Team Liquid. [00:33:06] Speaker C: No, exactly. [00:33:07] Speaker A: Yeah. They really didn't respect where they were safe and where they were not safe specifically. I'm thinking like Cryogen in game one, like, there's a moment and to his, I guess defense, like Team Liquid are kind of playing like psychos where they were invading top jungle when like, you would expect them to be pushing lanes instead. And Cryogen's just kind of walking around to get vision down and he gets picked. And then that's like the catalyst for TL to dive mid turret and just like kind of blow the game open or I guess Flag was more so like try and take the fight and then try and peel back after they realize they're losing it. And they still just like, lose everybody. And then that's Baron to Team Liquid. But I feel like that's something that young rosters do a lot. They don't know when they're safe and when they're not. They just kind of do default plays where, oh, I'm Nautilus support. I'm just gonna walk in and drop vision down when it's like, probably not able to right now given the information on the map. So. Yeah, I gotta agree with the sentiment though, that fly questions need to learn how to scale and. And let their comp kind of play itself out. And there we go. We found a way to talk about all the series from this past weekend. [00:34:18] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:34:19] Speaker A: If you could recommend anybody watch one if they can only. If they only have time for one series, which one do you think they should check out? [00:34:25] Speaker C: I mean, the justification of our Shopify, Rebellion Love Last Split. No, I would probably, I would probably. You know, since it's the two best teams I would say C9 and Lion I think would be the one to watch. [00:34:39] Speaker A: I agree. If you like watching a bot laner be depressed, you can watch Dig Shopify Game two. If you just really hate FBI for some reason. Victor's a nice guy. I don't know why you would hate him. [00:34:51] Speaker C: If you want to watch the new age rendition of the Double Execute at Turret and oh no play but only on one side. Dignitas managed to do a really good job of recreating it with top lane tier 1 turret at 1 point. [00:35:10] Speaker B: Oh my God. If you if you want to join Badger on the Sentinels Hate watch crew, games 2 and 3 of the disguised series is pretty good. [00:35:19] Speaker A: Okay, true, true. I'm sure Rob Moore, the CEO is not happy about that. No. And you might have some angry cease and desists in your male Badger as well. [00:35:31] Speaker C: Oh darn. Whatever will I do? [00:35:34] Speaker A: Well, probably cease and desist, but yeah. Week two let's talk about predictions going into next week because it's round robin, best of threes, single round robin. Every team will face every team one once before playoffs. Much better format. I like this once because we get just more games in general even for the teams that don't make playoffs. But then also I think it's just a more solidified like who's actually good and who's actually better than the other teams. Shopify versus Team Liquid to kick things off we all have Team Liquid. I'm going to continue to predict against Shopify until they win the split. I'm just going to say that right now I'm going to go 0% prediction rate on Shopify because I'm going to keep predicting against them until they get win enough that I get hope and then I predict for them and then they lose that game. Go back to not predicting them and then they'll win out the split. [00:36:23] Speaker B: I was about to say you're gonna predict them losing the Dig. Geez General it's already played Dig. [00:36:29] Speaker A: They already played Dick. Yeah, yeah, I'll predict them losing to dsg. Actually that's the one. I'll predict them to win and then they'll. They'll lose that one because then DSG get a nice one. Team Liquid 21 for both Badger and Bickle though. Pickle, why you think Team Liquid are able to take this one? [00:36:48] Speaker B: I think Team Liquid is a really well rounded team. We saw the peaks they can hit when they played Fly Quest last week and I just think they'll be able to continue keeping that momentum rolling and that yes. Sent. Yes. Shopify looked better last week. It was against taking the toss. [00:37:05] Speaker A: Yeah, and I'm also going to say it. Their bot lane smashed, but they smashed Dignitas's bot lane. Now they're going to be up against Goncore. JJ, I do not think that FBI and SEOs or Sorry B Voyance are going to be able to do the even close to the same damage against team Liquids bottling. Dame Dos vs Lion happens as our second series of the day and hope boy, I was gonna predict Lion 200 to 0, but then it messed with the formatting of the game. The the thing. So I just put lion nine zero. I don't think that they drop a game to dig 10 times out of 10. I think that they should just smash this matchup. Badger and Baker Both agree with Lion2.0. A more passive prediction there though. Badger. Why. Why aren't you guys confident enough to put the 9 0? [00:37:57] Speaker C: I mean, I. I could just say that this is the coughing baby versus Hydrogen bomb series of the week and I think people would get the point, I hope. [00:38:07] Speaker A: True, true. You know what I could have done? Actually a better joke would have been and this is something I'll do in the Google Doc for the two of you because it'll be funny. I should have put Lion2.1 because I always do a dash and then be like, okay, So I got Lion 2 dig negative one. There's a little visual joke for everybody listening along. All right, next up on Sunday we got DSG versus Fly Quest. I have Fly Quest 2. 1. The two of you actually disagree and have DSG 2. 1 instead. I'll go first. I feel like Fly Quest are a team that again plays with momentum but have a little more firepower in the lanes that matter at times that matter more. So Jed can show up late game and carry, but he notoriously still struggles in lane. And like last week, this is only one week of games but it was on a win and he still has the by far lowest damage percentage of an AD carry in the league, lowest damage per minute of an AD carry in the league, and lowest damage to gold ratio in the league. And I just feel like Masu's gonna smash him. Like I actually think that Masu Cryogen is such a strong lane, like their laning phase is almost their strength, I would say. And I do not think Sajed and Lions are going to get out of this landing phase. Even like relatively close. And then Masu can carry from there. So that's why I got FlyQuest 2. 1. Bickle, why do you have DSG to 1? [00:39:44] Speaker B: I was really debating between these two. I think this is the best matchup of the weekend. I think this is gonna be the closest matchup of the weekend. And I really think the difference maker for this is. Is going to be Castle. I think he looked really good last weekend. He's been the bright point of this team for a while and it's so nice to see him actually have a team around him for once. I think if the rest of his team can keep it close, he can be the one that pushes it over the edge. Also. I'm just really excited for Kryv versus Griffin of the battle of the two rookie junglers. Like press click forward, go. Just fight. [00:40:24] Speaker A: Yep. [00:40:25] Speaker C: I really like. I really like Castle and call me and this. I think that Geckos and Quad have been. I'm not a. I'm not as big of a fan of them as I feel like I should be at this point. So I, I think the solo lanes are going to determine a lot in this series and especially with junglers who want to play the style that Kryra and Griffin do where it's very hyper aggressive. They want to get on the map, they want to make plays, they want to fight. If your solo lanes are in a better position then your team in turn, your team gets to be in a better position at that point as well. [00:41:10] Speaker A: Yeah. Okay. I could see that. Okay. Well, last up is Sentinels versus C9. I got C920. Bickle agrees. Badger has C921. Why do you think Badger drop or why do you think C9 drop a game Badger? Because I feel like they should smash this. [00:41:27] Speaker C: I. They feel like they should smash it. But this just seems like the trap series for C9 where they. They drop like game two. Like they, they come out, they've. They're firing game one. Rahel has an insane game, game two and then it's. Okay. Well, C9 locks back in for game three. That's all it is. I. I can easily see this being a 2 0, but I just feel like this is. Something's going to happen. Something's going to happen. It's going to be a three game series. [00:41:52] Speaker A: It's rare that we get clean series in. [00:41:54] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:41:55] Speaker A: So yeah, I guess just banking on like a messy game at some point doesn't make sense. Okay, cool. Well, that's it for LCS for week Two predictions as well as our week one review. Just a shout out to Bickle for being correct out of and Badger. Actually, both of you had a 3 and 1 prediction rate. I had a 2 and 2. I got both FlyQuest TL and Dig. Shopify. Wrong. I should. You know. No, I was gonna say I should have predicted against Shopify, but. No, you're welcome. [00:42:25] Speaker C: Shopify for you, because you're welcome. [00:42:27] Speaker A: I will take full credit for them getting these ones, but that means it's time to hop across the pond over to the lec, the Lech League. I got to cast Saturday and Sunday. Those are my last two days on the broadcast over there. And then I departed on Monday. So I actually never even got back around to watching the Monday game. So my apologies. I won't be able to talk too much about those, but at least Saturday and Sunday had some fun ones. Bickle, you already kind of alluded to it. But same with LCS when it comes to lec, talk to me about who played who over the weekend and who beat whom over the weekend before we get into the games themselves. [00:43:08] Speaker B: Apparently to start the week, there's this game between SK and Shifters that I have no memory of, but apparently that existed. And yeah, that game happened and sk 1, 2, nothing. Which should tell you all you need to know about that series. [00:43:26] Speaker A: And it was like, it was fast too. Like game one was 20, game one was game two. Game two was crazy. Game two. Game two was ridiculous. [00:43:34] Speaker B: Something. Then we saw the debut of G2. G2 taken on Team Heretics, where they took a clean 2. 0 like you'd expect for the second best team in the world. Vitality and Navi went head to head. Vitality coming out on top with a two nothing. Then we go into Sunday Giant X sk show us that SK is still a bad team though. The series score is deceptive. There this GX takes a two zero. Then El Classico, the legendary series that everybody knows, everybody loves Best there is, best there was, best there ever will will be. Kings, dynasties, legacies, all that jazz. [00:44:14] Speaker A: Yeah, but like, Fnatic sucks. G2 just went to finals of firsthand. Like, this isn't even that exciting. I get the history of it, I get the narrative. But like, let's be honest. This is gonna. [00:44:24] Speaker B: Exactly. And it's just. It's just not as good a series anymore. This used to be really competitive. These used to be the two best teams in the series and. What do you mean? Fnatic 1, 2, 1. [00:44:33] Speaker C: Yeah, I was gonna say. Sorry, I mean, to not alarm you, but Fnatic did in fact win the series. And I'm just. I saw that and I'm like, hold on, wait. Yeah, this is. I'm like, wow. April Fools struck late this year. Yeah. [00:44:50] Speaker A: A week later this time. [00:44:52] Speaker B: Wrap it out the week on Monday, Giant X Team Heretics had a series. GX takes it two one. And then phenomenal series the very end. Two teams fighting to show that they're some of the best. Vitality versus McOil. Vitality takes it two 1. [00:45:08] Speaker A: I did see the, you know, outcome of that series. Obviously I didn't get to watch the games, but I think it's cool just in general that Vitality are putting their names in the conversation for, like, one of the good teams in Europe. It was like that we're saying who's going to be the fourth best because you assume it's G2 KCM coy. But now, I mean, Vitality just beat Navi. I guess GX would be the other team up in that. In that conversation as well. [00:45:34] Speaker C: Yeah. Gx, I think, is. I think, deserves to be in the conversation as well. [00:45:38] Speaker A: Yeah. 100. 100. Especially considering they're like, in first place, undefeated right now. [00:45:43] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, yeah. [00:45:43] Speaker A: I mean, that's. Besides Vitality are also up there right now in the conversation, having just beaten Navi and then M. Coy like that. That's a big win just for [00:45:54] Speaker B: some people. MCO's coach is getting the belt. I can tell you that right now. Yeah, some people. If there were a plane, some people would be swimming home. Like, I think MCO is trying to find JoJo's long lost Spanish brother so they could like clone him because he's the only person playing well on this team right now. [00:46:16] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:46:16] Speaker C: Long lost brother. [00:46:19] Speaker A: And that was something that the coach even talked about, like last week. We didn't. I don't remember if we mentioned it on the podcast. [00:46:24] Speaker B: We briefly mentioned it. [00:46:26] Speaker A: Yeah. In week one, their. Their coach had some really scathing words after their day one performance. And then day two, they smash. Or day three, or whichever one. I think it was day two that they were on. [00:46:36] Speaker B: The. [00:46:37] Speaker A: Their next series looked so much better, but, like, he didn't mince his words. And he seems like the type of coach that will just like call out his players for being bad. [00:46:45] Speaker B: He's gonna have some more to say after this week. [00:46:50] Speaker A: Some tells me there will be a lot of content. [00:46:52] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. [00:46:53] Speaker A: For reaction, streamers and YouTubers. All right, well, so. So Vitality McOid. Because it's just fresh on our minds here, Bickle. But what happened in this series? Because it was a 2:1. Correct. [00:47:05] Speaker B: It was a 2:1:1. It should have been a 2:1. Just. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Team. [00:47:16] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:47:17] Speaker B: Team Vitality came up with this great idea that says, you know who the best player on MCO is? It's JoJo. What if we just send the jungler the support mid laner and occasionally the top laner and AD carry just mid to try and murder him. Surely the rest of his team can't carry. And guess what? They were right. [00:47:38] Speaker A: Yeah. I mean looking at the comp here, lynsis on the Aatrox 61 and 5 in the jungle. That's pretty cool. [00:47:46] Speaker C: Can I say something blasphemous real fast? Potentially blasphemous. Is Lynxes the best jungler in the west, Dude. [00:47:54] Speaker A: Linsis has been on a heater. [00:47:57] Speaker C: Like I'm getting like, like early inspired vibes from this dude. [00:48:02] Speaker A: This guy is insane. Like I want to talk about this opens up to the previous series that they had against Navi as well. It was a 2 0, but that second game was literally Lynsis stealing Dragon soul away from Navi. Four dragons in a row. Yes. Navi were on Dragon soul point. And then Lynces just gets in there and takes it back to back to back to back vitality in the game. And then they have their a soul mid scale up and they win a team fight and they win the game. And I was like, what the happened? Like this should not have happened. [00:48:37] Speaker B: We scale for late and that was against. Relax. Who's we've been calling one of the best junglers in Europe right now. [00:48:43] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:48:44] Speaker B: And links. This was just like yoink and yoink and yoink. [00:48:47] Speaker C: I'll take that. And I'll take that. [00:48:50] Speaker B: Don't you mind if I do? [00:48:52] Speaker A: And then beating Elio, another one of like he hasn't been at his peak for a while, but like Elio has been up there like, oh yeah. He's like easily an all pro jungler like somewhere for a second or third. [00:49:03] Speaker C: Yeah, I, this Vitality team is scary. I, I, I don't want to say that they'd make it to MSI at this point, but they, they're really good. They're, they're finding their, their stride at a very good time. Especially with like the schedule that they've got going on too. [00:49:25] Speaker A: Yeah, they're currently 3 and 1. They've won three of their series in total. And let's take a look at ahead. Like, who do they solve to play. They're playing G2 next week. [00:49:35] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:49:35] Speaker A: And the shitters. So that should be a pretty good. [00:49:37] Speaker C: So it's a good time to catch [00:49:39] Speaker A: G2GX the following week. That one's going to be a little bit tough. But then they got SK Fanatic. So like they have two of the weakest teams. Unless you believe fanatics back. I don't. So they got two of the weakest teams and then G2GX which is gonna be tough but then like shifters as well. So they got three. Like if you just predict in here, I'd say three easy wins and then two that like could go either way. [00:50:05] Speaker B: The problem is that's without vitality. Pulling a vitality. [00:50:11] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:50:12] Speaker A: Or to be more specific, humanoid and cars. He pulling a humanoid in car. [00:50:17] Speaker B: We've seen vitality look phenomenal and then just say what if we in the game. [00:50:23] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:50:24] Speaker B: And they do. Repeatedly. [00:50:28] Speaker C: Well, the other thing about it too is just, I mean we've seen, we've seen those boys, you know, carsy and humanoid. We've seen them at world. They have the Mad Lions magic from the past. I mean Mad lion. You can take the players out of Mad Lions but you can't take the Mad Lions out of the players. [00:50:51] Speaker A: Yep. [00:50:52] Speaker C: So like, I mean especially like Lids is this player that's like, you know, kind of up and coming Knack Naco who's made a name for himself. Flashy. This player that went to NA and played for. What was that team called? I can't remember. [00:51:09] Speaker A: God, they're not around anymore. We don't need to worry about it. [00:51:12] Speaker C: We don't. We don't need to invoke the name of the they who Shall Not Be Named. [00:51:17] Speaker A: And despite their name, they did die. [00:51:19] Speaker C: They did in fact die. But he, I mean he went to na. He played for he who Shall Not Be Named. They jumped around the ERLS kind of was a cast off. We never, we never were. Was really high on fleshy. So like as a collective we were like, yeah. And I mean he's all right. Like he's a. He's a pro player. Like congratulations on and getting paid. But like this team is just clicking like they're. They're good like and carsi meta. It's a good humanoid meta. It's a good knock knacko meta. It's a good lintis meta. [00:51:52] Speaker A: Like more than just it clicking and then being good. They are fun to watch. Oh, I think they are the most fun team to watch in the LEC right now. Like the way they play league is just entertaining as agreed. Oh yeah, that makes things, I mean, Fleshy. [00:52:09] Speaker B: Joined them from their academy squad last year partway through the year to replace Hilla Sang. And we were like, really fleshy. [00:52:17] Speaker C: You're like, all right. [00:52:20] Speaker B: And this is why we do not run professional league teams. [00:52:26] Speaker A: It's always good to have a reminder, you know, just be humbled every once in a while. Yeah. So shout out vitality. They had a great weekend. Let's Talk about the G2 Fanatic Series though, because that was the other big one from the this past weekend. G2 come out smash Fnatic in like a 25 minute win. Game one one sided as hell. Did not see Fnatic have any fight. Well, they had some fight in them like they scrapped, but they did not win any of the fights. And then game two, I distinctly remember the producers in our ears like, hey, try and say some more positive things about Fnatic because even if they lose, we want to be like nice about it. And we were like, okay, we'll start, start talking up Fnatic a bit. And so that they drafted like the Fnatic composition tank in the top lane. You know, like bruiser jungler, hyper carry for upset. It's like, okay, maybe, maybe Fnatic can start to turn things around. Like they have the Fnatic comp. Like if they're gonna do it, it's gonna be this. And then they start winning and then they keep winning and then they, it turns into a smash. And then 28 minutes they are actually able to take down G2 upsets. Deathless 9,08, razork 10, 2 and 4. Vladi had like this insane survival play top lane on the Aurora where he's getting like dove by two people and like turns it around and gets a kill for Razork who then ultimate his pantheon. So it's like, okay, maybe Fnatic are gonna make it interesting. And then game three is basically the same story where not as much of like the comp wise, but just how one sided it was. Vladdy stepped up huge, was embarrassing. Caps and Piros just made Broken Blade his which was not on my bingo card. That was ridiculous. [00:54:22] Speaker B: Yeah, 2 and 3. Broken blade was 0 and 14. [00:54:27] Speaker A: Oh my God. And I, okay, I don't say this, I, I say this, I, I, I kind of want to frame it as a joke. So that way, you know, I never get in trouble for it. But like also maybe look at like what did any players on G2 bet on this series? Because the difference in game one performance to game two and three. I've never been that confused casting a game of League of Legends in my life. [00:54:58] Speaker B: It was absurd. [00:55:00] Speaker A: It wasn't the same team. Yeah, like, that they were not playing at all. Not even like G2 normally plays. But, like, they had just played in game one. [00:55:10] Speaker B: I was convinced the name plates were swapped. [00:55:12] Speaker A: I swear to God. I. I honestly, like, had this out of my head during game two. I was like, wow. I guess they just, like, predicted that they would win two one and not two O's. They're gonna throw a game and then they say they have his game too. And, like, you don't want to have that voice in your head as a caster be like, this feels weird how G2 are losing. This isn't how they normally lose. Where they're like doing crazy shit or drafting wild or, like making silly decisions. They were just making bad decisions. [00:55:44] Speaker B: Exactly that. It wasn't like G2 just randomly decided to end. It's just like, nope, you're just getting outplayed over and over and you're just steadily losing the game. They were never in either of those games. [00:55:57] Speaker A: And every single player too. It wasn't like, oh yeah. It was one like lane that was struggling. And then everything else fell apart. Other than, I guess, Caps in game one who almost had a triple donut performance. Not a triple donut on a win. Which apparently did happen this weekend, by the way. In the lpl. We got another triple donut, which, if you haven't checked it out, there's an esports garage episode about like all the legendary triple donut where you get 000 in a game win. Caps got one kill by the end of the game. [00:56:27] Speaker B: Yeah, that was in game two. In their loss, he went 1 00. [00:56:30] Speaker A: Yeah. 100 from the superstar carry. Broken blade went 07 0. Yeah. [00:56:42] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:56:42] Speaker B: At least he improved next game and went 073 [00:56:48] Speaker A: that next game though. Like, dude, he's just. He's into Imperis's Cannon, who went the, you know, ignite build on Cannon. So he just will always win the. The Lane matchup. Really tougher Renekton in there. It's like one of the true counters to Renekton, but it's like Broken Blade. He has the excuse of losing the lane for that. But then once laning phase ended, he kept running it down. And that's like, you got you. [00:57:16] Speaker C: You don't like, whoa, whoa. You gotta stop at some point, man. Come on. [00:57:19] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah. [00:57:21] Speaker C: And for those who are curious because you did say the triple donut. I'm like, who did drop the triple donut? It was Hoya in game two of NIP versus IG in day one, week two of the lpl. So if you want to watch that. If you want to watch. [00:57:35] Speaker A: Dude, I gotta go watch that game. That's crazy. [00:57:38] Speaker C: I mean, it was renected into Scion, so, like, it makes so much sense. But they're gonna do the same there. Yeah, you're doing so much. [00:57:47] Speaker A: This is why we need pro view back so we can all go and watch the pro view of the triple donut win. [00:57:53] Speaker C: It'd be so funny to watch that. [00:57:55] Speaker B: Are we sure this was an LPL series? The game was 9 to 5 at the end. [00:58:03] Speaker A: That's not my LPL. [00:58:04] Speaker C: There's 14 kills in a 33 minute LPL game. Just doesn't seem right. [00:58:09] Speaker B: That's just not right. [00:58:10] Speaker C: Yeah, hold on. That's not how this works. [00:58:13] Speaker A: Well, not to get too off topic, because that was just a fun aside with a triple donut. Check it out, everybody. To wrap up the Fnatic G2 conversation. I don't think Fnatic's back. I still don't have faith in this team. I think that this was. I don't even know. I. I'm not gonna say I have no idea what this was from G2. This was concerning is what this was from G2. But I think it's more on G2 side than it was on Fnatic side. So them. [00:58:39] Speaker B: I mean, this clearly means Fnatic's the best team in the LCK. [00:58:42] Speaker A: Nope. Nope. Oh, oh, oh. In the LCK. [00:58:45] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, G2 beat. I don't know, X and beat Gen G2, so. [00:58:53] Speaker A: And KT is in first place right now. So it's tough to call stuff to call the other interesting series that happened because we kind of talked about. It was skgx. GX smashed that one. Oh, wait, no, no, no. Sorry. It was SK shifters. Did we talk about that? Is my memory that bad? [00:59:11] Speaker B: But we. We don't have to. [00:59:13] Speaker A: We don't have to. Game one was a bit of a smash leader actually is kind of back. He played Orianna and looked good on the Orianna. [00:59:22] Speaker C: So. [00:59:22] Speaker A: Shout out. [00:59:22] Speaker B: He heard us talking trash. [00:59:24] Speaker A: He heard everybody talking trash. That was. That was not a nice thing. That was a globally. I'm pretty sure that. I don't. I was gonna make some, I don't know, freaking. What's a K pop group? Somebody. Bts. Pretty sure BTS was tweeting about leaders Oriented performance. I was trying to find a joke there. Anyway, he looked better in game one. Game two though. What the Bickle like shifters got two Barons and an elder dragon. Yeah. [00:59:54] Speaker B: And Lost Shifters had two Barons, an Elder Dragon and a 4 1/2 K Gold lead at 40 minutes into the game and four minutes later lost the game. [01:00:11] Speaker A: Yappa the Goat. [01:00:13] Speaker B: Yeah, he's just the future MKOI AD carry. Yappa. [01:00:19] Speaker A: Yeah. I think he is the stand up performer on this team. Team. This team of like Mickey and friends with Wonder and leader and then Skiing who had a little bit of play time in the past. Yapa is like the rookie of the roster and it's tough as a rookie to look the best when there's all these veterans around you. But Yapa has looked the best on this roster. Very, very impressed with Yapa as a. As a carry. And yeah, Trimby kind of like donated this win to them in a way. But still 80 carries got to click and do damage. And yappa is the 80 carry that's going to click and do damage right now for SK and they desperately need that. Also shout out Skin who I think has looked looked much, much better. [01:01:03] Speaker B: Something I'd just like to point out regarding shifters they boot camped in Korea so much that they turned down doing L. EC Media to spend more time practicing. [01:01:15] Speaker C: Yes. [01:01:16] Speaker A: Nuke it. Solo killed Faker. There is in a solo queue game. [01:01:25] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:01:25] Speaker A: So that means leaders better than Faker now, Right. I'm pretty sure by transient property. [01:01:30] Speaker B: So then leader is like a seven time world champion. I don't. [01:01:34] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, something like that. Something like that. [01:01:37] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:01:38] Speaker A: It was a confusing game because like SK was also in the lead by the way, at like the 33 minutes they got the Dragon soul. Then they just bomb a team fight. Shifters are able to get their second Baron of the game, the elder, into the second Baron of the game because they win the elder fight and then they still just lose the. The siege and then SK is right back and win the game. [01:02:00] Speaker B: I thought SK was clearly the worst team in the LEC and then we saw them play Shifters. [01:02:06] Speaker A: Yeah. But it is one of those games where I know we're joking about it, like it hurts your eyeballs to watch. It's also one of those ones where it's like you can't look away because. Because it's like people like to watch fires. [01:02:18] Speaker B: It's like a car crash in slow motion. [01:02:20] Speaker A: Yeah. You know like when you're driving on the freeway and then like traffic slows down. You're like what's going on. There wasn't a crash blocking traffic. There's a crash off to the side. But everyone's slowing down to look at it. That's what game two of SK Shifters was. [01:02:33] Speaker B: It's like, I hope no one hurt, but what the hell is that? [01:02:37] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. Well, either way it happened and it was an interesting one for sure. And yeah, honestly, I feel like that was the notable stuff that happened in LEC this past weekend. GX was also able to to beat SK and then beat Team Heretics. So GX is currently undefeated at 3 and oh, but a reminder that they played Fnatic SK and Team Heretics and [01:03:04] Speaker B: they're playing Shifters this week, baby. [01:03:06] Speaker A: They're going, that's crazy. They're gonna be so inflated. And then even Navi who are like absolutely beatable. So like gx, they' team. I. I don't think that they're bad by any stretch. [01:03:17] Speaker B: Oh no. I just like that they're week seven. They play MCOID, G2 and KC back to back to back. [01:03:24] Speaker A: Yeah, that's one of the road shows. So. So they're gonna be on the road [01:03:27] Speaker B: show who hates Giant X. Yeah. [01:03:30] Speaker A: And speaking of, this is just something to keep on your radar for LEC in general. That final week is gonna be heat TC, MCOID, G2 are all on the road show so that like whatever seating implications I there's going to be crazy seating implications for for this in particular. Yeah, yeah, fun stuff. But that's it for LEC for this past weekend. Recommend you watch Fnatic G2 and then Vitality Mcoy as well for the good games. If you like watching Explosions Game two of SK Shifters Week three predictions. Let's get through these and wrap up the episode. Team Heretics versus Navi. We got Navi across the board. G2 versus Vitality. Bickle put G2 2 1. I put Vitality 21 because I think Vitality are looking hot right now. And G2 did not against Fnatic Badger put VI. [01:04:23] Speaker C: I don't know. [01:04:24] Speaker A: Two one. [01:04:26] Speaker C: I'm confused. You know what? I will. I will stick to my guns and I'll go vitality too. [01:04:33] Speaker A: 1. Hell yeah. [01:04:35] Speaker C: I was. I was in debating this entire episode about who I was gonna take. [01:04:39] Speaker B: Both these teams have the potential to clean sweep it or int every game. [01:04:45] Speaker C: Yep. [01:04:47] Speaker A: It is impossible to like confidently predict the game record, let alone who wins the series. So it's gonna be an interesting one. Then we have rounding out On Sunday, McOid versus SK. We all have McWay across the board. 2 0. Even though they've looked shaky in. It's fucking SK. [01:05:05] Speaker B: I know this wouldn't happen, but there's a small part of me thinks that if they lose to sk, they might legitimately make roster changes mid season. [01:05:14] Speaker A: I mean, yeah, I actually, I. I could buy that. I could buy that. Actually. [01:05:19] Speaker B: No, that'll happen when they lose to Shifters. [01:05:23] Speaker A: At least SK picked up a series. When. You know, speaking of Shifters Vitality vs Shifters on Sunday, we got Vitality across the board too, versus kc. We got Casey across the board. A Badger at least has a 2:1 for Casey. So he thinks that team Heretics are good for one Badger. Is that some Heretics getting a game or Casey throwing a game? [01:05:42] Speaker C: Yes, a little bit of both. [01:05:43] Speaker B: Cool. [01:05:45] Speaker A: Monday Fanatic versus SK. We got Fnatic, two ones from Badger and Bickle. I got SK2. Oh. Either way, I think this is going to be some of the sloppiest league of legends that we'll see over the weekend. And that's noting that Shifters does play as well. I guess. I. I don't know. I'm just kind of like flipping a coin here. I don't think Fnatic's good. I don't think SK is good. But I think that sk, if they lose to mco, will come in angry. Kind of like what happened this past weekend and then randomly get a 2. [01:06:15] Speaker B: 0. [01:06:15] Speaker A: Although actually, no, this past weekend it was the opposite. They two owed and then got two owed. Damn it. I got my. Got my numbers reversed. [01:06:23] Speaker B: I mean, same fundamentals. They two owed, got cocky and then got smacked. [01:06:28] Speaker A: Does that mean that I have to put them as two owing mcoi? There's no way. Ah, whatever. I'm gonna keep it. It's. It's a coin toss in new Europe. GX vs Shifters closes out the week with their game on Monday. I got GX2 one badger and pickle of GX2. Oh, it's GX versus shifters. What are you gonna say? [01:06:46] Speaker B: How is Shifter taking a game? Kangas? [01:06:51] Speaker A: I. I see a 2O under. Under GX shifters for you. Do you want to. Do you want to change that? [01:06:55] Speaker B: No, I'm asking you how they take it to 1. How shifting. [01:06:57] Speaker A: Oh, oh. How are they taking a game? Sorry, I thought you're saying. [01:07:00] Speaker C: No, you don't get your horror [01:07:05] Speaker A: think that GX have not really been tested too much yet. And while they have looked good, they've specifically been going for one play style. If you. My expectation for GX is like it's the Noah June show. But what they've shown is actually the Yzma show this this year so far or this split. Lott and Jackie's and also Noah Jun have been just drafting priority lanes to push. Yzma has been going for a lot of invades and it's been a more jungle centric style for gx. I think that shifters their solo laners, Rooster and Nuke should be able to prevent Lot and Jackie's from getting the priority and push. So it'll be harder for Yzma to play his style. So I think that shifters can get one win at least. I don't know who's gonna carry. Maybe it would be like Nuke and if Rooster can like you know, turn it back on. I know I'm saying that and Brewster has not looked solid, but I just feel like he's got it in him. So yeah, yeah, whatever. Two, one again. It's, it's got his Europe. You flip a coin and then hope that you get the right one. It's, you know, it's fine, it's fine. I got very defensive there. Apologies. Anyway, moving on. That's gonna be it for LEC for this past weekend review as well as a next week's preview. Let us know your thoughts everybody in the community. Discord, are we crazy? Do you agree with us? Did we miss any important narratives or story lines that you wished to hear our thoughts on? Maybe we can still talk about it next week if they are relevant. Let us know in the community. Discord again, shout out to everybody who is active in there who wished me good luck and also I'll give you know any feedback from the LEC weekend that I had or two weekends I had super fun being over in Berlin and being part of that show. Shout out to everybody on the broadcast and production that made me feel super welcomed can confirm working with shocks. She is the goat easiest analyst desk I've ever been a part of because she just like like makes you look so smart by how she sets you up to talk about anything. So shout out. Shock. Shout out everybody over in the LEC and shout out you for listening to this podcast and making it to this point if you're hearing it Bickle if if people have made it to this point of the podcast and they might be willing to spend a few extra moments of their time to leave us a review. How many stars would you recommend they should give us? [01:09:31] Speaker B: As many stars as as many games Lions would win against Dignitas in a five game series if it had to go to all five because they every [01:09:40] Speaker A: single game would win. Yep, they would. They would. 5, 0. And then forfeit two of the games for content. All right, five stars, everybody, if you could. Really helps us get noticed as a podcast. And again, shout out to everybody who's been joining the the League Rundown fam and coming with us on this journey in 2026. Crazy to think podcast. Been going for over a decade. Like 13 years, 600 episodes crossing. That was a big moment for us here. And now into a new split here for LCS and continue with lec. Thanks for listening along, everybody. It's been a fantastic week. Talking League of Legends. Just remember that we love you and we'll see you next time. Bye bye. [01:10:22] Speaker C: Goodbye, everyone. [01:10:23] Speaker B: Peace. [01:10:26] Speaker A: Oh, yes, Daddy.