League Rundown - Episode 631: 1 streak down, 2 to go

[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 should be [00:00:27] Speaker B: oh my God. Stupid passes through and manages to the table with Messiah tanking it up. I do not believe he just believe. [00:00:42] Speaker C: I cannot understand this game. Unicorns of love it wasn't a mutant. They're Nexus. [00:01:05] Speaker D: Hello and welcome to episode 631 of the League Rundown. This is your 2026 World's Swiss Stage week one review episode and it's lovingly entitled One Streak Down, Two to Go. I'm your host Kangas and I'm joined by two esteemed co hosts. Up first we got fresh out of the can it's Badger. [00:01:23] Speaker E: I I was trying to think about what the one streak was that you were talking about and then I remembered the the graphic that they played during what was. Which series was it where it was the skew. It [00:01:36] Speaker D: was the Lion Gen G series. Yeah, Lion Hle. I mean [00:01:40] Speaker E: Lion Hle game where the the LCK dominance over NA was very apparent in the graphic and it made me really happy in that moment [00:01:50] Speaker D: I second guessed myself it was the Gen G1 because they qualified in and if lion had beaten them that we would have gone 30 and actually qualified either way. That's [00:01:57] Speaker E: right. [00:01:57] Speaker D: That was depression to see that graphic played out. But we did get one streak broken and that is the best of three streak versus LPL still yet to take down LCK or beat LPL in a best of five for quite a while. But to talk about that potential we also have joining us and [00:02:12] Speaker F: the big Bickle Pickle. [00:02:15] Speaker G: So many highs, so many lows. Lion making us excited and also letting us down. Team Liquid letting us down and also making us excited. Who knows, [00:02:25] Speaker D: you know life is a circle really. It's. It is about cycles, cosines and sine functions. Things like that, you know. Yeah, we got a lot of worlds to talk about. The first week of Swiss has wrapped up and there's a lot of stories already coming out of worlds. Reasons to celebrate, reasons to be sad depending on which regions you are cheering for. But before we get into all of that juicy information we got some news to cover around the horn. Very light news week in general for league. No surprise, everyone's eyes are on world so not a lot of stuff is happening in the offseason but one roster bit of information did pop up within this last week, and that is Vulcan renewing his contract with C9. The rest of the roster still kind of question marks around it, but at least they are choosing an early kind of cornerstone to build off of. Bickle, I want to get your thoughts on this because we've talked about it briefly of like, who should C9 like, commit to? Are you happy with the Vulcan signing for the next three years? [00:03:24] Speaker G: I think it makes sense to kind of him have him as that foundational player having a domestic support that is one of the best. He won MVP back in winter. I want to say. [00:03:38] Speaker D: Is spring just spring? [00:03:39] Speaker G: Spring. Okay, Back in spring. He's extremely solid. He's never really been the issue. I think he's definitely a great core piece to build around, and he really provides that stable. Let's slow everything down. Voice to the team. [00:03:56] Speaker D: Yeah. In a team that, from what we've heard from all the interviews of coaching staff talking about kind of what it sounds like in game, Vulcan is the one that calms them down and is often, you know, primary shot caller. Whether the team listens is another, you know, question. Badger, what are your thoughts on Vulcan on C9? [00:04:14] Speaker E: I. I think the writing's on the wall at this point, gentlemen. I think Blabber's gone this off season. Is this [00:04:21] Speaker D: contract up? [00:04:23] Speaker G: I [00:04:24] Speaker E: think. I thought he was one of the ones that was out in 26. Like, he was playing for his deal at this point. [00:04:31] Speaker D: Let me check real quick. I'm gonna pull [00:04:33] Speaker G: up [00:04:33] Speaker D: Leakpedia. [00:04:34] Speaker E: It just feels like none of them. None of them are up, really. No one's. He's around for a bit. [00:04:40] Speaker G: Thanatos and tactical are to 28. Vulcan just extended to 29 and Loki's to 27. So, yeah, yes, they're all still up, but I highly doubt most of them stay. [00:04:51] Speaker E: Yeah, [00:04:52] Speaker D: yeah, we know that Esport contracts are kind of just fake, you know, that's [00:04:55] Speaker E: all. It's [00:04:56] Speaker D: cool to see a big number like three years assigned, but they could always trade or drop players. [00:05:02] Speaker E: Yeah, it just feels like Vulcan's your piece. You want to build around. You want to keep Loki and Thanatos, most likely just based on, like, circumstances. I mean, I don't know if you keep both of them at this rate, but [00:05:17] Speaker G: like, we just saw Sven and APA leave. Both of their contracts will were until 2028. [00:05:23] Speaker E: Yeah. [00:05:23] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:05:24] Speaker E: So. And [00:05:25] Speaker D: it is becoming more rare for that to happen because there aren't really contract buyouts as much these days. So it does mean that C9 is kind of losing money there. But you know, it's still. There's a precedent that they're. They're not always set in stone. One thing that I am hearing is heavy, heavy rumors. Masu's contract is up this year for FlyQuest. [00:05:46] Speaker G: Yep. [00:05:46] Speaker D: C9 are looking very, very closely. I could really see Masu is kind of like the big piece in this offseason. The big domino. Like last off season we had inspired and quit. Those were huge. This next year it's pretty much going to be Masu as like the one of who gets him. C9 definitely putting a big bid in because they. They want a solid 80 carry for sure. [00:06:06] Speaker E: Yeah, I think he's definitely going to be the. The bell of the ball this off season. And Masu Vulcan actually does sound like a decent lane. That sounds [00:06:16] Speaker D: kind of lit. [00:06:16] Speaker G: That'd be so. [00:06:17] Speaker E: Yeah, it sounds really. It sounds good on paper. It's just how well can they play together once they get on the server together? [00:06:24] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:06:25] Speaker E: And I [00:06:25] Speaker D: think maybe that [00:06:26] Speaker E: sets up a point where you can get like Fly Quest to pick up some of these pieces from this, this C9 roster. I mean Tacticals, then maybe going over there to replace Masu in this situation. [00:06:39] Speaker D: Legitimately, I feel like Sven to Fly Quest makes the most sense. Then [00:06:43] Speaker G: is the veteran voice for cryo gen in the bot lane. [00:06:46] Speaker D: Yep, [00:06:48] Speaker E: yep. [00:06:48] Speaker D: And he's somebody that can help calm down the nerves when the. It gets tense because FlyQuest is a team of hands. But you can tell when they're losing a game, they lose harder afterwards because they don't calm it down. So yeah, I think that there's. It could be a situation where like both teams are better for the trade or rather not really trade, but you know, just in spiritual trade. There we go. We'll keep our eyes on that though, because all we know for now, Vulcan is renewed. One other bit of information. And this is our last news story of the week. Already a very disappointing and sad one here to hear. I don't know too much about this player. I don't have a personal connection because this is well before when I was watching League of Legends Esports, but one of the original world champions on Fnatic cyanide has passed away. That marks the second player from that roster to pass within the last, you know, calendar year here. So Badger, I know this is a tough conversation always to have, but when a player passes away. But what can you tell us about cyanide and kind of his legacy that he's leaving on League Esports? [00:07:55] Speaker E: Yeah, Cyanide I saw the news, I was very much in disbelief the other day when I saw this. It was kind of crazy to think about because cyanide was the youngest world champion. He was 16 when they won season one worlds. She's. I mean he was 31 when he passed away. So some of the extra details that need to be kind of said in the situation. They had the league classic show match back in July in Paris during like LEC some. Was it technically summer? [00:08:30] Speaker G: Summer? [00:08:30] Speaker E: Yeah, it would have been technically summer within like two weeks after that show match. He had unfortunately passed. [00:08:37] Speaker G: It was directly a week after. [00:08:39] Speaker E: It was, it was a week. Okay. It was a week after. Yeah. Thank you, Bickle. But cyanide was the jungler for Fnatic for the first few years of league. And I mean I, I'll say it, outside of like Diamond Prox, he was the most important like jungler EU has ever produced just based on how the game was played so early on. Just like, you know, the, the style of aggression that he was playing with. Diamond products created the counter jungling meta and cyanide was the one that was created the strong, heavy, ganking, get aggressive, get your laners ahead style of jungle that we see very prevalently throughout the history of league. I mean those two were strong trailblazers. But like cyanide was definitely one of the players that was very well respected throughout the world. He's had fantastic performances on the world stage. I mean obviously he's a world champion at this point. He's got a, he's got the fanatic Jarvan in the game. So it's immortal. He'll be immortalized in that forever. But it's just this idea of like this player who's, you know, he was a coach there for a while. He, he was, there was talks of him back in 2014 of role swapping to AD carry and it was, gosh, what was his name? It was the, the Valkyrin or something like that. He's like, he always joked about how he was going to come back as the Valkyrin. Like he knows this up and coming prodigy Ad Carry. And I mean when he stopped playing he was very young. He was, I mean considering it was [00:10:21] Speaker D: like 20. [00:10:22] Speaker E: He, he stopped playing in 2017. He was like in the Origin system. I mean technically his last full time jungle season was Fnatic in 2014 and he would have been 20 at that point. So it's wild to think about but like, I mean he was part of the Origin organization for a little bit. He did some coaching stuff there for a while. He was just always this player that was. He was always a great interview. He was great when they had him on the desk. He was a great caster. It was just. It's just so unfortunate to hear like a voice like this just unfortunately pass away at such a young age for somebody who's been in the scene. I mean, like, yeah, you mentioned it like, shushe had passed away like 16, 15, 16 months ago at this point. So like, losing two members of like, such a core team that is fundamental to, you know, the. The early stages of the game is just truly unfortunate. It's really so sad to hear about. And yeah, I think it's such a great thing that they did such a touching tribute to him at the beginning of the Worlds games the other day because there's a lot of players. I mean, you were mentioning it earlier, like, you do. This isn't a player that you were overly familiar with just based on the fact that his career, you know, he was. He essentially retired at such a young age that a lot of people who started in the game and after the. Started playing the game after like 2016 wouldn't know who cyanide is at this point. So it's just, it's fan. It's. It's so sad to hear it. Just go back and watch like season one, Worlds, watch season three, like EU lcs. He was just such a pivotal part of Fnatic's game plans back in the day. Just go back and watch old Fnatic vods and you'll see how much of an impact he had on both his team and the rest of the league. When it boils down to it, [00:12:26] Speaker D: and even during games, this just yesterday when the news kind of broke, I don't. I'm trying to remember offhand which jungler it was, but I did see a 4, I think it was. [00:12:40] Speaker E: Yeah, [00:12:40] Speaker D: that's cute. Yeah, I think that that's. That's really nice for the players to even kind of give a nod there. I'm. It's not like guaranteed it was for that purpose, but I won't be surprised just given the news that came [00:12:53] Speaker G: out. You don't use that jargon skin almost any time, really. So I 99 sure it was kind of a dedication and a memorial thing. [00:13:03] Speaker D: Yeah. And that's something. I know it's a tiny gesture, but if you're somebody at home who's like, I don't know how to grieve this or process information, check out the skin, you know, play a game with J4 Fanatic J4 in honor of. Of cyanide. Because, yeah, legendary figure in the scene again, before my time. But everything I've heard from the folks that were watching back in the day was that he was a fantastic player to follow. So poor one out, terrible news to hear. But yeah, I agree that it was a nice tribute that the world's broadcast gave him shocks. Had a great, you know, tribute that she gave at the start of the show yesterday. So that's a bummer of news. But it does kind of remind us that Worlds is you leave a legacy. If you're able to win the World Championship, you make a big impact on a lot of people, and that's what a lot of people currently at Worlds today are trying to achieve themselves. So with that, we can have a somber transition over to the Worlds itself. The conversations around Swiss Week 1. But before that, a reminder that if we missed any other news that happened this past week, if there's anything that you wish we talked about, you know what to do, let us know in the community. Discord. There's a link for that in the description, wherever you are listening. And also shout out to anybody who helps support the podcast, either through our merch shop or the Patreon. Links to both of those are also in the description. So with that being said, gentlemen, let's move our attention to this past week. We had play ins wrapped up last weekend and now it is the Swiss stage underway. We're recording this episode on Tuesday, which is the kind of like break day. So by the time you're listening to this, I'm imagining a day of Swiss from week two will have already happened. But we're gonna mostly be reacting to last week anyway. We're not gonna be doing a lot of like, predictive stuff looking forward, so it shouldn't be too big of a deal. But a couple narratives that we want to talk about from the this stage. First off, Bickle, which teams have qualified already for quarter finals? We got to give them their flowers. [00:15:07] Speaker G: Yep. So two teams ran through Swiss, got a definitive 30 in their scores and locked themselves in as the top two seeds. Coming out of Swiss into quarterfinals. To the surprise of absolutely no one, one of those teams is Gen G, the best team in the lck, which has historically and continues to be the definitive best region. The other team is also an LCK team, but not the one you might expect. [00:15:37] Speaker D: Oh, really? [00:15:38] Speaker G: The other 30 team is DK. [00:15:43] Speaker E: Let's go, baby. [00:15:45] Speaker D: Yeah. Badger is correct [00:15:47] Speaker E: like these. [00:15:50] Speaker D: Yeah. Your boy Showmaker was good for it. I'm [00:15:53] Speaker E: not locked in here with you. [00:15:54] Speaker D: Prediction was [00:15:55] Speaker E: correct. Little bit. It's gonna be. I'm. [00:15:59] Speaker D: Yeah, yeah. This is badger moment. [00:16:02] Speaker E: It made me feel the way they [00:16:03] Speaker D: did it fairly fraudulent. The team they beat were. Were pretty good. But the way they won the games, man, what the [00:16:10] Speaker E: hell [00:16:10] Speaker D: was [00:16:10] Speaker E: that? Listen, I won't contest that. But hey, you know what? I see four nexuses that exploded on the other side of the rift and that's all that matters. So [00:16:18] Speaker D: 4o they. They won four games, didn't drop a game. They are [00:16:21] Speaker G: the only team to go 40 as Gen G did drop a game. [00:16:25] Speaker E: Yes. [00:16:26] Speaker D: To lion. Lion. We're up 10 versus Gen G. We're have a whole segment to talk about that later on of what happened and how we threw that series. But yeah, it is two Korean teams. No surprise. They are the region that is performing by far the best in game score at worlds. But thank you Bickle for talking about the teams that have made it Badger. Unfortunately, that also means that two teams have departed worlds already. Who is no longer in the world Swiss stage. [00:16:58] Speaker E: So the first team, unfortunately we lost a couple of 1 seeds over the course of the weekend. The first one was the team Secret Whales from the lcp. It's so unfortunate. I really like the team's story. I like the. The idea that they came in that they're like we're going to carry off. We're going to carry the mantle off the back of what CFO created last season. And then the other One is the LPL1 seed. Any guys, guys, is this written down right? Anyone's legend went oh, and three. Yeah, [00:17:35] Speaker D: they. Yeah, one at one and four. They did pick up a game. Oh no, no, they did. No, no. Oh, and four. Yeah, [00:17:41] Speaker E: they got two owed by Liquid. [00:17:43] Speaker D: In my mind, we lost that game too because we [00:17:47] Speaker E: went 0 and 4. They. [00:17:49] Speaker D: Yeah, [00:17:50] Speaker E: they inverse stumble on it. Okay. [00:17:53] Speaker D: Insane. And here was their draw. It was Casey top esports with 3 6, 9 subbing in [00:18:00] Speaker E: valorant player with [00:18:01] Speaker D: a valorant player in top lane. And then team Liquid, they lost to eu their own region with a team that was nerfed. And then na. That is crazy. [00:18:11] Speaker G: Even worse because not only does top esports have a sub top laner. Two of their coaches couldn't make it. [00:18:17] Speaker E: Yes. Yeah. [00:18:19] Speaker D: And this was the first seed from lpl. Anyone's legend is the first seed. I believe they also had a coach that wasn't able to make it though. I saw something about that that anyone's legend Either a draft coach or a strategic coach or somebody wasn't able to make it in, but still like, oh, I [00:18:33] Speaker G: think it was like their analyst or something that couldn't make it. [00:18:37] Speaker D: Sure. Yeah. It wasn't like main coach or anybody super high up. But yeah, [00:18:42] Speaker G: anyone's legend joins a very exclusive list of biggest world's disappointments along the lines of 2018 Gen G, the FPX team that bombed out in groups and the wonderful, wonderful team known as LGD. [00:18:58] Speaker E: Oh my God. 2015 LGD with gold fee as their mid laner. [00:19:02] Speaker G: Yep. [00:19:04] Speaker D: Jeez, you pulled that out really fast from the memory. Honest [00:19:07] Speaker G: question, Badger, is this worse considering they didn't win a game? [00:19:12] Speaker E: Oh, this is 100% worse than the 2015 LGBT. [00:19:15] Speaker G: This is the worst like worst world performance or choke ever. [00:19:21] Speaker E: Yeah. [00:19:21] Speaker D: We get to put this [00:19:22] Speaker E: into perspective. 2015 LGD is the reason why we have the swim home beam. [00:19:28] Speaker G: Yeah. [00:19:29] Speaker D: Oh [00:19:30] Speaker E: yeah. That's [00:19:30] Speaker D: the [00:19:31] Speaker E: team that. That's the team that everybody in Chinese social media said they better not fly, they better swim home. [00:19:37] Speaker G: Yeah. [00:19:38] Speaker E: Because it was that bad. [00:19:40] Speaker D: Oh no, [00:19:41] Speaker G: 2021 FPX was pretty bad as well where they had like that. God, the roster everyone was expecting to be so amazing. I think that was the roster with Nugery Top and Doinb basically Nugget joining the world champions and they ended up bombing out in groups, losing to Rogue and Cloud nine. [00:20:01] Speaker D: I do remember that. Here [00:20:03] Speaker E: let me read you the roster of 2015 LGD real fast. Just to put this into perspective [00:20:08] Speaker D: for you to give some context. [00:20:09] Speaker E: Acorn Flame. [00:20:11] Speaker D: Love them. [00:20:12] Speaker E: Acorn and Flame. Your top laners. The old Samsung top laner. And then disputedly one of the best top laners of all time, tbq. Who is an all right Korean jungler. God V. Who was like the night of the mid-20 2010. Yeah. Like this promised player, imp, who is just coming off of a world championship run on arguably the greatest team ever formed. [00:20:38] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:20:38] Speaker E: Then Pyl, who is this up and coming Chinese support that was also a very highly touted prospect. [00:20:47] Speaker D: Interesting. Well, that is. I don't know too much about the context of it from 2015, but I will say this is historically the first time ever that an LPL team has bombed out without a game win. That's. [00:21:02] Speaker G: That's what makes this so bad is. [00:21:05] Speaker D: Yeah, [00:21:05] Speaker G: they lost [00:21:06] Speaker D: historic. [00:21:07] Speaker G: Yeah, they. The teams they lost to is what makes it so much worse. Yeah, like they got O3D by the west and lost to Top Esports with a sub top laner like Top Esports did at least figure out the strategy of Pick Nocturne so it can fake like an omen smoke for 369. But all in all, this was just a disaster performance by Al. Especially when people were calling Tarzan the best jungler in the world coming into this. [00:21:40] Speaker D: Yeah. Which also leads into a couple of our awards to give out. [00:21:46] Speaker E: Please, we're good. [00:21:48] Speaker D: Badger might have listed Tarzan on his get in the bin category which did not play out very well. And also you put Al as your team that benefits or hurts the most from the Swiss draw aka an Alping hand. How [00:22:04] Speaker E: the did they go O3 against the West? [00:22:09] Speaker D: Yeah, I don't know, dude. [00:22:11] Speaker E: I don't know [00:22:13] Speaker G: the legitimate answer. It's the person that's probably not even getting allowed back to swim home. I think Al's leaving Hope in America. [00:22:21] Speaker E: They are absolutely Hope. Hope was lost for for China in this moment. [00:22:27] Speaker G: Like Al is already talking to probably every ad carry in this off season not named Hope. That's not at this tournament. Like they're probably calling Masu to try and replace Hope. [00:22:41] Speaker D: It's crazy because he was given the keys in game two versus TL as well and almost got there. Dude. Like his jinx got the full build and we got these late game team fights. He had a Tom Kench and everything but still wasn't quite able to clutch it up. [00:22:58] Speaker G: It was. I can't even explain this. You were talking about the game two against Liquid in particular. That was arguably a 5v4 most of that game because what was Quid doing? [00:23:13] Speaker D: Yeah, dude, Quinn was 0 and 7 going into dragons. [00:23:16] Speaker G: Yeah. Like [00:23:19] Speaker E: oh yeah. [00:23:21] Speaker D: But he showed up in the last team fight and got on top of Hope and just distracted him for a while and that's [00:23:25] Speaker G: all we [00:23:26] Speaker D: needed from him. He [00:23:27] Speaker G: got to be a body and pick up a kill somehow. But yeah, Ale is Al should just be embarrassed. Like there's no other way to put it. [00:23:37] Speaker D: And if you might notice, none of the LPL regulars are on this week's episode. I think they all faked having things. Mazelle and Yanni both said that they had stuff going on. I don't know if I buy it. I think they just didn't want to hear us talk about anyone's legend. The number one seed from their region because that is a disaster of a world's performance. Team Zero Wales is a team that you. You just hear like oh yeah, they're the first team out of world. You're like okay, sure makes sense. Or Swiss Stage, I should say. Sorry just shout out C9. But the first Team Swiss stage, you're like, yeah, it kind of makes sense. Then you expect like, los, maybe like Team Liquid because they were bombing. Anyone's legend was not on that list. Dude. No. My God. [00:24:16] Speaker G: Yeah. Especially [00:24:17] Speaker D: losing to Team Liquid, who were bombing the whole time. Yeah. [00:24:21] Speaker G: It was a battle of who could bomb harder. And the answer was al. [00:24:25] Speaker D: AL did bomb the hardest. So we will no longer have to talk about them at Worlds. Crazy to think about the number one seed from China not making it even to, like, the 1 and 2 bracket. But it's also kind of the story of LPL. Not. Not entirely because they didn't pick up a single game win. But LPL's been struggling overall as a region, and anyone's legend is weighing them down a lot in the [00:24:48] Speaker G: terms. I think they just had a really bad day one. I think AL has been atrocious. We know that. And they had a really bad day one. But other than that, I think they've actually looked pretty solid and they've really managed to rebound. [00:25:03] Speaker E: Well, [00:25:03] Speaker D: they. The other teams have rebounded. So here. Here's the regional records so far at Worlds LCK. 11 and 4 in game record. They have been by far dominating. And three of their losses are to themselves. One of their losses was to ignore. So they have yet to drop a game to Western team. Only lost to three other Korean teams amongst themselves. And then one LPL team. LCS is actually in terms of like, win record is next at 5 and 4. We're above 50 win rate, baby. Let's go. [00:25:39] Speaker G: Technically, if you're going for. Are you. If you're going technically, [00:25:42] Speaker D: yeah, I have them too low on the list. Next up would be CB. LOL. Next time would be CB Lola 2 and 2 because they were able to upset TSW, if you want to call it an upset after losing to T1 and then G2. So shout out Brazil. You are at 50 win rate on the Swiss stage right now. Then It's LPL at 6 and 7 again. 4 of those losses and 0 of those wins are because of anyone's legend. If you just remove them at six and three, that's not that bad that they're actually doing pretty well as like a [00:26:13] Speaker E: region. All the Chinese teams are two in one right now that are still left. Yeah, Tournament. Exactly. Drop the dead weights. Just. Yeah, exactly. [00:26:21] Speaker D: And IG's got Lion, which is arguably like a pretty favored matchup for ig, whether you want to admit it as an NA fan or not. And then top ESPORTS versus blg. So they're guaranteed a team into quarters because top esports and blg, one of them makes it in, which is kind of cool for them. Then LEC at 4 and 6. Yeah, pretty much all of them except for MCOH have been struggling. Although Casey's also. Is Casey in the 2 in 1? [00:26:48] Speaker G: No, Casey's 1 and 2. But Casey has been better than 1 and 2. I feel like MKOI and Casey should have their records swapped in terms of how they've actually been performing. Like, Casey, it feels like, has been the only good European team at this tournament. [00:27:04] Speaker D: Yeah, they beat up anyone's legend just like TL did. Then they lost to Lion. Then they lost to blg. [00:27:09] Speaker G: Yeah, they lost to lion in a very close game. And yeah, [00:27:13] Speaker D: they should have won that. [00:27:14] Speaker G: They should have won that. And their game with BLG was close for a while until on decided he was no longer off and decided to actually be on and just. [00:27:25] Speaker D: Yep. [00:27:25] Speaker G: You know, has been feeding with Nautilus the entire game, but then decides I'm gonna hook the AD carry and just win the game. [00:27:32] Speaker D: Yep. [00:27:33] Speaker E: Yeah. [00:27:34] Speaker D: And then that leaves one more region which is the lcp and they are the ones struggling by far the most. One and six as a region. That's between TSW and cfo. [00:27:46] Speaker G: God, can you imagine being the one team that lost to the lcp. [00:27:50] Speaker D: Dude, that would be embarrassing. Who did that? Oh, God, that was us. [00:27:53] Speaker G: Yeah. Thank you, Team Liquid. [00:27:56] Speaker D: Yeah. Team Lego dropping a game to cfo who have yet to pick up a game anywhere else. And then TSW, just like anyone's legend, also bombed out 04. They did not pick up a game win in their series versus los, despite how close that Game two was, was. They actually were like leading in that game and kind of looked like they should have won that one. But yeah, there we go. That's how the regions are looking. LCK is dominating. Everybody else is kind of just like 50, 50 depending on which teams you're looking at. So everyone's very close to that 50 win rate. Let's talk about the LCK's dominance because this is in my opinion, gotta feel just gut wise like they are by far the furthest ahead of any other region that I've witnessed at Worlds before Badger. Am I on the money your mind or do you think that that's an overreaction so far? [00:28:45] Speaker E: I currently, like, I don't think this is the most dominant of regions. Ever been at Worlds. I mean it's. It's got a pretty Good case at this point, just given the fact that, you know, you have two teams that are. That you have two teams that are three zero. You have one that's two in one. And I mean, if. I think if. If Hanwha had a better run at this point, like, if they would have gotten the IG win and they would have been in the 2:1 bracket and they would have been playing lion at that point. Well, I guess they wouldn't have played lion at that point because they already know Hana played GEN G. Hanwha would be playing Lion. They could go out like they have two of the two 30 teams and two of the three 31 teams. I feel like that would be a very impressive showing just based on the fact that it would only be Korean teams beating Korean teams at that point. But. But, I mean, they're still in a really good spot. They'll get G2. They'll probably have a favorable matchup. I mean, I think they would be favored against anybody left in the group stage at this point, just based on how the draws could potentially work out. [00:29:51] Speaker G: I think the only situation where they're not favored is if somehow T1 choke against Encore [00:30:00] Speaker E: and then it's HLE. [00:30:02] Speaker G: I think that's the only situation. I don't favor them. Like, I take them over BLG ends up there. I take them over anybody else definitively. [00:30:13] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:30:13] Speaker E: Yeah. [00:30:14] Speaker D: I feel like MCOIL upset would be kind of crazy because, like, LCK is on the precipice of having the first three teams in quarterfinals. If. If T1's able to do the job. [00:30:23] Speaker G: My. I did a mock bracket coming out of Swiss before the tournament started. I had the four LCK teams as the four teams in 70s. Like, I [00:30:33] Speaker E: think it just depends on how the draw goes. [00:30:35] Speaker G: Right now it's not looking. It's possible, but because HLE can only go 3 2, there's a decent chance they get picked by either DK or Gen G in round one. Oh, my God. [00:30:50] Speaker D: Are they guaranteed? [00:30:52] Speaker G: Because there are 332 teams and only 230 teams. So one of the 32 teams gets a 31 [00:30:58] Speaker D: team. Right. Okay, good. Good point. I always. I feel like. I know we've been doing Swiss for a couple years now, but I just still get confused at the end of Swiss. Yeah, like, who's qualified? Every team. Okay. Makes sense. Well, there's a chance they dodge it, but I think everyone else is hoping that HLE gets matched up against one of those two teams because already, like, they've had a Tough draw, dude. Hle lost to or sorry, they beat Top Esports, then they lost to Gen G and then they lost to IG. So they. If they then imagine they lose to G2, I think at that point, if G2 can somehow turn it back on and show us the G2 that we saw all year in the LEC and also at, you know, MSI and such, then there's an argument you could make that Hle had the least luck, like the worst bracket run. Because like that, that is the G2. That's like top four in the world. Top five in the world on any given tournament is still like something you got to respect. Even if they've looked tough so far this world, I can't really think of like looking at the bracket. There's nothing else is jumping out to me as a harder bracket like path. Yeah, I [00:32:09] Speaker E: don't know. Definitely sports at this point. I mean, if was that with the AL bomb out, maybe it's making a look a little worse. But they went hanwha al G2 and they're playing BLG. [00:32:22] Speaker D: Sure. But even then it would be like G2 still on that list. Right. So. [00:32:25] Speaker E: Yeah. [00:32:26] Speaker G: Yeah. [00:32:27] Speaker D: Yep. Well, we'll see who actually had the hardest bracket by the end of it. I do think that LCK though, as a region are just looking so good. Yeah. The definitive [00:32:37] Speaker G: best region. And I don't think it's close. [00:32:39] Speaker D: Especially just eye test. Just watching the games, I'm like, oh yeah, this is. This is. I forget as a LCS shoutcaster, what like really good league [00:32:50] Speaker E: because Korea vs. Korea BO1s that we had were fantastic. [00:32:54] Speaker D: They were awesome. Yeah. And you might notice if you pay a lot of attention to LCS talent scheduling, I get a lot of Dig and DSG games that I'm casting, so I'm used to a different level. Very impressed with the LCK's performance. [00:33:08] Speaker G: I will say those LCK LCK games are great. I still think my favorite matchup so far has been that Hanwha IG game just for like that first five minutes. [00:33:18] Speaker E: Oh my gosh. Yeah, [00:33:21] Speaker D: I don't remember that. Remind me what happened in the first, [00:33:24] Speaker G: there was a 2v2 kill bot lane that then topside there was an invade into the jungle that led into a kill there that led into an invade on Krugs which led to a kill top lane which led to a counter kill mid lane in approximately four minutes. [00:33:41] Speaker E: Yeah, [00:33:42] Speaker D: jeez. [00:33:42] Speaker E: Yeah, it was. It was a very action packed first five minutes of the game compared to literally [00:33:49] Speaker D: everything that Was just yesterday. First game, right? Yeah. Okay, so. So that one I've been setting my alarm for 10 every morning and that one I just like didn't look. Oh, turned world on to like 10:15. Yeah, I honestly missed all that. Damn. Oh, that sucks. Yeah, it was a very good watch [00:34:02] Speaker E: it. Very good one to watch. [00:34:04] Speaker G: Say. I actually haven't had the chance to watch Hanwood Gen G is I missed like the second. I missed the second half of Saturday. Kind of busy. But was that [00:34:16] Speaker D: good reason for being busy though? Good reminder as well. Cause I forgot to lead in with that. Why were you busy, Bickle? [00:34:23] Speaker G: So I caught the first half of Saturday and saw lion beat Casey and was on a high. But my day got even better as I'm now engaged. [00:34:34] Speaker D: Congratulations. That's awesome. Also you got to dodge seeing TL lose to blg. So that's a [00:34:40] Speaker G: double [00:34:40] Speaker D: whammy [00:34:41] Speaker E: of [00:34:41] Speaker D: positives. [00:34:42] Speaker G: Fun fact. Anyone on the Patron? I can't remember how long ago this was, but years ago my now fiance was actually on the podcast for a little bit during the pre show answering questions. [00:34:54] Speaker E: Yeah, [00:34:54] Speaker D: forgot about that [00:34:56] Speaker E: ages [00:34:56] Speaker G: ago. [00:34:57] Speaker D: That was probably two years, three years ago at least. [00:35:01] Speaker G: Jesus. [00:35:02] Speaker D: Yeah, I was back when Duffy was still [00:35:05] Speaker G: correct. [00:35:06] Speaker D: That's crazy. Well, congratulations Baker. That's awesome news. Happy I was like, you know, let's take a little tangent just to celebrate one of our, you know, co hosts here. All right, cool. So back back to World Zone. This is back to the serious life stuff. All right. Yeah, yeah. [00:35:21] Speaker G: This is what really matters [00:35:23] Speaker D: exactly. Video Games League of Legends. We kind of talked about it already, but this was something I just wanted to ask you both. Like we do this during regular season for LCS and lec. I thought it'd be fun for Worlds. What would you recommend as like the game to watch from Swiss Stage Week one is is a game or series like which one is your must watch for anybody who wasn't able to catch all of it just to they. They need to make sure that that one is witnessed. [00:35:48] Speaker E: I mean, I mean, I mean I'm biased, but Damwon vs Damon vs T1 or Damon vs Gen G, one of those. Because you see the most unorthodox ways to win a game of League of Legends that you could possibly imagine. [00:36:04] Speaker G: In that DKT1 game you probably see one of the best Renata Alts. [00:36:09] Speaker E: Oh my God. [00:36:10] Speaker G: Oh my God. [00:36:11] Speaker D: Yeah. They [00:36:12] Speaker G: basically solo won them the game. [00:36:14] Speaker E: Yeah. So the. The bot Lane for Dom 1 at this point, smashing career. Have I think taken the mantle of like CO MVPs so far for this tournament so far they've just been playing so fantastic in these like in especially in these like late game fights because like just to break it down for you, just the final team fight. They're playing Kalista Renata. Smash gets dove in the dragon pit. Dragon gets secured. [00:36:43] Speaker G: This is for Elder. [00:36:44] Speaker E: This is. Yeah, you're right. It's for Elder. It's an Elder fight. It's just an elder burger flip. At this point against T1, Smash is sitting in the back of the pit. The dive is coming through. Lucid is able to peel just enough that Smash is able to live for a moment. They get the Callista altos. They lose track of Renata for just long enough that she's able to sneak up to the front wall of the pit, get the alt off, flash across, hit Caria and Gumayushi and then the dive comes through. Cataclysm comes in. Callista Spears come rolling through everything like that. Faker. Faker. Owner and Doran aren't able to get up to peel in time. They're able to get Guma and then clean the rest of the fight and just went in this convincing five for one fashion and just end the game through bot lane after being down with two exact gold graphs that look the exact same from the G2 game and the T1 game back to back leading them into where the [00:37:45] Speaker G: game [00:37:47] Speaker E: it was actually. They showed side by side pictures of it during the final games when they were playing against MCO and it was the exact same gold craft for both of them. [00:38:00] Speaker G: I'm fairly certain it's nearly identical because about 20 minutes into the game they're down 4k which towards the end of the game comes down to only about 2k which they win a fight that then leads to them winning the game while still being down gold that they win final fight. It's crazy. [00:38:18] Speaker E: We joke about curse back in the day of up until they lose the game, they're winning it. Well, dam one at Worlds 2026 is up until the gate. Up until they win the game, they're losing it. [00:38:29] Speaker D: Yep. Except for that McWay series. They did clean it up for the oh my God series and kind of they were [00:38:36] Speaker E: clinical. That's the. That's the. That's the Dom one that we kind of expect when they're firing on all cylinders going in [00:38:43] Speaker G: I yeah. Half we're seeing the DK that we expected. The other half is McCoy is not a two zero team. [00:38:53] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:38:55] Speaker G: When you're getting solo killed like level three by a storm Surge ornament. [00:39:03] Speaker D: Oh my God. Yeah. That was. [00:39:07] Speaker G: I can't even remember the rune. [00:39:09] Speaker D: Is it? I don't remember offhand. [00:39:11] Speaker G: Storm Raider search. There you go. [00:39:13] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:39:13] Speaker G: Yeah. [00:39:14] Speaker D: Wait he went Storm Raider Surge or [00:39:15] Speaker G: yeah. [00:39:16] Speaker E: Storm Raider Surge Orange because they had trundle. The other team he didn't want to get. [00:39:19] Speaker D: I didn't even call it. [00:39:20] Speaker G: Got like a level funny for solo kill top lane on. Was it Chase? No. [00:39:27] Speaker E: Yep [00:39:28] Speaker D: it was. Yes. Yeah [00:39:29] Speaker G: it was. [00:39:29] Speaker D: And it was goofy. It was goofy looking too [00:39:32] Speaker G: for shits and giggles. Towards the end of the game he just wasn't using his orn upgrades. [00:39:39] Speaker E: Yeah. [00:39:40] Speaker G: Like he just wasn't upgrading his teammates items for some reason. [00:39:43] Speaker D: Yeah, no, they needed the. The training weights on. [00:39:47] Speaker G: Yeah. [00:39:48] Speaker D: Things were going too well. They weren't used to winning from like [00:39:51] Speaker E: hold on guys. We're not down 4000 gold. What the hell? Like [00:39:54] Speaker D: what do we do now? Okay, I guess we end the game. It. Yeah, it was. That one was hard to watch because part of me was like haha you losing. But the other part of me was like I want JoJo to win and like it as much as I mean money you. I do like the EU teams that are here at worlds as well. Like NA EU rivalry. But when it comes to EU versus Korea, I still still want them to do well still. But yeah that was. That was not it. But both solo lanes fell apart. Supa like the draft for game two basically was reliant on Supa just popping off. They had what, Diana Gnar with a Yanara. So it's like I. I get the concept. Two of those champions have big olds that pull everybody together. Yanara splash damage go crazy. But then Supa fell behind like 2k gold and everything fell apart. [00:40:42] Speaker G: You could tell DK was playing with their food a little bit when they drafted Siwu Aurelia. [00:40:48] Speaker E: Yeah. [00:40:49] Speaker D: Yep. He had only played one competitive game of aurelia in the LCK and he went 1 in 10 on it. That's. They. They dropped that stat and it was very funny. I was like oh my God. [00:41:02] Speaker G: It was a fun best of three there and DK had some great best of ones. [00:41:07] Speaker D: Yeah. That's not gonna be my choice though. My choice for like if you could go back and watch one, it's going to be NA Bias for sure. But. But even though we lost, Lion Gen G was super fun. I think that was a very entertaining series. Game one you feel the euphoria of a win and yes, it's disappointing that it's two losses Afterwards, but we went down fighting. Just don't watch any of Dokla's gameplay, don't follow his pov, don't track him in the fights. He. It's. They didn't have a top laner. Lion's top laner didn't exist in the games, and we didn't need a top laner. It was fine for the one game. We were good, [00:41:43] Speaker G: but [00:41:44] Speaker D: how invisible it was. [00:41:45] Speaker G: Game 1 vs. Gen G is probably one of the cleanest games we've ever seen in any team play, period. [00:41:55] Speaker E: Yeah, [00:41:55] Speaker G: like, I think there were like three mistakes they made throughout that entire game. One was, as you mentioned, Dokla getting caught in that bush play early for First Blood. Second was inspired. Missing that smite, which unfortunately became a. [00:42:15] Speaker D: He missed a lot of smiles. Yeah, that's [00:42:17] Speaker G: like inspired weakness, it seems like. And like third, I think Isles got caught out once, but other than that, they were just really clean that entire game. [00:42:28] Speaker D: Yeah, it's very impressive. The unfortunate part though was I do feel like draft we got a little gapped. Like, I get some of the concepts that we went for, but if you're in game three of Fearless and the enemy gets Gallio Camille, that's kind of brutal. [00:42:49] Speaker G: I think they caught them off a little bit with that Jace flex to jungle. [00:42:54] Speaker D: Oh, 100. They did, yeah. And also we were kind of in that game still. Like, that was a winnable game, but we had 280 carry threats with the Lucian and the Tristana and Saint just gets chunked at the wrong time time at the dragon soul fight. And then we just lose it because why am I blanking on a keen. Keen on Camille just flies in like Camille had two AD carries to hunt. That was very nice for a Camille [00:43:19] Speaker G: lion was doing well. And you know it's bad when it has to get to this. For Gen G, Keane was like, all right, sit down team. I got this because he kind of just said, I put the team on my back for these for game two and three. Because poor Dokla is all I'll say. [00:43:39] Speaker D: Yeah. I was very impressed with Genji's ability to retake. You know, vision control around objectives when you're against a Maokai inspired was on Maokai Saplings is free vision and free vision control. So many times we were walking into a completely dark jungle because Genji were so good at just like. Like pushing a wave grouping and then just like retaking vision and just the way they do it. I'm like this. I want every NA team to just study game three of Genji versus Lion. And this is something fun for you to do at home as well. Just watch game three of how gen G moves on the map. It is so beautiful just how they take objectives. I want every team to drill that way because even lion, one of our better teams are doing it. Just couldn't handle it, even with the maokai, which is like kind of easy mode for retake envision. So yeah, [00:44:28] Speaker G: yeah, [00:44:29] Speaker D: that's my one pickle. What's your choice for series or game that you recommend? [00:44:34] Speaker G: I'd probably say I think I go another lion game, but I think I go Lion KC because that was really back and forth and really an exciting game that it felt like towards the end, anyone could win that. [00:44:47] Speaker D: I'm sorry, could you repeat which game? [00:44:49] Speaker G: Lion Casey. [00:44:50] Speaker D: Lion Casey. Ah, yeah. Yeah. Dude, that was a crazy comeback we had to mount. I'd say watch the [00:44:56] Speaker G: first five minutes of IG hanma life if you want to just laugh and be entertained, But I think for the best game to watch, it's Lion Casey. [00:45:05] Speaker D: All right, I got to go back and watch that IG game then, because I g. H o. Yeah, I just missed that somehow yesterday morning. All right, there we go. We all have some homework assignments, and you all at home can go check out ours and I will go check out a bed or bickles. Okay, that's what else we got basically for this week's episode because we're kind of free balling right now. We're not going to talk about every game. I just wrote down a couple of narratives, so we're going to run through some of these. [00:45:30] Speaker E: Congrats to those who put 450Cs will be had in a game and 15 kills on your crystal ball. [00:45:37] Speaker D: Oh, true. [00:45:39] Speaker E: Those both hit. Thank you. To trying to think who is [00:45:43] Speaker D: Zacho was the kill. [00:45:44] Speaker E: Zach, 15 [00:45:45] Speaker G: kills hit two games into the damn tournament. [00:45:49] Speaker E: Yeah, [00:45:49] Speaker D: yeah, [00:45:50] Speaker E: yeah. Lock, lock. Pretty good character from what I saw. From what How Zeka was playing. That so can't [00:45:59] Speaker D: be. [00:45:59] Speaker E: Yeah, yeah. Can be. Can be. Really? [00:46:02] Speaker D: Do we know who the CS was? Do you know what [00:46:05] Speaker E: I was about to look up? [00:46:06] Speaker D: Okay. I know it happened in [00:46:08] Speaker G: the tlal series. I don't know what happened before that. [00:46:13] Speaker E: I thought it was yawn that hit the. Yeah, [00:46:16] Speaker G: Yawn. [00:46:16] Speaker E: Hit like. [00:46:16] Speaker G: Like 500 something in that game, too. [00:46:19] Speaker E: As high. [00:46:21] Speaker G: Yep. [00:46:21] Speaker D: Jeez. [00:46:22] Speaker G: Yawn. Hit 544. [00:46:24] Speaker E: 7Cs on Callista. Yeah, [00:46:29] Speaker D: yeah. 544 on Yan, though. Who? [00:46:31] Speaker E: Hayes and Smash both had the. [00:46:36] Speaker G: Yep. [00:46:36] Speaker E: Had eclipsed at 450 as well. Smash conveniently enough, the highest farmer at the tournament so far with 11.5 points. Just shy of 11.6 GS per minute. [00:46:46] Speaker D: Jeez, that is insane. Worlds. [00:46:50] Speaker E: Yeah. [00:46:51] Speaker D: That's crazy. Shout out Yondo, by the way for holding it down in the series versus Al. Like he needed to hard carry that game too and the team just kind of kept forgetting he existed. He. He's got some crazy stats. I know we're talking about like CS right there, but kill participation or. No, it's not kill participation. I think it was. Yeah. Damage percentage. There we go. He's number one at Worlds and damage percentage with 36.1% of teams damage. That is crazy. Well, [00:47:20] Speaker E: when you have quit going one in seven. Yeah. Cider game like that doesn't help either. [00:47:27] Speaker G: Like also as a shout out, we're talking about some fun stats. We saw this on the pre show. We discussed this shout out to Jachi whose gold difference at 15 is 1700. [00:47:41] Speaker D: God damn. [00:47:42] Speaker G: He has more than night then 2 and 3. Who are yawn and Knight. He has more than them or. Yeah, it's [00:47:50] Speaker E: pretty close to them combined. [00:47:52] Speaker G: Yeah, basically those two combined barely hits his number. [00:47:56] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:47:56] Speaker G: And a large part of that comes from that game versus Hanma Life because he got fed on youn are [00:48:06] Speaker D: also shout out CSD at 15. Zayas currently leading the charge right there. [00:48:12] Speaker G: Again, heavy lifting done by that game against IG where. Where the shy just decided what happens if I don't farm his clad [00:48:22] Speaker D: but Yawn up there. I'm. I'm proud of my boy Yan. For as bad as TL was looking early in the tournament, he individually, stats wise at least has been holding [00:48:30] Speaker G: it down. Tl I will give them grace against BLG because you're supposed to lose that. And congrats to them for that for that two over Al. I think a large part of that also is AL just looked horrendous. I'm still very concerned that they lost to that last of that game against cfo. [00:48:49] Speaker D: Yeah, I'm not like super pumped but I do. I'm happy we get a rematch of NA vs Brazil for elimination because dude, if we lose again, [00:49:01] Speaker G: oh my God, you [00:49:03] Speaker D: will never hear the end of it. [00:49:04] Speaker G: If TL lose to los. It does not matter that they beat al. [00:49:09] Speaker D: It really doesn't. It literally the only thing remembered will be three seeds at Worlds lull from the Brazilians and they'll be right. They'll be right because [00:49:20] Speaker G: they're [00:49:20] Speaker D: already [00:49:21] Speaker G: knocked out by Brazil [00:49:24] Speaker D: after. If you Remember last year LTA championships, Vivocade beat our second seed, which was 100 Thieves. So Vivocade was the true second seed from the region. So already they're like, if it happens again, that's like two years in a row where basically it's just proven that they, their second and third seeds or their first seed can match up with our second, their second can match with our third and be better than them. [00:49:51] Speaker G: And that lol. Three seeds comes for a reason. Because when America's cup happened, Brazil only had one seat at Worlds. The format got adjusted afterwards to give them a second seat in planes, which ended up being very detrimental to North America. [00:50:09] Speaker D: Yeah, I feel like we would have lost that anyway. But still, the rivalry continues for NA versus Brazil. I'm excited for that one. TL also were the team in North America that ended the lost streak. That's the impetus for the name of this week's episode. One streak done, two to go. We have beaten the LPL in a best of series for the first time since Team Liquid did it versus IG at MSI 2019. That was a best of five. This was only a best of three. So the best of five streak maintains, but at least there was some catharsis, cathartic release for North American fans to be like, okay, it's possible. We can do it. We. We are capable of it. So, Badger, I want to give you a chance to gas up your boys because it was your team, Team Liquid, that was able to pull it off. [00:50:58] Speaker E: I knew they could do it. You know, all of the heartaches that they had before. You know, the faithful shall be rewarded or something like that. I. I mean, I think watching those games yesterday, it. I'm gonna. I'm gonna say something that might be controversial. A lot of people, actually, I'm. I'm labeled as the Western trader at this point in the discord or in the. In the server that I've been watching, like, Worlds games with my friends just because, like, I. My rooting interests were like. Because I was rooting for, like, dam one versus, like, MCO and like, G2 and everything like that. And it's like, wow, you're supposed to root for the western regions. And I'm like, no, you don't understand. I've been watching Korean League since, like, summer of 2012. Like, I've been watching the. This league since it was re. Like, OGN originally. But, like, I always come back and I always have this, like, strong, like, pride for N A league just because, like, you know, as someone who was bitten, I mean, we've all been around the scene for long enough at this point that we. We have our favorite players, we have our favorite teams. Like, we have those that were, you know, attached to at this point with strong conviction. It's you. You have your football team, you have your baseball team. Like, for us, we have our league team that we follow religiously at this point. I mean, Kangas is unfortunately clg, which, [00:52:29] Speaker D: hey, they'll. They'll. They'll come back. [00:52:32] Speaker E: The faithful shall be rewarded someday. So, like, but like, TL's been mine since. I mean, when they were cursed, really, it was probably because I never could really latch on to the TSM fandom. I didn't like Dignitas enough at that point. And CLG was done [00:52:50] Speaker D: that. I'm like, [00:52:51] Speaker E: I appreciate. I appreciate everything CLG has done at this point, but, like, I was. I was just a curse guy back in the day. So. So when they made the transition over to team Liquid and like, Liquid had the name with everything else going on, it was just like, okay, yeah, like, this is great. Like, I love being part of the Liquid fandom for such a long time. And, you know, there was 2019 MSI, which was, oh, we're playing G2 in the finals and we could win MSI. NA could win an international tournament. And then it was the fastest best of five internationally at that point. Going. Going. At that point, it was like, damn, just having the monkey off your back of just saying, hey, we want a best of three against the lpl because really they've not had very much success against China. [00:53:46] Speaker D: Think about it. That. That series started to cut in, but that series win against IG was the end of the celebration of North America. Like, that was kind of the cool thing that we pulled off. Yeah, yeah. International finals [00:54:03] Speaker E: there. We made an international final. We had. I mean, lion came really close at the beginning of the season to making it to an international final as well. But, like, what if we had. We have the C9 beating a freak of freaks in 2018 quarters. Like, that's, that's the pinnacle that we [00:54:23] Speaker D: got CLG@MSI 2016. But again, these are all very [00:54:27] Speaker E: old. Getting there. Okay. Okay. Yeah, it's like, It's. It's. It's C9 beating Afre 2018 Worlds and CLG at. At MSI. Like, those are both eight plus years old at this point. So just like this idea that we've had such a great year with lion pushing teams to the brink and Liquid knocking off the one seat from the LPL and C9, and [00:54:54] Speaker D: we don't talk. No, you didn't say that. You could have just left that. [00:54:57] Speaker E: Well, I. Listen, you have to give everybody their flowers. Sometimes they're just wilted. Okay. Yeah. So. [00:55:04] Speaker G: And you mentioning what happened with lion at MSI makes me realize something completely unrelated, which is DK went 3.0 here. DK was technically a game away from not qualifying to Worlds. [00:55:18] Speaker E: Yeah, [00:55:19] Speaker G: because lion nearly got NA four spots and kicked Korea down to three. [00:55:25] Speaker D: True. That would have been. How [00:55:28] Speaker G: the [00:55:29] Speaker D: hell [00:55:29] Speaker G: would that have changed the timeline? [00:55:31] Speaker E: The real sliding [00:55:32] Speaker D: doors is [00:55:32] Speaker E: if lion actually would have finished the job and made it to MSI finals. Like, what? [00:55:37] Speaker D: Dude? We would have gotten a fourth seed, which would have been hilarious because Shopify would have. [00:55:41] Speaker G: Shopify would have gone. Actually, I don't know if Shopify, they [00:55:45] Speaker D: would have been in plans C9 would have made it to. Because right [00:55:48] Speaker G: away that would have been had to be done differently because technically no fourth seeds were in play inside. [00:55:58] Speaker D: Oh, I guess. Yeah. [00:56:00] Speaker E: So would that [00:56:00] Speaker G: technically have meant that T1 would [00:56:03] Speaker E: go to players [00:56:04] Speaker G: again? [00:56:06] Speaker D: No. Oh, God. That would have been insane. [00:56:11] Speaker G: It would have changed because there's no way they would have put LCK4A3 in planes and not LCS4. But technically, if you direct sub it, that means right now we would have seen Shopify at Worlds and T1 have to play in place. [00:56:29] Speaker D: But that's not the world we live in. In a large part because of this next talking point, Inspired wasn't able to do it. Inspired is on a unfortunate losing streak against Eastern teams where he is up in the series with two game buffer and can't close it out. It just happened against Gen G. They won game one. They needed to lose two in a row. They did. At msi they were up against who was it? Hle one or two to one. Lost two in a row. And then even back a year before BLG, they were up 2 to 1, lost that. Then Gen G the year before that, 2 to 1. Like it's. Oh [00:57:12] Speaker E: my gosh, [00:57:13] Speaker D: it's so sad, dude. Like, [00:57:14] Speaker G: we keep [00:57:15] Speaker D: almost doing it even. [00:57:18] Speaker G: No, that's correct. They were up to 1:1. But then in Swiss before that. Or was it after? I can't even remember. No, it was before that. They were 1:1 against Hanma Life. That's when they pulled out the nunu. [00:57:37] Speaker D: So Inspired has been so close so many times and has not been able to pull it off. I will say I don't think it's his fault. Like, I know it's unfortunate for him as a player and it's Getting like, that's a conversation like, ooh. Like an inspired can't get across the finish line. I'm like, dud, he's trying his best man. Like, again, go back. And I. I'm a big fan of Dokes. I love big Dokes. But he was so worthless in those games one and two. Game one, they won. And the game ending team fight. I'm pretty sure he gets, like, chunked down, almost dies, backs away, then runs up, gets one E on a carry and gets a kill and then dies himself. And like, that was his only contribution to the fight. He did no damage. He just gets a kill. Credit it. And for most of the games, you can watch what he does and it's just invisible. Yeah. [00:58:25] Speaker G: As a reference to that, if you go back and watch the game deciding fight against kc, they basically win it in spite of Dokla, who missed. Dude, [00:58:36] Speaker D: Cadrell had a legendary crash out about that. Dokla, you son of a. [00:58:43] Speaker E: It's just. [00:58:43] Speaker D: So [00:58:44] Speaker E: he was just [00:58:45] Speaker D: looking at [00:58:45] Speaker E: them menacingly the entire time? [00:58:48] Speaker D: Yeah, pretty much. So I. I feel like it's. It's a bit of a curse for inspired, but I don't think it's his fault. I think that his team is just not clutching up around him. And I'm looking at specifically Doko, like, my brother, you gotta clean it up. You gotta get on the same board or same page as your team. [00:59:03] Speaker G: He's got another shot. They're playing IG in round four, and even if they lose that, there's still a chance in round five where they may or may not face a. An eastern team. Because technically, with AL falling out, there's guaranteed to be in a west versus west matchup in round. Wait, let me think if that's right. [00:59:27] Speaker D: Lion lose, right? [00:59:29] Speaker G: Yes, if. Basically there's guaranteed to be a western team in quarters already. Actually, [00:59:34] Speaker D: if MCOIL lose to T1, lion lose to IG. [00:59:38] Speaker E: I mean, technically. Technically, it could be [00:59:40] Speaker G: CFO. Technically, it could be cfo. Yeah. [00:59:43] Speaker D: Okay, fair enough. But one of the non big. Yeah, basically one of the non LCK [00:59:47] Speaker G: LPL teams is guaranteed to begin, and lion and McCoy both have two lives at it. McOil, we're saying, got there rather fraudulently. Lion is kind of the real Hope in this 2:1 bracket to make it in. But [01:00:01] Speaker D: MCO is kind of though, because if they lose, they've already played CFO and BLG, so their chance of getting HLE are really high. [01:00:09] Speaker G: Well, that assumes BLG is there. BLG should make it in over top esports in the 2:1. [01:00:14] Speaker D: Oh, true, true. Yeah. [01:00:15] Speaker G: Yeah. [01:00:16] Speaker D: So then they could get top. Yeah, it's a good point. Who [01:00:20] Speaker G: draws the Hanwell Life Bullet? 2. 2. [01:00:23] Speaker E: Well, HLE has already played top, so if top goes down, that's a team that. [01:00:29] Speaker D: Oh, there we go. It's. Yeah, it's tough. [01:00:33] Speaker E: It's. It's. Yeah. [01:00:35] Speaker G: Yep. [01:00:36] Speaker D: All right, well, Casey [01:00:37] Speaker G: lion can't. [01:00:38] Speaker D: That's enough. Yep, Yep. But that. That one again, isn't like that. Like. Well, I guess. Yeah, that's assuming Casey wins versus cfo. [01:00:51] Speaker G: I. Casey should beat CFO in my opinion. [01:00:54] Speaker D: Yeah. But [01:00:56] Speaker E: anyway, else the tweet that the LOS team account put out out of the draw because, like, you know how everyone on the English broadcast was so excited because T.L. drew Los? Well, all the Brazilian co streamers were super happy because loose Los D1 and everyone's just like, hey, man, it makes sense. I wouldn't want to play Hanwell with my tournament life on the line either, so I respect it. [01:01:23] Speaker G: Oh, yeah. [01:01:24] Speaker D: And they did just beat our third seed with their third seat. Second seed, so it kind of makes sense. All right, well, there we go. The. The streak continues. Inspired losing games. One other thing we haven't talked about yet is G2 and how they have looked so far at the tournament. Yeah, [01:01:42] Speaker G: we've talked about two west two European teams. Casey, despite being one and two, looking pretty solid. McCoy, despite being two and one, kind of being a bit fraudulent. We haven't touched on who everyone says is the true European only representative G2. And they're 1 2. They look bad. Like, [01:02:08] Speaker D: yeah, [01:02:09] Speaker G: I don't know the [01:02:10] Speaker D: last. [01:02:12] Speaker G: And even that [01:02:13] Speaker E: game even [01:02:14] Speaker G: closer than it should have been [01:02:15] Speaker E: that. That lows game. I was super scared for them. [01:02:22] Speaker D: What is happening? [01:02:24] Speaker G: When was the last time we saw caps look this bad at a tournament? [01:02:29] Speaker D: I can't think of one, honestly. I know he's been craps before, but, like, nothing comes to mind. [01:02:34] Speaker E: No, it hasn't been this bad for a long time. [01:02:39] Speaker D: And broken blade also got fathered in Lane by 369, who hasn't been playing Leah for many months. [01:02:45] Speaker E: Yeah, it's looking very dangerous, especially considering they drew the Hanma Bullet. [01:02:51] Speaker G: Oh, yeah, they got the bullet. Unfortunately, [01:02:54] Speaker D: there's a very high likelihood that G2 bows out 1 in 3 at World. It [01:02:59] Speaker G: would be a shock if they did not, in my opinion. [01:03:03] Speaker E: Yes. [01:03:03] Speaker D: Yeah. I will say somewhat in their defense, like, if you look at their bracket, they had DK Top esports. Hle would be their losses. I know top was like, it's. We're all surprised that they're doing as well as they are. So I want to give, like, some leeway there. But still, it would be two LCK teams and an LPL team that they lose to. That's a pretty rough draw. I'd say that's unlucky. [01:03:29] Speaker G: You had the lead against DK and you managed to choke it. You're playing against Top Esports, who you reverse swept at msi, who is now playing with a substitute top laner. You should not be losing those. Like, and your series against LOS was way too close for comfort. [01:03:49] Speaker D: Yeah. But [01:03:49] Speaker E: hey, and [01:03:50] Speaker D: also, this is the [01:03:50] Speaker E: problem. [01:03:51] Speaker D: Oh, my. [01:03:52] Speaker G: Yeah, they're blasting radios outside of Dylan's window back right now. [01:03:59] Speaker D: Baby come back, Baby come back to me. Yeah. And also, I guess on that note, maybe I'm giving them too much leeway because they were also the team that so many folks and, you know, especially Europeans were like, oh, top five, top four team in the world. Like, they should be favored to make semi finals. Vetius very famously on his podcast with Jab Mind, the gap was, like, they should be favored to make semis. Like, they. They are a good enough team. Like, you gotta respect G2, and they have just completely fallen apart. Schumann has tried his best. I think Hansamus tried his [01:04:32] Speaker G: best. Looks really good. Still, like, that's kind of the one bright spot is, hey, even if Caps is on the decline, it feels like you found your next franchise player. [01:04:42] Speaker D: Yeah. But the sad thing is, and this is way too early to truly have a serious conversation about it, so I don't want to dig too deep into it. But, like, hypothetically, if Caps is. If this is, like, going to become a thing where he is now doing worse and worse and, like, he's not at his peak anymore. What do you do? Is G2, like, I don't know if there's another mid laner that you can grab. [01:05:05] Speaker G: I do not care how [01:05:07] Speaker D: bad Caps [01:05:07] Speaker G: gets caps is with G2 until he chooses to retire. [01:05:11] Speaker D: Right. Yeah. [01:05:12] Speaker G: Do not move off of him. I think the. I mean, he just [01:05:15] Speaker D: got hall of Legends, dude. [01:05:16] Speaker G: Exactly. The only thing G2 can do in this off season, I feel like, is get another top laner. I feel like that's the only. [01:05:24] Speaker E: Yeah. That's the only person that actually makes sense to change out at this point. Yeah. [01:05:28] Speaker G: Yeah. [01:05:30] Speaker D: Hear me out, G2. Bwipo. They're gonna bring it back. [01:05:35] Speaker G: It's. [01:05:36] Speaker D: It's been long enough. Right. They're just gonna smooth over the bad pr, you know, but that it didn't happen. All right. Yeah, G2 is imploding. None of us have answers for it, but it is sad to see. I think that Worlds is always more exciting when G2 is performing well. And it. It looks like it's up to the teams that we all had so little faith in. Going back to our predictions every single one of us had for our, like, Western team with the worst showing, either Casey or McOH, it could be G2. Like, legitimately, they could be the first one out of KC, beat CFO and then TL beat Los. G2 would be the first Western team out. [01:06:15] Speaker G: That's crazy. What [01:06:16] Speaker D: the hell? That's. Nobody would have predicted that. Nobody with like any semblance of self respect for an actual accurate prediction which would say, oh, yeah, G2 is going to choke here. Unless, I don't know, maybe they saw some crazy scrim results or something. But [01:06:32] Speaker G: we, we said, well, it's always been a question of how many Western teams can make quarters. I said, coming in, I felt pretty confidently two was the answer. I think I'm still at two. My answer of which two has just changed. [01:06:50] Speaker E: Yeah, sure. [01:06:51] Speaker D: Who do you have now? [01:06:52] Speaker G: I originally had lion and G2. I think I have Lion, KC right now. [01:06:58] Speaker E: Yeah, [01:06:59] Speaker D: that's [01:07:00] Speaker E: what I. I think if I had to pivot right now, if I had to make one adjustment, it would be G2 out. Casey in? [01:07:06] Speaker G: Yep. [01:07:07] Speaker D: All right. If you are EU. If you're an EU fan, put your. Put yourself in the shoes of a European or, sorry, should I say clogs. No, they. They were. [01:07:16] Speaker E: No, they were shoes. [01:07:18] Speaker D: So put yourself in the clogs of a European. Do you want. Let's imagine McCoy loses, Casey wins. Do you want those two to face off in the 22 bracket to guarantee a team in, or do you want them to dodge each other to give maximum chances of two teams in? [01:07:33] Speaker G: I think. I [01:07:34] Speaker E: think you would take the one. [01:07:36] Speaker G: I. I think. I disagree. I think you tr. Well, if you're an MCOH fan, you want them to draw Casey, if you're a KC fan, you want to actually face someone. In my opinion. [01:07:49] Speaker E: Yeah. [01:07:50] Speaker G: And if you're a G2 fan, you're wondering how the hell that would be. The hle we can now beat anybody. [01:07:54] Speaker D: Yeah. Honestly, [01:07:55] Speaker G: that's the thing. If G2 is at 2 and 2, nobody wants to face them because they had to have found their form when they beat Hanma life. [01:08:03] Speaker D: True. So no matter what, you want to avoid the winner of that series because they're going to Be the scariest [01:08:08] Speaker G: Hanma life. G2 winners the bullet. [01:08:11] Speaker E: I think it's just really scary for Casey because of the trot. If it. If it goes, then it CFO wins blg. Well, I guess they play cfo. Yeah, [01:08:21] Speaker G: they [01:08:21] Speaker E: play [01:08:21] Speaker G: cfo. [01:08:22] Speaker E: Okay, never mind. Because I was just, like, sitting there like, oh, if CFO win and then BLG win or BLG lose and lion lose, that's like half the pool already gone. At that point, [01:08:31] Speaker G: you're thinking for McOil. If McOiloos BLG lose to top CFO beat KC, then MCO can't face BLG. Can't. They can't face CFO. So that basically gives them either G2 Hanwha, TL Los, or IG lion, which is, like, not pretty. [01:08:58] Speaker D: Yeah, that's actually really tough. That's tough. It's. Dude, the bracket is brutal. With some teams, it [01:09:05] Speaker G: gets to that point. [01:09:06] Speaker D: Yeah, it's going to be one of. I think, honestly, in my opinion, one of the better brackets we've had. Like, this Swiss bracket has actually been super fun to follow. I'm a big fan. [01:09:14] Speaker G: Round four is really fun, and this round five is shaping up to be really interesting. [01:09:20] Speaker D: Oh, yeah. [01:09:21] Speaker G: I will say I'm gonna be really sad if lion ends up losing to IG and then draws the Hanwha Bullet. [01:09:28] Speaker D: Yeah, dude, that would be depression. Especially if TL also lose to loss. [01:09:35] Speaker G: Teal losing the loss just makes it like nothing that's happened so far matters. Like, it doesn't matter that you took a game off Gen G. It doesn't matter that you beat al. All that matters is that NA has now lost two teams to Brazil. [01:09:49] Speaker D: I mean, at that point, you can say Brazil better than LPL's first seed. You know, by transitive property. [01:09:56] Speaker G: I mean, unfortunately, if they beat tl, the argument is just, Brazil's greater than na. [01:10:04] Speaker D: No, I don't want to hear that. [01:10:06] Speaker G: I mean, their one seed would have knocked out our one seed, and their two seed would have knocked out our three seed seed. [01:10:13] Speaker D: Yeah, but our two seed, baby. Don't. Don't worry about it. I also forgot the TL was our first seed for a second there. Yeah, it was not lying. All right, but we've [01:10:21] Speaker G: been [01:10:21] Speaker D: talking about [01:10:22] Speaker G: quotation marks. Lion is our best team. [01:10:25] Speaker D: Yeah, that world's for sure. We've been talking about it a little bit. But I want to ask the question a little more directly. Luck of the draw. This is something that comes up every year with Swiss. This is gonna be Kind of our last topic to wrap up the episode here. Do we think any particular region has been lucky or unlucky? Let's start with na. Has NA been lucky or unlucky? Or do you think that we're kind of like, middle of the road? Badger, I'm gonna throw this one to you. Like, what's. What's your opinion on NA's draws so far? [01:10:54] Speaker E: Day one, I thought it was kind of rough, like, initial draw. I think initial draw worked out really well for us. Like the. Yeah, so, like, the first round worked out well. Well, round, [01:11:05] Speaker D: I think was rough [01:11:07] Speaker E: just based on the fact that it was like, TL got BLG and then Lion. KC is good, but, like, [01:11:14] Speaker G: lion got kc, but you would have preferred to get either CFO or encoy. So it's like a meh draw. [01:11:20] Speaker E: It's like third. It [01:11:22] Speaker D: feels 50, 50. Yeah. [01:11:23] Speaker G: Yeah. [01:11:24] Speaker D: Day one was blessing. Day two was 50 50. Day three, though. Oh, [01:11:28] Speaker E: my [01:11:28] Speaker D: God. We got the first seed from LCK and the first seed from lpl. [01:11:32] Speaker G: Yeah. [01:11:34] Speaker D: And we. We won one of those series. So I feel like that was 50, 50. So I. I'm kind of in agreement. I'm like, day one should have been a 2. 0 for us. It's silly. It wasn't. But with the way it's played out, I feel like we're kind of middle of the pack in terms of luck. Maybe slightly unlucky just because we did get BLG and AL and Gen G. Those are three very. I guess AL wasn't one of the good teams, but, like, seeding wise, three very, very good teams in the bracket. What about eu? Bickle, I'm going to toss this one over to you. What do you think about EU's draw luck so far? [01:12:07] Speaker G: EU, I think, has been, again, 50, 50. Like you look at it, Casey, Al ended up being a good draw. Coming in, you expected it to be a really bad draw. Lion is kind of 50, 50, middle of the pack. BLG is a rough draw. They just drew cfo, which is a good draw. Then you look at mcoid blg. That's a rough draw, even though they ended up winning it. CFO is a good draw. Dk, when you consider their options, was Gen g, lion, or dk. That's the 50, 50, middle of the pack draw. T1's a bad draw. And G2 has had good draws when you consider their options until this point. They drew home to life, so I think Europe's right in the middle also where they've had Good. They've had bad. [01:12:59] Speaker D: Yeah, their first day was bad. Second day was good. They kind of swapped with na. [01:13:03] Speaker G: Exactly. Their first day was, meh. Bad. Their round two, round three were really good. And then their round four is kind of rough. [01:13:13] Speaker D: Well, all that to say if NA and EU are about 50. 50 in terms of luck of the draw. One team from one region has had the most bullshit in this tournament. And I gotta say, it's no longer just the skin team with a dial. It's a skin team getting their little grubby hands on those. Those Swiss draw balls in the bowl. Because T1, this is their run so far, by the way. Loss in round one, arguably like the number one, number two, weakest team just on paper at the tournament. Tournament win that, then they get dk, fourth seed from Korea. They get upset. DK was good for it. But that should have been favored for T1 if you think about it. Then they got CFO as their next round and they win. And what is their qualification match? But MCOI from eu, dude, like, ridiculous. [01:14:09] Speaker E: Okay, Genuine question. [01:14:11] Speaker G: Gonna be honest. Yeah. [01:14:13] Speaker E: I don't think it matters who they play. Like T1, you [01:14:17] Speaker D: think they're making it through anyway. But this was [01:14:19] Speaker E: one was like the third best team coming into worlds. [01:14:22] Speaker D: But if. If this was TL or Lion, with this draw, everyone would be saying, fraudulent, fraudulent, fraudulent. Oh, my God. Only qualify into quarters without beating a Korean team. This is the same. This is like the same draw that we always get flamed for. [01:14:42] Speaker E: For them [01:14:42] Speaker D: to get a Korean [01:14:43] Speaker E: team when half of them are already through. And after round three, three, two. [01:14:49] Speaker G: Yeah. In that CFO pool, in that low spool, the team no one wants to draw is T1. T1 can't draw themselves. [01:14:58] Speaker D: Well, I'm gonna say they're frauds and they. They don't deserve it. Now [01:15:03] Speaker G: also, if you watch that CFO game, it was kind of a circus for 90% of it until Kerry, I just decided, oh, wait, I'm the best support in the world. And just solo won them the game. [01:15:16] Speaker E: Carrier said, I am the greatest support of all time and said, we. We are going to win this game. Just team on his back in that moment, [01:15:26] Speaker G: like, oh, hi, Doggo. Let me catch you out twice in a row to just win my team the game. [01:15:32] Speaker D: Yeah, dude. Especially the one in mid lane when they're rotating down from Baron and Doggo, it's just like they were down [01:15:37] Speaker G: 2k. Like, [01:15:40] Speaker D: yeah, [01:15:40] Speaker G: CFO had a lead. That's something. I don't know if we touched on enough CFOs surprising some people. [01:15:49] Speaker D: Dude, Doggo in particular is still so good. [01:15:52] Speaker G: So good. [01:15:53] Speaker E: He's really good. [01:15:54] Speaker D: Yeah, like that they were. They had a lead, but it was just doggo like he was is the lead. If doggo dies, they lose that game. And guess what? They got the pick on doggo at the end. [01:16:04] Speaker G: Yeah. [01:16:05] Speaker D: And that's all that they needed. So. But [01:16:09] Speaker E: all it boils down to with this is you have to play the teams that are in front of you. Exactly. And when you are. When you are one of the three best teams in the world, I mean, the. The most unfortunate circumstance in this situation is they somehow lose to MKOI and HLE wins and then we get HLET 1 and the 2 2. [01:16:31] Speaker G: Oh God. [01:16:32] Speaker E: That is [01:16:33] Speaker G: the nightmare is we get HLET 1 at 22 and then whoever wins that then faces Gen G in quarters. [01:16:40] Speaker E: Oh my God. The script writes itself at that point. I know. [01:16:46] Speaker D: Also that's [01:16:47] Speaker G: just [01:16:47] Speaker D: a [01:16:47] Speaker G: nightmare because it means McOil somehow qualifies for quarters despite fight looking horrendous. [01:16:55] Speaker E: Yeah, we should probably stop talking so that the script makers don't hear us at this point because [01:17:02] Speaker D: they listen to the pod. Oh [01:17:03] Speaker G: yeah. The [01:17:05] Speaker E: one scenario line of coke real fast. And [01:17:10] Speaker G: I think that fits in. Fits in with our funniest scenario of we get that Gen G versus winner of T1 versus Hano like life. Meanwhile other side of the bracket in quarters, we get lion vs McOil. [01:17:25] Speaker D: Oh my God. If [01:17:26] Speaker G: they [01:17:26] Speaker D: both win [01:17:27] Speaker G: the 3:1, [01:17:28] Speaker D: it's like [01:17:28] Speaker E: Lion McOil, DK. Dude, [01:17:31] Speaker D: JoJo vs Inspired to make semis at worlds. [01:17:35] Speaker G: If that is the side of the bracket, that's the most fraudulent run to finals ever for any of those teams. [01:17:41] Speaker D: God, I want it so bad. Please let's get a new record. Let's get NA to a world finals just to have a new fastest loss in the best five internationally ever. [01:17:55] Speaker G: Wait, [01:17:56] Speaker E: wait, here's the funny getting Lion MCOH in the quarters. Why? What about IG beats Lion, T1 beats MCOI and then it's JoJo versus inspired for the last spot. [01:18:09] Speaker G: Oh, [01:18:09] Speaker E: that's a fun [01:18:11] Speaker G: story. [01:18:11] Speaker D: That's more likely. But [01:18:12] Speaker E: yeah, that's main event on Saturday. [01:18:16] Speaker G: I was going to say the funniest storyline is we get Lion versus MCO in the finals. TL manages to sneak in by beating Casey in the 2 2. They face off against DK and pull off the upset. We get TL versus Lion in the semifinals. Winner goes to finals. [01:18:37] Speaker D: Oh my God. I can bickle. I can only be gonna give me Some heart palpitations. Man, I'm getting so excited. [01:18:45] Speaker G: The winner of that goes on to get three owned by. [01:18:48] Speaker D: Well, of course. Of course. Yeah. [01:18:50] Speaker E: And then they play Genji in finals and lose three games in 83 and a half minutes of collective game time. [01:18:57] Speaker D: All three games are going to be 1640 [01:19:00] Speaker G: series ever. [01:19:02] Speaker D: Oh, my God. Well, you know what? I'll take a world Finals appearance, baby. I would still be a win in the old. You want [01:19:10] Speaker G: real heartbreak. Lion makes finals inspired. Does his normal go up 2:1 only to lose the series. [01:19:17] Speaker D: Oh, no. That would be so heartbreaking. Dude. I would rather get 3 0. I would rather get 3 [01:19:27] Speaker G: match point twice in a row in World's finals in North America only to lose it. [01:19:38] Speaker D: Don't do it to me. God damn. All right, well, we'll see if l good for. We'll see if we're blessed with the draft. There's a lot to be seen as we only have our next rounds ahead of us. It's gonna be MCOID T1IG lion on Wednesday the 28th, so keep your eyes peeled. That's gonna be one more week of Swiss stage and then quarterfinals start on Tuesday, November 3rd. There is gonna be a couple of days off between the Saturday show where we wrap up Swiss and then that Tuesday quarterfinals. I will actually be in transit, flying back home because I'm gonna be at Worlds that weekend, this coming weekend, just watching from the crowd. But hopefully we can get an episode out that Monday night when I get back. That's. That would be the the goal. But if we don't get one out out, we might just have to kind of react to quarterfinals on its own episode and semifinals before the finals episode. So if we don't get an episode out next week, apologies. The goal is to get one out, but it's gonna be a very tight turnaround with my travel schedule. But if we can do it, that'd be awesome. And if we also can do it, I think that deserves a review on the the podcast, which you can. You can preemptively leave on this one if you want to. Bickle. How many stars would you recommend people leave on the review for this episode? [01:20:58] Speaker G: They should leave. I'm trying to find a good way to pivot this based on somebody's number of games, but I'm realizing nobody's actually played five games at Worlds. So how many [01:21:06] Speaker D: wins does LCS have? How many. How many games? [01:21:08] Speaker G: Oh, yeah, they have a total of five game wins. [01:21:11] Speaker D: Oh, that's not bad. That's not bad. I like that. That's a good number. That's a [01:21:15] Speaker G: good number of stars. [01:21:17] Speaker D: If you at home could leave a five star review really helps us out get the podcast noticed and grow the podcast as much as we can. Especially during world season and especially going in to offseason after Worlds. We'll have some fun stuff planned for that but for now it is still the most wonderful time of the League of Legends year. Thank you so much Bickle and Badger for coming on to this week's episode to celebrate week one of Swiss Good. Thank you Team Liquid for winning versus AL and saying to the tournament we still got two teams. We still got all the eu. They got a long way [01:21:45] Speaker G: to go. [01:21:46] Speaker D: Long way to go but a lot of games of League of Legends to play along the way. And for everybody who made it to this part of the episode episode, thank you so much for listening and just know that we love you and we'll see you next time. Bye bye bye [01:21:58] Speaker E: everybody. [01:21:59] Speaker G: Peace. Oh yes Daddy.