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 should be.
[00:00:27] Speaker B: 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.
Unicorns of love. It wasn't a mutant. They're Nexus.
[00:01:05] Speaker D: Hello and welcome to episode 632 of the League Rundown. This is your 2026 World's Swiss Stage Week 2 review as well as the knockout stage preview. And this episode is lovingly entitled Swiss is a perfect format, no notes. 10 out of 10. I'm your host, Kangas, and I'm joined by two esteemed co hosts. Up first, we have fresh out of the can, it's Badger.
[00:01:28] Speaker E: I'm going to be fully transparent with everybody listening to this podcast. Off the top.
I've told my co host this.
I still have not watched any of lion versus Los and according to everybody, that was a pretty good decision.
[00:01:44] Speaker D: Yes, you saved yourself a great mental and emotional strain by avoiding that one. So.
But hey, you caught the other games. So we'll update you on what happened with that. Lionel, you can update us on your thoughts on the other series because we also have joining us in the discussion.
No, that's the wrong one.
[00:02:03] Speaker F: And the big pickle. Pickle
[00:02:05] Speaker D: the wrong song. Soundboard. Welcome, Pickle.
[00:02:09] Speaker G: Welcome, welcome. Was I about three pages into my Brazilian manifesto of how they are a top four region in this world by the time game two was wrapping up and had to instantly delete it when that series was over? Absolutely not.
[00:02:23] Speaker D: Oh, oh, okay.
[00:02:24] Speaker E: I thought you were
[00:02:25] Speaker D: leading up to that. You. Okay, okay, I got it. I got it.
Yeah. Dude, that series gave me a heart attack. That was insane.
Also part of why you probably noticed my voice. A little shot. I'm gonna be a little loopy, little low energy just because I just got off a plane and got back. We are recording this Monday night again. By the time it's live, you'll probably have at least one round of the knockout stage already completed. But we wanted to make sure we got our thoughts, you know, unadultered by actual knockout series that happened and just talk about Swiss and give our honest thoughts going into the knockout. So bear with us. Things get a little out of hand here.
My brain is completely fried.
But with that being said, let's talk worlds. But before that, we have global news around the not too much of it, so it won't take up too much of our time. But one big story did break.
Badger. I know we were all Shopify believers on this podcast going into the year. They didn't fully deliver.
They weren't quite at that top of echelon, but they're already making an offseason move. Tell me about it.
[00:03:27] Speaker E: Yeah. So according to Sheep that I believe the report came out today, Revan is going to be out as the coach of Shopify, which is the most unsurprising news that I could hear that you could imagine in this situation.
Kind of the piece that I expected to go first out of the entire roster. I mean, there's still the actual players themselves, but starting with the coach, when you've had as disappointing a result as the they had throughout the entirety of the season.
Makes sense. Now it's just kind of how are the rest of the pieces going to fall around this roster as well once we're in the middle of the hot stove season?
[00:04:07] Speaker D: Yeah. And Revan had been with the org the entire time that they've been in North American tier one League of Legends. They joined in 2024. I believe they are the team to got TSM spot. Right. Didn't TSM technically like sell a spot to Shopify or they acquired it at some point. I don't remember exactly what it was. They
[00:04:23] Speaker G: did sell their spot to Shopify.
[00:04:26] Speaker D: Well, there it is. And Raven had been with them the entire time, so now he's not going to be at the helm. This is the first time and now what? That 24, 25, 26, first time in three years that they're gonna have new kind of like team leadership there from the coaching perspective. We'll see if demonte gets the call up. He was the the assistant coach for the team. Maybe he just gets to run things now. Maybe they bring somebody else. This is the org reminder, really the last one in North America that still has what you would call like it budget where it's like, oh, they have a big daddy sponsor or rather like owner in Shopify, which is a trading platform and they make a lot of money and they just wanted to go into esports as a venture.
From everything I know behind the scenes, this is the last org that really has money to spend. Every other team they might have like a player or two that they'll, you know, throw money at to try and secure. But mostly it's like the brand recognition that the players are getting scouted for or like enticed to go to Cloud 9 or Team Liquid for Shopify is the last team that could say we're just going to throw like 500k at this player and see if they take it type of thing. And we're, we're long past like million dollar budgets for, for individual players
[00:05:38] Speaker G: making the play for Dylan. Right.
[00:05:41] Speaker D: That's what I was literally leading up to that. You read my mind. Yeah. Dylan's Falco is the big kind of like off season coach pickup in the west, dude. If, if he's not at Shopify, then they fucked up.
[00:05:53] Speaker E: Yeah.
[00:05:55] Speaker D: Do we think it's likely that they fuck up Pickle, or do you think Shopify can actually entice Dylan to come back over to the States?
[00:06:01] Speaker G: I think the only way he is not the coach of Shopify is if he's dead set on staying in Europe.
[00:06:08] Speaker D: Yeah, I. No one else in North America is going to be able to offer the same type of budget and with the type of. With the rumored players that Shopify is also, you know, no pun intended, shopping for.
I think that Dylan would be very interested in working with the type of roster that Shopify is trying to put together. They. They literally spent. I, I think this is correct information.
I'm pretty sure Shopify's roster last year was the Most paid in 2026, which is insane to think about. But then you think about like a lot of the pieces that they got coming from NRG and like how good they had looked getting top 3 just the year before.
It's like, yeah, you know, I guess you can kind of see it.
But yeah, obviously did not work out for them. Either way, Shopify, we'll see what happens with their new coach position, whether it's to Monte moving up or somebody else coming in.
That was all for roster news that we had our finger to the pulse on this week. So let's talk about variety topics, specifically our pickums. Badger, you gave me a fun bit of information before we started recording this podcast of how well you and Bickle have been doing. So flex to the audience a little bit. How are you pick ems going?
[00:07:23] Speaker E: Yeah, so Bickle and I currently as of recording the podcast before any of the knockout games start. Bickle and I are both in the top 6% of the world because we had the exact same teams making it out of the of the Swiss stage. Just some funky stuff with the teams we put in for the roster.
So yeah, I mean we're both in the lead in the rundown league at this point. I think I'm number one. And all of the other ones that I'm in as well. Just based on the fact that, you know, I got
[00:07:55] Speaker D: your big brain. Smarty pants who actually had good predictions. Hell yeah.
[00:07:59] Speaker E: I mean, not to flex, but I was in the top point 8% during MSI. So yeah.
[00:08:04] Speaker D: Yes. Humble
[00:08:05] Speaker E: brag. Humble brag. If. If I end up in somehow in the top five for world, top 5% for worlds again, it's going to look really good on that screenshot that I can post at the end of the year and pretend I know what I'm talking about. So
[00:08:15] Speaker D: true. And then that gives the podcast more stocks also. So really thank you to both of you for actually taking your analytical points seriously. Getting some good. Thanks.
[00:08:28] Speaker E: That works out pretty well for me at this point.
[00:08:31] Speaker D: I suppose there is a cheat code there, isn't there?
[00:08:35] Speaker G: When. When you very often just predict what is expected to happen and don't pick the upsets, you do pretty well.
[00:08:42] Speaker D: Yeah, but that's bored. That's my problem is I just pick n a winning everything. How come they never won anything before if I believe in them harder. I might need to
[00:08:52] Speaker E: sit down for this one.
[00:08:53] Speaker G: Kang is we're gonna have to have a tough conversation.
[00:08:57] Speaker D: I don't like where this is going. Let's. Let's pivot to a different conversation instead. Shout out to the two of you. We'll give updates on your next stage of pickums going forward here. Once we get to that point of the podcast.
But first a reminder that if we missed anything that you wish we talked about, you know what to do. Let us know in the discord you can find a link to join wherever you are listening to this podcast down in the description. You can also find the links to our merch store and our not what was I Patreon. That's what I almost said. Shopify. We don't have a shop our Patreon. Shout out anybody who helps support the podcast. Like I said, brains very mushy voice is shot.
Fun weekend. But now we're gonna talk all about that weekend because it's world Swiss Stage review time. Gentlemen, we have our that qualified to knockouts are eight teams that got eliminated in the last couple of days that we got to witness. So let's talk all about it first update everybody. Bickle, could you tell me the top eight teams that qualified for the world championship quarterfinals?
[00:10:01] Speaker G: Sure thing. When we were last chatting, we knew Only the top two teams who would escape the qualifiers at 30 and we knew that was Damwon Kia Alongside Gen G. After that, we had three teams come out at the 3.1stage, taking their victories in a escaping a bit easier than some others. And that was, to no one's surprise, T1. But then a bit more surprising, we had Invictus Gaming and Top esports all at 3. 1. And that leaves us with a 3. 2 bracket come in. Only three teams left to escape. And we do get two teams out of the west coming out in KC and Lion. And the one last team out of the east is BLG, all at 3 and 2.
[00:10:46] Speaker D: Yep. And you might notice for the Eagle eared listeners out there, Eagle eyed. What. What has good ears? What's. What's a good here? Owl eared. How about. Let's go with that one? Owl eared listeners out there, one big name was not included in that list. Badger, what are the eight teams that did not qualify for quarterfinals?
[00:11:06] Speaker E: So the eight teams that did not qualify, you take a look up and down the list, you've got, you know, Team Secret Whales. A team we didn't really have the highest expectations coming in, but they had fun. A fun brand of League of Legends, you know, the other 0 and 3 team was anyone's legend.
The 13 teams are TL, G2 and CFO, which if you're TL and you're at the beginning of Worlds and said, yeah, you're gonna end up in the same place as G2 and CFO, you'd be like, oh, we made quarterfinals. That's pretty cool. And then it's just, you know, not as
[00:11:40] Speaker D: like, no, you lost a fucking low CFO.
[00:11:44] Speaker E: 12th at that point, so congratulations.
And then rounding it out, the two and three teams are movie star Koi Los, who had a fantastic showing. And then the big one, the MSI champions, Hanwha Life Esports.
Holy cow.
[00:12:05] Speaker D: Sane.
I believe I. I heard somebody say this on broadcast, or at least I think I did. Is this the first time an MSI champion has not qualified for knockouts for following Worlds?
[00:12:16] Speaker E: Correct.
[00:12:16] Speaker D: Yeah. Okay. I thought I heard that correctly. That's wild. Yeah. Hle they. I. I'll tell you right now, they were the team I had coming in to win the tournament. I was like, I think Gumayushi's gonna do it. It's finally his time to win. Without T1, the Gumayushi era lasted
[00:12:29] Speaker G: approximately five days.
[00:12:31] Speaker D: Yeah,
[00:12:31] Speaker E: the. The Guma Guma Yushi era went one in six in a qualifier game to make it to playoffs and got absolutely gapped by the man that he replaced.
[00:12:42] Speaker D: Oof.
Yeah. Not a great showing for hle.
And that is, you had to remind me, not the first seed. It was Genji that was the first seed, but the second seed coming out of Korea. First seed coming out from the lpl, first seed from the lcs, first seed from the lec, as well as I guess cfo. I'll throw them in there as well. CFO getting knocked
[00:13:01] Speaker E: out. TSW
[00:13:02] Speaker G: is the first seed.
[00:13:05] Speaker D: Okay, cool.
[00:13:06] Speaker E: CFO was the two seed.
[00:13:08] Speaker G: Basically
[00:13:10] Speaker D: all the first seeds are gone. Every number
[00:13:12] Speaker G: one seed except for Gen G has been eliminated.
[00:13:14] Speaker E: Yes.
[00:13:15] Speaker D: What a wild Swiss stage. Again, no notes. 10 out of 10. Perfect formula.
[00:13:20] Speaker G: I think Hanwell Life would have some notes regarding this.
[00:13:23] Speaker E: Notes? Hey,
[00:13:24] Speaker D: let's talk about that then. Let's just get right into it because the, the whole like way that things were drafted, we had a conversation before going live here. So I want to continue that conversation now for the audience. Is this the least lucky draw in the history of Worlds for HLE? As a reminder, HLE had top eSports, Gen G, IG, G2 and BLG as their opponents.
[00:13:50] Speaker G: I would say yes, because in four of the five rounds they drew the legitimate hardest team in the pool.
[00:14:00] Speaker E: Yes.
[00:14:00] Speaker G: Top Esports, Gen G2 and BLG were the quote unquote hardest teams available to them. And the only non hardest team they drew was ig, which is still a difficult team.
[00:14:14] Speaker D: Yeah,
[00:14:14] Speaker E: yeah.
[00:14:16] Speaker D: So with that in mind, what are the other potential ones? Badger, I know you were looking up a couple that like could rival potentially.
[00:14:23] Speaker E: Yeah. So we kind of have to go through and there's always one team. We call it the team. What is it? The, the. The alping hand or whatever. It was
[00:14:34] Speaker D: the team that either is most benefited or least benefited from plans or. So
[00:14:40] Speaker E: yeah, you kind of go back and there the examples of like ones that are just like insane when you stick out and you think about it, I mean last year, one that I thought was Top Esports, getting G200 Thieves, KT, Rolster, Geng and BLG.
And all five of their games is insane. But then, you know, looking at the top of it, one of the also the things that I found fascinating in it is some of these teams that went 3 0, their draws were insane. Last year anyone's legend beat hanwha, Life Esports, Gen G and CFO all in the. All in like three and all their way to a three zero, making it out 2023 or sorry, 2024. Kind of the same thing. For Gen G, it was Weibo, Top Esports, Hanwha Life just like you have. That
[00:15:32] Speaker D: one's crazy. You
[00:15:33] Speaker E: have these teams that are just like, oh, these are legitimately like three of the, like, top five teams in the world going into the tournament. And you just clear group stage three don't have to worry about the second weekend. Another one that I want to highlight that I find fascinating is because it was before the rule was implemented where you can't draw the same team a second time. The only instance of this happening at Worlds actually came in 2023. Katie Rolster and Damwon Kia played each other twice in the. In the Swiss stage. So Katie's route was blg, who they lost to, beat Damwon, beat weibo, lose to LNG, beat Dom 1 in the 2, 2 to make it out, which is an insane draw as well. When you think about it of, like, how strong all those teams are. You get three Chinese teams, like three of the four Chinese teams, and then dam one who was universally kind of like the best fourth seed coming out of. Coming out of the region at that point. That was the Brother Kellen. The Brother Kelly special coming through. God, I hated that run, that one.
Oh,
[00:16:45] Speaker G: Kellen.
[00:16:46] Speaker E: Oh, Kellen. Lost but not forgotten.
So. But yeah,
[00:16:51] Speaker D: it sounds like when I hear you saying those, I'm noticing those are all success stories. Those are all teams that had really tough draws and still made it through.
Whereas this time around, really tough draw did not make it through. HLE had some of the strongest opponents possible. At the tournament,
[00:17:11] Speaker G: we focused primarily
[00:17:12] Speaker D: on
[00:17:12] Speaker G: the teams that went to all five rounds. But you also got to take a look at, say, last year's hundred thieves. They only made it to round four. Their draw was BLG, Top Esports, Hana Life, T1.
[00:17:27] Speaker E: Yeah.
[00:17:27] Speaker D: Yeah. And they did win a game. Yeah,
[00:17:30] Speaker G: one of those. They beat blg. That's where the DOA beating down bin came from.
[00:17:35] Speaker D: Yep.
So I'm happy you highlight that because I. Yeah. Showing the other, like, fail stories, even though it wasn't the full five games, that's like what this would be most compared to.
[00:17:46] Speaker E: Just like insane. I mean, but this one, there's. I mean, there's a really good chance that the three teams that they lost to going into it are going to be in the. In the semifinals.
[00:17:59] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:18:00] Speaker E: Like
[00:18:00] Speaker D: Top Esports.
[00:18:05] Speaker E: So no matter what, one of the teams that they played in the. In the. In the first part of Swiss will. In Swiss will be a semifinal team.
Now, if it's one that they beat or one that I lost to, just depends on who wins between top and IG just. It's all this stuff that goes into it, but just the story of, like, as the draw was happening, I went, it's going to be Hanma BLG tomorrow, and someone is going to be. One of these regions is going to be incredibly disappointed. Are we going to get an even split between Korea and China of their teams coming out at that point, or is it just going to be the absolute travesty that would be? You know, I'd be happy because it would just be LCK Autumn for, like, the fifth year in a row, and I'd be cool with it. But, like, I know everybody's kind of getting bored of, like, all of the Korean teams. Like,
[00:18:51] Speaker D: it's more fun if. If there's actual international.
[00:18:54] Speaker E: I also thought this was the most exciting outcome in the situation because there's just so many what ifs that can come out of it because, like, Guma is a player. Like, we've talked about it, they've highlighted him so much into this world's buildup because it was, hey, I've stepped out of Faker's shadow. I'm gonna do this. We're gonna do this as a team, guys. Right? Right? And then Zeus and Gumayushi just immediately get grouped and gone. Just absolutely, just deleted from the tournament. At this point,
[00:19:21] Speaker G: it's.
[00:19:21] Speaker E: Yeah,
[00:19:22] Speaker G: it's crazy. Not just that, but the success they had with T1 and Faker to where they've been now, it's absurd. With Faker, Zeus went to three Worlds finals and got two trophies.
Guma went to five semis. Four of those became finals trips and three of those became trophies.
Without Faker, Zeus went to quarters and lost in Swifts and Guma lost in Swiss.
[00:19:50] Speaker E: Yep.
[00:19:51] Speaker D: Yeah,
[00:19:51] Speaker G: it's
[00:19:53] Speaker D: a disgusting comparison. And I. I have. I had a lot of thoughts and a lot of conversations about this this past weekend with friends and other people around, just, like, why is that? Like, why is Faker just so good? And literally, I just think he's got, like, the perfect brain for League of Legends. And also, like, there's all the added part of if you've been to World's Final so many times, then next World's Finals does not feel as high pressure.
So he's been to it so many times that, like, at this point, like, it's almost just the norm for him. On top of that, I think he's just the type of brain that, like, doesn't really experience that. That pressure the way that a lot of other players seem to experience that type of Pressure. So what do we think? Is Faker just a superhero? Bickle?
[00:20:39] Speaker G: I think during Faker's first three worlds, it was. He's the undisputed best player in the world and nothing can change this, his latest run. I think the biggest thing for T1 has been the combination of Faker and Carrier.
I think, like, I think you can replace Zeus, you can replace fate, Gumiyushi. I think you can even replace owner. I think provided you have those two core pieces working together, you are going to have absurd levels of success.
[00:21:14] Speaker D: But I, I am so curious what will actually happen when Carrier is not on Faker's team?
Like, will we still think Carria is player in the world or the next, like, best player, the next goat besides Faker.
[00:21:31] Speaker G: The thing is, I don't think we will ever see them play against each other again. I think they are on the same team until Faker retires.
You, you are
[00:21:41] Speaker D: a lunatic. It's gonna happen.
It's gonna happen. At some point. Like, I feel like, yeah, I'm curious if we will have a definitive answer. Like the moment that Carria and Faker are no longer playing or if it will have a disappointing answer. They're like, oh, no, it really was Faker. Like, it's crazy just how much he accomplished before Carrier joined his team as well. But I, I think it's an interesting point and you, you have a lot of valid, you know, reasonings behind it. So Badger, any additional thoughts on that or ready to move on?
[00:22:17] Speaker E: I mean, you think it's T1 as a whole? How many international games has Faker played in his career?
You just have to think about the wealth of experience he's had. I mean, there's a. There's a reason why he has six trophies. There's a reason why he's been just granted the title of basically the Michael Jordan of esports. Like, he's, he.
It's just, he's inevitable at this point. He's the unkillable demon king. Like, you have to think about all of that when you go into a tournament like this where you're just like, okay, are we taking the guy who is literally like God himself amongst League of Legends players or are we going to take one of his understudies going into it? Like, no offense to Gumayushi, fantastic player. You've. You've won three world titles. But it's just kind of. It's felt like, you know, the stock has diminished for like the lifelong career at this point just based on how the performances were for HLA at this.
this tournament.
[00:23:17] Speaker D: All right. Well, it's a conversation that. It's all just hyperbole. It's whatever we think it is right now, but one day, hopefully it's proven that is T1 making it in. Hle not making it in. There's a lot of narratives to cover.
So let's see. What. What's the next one I want to do? I mean, we kind of talked about it. CB lol. Almost.
Almost making it into quarterfinals. Bickle. That series vs Lion. I almost died.
[00:23:50] Speaker G: I.
[00:23:50] Speaker D: I was in the audience, and I almost fainted at the end of that game.
[00:23:56] Speaker G: Almost made it to corners. Is doing them a disservice because they should have made it to quarters.
[00:24:03] Speaker D: Yeah,
[00:24:04] Speaker G: they.
They did knock out Cloud 930. They did two one Team Liquid rather convincingly.
And they should have two Old Lion.
Like, they stomped game number one, and it was not close. They just took a lead and ran with it. In game two, they had such a lead for so long and they just threw one too many times. They had an 8k gold lead and just couldn't close it out because they let Berserker scale on the Yunara.
[00:24:47] Speaker D: Yeah, literally. And even the way lion won, like, LOS got the elder dragon. They set up for the fight, but they only had their top laner defending the base. And Berserker and Isles walked in and 2v1 killed him and were able to take down the turrets. But, like, LOS were winning the dragon fight. It got a little funky and, like, inspired. Got a good lee s kick and like, they. They were just delaying backs at that point. But there was a world where not only do they get elder dragon and when it was. Dude, it was close. Close.
[00:25:21] Speaker G: Lion won the game being down 3 1/2 K gold.
[00:25:25] Speaker D: Yeah. And they were down AK at one point. They didn't have dragon soul. They. They lost elder.
But again, they weren't going for the elder fight. They were.
[00:25:36] Speaker G: I. Yeah. Think if Feisty gets that TP off, he can one shot Berserker
[00:25:41] Speaker D: probably.
[00:25:42] Speaker G: So I think inspired save that game with the kick because Feisty didn't get into the bush.
[00:25:47] Speaker D: Yeah, dude, again, when I tell you, like, that's the reason I don't have a voice right now. That is the reason I don't have a voice right now is specifically that series. I didn't even stick around
[00:25:58] Speaker G: for the last series of
[00:25:59] Speaker D: the
[00:26:00] Speaker G: day. Yeah, I think them dropping that game just shattered their mental for game three.
[00:26:06] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:26:07] Speaker G: Like, yes, it got a bit close at the end when they were able to even it up, but it felt like it was kind of just inevitable, provided Berserker stopped doing a few funny things and Saint decided to stop getting caught on side lanes. Satan had been having, like I've
[00:26:22] Speaker D: been a few
[00:26:22] Speaker G: times, really rough series. And then at the very last play of the series, he's like, oh, I'm just going to win us the series by flashing, getting a triple to Leonok.
[00:26:35] Speaker D: Yep.
[00:26:36] Speaker E: White.
[00:26:37] Speaker D: Yep.
[00:26:37] Speaker G: Yeah. To win game
[00:26:39] Speaker E: number three,
[00:26:40] Speaker G: he flash gets either a. I think he gets a double stun and the rocks kill one other. So he gets like three to set up the end of the game and that's it.
[00:26:50] Speaker E: Okay.
[00:26:52] Speaker D: And like that moment, he won player of the Series. Right. I'm pretty sure he got it.
[00:26:58] Speaker G: There's no way Saint won player of the Series.
[00:27:00] Speaker D: I thought he got player of the Series and it got memed on a bunch because it's like he only got it because of that flick and there's like no other way. Maybe that was just a joke that I saw online. I actually, again,
[00:27:10] Speaker G: be a joke
[00:27:11] Speaker D: when you're live in the venue. I promise. It's so hard to pay attention to the analyst desk after the fact because everyone's just screaming still and making noise and immediately talking to everybody around you about what just happened.
[00:27:21] Speaker G: Yeah.
And then at the very end of the series, as they're getting up the viral image, the viral gif going around of Inspired and Saints flipping each other off.
[00:27:32] Speaker E: Fantastic.
[00:27:32] Speaker D: Oh, so good.
[00:27:34] Speaker E: Inspired looked
[00:27:35] Speaker G: like he wanted
[00:27:36] Speaker E: to rip Saint's head off.
[00:27:39] Speaker D: Dude, I've the infinite gif. I need to find a way to download that on my phone because nobody looped it. So it's just like both of them just bouncing back and forth doing it.
Yeah, we. We got in. But I. This.
I feel so down on lion right now. I think it's gonna be maybe in contention because we pulled Gen G for knockouts for. For top eight for quarterfinals, Gen G rematch for Lion. And I know they got a game against them earlier.
This form of Lion, I. I'm worried we're gonna get three zeroed and it's gonna set a new record for the fastest best of five internationally.
Like, if we play like we played against Lowe's, which was literally do nothing.
Again, this keeps happening to NA teams at World. I cannot understand why different iterations, different coaching staffs, different rosters, different core players have the same problem.
Just do nothing and try and scale and then win the game late
[00:28:45] Speaker E: because it
[00:28:46] Speaker D: doesn't work
[00:28:47] Speaker E: there. So let me. Let Me take you behind the scenes on this one. As someone who's had experience talking in to people in pressure situations like this, sometimes you know how they say the, there's the Jared Allen meme of the lights were too bright.
That's just what it feels like sometimes once you get put into a situation where the pressure is starting to fall upon you. Especially you're the last NA team and on NA soil down a game and it just feels like no matter what the. You don't see this with the Korean teams. They're so drilled, they know exactly what they need to do in all of these situations where it's just, hey, we need to just brawl no matter what we can feel and we are not going to feel the most comfortable in this situation.
Things aren't, might not work out well for us, but it's just we need to do this, we need to pick this style. We need to take them, just punch them in the teeth right away. Get that first like aggression science. If lion comes out and just punches Gen G in the mouth, like just, you know, bell rings immediately, just jab them in the, just throw a jab in the face. You know what, no matter what, just set the tone super early on in this series.
You can't play, you can't play scared. You can't play like a, like you gotta go for it. You gotta, you gotta go all gas, no breaks. You know, you can't, you can't win the race by sitting there stagnant. You have to take calculated risks.
[00:30:25] Speaker D: And I just,
[00:30:25] Speaker E: even then they don't have to be calculated. You can just go for it. Right?
[00:30:30] Speaker D: Yeah, I just, I, I usually I'm the guy that doesn't lose faith in NA and just wants to blind shear the whole time.
[00:30:39] Speaker E: Yeah,
[00:30:39] Speaker D: maybe this is a team that plays to the strength of their opponents. The most common thing in every lion player post series interview was they were better than we expected. We disrespected them.
[00:30:50] Speaker G: I think that's a big thing because we saw them step up to Gen G. We saw them step up to IG and take games against both. I think they just disrespected los. I think they thought it'd be like, well, we're already competing with the east so this is going to be easy. So they just kind of overlooked it.
I do agree. I think they're going to get their asses handed to them by Gen G, but I think they overlooked los.
[00:31:16] Speaker D: I just can't possibly understand a player being at Worlds for the first time. Like Saint going into a series, any series that's an elimination series. Disrespecting the quality of your opponent. Like the fact that that could even happen at all concerns me.
[00:31:36] Speaker G: I think it's a
[00:31:37] Speaker D: conscious they are players maybe, but even you got to get out of that. Like the coaches, the players. Like it is your responsibility when you're at this level of competition to not be complacent and to respect everybody. And if you're not going to respect shopify rebellion during a regular season series and get upset there, whatever, I'm not going to hold that against you. If you disrespect anybody at the world championship in an elimination match, that, that to me is a signal that you are a weak ass mental team. Like you are not taking this seriously. And that honestly kind of pisses me off as a, as an N A fan. So maybe this is a weird situation where I'm in the top line and the two of you actually think that there should be more faith in that A which has been kind of the reverse so far of the the world's narrative.
[00:32:30] Speaker G: But I have no faith in them. I just think they're not beating Genji.
[00:32:36] Speaker D: No, no, not a shot.
[00:32:39] Speaker G: Unless Gen G pulls A well. Unless Gen G well pulls a Gen G.
[00:32:44] Speaker D: Yes. I suppose if we get a game I consider that a success.
Honestly at this point Kangas, we already know
[00:32:51] Speaker G: what's gonna happen. Inspired's gonna go up 2:1 and they're gonna lose 3:2.
We've seen this script before.
[00:32:58] Speaker D: It's happened so many times.
[00:33:00] Speaker E: I will say though, I. I think it's further cementing like watching this series and how it played out especially with you know, all of these interactions that inspires had with Saint throughout it. I know people are like memeing on the like flip off thing. I mean it's happened twice at this point but honestly, I hate to say it but a player with like the mentality of inspired of just the killer mindset of.
I mean the initial one came off of the fact that he was like yeah, he was late to second crab. You have to have that. That is the mentality you need if you're going to be a North American team and try and contend with these LCK and LPL squads.
You, you don't think they've gone over this like 6 1/2 minute to 7 minute and 15 second like crab fight potential around the dragon area. You don't think that they've sat in rooms for hours upon end just thinking about oh if I position in this position instead of this position going into this fight. How is this going to be more successful for me to have in this situation?
And honestly, I.
I think that inspired is the player that is going to have to carry. Is going to carry the torch for North America across the line.
And if he goes back to eu, he's just going to do it for EU as well. Like, he's proving to be the most important player that North America has at this point.
And now it's just all about developing that next generation to have that mindset where you're thinking about that constantly over and over again. Because that's what you need to have execution wise when you're going against a BLG a gen G a T1 one of these teams in this playoff stage.
[00:34:51] Speaker G: Since the introduction of Swiss, only two players from the west have made it out of Swiss twice, which is an insane stat.
[00:35:05] Speaker E: Yes.
[00:35:06] Speaker G: One is inspired.
[00:35:07] Speaker E: Yep.
[00:35:09] Speaker G: The other one's Dokla.
[00:35:11] Speaker E: Yup.
[00:35:12] Speaker D: That is actually crazy
[00:35:14] Speaker E: Dokes.
[00:35:16] Speaker D: Damn.
[00:35:16] Speaker G: Like, I know.
I genuinely think he might just be the glue guy for. For Lion.
Like he wasn't supposed to be on this roster coming in.
[00:35:30] Speaker E: Castle was on this roster.
[00:35:32] Speaker G: Castle was on this roster.
[00:35:34] Speaker D: They were supposed
[00:35:35] Speaker G: to have Zamir Mudo be the starter for this roster ins. I mean Dopa has just been exactly what this team needs and it's crazy.
Also,
[00:35:47] Speaker D: I.
[00:35:48] Speaker G: I think we
[00:35:48] Speaker D: struggle to say it's what they need. I think it's just he's the type of. I don't think he's like the glue guy that keeps everybody getting along. Oh God. Might be. Might be the glue guy in the sense of he's not adding fire to the flames necessarily, which would only make things worse.
[00:36:05] Speaker G: Also, I feel like we have to shout out the glow up of. Of Isles this year.
[00:36:11] Speaker E: Absolutely.
[00:36:11] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:36:12] Speaker G: Like I will plow say, coming into this year, I'm like, why the hell's Isles on this roster? Like top to bottom, like, this is a really good roster. And then there's Isles.
But he's been phenomenal. Like in that game two against Los Angeles, he probably made one of the plays of the game of flashing into the Caitlyn trap to polymorph her to set up the Dokla nar stun at that big dragon fight that basically turned the game.
[00:36:42] Speaker D: Yep.
Incredible. It literally flash Lulu polymorph it. Like I've seen people meme on it to be like, ah. Like it's not as mechanically intensive thing. Like why do people think it's impressive? It's impressive because most Lulus will Never do that. They will just hide behind their team and be enchanter buddy, keeping everybody safe.
I think he
[00:37:06] Speaker G: mchales himself to get out of it so he could get to Caitlyn to polymorph him.
[00:37:11] Speaker D: Yeah,
[00:37:12] Speaker G: it was really well. We
[00:37:14] Speaker D: actually saw a couple of cool Lulu things. We saw Busio try and get the flash over the wall with the self ult to like little Alistair engage. Did that one didn't work out but it was. We saw some funny lulu things so far at Worlds. But yeah, I totally agree. IELTS's Glow up has been fantastic. I think he's making a mark as like the best enchanter player in North America right now. And his other like engaged champs aren't even bad either. But like just when you see what he does on Renata and Lulu specifically, it's like yeah, no, this guy, he's so much better now than he was last year.
Like he was being wasted.
[00:37:47] Speaker G: Has Isles been the best performing Western player at Worlds this year?
[00:37:55] Speaker E: Ooh, What are we considering Western players?
I guess that's the caveat that I would throw in at this point because like I know he had a little bit of a rough start to the tournament and he's a Korean player, but Zest on Lowe's.
[00:38:19] Speaker G: Oh
[00:38:19] Speaker E: yeah. Gosh,
[00:38:24] Speaker G: Crazy
[00:38:25] Speaker E: bro just secured himself a potential spot on like Nongshim next year if he wants
[00:38:30] Speaker G: it. Like that's the sad thing for this LOS roster.
When a team in a.
In one of the smaller regions does well, they're going to be picked apart. It's usually by the lpl, but in this case with a Brazilian team doing it, most of this team is gone, unfortunately. Like
[00:38:56] Speaker D: yeah, that it. It's an instance where one player did us so much lifting for a team that them leaving means that team. You just can't expect it to be the even close to the same.
The most I could compare it to would be like for. For NA fans that would just know kind of how things went last year would be like DSG with Rahel like in summer, like they looked so much better and then obviously Sentinels were like oh, we'll take that.
We'll. We'll get that 80 carry. That was hard carrying like all of your games and it's not even close like the same level because they didn't get the Worlds and all those things. But like that would be the most I would compare to in recent NA history.
[00:39:38] Speaker G: Like Zest was on that stacked Gen G challengers roster with quidden pace. Like that was nuts.
[00:39:48] Speaker D: I didn't realize that. Wow. Yeah. There's actually a lot of history.
[00:39:52] Speaker G: I said Quid's name. I don't know if we want to talk about him.
[00:39:56] Speaker D: Yeah, dude, we. We haven't even addressed, like the elephant in the room. We're just kind of like floating around with a bunch of narratives. I didn't write any like. Like line by line thing down. This is just kind of whatever we want to do. But should we talk about Team Liquid? I think
[00:40:10] Speaker G: we got to talk about Team Liquid.
[00:40:11] Speaker E: I think we just need to rip the band aid off because that was the most prophetic performance I've ever seen. Oh, my American team on the world stage. And I've watched some pretty dog na League of Legends on the world stage.
[00:40:23] Speaker D: Yeah,
[00:40:24] Speaker E: it was.
[00:40:24] Speaker D: We literally went from last episode, you heard us talking about ending the best of three loss streak versus China, getting a easy next round opponent, maybe TL make top eight.
And then immediately after that, they lose to Brazil.
[00:40:44] Speaker G: Like, game one wasn't close.
They almost threw game two in. Game three basically wasn't close. They almost pulled it back because they got so late with yawn.
But
[00:40:59] Speaker E: yeah,
[00:41:01] Speaker G: they definitively lost that series.
And I don't like calling individual players out, but Quid was not it.
Like game three, first picking Victor going 05 on was rough.
[00:41:25] Speaker E: Yeah.
[00:41:26] Speaker D: Quid was a player that I really hoped he would find his mental because, like, even go back to LCS finals, you know, the whole like, Morgan defending Quid and being like, oh, no, like, Quid's gonna be better than Saint because Saint was like, I'm gonna eat squid tomorrow or something like that. Like, there was a funny little tweet exchange. I asked him about it during the press conference and Morgan was the one that like, actually defended Quid because Quid, like, didn't want to talk back. And then in the finals as well, it was like Morgan, if you remember that game four, Quid was losing lane to Saint every single game. And in game four, Morgan on Jax like ganks him and then completely turns the game around. And Morgan hard carries. Quid wasn't the carry there in that last series. And going into Worlds, I was like, okay, all right, Quid, you still had to get carried by your team. I hope you can turn it around for worlds. And he just never did. He, like, never got his mojo back. This is a sauceless Quid.
[00:42:26] Speaker G: In a sense, Quid is the anti Dokla. Everyone's better than Dokla until it's time to be better than Dokla. Quit is better than everyone until it's time to actually be better than them. Dokla does best when the lights are bright. Quid unfortunately has his worst moments when the lights are bright.
[00:42:45] Speaker D: Yeah.
Is it
[00:42:47] Speaker E: for Corey, like, does this feel like the last.
The last hurrah for Core?
[00:42:56] Speaker G: Only if he wants it to be because he's still so good.
[00:43:01] Speaker D: Exactly. And. And I still.
It's funny that we've mentioned like a couple names, specifically Core, of like, being the last one. I think it might be the last time for Jan and that not because I think he's bad, I want him to come back. But I want to remind everybody that might be shocking to some people because this news did not, like, get mainstream attention.
He had an interview earlier this year where he said, I'm going into this summer split as if it's going to be my last.
Because I. I'm like, I don't remember exactly. I don't want to, like, put words in his mouth, but if I remember correctly and paraphrase a bit, he was saying, like, he's just disappointed with being mediocre and he doesn't want to be a mediocre player. He, like, wants to have another, like, prove that he can do it and is like, deserves to be here.
So he's going into summer as if it's going to be his last. All right. Maybe it was even like going into spring. I think this was like an interview that happened after lock in. But the point is he was approaching this year like it could be his last. And then after going out of worlds in that manner, still never making quarterfinals.
And from what we saw in the post game interviews, like, Morgan had an interview that I saw where he was like, yeah, I feel bad for the team, mostly for Jan. He was really sad after the loss and I'm like, oh, man,
[00:44:16] Speaker G: so tough. Because he has such high highs but such low lows. Like, he can be the one to step up and carry a game like that Game two against anyone's legend on the Zion, he was phenomenal. But then he has games where all the power is in his hands and he's the one who throws it away. Like the game two, they beat los, it was in spite of him that Game three where they lost to los, he had the opportunity to step up and carry it and just couldn't get it done.
[00:44:52] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:44:52] Speaker G: Also you mentioned is this. That he and Core are on expiring contracts.
[00:44:58] Speaker D: Yes.
And I know that I. What I had heard going into this past weekend, a lot of people were talking a lot of interesting things, rumors especially after the AL series of, like, there are three AD carries with their contracts expiring. Masu Yan.
Actually, Berserker might not be expiring, maybe. No, he's expired, but. Oh, he is. Okay. Boom. Then there's those three. Masu Yan and Berserker.
[00:45:26] Speaker G: Yeah, Berserker are expiring.
[00:45:31] Speaker D: So think about that. With three premier AD carries in North America expiring, you can imagine a lot of people being interested.
I just hope Jan stays interested in the game and wants to keep playing because I. I do think he's. He's got what it takes and like, again, an N A player. I want to see our NA players have success and stick around.
[00:45:52] Speaker G: I mean, I know we don't like the import route as much anymore. There are some big names in Korea that are rumored to not have teams.
[00:46:02] Speaker E: Yeah,
[00:46:06] Speaker D: I don't think that's ever gonna be the fix for na. I. I'll die on that hill. I don't think that getting the best.
[00:46:13] Speaker G: I know it's
[00:46:14] Speaker D: Will fix our international competition performance.
Yeah,
[00:46:21] Speaker E: there's. Oh, my God. I really just want to say it just because, like, I was so high on these three mid laners coming out of Korea last year. There's this 80 carry.
[00:46:30] Speaker G: Yeah. Coming
[00:46:31] Speaker E: up.
There's this 80 carry coming up through the T1 system.
His name is Cypher and God damn, this kid is just shades of Berserker.
[00:46:44] Speaker D: All right, Shopify, sign him. Get Zeka and Cypher.
Sorry, get. Get a Zinnian. Cypher on the same team. It gets that guy throw money at him. I don't know.
[00:46:54] Speaker E: Ironically enough, with a bot side, like a mid and bot duo of Zinni, Cipher, CoreJJ.
[00:47:04] Speaker G: Oh, my God.
[00:47:07] Speaker E: Yeah. Vickle just knows it too. He just heard that you're like, yo, get.
They got the bag, you know, get dokes.
Like lich pin dokes. Honestly. Okay,
[00:47:22] Speaker D: I honestly think from what I'm hearing, I didn't know if I wanted to bring this up, but it might be Berserker to Shopify Rebellion, so they might not need Cipher.
[00:47:33] Speaker E: Honestly, that. That makes so much sense too. Like, the team that's.
[00:47:38] Speaker D: The team that's got money is gonna spend money to get Berserker and then give him whatever players he wants to play. Yeah,
[00:47:45] Speaker E: yeah.
Really. It's just all boils down to how much money does Shopify want to throw at this because they have a chance to build such an incredible team now. Yeah.
[00:47:56] Speaker D: And if I'm also
[00:47:58] Speaker E: around for it, I don't think so. But
[00:48:00] Speaker G: I think Zinni's going elsewhere.
[00:48:03] Speaker D: We'll see.
If you're a GM in North America and you have the biggest budget. I think Berserker does make the most sense. If again, I'm always going to advocate for the N A players. I would probably go for Masu if I was trying to like, build a roster and need an ad carry.
[00:48:18] Speaker G: I mean,
[00:48:19] Speaker D: just to keep more like N A focus. But
[00:48:22] Speaker G: get that. Being NA folks is really important.
I mean, Berserker's got a damn green card. He doesn't even count his importance.
[00:48:30] Speaker E: Yeah,
[00:48:31] Speaker D: true.
[00:48:32] Speaker G: Like, hey,
[00:48:33] Speaker D: I forgot about that. Yeah. Inspired
[00:48:35] Speaker G: are like the most valuable pieces because they give you such a positional advantage and they don't take up an import slot.
[00:48:45] Speaker D: Yeah, dude, what if they just signed the whole lion roster over to shopify?
They run it back, pull
[00:48:52] Speaker G: the
[00:48:52] Speaker D: Sentinels. That would necessarily
[00:48:54] Speaker G: just sign an entire other team's roster.
[00:48:57] Speaker D: Yeah, exactly.
[00:48:58] Speaker G: I
[00:48:58] Speaker D: just keep Fudge, fudge, fudge.
[00:49:02] Speaker G: I wouldn't be surprised if Berserker already had his stint in the lck. It didn't work out so much. I could see, depending on how this world wraps up, if Saint ends up somewhere in the LCK next year.
[00:49:14] Speaker D: Honestly, I think he. He could get a legit shot. This is the second year on Lion. The first year he was so clearly the best player on that terrible roster.
This year he's maybe this like, on a given day, the best or second best player.
Sometimes he's the third best. If Berserker and Inspired are popping off, Isles also sometimes steps up. Like everybody on this relying roster can step up and be like a top two player on that game, but. And then
[00:49:41] Speaker G: Lion's just going to bring in more players to have Inspired Puppet Master and win another title,
[00:49:46] Speaker D: potentially. Unless Inspired gets a bag somewhere else. That's all off season roster rumors, though. I want to keep it mostly on on Worlds for now. So bringing us back, reigning in the narrative a little bit, there's one other big conversation point that we haven't talked about yet. If we can talk about the positives, or rather, sorry, we talk about the negatives of a tough Swiss draw, we also got to highlight the positives of a blessed one, because yet again, the Riot Skins team has done it. Gentlemen, T1.
It's time to talk about their path to top eight and quarterfinals in the knockout stage. A reminder. We talked about this last week. The teams that they would have faced would be Los DK, which was their loss, CFO and then MCOI. They did in fact 2o MCOI and what's their reward in the bracket as a 31 team is they are the only 31 team that gets one of the 32 teams and they get to play or rather one of the 231 teams. Right. Did two of them get a 32 team? No,
[00:50:51] Speaker G: only one of the 31 teams got a 3 2.
[00:50:53] Speaker D: There we go. Right? I shouldn't guess myself the the only team that was able to secure a 32 team and it's KC, not BLG. So
[00:51:04] Speaker G: this is even more of a blessing to anybody who watched the KC versus MCO series because. Oh boy. Game one in particular it was which team can lose better.
[00:51:17] Speaker D: Yeah. It was so hilariously back and forth with the throws. That dude Supa, what the hell was that mid lane play where I understand teammates, I
[00:51:30] Speaker G: do
[00:51:30] Speaker D: not
[00:51:30] Speaker G: understand.
I do not understand what pro players are thinking. They usually know more than me.
I think I could have played that situation better.
Just. Yeah,
[00:51:41] Speaker E: yeah. You just don't walk
[00:51:42] Speaker G: into four of them.
[00:51:44] Speaker D: Your team is picking someone
[00:51:46] Speaker G: on the bot side of the map.
[00:51:48] Speaker E: Yeah.
[00:51:48] Speaker G: You're going to
[00:51:49] Speaker D: have an advantage over the fight.
He. You can look at it from his pov. He has minions in the mid lane. He can see them.
He's walking into.
Ah,
[00:52:03] Speaker E: yeah.
[00:52:04] Speaker D: Ridiculous. And yeah, you're right, it was just a game of throws back and forth. But by the time game two came around, it was Casey getting the better of mkoi. And it seemed like MCOID kind of been tilted from that position.
And I think reasonably so with how aggressive these orgs were going at each other socials, like, I gotta feel like that might actually weigh out the players. If you start losing this series, you'd be like, oh, not only are all of the KC fans now flaming us, our fans are probably also all flaming us. And that's just gotta be a shitty position to be in, dude.
[00:52:38] Speaker G: Most sports rivalries and esports rivalry have a bit of like anger and blood to it, but it's kind of fun.
Casey and mcoy hate each other.
There's no way other, like there's no other way about it. There is so much bad blood there.
Yeah,
[00:52:57] Speaker E: yeah,
[00:52:58] Speaker D: dude, I. It might be too late now to go back and find, but I, I kind of want to like just read some of the interactions for anybody who might not have.
[00:53:09] Speaker G: Oh my God. I'm trying to remember. Hold on. I know there was one that was like, if your team win, if your team loses, you will always be. If your team wins, you will always be.
[00:53:23] Speaker D: Yeah, yeah. It's like one of two things is gonna happen tomorrow. You gotta, like, either we win and prove. This was from mCohoy. From. Yeah, tweeted out, either we win and prove your shitty org or you win and you're still a shitty org.
[00:53:37] Speaker E: Like his initial one where he's just like, I'm in Paris and. And he talked about, you know, acts that I cannot talk about on this podcast in a. In a form. And I was like, oh, we're starting this.
[00:53:50] Speaker G: He said, good morning. It's official. At last, after months of work, I can finally say it. I'll be in Paris next month for a fan meeting. All of my fans from KC will be able to insert whatever you'd like to imagine here one by one in line.
[00:54:04] Speaker D: Yep. And this is one of the best ones. It was from not even Ebuy.
Not even, like the Influencers. It's Cometo, right? Ebay and Kameron.
[00:54:14] Speaker G: Yeah, it's ebay and Kimetto.
[00:54:16] Speaker D: There we go. It's. This one wasn't even from them. This was literally the Movie Star Koi League of Legends Twitter account and the Carmine Cord Twitter account. This one was during the draw show when they showed MKOI vs KC. Movie star coy tweeted out a Spain, France to qualify for the quarterfinals. Movie star Corey Carmine Core, we have no fear. We're ready to repeat history. Pretty standard, right? Like that. That's very tame. That's just stock standard. Like almost AI generated.
Carmine Core's Twitter account responded with, I'm going to bust your mouth open in front of everyone.
[00:54:51] Speaker G: Yeah.
[00:54:53] Speaker D: And then the account responded to be a shitty club. You're pretty rude. What you'll do after the match ends is write the following posts and then this is all in quotations up to here for our world 2026. Thanks for everybody for your support. We are hashtag Gay Corp, a shitty club and we've proved it. See you next year. To keep licking the balls of our idol, E Buy.
[00:55:17] Speaker G: And I found the Ebuy quote. Tomorrow, two things can happen. That you beat us and keep being a shitty team. That we beat you and you keep being a shitty team. Nobody can stand you, trash. K Corp,
[00:55:29] Speaker D: dude, it's so funny. I love that. But again, it's so fun to be a third party, to be one of the people invested. It means more. And to be one of the players. When I watched that game too, of mkoi, Casey, I literally was just thinking about all those tweets and being like, God, that's. This is gonna suck.
[00:55:51] Speaker E: You might as well Just throw your phone in the ocean and then just like, just. Yeah, just wait until next.
[00:55:59] Speaker D: Yep.
[00:55:59] Speaker G: After Casey1ebai put out like a just solemn statement of like our competitive years come to an end and so of contracts and at the very like, my personal congratulations to KC for what they've achieved today. And I saw this directly after there were like 20 KC fans posting the exact same image underneath. I just posted it in our host chat. It's.
[00:56:24] Speaker D: Oh, that's funny.
[00:56:26] Speaker G: It's a GTA image with Kimetto holding you by as a dog on a chain.
[00:56:33] Speaker D: Yep.
[00:56:34] Speaker E: Bro, EU just does beef so much better than we do in esports. That might actually be why the gaps closing in the wrong direction, as Jet likes to say.
[00:56:46] Speaker D: Yep,
[00:56:46] Speaker G: Yep.
[00:56:47] Speaker D: But legendary rivalry. I'm so happy it exists. This is so much more heat for a rivalry than TSMCLG ever was. But it feels like we have something like that again where we were lacking it for so long.
So, yeah, got me more invested in the games. Very fun.
[00:57:07] Speaker E: Absolutely.
[00:57:09] Speaker D: But again, we kind of got there from the T1 narrative because they pulled KC and and they're on the opposite side of the bracket from Gen G dudes.
Like, we got to make it a little less obvious.
[00:57:23] Speaker G: The perfect storyline is set up. Like the picturesque finals is right there.
But
[00:57:33] Speaker E: Yeah, I know T1 versus Lion is going to go hard in the paint in Madison Square Garden or wherever the finals
[00:57:41] Speaker D: start talking about that.
[00:57:42] Speaker G: Yeah, it's in Barclays
[00:57:43] Speaker D: at Barclays. Yeah,
[00:57:44] Speaker E: Barclays. Okay, okay, okay. Maybe that. Maybe they do IG versus T1 then.
[00:57:49] Speaker D: Oh, okay. Okay. Well, I was gonna say that's a great segue in because let's start.
Let's talk about the bracket and our expectations. I'm gonna run through the bracket real quick. I have not filled out my. My updated pickums yet for top eight. So after I talk about the bracket, I want to hear your guys's thoughts of who you actually have predicted. I'm curious. We talked about this a little bit before we recording and I intentionally told you to not to tell each other what you have so we can see how close they are.
[00:58:16] Speaker G: I have a feeling if they're not identical, they're going to be pretty damn close.
[00:58:22] Speaker E: Yeah. Yeah,
[00:58:23] Speaker D: I imagine
[00:58:24] Speaker E: probably.
[00:58:25] Speaker D: So here we go. Knockout stage. And I. You know what? I'm going to go in order of when they're going to play. So you can mark your calendar Tuesday, tomorrow as of recording. But by the time you're hearing, this probably has already happened. Top esports versus IG. We got LPL versus LPL. They are guaranteed a team in top four. Then Wednesday, and these are all starting at 2pm Pacific time.
And then let that spill over for whatever time. 5pm Eastern.
Yeah. 5pm Eastern, 4pm Central. Etc.
Wednesday we have Jen G versus lion for what I would anticipate to be a new contender for the fastest ever international best.
If Jen G can put line in their place. I'm really down on our team at this point. I'll still show up and cheer. You better believe it.
But I don't feel very confident.
Then Thursday, DK versus BLG.
And then Friday, it's KC versus T1. The first two matches are the bottom side of the bracket. The last two matches are the top side of the bracket. And you can see there t1 of KC. And then they get the winner of BLG or DK.
I would argue that they have the easier side of the bracket because they don't have specifically Gen G. But also DK and BLG are gonna. One is gonna hedge out the other. So if you're on the other side of the bracket, you probably have to go through like IG or Top Esports and Gen G along the way. So this is kind of crazy that T1 was able to pull this off. I think it's almost guaranteed T1 in the finals at this point. Unless BLG or DK can do something cool.
But let's hear your opinions. Bickle, I'm gonna hand it to you first. Run us through your bracket and then Bickle or sorry, Badger at the very end. Let us know if you. Is it the exact same or actually, is there a better way to do
[01:00:10] Speaker E: it
[01:00:10] Speaker G: game by game?
[01:00:11] Speaker D: We can do game by game, actually. Okay. Okay. Never mind. Yeah, I like that more. So let's start with the top game. Then dk. Blg.
[01:00:18] Speaker G: I got blg.
[01:00:19] Speaker D: I'm gonna count down.
[01:00:20] Speaker E: I also. Okay.
[01:00:21] Speaker G: Okay. This is the one game I thought we may differ on as I know
[01:00:24] Speaker E: you're really high on dk. My. It's the. It's the argument. It's the heart versus it's the heart. Yeah, Heart
[01:00:31] Speaker G: versus head
[01:00:33] Speaker E: argument that I've given in the past about. You know, there's a letter that's in the American Revolution. It's just, you know, you're thinking with your heart versus your brain what you. And it's the two different emotional strands of it. Like my heart says damwon. They're going to win. They're going to come in strong. Showmaker is playing so well, career and Smash might be the best bot lane in the tournament, which is a wild thing to say at this point. But, no, I went with the brain of just BLG1 first stand. They got runners up at MSI and they beat the MSI champions to qualify for this point. It just feels like it's too obvious.
[01:01:04] Speaker G: Showmaker looks good.
Knight looks like he might be the best player at this tournament.
[01:01:10] Speaker D: He's having a fan. I actually think
[01:01:11] Speaker E: showmaker is going to have a fantastic showing against night. I think. I think he will. I think it's going to be
[01:01:17] Speaker G: such a good match.
[01:01:19] Speaker D: And a reminder that Mizel and Leo, for our predictions, both listed Knight as the get in the bin candidate. So they. They have a really strong argument if they're able to. I
[01:01:31] Speaker G: think this is the closest of the quarterfinals.
[01:01:34] Speaker E: Yes, this should be the closest of the quarterfinals.
[01:01:37] Speaker D: All right, I'm gonna count down the next one then, because the next one I'm. I'm very interested if you guys will disagree. Casey versus T1. Three, two, one.
[01:01:47] Speaker G: T1.
[01:01:47] Speaker E: T1.
[01:01:49] Speaker D: Yeah. Yeah. Okay.
We don't need to talk about that anymore. Let's move on.
[01:01:53] Speaker E: Okay,
[01:01:53] Speaker D: next is Top. I think this one
[01:01:55] Speaker E: we actually might be
[01:01:56] Speaker D: versus IG.
Maybe it's LPL versus LPL. It's tough. Top Esports versus IG. 3, 2, 1.
[01:02:05] Speaker E: Okay,
[01:02:06] Speaker G: we're good. Yeah.
[01:02:07] Speaker E: I
[01:02:07] Speaker G: think
[01:02:07] Speaker D: we're going the entire way.
[01:02:09] Speaker E: We're pretty. We're pretty clear on what we think. Yeah. Okay. So our brackets are actually the same.
[01:02:13] Speaker D: Okay, so we all gen G over lion. Right. We don't
[01:02:16] Speaker E: need
[01:02:16] Speaker G: Genji over Lion.
[01:02:17] Speaker D: Okay. So that means it's gonna be BLG1.
[01:02:21] Speaker G: Gen G over IG.
[01:02:24] Speaker E: Yeah. Yeah. And
[01:02:25] Speaker G: then
[01:02:25] Speaker D: so now in the finals.
[01:02:27] Speaker G: Gen G finals. T1 wins
[01:02:29] Speaker E: it. Yes. T1 jung finals. T1 wins it. Yeah. We literally have the exact
[01:02:33] Speaker D: bracket.
[01:02:34] Speaker E: Okay. Yeah. Well,
[01:02:35] Speaker D: but you also both identified pretty quickly that there's really only, like, two that could have been contentious, and that was in the quarterfinals.
[01:02:43] Speaker G: DK BLG can be close.
Top esports, IG can be close.
[01:02:48] Speaker E: Yes.
[01:02:49] Speaker D: Do you think that IG, Gen G could be close or BLGT1? Or do you think that those ones are, like, so heavily favored in the ways that you went for it that there's no argument?
[01:02:58] Speaker E: I think the way that IG wins the game, Gen G is just so much better at. They kind of play through, you know, this bot lane, just getting ahead, trying to get an advantage. I mean, Jack, Jackie, Jai ji, How do you. Jochi. That's what? Yeah, I knew I was gonna pronounce it wrong. Joshi.
It was one of the best performers throughout the group stage. But I mean. Yep. When you take a look at the other side, you. You look at Gen G's Bot Lane and you're just like, oh yeah, they're really, really freaking good. I mean, Ruler.
Ruler will always be top of the class when it comes to like the 80 carry discussions throughout all of it. And then you just have to look at solo Lanes. And I mean, Chovy is still Chovy. I mean, it is the quarterfinals or semifinals at that point. So you might like consider the fact that there's the debuff there. But it just feels like the way that they're playing the game versus the way that the Cheyenne rookie are playing.
[01:04:00] Speaker G: I
[01:04:01] Speaker E: mean,
[01:04:01] Speaker G: IG likes introducing chaos. Gen G is the team that maintains the agenda the most.
They just do so well against that chaos.
That's why
[01:04:12] Speaker E: IG did
[01:04:13] Speaker G: so well against Hanwell Life, because they introduce a chaos to an already chaotic game and just make it so it could go anyway. Gen G's too stable.
[01:04:25] Speaker E: They have to have those certain break points that they hit throughout the game, you know? Yeah, you've got your. You with all of the additions of like the role quests and like the item spiking and everything like that, it was just. There was just so much on Han was plate that if the plan falls apart at any point throughout the process, they weren't able to hit those like checkpoints. You know, it's like when you're watching a speedrunner and they've got like the. The time stamps of where they want to be. Hanwha plays like that. IG doesn't care about that. And Genji is so adaptive that they can have any play style thrown at them by most of the teams in the world, I would say, at this point. And they know exactly what they're expecting and how they would want to play the game out in all three phases of the game, no matter who is on the other side.
Now the thing is,
[01:05:18] Speaker G: you need to be perfect.
[01:05:20] Speaker E: Yes.
[01:05:22] Speaker D: And we just don't think that IG can do that.
[01:05:25] Speaker E: I think. I think there's a chance. I think that series between.
I mean, this might be cursing it when I say it, but between the T1BLG semifinals that we would get and the IG Gen G, I think IG Gen G is way closer than T1BLG. Just based on how everything we've seen coming through this tournament has been working to this point. I Think BLG is really good when Knight's able to stabilize through a lane phase and get to the point where he's able to carry through these team fights Knights. But then you have to think about it like I talked about earlier. You've got Faker on the other side of the rift who's just the class of all class when it comes to mid laners. Knows exactly what Knight's gonna do in any situation. Probably has. I mean I don't, I don't say the has them downloaded like how they want to play the game moniker too often but it just feels like Faker has every mid laner at this tournament downloaded at this point of just how they want to play all three phases of the game. What their rotation patterns are like how they group with the support in the jungle and they just get those calculated aggressions like the 8 to 10 minute mark. Like it just feels like T1 is going to just have such a good read on it with BLG because BLG is the most Korean Chinese team there is just because they have this just strong structure set in place with just the players that they have on the roster.
And T1 just knows how this play style works because they've been using it since 2013 and they've won six trophies within that time frame.
[01:07:01] Speaker G: T1 in the LCK is a good team. T1 in the Swiss stage is a really good team. T1 in the knockout stage of Worlds is undeniable. Like
[01:07:15] Speaker D: yeah,
[01:07:16] Speaker G: you need to be on an entirely different level to be able to handle them.
[01:07:23] Speaker D: They have lost one international finals ST1 and that was four years ago
[01:07:32] Speaker G: in a three
[01:07:33] Speaker E: that was
[01:07:33] Speaker G: that they arguably
[01:07:34] Speaker E: could have been and debatably one of the greatest series that league has ever created. And even then they've, they've got contenders across the board. I mean 2016 semis World semis is was highly regarded as the best series of all time and they were able to keep their cool through it. There was a misfortune support pick that came in and they were just able to adapt on the fly. Like this team has just been so inevitable throughout the course of the game really it's just, it all boils down to the fact that when you have such a stable just rock at this point in the mid lane, it just doesn't matter how the rest of the map is going. And I mean he's always had a strong supporting cast around him. I mean Hayes has gone up a level since he started playing with Caria for sure.
[01:08:22] Speaker G: And the thing we say about Gen G is they are such a stable level, you know what to expect.
We're talking about the potential of an IG Gen G series.
Ig, I feel like was the team coming into this tournament with the most variants. I could have seen them dropping out extremely early if everything went
[01:08:42] Speaker D: dead.
[01:08:44] Speaker G: Yeah. I could also see. I thought at their peak, this team is going to be a top four team at the tournament. And I think that's where they're going to hit their peak.
I think they've done extremely well. I just don't think it's in the cards for them to be Genji. I'd love to be wrong because I.
[01:09:01] Speaker E: Yeah,
[01:09:02] Speaker G: it. It's part of the old brain in me. I think a rookie faker World Finals, it's just really cool. Even if it is probably like eight years too late.
[01:09:16] Speaker D: Yeah, I think that there's a couple of finals. It could be very exciting. T1 against pretty much anybody exciting because T1 versus Gen G, T1 versus any Chinese team is always cool.
Though. Badger, you had brought up the story or the potential.
BLG have a unique path.
If they beat DK, then beat T1, then beat Gen G, they would have done the full Korean gauntlet, which no Chinese team I don't think has ever done that would. Yeah. The reverse T1 where they were able to take down, you know, China. China. China.
[01:09:52] Speaker G: It'd also be fun in the fact that if we do get to a BLG Gen G finals, Knight and Chovy have been the generation of mid laner of. Okay, whose is it?
And obviously Chovy's taken a lot of those msis Knights. Taken some. They've both kind of been very dominant within their own regions, but neither of them has been able to take down Faker for the cop at the end. So to see one of them finally come out on top would almost be their way of stamping. This is my generation.
[01:10:24] Speaker D: Yeah. It literally. I still think showmaker would also be fun. Showmaker. Chovy would be a cool finals too.
If DK are able to make the run. So of the teams that like have a chance, I think the Highest chance is T1 Gen G. But like BLG IG in there and then DK would be the next one. I don't. If top esports make the finals. Holy 369.
[01:10:47] Speaker E: Saying. Saying Gen G versus Dam 1 in the finals just made it. So it's Canyon versus Showmaker.
[01:10:53] Speaker G: Oh.
Oh,
[01:10:55] Speaker E: yeah.
[01:10:56] Speaker G: Oh, that's. Yeah,
[01:10:57] Speaker D: that would be hype too.
[01:10:58] Speaker G: Question.
If top esports wins worlds. Can 369 get his skin in Valorant?
[01:11:05] Speaker E: Honestly,
[01:11:07] Speaker D: that would be amazing.
Not gonna happen, but that would be amazing. Well, that's a lot of predictive conversations. It's up to the players to prove who deserves the title. We'll have one more episode before the finals themselves because this coming week, the schedule is going to be all the quarterfinals straight into semifinals. Then we're gonna have a little break before the finals on finals weekend. So a reminder, we have Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday are going to be the quarterfinals. Then it's just Saturday, Sunday or semis. So we'll be able to at least react to how the rest of the knockout stage went before the finals themselves. To give a more in depth kind of analysis then. But for quarterfinals or semifinals, any final thoughts? Ironically, final thoughts.
[01:11:53] Speaker G: Badger and I have given our bracket breakdowns. Kangas, what's your World Finals?
[01:11:58] Speaker D: Oh, I. I got Gen GT1, I think.
[01:11:59] Speaker G: Okay, you're. You're on
[01:12:01] Speaker E: the.
[01:12:01] Speaker G: You're right there.
[01:12:02] Speaker D: I'm on the same train. Yeah, I. I don't think anything different, Skip. Oh, is it. Never mind. So it's gonna be lion vs Casey so we can beat him in the finals,
[01:12:10] Speaker E: get revenge for. For MSI all those years ago.
[01:12:14] Speaker D: Or Lion T1 so inspired can beat Faker. There we go. That's
[01:12:18] Speaker G: lion beats Gen G IG and T1 to finally overcome their international demons.
[01:12:25] Speaker D: That would.
I. I think I would die if that happened.
[01:12:30] Speaker G: Like, I. I don't. No,
[01:12:31] Speaker D: no, no, no, no, no, no. Hear me out. Hear me out. They beat Gen G IG just to be up to one against T1.
[01:12:41] Speaker G: If lion beats Gen G isn't like, legitimate question.
Does Inspire just become the greatest NA player of all time?
[01:12:53] Speaker E: I mean, yeah,
[01:12:54] Speaker D: I. I think.
[01:12:56] Speaker E: Yeah,
[01:12:57] Speaker D: I
[01:12:57] Speaker E: would say so.
[01:12:59] Speaker D: The only people in the conversation right now are Bjergson and Doublelift and Inspired.
Like, neither of those players were ever able to beat a team in a quarterfinals. Actually, did Bjergsen win a quarterfinals?
[01:13:11] Speaker E: No.
[01:13:12] Speaker G: No.
[01:13:13] Speaker D: Yeah. Okay.
[01:13:14] Speaker E: Famously, the only quarterfinals he played was the one against Samsung White where he got absolutely bodied the entire time.
[01:13:22] Speaker D: Okay, well, in that case, then Doublelift family
[01:13:26] Speaker G: famously couldn't make it out of groups. He did have that MSI finals, but we remember how that went.
[01:13:34] Speaker D: Yeah.
So that would be historic, but unlikely. We'll see if they can do it. Everybody keep your eyes peeled on the calendar because we got a lot of League of Legends and a lot of Worlds still ahead of us. But at the same time, not nearly as much as I wish we did. Thanks so much for coming on this episode, guys. This was super fun.
Happy we were able to sneak one in again. By the time you're listening to this to the listeners, we'll probably at least have one of the quarterfinals matches played. If not too. But just wanted to get our natural thoughts out before seeing any of those.
And bickle, if you wanted to, you know, maybe remind anybody of something.
My brain's a little jumbled, but something about numbers and stars.
[01:14:16] Speaker G: Numbers and stars. How about the number of games that the CB Law both managed to win and lose?
[01:14:23] Speaker D: Oh, that's a good one. How many? How many was that?
[01:14:26] Speaker G: That'd be a total of 5 stars. Which means that the CB LOL ended Swiss with the same record as the LCS in terms of win percentage. And a better win percentage than the lec.
[01:14:38] Speaker D: True. Thank you for reminding me. We forgot to mention that LCK by far smoked everyone with the 15, 6 LPL. 13 11.
That's the last positive win record. Then it's a 50, 50 or 50 win record for LCS and CB LOL. 9 and 9, 5 and 5. LEC only went 8 and 12. Now they did play themselves in a best of 3, which says both 3 wins and 3 losses. It's a little funky.
[01:15:03] Speaker G: Even without, they're still at a negative one rate.
[01:15:05] Speaker D: Yes, exactly.
So yeah, LCP man. RIP rip. LCP one and eight. But yeah. Thanks for listening along, everybody. Thank you for being on Pickle Badger. This is a super fun episode and
[01:15:17] Speaker G: being the region that lost to the lcp. Oh, wait.
[01:15:20] Speaker D: Oh God. Oh. We were their only loss. They're their only win.
Well, thanks for making me depress right at the end of the episode. But for anybody who made it to this point of the episode, just know that we love you and we'll see you next time.
[01:15:34] Speaker E: Goodbye.
[01:15:35] Speaker D: Bye bye.
[01:15:35] Speaker G: Peace.
[01:15:38] Speaker B: Oh, yes. Daddy.
[01:15:41] Speaker D: Why'd you do that, Sam?
