Episode Transcript
[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 the shots of fire. Zion is just killing the next Zion can eat single handedly win the game by game by game by game by
[00:00:26] Speaker B: should be.
[00:00:27] Speaker A: Oh my God. Stupid Marches through and manages to the table with Messiah tanking it up. I do not believe he just believe.
[00:00:42] Speaker C: I cannot understand this game.
[00:00:46] Speaker A: Unicorns of love. It wasn't a mutant. They're Nexus.
Hello and welcome to episode 628 of the League Rundown. This is your 2026 summer split LCS playoffs review episode and it's lovingly entitled Team Liquid Are Winning Worlds. I'm your host Kangas and I'm joined by two esteemed co hosts. Up first we have and the big Bickle Pickle.
[00:01:26] Speaker B: It's the most exciting time of the year.
[00:01:30] Speaker A: No, it's Halloween, Bickle. We've come, we've gone over this. We can't sing Christmas music.
Scary skeletons.
[00:01:36] Speaker B: We're in that. It's close enough.
[00:01:39] Speaker A: It actually is like weirdly close. And this time of the year always goes super fast. So I'll give you a pass. Also joining us we have Mr. Mazelpl.
[00:01:48] Speaker C: Hello. Excited to be here to talk about the lcs.
[00:01:54] Speaker A: Yeah, and some other things. NACL just happened so I want to start there. You are fresh off a cast. This man is such a workhorse. He just finished a four game banger and then took like a 20 minute breather and then hopped directly on to record this pod. So shout out Bazelle. Thank you for being on this week's episode. The promotion tournament is happening right now in North America. I want to start there.
And a big upset just happened. So cash is up. Mizel, what's going on in the promotion tournament?
[00:02:25] Speaker C: All right, well, you know I would start from the start at least in terms of giving a little bit of an overview to the whole promotion tournament. Sure we do.
[00:02:34] Speaker A: Have I accelerated to the end? Take your time.
[00:02:37] Speaker C: We have five teams competing. It's obviously DSG with the LCS guest slot. But then we have the NACL 1 and 2 which is CupID and Maryville. And then we have the LRN1 and 2 which is Fuego and Z5. Maryville University and Z5 did combat each other at least for the play in spot to get into the actual double Elim tournament.
Maryville did take that win 3:1. And then we had Cupid just yesterday took down Fuego 3:0. Very dominant fashion. But today History has been made. Not only is Maryville University the first team to take a game collegiate team to take a game off of dsg.
They are the first team in the totality of the new age LCS promotion tournament to take a series off the LCS guest slot team. They took them down three one. Let's be real. It was a four zero.
[00:03:29] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:03:30] Speaker C: And it was completely dominated by Maryville. So that means that one of our NACL team will be facing off in the qualification match no matter what.
[00:03:41] Speaker A: Exactly. And this is not how it went last time around. DSG were able to run through the upper bracket. It looks very comfortable doing so this time around.
Like you said, they should have lost that third game. They somehow barely sneaked by. Cubby was your co caster for it and he. I forget exactly how he worded it, but it was something like after I want to say the 15 minute mark, there was no moment that DSG had a gold lead except for the last like 30 seconds of the game three that they somehow came back and won Maryville. A collegiate squad was crushing them.
Shout out Maryville.
[00:04:19] Speaker B: I'm gonna blame Kangas for it not being a 30 because as the series is ongoing and Maryville is dominating, Kangas posts in the discord saying, oh, let's wait for Mizel.
Maryville's about to 3 0. This shouldn't take long. Probably five minutes after he posts that disguise comes back and wins the game.
[00:04:38] Speaker A: Yeah, I'll take the the curse allegations there.
Also, Mizzle was even supposed to be casting that one. So shadow for baby timing for, for getting. I. I don't know how, how to phrase that one, but popping off. Great. End of the game, great call, great cast. So go check it out everybody. The promotion tournament is still ongoing and by the time that this episode is in your ears, you will still have time to catch it. I believe DSG plays on Friday next. Is that correct? Does anybody have the schedule up in front of them? I. I think that's it.
[00:05:10] Speaker C: Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.
Yes. Tomorrow is Maryville University versus Cupid and then DSG is on Friday and then it's Saturday again.
Monday will be the finals.
[00:05:24] Speaker A: Okay, there we go. Mark your calendars everybody. We might have a new team joining the LCS disguise are gonna have to run through the lower bracket if they want to defend. And they are up against very strong competition because Maryville were the second seed. They're not even like the best NACL team coming into this Cupid.
[00:05:43] Speaker C: They got three zeroed by the other squad.
[00:05:46] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah.
Cupid 300 Fuego and are looking very solid as well. So it is anybody's game, but it's going to be a lot of work for DSG to get there.
Other tournaments going on. We are not lacking for content right now, let me tell you. Damascia cup is also underway.
You know actually Big I'm gonna throw this one to you Mizzle. I know that I initially was gonna throw it to you. I'll get your thoughts afterwards. But since you just talked for a while about the NACL stuff. Bickle Intro what's going on with the Mossy Cup? Where are we in the tournament and how's they looking?
[00:06:19] Speaker B: So Demacia cup is ongoing right now. We know six of the eight teams heading to quarterfinals and our first two teams have been sent home.
North America fans please close your eyes and ears because it has not been pretty. The two teams that were sent home this morning were Shopify Rebellion and luckily not fly quest but GAM Esports FlyQuest was the team to make it out of the Owen 2 double round 02 round robin stage that had to be played. FlyQuest beat both GAM and Shopify to escape right now top of the table at 2 0. Locking in their top spots coming into the bracket stage. BNK Ferrix, KT Rolster and Team, we are your top dogs at the moment. Hanjin Brion, LGD Gaming and Team Vitality have all locked into the group stage. I mean to the knockout stage as well at two in one and we have two more best of threes to play in a couple hours between FlyQuest facing off against red candidates and JD Gaming taking on Navi. Whoever wins both of those best of threes will be the final teams heading to knockouts. But for people looking for NA it has not been pretty. Shopify Rebellion 0 and 3 and series only game wins were against GAM earlier today.
Fly Quest also beat GAM and Shopify Rebellion they faced off against Navi a couple days ago, had 5k gold leads in both games and unfortunately threw them both.
[00:08:00] Speaker A: So it not a great look.
[00:08:03] Speaker B: It's not looking pretty though.
[00:08:05] Speaker A: And this is again the tournament that's for all of the kind of like fourth to fifth or even like fifth to sixth seeds from each region. So the that our fourth and fifth seed are struggling so much is tough but I will say it's nice. If likewise got lucky with that red candid straw could have been jdg.
[00:08:22] Speaker B: It is very much looking like a parallel to exactly what you expect at Worlds. All the Korean Teams got out pretty quickly. Almost all the Chinese teams got out pretty quickly. There's one Chinese team hanging around, though. JD Gaming does have the reasoning going on that they're playing with an entirely different jungle mid than what they've played this entire season with.
[00:08:44] Speaker A: Interesting. Miselle. Sounded like you wanted to hop in there or something. What was your thought?
[00:08:48] Speaker C: It's all the way to seventh seeds for LPL and lck.
[00:08:51] Speaker A: Ah, okay.
[00:08:53] Speaker C: Yeah, it's, it's. It's been an interesting tournament. I. I hope it's not a foreshadowing to what we're gonna see at Worlds, but it definitely feels like the Western teams, at least in these brackets, have had a really, really tough time. Now. FlyQuest and Red will be facing off tonight, which is obviously way before you guys are going to be getting the podcast and navigate taking on jdg. But I got to say, I like, from the LPL side of things, I think we're getting about what we expected, maybe a little bit more than we expected from jdg, because I think nobody had hope for this team after the dysfunction that was the end of their year, at least in the lpl. And so it's interesting to see them kind of bounce back as well. Obviously losing to lgd, but I think LGD and we can actually make a run for it. I know we've seen some really clean play from KT and things like that, but I think if anybody's going to upset the LCK in this tournament, it's going to have to be lpl.
[00:09:47] Speaker B: KT is very much the favorite in this tournament. They've looked the cleanest of all the teams so far, I'd say.
[00:09:55] Speaker A: Yeah. And from what I hear, they were the most competitive in the lck, trying to get into Worlds. Obviously I didn't.
[00:10:02] Speaker B: They nearly made Worlds over dk.
[00:10:05] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:10:05] Speaker C: I would love to take a moment that, like, I don't know what's going on and I'm not going to be like, I don't want to berate the NA team is banned. But some of these games have been some of the sloppiest League of Legends that I've seen.
[00:10:19] Speaker B: It's been raw, it's been.
[00:10:20] Speaker C: It's been honestly awful.
And it. For at Beast the first two series for FlyQuest, it looked like they didn't want to be in the game. Like, it looked like Griffin was just flying all over the map trying to figure out what he wants to do. And it was. It's. It's nice to see them pull it back but like, we. I don't know what happened in the motivation coming into this tournament, but it's been a little bit tough. So I really hope we get to see at least FlyQuest try to make a run.
[00:10:47] Speaker B: What, like, for Fly Quest? I'll give you the loss against lgd, though. It was a bad loss. It was extremely.
[00:10:54] Speaker C: It was so bad.
[00:10:55] Speaker B: That series against Navi should not happen.
Like, they should be embarrassed by that, in all honesty.
[00:11:05] Speaker C: And it's crazy to think for Shopify really quick, just Zinni. Yeah, it was one of the biggest moments in the off season was bringing this guy who was the next up across the world of crazy mid laners. Right. And I even protested this coming in. I was like, is this gonna be another Prince moment? Are we gonna get where, like, the start of the end is coming to na and it feels like we didn't get the payoff for this guy who was so hyped up and so sought after in the off season that Shopify dropped a bag to get him and he's just out of the tournament like shop fire completely done.
[00:11:41] Speaker B: Yeah.
Za will be sailing off into the sunset on all of his tractors.
[00:11:48] Speaker C: Yes.
With his feet flowing in the winds.
[00:11:52] Speaker A: They made a top four run in LCS and then petered out in their last little tournament that we got to see them. But I will say, to the point that you had made about, like, players and teams looking like they don't even really want to be there, that was kind of the sentiment I was getting from. I didn't talk to any players directly and get their immediate thoughts, but the vibes from the players when we would ask them stuff about like, oh, well, you get Demacia cup, like, how you feeling about that? It was always like, that's the wrong mentality.
[00:12:20] Speaker C: You get an opportunity to face against the other competition around the world that's at your level. Let's be real. You didn't make it. You did every bit that you could get. And so that mentality kills me.
[00:12:31] Speaker A: Okay, well, I think I hear what you're saying. I agree.
I also agree that the players are so fucking boomed mentally, and it can be tough to get themselves out of that mental spot after just losing in playoffs. Have to hop on a plane, fly to China the next, like, couple days, and then the next weekend you're already on stage competing in this other tournament that's the consolation prize tournament. While the tournament that you failed at is doing its big finals and all of the NA players and fans are, like, watching that.
It sucks. I think it is tough. But with that said, I also think that you're correct in that that's the wrong mentality to have. Like, you got to find a way to correct that mentality and consider it a positive that you get this opportunity to have this experience. So just want to play a little, little devil's advocate while also stating that I think you're, you're correct.
But the, the news doesn't stop there for the LPL and the Chinese teams because as we have all of our world's representatives locked in, the last one that we were waiting on was cb. Lol. We got Los Infuria with their finals happening this coming weekend.
Already some news is happening around the LPL teams. Mazel. The visa issues for Top Esports.
This was something that was just brought to my attention, I believe just last night, if not even this morning, that they're, they're having some, some issues. So can, can you explain to me and everybody else what's going on over with Top Esports and their current roster situation?
[00:14:01] Speaker C: Well, not to get into politics too much, but it's really hard to get into the United States right now because of a particular somebody that's at the head of state right now. And so it's become a very, very big trouble to get Zweighon in for Top Esports. He is an extremely young guy. He is literally 19. He has no track record of traveling. He has no assets because he's a 19 year old. And China doesn't want to let him run away because they think he's going to stay in the United States, which we're competitors. I don't think that's going to happen. But that's what Trump's America does. And they. And the combination of that with the Chinese government definitely does not help his case. The worst part about this, and we'll talk about who's replacing him and stuff, but this can completely kill your career potentially because you don't get to apply for a visa like this all the time. And the more declinations you have for those applications, the harder it becomes. And at some point you're not allowed to apply anymore. And for him in his very young career, where he earned that spot over 369 to make it to Worlds, it is a disaster that he is not able to get this. And if Riot doesn't do something, it's disgusting because we're getting a guy who hasn't played solo queue since April who has been coaching Zweighon and being a big influence to this young kid in 369 who's going to be stepping in. And while you may say that's awesome. He's 369. He's gonna be great. He hasn't played the game.
[00:15:31] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:15:31] Speaker C: And you're at the biggest tournament of the year and you don't have a guy who has been instrumental in your wins in his top lane. Focus in his flanks in fights. He was on our top five plays almost every single week in this last split.
And it would just be an absolute catastrophe if he doesn't actually get through.
[00:15:52] Speaker A: Yeah. Really rough position. I feel like I haven't heard of any visa issues like this in the last couple of worlds.
It is just a terrible storm of like everything hitting at the same time here in North America to try and make it in.
So Harcourt as a team, I really hope they fix it. It seems like a player that would be very exciting because he's so young. And this would be his first worlds. Correct.
[00:16:17] Speaker C: Yep. Yep.
[00:16:18] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:16:18] Speaker B: He made it.
[00:16:19] Speaker A: And remember back to like.
[00:16:20] Speaker B: But this would be his first worlds.
[00:16:23] Speaker A: And I know it doesn't always work out for. For the world's rookies but it's always exciting. Like players like Cream. I remember his first worlds. It was an exciting moment. Zeka. His first worlds. Like taking the whole thing right. Like y.
There's a lot of really awesome success stories that can come from a rookie getting to this stage. And to have that denied. Talk about mental load.
[00:16:44] Speaker C: I just don't want it to affect the rest of his career because going international is extremely important in this career. If you don't know being able to travel important. Denied.
When you're not able to get a visa at all from the Chinese government because you've attempted too many times. It can actually have career lasting impact. So let's hope that doesn't come to it. And hope Riot fixes their mess.
[00:17:06] Speaker A: That would be the ideal outcome for everybody.
But I will say and this is the absolute worst possible takeaway to have and I don't want anybody to think that I'm excited about this. This is just for the memes. Our chances of ending the best of five loss streak against LPL has never been higher.
[00:17:28] Speaker C: Planer gone.
[00:17:31] Speaker B: Here's the problem. Kangas to have a best of five against top esports that requires top esports to make it out of Swiss.
[00:17:37] Speaker A: Okay. Our chances are much lower on review than I initially thought. That is okay. Oh God.
Well, maybe they also get an easy run through the bracket just like us or the Swiss stage.
Crazy to think that we have not made NA and EU has not gotten a team through Swiss stage without beating either an EU or an NA team in the qualifying match. It's so hard to actually take down the LPL or LCK teams on the way to there. I mean like G2 has taken them down earlier on in the bracket, but like during the qualification match. Yeah, it's always been taking out each other.
Okay. What are other things? There's a lot of stuff going on. Oh, World Star Classic wrapped up. This was the tier two tournament going on. Congratulations to the winners, T1 Academy. That is right. T1 not only wins Worlds, they also win Academy Worlds.
[00:18:35] Speaker B: They are therefore T1 just thought they needed to win it.
And this is the most prototypical like a world storyline of eu looks phenomenal, has been doing so well and works their way into World Finals only to choke and not win it. Meanwhile, T1 who no one expects much of comes in and just wins the entire tournament. Because of course.
[00:19:00] Speaker A: Absurd. It's absurd. Whoever had their hand on the dial to increase T1 damage by 10 at worlds just saw like on Twitter, worlds and T1 in the same sentence and like, oh, I gotta turn the dial. We gotta, we gotta hop in there real quick. Even though there's no skins on the line, they, they weren't aware of that. But congrats. Although to T1 Academy shows that this organization again, I mean think about how many T1 Academy players have been picked up historically to go to other regions. Berserker. He was a T1 guy, right? Wasn't Berserker.
[00:19:32] Speaker B: Right, yeah, Smash was in T1.
So many players have been in T1 and gone elsewhere.
[00:19:41] Speaker A: There's. There's more that I'm just not remembering right now.
[00:19:44] Speaker B: Like, yeah, everyone's gonna be probably looking at Painter and Cloud. The jungle support for T1AC to see where they go club in particular because Painter has like the smallest chance to be promoted over owner.
No one will ever replace Carrier until Carrier retires. Cloud is like, yeah, stuck.
[00:20:05] Speaker A: Yeah. It's the unfortunate reality of being behind the next goat.
It's kind of like being a mid laner trying to replace Faker. It's like maybe he'll get a couple of games when his wrist is acting up. But you're not going to be taking his spot full time unless he's ready to walk away.
[00:20:22] Speaker B: Shout out though, does go to Solari from EU who made finals and we're looking like the best team of the entire tournament for almost the entire tournament. They six zeroed group Stage they only dropped a game to another European team MCOH and quarterfinals. They three owed DN Supers in semis only to fall in a five game series to T1.
I expect a lot of those guys to make their way into LEC next season.
[00:20:55] Speaker A: 100% agree. I feel like having that type of breakout performance we see even already at the erls. Like if you win that, you get a really high chance of getting picked up the next year, let alone going to the finals in Academy World. So eyes will be on that roster and where they all end up. But with that said, that is it for news. There wasn't any big roster news that dropped that we noticed this week. But if we missed any that you wish we talked about, you know what to do. Let us know in the community discord. A link to that is in the description wherever you are news.
[00:21:28] Speaker B: But there is some broadcast news. We know the lineup for Worlds in terms of casters and yes, I believe you're going.
[00:21:36] Speaker A: I. I will be. Yes, I will be on for plans. I've been. I don't even have my assigned days yet.
I've known for a while. I haven't been able to tell publicly or speak publicly about it, but. So funny. I guess we can cover some of the drama as well. It incorrectly went out the announcement graphic on. I think it was Friday or maybe Saturday of the weekend and it was the wrong graphic. And it also wasn't meant to go out that day. And then they were like rescheduled to Monday and they posted it again, still with the wrong graphic. And I was not on either of the first two graphics, which I'm just gonna choose to not think very much about why there was a graphic without me on it. But the reality is I will be at Worlds. I will be casting plans.
[00:22:26] Speaker C: Very excited.
Yeah.
[00:22:29] Speaker A: Thanks guys. Appreciate it.
Crazy.
[00:22:32] Speaker C: I gave you a long, sloppy glaze behind the scenes. So, you know.
[00:22:37] Speaker A: Oh. Oh, thank you, thank you. Oh, after. After the first announcement went out that didn't have me on it and so. So you were like, oh, let's correct this guys.
[00:22:44] Speaker C: Wait, no, no. I just. I messaged you personally about.
[00:22:47] Speaker A: Oh, that. Yes, yes, yes.
[00:22:49] Speaker C: Yeah, I'm proud.
[00:22:50] Speaker A: That was very nice.
[00:22:51] Speaker C: It's very deserving.
[00:22:52] Speaker A: Thank you.
But yeah, I. You can hear my voice, see my face for plans in Los Angeles and that means that we'll get to see one of the teams from this past weekend there as well.
And maybe with less confidence that they're giving us at this point based on their performance. We'll talk about all of that because it is time to transition to LC finals weekend. We just wrapped up the 2026 year for LCS. Now only three teams will continue forward going to the world Championships.
Bickle, I'm going to toss this one over to you just as always, one last time for the year. Who played who, who beat who, and what were some of the big narratives that you took away from the weekend?
[00:23:41] Speaker B: Absolutely. So coming into this weekend, we had our top three teams already qualified for worlds.
But in the lower bracket, Cloud 9 and lion faced off. Loser will be heading the plains. Winner had a chance against Team Liquid in the finals. We'd already seen this matchup play out before in the beginning of playoffs where Cloud 9 upset lion to lock themselves into Worlds. Would we see a Repeat? Would Cloud 9 continue to carry that momentum and show they are really a big hitter and really show the cracks in Lion?
No, they would not. They fall 3:1.
But honestly, I don't think either team's happy about that series because Cloud nine through and through and through.
So lion takes the series win, heads into finals against Team Liquid and unlike they have been in the past, they are not able to level up and come in strong.
And Team Liquid takes the finals, takes the title 31 in convincing fashion.
[00:24:48] Speaker A: A crazy end to the series as well. It seemed like C9 like they lost more than Lion 1 in my opinion.
I feel like inspired. Kind of stepped up and had to go super saiyan mode. But C9 overall, we're doing a great job of locking him down in the early games. Like Blabber had one of the best series of the year in this series, which felt so good for him and just like how his last year ended where he was the reason that they lost these big game fives and he was kind of choking and throwing for him to have a great consistent performance.
But then what happens at the very end? Actually, I guess not the very end, but I. I'm just gonna blame Kobe for this one. One of the most legendary caster curses I've ever been a part of where we're glazing Blabber, we're talking about how good he's playing and he's on the VI who like historically he's inted on and had a couple of bad moments. And as we're talking about that, he gets invaded top jungle dies, then tactical gets dove mid lane dies and then lion are right back into the game and actually make the comeback happen to turn it around. I was like, I've never been part of such a A disgusting gaster curse in my life.
[00:26:06] Speaker B: I don't even think that was the worst part of it. If we're talking about game four because the deciding elder fight Blabber and Loki just decide to leave tactical alone. Like, oh yeah, you're about to be dove by like four members of them. We're gonna go try and dive a Garen. Good luck.
[00:26:27] Speaker A: And even if they kill Dokla there, they still 100% lose tactical and Vulcan. Like it's not worth. Even if they get the guy they were going for.
[00:26:37] Speaker B: Not in the slightest. And you were given a lot of shout outs to Blabber. I think he deserves a lot of praise for game three on that Poppy. He played phenomenal. He was by far the second best player in that game.
Unfortunately for him, he still got Jungle gapped because Inspired was just on another level. That game on the Kiana.
[00:26:57] Speaker A: Yeah, that Kiana performance was disappointed. Disgusting. That moment where Thanatos like takes the tier 2 to a bot lane and then starts backing and Inspire just throws the Keanu alt at the wall so it travels down like a full screen length to interrupt the tp. I was like, hell yeah, dude.
[00:27:15] Speaker C: That was sick.
[00:27:19] Speaker A: Mazal, I want to toss it over to you. Do you have any big takeaways or thoughts from the C9 Lion? If we're just talking about the lower bracket finals and now C9 as a team going into play ins either just like thoughts on the series or your thoughts on C9. Now battle for that one last spot at Worlds.
[00:27:34] Speaker C: I think Isles was having a pretty good series against C9, which was really awesome to see. Yeah. But as a whole, I mean, I think we saw the. The tried and true method of lying there really be used to fight off against C9. I know Dom came back. He was like, I've rewatched the first five minutes like four times and I'm losing my mind.
And I think it's. It's fitting that maybe things didn't go to plan for them there, but it's something they can also learn from going into Worlds. I think that's the most important thing to pull away. While you weren't able to come away with the championship, you were able to take a game offline. And I think we saw some positive things from individual pieces from them. And so I hope they can kind of use that as some fuel to the fire and get that world's run going.
[00:28:15] Speaker A: Yeah.
Did he mention. I didn't see that tweeter or that comment from Dom. Was that game four that he was Talking about or which game?
[00:28:24] Speaker C: Sorry, I meant the first. Like he. He was re. Watching all the games. Sorry, not five.
[00:28:28] Speaker A: Oh, all the. Okay, okay, sure.
[00:28:29] Speaker C: The games. Yeah, yeah.
[00:28:32] Speaker A: There were a lot of moments. I mean like tactical flash is unfortunately becoming a bit of a. Specifically after the end flash, no barrier usage.
Yeah. Last weekend he flash forwarded to try and kill the Ash and then Bessa killed him.
This time around he flashes into melee range to try and finish off an Alistair and then Berserker like almost full health. Just gets excited, kills him. Didn't barrier.
That was. I. I don't even think watching back the footage, I don't think that Taxable was trying to flash. I think he fat fingered flash because after the flash you can see he like jiggle steps a little bit and to me that's the mark of somebody who doesn't expect to be in the position with where they're clicking right after the moment. I think he accidentally flash forwarded and maybe he was trying to barrier and not flash and then like panicked. I was like oh. Either way it was a mistake and it was costly. He almost came back but then he just didn't flash again.
Of the fights, he just was saving it over and over and over again. It kept dying with flash up and it's like come on.
[00:29:42] Speaker B: Tactical.
[00:29:45] Speaker A: Yeah, painful.
Vulcan I think also though had a Great Series from C9. He was Vulcan blabber definitely stepped up. I think that if they had just had better decision making around the objectives in that game four, even with all the mechanical errors that were happening, they could have brought it to a game five and then who knows. But regardless, C9 in this form maybe slightly better if they can tweak some things will be the team in play in. So I want to bring our attention there next.
KC is the big team that we're going to be up against there along with the Vikings MVK from the lcp. We're still waiting for the C Bol representatives which is actually kind of scary because it fits Furia.
They did beat them in the America's cup, so that's funny.
Let's. Let's get just like a hopium meter right now for C9. Where's everybody at percentage wise on their hopium meter for C9 making it out? I'm still pretty confident but not overly confident. So I'm like a 65 that C9 make it out of play ins and make it to the main stage of Worlds. Mazel. Let's hear you. Where are you at on your hoping meter?
[00:30:56] Speaker C: It's only one team that makes it out, only one tough position to be in.
[00:31:00] Speaker A: And Casey pushed G2 to five games multiple times.
[00:31:03] Speaker C: And I'm not gonna lie, Busio, I. I need to see that guy do well.
I give them a little bit more than a 50. I give them 55 chance.
[00:31:14] Speaker A: Okay, there we go. I think that's so respectable. Bickle, are. Do you think that we're coping. Do you agree where you at?
[00:31:20] Speaker B: You guys are both favoring Cloud 9 to get out.
I think you're coping a little bit.
I'm at, like, 35. 40 for Cloud 9.
[00:31:31] Speaker A: Oh, that's pretty low.
Yeah, it's. It's tough. I think that I was very confident if they had, like, at least looked clean.
Well, okay, maybe. Maybe not clean. That's not the way I want to phrase it.
If they had looked like, oh, they're worse than lion, but they're putting up a fight in their losses, I would have felt better about them. But the fact that they were, like, getting leads and then throwing them is actually what makes me feel worse about their losses. It's like, ooh, this is a team that can't clutch right now. And you got a clutch if you're going to be taking on KC or again, the Vikings. Because, like, I haven't watched nearly enough LCP tape to know I'm going to be doing my research going into this weekend and watching a bunch of tape on them to see kind of like what to expect from them and play ins.
But I just. You can't really disrespect that region because they also are still fairly competitive.
[00:32:27] Speaker B: I'm expecting it to be.
And from CB Law, I'm expecting it to be losing plans because Furia, when they last played LOS in the upper bracket, yes, they lost, if I'm remembering properly.
But that was when they. Nope, never mind. I'm thinking of something entire. No, maybe I can't remember. I think that's when they had to play with a substitute jungler due to some suspension situations for tattoo.
[00:32:56] Speaker A: Oh, yeah.
[00:32:57] Speaker B: I think that was when they played LOS and lost that series.
[00:33:00] Speaker A: Interesting.
[00:33:02] Speaker B: So I think Furia is the better team, but we'll have to wait and see.
[00:33:09] Speaker A: Yeah, that will be this coming weekend where we'll finally have the answer as to who the final team joining the plans will be.
All right. Yeah, that's our thoughts on C9. Lion did take the series. They didn't look super convincing doing it, but they did do it. They needed inspired on a carry for all three of their wins. Going into the finals versus Team Liquid but they were still the number one seed. It was still inspired going for his big three peat to try and you know, match up and go into sole second place for titles in North America. Only behind Doublelift for the team to be the first ever to get the triple crown in a region and win all three splits.
But Bickle, what happened in the finals?
[00:33:57] Speaker B: I got a question for Flyquest coaching staff.
So not fly Quest. I got a question for Lions coaching staff.
[00:34:07] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:34:07] Speaker B: Why are you giving Jose Deodo carries like yeah. You leave Lee Sin and Kiana for him games one and two and yeah,
[00:34:20] Speaker A: the Lee Sin I can somewhat understand if you think that you have some practice that you believe counters it.
Sure. Also if they do get the win then they can't play for the rest of this the series. You don't have to keep banning it. Sure.
What they ended up drafting maybe was the idea because like Lulu, you NARA is difficult for Lee Sin. If he goes in, you get polymorphed or even just like the wild growth on the carry knocks you up and then you get polymorphed. Can be tough for Lee Sin to deal with that. The problem is Lee Sin had other targets. He had a syndrome to look at who has got the one scatter the week. But if that's down then you don't have a defensive tool anymore. You're a low mobility mid laner and also he can just kick the cassante into the team and just be like all right, you're my engage. Boom. Go bowling ball in and and kind of be the access.
[00:35:12] Speaker B: For me that game it was extremely close until it like it was like a 2K 1K gold lead from the entire game until the final fight where Team Liquid blew it open like like it could have gone either way. Saint was extremely fed on the syndra. It just ended up being Jose finding a godly kick into a great shockwave that won the game.
[00:35:36] Speaker A: Yeah.
And that team fight is what typically lion were more known for. It's like oh, slow game, slow game, slow game. Big pivotal objective. Let's team fight and just beat them at the team fight there.
But this was team Liquid actually finding the better team fight in that moment. And that's kind of how the series started and it set the tone for what the rest rest the series would look like. It still continued from there of Jose just getting the better of inspired and inspired. I don't want to see this guy on tanks at Worlds. I I don't think this team actually can function which Is crazy to think about when you have like such stud superstar carries in saint and berserker. But if Inspired doesn't have agency to do what he wants to do, this team looks lost. You lose on the trundle. He lose on the Skarner. He loses on the Sejuani. The only game they won here was on the lethality J4 where he just chain ganks bot lane. That. That dude. I know we're skipping ahead a little bit, but game three was some of the funniest, like, rage jungling I've seen because Inspired is not a three camp gank type of jungler. But he changed his style because clearly that was not working in the first two games and it wasn't working great against C9 either. So instead he just goes three camp gank bot, get two kills, and then loops back around bottom because his AD carry has no flashes and he knows that they're gonna look for it. And so then he turns the play again, goes bot lane twice in five minutes and gets him a huge lead. So I don't see that being like a strategy. That's gonna be super high success rate all the time, though. Like, that was an adaptation in the moment and in the series, but that's not how lion typically wins their game. So the fact that they were losing while playing their style for a lot of this, that's what was concerning for me at the end of the day and, like, why I'm less confident on lion going forward into worlds. I think that they need to figure out why things were falling apart so much and why their bot lane and top lane so badly wanted to be main characters when their jungler was just farming camps.
It seemed like there was something different about lion this past weekend.
Mizell, did you notice that? Do you feel like you're on the same page there? Am I. Am I taking the crazy pills?
[00:37:50] Speaker C: I mean, I just feel like they.
I know I called it, like, at some point the. The mind controlling Inspired can't win every single game for this team. And I think we saw that not only did that not work, but also the individual pieces kind of didn't perform to what you expect. I mean, that was the MVP ADC that just got locked out. It felt like of the entire series and completely gapped. It felt like Bayan on the other side. So I think it was just kind of a little bit of a breakdown from the core pillars of lion and that's what kind of scares me moving forward.
I just hope they can kind of bounce back because once that's the thing about lion is once they lose that confidence, once they lose some of that, like, momentum that they always play with because they're cocky as hell. Like, they just looked empty. Like. Like Doc looked like a shell of himself in that series and I think the whole team looked like that. So I think it's really difficult.
[00:38:43] Speaker B: Was rough.
[00:38:44] Speaker A: Do had a bad weekend, though, like the C9 series. Also, like, I know that we talked about on broadcast that the Thanatos had that one quote of like, who are the top three top laners? He said, me, Morgan, next question. And we were all like, ooh, that's Dola slander right there. That's crazy. And then we saw what happened this weekend. It's like, oh, that was not Dogle slander. That was that accurate.
This data top lane right now.
[00:39:13] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:39:14] Speaker A: Not. Not great for Big Doak's stocks. Still hope he can turn it around. I saw faith in that player, but this was not his best look just this past weekend. So definitely gonna be looking for more from him. Going in to Swiss stage because they are still in Swiss B&C.9 meant that they can make their way in, but they're the second seed, which means that they'll be playing up against a third seed, I believe was the way the format works.
[00:39:36] Speaker B: So they are pool three.
[00:39:40] Speaker A: They're pool three. So they're against a pool two team.
[00:39:42] Speaker B: They're against a pool two team. So they will either be playing against.
Oh, boy. Hanwell life.
[00:39:48] Speaker A: Oh, blg.
[00:39:51] Speaker B: Oh, okay. Well, you got a 50. 50 shot here. Basically you're against Hana life. Blg or you're against Team Secret. Secret Rails are the winner of Brazil.
[00:39:59] Speaker C: Secret Whales.
[00:40:02] Speaker A: I would take Secret Whales or the winner of Brazil. Either one of those is very good. I'm happy with both of them.
[00:40:08] Speaker B: Secret Whales and br.
[00:40:12] Speaker A: And then we got hle.
What was the other one? It was blg.
[00:40:17] Speaker B: HLE and bl.
[00:40:18] Speaker C: Oh, yeah, just a casual blg.
[00:40:20] Speaker B: Lion and mcoy are very much praying to win the coin flip of who you face.
[00:40:27] Speaker A: Yeah.
But because Team Liquid take it, they're going to be up against a Pool 4 team which is going to be the winner of the play ins or.
[00:40:37] Speaker B: So their options are D Kia, Invictus Gaming CFO or the winner of plans. However, if Cloud9 wins plans, they cannot play Cloud9 as you are not allowed to face your region in round one. But they would be able to face Casey.
[00:40:56] Speaker A: Okay. I actually would love DK or IG because that would be by far our Number one seed versus the lowest seed of LCK or lpl. Our best chance of like actually getting a win over them. It's been so long. I know the best of five streak would still be alive, but like getting a best of three when also feels fantastic.
[00:41:16] Speaker B: It would just be a best of one for round one.
[00:41:18] Speaker A: Oh, just best of one for round one?
[00:41:19] Speaker B: Round one? Well, all best of ones.
With Worlds, it's only promotion and elimination series that are best of threes. Everything else is best of ones.
[00:41:30] Speaker A: Okay, interesting. Yeah, I forgot that that was the format.
Well, it would be nice to get a win in the column versus an Eastern team because it's still. It's been a.
It's been a hot minute. Was it actually. Was it 100 thieves?
[00:41:43] Speaker B: They.
[00:41:44] Speaker A: They took down 100 thieves.
[00:41:45] Speaker B: Took down BLG last year.
[00:41:47] Speaker A: Okay, well, I guess it hasn't been that long then since we've taken like a.
[00:41:51] Speaker B: That was the weird. What just happened? Do killed Ben.
[00:41:57] Speaker A: Hell yeah, dude.
All right, so Team Liquid lion and C9 going to Worlds has kind of started a conversation that I want to get everyone here's thoughts about, because I don't believe we've talked about it with this exact combination of the. The crew. Dom had a quote on Cage podcasting. This is the best three teams that we've ever sent to Worlds. Or at least it feels like that.
We talked about it a little bit on the LCS broadcast. I have a different year. That's my number one. But I want to get your two. Both of your thoughts. Mazel.
Is this the best three teams in terms of just your confidence in them going into Worlds? The best three teams we've sent, and if not, do you have a different year that comes to mind?
[00:42:43] Speaker C: That's a tough one.
I feel like 2018 was pretty good.
[00:42:50] Speaker A: 2018 would have been Team Liquid.
[00:42:56] Speaker B: 2018 was Team Liquid. It was 100 Thief second and then it was Cloud 9 third.
That was Hunter Team's debate, I believe.
[00:43:09] Speaker C: Besides that. No, I. I really do think that this three pronged attack is going to be really good. I think not only that, but some of the levels of the teams around the world have seemingly decreased. I mean, I don't know what happens when we get to Worlds, but it's really interesting to see the levels that we get out of LCS now. And I know a lot of people meme it, but I do think this is probably the one of the most positive feelings going into the tournament that I've had.
[00:43:37] Speaker A: I agree. It is a very refreshing feeling going into worlds with a certain amount of hope. I know I always meme like my. My bracket predictions and have NAA just winning out the whole thing.
It might shock you. That's not how I actually would put money on it going if I had to, but it's. You know, it does feel like something's a little different this time around. Bickle, same question to you, though. Where does this rank if not number one?
[00:44:05] Speaker B: If you asked me last week, it was definitively number one. It's not even close.
[00:44:11] Speaker C: Ooh.
[00:44:13] Speaker B: Now it's a bit tougher because I think my faith in Cloud 9 and lion have dropped a bit.
Plus, seeing how NA performed at Demacia cup is really.
[00:44:25] Speaker A: No, no.
[00:44:26] Speaker B: Not giving me most faith.
I.
I still think they have a good shot.
If I had to put my money on it, I'd say we're getting one team out of Swiss for na.
[00:44:52] Speaker A: Okay. Okay. So not super high faith, but enough to at least make quarterfinal.
[00:44:57] Speaker B: I. I think in my power rankings right now, I have two Western teams getting out. I think I have G2 and Team Liquid right now, but obviously that depends on Swiss draw. But if it's the most confident I've been in na, I don't know, it might.
I might have to go with 2017 instead.
[00:45:25] Speaker A: Okay, that was Immortals, TSM and Cloud9. C9. There we go.
[00:45:30] Speaker B: It's either that or 2016.
[00:45:32] Speaker A: Mine is definitively 2016. And the reason being is that that was CLG coming off of the first ever finals at Internationals for NA in the kind of, like, quote, modern era. I know worlds. The first worlds. But no, actually, did we even make finals in the first worlds, or was it eu?
[00:45:48] Speaker B: Eu, yeah.
[00:45:50] Speaker A: So first time ever making, like, finals at a riot sanctioned international event.
That was CL coming off of that performance. It was TSM coming off of, like, the most dominant summer split performance they had ever had. And then it was still C9 making their, you know, traditional bracket run.
So for me, It's. It's definitively 2016, but this would be top three. I'd say for me, in terms of hope, that it's giving me, and that is a good feeling. I want to celebrate that even if it's not the number one.
I think hope has never been this high in the last, like, decade. It's. It's been a while, and I. I think that it's reflected a little bit. We didn't talk about this during the news, but viewership was up for this past weekend for LCS finals.
Highest viewership since. I want to say 2023. Maybe it was 22, but either way, for a couple of years, big part
[00:46:43] Speaker B: of that would be cage roll 22.
[00:46:46] Speaker A: Okay, that's awesome.
The kind of elephant in the room is a big part of that would be Caedrel on his CO stream. And I know that co stream viewers counting towards the total views can always be a little muddy. And not everyone's a big fan of kind of what CO streaming has done to the broadcast ecosystem. Some people love the CO streamer, some people acknowledge that it's kind of Pandora's box that's been opened up. But either way, viewership is up and I think that that's good news overall for LCS and something to be happy about as well. So just good time to be another fan of the LCS.
[00:47:20] Speaker B: Yeah, just checked. Peak viewership was about 280k which is the highest peak since summer of 22.
[00:47:29] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:47:31] Speaker B: We crazy.
[00:47:32] Speaker A: Might be bouncing back from the LTA days. It might be possible. Everybody.
LCS is so bad. Can we get Angie AKA New Migos Rawr. From the old hotline League Twitch chat to rewrite that LCS's thriving sign. Is. Is that. Is it too early? Can we do it? I don't know if we're allowed to. Maybe it's too early. Let's give it another year.
Talked myself out of that one real quick, but it can. It can be scary to hope, you know.
Yeah, right. Really. That was it though. From this past weekend. The finals were wrapped. Team Liquid, congratulations on being LCS champions once again. Lion were not able to make the three peat happen, but they will still be at Worlds alongside C9 battling through the play ins.
That's it for this week's episode as well. Next week we will have our full Worlds preview episode where we'll give our full opinion and that will also be recording that once we know the play ins teams and what that draw looks like. So we can give our predictions for plans as well as the preview you for what to expect out of all the teams that will be attending Worlds.
It's a fun time of the year, guys. It snuck up on us but I'm getting that. That fuzzy feeling that. That energy in my heart, in my gut. Yeah, we got some Worlds happening and it's gonna be North American sleep schedule too. So we won't have to be ungodly hours. Yeah.
For us and only us. Now the rest of the world gets to feel the.
The doomer hours.
[00:49:05] Speaker C: But yeah.
[00:49:06] Speaker A: Thanks for sticking along everybody to this point in the podcast, if you have time and you have the energy and have fingers. Ideally. Typically the that's how you operate a mouse. Although I suppose there's other ways to do it. But if you could leave a review on the podcast Mazel. Do you have a recommendation for how many stars? Typically it's like a star system where you can as many as you want.
[00:49:28] Speaker C: The easiest way to start counting is using your hand. Hands. And when I start using my hand, there's five fingers on each hand. And so when I get to the end of my hand, there's five. And so I think that's how many you should leave.
[00:49:41] Speaker A: Okay, that. That's easy. I can follow that. Yeah. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Super simple. Leave us a five star review if you have the time. It helps us get noticed and get the podcast growing.
But besides that also reminded you can join the community Discord. You can help support the pod through our patreon or through our merch shop links to all of that that is going to be in the description wherever you are listening. But most importantly, the message that I hope you walk away from today with is that we love you and we'll see you next time. Bye bye everybody.
[00:50:10] Speaker B: Peace.
[00:50:12] Speaker A: Oh yes, Daddy.
