League Rundown - Episode 610: Lazy script writers

[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. [00:00:28] Speaker B: Stupid passes through and manages to the table with Messiah tanking it up. [00:00:34] Speaker A: I do not believe he just believe. I cannot understand this game. Unicorns of love. It wasn't a mutant. They're Nexus. Foreign. 610 of the League Rundown. This is your 2026 Spring Split LEC and LCS Playoffs Week 3 review this episode is lovingly entitled Lazy Script Writers. I'm your host Kangas and I'm joined by one esteemed co host. That's right, we always have to get one of the guys in for their first ever duo cast because it's rare that we have to do these. But this time we have Jamata joining us for the first time ever. 1v1h feeling gemato. [00:01:36] Speaker B: Honestly good that I'm here on the pod. A little bit under the weather in real time. I think I'm about to unfortunately suffer the lovely debuff of a cold. But aside from that, doing great and honestly, playoffs has been super fun. [00:01:54] Speaker A: They have been a joy to watch. Definitely delivering on the narratives. But I will say lazy script writing man. It's just the same top three teams in lec. It's like the same top teams in lcs. Like, come on, where's the excitement? Where are the new guys showing up here? What happened to vitality? We'll talk about that. But before all of that, let's talk about some of the global news around the horn. Up first, some roster news over in lec. Jamada. We had two come up. Up first, Stend joins Shifters support pickup for shifters marking another change for the Shifters roster. They kind of had like a rebuild coming into the year so they're already saying not happy with Trymbi and gonna try somebody else out instead. What are your thoughts on this? Do you feel like the old team Heretic support is gonna be better than Trymby? [00:02:48] Speaker B: Do I think he's gonna be better? No. Do I think anything's gonna change for shifters magically? Also though, this is just one of those really it makes you wonder what's going on in you want to be a fly in on the wall in like script meetings and discussions like that, team meetings in general. Because you know if there's an area that I'm looking at to, you know, change. It's. It's not Trimby just based on, you know, experience and you could definitely critique his play so far the split, but I think he's always very valuable. That said, has been known to be a bit of an emotional player at times and so if it's been like a very high stress environment, which given the Nuke tweets seems to be the case at times, I could definitely imagine Trymbi maybe not doing as well though maybe his time in Brazil really did wonders for his mentor in that capacity. So who knows? It is just a super bizarre change that I don't necessarily think is gonna magically fix up too many issues that the Shifters lineup has, which is seemingly leadership. And if there's one of the few supports in the league still left with a whole bunch of experience, it is Trimby. So dropping him out of the roster does feel a little bit of ways. [00:04:06] Speaker A: It feels odd to me. I've always liked Trymby. I got to actually interact with him a little bit last year when he was in Brazil during like the LTA crossover games, cross conference games. Definitely impressed me as like a well spoken guy. Seemed like he was a like the type of player that I could imagine is easy to get along with as a, as a teammate. Obviously I've never been a pro myself, so I, I don't know how likely that is, but he just, he seemed like an easygoing guy and so I always feel like personalities like that I like to see succeed because he's easy to have on the analyst desk. You know, he's easy to highlight in interviews and stuff. And then you see like Stend and what he was doing on Team Heretics and you're like, was this the, was this the one that you really wanted to like replace the much more experienced Trimby? I agree a lot with the sentiment that you were saying there. So we'll see. I mean, I guess for somebody like Stend, it's a great opportunity to show you are not problem on Team Heretics. [00:05:01] Speaker B: He was an Ethan. I think they've been, I guess really I love the both to be honest. [00:05:07] Speaker A: Well, who do you, who do you have as the. The one that's like the, the you who you're pointing the finger at on Team Heretics, let's put it that way. Would it be like Saren tracing? [00:05:18] Speaker B: Yeah, I, I just, I feel like Sarin is not really at the, the level that is needed to be a mid inside of the league and it's not even really his fault. I just Think that this year in particular is very, very stacked for mid. Right. [00:05:32] Speaker A: It's crazy. [00:05:33] Speaker B: I just. [00:05:33] Speaker A: I just feel like the average is a lot higher. [00:05:35] Speaker B: Yeah, like the. The ceiling is higher and the floor is a lot higher. Right. Like even when you think about some of the. The kind of worst mids in the league, it's like, what leader now? Maybe hot take Vladdy, maybe. Well, yeah, people obviously won't rate Nuke, right. But even someone like Yahoo, I think is just kind of coasting through a lot of the games through having like through virtue of just having very strong side lanes. [00:06:00] Speaker A: Right. [00:06:01] Speaker B: But he will still manhandle you if you are not good enough in lane. And that's. I think the problem that Saren unfortunately is suffering from is just the pool around him happens to be particularly stacked this year. [00:06:12] Speaker A: Yeah, unfortunately. Well, that's our thoughts at least on Stend joining shifters. There was one other. This is more of a rumor. I haven't seen this one confirmed yet unless you have more information. But it's looking like Fnatic is going to be benching their top laner. Imperials. Pour one out for our resident Greek fan Yanni, who always shills those guys, both Imperials and Gladi, but they at least will be benching Imperials if the rumors are to be believed. Unsure who they're gonna bring in for the top lane. Do you have any additional information or any thoughts on the Imperials benching and who might replace him? [00:06:48] Speaker B: Makes sense that he's gone. Emperor just wasn't ready to be in the lec. Man, this brother has stunk for like a lot of this year, I fear. And if anything, I kind of feel bad for him because one of those situations, you get an LEC offer. Ah, but it's Fnatic, you know, like you kind of just have to weigh up whether your time is worth, you know, getting the experience. But it happens to be on Fnatic and you don't know whether or not it's worth it. [00:07:16] Speaker A: Hey, they beat G2 in the regular season. Yeah. [00:07:21] Speaker B: So I don't know. I. I haven't rated Emperors all year. I think much like the. The Vladi move, you know, it just. Neither of the Solar Lane pickups made too much sense. I think you could rationalize the Vladi one as trying to see the vision that Casey, you know, had the year prior. But dropping Oscar in. In whilst it made sense, you've got to find a better, you know, solution. And comically, I think Oscar Rinnan is either still under contract at the clear FNAC just getting paid out or maybe he's free agent again. And it just makes me wonder if FNAC are gonna end up circling back in if they don't find any reasonable options. But the rumors as they are, apparently they're looking at LC KCL players right now, so that seems to be the option that they're looking at. They're trying to get a Korean on the cheap halfway through the year. [00:08:15] Speaker A: Okay, well hey, let's see if they're able to pull it off because I feel like that's a lot of people's band Aid solution is like, oh, grab a challenger Korea player, throw them in. They'll probably be better than what we had, but not always the case, especially when it's this late in the split or the season rather. And also the language barriers can always be an issue to overcome and take some time to do that. Those are the two roster news that we had though. Both of them over in the LEC haven't heard anything on the NA side yet, but there was something on NA side that came out and that was the All Pro for lcs. First team, second team and third team have all been unveiled. I'll go through them right now and then we'll get Jemada and my thoughts on them. In first team All Pro we have Top Lane Thanatos, Jungle Jose Deodo, Mid Lane Saint, AD Carry, Berserker and Support Vulcan. Second team All Pro is Morgan Inspired Quad, Masu and Isles and third team All Pro is Gakkos Blabber, APA Jan Corej. So essentially it's like Grab Bag of lion, Team Liquid, C9 and Fly Quest. Those are like the four teams that got players into the the All Pro votes, which I think is kind of tough. I'll go first here Jamato, while you formulate kind of your thoughts on this. Overall, I feel like there's some players in third team that arguably were robbed. I think Jan Core got on by name value and not by actual split performance. I think that like Rahel Huhi are the two that I would put above them. I'm pretty sure I had Rahel in my top three. I I always say these things and I never double check what I actually [00:09:54] Speaker B: voted so I don't you have the [00:09:56] Speaker A: remember but I know I'm pretty sure I put rahel as my third team all pro 80 carry and then I think I also put Huhi as my third team All Pro support so so those are two that I think like should have gotten nods. I feel like Team Liquid a Lot of times it's just brand value and name value that gets them in. But also if you look at the breakdown, our SATs guy, LCS Leo, his name's Liam but he goes by MZ Leo. I don't understand. I gotta ask him at some point. But he posted the breakdown from like teams and or players and coaches versus broadcast and like the fan votes and the players and the coaches were the ones that were heavily voting core jj. So that's why he was able to sneak it in was it was players and coaches giving him to nod, more so than the people watching the games. Which I thought was actually kind of interesting because usually you would think it's the other way around. But again, I think players will just recognize how much Core brings to a team regardless of how individually he's performing. So that's my thoughts at least on like kind of third team. I think first and second for the most part are where I'd put them. What are your thought or thoughts? What are your thoughts? [00:11:07] Speaker B: What are my thoughts on the meta? Yeah, I mean I think as far as first team is concerned, I don't have any qualms of it at all. Thanos is definitely the best top laner in the league. Jose Riodo had just a disturbingly good regular season. [00:11:28] Speaker A: Insane. [00:11:28] Speaker B: He carried TL's corpse into the position that they were in. And very fortunately the few games that Jose didn't pop off, some other members of the team did step up. Yeah, it's the third team all pro. I feel like Gion and Core really did sneak in. I just, I feel like they, they really, really underperformed to, you know, just not even just expectations, but I think their own standards through throughout a lot of the split. And that's why even I'm pretty concerned for the, you know, their playoffs match up versus Barsu and Cryo, which I, I think we'll touch on a little bit later. Yeah, I'm actually pretty much in line with you. Like I would have moved Gion on Core out of this top three. I probably would have moved Masu up. I would then probably have put Aisles in. I would have kept Isles where he is and then put Cryo in second. I think Cryo's been really, really good. I think it's, it's kind of crazy he's not here in this top three. I think he's been slept on a little bit hard. [00:12:30] Speaker A: Yeah, he's another one. I think support was tough. I'm not gonna lie. Support was really hard. We had some really good Support performers this year and Cryo gen I think had really high highs then middled out a bit and is now kind of peaking again in playoffs. But there was a period there in the regular season that was why I put him under who he on my votes again. I'm pretty sure I put him under [00:12:54] Speaker B: who he I think I would have [00:12:55] Speaker A: had him in fourth place just because I thought who he was like more consistent throughout and was a bigger reason for Sentinel's success and it's a regular season award. I thought Sentinels were going to be better than FlyQuest in playoffs as well. So it's. It's always kind of harder to look back at with like oh yeah, what were we feeling a week and a half ago? Not right now, you know, because obviously I will talk about later but like with FlyQuest 3 owing sentinels in playoffs it's like yeah, that I maybe they were snubbed, you know some of the representatives. What I will say was snubbed on my opinion though was I think APA should have been second team again. Quad had a couple of really good performances. 100 but APA was on the undefeated team and I think this has been APA's best split yet. I think APA individually is he has not lost them a game and he is also in certain instances the reason they are winning their games. Especially when you look at Sven's performance. Sven's doing great when he gets out of lane, but he's been a stinker in some laning phase and putting them in a really rough position. But APA and Thanatos are the rocks. Like Thanatos is just so much better than the other top laners. You can rely on him, but the meta doesn't really allow for top laners to be the sole carry. You need a solid mid laner as well if your bot lane is going to be falling as far behind as Sven and Vulcan were in some laning states. But we know Sven and Vulcan can show up in team fights and as long as the game is still stable other than that, you know, that's kind of like why C9 was able to maintain their undefeated split. I think a huge part of that is APA's individual performance. So I wish APA at least had gotten second team, if not maybe first team. I'm surprised Quad got above apa, but I think there's just like a bias against NA mid laners in N A which is so bizarre to me. [00:14:46] Speaker B: So yeah, yeah, it's been a while since there's been, you know, A domestic mid to wholeheartedly believe in, you know, and I mean 100 hot with no doubt. And I think that's the problem why people still have a little bit of a, you know, kind of bias against some of the domestic mids that do pop up and do obviously end up being high, high end performers like apa. [00:15:13] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, there we go. I think overall a few snubs, but this isn't an egregious list. There have been far worse lists. I love it. Especially when it's not just all the players from like the top team that make it out. I mean dude, I was about to [00:15:28] Speaker B: mention, I was about to mention like at least it's not the LPL. What were those guys thinking for BLG first to get 3:1 by we? I mean what a crazy, crazy ranking on their part, right? [00:15:39] Speaker A: Like dude, yeah, LEC and LCS were both pretty diverse in their like the team representation in across all pro, which I think is always really cool. All right, well there we go. We sometimes do LPL and LCK update. Because there's a relative timer on this episode. We're going to skip those and save them for next week. Although I suppose there is one LPL update that we have to talk about which is the whole we story. Everyone's talking about this right now. Jamada and I haven't gotten your thoughts on it yet. So for anybody who's unaware, we was like what, 1 in 13 in series score going into playoffs and then now we're on a heater with like multiple upsets. So what's going on? What the hell's happening at W? Man? [00:16:23] Speaker B: This is one of those stories in League of Legends, man. The. The beautiful game, the big beautiful game. What's going on is they've just clicked. You know, there's. There's no way of predicting performance glow ups like this. This is one of those situations where you can ask people that watch the LPL week in, week out and it's the only league that they watch. They wouldn't have predicted this. You know, it's. It's just not. Not on the card. So what's going on really is Monkey and ERHA have just mega clicked. I'm not sure what happened between that small break at the end of split two and then even play up. They went 32 against LNG. Like they went the full five games, nearly got sent down to Nirvana group and then they come into the the BLG series and they just look like a completely different team. Now you can argue BLG looked a little bit, you know, off of full steady knees. Right. In that series if you really want to. But I think that would take away a lot of the magic of what we achieved inside of that series. And it was done with full confidence. Right. And almost entirely through Monkey. And that's, I think the beauty of the upset so far that we've seen because obviously they went on to beat AL as well is that so much of it is centered around him. And almost his story over the last year and some change in the LPL where it's been, you know, this guy is clearly very talented, but he's on a very stunted roster. He'd not been able to find his way onto any other higher end team. We were joking last year he might end up on BLG because of the jungle drama. Right? [00:17:59] Speaker A: True. Yeah, they were going through a budget. [00:18:02] Speaker B: So that's. I think what feels so great about this is that it's a player who clearly has a vision for the game. He was benched temporarily for Tyrion not too long ago. [00:18:13] Speaker A: Yeah, I hear he benched himself. Right? Like wasn't it like. [00:18:15] Speaker B: Yeah, that was a part of it. If memory serves me right, there was a great interview. I really highly recommend you guys go and seek it out. I know Yamato because Yamato informed me and actually watched the interview through his lens about how, you know, when he came back from that benching he felt like he didn't have a lot of trust in the team and you know, that trust had to be re earned and once everyone kind of got on his, on his wavelength, on his, his vision and there was obviously talks for everyone to be on the same page. This is the result, you know, and it's real. It was a real, real, real winner's mentality of. He understood the way that he was communicating before. That benching wasn't official, it wasn't working. So there's clearly been a reshift in how they've approached everything and this is the result. They've beat the undeniably best team in the LPL right now into being an AL who obviously spent a lot of last year being a high end competitor and now they're playing against the top esports that not a lot of people have much faith in and they've beaten two stronger teams than them. So they beat top esports, they go to MSI like it is a crazy, crazy, crazy thing. Three weeks ago they were on the cusp of getting relegated into the lower end group and now they're one Series away from msi. [00:19:41] Speaker A: What a journey. What a, what a path for those guys. We're gonna be waiting for more LPL lower bracket matches before even seeing like win or lose who we's gonna face next. But it's gotten a lot of people talking about the LPL and specifically that team, specifically their jungler monkey. It's awesome when stories like this pop up in any region of like the underdogs. So easy to root for. So exciting when they find success. So yeah, hope that they make it to msi. I think the worst outcome would be if they lose in the upper finals and then lose and then don't even make msi. It's like, ah, why do we get excited? [00:20:14] Speaker B: That's what crushes me Kangas. If they lose to Top Esports, they'll lose to an angry blg. BLG is going to come in and just club them. Like it's not probably pretty. So I hope that's not the case. [00:20:26] Speaker A: Well, we'll see. We're still rooting for them. Yeah, they just gotta win. They just gotta win a fourth series in a row. It's fine. They got this. They got this. All right, well, that's all the news that we had around the horn. There we go. We gave. We gave a bit of an LPL update because that's a story that I think a lot of people talk about and some people have still not heard of. So hopefully if they haven't heard of it, you're invested. Now go check out LPL or any of the CO streams. Jamati, you co stream LPL as well, right? [00:20:51] Speaker B: Whenever I have the opportunity. I've been a little bit. I've been away from my usual setup so recently I haven't been able to. [00:20:56] Speaker A: Okay, sure. [00:20:57] Speaker B: From this weekend onwards though, we should be back. So I'm co streaming again, which will be very fun. [00:21:02] Speaker A: Nice. We'll go check out Jamada. Go check out the LPL English unofficial stream as well. There's a lot of cool ways to watch lpl and if we miss any other news stories, by the way, make sure to let us know in the community Discord. There's a link for that in the description wherever you are listening. And also shout out to anybody that supports a podcast either through the Merch Store or through the Patreon. Your support is greatly appreciated and helps us put out these episodes every week. Also, shout out I forgot to do it. I think the past week or maybe even two weeks. But the Fantasy LCS Fantasy updates for the league rundown Community I forgot to set my roster two weeks in a row, and I got only, like, half points because half my players were not played into those playoff matches. So I completely chucked my chance of a podium finish. I don't think it's possible for me to make it back into the top three. I'm in top five still, somehow, just because I was doing so well earlier in the split. But shout out for first place, Puppet, whose team is cleverly named Clever name for Pod. Shout out. And then also next split, Shopify, Rebellion, and then a la Mao for being the top three currently heading into the second to last week of lcs. Also shout out Raz, who had to wear clown makeup two weeks ago on the broadcast because he was last. [00:22:16] Speaker B: That's one of the few times I wish that was a part of the LC broadcast, man. [00:22:19] Speaker A: Like, I. I mean, one of the few times. What? [00:22:22] Speaker B: What? [00:22:22] Speaker A: What do you mean, what a few times? [00:22:24] Speaker B: Well, look, [00:22:28] Speaker A: all right, we're gonna move on from that. How about let's move over to a region that you want to talk about. Jamata, and you are happy to be on. Let's talk about lec. To kick things off here. It's gonna be the. The final week of playoffs. I mean, they. They've been running through the schedule at blitz speed here. Three matches a weekend for playoffs, and we're already in our final week of playoffs coming up here. So that means that we're gonna have an entire episode next week where we're just previewing one region, which will be lcs. But that means that we can take a little bit more time on LEC this week and then be slightly more abbreviated also, just because LCs, they were sweeps. Actually, it was almost sweeps everywhere, I suppose, even when we're talking about LEC. We had three series this past weekend. It was KC versus Navi in the lower bracket, Vitality versus GX, the lower bracket. Casey took it 3:1, GX took it 3.0. And Navi's one win was the only game that prevented this from being an entire 30 weekend across both regions. Because then Casey sweeps GX, hence being the same top three teams. Let's start with Casey, Navi, Jamada. I think we all had Casey favored here. First off, did you have Casey favored here? [00:23:42] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah. [00:23:44] Speaker A: No surprise, right? I think the form Navi was in, like, halfway through the split was exciting. And then very quickly was like, I think they're frauds. And then they 100 back that up. And Relish is still a fun jungler to watch. But, like, the rest of the squad's just not always there and he's not even playing like as many of his hard carry individual picks anymore. So their silver bullets been kind of unloaded from the gun and Casey was just able to dismantle them. But again, Navi, we're good for one. So how do you feel about just the series overall? Like, did it live up to your expectations? Are you surprised Navi got a win? [00:24:22] Speaker B: I'm not surprised Navi got a win. I think they're very capable. [00:24:24] Speaker A: Right. [00:24:25] Speaker B: And the draft that they did it on was the. The Lee Sin Jungle Nafiri Top into Varus Top. So there was a lot of skill expression, we'll put it that way inside of that draft, which is, you know, where I think Navi can definitely thrive at times. And when you have the ability to kind of hand check, I think especially yike in some of these kind of more off the cuff jungle matchups, I think you can find a little bit of success from time to time. That said, not surprised that it was pretty, you know, Casey favored overall. Casey MKOI G2, they're kind of our new dynasty teams. I know it's like sacrilege to say the. The D word when talking about Europe, but that just kind of is the way it is. So yeah, I was just kind of hoping for a bit more out of Navi in terms of just the. The teamwork and, and kind of macro and objective setups. I think that's something that they were really, really good at at the start of the year. That unfortunately, as time's gone on, it's just kind of teared off a bit. And I think there's things to do with the meta where it shifted away from just kind of being full weak side top lane, which I think is where mentor really kind of shined. And then it went directly into carries for a lot of spring and now we're kind of back in this weird middle ground again. And then, you know, Jungle Mare as well. Right. Rilletch's jungle pool no longer kind of the weird flavor of the month picks and I think they just need to do a little bit of soul searching to refine themselves. Unfortunately, coming into summer. [00:26:01] Speaker A: I think so. And I also, I think that a big part of the KC win was bot Lane was just so much better. Like Sam D. Paris cannot step up to Calis Busio throughout a best of five. Like, it's just. I think it's unrealistic to expect that. In my opinion, Colostombusio is still like the Best bot lane in Europe. I know a lot of people are like, oh, but Anselmo Labrov, like, they're also popping off. And I'm like, yeah, I think that's the competition. [00:26:25] Speaker B: It's Hans Laborov. Like, they. [00:26:27] Speaker A: It's Hans Labrov. You're a believer, dude. [00:26:29] Speaker B: Come on. No, they are. Dude, they are this. They're the best spotlane. Like, look. Kalist Busio. Definitely number two. Definitely. [00:26:37] Speaker A: All right, well, whichever way you slice it, I think Sam D. Paris is, like, at best. [00:26:43] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:26:44] Speaker A: I don't know. [00:26:45] Speaker B: Like, you could be kind about it, at least kind of stab. [00:26:50] Speaker A: I don't know. I don't know, dude. [00:26:52] Speaker B: What? [00:26:52] Speaker A: That game for Sam, I've never seen an ad carry so visibly tilted to the extent that they're, like, just farming alone in mid wave and missing cannon minions as misfortune. I'm like, how. How is it possible to miss a cannon with misfortune Auto? Like, that doesn't make sense to me. But, like. And then he was getting picked on the wave also, and I was like, this. Sam D. Is just completely mentally checked out. The game was already falling apart. Like, that was such a fast win for Casey. Yeah, but, yeah, like, that. That level of tilt in game. I was like, that's painful. But, yeah. So that was one of the series. Casey takes it. Vitality gx. This was the one that surprised all of us. Usually I mark on our little, like, internal document that we use to track all these. If we're right on a prediction, it's green for, like, getting the series correct. If we're right on the outcome but not the series score directly, it's like a yellow. If we're wrong on the series, it's a red. I marked this one, like, the darkest blood red I could find because, oh, my God, we all had Vitality3.0 and then GX3. Oh's Vitality Jomana. What the hell happened? [00:27:58] Speaker B: Oh, man, I almost wish we weren't tight for time. [00:28:06] Speaker A: I think we can take a little bit longer on lec. For the record. Like, don't feel like we're pinching time here. [00:28:11] Speaker B: Vitality just really mega shit. The bed. [00:28:16] Speaker A: Yarp. [00:28:18] Speaker B: It's really hard to look at a team like this and really analyze what went wrong, because it's clear it had something to do with, you know, behind the scenes. And based on the Naknako interview, all sides kind of point to that too. And for those, like, in the dark, very quickly, Naknako did an interview. I want to say it was with someone at Sheep and more or less said to the effect of scrims weren't going well and if someone would do something to ruin my lane, I'd start running it down. And in pro, like, in pro language, when they say I'm gonna start running it, they're just like, happy gaming. Right. And whilst this might be something that a lot of players partake in, in the LEC especially, it's not something that you actively go out of your way to say in an interview. [00:29:10] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:29:11] Speaker B: So very poor form, especially after a 03 to a team that everyone expected you to 3 0. But in terms of. Of inside the game, it was just very, very disjointed. There was a cool. It was the Jarvan game, I think, or the Wukong game from Lintus. I want to say it was the Jarvan game where there was an engage that was so disjoint. I have never heard vetius crash out on a cast before or. It's been a while since I had. He, like, he started just outright flaming [00:29:45] Speaker A: vitality when humanoid, like altered in and then like flash ye gold carded and then. [00:29:50] Speaker B: Oh, humanoid. Yeah, the humanoid TF play at the chicken. [00:29:55] Speaker A: That's the one I remember him crashing down on. [00:29:57] Speaker B: Yeah, he was just like, this is the most disgusting thing that I have seen from pro players in such a long time. Like, he was getting really worked up. And to. To get Venius worked up over League of Legends gameplay in the lec, you've got to be. You got to be doing something nasty. I. I'll put it that way, you know, and that's what they were doing, man. Hume Lloyd was just like, disrespecting, stepping up, getting flicked back by Jackie's on the Taliyah. Kazi's pathing was really, really suspect in a lot of situations that led to him getting picked off. There was just so much going wrong for. For Vitaly. And even when they had Leeds, they didn't have the discipline to just sit back and relax and take their time. They were a team that just felt like they were under pressure constantly to end the game and that eventually just cost them everything and staying for too [00:30:50] Speaker A: long in moments where. And then like, yeah, humanoid in game two on Annie, like, they're. They're basically sieging the inhib bot and then he just dies. Like, he just gets picked and it's like, oh, God. And then like, knock. Nago runs away. Like, he just leaves while everybody else just like goes in and then dies one by one. And then it's like okay, yeah, this team has fully thrown the game. And then game three. They were in it for so long, dude. Like they were. They won or they lost with a gold lead. Vitality lost with a gold lead. Like they were controlling this game. Couple rocky moments but overall they were still like in it. And then all it takes is like Noah just ean forward on Lucian mid lane to try and like trade into cars. He gets him about half health and then Fleshy just says we're all living. That just jumps on Noah and dies because the entire team teams behind him. And it's like, okay, well that was a 5v4 and lot gets his revenge. Lot was bullied in game three, man, like this poor Olaf top lane did nothing until the final moment where he's able to 1v1 carsy under the Nexus turrets and that was like cool. Job's done. He got it. [00:31:57] Speaker B: Yeah, just. Just rough looks from Vitaly and I mean for. For me on. On the podcast I'm normally a part of power spec chart. Power spec. A little bit of self Power spec. Go for it. I said coming into playoffs that the MCOIL series would be the real big tell for Vitality of how they're going to do for the rest of playoffs because they've been struggling in EWC qualifiers and those games obviously being online is different to being on stage. So there's an air of. You can kind of let it slide, right? What's going on over there compared to actually being in the studio. But then they got throughed by emcoy and then the sirens were very loud. The saxophones as it were were very, very loud. And yeah, I think this was just a moment of just mental capitulation and vitality are gonna have to do something about this by the way because they're the team of the MVP. They were the team that went 81 that could have very easily gone 9 0. They were the team that everyone actually had as maybe finally upsetting the apple cart of the usual trio of team teams and they bombed our playoffs. 06. [00:33:13] Speaker A: Yep. [00:33:16] Speaker B: I'm not sure what's going to change cuz I don't think it should be the players but something's got a break there. Something has to give. [00:33:25] Speaker A: Yeah, I. I don't know how to explain it other than legendary crash out moment from. From a team and I. I really like props to GX for pulling it off but it really felt more like Vitality giving them the games than it was like gx. [00:33:44] Speaker B: The worst. The worst part is it's not like GX were playing particularly well and this was then solidified by the fact that they went on to get 30 just like yeah. Belt to bottom by by KC. Which probably made it feel worse. [00:34:00] Speaker A: So many alts in one series in my life like Jackie. Holy shit, dude. Oh yeah. It's tough to see Vitality go that way. It's tough to see a team that had so much promise and so many exciting players so visibly struggle on stage in the the end of the split. Really hope they bounce back in summer because I think a world with Vitality in it would be very fun. But as it stands it is looking like it is a three team region agent like Vitality were at the end unfortunately frauds. GX were always frauds. We always knew it. And yeah, now it's. Now it's the top three. Let's talk about KCGX though, because that that series did technically happen again. I between. I don't know which was harder to watch. Jackie's on Azir doing the smoothest glides you've ever seen while hitting nobody with his Ultra or Jackie's on Cassiopeia, desperately trying to do the little like flash redirect your trick like three different times and whipping every time. He was feeling himself for sure, but unfortunately was not really landing any of it. And yeah, they were kind of drafting around Jackie's on these like mid lane carries throughout and was not able to deliver. And yeah, Casey just made fools of them. And if you're getting made a fool of by Yahoo. Which we were already talking about, like in terms of mid laners isn't even like in the top, top echelon right now in, in Europe. It's gonna be, it's gonna be a tough series for you. So, so what are your thoughts on. On kcgx like do you have anything insightful to say or was this just like get the belt out, smack them around? [00:35:48] Speaker B: Yeah, this, this was. There's a lot of things I don't. I actually don't know where the line is for this podcast. [00:35:56] Speaker A: We'll just say whatever you feel like, Jim. [00:35:58] Speaker B: Whatever. Whatever I feel like. Look, no slurs. [00:36:03] Speaker A: That's the line. You know what I actually thought of the lines? [00:36:07] Speaker B: It's those loves. [00:36:08] Speaker A: Yeah, it's that you can talk about politics, you can talk about whatever. [00:36:14] Speaker B: Just, just gx. I, I think when it comes to mid. I'll talk about mid first. I just feel like Jackie's hasn't really over the top improved in terms of the promise that I feel like was placed upon the player, you know, when he came in summer 24, you know, that development hasn't really turned out and this felt like one of those series where you really kind of just see it full frontal where, you know, he's still capable enough, but he's no caps 2.0. And I think that's always going to be the unfortunate, you know, banner that you're held up against in. In the lec. When you come up into the league and you're a domestic player. Otherwise all of the usual cracks kind of just showed up in. In, you know, the characteristics for a lot of the individuals inside of this team. Lot had a stinker in game three. Right. Tried to go on the get a little bit freaky on the Kled. I think he was 03 by 15 or 16 minutes. Yeah. Yeah. Noah also kind of get embodied by a lot of the map movement from KC in the bot side. Right on the aphelios. Just not really anything that we're surprised about. I mean, hell, even, you know, I know we're supposed to be talking about the KCGX series, but just a little bit more holistically. Like, Noah was still doing like the really weird things in the Vitality series too, where he'll just like walk into a bush. There's no one else around him. He shouldn't be walking on the wave, shouldn't be walking the bush. He's just, just dying, you know. So I don't know. GX just feels like their. Their own worst enemy. But their ceiling isn't actually crazy high. Like they're kind of like worse vitality. The more that I think about it, you know, like they have a very, very explosive set of solo laners. The jungler is a playmaker. He just makes very bad plays compared to the just typically. And in terms of playstyle, you know, they have a bot lane that wants to be really aggressive in the 2v2, but they don't find the same level of success that fleshy and you know, Kazi often do. Yeah, they actually do just feel like a worse fight. I know, I know. Obviously they threw up my tally, so it feels like a really weird. [00:38:35] Speaker A: But they weren't supposed to, like, if we're being honest. [00:38:37] Speaker B: Yeah. Like it wasn't supposed to happen, so. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. [00:38:43] Speaker A: Well, again, it's gonna be another team that we're kind of like waiting to see. It's like the, the meme of is this spongebob meme where they're like poking something with a stick and they're like, hey, do something. You know, I feel like that's a GX right now. Or it's like, okay, so you've gotten top four a couple of times, but you haven't done any damage in the top four. Like, like do something like. Like show us a reason to care. Because at least Vitality. They bombed out spectacularly. But they're a funny team. You know, they got some fun personalities on the team. I feel like with gx, I mean we, I, to an extent we have some of that, but it's just not the same. Like Jackie's is a fun guy. I think that like Isma's sometimes got some personality, but like the. The team in general, not the same type of like excitement around them as there is around vitality. So yeah, in. In every way worse. As Jamata said, GX is a shit terrible team and everyone. He hates everyone on that team and vitality. [00:39:37] Speaker B: You know what, to be fair, I always butcher his. The pronunciation of his name. Liotto. I'm very sorry because I don't like butchering names. [00:39:45] Speaker A: Gyoto. [00:39:46] Speaker B: Gyoto. [00:39:46] Speaker A: I always say Gyoto. But I'm an American so I can just like ah, whatever. Cowboy quote. [00:39:51] Speaker B: Retweeted my tweet talking about how GX are like geniuses and maestros and always throwing unlosable games. Games just to get built to ass 3 the next day. I'm on to you, sir. I'm on to you. That one slide. [00:40:10] Speaker A: All right, well that was this past weekend in lec. And again it all leads into the same script. As always, it's MCOI, G2 and KC in the top three. But actually change that order because G2 are the final bosses. They won through the upper bracket and they will be awaiting the winners of MCO versus KC Gemato. We get a rematch of the two. The heated rivalry of the lec. Will they kiss? Yet to be determined. Let's talk about predictions. Who do you have taken it? Because historically I feel like Casey. Casey's got to have the upper hand in all time series record. Right. I feel like recently. [00:40:46] Speaker B: So actually I spoke about this with Yama O Cannon because he has mcoy winning against kc, as do I. Yep. Oh, wait. [00:40:57] Speaker A: Winning the lec. Like the whole thing. [00:40:59] Speaker B: Beating. Beating Casey, not. Not winning the whole being Casey. Okay. Yeah. [00:41:02] Speaker A: Yes, yes, yes. [00:41:06] Speaker B: However, Casey have beat McOy three times in the last month. Twice in a best of three, once in a best of five in the EWC qualifiers. Casey just have these guys number man. I like. [00:41:22] Speaker A: They kind of do. [00:41:23] Speaker B: They just do you know, you could feel however you feel about team strength, but they've. They've got a good track record right now and they haven't shown me a clear enough reason to not believe they won't just repeat the same thing. [00:41:35] Speaker A: A big part of it for me is the bot lane strength. Kaliston Busio I think are a head and shoulder above Supa and Alvaro. But I also as. As painful as it is to admit it, Merwin just does not play well into Kana. I don't know what it is about Khan as a matchup, but I feel like he's one of Merwin's worst lane matchups because Merwin, he. He doesn't play the fun stuff in Akana. He just plays like renekton Cassante. It's like no, that's not how you win Merwin. [00:42:03] Speaker B: It feels like their prep often into into Kana is Connor is a better top laner. I'm going to like you either go one of two ways. You either hard go for the. The weird picks which in fairness off the top of my head, you know, I think they've done the Shyvana twice into into into Casey. You know, I think they. They also had was the Zeri top. I want to say the Zeri Top game was also. Was also into into McOidoo. Sorry into KC2. But it just feels like the spots for these picks don't feel correct and they feel very solo qe, you know. Sure. And so I think if they're you know, going into like draft not to go like too deep into like draft prep talk but I feel like they want to just be on second pick as much as they can in that series so that Merwin is at least staring at his matchup and not having to like do some kind of funky freaky stuff where they. They flex Varus, you know, and they hold the varus Flex from B1 if it ever goes through all the way to last pick. I think they. They just try and play a standard game game if it, you know, looks like that's the kind of series it needs to be. But try and get lost pick try and play something funky and just upset the apple car a little bit. And that's always been my thing with Merwin as I feel like mcoid don't use Merwin appropriately at the correct timings. That's. That's how it feels of me with his picks. [00:43:35] Speaker A: Well, I, I hope he can overcome it. I still have amagoid taking it. I think a big part of it is just how good Jojo has looked but unfortunately when I look across the rest of the roster I actually am thinking that Casey is favored in pretty much every role. Maybe Eliolia can step up to Yike but it's been a minute since he has. I think that Casey winning is the correct choice but my heart is telling me to keep believing in mcoh so I'm gonna put MCO down but that leads into the finals against G2. Bickle also put his predictions in. By the way he's voting Casey 3 2. He also agrees with Chimata for the finals. Both of you have have G2 30 and I have G232. I think it's going to be another close series between MKOY and G2. We showed or we saw that McCoy was so close last time around in the upper finals. I see no reason why it wouldn't be as good of a series in the finals. Jomada, why do you feel like it's [00:44:32] Speaker B: a 30 G2 are just the boogeyman that that. I'll give you some analysis for a second second. I think Hans and Labrov big step ups. Very very good. Especially if Caps happens to have an off game which like you know, spoiler alert. A lot of the reason why they were able to pick up that game five came off the back of Caps of Silas like don't don't pay. If you go and look at the match history and you see, you know a relatively whatever KDA and you know, maybe his stats don't look great. Watch the game, watch the game game and just watch what he does. Yeah. Like the rare times where Caps doesn't step up, it feels like Hans and the brother really started to to pull weight a lot more. Which feels incredible but especially for Labrov who you know during a lot of the first year of his tenure on G2 suffered a lot of criticism. This year him and Skoumon there's a pairing have really really opened up onto the map and I think it's just also a part of the matter. Right. We're in a jungle mid support focused metal and not only is that the Meta but they've hit their stride as a trio, as a duo or as twos inside of that trio at a really, really good time for playoffs. And I just don't think that KC or MCOH have a duo inside of that set of three players that is better than G2. [00:46:01] Speaker A: I think the only one and this is going to be contentious. This is already been a big talk in Europe specifically with the lec all Pro. I think the only one that can beat their competition is JoJo. I think JoJo in a 1v1 isolated lane can get the better of caps and can beat caps. I don't believe El Yoya can do that to Skewmont. I don't believe Alvaro can do that to labrov. Actually, I guess it depends on what comp they go for for their bot side. But yeah, I. I still agree. G2 are the boogeyman. Do you. Have you ever seen the. The TV show Ghost Stories? This is going to be a weird tangent, but it'll make sense in a second. [00:46:40] Speaker B: You know what? We did have a version of that here. Yeah. Okay, so go on. It's. [00:46:47] Speaker A: It's a famous one, at least in the States, because the English dub is so unhinged and basically they gave up on localization and we're like. We're just going to make a bunch of pop culture references and dirty jokes in this like, like adapted Japanese, like kids ghosts show. But in. In episode one, there's this one ghost. The first ghost that they meet. I think his name's like Ama Jaku or something like that. And basically it's. [00:47:15] Speaker B: It's a. [00:47:15] Speaker A: It's a trope where like, he starts as a little imp, but then as they get afraid of him, like, they get like, spooked. He grows, and then they get more scared and then he's huge. And like the SC more scared they are, the bigger he is. That's basically G2. You know, they just. Just the moment you show fear, they just get huge and then you can't beat them. [00:47:37] Speaker B: They've got prey drive, bro. They really do. Yeah, you know. Yeah, just. I don't know. They. They feel infallible in moments like this until they actually fall. That. That's just the. The aura that this G2 team has. Has been able to accrue over the years. Like, we talk about people being in aura that these guys are these guys in like or a surplus. Like, it's going to take a ridiculous amount of time for, I think for this G2 iteration to ever lose trust in the just everyone. Like, be it fans or analysts. [00:48:11] Speaker A: When you look at like CAPS individual trophy record compared to every other org in the lec. It's disgusting that he's got more titles and more like trophies and more placements internationally than every other or combined like, holy, one player's just been able to amass that, yeah, LEC belongs to caps. We all still agree until they falter, we're just going to keep backing them. But yeah, that's our, that's our preview. Expectations are high for G2. Don't see a reason to not believe in them. They are already going to msi. The question is who's going to join them? Casey or McCoy? We're a little split today, but we'll know by this weekend. And there we go. Now it's time to hop across the pond to the LCS and what's going on in North America. We're not gonna have as much time to talk N A but I'm okay with that because the series were kind of stinkers. There's not a ton to preview. Actually talking about this next week is probably the more exciting thing. Even though it's not even our finals. It's gonna be the last show in LA before we hit the road for Arizona finals. But let's start with this past weekend. Fly Quest Sentinels 3 0, TL Shopify 3 0. Both sweeps, both in different ways. I, I actually we talked about this a little bit before going live so we can kind of share that thought again. Yeah, TL in their 30 did not make us like super convinced. Even they beat Shopify but even in beating them it still was like eh, like are we excited about this team? I'm excited about Quid. He was deathless in the entire series. Individually had an incredible performance. But Shimad overall, like where are you at temperature wise for. For Team Liquid? [00:49:57] Speaker B: I'm cold like the illness I'm probably going to wake up with tomorrow. You know, like I, I don't think, I think that. I think that series was fake. I think that series was really, really fake. And I've got a feeling that FlyQuest are going to like beat the brakes off these guys if. If they come in looking like how they looked. You know, versus lion and versus Shopify with a little bit of, of like regular season mixed in there. I'm not sold. I am not sold right now. On, on you know, the inconsistency in terms of high impact games from Morgan. I think having to rely so heavily or consistently on Jose Diodo having very consistent games and playmaking moments out of him. But be it individually or actually synced up with Kor. Right. I think has been something that they've been struggling to find more consistently game to game and series to series. Whereas on the opposite side from the Fly Quest perspective, I feel like these are things that they're getting better at and they're getting sharper at. The 2v2 in Bot Lane is something I'm Going to be eyeing very, very closely because, yeah, you know, Marsu and Cryo have very, very particular 2v2 priors. Right. They've always had, you know, very high prior on Karma compared to the rest of the teams before Karma came in. They looked excellent on the Milio Lucium, which has started to become the kind of de facto answer ahead of Caitlin Bard into Ash Seraphine. [00:51:33] Speaker A: It's actually maybe even going back further. Like, yeah, like Thresh. Thresh could come out in a pestifi. Like we know Cryogen's got a sick thresh when they played it with like Aphelios too. So they got got tools. [00:51:44] Speaker B: These guys are hungry. I think that's, that's really the difference between these two teams. I think FlyQuest is hungry. I think they want to eat. I think they want to go to Arizona. I think they need it. I think, I think TL won. I think FlyQuest need it. I think that's the difference between these two. For me, I just see a lot more energy in play. Yes, it can bite them in, in the ass if they go too far, but I think they're becoming more disciplined week in, week out. And I think that's the scary thing about FlyQuest. And I don't see that same desire in, in TL. I think their play looks tired. I think their drafts, you know, credit to Spawn for always like keeping it very straightforward, I think 90% of the time. And he's always very honest. Like, I think it was the Game 3 draft last week where he was like. Or the. There was one of the drafts, I think it was against lion where he's like, yeah, you know what my bad guys. That draft was. It was shit that probably cost us a series. So, you know, Spawn is always doing a lot of heavy lifting there to make sure the boys have a very, you know, easy time when he can make that happen. But I just, I feel like what he's working with in terms of what the players are able to offer up just. Just isn't quite enough. [00:53:01] Speaker A: It's so. So for me, the biggest concern I have is we've heard a couple people talk about it. Jat talked about it. They actually talked about it on Pros. Jack got to host. So if you caught his podcast with Vettius, he already broke this down. But I'll give him like my best breakdown too of what Quid was talking about on pros, which is basically like the team struggling when it comes to language barrier. It's a. Almost all Korean speaking roster except for Jose Yan can Speak great Korean, and then everyone else is Korean, but they're trying to speak English. But then there's moments in the game where that is a difficult thing for some of the players. And whenever I hear that, alarm bells start going off that, like, ooh, anytime there's language barrier stuff, it's going to be hard to be a top team team. You can beat teams worse than you with a language barrier issue because you're just better than them. You're not going to beat teams at your level or better than you if you have a language barrier. And I think that no. No game was more evident of that than game two versus Shopify, where Morgan's on Shen and Jose's on Nocturne. That is because it was a last pick Shen, because Shopify contracts locked in Kazakhs. Really good answer into the Nocturne. For just like a solo thing, you kind of just hunt the nocturne because you can't really do much about the Khazix. But then Shen just says, as you know, fu. Right. Like, anytime Kha' zix jumps on somebody, you just Shen ult them. And then you can also proactively throw the nocturn in with the Shen. We've seen that combo before. It's akin to, like, the Oriana nocturn, but instead it's just like a tank coming in with the big shield on the Nocturn instead. I don't think I was casting the series. I don't recall a moment that they pulled it off where they, like, had Nocturn old in onto, like, bvoy or Zinny. And then Morgan, like, Ulta onto him, and then, like, tried one shot somebody from the backline. Like, they just never did it. [00:54:57] Speaker B: Yeah. Like, they. They kind of. They were just winning that game. So in a way, it's like one of those weird critiques where it's like, they should have done it. Like, there's probably a point in that game where that should have happened, but it didn't happen. And it makes you wonder when you hear something like that come out from. From one of the boys about the language barrier. Is. Is that a part of it? [00:55:18] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:55:18] Speaker B: And it's weird, too, because the language barrier is coming from the jungle role. And obviously that tends to be the role that dictates a lot of, you know, of cons. Hashtag, you know, lion win. So hearing that, it's like, well, okay, you know what? Time to learn Korean, Jose. [00:55:41] Speaker A: Right. [00:55:42] Speaker B: You're speaking English and Spanish. You're already, like, you know, lucky. [00:55:45] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:55:45] Speaker B: That third one under the belt. I guess that's. That's what it is. [00:55:47] Speaker A: Even Jose is not a native English speaker. You know, like, that's the crazy thing is so many players, even if they're all speaking in English, I think Jan would be the only native English speaker on this roster. And even then, like, I know that he was raised to also speak Korean, so I'm sure he, like, learned both at the same time. A lot of people that, like, are raised on two languages at the same time say, like, they're both basically native. [00:56:08] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:56:09] Speaker A: But, like, still, I think there's an argument that he's the only one. Like, if fluent, full fluent in like native English speaking and everybody still has to try and communicate in English and then if they speak Korean, one player just doesn't know what's going on. Like, oh, my God, I. I hate when rosters are built this way. And team Liquid, they just like, they're notorious for doing this. I mean, like, it's just tough that this happened to Apa last year. Now it's happening to Jose Deodo this year. [00:56:35] Speaker B: I will say it's just. Yeah, I think it's a little bit cope because League of Legends is kind of its own language. And learning the surrounding English around League of Legends language is not that difficult. Like, there are not. There's not too much nuance that has to go into a lot of shot calling in League of Legends, especially if you guys are already good. Like, you know, we're talking about pro players here. So I think to a degree it makes me wonder where are they actually running into issues specifically in their comms with this language barrier. But that said, language barriers are never fun when they do actually, like, prop up and occur and like, inhibit the ability to make plays. So it's not something I'm going to sit here and, you know, be mad at for. For. I think you said it was Eon was on pros, right. And brought that up. So. [00:57:30] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, I. I know that Quid was talking about on pros, like Spawn at one point in review being like, if you have to speak Korean, just speak Korean. Basically. Like, if you don't have the words or I. I don't know the full context of why he said that, but my interpretation is like, yeah, if you in the moment you're hesitating to communicate because you're trying to think of the English word or like, how to say it, it just say it in Korean because then at least the majority of people will know what you want to do. And what you want to happen. So I, for all those reasons, I think a lot of us are shaky on TL right now. Fly Quest though, very, very exciting. They beat their demon Sentinels. Who, I mean you're talking about MCOI losing to KC three times this year or this like the past couple months. Same for FlyQuest. They had lost the Sentinels multiple times at EWC qualifiers and in the regular season season. So them getting this win was really big for them to show that not only are they improving, but they're able to beat the arguably like most stock standard vanilla cookie cutter team that we have in the lcs. You watch Sentinels games, you're like, yep, this is the most basic league that you can kind of imagine. They don't do anything crazy. They just kind of scale and team fight at objectives and then win a team fight at Elder and then close the game. Like they have one of the longest average game times of all the teams. They draft for kind of basic team fight compositions when they win. And if FlyQuest is able to dismantle that with these fun cool picks, you know, Griffin popping off on his own, you know, jungle picks. He's. He pulled out the Shyvana. That's something really only he's playing. He's playing the Shen also something that kind of only he's playing. He played the Skarner. Like those are all three not super traditional jungle picks. They've been played but none of them are like oh yeah, that's the meta right now. So I think that's cool that Griffin's stepping up and showing that off. The question being, is gonna be enough against Jose who is a monster of a jungler. Let's talk predictions here for this next week. We actually all do believe in FlyQuest. Bickle's got FlyQuest 3 2. Me and Jamada both have FlyQuest 3. 1. How does the one happen? Jamada? Like what do you think Team Liquid does to get the one win? Is there a specific lane you're giving credit to or anything? [00:59:50] Speaker B: I think it will actually just be Fly Quest like overconfidence or they run a bad dream draft that's super unplayable. I. I genuinely see it as a series. The more that I think on it, the more that I buy into the my own belief that that one is actually just still going to come for Fly Quest griefing somehow. I, I don't know, have really done some deep soul searching these last, you know, six or so days and then they come back with, you know, their closer to ceiling performances. This is Going to be a series. I think they're going to struggle with. I think the only way really, that TL beat these guys is if they all come locked in. Jose is firing right with core. They're making plays. They've drafted bot prior with something that quid can have high impact on team fights or side lanes or both. If it's something like rise. [01:00:48] Speaker A: Right. [01:00:50] Speaker B: And that's the way they play Morgan on whatever just makes sense for his matchup. If it's blind, oh, it's probably renekton or, you know, something like a rumble or even an ornn. You know, that's, that's, that's why I'm expecting half Morgan. The more that time has gone on for, for me with Morgan, the less that I've, I believe in this whole, you know, draft king, not draft king, scrim king, king narrative that was, you know, kind of going around. I know Jack believes in, in the, the scrim bucks a whole bunch. I do to a degree, just not to the same level of faith. [01:01:26] Speaker A: Scrim bucks to JAT are like, you know, you know, AI investment for. [01:01:33] Speaker B: It's like bitcoin too big to fail. [01:01:35] Speaker A: You can't, you can't pull out because everything's on it. So, you know, it just falls apart if you stop believing. [01:01:42] Speaker B: Yep. I, I, I, I like that. And also, just because we was talking about Morgan, I think Gakos has really flown under the radar. Yeah, I, I don't know what it was he. Did he even. Did he make warper? He made opera, Right? [01:01:54] Speaker A: He made third. Third team all pro. Yeah. [01:01:59] Speaker B: That brother could have made second. Like, I don't, I think, I don't think. I don't think it's that crazy. I don't think it's that. Gakkos has had a very. I think we need to pay a little bit more attention to this kid. That's. That's, that's how I'll put it. [01:02:13] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:02:14] Speaker B: He might manhandle Morgan if he's on good matchups. If he's on good matchups where you're supposed to go like 10 CSR, 15 CS up at 10 minutes, he's. He's going like 500 gold up. He's going, like, almost the K up ISO. If nothing happens in the lane, I, I believe it right now. [01:02:29] Speaker A: Yeah. And that sucks because where Morgan first impressed earlier in the year was his laning phase. Linking up with the team was a little more questionable, and that's where some of their struggles came in earlier in the year. And then this split it was like, ooh, I think it's. It's looking better. But now his laning is taking a slighter hit instead, and he's no longer just playing for the 1v1 and winning his matchup. A little bit of that's a meta shifts, but I think a bigger part is that the other top laners are also catching up. Like, Geckos is such a young player and now he's got so much more experience under his belt compared to where we saw him at the beginning of the year or even like last year where he had two stage games played. Yeah, really cool stuff. Excited for that matchup. I think that one's gonna be a banger. The winner will move on to Arizona. They're going to the live finals weekend. At least they're gonna move on to the lower bracket finals. But they don't know who they're playing yet because there's one other series to predict for the weekend in the lcs. Winner of this goes to msi. Either one of these teams is going to be going to Arizona. It's C9 versus Lion. I got C9.3 2. Bickles got Lion.3 2. Jamada agrees with me. C9 3 2. That might be like the first time. Oh, wait, no. We both had Fly Quest. [01:03:47] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:03:47] Speaker A: I guess we only disagreed on some of the LEC stuff. Yeah, I. I think C9 have just had Lion's number for the most part. And while individually I think think bot lane is not as strong, Jungle is not as strong. I think C9's top lane is considerably stronger. And I think their mid lane, I actually give an edge to Apa. I know Saint's been a monster too, but I still think APA deserves way more credit than he's been given so far. So I think it's gonna be very close. But I've seen. I taken it. Why do you have seen I take in a Jamata? [01:04:21] Speaker B: I just feel like even though lion have the advantages that they have individually in the jungle and yes, in the bot lane, for me, I think Apa and Blabber as a duo are more likely when the fire isn't at the. You know, it's not. It's heat. It's not the. The top of its heat. C9 are just a little bit more comfortable. You know, like if they have to run this back in finals, C9 are cooked. That's just how it is. [01:04:49] Speaker A: Is. [01:04:50] Speaker B: But if they make it to msi, then I don't really care anyway because that's. That's really where the. I think the bar is at for C9. Like, these guys just need to make it to an international at this point. I don't. I don't think it really, you know, like, winning the championship belt. Yeah. [01:05:03] Speaker A: Cool. [01:05:04] Speaker B: Feels great, guys. Make it to an international, please. [01:05:08] Speaker A: Which, by the way, I fully, fully believe that they will win this and then lose finals anyway. I don't think there's a word. [01:05:16] Speaker B: Yep. I'm so bought into this, by the way. The way. I'm so bought into this. Whether. Whether it's, like, random fly quest end up being TL online, whether it's just the expected lion or hell, even, I think, like, the least expected really is the TL pathing into finals. Yeah, C9, I think will lose. I mean, it would just be horrible to think, right? And, like, this is a slightly more, you know, personal, greedy, like, perspective. Dude. Dom, I would just feel horrible for this guy. [01:05:45] Speaker A: Guy. [01:05:45] Speaker B: You join C9. You undeniably, like, the best team in NA all of winter. Just to the bed in finals. Then you. The bed versus Brazil. Then you rebuild. You look closer to your, like, initial landing point in winter. Right. I don't think they've ever hit that same, like, floor and ceiling from winter, admittedly. And I think the rest of the pack has gone better. But to then crash out and Ms. Ms. Oh, my God. God, dude. I would. That I would actually crash out. [01:06:17] Speaker A: I. I wouldn't know how For D. [01:06:19] Speaker B: I wouldn't know how to. [01:06:21] Speaker A: I don't even know what the hell C9 does at that point. Like, it would be so long since they made an international finals. I don't know exactly how long, but we can look into that next week because for next week's episode, we know at least they'll have a shot. They have two lives during the bracket. Even if they lose, they can win one series in the. In the lower bracket finals and then just still make it to MSI at the very least. But it's up to them to prove it. Are they chokers or are they not? We'll have to wait and see. But that's it for LCS and for LEC this week. Thank you so much for coming on Jamata. I know that you're feeling a little sick, like you're about to get hit by something tomorrow. So I greatly appreciate you taking time out of your night either way. I was, like, five minutes into recording a solo episode, and then I got a message. I saw a message from you. [01:07:04] Speaker B: I was like, oh, yeah, sweet. Which was my bad. I thought I Replied. I thought I replied to the. [01:07:09] Speaker A: The. [01:07:10] Speaker B: The flag flare for up, but I did not. [01:07:12] Speaker A: Totally. Okay. Greatly appreciate you taking the time anyway, but I do have to put you on the spot because you're the only one. There's a bit we do every episode. If people could leave a number of stars on the review, wherever they're listening, how many stars would you recommend they leave? And you have to say something funny. I'm sorry, I don't. I. [01:07:31] Speaker B: Wait, ask me this again. I'm. I'm. So. Maybe the illness is starting to take me now one more time. [01:07:37] Speaker A: So. So a typical review would be like five stars. So how many would you recommend people leave? And if the answer is five, would be one star for. For like. Like, what's the reason? [01:07:48] Speaker B: Can we do decimals? Stars, you know, or is it. [01:07:50] Speaker A: Sure, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. [01:07:52] Speaker B: Okay. I think you do. Decimal number is 4.3. [01:07:56] Speaker A: 4.3, expand. [01:07:58] Speaker B: So I feel like the closer you are to five, the more artificial it feels. So actually there's this whole thing. It's like a psychology thing. Oh, God, you're gonna make me. I. I've looked into this. It's so weird. So you're more likely to believe a four star rating out of five with like a thousand reviews than something like a 4.8 or a 4.9 with, like less than 100. Because it's about consistency. So. So if I was gonna tell someone to leave a review, I would actually tell them to leave it slightly closer to 4, but above 4, then closer to 5. That's. That's why I land at 4.3. [01:08:39] Speaker A: Okay, I like that. I like that a lot. All right, well, there we go. 4.3. Then find a way to fill out 3/10 of a star on the review and drop that or thumbs up or whatever you can. Thank you again, Jamada, for being on everybody, for tuning in this week. As always, just know that we love you and we'll see you next time. Bye. Bye. Oh, yes, Daddy.