League Rundown - Episode 626: Nobody expects the spanish inquisition…. except for G2

[00:00:12] Speaker A: Gets hit Kimmy kids a little too far here. He's gonna have to try and get himself out. Living O Tillery and the rest of [00:00:17] Speaker B: the shots of fire. [00:00:17] Speaker A: Zion is just killing the next Zion can eat single handedly win the game [00:00:22] Speaker B: by game by game by game by [00:00:26] Speaker A: should be. Oh my God. Stupid passes through and manages to the table with Messiah tanking it up. I do not believe he just believe. I cannot understand this game. Unicorns of love. It wasn't a mutant. They're Nexus. Hello and welcome to episode 626 of the League Rundown. This is your 2026 summer split. LEC playoffs, finals review and LCS playoffs week two review and week three preview. I am your host, Kangas. This episode is lovingly entitled Nobody expects the Spanish inquisition. Except for G2. And I'm joined by two esteemed co hosts. Up first, fresh out of the can, it's Badger. [00:01:30] Speaker B: I'm so ready to break down the action this weekend. [00:01:35] Speaker A: Yep. Breaking it down like the breakdance in Legends. [00:01:39] Speaker B: Yeah. Mm. [00:01:42] Speaker A: What was her name? Did you ever name the Australian breakdancer? [00:01:45] Speaker B: It's. Well I thought went by Ray Gunn, but Ray Gunn. [00:01:49] Speaker C: Ray Gun was Rachel Gunn. [00:01:53] Speaker A: Yes, that actually makes a lot of sense. But the facts that her she goes by Ray Gun makes the whole story that much better. You heard his voice as well. We are also blessed with the presence [00:02:03] Speaker C: of and the big bickle pickle. You know, the more things change, the more they stay the same. [00:02:09] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:02:10] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:02:10] Speaker A: Dude. How many? We're gonna get into this a lot later, but was it 19 titles for G2? Was that it? [00:02:18] Speaker C: It's something stupid like that. [00:02:21] Speaker A: It might have hit 20 actually. So hopefully one of us will look it up before we get to that part of the podcast because we got news together first. But lec. Yeah, it went almost how you would expect a couple of things shaking it up as well as in the lcs. So something to look forward to later in the pod in case you missed all the games this weekend. But first I mentioned it. Time to talk about news around the horn. Up first, Badger. I'm gonna toss this one over to you. Roster news in North America. We do have some information already coming out of Camp Dignitas. [00:02:55] Speaker B: Yeah. So last week I believe we talked about it last week that Denethor was being extended by Dignitas. It's the right move to do in this situation. Kind of your cornerstone piece for the future. And with a riot with extensions comes departures. So officially leaving the team are Palafox and Iknar and I'm gonna just be flat out and say it off the top. This is very unsurprising news to me. Yeah. [00:03:28] Speaker A: If you had to pick two names that were most likely to leave from Dig these back. [00:03:34] Speaker B: Yeah, it just makes the most sense. Like their, their performance I think was the most hit and miss out of all the players on the team for the most part. I mean that still leaves FBI, that still leaves X you. And then of course you've got the [00:03:53] Speaker A: Devil actually still listed on the, on the. [00:03:56] Speaker B: Wait, who's that? [00:03:56] Speaker A: I know he's like. [00:03:57] Speaker B: Oh, it was Darth Stardock. That's right. It started. [00:03:59] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah. [00:04:00] Speaker B: Oh yeah. [00:04:00] Speaker A: Although I don't remember if Xu's like been released from his contract yet or like where he is, but he. [00:04:05] Speaker B: He's not gonna be playing next year. Yeah, no. Yeah, yeah. [00:04:08] Speaker A: So Dennis Thor is what they're building around. Dardoch made a post saying that he's looking for teams, but because they only had his contract through this year, so he's technically already kind of done with his contract. I imagine. We talked this last week as well. I imagine Dignitasa would want Thardock back and would give him an offer. But if you're Dardoch, you're gonna wait to see what everyone's offer is before resigning a dig. I think he could probably land somewhere better. So FBI is the only other one then alongside Denethor that like maybe sticks around if he wants to keep competing. I feel like FBI is the type of player where as long as he wants to keep playing, he'll probably find a team. And again Dignitas, they need a roster. They need to put five players on a sheet of paper to give to Rye Gabe to say this is who's playing this weekend so they'll take him if they can. Yeah. What do we think though? This is a bit of rumor mill time. Bickle. Does Palafox finally retire? Is it happening? Is. Was this the last run or do you think he tries to make a move and get on a different team? [00:05:13] Speaker C: I don't know if he tries to get on another team, but I think this is it for now at least. Unless he pulls a insert name of player, unless he pulls a tactical and goes down to tier two and just hard stomps and proves he deserves to come back. I think this is it for him. [00:05:38] Speaker A: I hate to say I actually think he might stomp if he went down to tier two. He might be able to actually like style on some of the developing mid laners. The problem is still just like what he does against the established mid laners not really being up to snuff and and often being a detriment for the team. I, I think he retires. I think that this is it. He'll probably make a post at some point leading up to Worlds saying his goodbyes. Maybe after Worlds, maybe he waits till the very end or maybe take some time to think about it. I don't know what's in Palpox's head. I would just, I would be surprised if he was able to find a team next year and kept competing. Other things though over across the sea Bickle, I'm gonna toss this one right back to you. We had some movement happening already in EU with some rumors, some confirmed. One big confirmation that we've been talking about for a while and brings a tear to my eye. [00:06:34] Speaker C: So for the longest time the big discussion, the gem of off season was going to be what happens with Jojo Pugh. His contract with McOy is expiring. He hadn't resigned, he had an offer on the table for them but nothing was really coming to fruition. There was speculation is he coming back to North America? Is he going to join Shopify? Is he going to find a way to link up with Inspired again? Maybe a big team in Europe makes a play for him. But in the end after this weekend, pen to paper, JoJo is staying with MCOH for another year. [00:07:09] Speaker A: Dun dun dun. Man, this one's sad. I because I had gone really heavily into the believing the whole like financial situation that MCO's parent company is in. We talked about that on a previous episode as well. I've talked about behind the scenes with some folks to be like I think we're getting JoJo back or at least I don't think I'm going to keeping him because I don't think they have the money. Like they're going to have to find some way to actually pay for his new contract and from my understanding of where they were they just didn't have any capital to do so maybe they got more funding, maybe they took out more loans or maybe it was overblown. Whatever it is, they found the money to keep JoJo and JoJo will not be coming home. I mean he'll be here for Worlds but not competing. [00:07:55] Speaker C: What I heard, I think Jojo is like the in now in the top three highest paid LEC players. [00:08:06] Speaker A: Oh gaps behind. [00:08:08] Speaker C: I don't know who else is up there but I know he's behind caps. [00:08:13] Speaker A: It was actually surprised me if Kalisp was paid that much. He's still like sophomore year. [00:08:17] Speaker B: I still think that Casey would throw a bag at him very early on. [00:08:23] Speaker C: Oh, yeah, you would. [00:08:24] Speaker B: Yeah, you would have to think that at least. [00:08:29] Speaker A: But at least Caps is like the name that immediately comes to mind. That would be ahead of him. No surprise though, that he would after this weekend. [00:08:36] Speaker C: There's no surprise as to why Amcoy threw the bag at him. Like, yeah, you can't let him go. [00:08:45] Speaker B: That's pretty good. [00:08:46] Speaker A: He. [00:08:46] Speaker C: He and Eloya are your core. El Yoya is El Capitan. But Jojo is like that star mid laner who has a lot of ups and downs, but on his ups he can beat anybody. The issue is just on his downs, he can kind of be beat by anybody. [00:09:06] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:09:07] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:09:09] Speaker A: All right, Badger, what do we think then? Does this. Would this have happened if they did not qualify for Worlds? If MCO bombed out of playoffs, it didn't make worlds. Hypothetical world. Do you think he still signs, or do you think they only got him because they were able to squeak in? [00:09:28] Speaker B: I. I'm under the impression that they were able to sneak in. So he's like, yeah, I'll stick around. I like it here. I mean, his prospects might have been pretty good if he would have came back to America. I mean, we've talked about it before. Like, that maybe a shopify. If they move off as any. Maybe, maybe he becomes the centerpiece of like the dig rebuild. Who knows? [00:09:51] Speaker A: Like, oh my God, could you imagine? [00:09:55] Speaker C: There's money in the world to bring JoJo to Dignitas. [00:09:59] Speaker A: Wait, okay, let's. Let's spend. Let's spend a quick two minutes on this Denethor. They get Dardoch back because if they get JoJo, they probably get Dardoch. What's the bot lane? FBI, [00:10:11] Speaker C: right? To bring JoJo in, dude, you need ruler carry it to bring JoJo in. If you have that top lane, [00:10:24] Speaker A: you know, you know, screw it. They could afford the import. If it's Den of Thor and it's Dardoc and it's JoJo, they get. They get Ruler. They get Ruler bot lane and they get carry a support. [00:10:36] Speaker B: You know what? He's got a point. [00:10:37] Speaker A: I think that dignity. I would watch that digit team. I. I would rank them pretty highly. Honestly, didn't bring in a star bot [00:10:46] Speaker C: lane like that and did just have FBI plus insert tier 2 middle support alongside Denethor and Dardoch. That is the prototypical definition of a Ferrari or Maserati or whatever the sports car is in the Trailer park. [00:11:02] Speaker A: Yeah, unfortunately. Hey, maybe Denver pops up. Maybe he just needed a stable mini. Okay, that's enough time on that hypothet. Big news for JoJo and Emcoy fans. So congratulations, McCoy fans. I'm salty about it, but I got to give you props for keeping him. One other thing happening is military service being delayed for two Korean imports over in the lec. Noah and June have both had their mandatory military service delayed by a year. If you're unaware is the thing that happens all the time with Korean players, even in the lck, but then also when they travel abroad and are playing in a different region. The government of South Korea mandates military service is a common thing in many countries around the world. South Korea is one of them. And you can just get it delayed if you have like a worker visa or you have something else like you, you can kind of appeal to the government to say, hey, I'm busy, so can we delay it? Most pro Korean players do this, and usually I think 28. I want to say, like once you can really only delay it so long and once you hit like 28 or 29, then it's like, no, now you have to do it. Because I think Bevoy is at that point where at the end of this year he might have to go back or maybe it was next year, I don't remember. But I know, I know he B boy is also coming up at some point on that number too. [00:12:24] Speaker B: So. [00:12:24] Speaker A: Yeah, but shout out no engine. They'll stick around presumably in the LEC for another year. That's all the roster news and rumors that we had. So let's talk more about our worlds. Check in. Bickle, how many more teams have qualified for the World Championships since last week when we last checked in? [00:12:44] Speaker C: We're getting close to it. As time goes on, more and more comes up. We got five new teams qualifying for Worlds. We already talked about the fact that MCOI will join the leagues of European representatives. LCS had their first two teams qualify in Cloud9 and Team Liquid and the LPL wrapped up their regional finals to lock in their next two teams. And the west is screaming for joy as top Esports will be heading Worlds alongside once again. [00:13:14] Speaker A: Somehow they returned everybody Top Esports back at the international stage. It is so funny that they just keep doing it, man. Like, how are they getting away with this? [00:13:24] Speaker C: And what's interesting, for the first time, I think ever, the LPL is sending the same four teams they sent last year to Worlds. People forget IG went to worlds last year because they lost the best of five planes to the eventual world champions T1. [00:13:42] Speaker A: I totally forgot about that. Yeah, that was the plans with just those two teams. [00:13:46] Speaker C: Yeah, it was a single best of five. [00:13:49] Speaker A: How great that we spent time doing that. [00:13:51] Speaker C: God, IG was such a good team. They would have made quarters, maybe depending on matchup would have hit semis. But they just had to play T1 in plans, so it doesn't matter. [00:14:03] Speaker B: Yeah. Just casually. [00:14:04] Speaker C: Hey, I'm not salty whatsoever. [00:14:06] Speaker B: You're. You're. You have to play T1 and play it. It's good luck. [00:14:10] Speaker A: IG were really good, but unfortunately Riot needs to sell world skins, so gets the buff going. But that is. [00:14:19] Speaker B: They were better. They were good on paper, but unfortunately the game is played on grass or [00:14:26] Speaker A: the game is played on money. Digits. Bitcoin, something like that. [00:14:32] Speaker B: I don't know. [00:14:33] Speaker A: I don't understand how that all works. But five more teams have joined in now, so congratulations to those five. And now a couple of regions. Actually, the majority of regions have all of their teams locked, as well as CD and LCK. Gen G HLE, T1 and Dom Juan Kia LPL have anyone's legend. BLG Top Esports and IG LCP with Team Secret Whales, Fine Oysters and then the Vikings LEC with G2M Koi. NKC. That's right. That is the proper CDN for the LEC. We're about to talk about it here. And then LCS with just C9 and Team Liquid and then a mystery team gonna be playing for seating cb. [00:15:08] Speaker C: Lol. [00:15:08] Speaker A: They'll determine theirs even after lcs. So good old America's taking their time and there's no like big LPL update or LCK update because LCK is done. Yeah, LPL just qualified the two teams. So that's it. [00:15:21] Speaker C: Thing ongoing right now is the World Star Challengers Invitational, which is basically tier two worlds. [00:15:28] Speaker B: Yep. [00:15:29] Speaker C: Yeah, that's tier two worlds. And for anybody who hasn't caught it, right now, one region is absolutely dominating the competition having only lost to themselves. No, it's not Korea, it's Europe. [00:15:44] Speaker B: Yep. [00:15:44] Speaker A: Damn. They are a unaware of this. [00:15:48] Speaker C: Yeah, they're 11 in one. Their only game drop has been to themselves. Movie star Koi is 4 0, Solari is 4. No. And Galleons is 3 in 1 having dropped a game to Solaris. Korea also looks good with T1 Academy and D Plus challengers looking solid. The big game that everyone's gonna be watching, Cupid also at 3 and 1. Looking good. They'll probably make it Out. But people are excited to see the Cupid versus D plus Kia rematch. [00:16:19] Speaker A: That's cool, dude. This is like a proper world. I'm looking at the league. There's four groups. That's all like old school worlds. I miss group stage worlds. I know Swiss is almost just definitively better for competitive integrity, but man, I do miss like having these. This like format. [00:16:38] Speaker C: It's a crazy time. We have tier two worlds, we have NIT worlds and then we have actual worlds. [00:16:46] Speaker B: Yep. [00:16:47] Speaker A: We have the losers world as I like to call it with Demacia Cup. [00:16:50] Speaker C: I'm gonna be honest, I'm really excited for Demacia cup with some of the teams that are there. [00:16:55] Speaker B: Oh, Tomas is gonna be so. [00:16:57] Speaker C: Oh my God. It's gon such so much chaos. It's going to be made. Assuming that it is in all likelihood Fly Quest and Shopify that go for the LCS. There's gonna be some bangers. [00:17:10] Speaker A: I'm very excited for FlyQuest. I'm actually weirdly less excited for Shopify to go after the interview contracts gave at the end of the series where they beat Sentinels. We'll talk more about that later. But the spirit of the team feels like it's already dead. [00:17:26] Speaker C: I think that was more they realized they played like shit in that last game and pulled off. Miracle. [00:17:34] Speaker B: Yes. Like I think calling it a miracle is an understanding as to what we witnessed. [00:17:41] Speaker C: I mean, I'm happy because personally I'd rather see this Shopify roster more than I like to see that Sentinel roster. [00:17:52] Speaker A: But we do know where the LAC representatives are going to be, right? Because now it's Navi and it is Navi and Vitality. [00:18:00] Speaker C: We get to see Reletch and Knock Knocko against international players. [00:18:04] Speaker A: I'm very excited for that. [00:18:05] Speaker C: Give me Relax versus Monkey. Give it to me. [00:18:10] Speaker B: Yes. [00:18:11] Speaker A: All right. Little teaser. Something to look forward to going forward. We'll actually be talking about that very soon because I'm just realizing that starts up next week. It starts up like right before LCS playoffs. Or maybe it starts like the weekend of LCS players. [00:18:26] Speaker B: Okay. [00:18:27] Speaker A: So it starts the same weekend as LCS playoffs. So we can do a little mini preview on next week's episode. Most of next week we'll be talking about lcs. LCS Finals Preview. But since there will be no LEC to talk about, I think we'll have time to to cover the Damasi cup as well. [00:18:41] Speaker B: Cool. [00:18:41] Speaker A: That is it for news though. If we missed anything that you wish we had talked about, you know what to do. Let us know in the community. Discord. You can find a link in the description wherever you are listening. Also, shout out to anybody who supports the podcast either through our merch store or through the Patreon. Links to both of those is also in the description. And with that being said, it's time to talk about the leagues themselves. We're gonna start off in the LEC over because they've already wrapped up their playoffs. This past weekend was finals weekend. We can put a nice little bow on the 2026 season for them as we have the world's representatives and the rest of the teams will be either preparing for Demacia cup, which actually is a nice little consolation prize, or looking at the off season three series happened this past weekend. Bickle, I'm going to toss it over to you to intro us in for the lec. What happened, who beat who and who walked away as summer split champions. Sure thing. [00:19:35] Speaker C: So we came in with four remaining, the G2 sitting at the top of the mountain waiting in finals KC in the match below that. But to round us to start we had Navi versus McCoy in the battle for Worlds. It was whoever wins this takes that final slot. And to some surprise, but no real surprise, McCoy comes out on top of the and the teams we expected to go to worlds coming into this year of KCG2 and MKOY are the three teams that go. No major surprises there. Match two is where it gets interesting as in France we get Casey the absolute favorites, undefeated champions of summer regular season going up. [00:20:26] Speaker A: Never lost in front of a French crowd. Never lost MCOH in an arena. [00:20:30] Speaker C: Yeah hometown favorites against the definite most hated team there, the Villains. Casey with every member of their team being first team all pro, having the MVP and callist. They just get 3 OD by MCOH. [00:20:51] Speaker B: They got throttled. [00:20:52] Speaker C: Yeah the hell they threw a lot. And yeah then MCOI continues their miracle journey and climbs to the top of the mountain only to get spartan kicked down by G2 who just definitively state themselves as the best team in Europe. Europe is still a one team region that is undeniable. That is caps 18th LEC title. That is G2's 20th. [00:21:21] Speaker A: Oh now title is an important word there. That's the operative word. It's getting a little funky with the change to the three split system. [00:21:30] Speaker C: Ye because they went three splits. Then they also had two years where they also had the LEC championships as like se where it's like the championship title, summer title. [00:21:42] Speaker A: Yeah but yeah trophy wise it's a little Funky. It's not 20 splits that they've won. It's not close. [00:21:50] Speaker C: It's 20 titles they've won. Caps has 16 of G2's titles and 2 of Fanatics. Wow. [00:21:59] Speaker B: Yes. [00:22:00] Speaker A: 16 out of 20 from the org belong to Caps. Yeah. I still. Nobody in the region has been able to step up to him when it matters. There's been contenders, but nobody that can really get across that finish line. [00:22:13] Speaker C: I think the next closest of most titles without having played with Caps is Eliolia with four. [00:22:24] Speaker B: Whoa. Yeah. [00:22:25] Speaker A: That's more than I. [00:22:26] Speaker B: Sounds about right. [00:22:28] Speaker C: It's either four or three. I can't remember. [00:22:32] Speaker A: Man. One day. One day somebody's gonna step up to G2's Etsy Witches. It's gonna happen. They're gonna find a way to get rid of the curse. Yeah, it's impressive. Lebrov also having a pop off performance. I. I loved to see him kind of silence the haters in this past series and in this past year as well. Like, he's just stepped up so much. Like in Ms. Or not. Yeah, it was msi. Or was it lock in. Yeah, it was lock in. That Lebrov, LeBron. They're not LeBron. Boss. You might had his moment. He got his flowers now Lebrov gets his flowers here in summer. The two newer additions to the G2 squad that I think were on the receiving end of a lot of the flame whenever G2 wouldn't look dominant. I think this year they've. They've both had their individual moments to really shine, which I think is just a nice little bow on top of that narrative as well. [00:23:24] Speaker C: Definitely. [00:23:27] Speaker A: Let's talk about. So that's everything that happened. Let's break down some of what happened here. Since we already know the end, let's just start at the top. G2 is going as the number one seed for Euro. Nobody was really able to contest them. Still in the playoffs, they went 303130. They only dropped a game to KC in the postseason. And Casey were kind of the supposed to be the promised team to step up and maybe challenge them in the finals. Obviously they. They botched it. But what do we think about G2 going into this year's worlds? Like, is this any different? Do you feel any. Any type of way that's unique to this version, this instance of G2? Or do you expect it to be same old, same old? Like, maybe they take down an LPL team in Swiss, maybe they get quarters, potentially semis. But like, that's probably the ceiling. [00:24:18] Speaker C: G2 has not lost a playoff series in the LEC. This year they went through the upper bracket and won all three titles. And they've already shown this year that they can compete with some of those top teams. They beat Gen G and Fex at first stand. They beat Top Esports and T1 at MSI. Like I'd say for them it should be quarters at a minimum and people will likely be disappointed if they don't make semis. [00:24:54] Speaker B: Yeah, it just feels like this team is destined just to make top eight at every single world. It's like they, they do well against like the 3rd seed 4 seed LPL and like 4th seed Korea every. Every world cycle and they're just the best of the. Of every other region team. So they're just destined at this point. They'll. They'll go like 3:1 in Swiss. They'll get an unfavorable draw in the quarterfinals and they'll eventually they'll lose to the eventual world champions. [00:25:27] Speaker A: That's just the. [00:25:28] Speaker B: The destiny unfortunately for G. They'll lose [00:25:31] Speaker A: the T1 and Swiss stage and then [00:25:34] Speaker B: they'll have characteristic losses Swiss that'll drop them down to 3 and 1. They'll get an unfavorable matchup in the first part of. [00:25:41] Speaker C: You know, especially, especially considering the teams the LPL and LCK are sending. I think G2 should be heavily favored to make it out of Swiss as a top 18. [00:25:57] Speaker B: Okay, cool. [00:25:59] Speaker A: I think that that's often where they find themselves. I kind of teed up the question. I may be a little too biased into how I already feel about it. I feel like this is going to be about the exact same as the last two years of G2 where I'm like yeah, they're gonna do some damage. They're probably gonna be the best performing Western team at worlds. But I don't think that they're gonna. Them are lying. [00:26:23] Speaker B: Honestly and legitimately. [00:26:25] Speaker A: I think that if we count our lucky stars, if we say our grace and prayers right now and we start being really good boys and girls, I think that we can just lock into lion versus G2 in the quarterfinals. If we get that, then Lions go top four, baby. [00:26:41] Speaker B: Let's go. [00:26:42] Speaker C: That require actually it does take three. [00:26:47] Speaker B: Both of them. Both of them go through. Yeah. [00:26:50] Speaker C: I mean even 3:1 versus 3:2 is possible there. [00:26:54] Speaker A: Oh, okay. I like that even more because that lion can drop our two. [00:26:59] Speaker C: It's three two has a better chance to draw. These are the three zero teams. But it just takes some work. Technically chaos timeline. Say lion obviously beats whoever comes out Of. Of the lower bracket here and then makes top three locking worlds, but then loses and ends up in planes. Say lion makes it into plant, makes it through planes. We could get round one G2 versus Lion to start of worlds. [00:27:31] Speaker A: Oh, that would be pretty hype, though. [00:27:34] Speaker C: It would only be a best of one. [00:27:36] Speaker A: Ah, never mind. I don't want it. I. I need a. I need the full. [00:27:39] Speaker B: But then that would set them up perfectly so that it's like, okay, well, G2 loses the lion game right off the rip. We're getting way too much, like, down in the thick of it, like, doing this. But this is the script of, like, G2 loses to Lion Night one day, one game one of the tournament, and that sets up lion to go two and one over the next, like three games. And they go three and. Oh, it's just. It all just adds up, you know? Yeah. [00:28:07] Speaker A: Okay, maybe a rematch. Maybe that's what we get them between the two later in the tournament. Well, either way, that's where we all land on G2. Actually, Badger, were you able to give any of your thoughts on G2 and just. [00:28:17] Speaker B: Yeah, I. They'll make. They'll make top eight. They'll lose to the eventual world champions. Like, that's just how this team is destined to play at this point. [00:28:26] Speaker A: That is how it always goes. That how it do be. Let's talk about the other teams from EU then, as they're going to be looking at worlds and also kind of assess what happened. What the hell happened to Casey? How. How do you look that good for that long? I guess you can also ask vitality this question from SP split and even honestly from this last split. But, like, they just completely botched the series in front of the home crowd. That had never happened before. [00:28:53] Speaker B: The lights were. [00:28:54] Speaker C: Long story short, they choke. [00:28:57] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:28:57] Speaker C: Yeah, that's it. They forgot how to teamfight. They threw some fights they absolutely shouldn't have. They were in winning positions in two of the three games against Amcoy and then just forgot how to play the game. [00:29:15] Speaker B: Yeah, they just forgot. [00:29:16] Speaker C: He had cleanse and QSS for a solid two seconds after be hitting my multiple charms. [00:29:22] Speaker B: Yeah, they just were. They just were setting themselves up into situations where they were trying to take, like, ego fights. And Coy was already onto the objective. Like, Casey was just late to every major objective. Minor objective of turret rotation, lane swap. It just everything. Koi just had all of the tempo on them and it was just creating circumstances where they just weren't able to dig themselves out of the mud. And it led to, you know, this three zero that everyone was surprised by. But when you go back and you watch the tape, like, Coy played really well. [00:29:55] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:29:56] Speaker A: Specifically, we already highlighted Jojo and Elio got much of a. Much the better of Yike in that series. I. I was so excited going into the finals against G2 because I was like, oh, God, like, the. They're making the miracle run. Like, they got all the momentum and like, Eloya and Jojo are playing like a top five mid jungle. Do it. No, I'm not gonna make the meme. [00:30:16] Speaker B: That's. [00:30:17] Speaker A: They weren't that good, but still, they looked. They look good for Cubby. Yeah. Shout out C. You know, we never even, like, talked about that on the podcast. We should. We should do like a little memorial for him. Shout out Cubby, who just announced his retirement. If you watch Hotline league or. Or any of tier 2, you'll know the name. But keeping on. On top on topic here. Yeah, I just felt like mid jungle better for McCoy and my goat. Merwin was able to hold it down in the top lane. We did get to see some fun stuff this past weekend from him. He played the Varys. You know, like, this is when the mkoy looks the best, is when they actually allow Merwin to play some of the wackier things that he's known for. Like Gallio top in game two versus Casey as well. I know that's not like super wacky, but, like, it had been a minute and then the Shyvana was just chef's kiss. [00:31:09] Speaker C: I think holding it down is an understatement because Merwin popped off and kind of just gapped Kana though we would see. [00:31:18] Speaker A: Not the expectation. [00:31:19] Speaker C: No. But then again, you have to remember Connor got gapped by Oscar in and last year in a world qualifying series. So true comma doesn't do well under pressure, it seems. [00:31:33] Speaker A: Yeah, but that's Shyvana. Last pick there for mcoh in the top lane. Completely shut down MKOI. Like, what the hell is LeBlanc supposed to do once there's a Kiana Shyvana on the enemy team? It's like. [00:31:46] Speaker C: I mean, game three draft was just [00:31:50] Speaker A: something they tickle that this was the tickle comp. It's like, oh, Gucci goo. [00:31:54] Speaker C: Game three seemed to really channel reapered. [00:31:58] Speaker A: Yeah. And that. Oh, I'm happy you bring that up because that's like the. The meme going around right now is C9 wasn't cursed. They just had a reaper. And reaper was the one who was cursed in these worlds qualify moments now they did still qualify for Worlds but yeah I think Reaper has shown unfortunately the trend of not scaling meta read throughout the year like coming in with a really solid understanding but then by the end of the year they're getting out drafted. [00:32:31] Speaker C: So question regarding you guys for mco they kept the same roster from last year to this year year I think still very excited with the results. So they keep going forward but after getting stomped by G2 you gotta feel something changes next year right? [00:32:50] Speaker B: Stop the ball. Yeah I tell you that much. I it's honestly the only thing that they could do in this situation is if Knack Knacko leaves Vitality. Go get Knack Naco. To play top lane for this team [00:33:03] Speaker A: like that would be huge. You know I feel like top is the the focus again. I love you Merwin but if if MCO is trying to make a change, it's got to be Merwin. [00:33:13] Speaker C: Merwin and super are the only two that haven't signed contract extensions yet. The other three are under contract next year. [00:33:19] Speaker A: Yep, sure. I mean Alvaro was another one that came to mind but if he's already extended then yeah it would be Super Kasupa man, he's sometimes has these pop off moments but he also can't just throw. [00:33:32] Speaker C: Only thing I was thinking was maybe. [00:33:41] Speaker A: You'd like Yappa over Supa if you [00:33:43] Speaker C: need to change something, give it a try. He looked really promising as a rookie. Yeah he has those pop off moments but I don't think he has those sames. I'm gonna randomly in the game moments [00:33:55] Speaker A: but I think hopefully not gonna die mid lane overextended as Ezreal nearly as [00:34:01] Speaker C: much as I think Knock Knocko is the call. It's just I don't see Vitality letting him go. [00:34:08] Speaker A: If Vitality lose Knock Knocko I think their off season is so yeah. Although if you believe the rumors Nakanako and Cars you're going to fanatic. So yeah I might have gotten baited by a tweet everybody. That's not happening that that that information. [00:34:25] Speaker B: If you see if you see a tweet about him going to fight Fnatic it's bait. Kangas fell for it. Everyone point and laugh. Haha. [00:34:32] Speaker A: It kind of made some sense. I mean fanatics already try to make big money moves in the off season. I was like I could see it, [00:34:41] Speaker C: saw that posted it baited Duffy at which point multiple of us let him know he'd been baited. [00:34:46] Speaker A: Yep. But the I think the key takeaway is that Duffy fell for it. [00:34:52] Speaker B: So who's the idiot. [00:34:53] Speaker A: You know, really? You know, me and him lock step as hosts of this podcast. There's actually a test you have to take to become host of League Rundown and if you score too high, you can't get the job. You got to score low enough on GU cognitive ability. [00:35:10] Speaker B: Okay. [00:35:11] Speaker A: The last team to talk about here, not too much talk about, just because we're not gonna see them at Worlds, but we still. We'll see them at the masi Cup. Navi vs MKOI. They got a game. They got the one game to start off the series. How do we feel about Navi and Reletch's development throughout the year? Because Reletra kind of is the team. Like that's what we think about or that's at least what I think about every time I hear the name. Navi [00:35:37] Speaker C: is that franchise's player and he will be what they build around. Honestly, that should have been a3.0, but then McOid decided to do MKOI things and throw the game. So that's how Navi got a game. But yeah, Relatch is what they're gonna build that franchise around. I expect them to probably find a new bot lane next year. Year would be my guess of what changes. I could see them keeping Maintour and maybe Poby. Poby had some ups and downs, but yeah, future's bright for them based solely around. [00:36:16] Speaker A: And they also have time to figure out what they want to do for any changes because they have Demacia Cups, they get another opportunity to go get some international competition. [00:36:24] Speaker C: I think getting that experience to play some international teams and getting to experience more of that is going to be extremely beneficial for him. And it's part of the reason I think having Demacia cup is such a good idea and I think it'll be beneficial for a lot of the younger players in the scene on these not top tier teams. So they still get that experience. [00:36:49] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly. [00:36:50] Speaker B: Yeah, it's. [00:36:51] Speaker A: I know it's a little harsh to say like, oh, losers, Worlds. Because I am actually positive overall on it being a thing. I think it's really, really cool to see it. We get more international competitions for the teams that aren't the best in the region because that will only level up theoretically every region. [00:37:09] Speaker C: Oh, I'm. I'm just realizing this is completely not an LEC topic. But Shopify is going to Demac cup because they're not making this. We know this. We might get BDD versus Zinni at at Tomas. [00:37:20] Speaker A: Oh my God. We could get Poby versus Any at the Mosi Cup? That'd be kind of interesting, huh? It's a lot of interesting mid lane matchups there. [00:37:30] Speaker C: BDD is going to be looking around saying, how the hell did I end it up here? [00:37:36] Speaker A: It's gonna be great when we beat him. Let's go. All those indies making worlds. I don't know what you're talking about, man. It's gonna be Saint versus bdd. Could you imagine? All right, any other final thoughts on LEC? That's the year. That's their entire 2026 wrapped up. It's just going to be Demasi cup and Worlds. [00:37:57] Speaker C: Can I make my 2020 now and just put G2 in for all the titles again? [00:38:02] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Go for it. [00:38:03] Speaker C: Okay, perfect. I'm calling it now. I know it's a big shot. Yep. [00:38:07] Speaker A: Way too early hot take. Way too early hot take to say that. [00:38:15] Speaker B: Really bold move to say that. [00:38:17] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. [00:38:19] Speaker A: I, you know, enjoy the hate mail from all the people that disagree with you. And by that I mean you can probably just like not check the mail. I don't think you're gonna get any. Do people check their mail still? Is that like a thing? I have a post box downstairs. [00:38:35] Speaker B: Yeah, you should probably check your mail. [00:38:38] Speaker C: Oh, yeah. [00:38:39] Speaker A: Nah, I don't send me anything. I don't need bank statements or tax documents or to know when I got a parking ticket. [00:38:46] Speaker B: Whatever. [00:38:47] Speaker A: Just ignore that shit. [00:38:48] Speaker B: It goes away. [00:38:50] Speaker A: This is not legal advice. Okay, let's talk about LCS over the seas in North America. All right. We had another weekend of playoffs and another weekend ahead of us of playoffs and then we have our finals. So there's still a lot of LCs action to talk about and be breaking down here. We're well behind the LEC on their schedule. And I gotta say, this last weekend of games for the most part very much delivered. Two out of the three series were bangers. Badger, I'm gonna toss this one to you to set up who played whom this last weekend in the LCS and who walked away as Victors. [00:39:33] Speaker B: So last weekend we had started the weekend off with a wonderful series that was Sentinels versus Shopify Rebellion. Loser leaves town, Loser doesn't go to Demacia Cup. Stakes were high and both of these [00:39:49] Speaker A: teams very much chasing the Demacia cup, [00:39:52] Speaker B: very much chasing that demac birth. So Sentinels comes out pretty strong, takes a 20 lead. And I'm like, all right, cool. You know, do the 3 0. Maybe the 3 1. Let's get this over with. [00:40:08] Speaker A: Dominant too, like disgusting. [00:40:10] Speaker B: Let's just. Let's just put the Shopify roster to bed. [00:40:14] Speaker A: Figure out the old man need a nap. [00:40:16] Speaker B: Figure out what's going on with it. All right, cool. Whatever. And then Shopify was the game. [00:40:25] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:40:26] Speaker B: And then they win another game, and I'm like, oh, oh, we're going Silver Scripts. Oh, this is interesting, huh? Kind of crazy how this is working out. And then Sentinels, you know, just starts to take this gigantic lead. You know, getting map control, getting all the dragons. They're getting soul. They've got Barons. They're getting the pressure down. And then the elder dragon spawns. And I watched a misfortune bullet. Time out. Smite did it out Smite. Or did he smite? And it was 1hp. [00:41:05] Speaker C: He didn't smite it. [00:41:06] Speaker B: Yes. [00:41:06] Speaker A: Humbug never pressed Smite. [00:41:08] Speaker B: Humbuck never pressed Smite. And Shopify steals the elder and wins the series. It's. I was in such disbelief. The clip of Rob Moore losing his on stream. You could just see him die inside watching this happen. Meanwhile, Ludwig, who's a known Shopify like, investor, is, oh, ecstatic that his team steals this objective and wins the series and what I'm calling the throw of the century, essentially, because how do you. Your enemy Juggler is dead. There is no or not dead. [00:41:57] Speaker A: He wasn't dead. [00:42:01] Speaker C: He was like a quarter health from being choked chunked by dark. [00:42:03] Speaker B: Quarter health. And he's poppy alt it away. It's the easiest smite in the world to hit. Hey, once it gets to, like, 1100, you don't have to do it right at 1200 because you. You got the full. You got the full damage, whatever. [00:42:17] Speaker A: Yep. It got 890. And then Zinni threw out a rise queue to chunk it. And then the bullet time wave. Got it. [00:42:27] Speaker B: Yes. Oh, [00:42:32] Speaker A: so disgusting. [00:42:33] Speaker B: Shopify steals the series. You know, shades of the thieves, the way they made off like bandits taking care of that one. So still know how that one worked out. So they won. And then now we go back up to the upper bracket. Oh, yeah, we're getting into these top four games. All right, let's go, let's go. Let's see what we got. See what we got. [00:42:56] Speaker A: Winner goes to Worlds. [00:42:57] Speaker B: Winner girls to Worlds. Oh, we'll see that break the curse. Lion, they got the full roster. They gotta lock in. They did not lock in. They did not. C9 kind of just gentlemen sweeped them or no. Did lion won game one. [00:43:14] Speaker A: Game two. [00:43:15] Speaker B: That's what it was. Oh, yeah, that's right. Because we got the. Because it was the oh, we got a series. [00:43:19] Speaker A: But C9 almost came back like C9 was pushing into their base and like like taken in him. [00:43:26] Speaker C: C9 had it then through then lion through then C9 tried to keep pushing and overextended and lion won in the end. [00:43:34] Speaker B: It's kind of impressive that lion lost in a four zero banner that the way that they did because they definitely pulled that last game out of their. That game two out of their ass. [00:43:42] Speaker C: Game two, there was like a five minute non stop fighting of like chaining deaths back and forth. Fourth that ends at elder with an attempted back door by Cloud nine that gets called by Dokla, stops it and then lion takes the elder and wins the game. [00:44:02] Speaker A: It was ridiculous. And then the rest of the series happened and C9 just out played Lion. Specifically game 4. Like they hard targeted Dokla in that sideline. He died twice in like the first 10 minutes because they just were like shut down the gnar. Get rid of Dokla. He's kind of the weak link of this roster that not every team has had the willingness to say just camp him and like try and get our laner ahead. But when you have a laner like Thanatos, yeah I think you actually can consider him a win condition if he can get fed. [00:44:34] Speaker C: It looked like lion were tilted after game three where it took until 26 and change for there to be first blood. Like it was. [00:44:44] Speaker A: Yep. [00:44:45] Speaker C: It was a slow game. I think it was was the second longest first blood in LCS history. [00:44:51] Speaker A: It was 15 seconds away from the title y and the the first blow that happened was aisles just out of position too far forward on Alistair dies and then there's not another kill for like five more minutes. So if he hadn't just gotten picked randomly then this we could have smashed the record. It would have been crazy. [00:45:14] Speaker C: Yeah, it was. It was a game. And then game four, like it was nearly a perfect game. It just wasn't a perfect game because lion got a dragon. They had no kills, no towers. [00:45:26] Speaker A: Very one sided by the end of it. I think tilt is the right word that I would use to describe how lion played the rest of that series after. Even after game two, like even after their win, it still felt like they were not happy with where things were going. There was a big Rigby interview. I don't know if you guys caught this Rigby coach, draft coach, strategic coach for them. Did an interview with Cloud Sid Key where he was explaining. He was like yeah, I know inspired. Has used the term NPC before and like that's what it sounded like in like listening to the game is it was just everybody being quiet, waiting to hear Casper tell them what to do. And he was just playing with a bunch of NPCs and I was like, oh, that's not good. [00:46:09] Speaker B: That doesn't. [00:46:11] Speaker A: That's not good when your coach is just saying that in an interview publicly. Yeah. So I'm a little concerned if that's what lion looks like against either Fly Quest or Shopify. I think it probably beat Shopify. But like if Fly Quest comes in hungry and that's a version of lion we get, it's really scary because that's not the lion that's going to be defending their title and looking good at Worlds, let alone making Worlds. They now have a potential future where they don't even qualify because they got knocked into the lower bracket during the qualification match by C9. Finally ending the curse. That was a cathartic moment for C9 fans around the world to breathe a sigh of relief. The amount of clenched buttholes that just relaxed in that moment when they hit the deck in game four. Oh, just thunderous applause because it had been a long time since C9 had made it to an international. Especially made it to Worlds. Big celebrating moment for them. So shout out C9. Well deserved. Where do we want to go with this one, Bickle? I want to get your thoughts in general on either team. I'll let you pick. Do you want to go pros for C9 or do you want to talk about concerns for Lion? [00:47:32] Speaker C: Well, this is a reminder to everybody that lion picked to be on this side of the bracket. [00:47:36] Speaker A: Yeah. Yep. [00:47:37] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:47:37] Speaker C: Which was a choice. I think C9 looked solid and has reasons to be excited. But to me, the bigger story of the series was lion underperforming and it is concerning for them going internationally, be it Demacia cup or Worlds. I mean, supposedly they wanted to avoid Fly Quest and. And now they can't. And that will be their world's qualifying series, provided FlyQuest doesn't lose to Shopify. [00:48:11] Speaker A: Yeah. Which they should be favored to win that, but I think that's gonna be a very scrappy, not clean best of five from either team. I think it's crazy that lion are in that spot. [00:48:23] Speaker C: I think lion will take this as a wake up call and clean it up. Lion is still the team I think will win the lcs, but this needs to be a wake up call. [00:48:36] Speaker A: Agreed. Badger, Same thing. You can talk about both or you can talk about either one. Who do you want to focus on [00:48:41] Speaker B: C9 lion, you know, I'll turn alternative. The C9 Angles. Good for them. Honestly. You know, haven't been to world since 2023. Wasn't the best showing back then. A legacy organization making it back to the pinnacle of League of Legends. Good for dub. You know, tumultuous. Like starts the season of like going playing really well in the regular seasons and then just falling off a cliff in playoffs. Like good on you, honestly. So I'll just give credit where credit is due. Good for them. Because it was kind of shaky. You know, we came in, the expectation was like, well, maybe this team won't make it to Worlds. Like it's a wild thing to think about given how storied of a franchise they are. So. [00:49:26] Speaker A: Right. [00:49:27] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:49:28] Speaker A: Is crazy to think about. Also what's crazy to think about. I heard this on the the JAT and Vetti podcast. The blanking on the title of of the podcast. [00:49:42] Speaker C: Mind the gap. [00:49:43] Speaker A: Mind the gap. Thank you. That C9 are the best performing NAT historically at Worlds. We know that from the semi finals, but also that they made quarterfinals five times. [00:50:00] Speaker B: 2013, 13, 14, 17, 18 and 21. Was it 21? [00:50:09] Speaker A: I did not. It was perks realize that is the majority of years that C9 has gone to Worlds. I think they've gone to eight Worlds and they've made quarters five times. That's insane. [00:50:26] Speaker C: 2013, there's a little bit of an asterisk because they were directly seated in two quarters. [00:50:33] Speaker B: So I made it. [00:50:35] Speaker C: True. [00:50:35] Speaker A: Okay. I don't know how but like they [00:50:38] Speaker C: were directly seated and then instantly lost, so. [00:50:42] Speaker A: Oh, that's a bummer. They lost a fanatic. No way. [00:50:47] Speaker B: Balls. [00:50:47] Speaker A: What are you doing? That's crazy. Okay, well, hey, still, even if you only said four, that's still crazy impressive. This org. We need them back at Worlds. Like oh my God. As any fans. Like thank God C9 made it back to Worlds. Not only are they one of the last remaining like really popular brands in our region in our league. [00:51:11] Speaker C: Kangas, you short changed six times. [00:51:16] Speaker A: Six times you made quarters. Really? [00:51:18] Speaker C: 13, 14, 16, 17, 18, 21. [00:51:23] Speaker A: They made it three years in a row in 1670. [00:51:26] Speaker C: 18 is when they made sent me. [00:51:30] Speaker A: That's nuts. Unfortunately they get three OD in quarterfinals a lot. But you know, we don't have to worry about that. They also got a 30 in one of the quarters. [00:51:41] Speaker B: They did. [00:51:42] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:51:42] Speaker A: Freaks. [00:51:43] Speaker B: So yeah, we don't talk about that. Worlds. [00:51:46] Speaker C: Yeah. Oh, we talk a lot about that. World. [00:51:48] Speaker B: We talk a lot about that. For the wrong Reasons. Okay, [00:51:53] Speaker A: well, either way, it's good to have him back. It blew my mind that they've made quarterfinals that many times at World. Maybe they can do it again. Other series that happened. We haven't talked too much about the Team Liquid Fly Quest series yet. Yeah, there's a reason this one was pretty much an email. Team Liquid and Jose Deodo. Oh my goodness. Jose put on a master class of jungling and Team Liquid just kind of won around the map. It was only one of the games was pretty close and Flagpost was not able to close it out. Out. [00:52:29] Speaker B: It's. It's almost like it was the team with some of the most experienced players in all of the region and a literal world champion versus the youngest team in the lcs. [00:52:41] Speaker C: Shocker. [00:52:42] Speaker A: Yep. [00:52:43] Speaker B: Call me crazy on that one. You know, just, just, just throwing that one out there. [00:52:48] Speaker A: I'd never insult your intelligence or mental. [00:52:52] Speaker B: Most, most of the time you would do that. [00:52:54] Speaker A: But since you asked, yeah, you're crazy. [00:52:56] Speaker B: What the. [00:52:58] Speaker C: No. [00:52:59] Speaker A: Team likewise made quick work of Fly Quest and look back in dominant form. This was the conversation earlier in the split was like, okay, who wins, Team Liquid or Lion? They're play each other in Mexico. It's gonna be this big deal. Team Liquid has not dropped a game. Neither is Lion. The Team Liquid drop a game to Shopify. Freaking Rebellion. And it was like, ooh, maybe they're not as good as Line. Then they lose to Lion. It was like, oh yeah, they're not as good as Lion. But hey, only one of those two teams made fast work of their first round opponent in playoffs. Yes, I think Flag west is an easier team to beat than C9. I do still anticipate C9 being or I had been anticipating C9 being like that third team at Worlds, but I still didn't think they would get the upset. Team Liquid though showed what should happen when like one of, if not the best team plays against a team as inexperienced as Flyquest in playoffs. Yeah, I mean, honestly, not much more to talk about that. Does anybody else have any bigger points on Team Liquid Fly? [00:54:00] Speaker B: No. No, no. [00:54:02] Speaker A: Sweet. Love it. Well, if you. I always like to do this when it comes down to like series. If you don't have time to watch every single one. Giving some recommendations my once for LCS. I think Shopify Sentinels game 5 just for the WTF moment at the end. Like you kind of want to watch the whole thing to get the context of how Shopify got to that moment. But then Also all of C9, Lion, C9 lion was a banger series and actually very much delivered. Fantastic. You know, television right there. What about lec, though? We didn't do it for that one. Beck, I'm gonna throw it to you. Which series would you recommend or games from the series? Would you recommend from lec? If people want to check out some of the action but can't watch the [00:54:44] Speaker C: whole thing, I'd say McCoy versus Casey's really the one to watch the finals. Could have been a fax, not even an email. Give a page and same thing kind of goes for that. McOil versus Navi. Unless you want to check out game one to see McCoy throw. But yeah, it's. It's Sencoi versus Case. [00:55:14] Speaker A: Okay, cool. You heard it from us. That was a little rewind to the lec. Now it's back again to the LCS because we have another weekend of playoffs to predict and preview. We got Shopify Rebellion versus Fly Quest on Friday. Lion will be awaiting the winner of that on Saturday. And then Sunday we got the C9 versus TL match to determine who is making it to the grand finals. That's the upper bracket finals for those two teams. Shopify Rebellion versus Fly Quest. Split cast here. Bickles got FlyQuest 3. 0. Badger has Fly Quest 3. 1. And I don't want to say mine because I don't know what. How I curse this team positively or negatively. I feel like there's no rhyme or reason to it, but it has to be me. Like, I. There can't be anything about, like, the players actually playing the game. It's clearly just a curse that I'm putting on them every week. And I got to figure out how I'm doing doing it and how to stop it. [00:56:08] Speaker C: I will say so. [00:56:09] Speaker A: I got Shopify 3 too. [00:56:10] Speaker C: I'm so happy that Shopify managed to pull it back. So we got to see more of your video bits. [00:56:16] Speaker A: I am happy as well. We had so many of those. And I was like, we're not gonna get to see half of these just because they're gonna get swept by saddles. But then they came back. I was like, hey, let's go. Yeah. Shout out LCS socials. Who actually pitched that one? They were like, wait, Shopify, man. Kangi Savage. There's something there. And I was like, that's all I needed. Just let me. Yeah, I think maybe Shopify, If I actually had to get anal analytical about it, it would be. Cryogen is a little inexperienced as a support in playoffs. I think that Zazel is going to be Much more comfortable. And he's had this laissez faire attitude the entire time. I think Fudge is going to gap gak ghost and I think that contracts when he's in playoff form is just better Griffin like Griffin's style. I would almost compare the most to contracts in terms of what he tries to do. But contracts is obviously more experience on it. The big scary thing is then I have to actually, you know, talk about Zinni beating quad. But Zinni looks so much better this past week. Credit to Zinni, he actually stepped up [00:57:22] Speaker C: in games three and four. [00:57:24] Speaker A: In games three and four, we don't talk about game two where he played lock and just that lag how to eat did nothing. Yeah. The Lissandra engage under turret mid turret like when it's. He goes in glacial tomb and then the Wukong Cyclone to follow it up. They literally blew up three members before my brain could even process that they had engaged. I was as a play by play. [00:57:47] Speaker B: I was just like. [00:57:48] Speaker A: I don't remember what I was saying. I was saying some random BS to JAT and then they go and I [00:57:51] Speaker B: was like, oh Joe, they're all dead. Okay. [00:57:55] Speaker A: Nothing really to say there. Well, yeah, I wish I'd been paying more attention. Okay. Anyway, that's a lot of cope for Shopify to maybe take it. Either way, I think it's gonna be a sloppy series. Lion is awaiting the winner and we all think it's gonna be Lion 3 0. Okay. It doesn't matter. Fly Quest, Shopify, neither one will have a chance. The thing I I will say though for Fly Quest the the pro because both of you picked Fly Quest moving along to face Lion. Lion if you believe in the rumors. You believe how Lion's been talking like aisles on pros was given a lot of credit to Fly Quest. Behind the scenes I've heard coaches giving credit to Fly Quest. Maybe they are the kryptonite to Lions game plan. There's been rumors of them smashing scrim blocks and like going 6:1 against them in in scrim days and stuff like that. So I think that and that like that all being why lion was majority saying let's not play on the Flyquest side of the bracket. Now they have to play against FlyQuest. So now we actually get an answer if Flyquest can be Shopify of like why was lion afraid? If they were or was that all overblown. Then it comes to Sunday C9 versus Team Liquid. Okay, well we all think it's TL. I got three zero biggles got three, zero badges. Got three one. Badger, I'll throw it to you because you're the one least back in your boys. I assume you're sitting in your team Liquid chair. [00:59:21] Speaker B: I am crazy on my team Liquid, Jerry. I just think that C9 showed it off to me and the games the other day. That there is. There's the potential that they take. They take. Can take a game off of them. Maybe two games. I feel really confident that it's just gonna be. I mean, Thanatos could be neutralized by Lord Morgan. And I'm still like. Like actually, you know what unrated fact, underrated factor in all of this. This is the Tactical revenge series. Okay. Ooh. [00:59:56] Speaker A: Against his old org. [00:59:57] Speaker B: Against his old org. You know, secure your top two. Oh. Dodge the play ins. It's like I'm. He's gonna make it personal. But then at the same time, on the other side of the Rift core, JJ knows exactly how Tactical wants to play the game. [01:00:10] Speaker A: Ah, true. The master versus the student. [01:00:13] Speaker B: Student years, you know, student versus the master. One of them. [01:00:18] Speaker A: Although it is crazy to think how many teams Tactical has been on since he was on Team Liquid. He was on tsm. I always forget that he was on Immortals. Tsm. He was on Immortals. That's the one I do remember because that one did not go well. Honestly. TSM didn't go well either. And then tier 2 and now back to C9. So he's only played. Actually, no, I'm not gonna say. Because that Immortals roster was due to. And they were already bad before he joined. I was gonna say he only played on a elite rosters or like good teams. But Immortals, yeah, they had already kind of fallen off in my head. They were like really good. And then they picked up Tactical, and then they did poorly. But no, they had already kind of fallen off. [01:00:56] Speaker B: All right. [01:00:56] Speaker A: Either way, revenge. Short for Tactical. I like that narrative. And that's it for lcs. I like all the narratives that we set up. There's a lot at stake here as one final world spot is on the line, as well as CD trying to dodge plans where Casey will be an opponent that you have to figure out how to defeat. And what. How do we end episodes? Why am I blanking on the normal thing here? Five stars. Leave a review if you can. Can. Can you count to five? Badger, can you count to five real quick? [01:01:30] Speaker B: Yeah. 1, 2, 3, 4. Out of respect to Jaden Daniels. You know, [01:01:41] Speaker A: I don't get that reference. [01:01:43] Speaker B: I feel like we've explained this before. It's an Old. It's an old reference, but it still works well. [01:01:48] Speaker A: I feel like. And I've heard you say those words after me being confused. [01:01:52] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:01:52] Speaker A: So yeah, I feel like you definitely have. Thanks for not remembering. [01:01:56] Speaker B: Dislocated his elbow. Rip. [01:01:58] Speaker C: He needs to borrow Caleb Williams towel. [01:02:03] Speaker A: So many references. [01:02:05] Speaker B: How many sports ball references can we include into this at this point? Now leave a. Leave a star for every actual appearance C9 has had in the quarterfinals at Worlds. [01:02:16] Speaker A: Ooh, that would be five because one, apparently they were auto seated in. [01:02:21] Speaker C: Why? [01:02:22] Speaker B: What the hell was going on in 2013 Worlds, every team who won their region auto qualified into quarterfinals. [01:02:30] Speaker A: So that's ridiculous. [01:02:32] Speaker B: So it was N A. It was EU it was China and it was Korea, so. [01:02:39] Speaker A: And we lost to EU I'm pissed. [01:02:43] Speaker C: No, EU didn't have an auto scene, so they didn't. [01:02:46] Speaker B: I. Oh, that's right. Taiwan did. Because they just won Worlds. [01:02:49] Speaker A: Duh. [01:02:50] Speaker C: It was. [01:02:54] Speaker A: It says world season three, fifth age faith one two fanatic. [01:02:59] Speaker C: Yes. Yeah. [01:02:59] Speaker B: And Fnatic was the top one seed [01:03:01] Speaker C: from Europe made it through groups. [01:03:03] Speaker B: Fnatic made it through. [01:03:05] Speaker A: Oh, that's. [01:03:06] Speaker B: Well, yeah. [01:03:06] Speaker A: Still. But we still lost it here. [01:03:08] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. [01:03:10] Speaker A: Well, all right. More homework for me to do for old school legal. [01:03:15] Speaker B: One of these days we're gonna sit down and we're gonna do this long retrospective of everything that happened in League of Legends before Kangas started watching. Watching. And I'm so excited for that one. [01:03:29] Speaker A: We have talked about this many a time and I do still have a lot of educating to be done. [01:03:34] Speaker B: Some. Maybe that's that. Maybe that's one for the off season. I will come up with, you know, 20. What happened in 2011? What happened in 20? [01:03:42] Speaker A: I'm down. [01:03:43] Speaker B: What happened? [01:03:44] Speaker C: I'm down. [01:03:44] Speaker B: That sounds in 2014, you know what did you start watching pro play? [01:03:48] Speaker A: We could maybe get some guests for that as well. What if we got like Jat to come on and like you and Jat explained to me what 2011 was like for compete him from a player perspective [01:03:58] Speaker B: and you from the wild wild west. What happened in League of Legends back in the day. [01:04:04] Speaker A: That'd be kind of fun. I would be. [01:04:05] Speaker C: We can tell you about the time TSM technically won an international event. [01:04:10] Speaker B: Yes. [01:04:11] Speaker A: Well, that one happened in my time. That was 2015, right? That they won like IEM. [01:04:20] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. [01:04:21] Speaker A: Is that what you're referencing or was there something a time before that they [01:04:24] Speaker C: know you're dead on. [01:04:26] Speaker A: There we go. Haha. See, I knew one. I knew one of your tricks. Mr. Okay. Something to look forward to in this offseason, hopefully also look forward to this next weekend for LCS playoffs continuing. But most importantly, what I want you to walk away from this episode excited about is this knowledge. And that's it. We love you and we'll see you next time. Bye bye, everyone. [01:04:48] Speaker C: Peace. [01:04:51] Speaker A: Oh, yes. Daddy. Sam.