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and try to hit me with that Louis Steven's I'm about to get out of myself and hide up in the dark space, but I'm
Right
I'm on my knees as I play and scream in my speech and promise
One more chance and who's gonna really take it from me, I get my hands up
Do any Chinese to stand up and run and convince myself
Before I sit on the shelf, it's in my chest, I guess we button in the years now
World Championship, it is time to give a shock, so I am so happy to join everyone here
What the shock?
How long it's gonna last, but I'm here with Goldberg, good job
Advert Razz and our first game is gonna start pretty, pretty soon
So we're gonna get through a lot of stuff, Jack
Absolutely. I want to start with play-ins though and for those of you who missed it 100 Thebes played
Amazingly they were incredibly dominant. They did any proud. It's unfortunate that they opted out of swiss stage because they've accomplished
No, that's incorrect. They got knocked out. I was told that we weren't fact-checked
You know what with how my teams have been doing in the last couple of years
These teams from the plains will be joining our other
part of the crop coming out of the rest of the world the best of the best so
even if you did get through plans you're gonna have to play a little better I
think if you want to beat these teams they also have the patch to contend with
we have a couple of takeaways already from planes wrath but which teams that
we're gonna see for the first time you think are going to be benefited or
we'll suck more because of the patch
I like how you're setting expectations low just a tiny bit. Yeah, where you're sitting
He's definitely got excuses out of the way early.
Okay, go ahead, Jeff.
I'm gonna say, and we saw a little bit of this in play-in,
but I just want to reiterate it,
I think Mad Lines was actually buffed a little bit,
partially from the mid lane champion pool.
I think they really struggled with the AD carry meta,
and they looked a lot more comfortable in this meta for me.
So I'm probably put them about here.
I think they might make a little bit of noise in Swiss.
Need all the help they can get.
No, I like that.
I mean, whatever fine play-ins was easy cruising
for Mad Lines, but who else is gonna be easy cruising here?
I think it's gonna be BLG.
I think Riot, you know, they said, we hate Team Liquid, we love this team, it's about time they take a world championship.
Buffing the mages is a matter of...
Oh, so good already!
No, yeah, but they're even better now. Did you see Night's Champion Pool? They're giving him an even better Champion Pool now.
You have Bean who can play carries in the top lane. Like, it's unfair how good this patch is for BLG.
They did buff Jack. They did buff Jack.
They are one of the favorites, maybe even more so. I got some LCK teams. I got DK and T1 because I feel like their mid laners
will benefit or should be benefiting from back to the mages in the mid lane for faker not been having the best time showmaker the same
so i think it's going to help them um there's other lanes that you know we're not going to talk about them now
i want to see faker you know he's never placed below top four in any of the world he's attended seven of them
so hopefully he gets a little bit of uh a little bit of oh yeah extra decent throw extra fire for like
All right, cool. So we'll see, of course, how everything develops, but I did want to take a look at what from our fan perspective are some of our favorite things that we're looking forward to going through the Swiss stage.
Yeah, I mean, one of my favorite store lines, and this is a big overarching world storyline, is just going to be China versus Korea, the LPL versus the LCK.
Because I feel like last year was sneaky, almost an insane year for the LPL where they would have had world domination.
They had two teams in the MSI finals.
They had three fourths of the semifinals.
And then Faker just completely eliminated the region.
Then we have Chovy who managed to win MSI.
But I think if you looked at the two years holistically,
the LPL has had more total teams do well,
even if LCK has more titles.
So I want to see if that gets evened out.
Yeah, I mean, I'm going to index even closer on that.
For me, it's Chovy and Knight going up against each other.
I want this story.
Like there's a million storylines of worlds.
But the thing is we've only ever seen these two
play against each other 10 times.
For how good they are, the two best midlaners in the world right now,
I need to see more.
And I think when we come further into the tournament,
these are the two players that we're going to be following.
They won their world championship, and I want to see who gets it.
Lovely photo also, Goldberg.
Thank you so much.
Back to the back of the song.
Is that your people's song?
It's not here.
It's the same shirt.
It's the same shirt.
I'm looking forward to the Griffin reunion.
That's going to be a lot of fun.
There was an interesting quote from Tarzan thing,
speaking to the hands and the hands saying well you're the only one who wasn't able to win so obviously you were you were
The missing link but Griffin was insane. They were the best team to never win anything. Love the happy sharks. That's a great
It's true looking forward to that. We'll see how they all end up of course right
How about you and for me? It's the fact that we've already gone through plans and we've had a lot of unique picks
So in terms of unique picks per game, it's the most of any playing
Yes, you can have the caveat of the fact that there are less games, but if you look at just last year, there's less games, but also just more unique picks in general.
I think the benefit of some of the balance changes, also lane swapping is meant if you've had a pretty tough lane, it doesn't really matter. You can really get out of it.
Hold this out photo.
I strict ass that day. I really did.
Oh my gosh, I do have that.
It's never coming back.
Honourable mention rather because worlds is in Europe and I was inspired by Goldberg is a emphatic speech that you made in
Unique but when world is in Europe things go well in 2011 fanatic won the world championship and it's you know
It is there this on the media. It is on the graphic. So it happened in 2015 two teams made it to the semi-finals
We won't say what happened after that in 2019 all teams got out of the groups G2 made it to the finals
Now I know what you're thinking 2021. It wasn't supposed to be here, so I'm just gonna discount that completely
It's day one anyone and everyone should be allowed to dream right later forget about that today's the day for cope today's that they have to leave
This is tomorrow also. Yeah, exactly
But it's a point in my come later two days of Swiss
Yes, I've got to be two of the best days of any world championship. We see 16 teams a day both days
it's insanity. It's crazy and some really really fire matchups as well but as
said we are in the Swiss stage we saw it already last year at Worlds and as we
take a look at our bracket chat there are some things that have stayed the same
and some things that have changed. Yeah so a quick recap of how Swiss actually
works because if when you look at the big bracket it looks complicated let's
simplify it. You beat three different teams you move on to the bracket
stage. We can get to the bracket as well this is just a
schedule for the first day. So here's the bracket. You beat three teams, you move on,
you lose to three teams, you're eliminated. And as you'll see here, some of these are
best of threes. If you're ever in a best of three, it's for advancement or elimination,
otherwise it's going to be best of one. And then the only change really from last year
aside from having no region on region in round one, which we've already seen via
the draw, is that rematches will not happen unless it's mathematically impossible
to avoid them. I love that. So very likely we will see no rematches throughout the entire
Swiss bracket. Yeah, I think that's an awesome change. I think with that we were I think left
wanting a little bit last year's worlds, right? So with the no rematch rule, that was just
avoided. Yeah, like it's true. They can't even benefit from it anymore. Remember to lock in your pick-ums. Did you lock in your pick-ums?
I did last night. I know I forgot!
Like 10 minutes ago? Yeah, literally.
Oh no!
Anyways, we are getting into our very first match of the Swiss Stage 2 Days of Best Ones
and it's BLG up versus MDK.
And we're going to start by introducing the LEC's third seed MDK.
They did come from the plains, but we got Meroen in the top lane,
Elioa in the jungle, Frescawe in the mid lane,
then Supa and Alvaro in the bot lane who have really impressed.
and moving on to Derefonens, it's BLG the first seed coming out of the LPL and huge
favorites with Bin in the top lane. It'll be there in a second but you know
already, Wei. Well you may not know that because Wei actually only joined as of
recent in the night in the mid lane and then Elk and on. Maybe we won't get the
graphic or maybe we'll get it later. We'll see. And for me if you look at
the the BLG squad it's really exciting to watch them because the three core
of Ben Alcantana been together for so damn long says 298 days. No, it's about 600 days for the three of them. Exactly. So for me, that's really
enticing because they're a team that has made adjustments. They haven't made big
shakeups. They've made adjustments so they can get over the hurdle. When they
lost to Weibo Gaming and some finals of the world, they were pissed off. Why couldn't
you be? So of course they bring in Knight, brought on that bit of a rocket
power, and then during the summer, you talked about that addition shock. They
brought in way for the consistency and they allowed them to play through top
lane, mid lane a little more frequently because their entire goal is to be able to
win the big chip. Yeah we've been following them as for BLG for a few
years now internationally and there is always that growth you could clearly see
and them making the right decisions in order to be able to grow further
Goldberg and with way that has definitely been evident in their play.
He was just what they needed because they are psychopaths they can fire on
all cylinders the problem is when your jungler want to fire on all
Well, Syllinders as well, when they were playing with Shun,
he needed someone that brought in that stability and Wei has done that.
I think the meta is fantastic for him right now in terms of setting his laners up.
You can play through Nite, you can play through Bin, you can play through Elk.
There is all-star players all around.
This roster now has just been built for one thing,
and it's to win, not just the World Championship,
but against Gen.G specifically, who's had that number.
Absolutely. And if you look at the year they've had,
or even just the summer split they had,
this is probably the best version of BOG you've ever seen.
Yeah.
Especially in terms of their dominance within the LPL.
When you look back at the last three international tournaments they've been a part of, second
place at MSI, they lost in Game 5 of the World Semi-Finals and then second place at MSI again.
So now they're the best version of that team that was always either second or third at
internationals and they're one of the favorites of the whole tournament.
Absolutely.
I've got that added caveat of last year what happened.
We want to make sure that doesn't happen again even if it comes down to us to stop
the LCK or stop a T1.
We want to do that.
It's super, super exciting.
And if we talk about the jungler for BLG, we also need to talk about the jungler on the other side, El Yoya for Mad Lions, who is leading this team of rookies as a captain all the way through worlds when nobody expected them to be here.
Absolutely. This guy, I think, as someone who's not an EU caster, doesn't follow exactly every game. He's so amazing for this region.
He was a world's quarter finalist in 2021.
He's been the consistent factor for this mad team
throughout all their world's appearances.
And to do what he has done and for mad to do what they have done
with four rookies and a yoyi in their very first year
is incredibly impressive.
And that was just to make it to the world's playing.
Their performance and playing was downright impressive.
So I think even though their first opponent
could have happened, I think there's a chance
they have a decent show here at Worlds.
And it's the journey for him in 2021,
first coming in his first world.
He was the young player surrounded by veterans.
And now at this stage when he's surrounded by rookies, we even see in content pieces,
he's talking about how he sees himself and some of the younger players on his team,
the trials and tribulations they go through throughout the year.
And it's just nice to see him be the captain and lead the team.
It is. And Goldberg Alvaro was really impressive in the play-ins and I like to see that because
for people who haven't followed EU that much this year, this bot lane has been confident
from the get-go. And I know some people are like, oh, they said they could be better
than some players. I'm not going to name it right now, but I like that fire that Grinta
and they showed it already here at Worlds. No, absolutely. You know, if you only watch
EU in the winter, you probably would have thought Alvaro is the best support, but if you then
actually watch spring and summer, that's where they had a dip down. But the impressive part
comes down to when they finally got back to play and Alvaro had this series of his life,
not just against Vikings, but then again when they played against PSG. I love reading the
comments in the beginning from the first series where they said, lowly sports can have
all the highlights they need for Alvaro in the first series. Then the second series happened
and as well the Ali star came through and it's the best he's been playing every single time things looked a little dicey
Alvaro made a play absolutely, but they were also dicey
I'd say because mirror and frescali were not playing at a super high level that needs to be better for them to succeed
That is a great point, especially versus blg. We we are excited about mdk getting through planes
But we got to be honest here. They are huge underdogs now
There was a little bit of banter back and forth ben said well mirror
I know you love playing these weird champions and some strange picks save them
You're gonna need them when you're 0 and 1 so you're saying he's thinking
Certainly is now this can come off as a bit coggy if you don't know bin
But he's generally just the best toplan in the world right now
So if anyone gets to see that say this it's him on the other side of that coin though
He is saying this because he's super scared of me when he's like please don't bring these pigs out
Oh, he might as well not to. Oh, it'd be a shame if you did. Coach, just save him for later, because he secretly doesn't want to play against them.
He's offering free advice. He's telling you just for your own good. He's recognizing how good mad lions can be, save him for the teams you can actually beat.
Thank you, but no thank you. That's what we're saying over here. We're going to bring out the range top laners.
Let's see.
I think we're going to just lane swap.
Oh, hey, we haven't mentioned it yet. Is it just going to continue?
Well, I think it will, especially it will obviously depend on the draft.
But if they go with an early Cassante pick,
Mad was actually very good at lane swapping in the play-in phase.
And you're going to want to test BOG.
And also, you can deny farm for bin, the best player on BOG.
I don't see why they wouldn't.
And that was the best aspect of, I thought, Mad's play
in the plans that you mentioned.
I thought Alvaro's ability to be able to bully mid,
get a flash off Cati.
There was some specific plays that they actually saw.
So I think actually being in the plans really helped them be on the stage,
get kind of used to it a little bit more
practice some of the lane swap so I think it actually helps them fight
considerably. Yeah we'll see indeed is there anyone you know what you're gonna
predict mad lines I'm just gonna be okay what's the percent chance that they
win? Like I know you want them to win but how likely do you think it is? Well
honestly I think it comes down to the fact that it's it's probably just a
50-50. It's true either you win or you don't win and that goes for the
entire world championship everyone has a chance but all jokes aside
We're a month of epicness and the Swiss stage starts right now.
That's what you get.
Don't spoil it, don't spoil it. I'm in to the trailer.
Christian, I'm excited to have everything you can have.
I want to come up some more.
You're here to change that.
I was a rookie, so I was the first OLD.
I'm sure that I can win this time again with Berlin.
Last time I won the world championship in Europe.
This time, I will do my best.
We should never underestimate us.
Every player has a place to learn.
That's why I can play now.
I've experienced a lot this year.
What I can do now is to take the best of me.
I think it's worth it.
This takes me back to 2019.
So your first finals, rookie year, how did it feel?
I think the best part for me was seeing how happy my family was,
especially because it took a lot of convincing for me to go pro,
because we're like a traditional Arab family, so it was really nice.
What about you?
I felt good. I felt like the first time in a long time I could do myself.
What's your goal as a pro player?
I'm going to win the penalty. I've done everything except for winning the penalty.
If I win the penalty, I feel like I've achieved my goal in the past.
After the last game of the year,
I'm going to win the penalty.
I won the penalty in 2012.
I thought it was hard to win the penalty,
but I won the penalty.
I think it was a good experience for me.
2018 was really important to me.
I just felt like it was winnable.
I kept saying it until we did win.
We didn't win at all, but we got pretty close.
We made it to the top.
We're getting to the top.
We're getting to the top.
We're getting to the top.
We're getting to the top.
We've been through a lot this year.
I think we can do it.
I think we can do it.
Because we're going to have to wait for the next game.
You're going to win.
12-0.
Well, it felt like a shame to lose in the final.
For me, 2019...
...finals just represents...
...all the emotions of going on stage.
My dad, my mom, my siblings.
All of them supporting me, like all of you who are behind us.
It shows me that we can do it once again.
And for all of these pro players, this is what they've ultimately been working towards.
It's Worlds 2024, it's the Swiss stage, and we're starting off with a David versus Goliath.
The Titans of BLG will be going up against the underdogs of MDK, a roster that is consistently
underestimated versus a roster whose expectations are at their highest.
It's so crazy when you look at the difference in how people talk about these teams.
They're like, oh, shaky all year.
When people talk about BLG and they're critical,
it's critical in that way that a team that
is so clearly the best, it's the nitpicky.
It's the little, oh, they're not quite good enough at this.
They're not quite good enough at that.
It's always through the lens of will they win it all?
Whereas MDK, can they even make it to the next stage?
So for them to have the potential to go toe to toe
with BLG, see what they can get done in this matchup.
But certainly, expectations are stacked against them.
It was super fun.
Last night, watching some champions,
games seeing Knight and Bin going up against each other, Knight getting a cheeky solo kill up against Bin.
It was clear that they were having a lot of fun last night and I'm excited to see what they bring out today because the meta
I feel like that it's in BLG's favor. We're getting the return of Syndra
But we get to see Knight back on one of his most successful picks of all time as we're getting ready for the draft
Let's see what the priorities will be. What is the respect going to be shown towards MDK?
Is there something that they are concerned about? Middling already taken away from Algyoria and Mewin.
Yeah, respect ban already paid over Ziggs.
Also going to be taken away.
Still strong on the current patch,
despite some nerfs to his pass of that overall damage,
two towers, jinx taken two.
And of course, as a board, remember,
MPK have already kind of shown us a little bit of their read
on what the meta is on 14-18.
But for so many of the teams today,
the vast majority, 12 of them, exactly,
didn't play the plant, right?
Now we need to see how they feel about it,
what they have been screaming,
what they have been practicing.
So there is potential to really see the meta shaken up
as much as some things feel pretty stable,
like more or less, the mid-lane pool.
Now Skana, Orianna, Syndra, so many power picks are available.
But BLG, they're gonna lock in the Vi, they want the lock down potential.
Could this potentially be an Ari Vi, a Syndra Vi?
Knight has so many champions that he can play in combination with this setup.
Way a very versatile jungler, so much of the conversation has been about
his introduction to BLG and how he's made them more of a complete team.
Now, bringing out the Vi, obviously a far cry for what we saw from the playoffs
and the regular season due to the matter of the shift.
How will MDK respond? But the Skarnal locked in, you imagine that's gonna go towards El Yoya.
We've typically seen them prioritized at early AD carry, getting the Cassante and then looking for those early lane swaps.
But that's not gonna be an option for them today, as the Syndra is taken away from Night.
And while Syndra certainly is a powerful pick in the context of the meta, a champion who is very vulnerable.
When she doesn't have Flaps or she doesn't have Scatter, which has an incredibly long cooldown,
a champion like Vi level 6 makes it pretty easy to find kills and to focus her on that mid lane.
No, I'm gonna grab here mere one. I believe was spamming gnar and solo queue less one of the first times in history
I've looked at mere one solo queue page and it hasn't been full of random cheese picks clearly giving some respect to
Practicing the more conventional say
But there's the RE buy it. I'm gonna be honest if we take name plates off
I'm like first Cali might be okay, but when we turn those name plates on Betty
I'm taking I mean night's streak was broken recently
But that shouldn't take away from the fact that this man has an incredible
incredible 86% win rate on the champion all time across his career
It is an exceptional pick for him and it's something that I mean you don't have to look very far back
He was drawing target bands consistently due to the power of this champion
So it's exciting to see it here in the debut at Worlds
The response gonna be the Cassante we already talked about it MDK have been leaning towards this style
They're going towards the safe top side of that suggesting that they are looking towards a lane swap here in the first game in the Swiss
potentially and perhaps why we see the jinx taken away early on in the draft from BLG don't want to give them the strongest
AD carry in a lane swap scenario, but a very strong topside in terms of tanky life bars
But maybe some difficult matchups will have to see how fresh galley manages the already matchup early on
Of course post level six, which really where it's going to get difficult for the center of early on should be a little brass
And now you're seeing 80 carry bands a lot of utility in the bot lane right now as some of the more premier options have been
They have Boris Ash taken away or starting up for us excuse me mash into gin taken away
See if Boris shows up has been popular in solo queue
But of course we were talking about earlier today Lucian Nami also on the rise and it will be banned as well
Well, I mean the 80 Gary pool has been narrowed pretty significantly
You're looking at things maybe like Calista misfortune
Kaiser as a possibility. We've seen a little bit of Zaya as well with the poppy now Bando
I like that poppy banner makes a lot of sense
You're looking at now rel being a high-value champion. I wonder if MDK is looking for it
We can I mean
Shouldn't talk about the harvest. Okay. Well, I mean Tristana another champion that's great in the lane swaps
Thanks to her ability to siege
So you imagine this is gonna go in the hands of super unless they're giving us an old-school G2
They put the center in the bot lane, but that's not what I'm expecting and or my although would be interesting of course Tristana
I think even on the playoffs, perhaps the most regions played on, but a champion that we saw in play
it's not being nearly as effective at least in the context of mid-lane.
So we'll see if bot lane looks better for her and where she's going to end up right now though, on taking his time debating.
On, of course, for Alvaro, you know, so many supports in the LEC, in Amea, talk about On as this guy who is so creative,
who is someone that they look up to. And now I'm curious to see what Alvaro is going to bring to the table.
because Rell in a vacuum, still one of the absolute strongest support picks overall,
just provides so much even early landing phase of solid.
So what is Alvaro planning to mid-game on Alistar?
It's going to be the Alistar.
That's fair.
It's fair.
It's not my favorite pick.
You can even go early.
He did have a good performance on it in the play-ins, though.
So I mean, he's playing with confidence.
But yeah, this draft from MDK, it's pretty traditional,
front to back, very stock standard.
The thing is with BLG though, they're going for a heavy dive comp.
When we think about how they teamfight,
I mean, they're one of the best teamfighting teams
in the world.
Their target selection is often immaculate.
And the problem you're going to have is, for a scourie,
he's going to find it difficult to survive
with all this threat diving on top of him.
All five champions of BLG want to get into ill-based.
They want to close that gap, and they want to look to fight.
Now, we're expecting that lane top in the early levels,
and the execution from MDK has been clean
for what we've seen so far from them in the play-ins.
But of course, the level of competition
has escalated somewhat.
Yeah, somewhat, sure, yes, somewhat say significantly, but yes.
As the third seed from the LEC will take on the first seed from the LPL,
we're getting ready for our first game of the Swiss Stature Worlds 2024.
Two teams, MDK, no strangers to the stage, have the time and play as BLG the first time.
We're going to see what they can bring to the table.
I'm excited right now.
Honestly, this is such an interesting switch, because if you told me
that what BLG drafter was exactly when it happened,
how M.E.K. wanted to play the game, yeah.
I think you'd be spot on.
Early game, got picks in the mid game,
it suits them so well.
M.E.K. kind of stepping out of what was their comfort zone,
domestically at least, to be more about scaling,
to be less about necessarily finding these early skirmishes
and see if it will indeed be the lane swap.
So we get into this first game of the day.
Remember, win three, you are through to the bracket stage,
lose three, and you are out.
They highlighted it so beautifully earlier.
Of course any elimination or qualification games will be invested, otherwise click a couple of vests at once.
Let's look at this early setup.
So far, Ping's coming down, information trying to be garnered from both sides.
You can see MDK's bot lane already hovering around the topside jungle.
They need to keep track of any potential wards being invested from either sides.
I'm already getting invested on Albedo.
We'll just try to walk him down, rock him alive, it will be decent.
Gonna force him to base likely as night also took a bit of damage for scouting
Flash out flash forward charm start coming in from night forcing the flash out from press cow
We're gonna force the back and likely the TP as well
Devastating for mdk at level one and they've still got the Tristar on the top side of the map
This is a really difficult position to start a lane swap from especially because they're on vision
Sweet they're gonna come through
They look into invade this very ambitious at the very least they're gonna try and
Interrupt the look the cross map is happening. You can see the way he's already moved to the bottom side of MDK's jungle
The map is going to be splits another charm landing and Alvaro's here still has his flash is forced out
We're not even the left piece is just started
I mean so traditionally what you'll do is you'll put your supports into the mid lane
Then you'll have your ad carries lane with the top laners
So then what the top laners get that XP along with the ad carries
Then they can TP towards the stacked wave on the top side as you can see
that MDK is doing. The adaptation that BRG is doing is that we put our top and mid in mid lane
and that means that we can just fight you. What's an Alistar going to do at level one against us?
They've got the traditional bot lane set up on the bot side of the map.
This does mean though that if BIN does TP towards the top side,
his support is going to be extremely far away for a minute and it's going to be at risk of a dive.
But it is a clever adaptation because so often in lane swaths where both teams know it's coming,
you don't have a gnar who's very vulnerable to those early dives.
We saw it at MSI as well with things like the Twisted Fate, like the Vayne.
You just run into mid lane sometimes.
Harass a bit, level 1, try to build a greater advantage.
He's way in Alvaro.
Trading blows here.
Now crucially, Alvaro's not level 2, which is...
Crucially, Alvaro's by himself against 4 people.
And he doesn't have Flash.
Oh, I mean, things are falling apart here for Madline.
It's going in the setup.
The TP's going to come through.
BLG's still going to commit to the dive.
This still seems pretty favorable.
That level 1 Alster's going to have to get a lot of work done.
Q finally going to come out immediately.
He goes down.
Merewind here to try to at least catch some of this XP.
First blood is there, but level 3 for Merewen is big.
That much harder to dive.
As long as he has W up, it's really difficult for BLG
to pull the trigger.
The pathmaker crucial.
Dashing through.
Vault breaker coming in.
Flats back for Merewen.
The plasma stacks are already there.
Just trying to get XB again.
If he has to give his life, it's
crucial that he gets the wave at the very least.
W in, trying to get Q3 back.
Gets one.
Merewen standing.
Gets two.
BLG poking a bit too much on the bottom side.
They had to beat them.
One of the second course, but it was too damn greedy.
I was about to talk about how well Bealchi's target management was of the tower.
They were managing the aggro so well, but then Mewin finds the outplay.
He gets himself two kills, and he's able to salvage what was a devastating start.
And it's the same in play-ins.
The first time MK pulled up this lane swap, it was Mewin turning around to dive that made it look so good.
That tower shot onto Elk was crucial.
Now, Wade doesn't end up taking tower aggro here.
It's on, but he's trying to help us jungle the getaway to safety.
The flash comes through from Bin as well to avoid the knockback and Miltwen walks away with a double kill.
And crucially, he's there for all that XP.
Doesn't matter if you get the mark.
A small smoke, he can't be overconfident. He knows, hey guys, I pulled this off, but it's a big road to climb.
Getting an early lead is one thing, but we've seen MDK find these early leads before and not be able to close out.
And we're only four minutes in, so to call this a lead, I think we'd be generous.
You can tell it's Day 1 of Worlds because the second anything happens, we're like, that's the best play I've seen of Worlds!
That's technically true in Swiss stage, but we can take a breath.
Remember that as much as obviously Merewen is ahead individually, didn't get too much CS.
The kills, only giving him a small edge over the NAR, likely still expected to fall behind
here, but we have started to return at least two standard lanes.
The goal, but not that significant in the favor of MbK is Frisgawi falling behind
in these trades, trying to burn through that mana bar, just get the wave crashed
in, calling in El Yoya to support him.
I mean, I don't think Frisgawi had the best play-ins
when we look at the entire roster.
I mean, you're going up a player like Knight,
this is a matchup that typically favors Syndra,
but Knight is just so experienced in this matchup specifically
that you can see how he's able to find these nice trades
and he's able to get a nice health advantage.
And the fact that Frisgawi doesn't have flash,
he's going to be forced to go back to base.
Now Knight can look for a quick push,
knowing that there's no TP available for Frisgawi.
Boots are going to come in from him
as he makes his way back to lane as quickly as possible,
but he is going to lose some fun,
may even lose most of the wave here as the Dragon now being started by BLG.
I have respect for call here from BLG. Obviously around the mid game you can
favor a lot of their options. To draw to snowball a bigger lead by denying Drake's early, they
eliminate the late game threat at least somewhat from MDK. Headbutt pole kicks
things off. Elk, ignite down, Saps will charge, stacking up, El Yo-Yo waiting in
the brush, on being aggressive but Albaro is getting low on lower. The ignite's still
ticking, knockback in the wall coming in from El Yo-Yo, the Drake already down,
now they know that way. On the bottom side, shouldn't be too much more here than
pushing in the wave to crash. They do get the ignite up on, but nothing else really.
Just a bit of pressure put down to allow for the MbK bot lane to go back safely. Now for
Scally in a lot of danger. Very much one more dash coming in for Knight, but they already get
the flash. TP not quite available for Fescaly as well. That's devastating and this is kind of a
fear when you go against this combo Vi and the Ari together. It's just so easy to get that
setup. He really wants to stick around though so he can get the level six. He can't really
you fall to lose much more farm. You can already see that discrepancy starting to be built up in mids.
But with that control, Wei is going to move from dragon straight to the grubs.
Al-Yoyi, he's going to be a little late to the party with no mid control. It's going to be a very difficult contest.
Getting in, getting involved.
And of course does not have ultimate because of the previous play.
Wei, I think a bit of a greedy call. Already got the drake. Wanted to go for more based on the mid lane trade,
but M2K are here in time. They know the knight does not have ultimate. They're trying to get a little bit more out of him.
The stun connected from the outer area, trying to fall down because here as well.
Now they're dog piling in trying to get one, but they've already lost Alvaro in the process.
Way getting pulled away. Super gonna get the reset. Will he jump again?
3v4. Staffed against MDK.
Mere 1 Q3 ready to go. All out slowly ticking down.
Only a few more seconds for him. He's gonna be able to do damage crunch for the wall coming in from Knight.
Mere 1 still continuing to step forward. Ah, taken out as well.
MDK. Find the advantage of the skirmish.
BLG were first to get all five around the grubs, and they were ready for a fight, but again, it's Mere 1.
Neumann with great play, forces a flash out from Elk.
Nidus forced a flash, he gets himself a kill as well.
He finds himself 3-0 on 1 right now with a full level advantage over PN on the top sides.
Neumann, the star for MDK so far in this game.
Which in the context of everything that we have seen from him, both in Plans and this year,
it's not where you would... Neumann Cassante is not the champion that you think of, it's super.
It's a bit aggressive, damage down onto Elk.
Yes, the jump reset available. Vi is hovering around the top side of the map as the blue is being cleared.
Pings are coming down on to on as well. Alvro needs to get some vision as Elegant makes his way up to secure the Scuttle Crab.
It's a tense affair as MDK performing better than expected here in the early game. Super now in a bit of danger.
As we careful, pro actively rocket jumping out. Doesn't want to risk trying to go for the buffer with so much CC present on the rail.
Alvaro is still only level 3, a little bit awkward, not going to hurt too much.
Alvaro's LA grabs and scuttle crab, taking a look at the gold, still very close.
Only two grunts picked up by MDK for the threshold that both teams are going to be looking for
in the next spawn in about three minutes.
So for now, a bit of calm across the map is Knight and Froskow.
He's still continuing to trade, but the trade's still very much favorite, Knight.
Always a joy to watch Knight play this, all right?
We already talked about how it is, one of his all-time favorites,
one of his most impressive champions, and he continues to do a good job in the mid lane.
We turn our attention towards the next objective, of course, still two minutes away.
So both teams looking to try and farm up as close as they can to that first core item,
wanting to secure level sixes for a number of players,
both on and our very star of XP is a result of the lane swap.
Wait, oh, sets his sights on mids.
Frescowey gonna be in trouble here, tries to get an off back on a knight,
goes completely wide, easy dive for BLG.
Point click CC from Vi is just so damn powerful.
Just very well executed as well.
They'd already gotten Frescowey's flash earlier.
The render that they got it on the level 1, they weren't able to punish it the first time around, but this time they make it look clean.
Knight now will secure the level 8, and as well get his first kill of the game. So very well done from BLG's mid jungle there.
Elioye sets his sights on the top side.
Elk, knows somethings but does have ulti. If they can mark up Elioye, perhaps a way for him to escape.
Backing away now, bit of additional movement speed zoning away. The flash, the ultimate.
Unlocked up and Elk manages to escape using the ultimate. Support taken out, and DK.
Free access now to the plates on the top side.
Now he's struggling in mid-Peneldoia, making a smart choice.
I'm just going to play towards where I know we have a strength.
Super's getting great trades onto L. They have a stacked wave.
They're going to deny a lot of farm.
Now Mewin is the one that has to be careful.
Bin, even though he's behind in experience, knows the limitations of his champion,
is getting good trades and they're also securing plates on the bot side of the map.
He has a CS advantage.
Securing those plates is going to help close the gold gap between him and the top side of the map.
And this is the thing about BLG.
BLG show they may have lost a few early scrimmages that might be getting picked off here and there and while MDK have the kill lead
You can't ever afford to underestimate BLG. They're so good at moving around the map looking for opportunities
To punish their opponents, but so far both teams being proactive on the sidelines
Pretty even trades MDK small gold advantage a lot of that because the kills they've been able to amass
But still plates going in the favor of BLG 20 seconds now Drake
Always a bit nerve-wracking for MDK if they do not have good vision control to walk into enemies objectives.
The threat of night away together alone is so much, but obviously once you add anyone else to the mix it gets more and more chaotic.
You're the only person on the map to complete an item thus far. We'll help him out a little bit at least when he has ultimate available.
Zeke's very cheap early purchase, but wait, getting set up around the drake in the form of the Scuttle Crab starting to clear out some of his vision is
Rest of BLG, at least keeping an eye on the potential grub spawn.
Man, it looks like MDK on intro.
Did just...
Okay, he thought he had Hex Flash, and he just flashed.
I'm pretty confident that's what just happened.
I looked away for a second. Was that a real flash?
Yeah, that was the... I'm convinced Alvry thought that he had Hex Flash,
and then he just flashes into the room.
Um, yeah, a bit of an oopsie?
That's a weird bug with a 10 minute flash.
Guys, I don't know how to...
M2K fans, don't worry about that one.
A little concerning, but...
But it's all right. Grubbs for Dragon Spawn,
but Waze killed that Dragon pretty quick.
Now, BLG, they want to contest his objective.
Prescaliber of the wall has to be careful.
We'll be spotted now on Fog.
One Grubb taken down again.
Four is what matters here.
On going in to level six for Alboro is big.
Knight has the ulti.
The Rift is coming in.
Oh, yeah, oh, yeah!
Mass to kick things off.
Prescaliber's going 90, so finish the kill,
but Knight already dashing on safety.
They're chasing down Albus.
They just need to get these kills down, one taken out AD carry off the board, knight running, Grubbs going to the side of MDK again.
BLG are in position to contest, but MDK are just getting more in the fight.
The fact that they targeted Alvaro at the start of that was very smart, because as you highlighted, Drake off Snow, ultimate available on this Alistar,
means that this Alistar is very squishy, so they're able to eliminate him, but they defaced a decent amount of resources,
and with a nice counter play from Elioid to find that two-man ultimate, we saw a bit of a misplay, a bit of a scary moment from Friskawa,
He doesn't use the ultimate immediately so he has to flash over the wall before he can actually commit to that play as Ben bounces in
No manner on for a scowie Alvaro knows that he can't really afford to make any camos here
But he really needs some XP is on ticks over to six Alvaro is still a ways away from that level up
Differences and the smallest margins of course just a little bit XP here giving on that level six allowing them to start the fight
Credit really tell yo yo and mirror one fruit for just getting in there for scowie has so much CC from his allies
because it allows him to connect a lot of those easy skill shots to the dark sphere into this category of the weak.
And now, doing pretty well on the stacks, approaching the second ability upgrade.
And notice now that the gold shift has gone over towards Ben.
He's been farming well, he's been picking up plates, and even though Niohyn finds himself with three kills,
Ben's just been doing a good job around the map and has just been pressuring the 1v1 out very well
that he's been able to get back that gold deficit that he was in.
He finds himself in a comfortable spot. The big advantage we really see is for Super,
He's getting close up, it's about to fit in the edges.
Bit of a fight in mids.
They're on Supa to trade back onto on at least.
Now the ulti's coming in, interrupting a dash out from Nite.
Alper also putting him out as well. Nite's got no more charges left,
but if they find a kill, he'll get one back.
Nite now killing Alper, finding that angle.
One more reset to go in.
Oh, you missed the entire team's eaves,
he's doing a little bit of work. Alp trying to fix the kills,
but Supa's still alive for now.
Oh, you're tanky, but not tanky enough.
And no! It's coming in!
Lightning!
Static finishing the kill.
Double now for Alp.
That is soul crushing for the side of MDK.
A delicate fight well fought by BLG. They dance around the MDK players leveraging their mobility to the fullest and they're able to find three kills.
Four even if they started that big on to Alvaro. Very well played from them. They get a bunch of plates into mid. They set their sights on the Rift Perils.
We look back at this fight again. No level six for Alvaro. Just a bit of chip damage traded back and forth but then Wei sees his target.
He sees his target. Night stun from Frescawe on tonight to keep him at distance, but then
they lock down Alvaro. The jump is invested from Super. He can't quite get that kill onto
way. And then as the flash comes in from Elka, situation that should have been very scary,
Night's positioning makes it hard for Frescawe to approach. And then the last bit of damage
comes down to secure that kill onto Super. And Frescawe can't do anything to turn
the fight around.
That's so frustrating for Super. If he's just a little bit further back, the static
from killing Elioya doesn't hit him, but oh boy it did!
Decent chunk of damage to get the job done. We take a look at the MasterCard
lane economy snapshot and it's all pointing to BLG right now after a
fight like that. They're gonna grab the Herald too of course. Grubbuff in favor
of MDK they can. Pressure on the side lane here but overall really turning
around what little advantage MDK had with that massive play in the mid-lane.
Cross map is gonna come through as BLG send knife over towards the top lane
in ways securing the Herald. Elk is going to be pushing in mid, close to securing that tower.
Oh! A bit of a misplay there from Elk! He ults behind Super, which allows Super to not give
him to the tower! Getting that extra turret shot allows him to find a kill. A small moment of
reprieve for Super after securing that infinity edge is Tower going to be traded down the top
side of the map. Level 11 for Knight. This Ari only continues to get stronger.
And this is such a terrifying position to be in if you're MDK.
Yes, the gold is close to the itemization.
Not too different between the teams overall, but their team is built to make picks.
They're so good at finding these creative angles as a team.
You highlighted it in the draft. Their target selection is so good as well.
And you can see for MDK and these team fights, BLG, so much more comfortable weaving in and out of the fight,
playing on the edge, finding these small advantages.
Not only are they going to struggle in terms of gold deficit, but their composition not quite as quick to collapse on those opportunities.
I mean BLG are also just good at setting up their sideways. If they've got an eye-catching top wave, he has the TP available.
Bin is constantly pressuring in on this bot wave specifically, chipping away at that tower.
For Scout, he just doesn't feel safe even though he has vision coverage on the bot side of the map.
It's BLG that's just constantly pressuring the map.
And then when they do group, MDK feel forced to apply, so they're then losing farm on the sidelines.
And you can see how this is starting to showcase in the CS discrepancies.
Mewin's down, 40 CS, Mid lane is down, 30 CS.
PLG is ultimately just playing map. Now they drop the Herald, this gets them controlled over mid
as MDK set their sights on trying to pick bin in the bot lane.
Then picking up a Cinder, trying to speed his way out, at least by a bit more time.
But with Herald down, they really have to get something done here for the side of MDK.
Then about to turn Manga against the double hop out before he goes.
Not even gonna get connected on.
By the Q3 from Mewin, just walking away, buying so much time!
They've given everything to kill Bin. They will at least try to get that, but on us now here as well, Bin will finally fall, but BLG, get two towers in the mid lane.
The cost of that is, as you rightly said, two big objectives in the mid lane. The top wave is going to be pushed in, completely uncontested.
Knight now ticks over to level 12. He can start chipping away on this tower, but the TP flank is likely going to be his priority, and there it is.
Keep you behind there you have spots night coming, but it's gonna be difficult to walk that already down night already level 12
Alvaro level 6 comes out a little bit late
You know breakable will over is stopped if so much experience for scowey for a scowey just dead gonna take an extra second here
tries to get tricky with it, but
Night away. We I mean we talked about in traffic. This is a terrifying mid-jungle duo
It it worked out exactly as expected. It is so difficult now for a decay to play the map BLG collapsing for their third Drake
And while yes, MDK are staying even in the kill department, everything else is going in favor of BLG.
Yeah, you have to recognize what just happened on the map.
Bin drew four people, ultimately, to the bot side of the map.
That allowed BLG to pressure top, pressure mid, where they secured two towers.
And then because the top wave was pushed in, Nika then TP in to create a 4 vs 5.
And even though the down numbers, so many resources were invested to even try and kill Bin,
not only to be able to find a pick onto an overextended for Scow, he did then convert it into the Dragon as well.
They literally got everything at the cost of Bin's life.
And that's credit to Bin really for surviving as long as he did because very often, high-level League of Legends,
it's trade for trade, hopefully you're trading up in these circumstances.
But Bin just basically made that the worst trade deal ever for MDK by taking so much time,
by ensuring that there were more follow-up plays.
And now, MDK incredibly far behind.
Yes, it is only 3K deficit, but sole point is right around the corner.
setup on that drake it's easy pickings for the side of BLG. I mean if BLG are just doing a really
good job of managing their side lanes like you can see it in terms of the itemization that both
carries for BLG and Knight and Elk have secured their second and now they set their sights on
the top tier two they're just meticulously tearing apart what control MDK have and even though
the deep vision on the side of MDK their own jungle is very dark and full of terrors.
Yeah, and beautifully highlighted by our observers just to show how little MbKC right now.
And they're fine, just letting this Syndra push in bot lane. They don't care.
They're really not worried about it. They're happy to play the 4-1.
Mirwin doing what he can to clear out the wave, but it's not going to be enough as this tower gets lower and lower.
And stepping up to harass, of course, if a charm does connect, very likely to be a kill.
Mirwin, probably the only one's tanking up to survive that initial burst.
And now returning to topside and MDK kind of forced to play wherever BLG decided to apply pressure and again
They find the pick MDK bit of slight a hand there paying all that attention to the topside of the map
There's a sloppy rotation there from Fresco
We thought he could wander through thought they saw enough people that he was safe to take a riskier path to topside
But he was not I mean it's crazy to me that that's even the risky path, right?
I mean this is the thing that the pressure that BLG put down
But it's exactly what that comp wants to do find these picks we've talked so much about it
They have so much lockdown.
Vyan Ari is a mid-jumbled duo.
He's so lethal if you're caught out of position.
And I mean, what was Super even allowed to do?
It was just a difficult situation.
Sorry, for Sky, what was he even allowed to do
in that situation is that
BOG find themselves under the pick.
They find themselves under the tower.
And you can see now how much control
BOG have over the entire map.
Yeah, and the win probability powered by AWS
is looking a little one-sided, unsurprisingly.
Of course, there are situations where, you know,
4k Goldy doesn't feel insurmountable. It is two fully completed items for both 80 carries in this context
third of course much closer to completion on the side of Elk
But those are the big break points the full completed items that said BLG was so much more control
Supa at least getting a bit of harass here down on the on
But overall the angles of attack here for MBK becoming more and more limited
Mirren at least has a bit of a flank will be spotted on that control ward crucially BLG
Do they want to go for the collapse here instead charm?
Everyone probably has to alter the safety, but the layering of CC is flawless from BLG!
Good vision coverage just prevents Maywin from finding the flank that he's looking for.
Doesn't even get an opportunity to use the flash all the ultimate. Now the Baron is started off by BLG.
They'll either use this to turn and fight, although just take the objective.
MDK is being pressured on both sides of the map. The bot tier 2 is falling. The Baron is getting low.
Alleyway are looking for a steal.
See all you though flash to the paper if you want to get this TP now coming in as they already got the sideline
Cheer to there and going to fall in favor of BLG MDK now starting a fight at a man disadvantage
This is gonna be disastrous been finding one with a quick angle off the side press guy we try to get down as much
Damage see possibly can't but the carries are getting deleted super down press gowee down
Oh, yeah, yeah now for O could do is run BLG
Just absolutely dominating it comes back to the target selection for scowee and super the only real damage
dealers on the side of MDK immediately locked down, focused up and destroyed.
BLG win another one-sided teamfight with the Baron to boot. Keep your eyes on this
knight just kind of chipping away the health bars. The ultimate comes down to
Frisgawi. Alk goes for the 1v1 against Super and the ultimate, I mean Frisgawi
tries to throw it down his way. He basically takes no damage at the
very least trying to get something back but knight side stepping and
navigating his way around the stun means that he's able to get that
kill. Super is shut down. And BLG, they dominate the fight.
Certainly do. And those situations are you kind of where you know you're getting outclassed
a little bit. When the gnar is splitting, takes the tower and then in leisurely time
shows up to fight with a man advantage, the game is not going well for you. And I think
for MDK, given the tools that they have, yes, if they can stall, they can get more
items on super things might get a little bit easier, but there's a kaisa arivine any piece
of cc hit super it is so hard for them to peel for their ad carry.
The most impressive thing to me about this game is it felt like the BLG just had no wasted
movements you know every time they reset back out onto the map they were doing something
productive and they were getting small advantages every single time and it was just such a macro
difference between them as they now set the sights for another fight.
knockback super nice buffer to make it out to safety way off to the side
we're taking a lot of that initial damage ulti now coming in from the buy
fresh guy getting lower and lower just trying to one be one bit but not doing a
whole hell of a lot been still standing all the difference now even better still alive
he just keeps hitting is walking away that tiny yordle adding insult to injury
as BLG again just wipe the fight MDK looking for these angles of attack
last desperate moves with the flash charm coming in from night is enough
the ace there for BLG and it feels like they might just end it here it's
It's complete domination, a 5 for 0 clean ace from BLG.
23 and a half minutes in.
They absolutely decimate MDK.
And they have a statement performance here.
Game 1 in the Swiss Stage Awards 2024.
That's a magi.
He bought that magi as his third item,
and it already has 23 stacks.
It's very fed.
Everyone is very fed.
I mean, there's a reason a lot of people respect his R.
I mean, we look back at this fight, right? And it's, uh, BIN initiates the play.
It's already a lost fight because SUPA's disengaging, so now they've lost all their damage.
Now MbK's already forced to retreat.
BLG's set their sights onto Mewin to get rid of the frontline.
Frascai TP's in and basically gets soloed out by BIN, who's followed up with Nights.
And they have the damage combined to be able to secure that kill.
And then it's just a matter of cleanup for BLG.
They don't lose a single member.
BIN is protected, the Starrick's doing work.
And yet, it's a difficult one for El Yoya, as he knows how, uh...
How challenging this game has been they had a promising start a few fumbles from BLG allowed for MBK do fine
good advantages super getting picks near when having a strong lead, but
Once BLG got out to the sidelines. They just they've been unstoppable
Certainly, and I think this is one of the things about the best teams in the world and the potential tournament favor
It's a team like BLG that makes them so terrifying is
Sometimes people look at League of Legends as this turn-based game
But when you're playing as a team the caliber of BLG they're always on the next move
It feels like you never have a chance to breathe. You always have to be planning one or two steps ahead
And if you can't keep up with that pace of game
You're rapidly going to fall behind me when grouping so much finding kills
But it was been farming on a sideline always trading up just that tiny bit and eventually the early lead that MDK found
Just did not mean anything
I'll be able to set that sights on the Nexus. They've got the soul
For a scouting trying to find a stun. Maybe you can convert it into something
But the pressure is continuing them out. They don't have that top wave
They're going to try and unlock the super minions. They do have to pot one, though, and that tower is going to fall very quickly.
Pretty effortless for BLG to play on three lanes right now.
MNK have to commit so much just to get close.
God of the week, really, they're only long range, you know, engage tool other than a headbump over us from Alvaro.
But if Alvaro goes in, they have to win that fight or it's over.
Ben continues to harass, slow controlled finish coming in from BLG, just taking
their time knowing they don't really need to force anything. They're still
showing respect, you know, they know that there's a world where they could throw.
I mean it would have to be quite egregious but even so they're leveraging
the pick tool or the poke tools they have with the W coming out from the
kites of the chomps and Q's coming out. They're all starting to go. They're locked up again, can they just delete this Ori? But no, the interrupts is clean from on and
nine minutes to make it out for a brief moment. Now Miran going toe-to-toe with Elko on the back side of the fight,
Cause on the not strong enough super back in the founding night taking finally starting to heal with four members still stand on
BLG and that is going to do it super not enough damage not enough left in the tank
BLG getting first blood here in the world's 2024 Swiss stage a final fight
But it will not matter
MK is able to round out the game by the very least putting a blemish on the KDA of night reducing it from infinity to 80
And that's a big drop when you think about it.
Taking some of those stacks away as well,
obviously an incredible game one,
we're gonna send things over to the analyst desk immediately
so they can talk more about what took place.
And we're so excited to do so, especially me.
Wow, okay.
Clear, FDK, a bit out of their depth versus BLG.
So, BLG looked great.
Yeah.
And a couple of things I learned.
They are so good at turning it on.
Because for the first five minutes, this game was looking actually pretty scary for them.
And then the second thing I learned is that M.D.K. should actually just keep lane swapping.
They had a big lead from the lane swapping, but then they just outplayed.
Yeah, he mid-laner does have to stay mid.
That's kind of the issue.
Yeah.
Alright, guys, you wanted something on the lane swapping.
I just learned the importance of how the level 6 on an Alistar, you know?
At some point you're going to need some experience and too many back-to-back fights where he was the target and he really couldn't do anything about it.
Yeah, we're setting up for the interview, but I think some takeaways can all also be night on
Ari, I mean, you know, it's gonna happen. We did as well. You and I were just sat here. That's an Ari
Now we saw my first pick we see a syndra
And I think I was a bit disappointed in the way that Mck answered a first pick vibe because by going Ari
You're just putting fresco in a bad position
He's never gonna have a good time the 2v2 with level six from a scana and syndra
It's not gonna give you that mid pile
So they had to get ahead from the early game and they did to a certain degree
But I think that level one where everyone's just burning their summoners and then obviously mid game from BLG
Where they just take over yeah became really unplayable at a certain point in the game the draft will be a big topic
Oh my God. Speaking of big numbers.
Speaking of bigger than small losses.
Small losses. Exactly.
You want a nine?
It's winnable.
Yes.
It's insane.
That's helpful.
Because they went for the Vi and completely said Scarner OP, Syndra OP.
We don't care.
We're getting the boy, the Ari, and we're supporting it with the Vi,
and we're bullying sidelines.
They performed off of it, but I don't think this is going to be the standard going forward.
I think they just want it comfortable.
Yeah. I think that's the big takeaway for me here in terms of BoD's drafting.
They just bullied the draft.
They just said the things that they wanted to play, played them and smashed.
They did and Laura is now standing by with Ben in the Verizon post-game interview.
To the stage for the very first three-stage interview with Ben.
Thank you so much for joining me. Congrats on taking the first one.
Before taking on Mad Alliance, you said let's not get ahead of ourselves.
Let's be careful against these teams.
So what was your understanding of Mad Alliance and also can you explain the first 10 minutes of the game?
It's a bit warmer than before.
One thing that is always short with you is the confidence that you have coming into the international stage.
You keep on saying that you're the best top laner in the world, but I want you to give me specifics as what makes you the best top laner in the world. How makes you stand out?
其实我们很多时候想到冰哥,第一个我们想到的词语就是你的自信心。
很多时候你都会说来到这种世界大赛的舞台,你想成为你会是最强的上单。
所以也想问一下你觉得是用哪些来自自己的特质能够让自己在众多上单之中脱颖而出呢?
我认为自信是来源于实力的吧,就是如果没有实力再多的自信都没有用。
I believe that confidence is from your own ability, without your own ability, no matter what confidence you have, it's still useless.
So what I really need to do is try my best to hold this confidence and also put this as a motivation to become even more stronger in the future.
And I'm going to leave you the final words here on this interview actually.
It would not be a bin walls interview without a special message from you in English if you want to talk to the fans.
Thank you. I love you.
Thank you so much for the help, amazing to have you back and that's all for us here on
the side of the stage.
We'll be right back for game two.
It'll give you wings.
Game under arms.
That would be nice but what a matchup immediately we get our very first LCK versus LPL project.
We do and it's T1 as well and we remember T1 from the World Championship.
We do have to say that they are definitely a different quality team now that they
were then, but they do have that muscle memory, right? You never know if they're
going to be able to pull it back. Yeah, but it's kind of crazy because even when I
posted on Weibo, no one has faith. Everyone's looking at T1 simply because of
the fact that Worlds, guess who they took down? They took down BLG and Swiss,
went to LNG, took down JDG, took to Weibo. They did, and it is still the same
roster they is in the top lane, owner in the jungle, then faker in the
mid lane, and the bot lane of Gumiusha and Kariya, they are the defending
world champions, so everybody is looking at them and moving over to top
the second seed from the LPL with 369 TN cream, Jackie Love and whoop that is a
Mako, should be, should be, I don't know how she got in there.
Definitely Mako. So that's that's that we already talked about it I already kind of
slipped it in there but that's the talk that's it for the the Chinese fans the
LPL fans they look at T1 and said you literally just aced us at worlds to
get here it's insane we are looking for revenge. And Top Esports of course with
the hangover of MSI as well they didn't do as well as they wanted there so they
want to prove it and an interesting fit that here is there are eight world
champions in this matchup alone every other match has maximum of two it's
crazy GB no it absolutely is and I think that's why you can never really count
any of these two teams out because despite having a poor season domestically
from the T1 side they're coming into this as a world championship where
they've had a rough time when they came in last year and still they won
the world championship I will say I think this one is different because
last year, Faker's up out, he came in, he had a little break, that was not the case this time,
he just struggled in general and I think coming into a world championship where the meta shifts,
you can still have hope for Faker because he is Faker, he is the goat, he is the guy that
you're looking to rely on when you need experience. Yeah, never placed under top four
at Worlds specifically and I think when you hawken back to last year, Jatt, it is because
even then, T1 wasn't the team you would have picked out of the LCK to win. In fact,
the odds are stacked against them even going into those final four matches into
those final two matches rather so we know that they can turn it around the
problem is how much do they have to turn around here talk to me about how
worried we are and what is it that we're worried about out of their summer
performance yeah overall team cohesion does seem down I think Zeyu's in
particular dominates early laning phase then dies on his own fakers
laning phase is probably the weakest it's been and I don't even really
remember a time when it was weaker than this?
Yeah.
But literally, their plot armor was so damn thick last year.
I don't know how thick it's going to be this year.
I mean, it was thick when they went up against KT
and somehow managed to get through it.
That was insane.
And yes, the early lanes for him, I remember the Caitlyn games,
the Tristana games.
His early lanes were just horrendous.
So when you saw those patch notes,
Syndra, Orianna, like mages entirely,
maybe that changes it all for them.
But you are right about team cohesion.
They are less than some of their parts.
They're so good individually.
They just need to get it, get it.
But I am extremely worried about them going up against top esports
because I think it's not just all these things you're talking about.
Right, their laning phase can be solid though, right?
Keria and Gumi Yushi is one of the best 2v2 bot lanes
when they get to play 2v2.
Hasn't happened that much this year because of lane swaps.
You know a team that was very good at pining lane swaps and the LPL?
Top esports.
They've been loving moving around in the early game on the map.
Having Sayos versus Flixi 369 is not so much going to be a lane matchup.
It's going to be an understanding of playing the swaps.
Sales doesn't get to show why he might be one of the best top laners because he might even not even play in a top lane isolated matchup
So I think yes
I'm actually more happy about faker on this patch and less happy about cream on this patch
But I still think coming into this and on paper top e-sports are favorites
And I like that you you talked about the the top lane matchup
And then this also our featured matchup presented by Mercedes Benz featuring 369 and Zeus
And the first featured matchup presented by Mercedes Benz at the Swiss stage
We have one hell of a face-off three six nine versus Zayus in the top lane top e-sports versus T1
Three six nine has proven himself to be one of the best top lenders in the world
But the top e-sports to step out of the shadow of BLG the need to dominate that world's
Beating the reigning champs would set the tone for their tournament run
I can't even get more damage down 369 in the midst of everybody and he's going off.
Zayas is no stranger to this matchup and has bested 369 more than once.
With T1 barely qualifying to the world stage, they have what it takes to replicate their
2023 success.
I think on the back they're talking about some space, but the shockwave is clean.
In today's matchup, it's two Titans in the top lane.
Who will draw first blood in the Swiss stage of Worlds 2024?
see exactly who will draw first blood and it's such a oh it's such a loaded
matchup and in so many ways do you want to do predictions because I feel like
this one really deserves it. I think it merits it. I'm down. Yeah. Who's starting?
Well I can start and I mean so it's T1 as worlds right I always have to give
them the credit because of how they've been historic here. I normally hate
historic and I lost this but with T1 they get the pass but I will say as
well if I'm not saying TopEspot wins this I am not doing them the respect
that they serve from the domestic season they had. I mean you
normally see them as choke is I don't think they're gonna do that this time I
think they're gonna win this one it's one of the top e-sports for me I'm a big
believer in plot armor but this is decidedly different than what your
summer split was in the last like five world championships when is the
favorite the actual favorite tournament ever actually won yeah so T1 is
actually primed to make that improvement run we'll see if they do it I think it
will start here I just can't bet against faker worlds and I'm gonna
I think it's going to be top esports like especially I know the fan base not only just like the LPL hopeful the Chinese fans they're all against like top esports because they've always had these crushing defeats no matter how good their regular seasons are like
Like, Tian had an incredible season.
MVP.
He did.
Yeah, exactly.
But at the end of the day, people remember you
for your worst moments, the biggest moments,
when they lost to Weibo, those type of things.
And so I'm still going to give it to TES.
I'm going to have faith.
All right.
If you would have told me that I was the only one
to predict the defending world champions who also did better
at MSI than the team they're directly playing against now.
It's been a while.
It's been like three months.
That's a lot of lead turns.
I think you've been going through it for 12 years.
Yeah, but it's been a while.
Offer TES, you know, this is the first game of Swiss.
You know, when it comes to that storytelling around TES,
it's also, I make log lines for every team.
And for me, this one is when you want them to show up
the most, they show up the least.
But this is the first best of one.
They shouldn't be that stressed, you know?
They have another one tomorrow.
They have a couple of best of threes.
And we know the quality on TES.
And I think if you juxtapose that directly
with the performance of T1 is summer.
That's how you get your answer, right, Jack?
I hope so.
Yeah.
Yeah, absolutely.
I'm really looking forward to getting this game, Raz.
Do you have time to say?
This is a small thing.
I mean, seven worlds for Mako, five worlds for Jackie Love.
Even though we have the doubt, the confidence
should be there, the experience is certainly there.
They're such a good bot lane duo.
So that's a matchup.
I'm looking forward to seeing them versus Kariah and Guma.
We have a little bit more time, apparently.
I've been informed.
So if you want to talk a little bit about those bot
lanes, let's do it.
I think Goldberg already brought it up.
The way Guma and Keria like to play and own is sadly not the way that the games being played right now in the bot lane.
Yeah, I mean, there is going to be some exploring period, but the fact that MF, like Ash, Jhin, these champions are the types to, I guess, hit the expected picks for Worlds.
It's not really what you're expecting, you know, T1 to really be performing on. But I still have a lot of faith.
In fact, Guma is like a second jungler on the team with how many times these steals, barons and dragons are at his various pick and they make it work and how creative Karrie is as a player.
So I'm expecting something to come up, some socks be cooked up in the draft.
So I would say never count them out.
And I do think Guma is such a damn good player that he can work with any champion, any meta.
But that like, I don't mean I'm hoping that it's not just draft there.
I'm hoping that either for T1, what I really want to see from them, from the break that they've had is either we've become really good at lane swaps.
adapted to what is currently meta, or you have then found out a style that's going to
break lane swaps that other teams are currently not doing, right?
I was speaking to Orcs about this, and coincidentally, Emily was also talking to it with Kelsey.
But it's one of those things where I'm hoping that they found a way where they can trade plates down in that bot lane
and find a way to get Gooma in a position where he gets so full of gold in the early game
that they can then after rotate him around the map.
I'm really curious to see if they're bringing a different strategy to lane swaps
that might define how we're doing this in the future.
future or maybe I'm just overreacting and giving them more praise than maybe they should see but I'm
really hoping that they're bringing something out that's gonna make them have an easier time at Worlds.
I mean on that note I think we will be tracking lane swaps throughout the stage. I think in game one we
saw BLG got swapped on and they stacked a wave and they tried to dive with four people. I don't
think T1 is the type of team that should try to dive and I think the adaptation that I want to
see next is the team that gets swapped on shouldn't try and dive. They should just collect plates.
I've seen these dives go wrong so many times because teams have gotten extremely good at
getting level 2 on a support or level 3 on a top lane and they're almost impossible to
die but the plates are so much weaker than they were before the last set of nursing buffs
and the top lane plates are so much stronger I think that's actually the plate just collect
your 320 gold advantage on your AD carry and move on I think that's actually I don't want
to see T1 swap at all.
Yeah but it's one of those things if you put too many members down then there's too
much gold being shared as well so I really wonder if it's like a two man situation with
a stack wave where they put more than just getting two plates with double demolished
triple demolished maybe.
I don't know. You stack it until the cannon wave is ready to crash. You crash that huge wave in,
you let the top laner clear it as fast as he can, but in that time with just two people,
you can take at least two plates. It makes me sad. I'm going to tell you. It makes me sad.
It makes me so sad. You know why? Because one of the X factors of T1 at Worlds last year,
you know, and generally when Kariah can be the one that says, I'm going to change the meta
myself. I'm actually going to make you play different and make you play different things.
And I just don't see the opening currently in the meta. And you know, maybe time will tell.
of course, but that is like a huge X factor for T1. Yeah, it was an X factor during MSI when swaps
were happening and T1 was the team that was getting swapped on when they were trying to pick
Vayne and Camille. And thankfully for them throughout that tournament it got a little better and
they were able to still play those insane picks. The problem for me when I look at top lane is
I think that 369 is the phenomenal weeks at top lane and a lot of times if he's put in a swap
position he's pretty much happy about it. I think for the side of Zeus, you already
the fact that he is so damn talented and he's going to get those leads early.
He's first and early like the gold difference at eight minutes in the LCK like he will get an early lead.
The problem is the solo death that will happen immediately afterwards, especially in a long lane.
So if you're first at that and you're second at the death, like I think we just need to see from T1 a lot more consistency in the mid game.
If it's going to be a swap, no matter what, if it's going to be a longer lane, your best player kind of has to be a little bit more consistent.
It's his 100th game, his international game.
He was, I hear, oh, damn.
Wow, that's crazy.
No, I mean, the craziest thing about this whole T1 roster
is Zeyus is actually like the newest addition to that roster.
Yeah.
Owner, Faker, Gu Makaria, they were world semi-finalists
2021.
Oh, wow.
That is a long time.
So they've had this ridiculous run together.
And I know you're getting up to an under delay.
No.
It's Faker restarting his PC again.
No, it's just asking another question.
I'd love to know what it is, though.
But sometimes we can't see it, you know?
Sometimes we can't share, but I don't mind.
I love that he said faker.
Maybe he does have to restart his PC.
I think it is.
All the time.
Like he just go up on stage, he thinks I'm well.
Sorry guys.
I mean, we talked about like how's the goat doing, right?
In the meta, how's it going?
He didn't like those AD carries that much.
I mean, with the shift back to mages,
if he can go for an Ori or a Syndra,
it's more of his comfort zone.
But we haven't talked about cream at all.
He's a rookie on the world stage or a world's rookie.
We should say we need that technicality.
And it's always a hard matchup,
usually versus faker. I think he's done a great job talking about cream in terms of adapting in the 80 carry meta mid lane
But he has been his bread and butter has been in the Akali
I think he has an exceptional Yone. He's like 60 something win percentage
And I think if he is so good at that he should be happy with this meta
If you're gonna be going up against an Orianna a Cintra something like that just being able to now say I'm picking like an assassin counter
I'm gonna pull you into a side wave. I think that works well for cream
So that's a great note, because I think for somebody as good as he is to have a pretty poor performance at MSI and wants to be able to prove himself on an international level, this patch is a good way to do it.
And after this split where he was so good during the regular season is a great way to prove it to the international audience.
I mean, he has the best supporting cast ever.
When you look at them, they have all these champions from these different eras.
of course, Jackie Love from 2018, Tien from 2019, Mako from 2021, and then 369 of course of 2023 MSI.
So in terms of kind of what you have around you, you should be so comfortable. And that is where
sometimes it is where it disappoints people the most, because that is all the quality you have
on that roster. And then when it's about to hit midnight, you turn back into a pumpkin. That's
the point. That's the point, right? Because it's one of those things where it's like,
This sounds like the most consistent roster you can have.
And it's not!
That's like one of the things.
I do hope that they're able to show the domestic performance that they had in the LPL,
because if you only watch internationals, you probably expect...
Also if you watch the LPL sometimes.
Yeah, I mean true, but they have so many games, right?
But I think for most of the part, their games this season has been defined as very, very good.
I am more worried about TN now going into a matchup now,
where there's maybe less of these AP junglers,
but we're gonna have more of these Javans and Bruzers,
like Vi going into it,
because he has had a habit in the past
of maybe over sending it a little bit.
Historically, his vehicle has been good,
if you wanna play through that,
but I think this first game
has to be such a statement game from both teams.
For T1, because they have to cement themselves,
like, they're not just what they saw domestically.
And for top esports,
yes, we are exactly what you saw domestically,
and we can be better.
So this first game is such a statement game
for both of these teams.
And to the point, an expectation I had
when Top Esports brought in Mako,
was the fact that he was gonna be
the babysitter wrangling people in.
And sure it hasn't happened so much,
but I expect that to be,
because I just remember Combs from EDG and all that,
where he's like, stop, no, no, pull back,
that's a one fight already,
so I'm expecting a little bit more of that.
Yeah, since we still have a little bit of time,
I think we've kind of exhausted all the what-ifs, right,
before we actually see this game playing out.
So I wanna zoom out a little bit if we can,
because this game is really emblematic
of what Worlds is all about.
It is LPL wanting to revenge over T1, first and foremost,
but also the entirety of the LCK,
and how we feel like the balance of power
is gonna develop over the Swiss stage and beyond.
I think to me it is the most interesting,
overarching storyline of the last,
I mean, like five or six years ago.
Since the last time we've been in Europe,
when G2 played against FPX and Fowlers in 2019,
since that moment, it's only been LCK and LPL teams
in the finals.
And I think in the last two years, if it wasn't for T1,
the LPL would be dominated.
They would have dominated it.
It wouldn't even be close.
Like we would have had last year two LPL teams.
Just last two years, we've had two LPL teams in MSI finals.
And then all four LPL teams made it at a group stage.
Three quarters of them made it into the semifinals.
Yet T1, as you mentioned, ace them at Worlds.
T1 is Hodor.
No!
G obviously this year is a big favorite along with BOG is actually looking higher than T1
and that's gonna, they'd be like the big defenders so honestly for the last three years it absolutely
has been the LCK.
Yeah.
We have DRX winning, we have T1 winning and we also have GenG winning this MSI but
like it's crazy to think how close it was with what T1 pulled off last year
at Worlds to really flip the narrative.
Yeah, and it's interesting because as you say though, even with all that in mind, it's never goes the way you think it's going to go based on pre-tournament expectations.
Very, very rarely. We just have to bring up DRX or T1 to prove that point exactly.
And that is what always excites me at Worlds, and that is also what excites me if LPL is going to make this rush for the World Championship again.
Maybe it isn't BLG. Maybe it is TES. You don't know. Maybe it is.
Maybe it is GDG.
Well, why are you asking that?
That's very blue towards Raven.
No, literally every year there's a team
that usurps those expectations, right?
Every time we think there's no shot that, like,
for instance, Gen G is not going to make it to the finals,
and then they get taken down by BLG.
You believe?
This time, I believe.
I believe in Gen G.
Why?
Because they're the MSI champions, they already took over.
Okay, but counterpoint to this, right?
When JDG came into that world championship,
you thought as well that this was just going to be
dare, gold, and road.
No team looked as strong as JDG at that time.
that time. So I know it's like one of those things where we're looking at BLG, we're looking
at Gen.G, but you can't forget that it's been exactly like this in the past as well.
Am I sciatidal or not?
But they're not on a golden road.
Exactly.
No stress.
That's fair enough.
You don't have those expectations on you.
Even with the confidence that I have about Gen.G, I'm like, how my life already took
them out?
Yeah.
And guess who already took down T1 when they went up against them in 2022? It
was Zeca. So like, there's always going to be like a question of like, who does
the best on the meta, and which team just gels the most and actually is able to go throughout
the first stage of worlds and learns the most.
So that's why I'm like, I look at Honolive, I was like, they could do it.
Is that your dark horse then?
Yeah, they're my dark horse for sure.
I think that's a pretty fab one as well.
Yeah, also I'm a peanut fan.
Are they even a dark horse?
Is T1 too bright to be a dark horse?
Because people doubt Doran and peanut on an international stage.
I know, I know, but you say you don't doubt TES, so why are you doubting peanut
on the international stage?
That's why I'm like, is this a tournament?
That's fair enough, that's fair enough.
I get it, though. It's happened a few times, and they talk about that as well.
And that's what it is all about. We still have a little bit of a delay.
In fact, I really don't know what's going on.
So since we've done our new diligence, we've talked about the tournament's favorites.
Fine. Now we can go a bit lower. Let's talk about a neighbor's.
Let's talk about team liquid. Team liquid.
OK. Raz, we're going to have different opinions.
Oh my God. No. OK, go for it.
Here's the weird thing with me about Team Liquid as some people are shooting in right now. They're like
Why are they talking about Liquid again?
I'm ready for this.
Anyway, they are a team that can definitely make it to Quarters, I think.
Yeah, I think they definitely have that potential, but I want to set reasonable expectations about them.
Glad we're in agreement.
Because we talked about at the top of the show like what could change worlds that might change how you feel about this team coming in?
And I feel like they had such a perfect read on what they were able to accomplish in summer,
really being one of the best laneswap teams in the world.
Yep.
And then I feel like APA had really mastered the AD carry pool with the way that he's able to
collect gold on side lanes.
But I feel like if we switch to this Ari, Cindra, LeBlanc type mage mid,
I don't think he's going to be as good on those champions as he was
on the AD carry champions in mid.
And I think even if lane swapping still happens, I think it's effectiveness is diminished based on the nerfs that they've actually given.
So they're going to be like, if they were here, they're there, but they're still pretty good.
Okay, you know what? That's a small difference.
Exactly, it's not that bad.
And so like, overall, I do think the questions around APA's champion pool, even though at the very top of show, I put that question out there.
Like, he started his career off of what?
Ziggs, Aurelion Sol, he even played Syndra, of course, at the last Worlds.
Yeah, he has majors in his pool and I think something that team liquid does really well is being able to play through side lens
And even if he's on those more diminished picks for him, he's gonna be able to support them. So I think from the TL side
I'm happy fly quest side. I'm confident wait. Yeah, but why did you European side not so confident?
Well, that's that series was actually we don't need your trust
Black quest won that series because inspired is super good
Like inspired has been controlling the game and he was able to switch to the different meta like mid playoffs being able to switch between a
Supportive style with I burn or a hard carry style with any of the power farmers. He was incredible in that tournament
I love I love watching inspired play and I love watching inspired talk and do interviews and then someone else has to come in and be like
The nice guy like it's got a good cop bad cop. Yeah
Here's the last thing I'll say about team liquid or fly quest chances or even TES or T1 chances
a lot of it's going to depend on the draw because we know what happened to KT last year or or sorry DRX D plus last year
But yes getting nothing but hard opponents throughout all of Swiss yeah, so if you lose this first game sure
Maybe you're gonna be able to play
some lower tier loser from the first round
But a lot of it's going to depend on the draw so yeah games are actually very important
I've got an update, unfortunately we are going to have to take a 5 minute break, but we will be back after that with the game.
You promise? No we don't.
Last one, so thank you to everyone who's stuck with us through a bit of delays here today.
Is Feddy's and myself get ready for the Swiss stage, man.
I mean, just day one is like every matchup is good. Not always for the same reasons, I'll be honest.
But this one, last year at Worlds, it was BLG, then it was LNG, and then it was JDG, and then it was Waybo.
T1 have an opportunity to add another name to the list here today as they go up against Top Esports.
But perhaps Top Esports can be the first of many to get their revenge.
Because the question coming into this game is a question of form, right?
There's doubt on the side of Top Esports, and there's hope and enthusiasm on the side of T1.
But their performances domestically were the opposite, because Top Esports had an incredible regular season with the MVP of Cam, where T1 barely limped their way into the World Championship.
So I'm very excited to see what these teams are prepared for us today. I'm looking forward to seeing what they've got for us in the draft.
What's going to be the priority? What are we going to see in mid lane? Will we see the king return to his throne in the mid lane because he has been struggling?
I watched that man play piano with a big old championship
So I feel and this is the problem, right? This is the T1 aura is that you're just like yeah
I'll give them the benefit of the doubt you're like but all the evidence and you're like I don't need that
I saw him open a large dole
I'm not already
Walk out as an emperor throw a cape off spinnest beer around and that might have been animated faker
Which means real faker probably like 10x whatever that was
But I mean it is valid right?
I think there is always going to be this this benefit of the doubt that T1 are going to get
Actually, of course.
And there's always, I don't want to say always going to be skepticism for top e-sports,
because I don't think that that is fair to them, but based on, you know,
international performance, based on even the series that they lost to G2 and MSI,
there is still that healthy dose of skepticism when it comes to what really is
this team's consistent level, because we've seen high highs and we've seen low lows.
Yeah, and the reality is that if you want to use history as an example,
T1 as an organization often starts slow at World Championships.
They're very first games, even their first few,
and not always their best performance is just because it seems like that they are
they don't always adapt to the meta immediately.
And I love the point that Shox made on the desk because last year it felt like that, you know,
they had a very close series versus Team Liquid that they almost lost that, right?
And then they continued on and you thought, OK, they're getting better.
But then they defined the meta.
They were the ones that introduced and changed the bot lane meta and were the ones that said,
hey, everyone, this is what we think the best way to play the game is.
And then everyone was playing catch up to T1, which no one ultimately was able to do.
Yeah, it was interesting because I believe it was Waybo first who brought out the Lux,
Caitlin and people were like, this is flavor.
This isn't going to be real.
But then it was T1 who brought a full circle to the point where we were back to a carrier
who even in spring right had been playing everything and people are like, there's no
way that meta comes back, but it did.
And they found that angle.
That's the story of so many teams.
We look back, how many teams is the meta suited them or have they found that
single angle?
Even as far back as 2018, helps to have the two best solo laners in the world
when you have a tournament that's all about your freaking solo laners, right?
IG, they run so much about that.
And we'll have to see if the meta does favor T1.
And if they can be faster in identifying
what their unique take on it is,
or what the best version of it is.
Cause you're right, not every tournament for T1.
People just remember the ending.
They don't always remember
some of the more awkward moments at the start.
And we'll see if this is one of those moments
as our teams take to the stage.
Again, so much history, so many titles.
The sheer amount of elo in this walkout is baffling.
Eight world championships in a single game.
the fist bumps come through chaos as they find their way to the past, but it doesn't matter.
We're getting ready for the draft, we're getting ready for the game.
Much anticipated matchup and the question on everybody's minds are what form are these
teams in to debut the world championship.
Let's get ready.
What will the priority be?
Game one we saw the Vi instantly locked in for BLG.
We know that both these junglers are more than happy to pick that one up, but will it be the
Scanna?
Will that instead be the priority?
I'm betting the buy is banned, because we saw MSI's buy was also an incredibly popular
pick, essentially perma banned.
Just about everywhere.
People were not going to let through at the time, the buy, Taliyah's the world,
now it's feeling more like it's going to be kind of the buy.
Ori set up, it's just so reliable.
And when you look at these two mid laners, I will say that neither of them feel
like the centerpiece right now of their respective teams.
This could be a game where we're focusing much more around the bottom side, or
Maybe my personal hope around the top side of the map.
Zaeus vs. 369.
But again, if we end up in a situation where,
based on the first game, it's a lot of NAR vs. Cassante,
can't imagine there'll be too much
jungle involvement there.
I don't expect it.
But let's find out.
Ziggs, Syndra, Ash, Aurora, Skanna,
buy these war champions that immediately come to our minds
when we think about high priorities in the draft.
There's likely going to be some potential target bans
who saw in game 1 the middle he taken away from Al Joya, the jinx taken away from Suba.
But of course, neither of these teams will have much data on each other outside of what they saw
in terms of the actual qualification to the World Championship.
Without further ado, let's finally jump to this matchup, jump into the draft, and see what will be taken off the board.
Taking the time. Here we go. Thank you, Omen and HyperX.
Chance-elect here, Oriana taking away, some of the more stable picks off the board.
Yone did not show up in our first game despite how popular it has been in Champions Q and solo queue,
but Tristana, Yone, conventional AD options off the board.
Okay, fine. And Skana, both available right now.
I like the respect being shown towards the mid laners.
Oriana, the faker, makes a lot of sense.
Yeah. He recently acquired a skin on the champion.
Meanwhile, on the side of T1, the Ziggs removes the Tristana as well towards Cream.
He's an incredible Tristana player, and they don't allow him to have that.
But the Aurora first pick, we talked about it being a power pick.
The beauty of this champion is the flexibility that it has as well, being played both in mid and top.
And of course, just one of the most powerful team-fighting ultimates in the game,
what feels like a Camille ultimate for an entire team, can be so impactful.
Remember, this champion has been nerfed just about every patch since it came out.
on the fact that it's still High Pryo is a testament to how powerful the kid really is.
But prioritizing the early Aurora has looked to open the ash again,
something that was banned away in our first match of the day.
Generally a champion who gets lane Pryo against the vast majority of matchups.
And with Aurora locked in, Niko now coming out.
Remember Aurora as you highlighted the flex, top lane Niko.
Not something we see as much, but it's something that has been played historically.
Yeah, naturally my assumption would be that this is the carry and supports.
But the beauty of the champion is it is flexible.
We know Faker's played it before.
Zayas is no stranger to bring out the top lane as well.
So a bit of flexibility on the side of Q1,
perhaps an introduction to the meta,
maybe an answer to Aurora that they've prepared for us.
We'll have to wait and see as the draft continues.
The Jhin gonna be locked in for the side of top esports
over towards Jackie Love.
And now they round out with the support of their own.
But they wanna grab that jungle because, you know,
in the previous game,
Scarlet and Vi instantly locked in from both BLG and MBK,
but so far in this game,
that general priority has fallen to the wayside.
Debates here, I want the options gonna be.
The flexibility immediately, lock in the Renekton for 369.
Of course, one of his most well-known champions
throughout his career,
but I feel like the biggest strength
that you have in Aurora is its flexibility.
The top esports, and I mean, it's common in the LPL,
they know the power of Renekton.
They are very effective at leveraging it,
so they wanna guarantee that for themselves.
And pressure now on T1 to lock in
whatever it is they want to play with mid lane,
it's not the Niko, because if they don't, they'll likely be banned away in the next phase, however,
instead, the focus is going to be on counterpicking the top side of the map. Today is with the Jax
into 3-6-9s in Renekton, a classic top lane match, but unlike a lot of the matches we see,
this is one where the Jax eventually is going to be a tough task to deal with.
Early on, we know how impactful the Renekton could be, how strong he is overall,
but the later we go, the scarier and scarier that Jax becomes, especially on a side lane.
I wonder if T1 will get rid of something like a Jarvan.
You look at the Ash as a potential target and wouldn't surprise me if T1's even thinking about something like the Syndra.
I think control mages in general do very well into Aurora because she's relatively short range and you can really bully her.
The Poppy though, gonna be the van, given that Jax does struggle against this badger for sure.
And maybe T1's thinking about the Jarvan themselves, which means that that's something that they could prioritize.
I would expect something like an early, I say an early, I would expect a jungle map band here
But perhaps they want to just eliminate potential support options that compare up nice
This may like the rail would also make a lot of sense if they just want to eliminate that from make-up
Maybe even his Alistar is something they could be concerned about
Curious where or what's yes TS's plan is with the rest of their options because Jin normally pairs incredibly well
Champions who want to burst out of target while Aurora can't hit that identity when she starts to get ahead
often needs a bit more time to get stacks built up if it's not, you know, a snowball to roar ultimate
It's not doing quite as much so I wonder if the renekton or roar will be enough or if they'll try to get more damage out of the jungle position
You highlighted skarner earlier, so Jwani already gone, still some good tank jungle options left
but the Renado was already banned, bot lane support pool, really the big focus
Rell would be kind of next down in priority order in terms of popular options, but giving respect over to comfort for owner
obviously an incredible Viego player.
Now you imagine that the mid lane is going to be locked in, you know that Aurora is going into mid.
Aha! But this is the flexibility of the Niko that we were talking about.
So this is their answer into the Aurora. They've locked the Niko in, they're going to be securing it in mid lane,
with the Rakan coming down towards the bot side of the map.
What will the response be here from Top Esports, both Derell and Leona?
I think both make sense, both in terms of the 2v2 matchup, but also providing a form of engage.
Right now that is what Top Esports is lacking.
They need a way to start those fights.
NREL makes a lot of sense to round things out.
You're then looking at that jungler, which, you know, in this meta,
really surprises me that it's gone so late into the draft.
But what's it going to be, Tien?
What are you thinking about bringing out?
It's a situation where you have AD top, you have AP mid.
So in terms of overall composition, you can go either way.
You wouldn't mind a little bit more magic damage on this team.
Do we see a return to old junglers of patches past?
but the tank option always going to be a solid one.
Skarner, of course, just generally a good pick,
doesn't always have the best upfront engage,
doesn't have the same range that Shamplex at 20 does,
but it will be the priority here.
It is what's going to be locked in,
and we saw in the previous game,
a lot of those early skirmishes going in the favor of the MPK,
while they maybe could keep up in map play.
The Skarner did a lot of work,
especially around those level six fights.
Bonus Wukong.
I am a fan, especially against champions
that don't have the best mobility, Jin and Aurora.
It also just pairs up nicely. Nice dive buddy alongside both the Jacks and the Rakan.
You've got a lot of a gage on the side of T1.
Yeah, that is a backline threat composition.
Faker, man.
This man on control mages is a sight to see.
Because it's any point, you know, that he can make that play that can change a game.
He's done it so many times over so many years.
It's what so many people look forward to.
I'm also just excited because I love Niko on big international stages.
Domestically, we joked about it in the LAC, I think everybody has,
but your ability to count minions will be tested today.
Is that actually a blast cone?
Will be a legitimate question we ask in the context of this game,
and I'm just ready to see kind of the creativity that can come
with a newer champion like Aurora to the professional scene
and something like Niko who obviously has that naturally built in.
But you highlighted so much engagement.
It feels like T1, very clear game plan.
TES know it, T1 know it.
How do TES fight back against this? Can they get those side-liners ahead?
Maybe find an avenue where they don't have to run face-first into this powerhouse 5v5
wombo-combo style composition coming out from T1.
I do think I like... I prefer the comp from T1.
I think they have side-lane options. I think they've got good team-fighting.
The pick potential is there.
But the biggest thing is the range.
Like, don't get me wrong, Jin can have some decent range later on to the game.
He's got a decent amount of poke, but...
At least an ash against a deco.
Face-checking, seizing a tower.
This is a scary comp to do that against so
Top e-sports do have some strength in the early games specifically around the top side of that
We'll see if they can look to leverage that as we jump onto the rift for our second Swiss matchup of the day
Top e-sports versus T1
Crucially the first LPL versus LCK matchup we've seen in Worlds 24 thus far
And it is just a best of one but come on the narrative writes itself ready you talked about it can T1
one out of fifth LPL team to the West.
I mean, there's a lot of pride on the line for LPL.
T1 really did the LPL dirty last year
with that run through the World's Bracket.
But again, if you're just an international viewer,
if you only tune in for the international events,
you look at the top of your screen,
what do you mean LCK 4?
No, we mean LCK 4.
Yes.
T1 really struggled this split.
they've had a really difficult road to get here, and they just barely made it.
Five games in the regional gauntlet versus KT, their form has not looked spectacular,
but it's important to emphasize this because if they do turn things around at the World Championship,
it should really go to show how incredible this team, this roster of five players, really is.
T1, already making some proactive map movement.
With Guma on the top side at 130, it looks like we will be seeing a lane spot vision
to try to spot out who will be coming to potentially catch that wave.
As the LCK Classic have happened, you're supported in the mid lane,
but this time, now the player can flash in on a 3-6-9,
3-6-9 getting lower and lower, a little bit of healing from Koldam.
Eat the first blood for Zayus!
A strong start as they find 3-6-9 isolated.
The split map came through.
Now they will be a little slow to start the push on the top side of the map,
but hey, they got themselves first blood and they got it on to Zayus.
And right now in the mid lane, you still have the 2v2 lane set up, which is of course really the LCK special.
T1, no strangers to it.
So I think Gen.G were really proactive in it, in kind of bringing it to the forefront.
Makes sense when you're mid lane or showbie to give them a little bit more attention, but the same.
Very true about Faker.
As he remains a secret Nika.
I think just happy to have a kind of better auto attack animation for as long as humanly possible.
Now, 316 is desperate to try and get level 2 as Zeus and Gumiushi hover around the top side of the map.
The idea is, and you're going to be seeing a lot this year's World Championship, is Zayas will get level 2, Rakan has level 2 as well.
So once Zayas gets the level over, he can TP to catch that massive wave and bot, and now that they're both level 2, both support and top laner,
they should be safe enough to weather the threat of the dive.
Here's Tiano hovering and ready. We should be seeing this TP come through from Zayas, but he wants to go back to base, he wants to spend before he actually arrives in the lane.
Double two for Keria. This is really difficult for TES to get much done here, however, because, again,
Jin early on in those extended trades and laning phases can't be powerful holding on, nice flashback for Keria to get away,
knock up, forcing the flashback from TN in response, no dive, no real play here, only a single plate taken down is 369.
Well, TP up to the topside. Now, Gumo, of course, because of the 85%
early fortification, not really able to get a plate back in response, but well defended by Keria.
I'm a little surprised to see that Xeus actually stayed for another wave in the top lane.
Because I thought initially he was going to go back to base to spend his money, then TP down towards bot, but ultimately not the end of the world.
The flash didn't have to come out from TN because he got tower aggro by hitting onto carrier.
Now level 3 through from carrier, the base actually going to come through from Zayas.
We imagine the same thing is going to happen from Kumiyoshi in the near future.
But I say that, look at the top lane right now, he is just bullying out 3-6-3 on Renekton.
and no flash means that he can just chip away at his HP bar.
Level three now comes through.
Just being zoned away from so much XP.
Luckily, as you highlighted, it does have the level three now.
Things will get a little bit easier if you can get on top of Guma.
You know, you've been in a better position,
but with Guma still having cleanse and both of them being flashless,
the kill pressure the three sixth man's brings to the table is much, much lower.
And in the bottom lane, they're just now able to crash that wave.
Jack, luckily, hasn't had to burn a biscuit yet,
but he's running out of mana just trying to sustain that push.
Oner continues to split-mash give split
In order to provide Gumiushi with all this additional safety as well the safety carries level four now happily farming away as can be
Look if we just kind of squint. It's like season one sort of you just got double male
This action solo lanes for some reason it's coming full circle
Start there from Zayas, just trying to get close to get XP again.
If he doesn't pick up CS here, it's not the biggest deal.
As long as he stays ahead in XP overall, obviously Jax wants that early itemization,
but in the split map you're happy to just get what you can really.
Yeah, I mean it's interesting how, I believe it's T1 that's made this decision, right?
Because typically you just want back earlier, right?
You're just getting through those early levels, you're trying to put the enemy
top lane behind a little bit.
T1 is saying, hey, why aren't you quite comfortable with how we're playing right now with Gumi-Yushi
getting nice pressure down onto 369 and the fact that they can't do the same to say us on the other
side of the map, he walks away back to base. They're going to keep these lane assignments.
They're going to send Gumi-Yushi back to top once more, carries room to mid.
And essentially, I think what this tells us is that Grubs are the priority for T1. They're
resetting to be in time for the 530 wave that'll spawn. If you get pressure there, you get
first access to Grubbs, willing to, you know, mismatch lanes a little bit longer
to try to prioritize that early Grubbuff. We'll see if it kind of pays off for him.
Sure. Of course, Oner has maintained the split map throughout the entirety of the year of the game.
Ultimately, all of the shenanigans haven't really resulted in a significant gold advantage
outside of the fact that Zayas did get first blood. That's kind of where a lot of the
lead is sitting right now. Gumiushi is a little bit behind in terms of farm, partially
especially because he was late to the first wave.
A level five now for the Ash, you know?
Yeah, 369 is upset that this is his lane opponent.
And look, you can't, there's nothing he can do about this.
He can't come face check these grubs.
So grubs are getting picked up.
The response, of course, on the opposite side for TES
is to go for this Drake, which makes a lot of sense,
but ultimately grubs have been higher priority
for the LCK, just about the entire year.
Not surprising to see T1 look for the top side
on this side of the trade.
Now after securing the grubbs, they have numbers advantage on topside so they can start threatening their place, start threatening their potential dive.
No level 6 secured yet for 3-6 diamonds, so he's not going to have his ultimate available.
You can see O and M making his way into the topside jungle once more as top de-sports secure the first dragon of the game.
Zayas spotted on a ward.
Cream, now he needs to be careful.
Nice hot-out to safety.
Pretty easy for him to escape but running relatively low on mana maker.
We'll see if he wants to help him push this wave in, but all of T1 collapsing on the topside now.
Basically, Xayah's saying, I know I'm at risk of a dive on the bot side of the map, so I'm not even going to bother sticking around.
Instead, I'm going to group up with my team, threaten a potential dive, but also he's in a position to catch this wave.
They hand two plates over to Gumi-Yushi. He can now look to reset and path back towards bot if he wants to.
I think XB is just going to be shared between the two of them.
Overall, I think T1 has managed this very patiently, very well in terms of the early game.
3-6 dive in a similar position. Notice that he can't go to the top side of the map, so he's getting what experience he can.
They are chipping away at this tower, leveraging the strength of the Grubs.
The total number of plates exchanged so far is even, but here becomes the fourth.
And I think the big thing here is that Jin is not great.
Normally in these Lenshop circumstances, when Jackie loves get so much time in isolation,
you'd expect him to get more, but because he's on Jin, he doesn't really shred through those plates,
and because we're past five minutes, the top lane fortification that might have balanced things out for the first few minutes,
no longer in his favor, so first tower taken, great use of the Grubbub, TES.
Committing a lot of members here to the mid lane, but overall he won 2,000 gold ahead
They didn't they didn't even get this another flight in the bot lane by the way. Jin just a Jin
Yeah, it's Jin realm. They don't hit they don't do anything man to the tower
They don't have backup either so not gonna be Jack's ash on a tower toad. You are not now
Gumi Ushi returns to the bot lane again
He is a little bit behind in CS
He's a little bit behind an XP but the gold because he secured that first tower
That's really where you're starting to see that discrepancy build up three six nine not able to leverage the strength of Renekton
What so ever and while over in the LPL?
It's been consistently a high priority pick because of its strength in lane and its versatility in the mid game
T1er making the champion redundant given these early slain swap shenanigans and the Aurora the first big priority
Or for that TS really hasn't done much cream fine and the individual 1v1 trades
but very little of this lane has been a 1v1.
Okay, Zayus, he's just running around taking plates.
He's like, I got my passive up, I'm gonna hit the tower,
get a plate, and then I'm off.
They're gonna kick this man out of the buffet.
He's been eating plates for three hours,
so that's clearly against the rules.
Okay, we know it's in and all you can eat is more...
It's a theoretical thing.
No one actually eats all that they can eat, okay?
Zayus like, there's a plate, man.
There's a plate.
I got a plate.
Wait, you've only got 5 more minutes.
I'm not going to get this way here man, it's perfect timing.
In game 1 we talked about how BLG won't waste any time with their map movements.
I think you need to give the same credit to Xeus in this situation where he's just really
trying to maximize what he can.
Knock up in, arrow to follow, cleanse out, but it's a little bit late, immediate coming
in.
From Jackie Love, taking down, Kumiuchi now trying to run the charge, canter up,
canter up, coming in from TF, Kuma likely to follow here, ulti is there, probably
just a 2 for 2 in the end, but more members used by the side of TES who make that
That play happened, Keria trying to escape, Boner now stepping forward in the end, still
able to find a pretty even trade.
A trade of life between the AD carries, but Guma-Yushi and Keria ultimately getting a
2v2 kill, which is huge for them.
They get the cleanse out from Jackie Love, he isn't forced to expend the flash, and
if it weren't for the presence of Tian, that play could have gone much worse.
But overall, as you rightly said, one for one on the bot side of the map, nicely
though, Ono pulls the wave up into the river, which means that they now have a
slow push heading towards that bot side of the map.
We turn our attention back towards it again.
Nice side step from Guby Ushi.
The knockup comes through.
He cleanses the CC, but he's still in the airborne.
Nice flash out from Guma.
Means that he's still able to get the kill.
But at this point, he's just ran out of tools.
He doesn't have flash.
He doesn't have cleanse.
And Tian is able to lock him down
and secure the trade back kill.
And if you fall behind in a trade against the Bracon,
Ashland, they do just have so much CC.
Even if he hadn't cleansed in midair,
there's no real immediate pressure
for Kari to charm to find that lockup.
So well played by T1.
And now it's a lot harder for TES
get involved in the bottom side of the map. We did see right as we went to the replay reassignment
of Jakiwub into mid lane and now T1 quick to try to punish the side lane focus, Kreeam
instant ult. Nice use of the ult, we've been seeing that more and more around the world.
The Kreeam doesn't panic, uses the ultimate, not forced to expend the flash, of course
T1 priority on the place, they're threatening to dive, they're ready to dive this,
369, Renekton how strong is it? So much CT, he lives for a little bit of time
The wave is basically to lean to T1. Happy to have the donated kill.
I don't think 369 was ready for everyone on T1 to be there.
Look at the map state. Typically when you're investing this much into a play,
you're worried about the cross map, but they don't have the wave pushed in top.
T1 had already secured that. It's Jin in the mid lane. Again,
he really can't try much and it's the plate merchant. Say it, she's on the bot lane.
He's there to get more plates for himself. He keeps eating. He's 1.1g gold ahead
And I did not think the major story of two like international Titans des t1 would be about
Jin trying to take towers and not be very good at it
But reminder as to why Jin I think in these lane swap scenarios or scenarios where you're playing a much more active map
We are constantly reassigning can feel really lackluster
He just does it do and we're not even close to 14 minutes top tower gone bot tower gone
Of course the good news the top news for us is they deny the six scrubs and they set themselves up with two dragons
However, it took the gold. T1 have set themselves up beautifully for a very powerful mid game.
These first items are already coming through the Trini Force. They're very nearly completed for Xeus.
There's a push to him, bot wave. He's going to be able to catch that as well.
Top Esports are just being run around the map.
We talked about the composition and how I kind of favored T1's comp just because of their backline access
and the number of threats that they have. This situation doesn't make things any easier for Top Esports.
I think the good news for top esports is Jackylo is finally completed that static. His wave clear is going to be a bit better
They should be able to play a little bit more around prior at least some of these lanes
But need to see what cream can do as well finished malignance
Can he find angles with the ultimate to get picks on sideline because we know T1 just have so many tools
If you misstep it's so easy for them to find these picks to find these angles
It takes a little bit more work from TES to find those picks or find those setups on fights
Bit of a bounce between the supports as they bounce a load of the control wallets
Now, hope the mid are coming in.
Instant Wukong, all the way bigger, not gonna fall in between walls, but there's just nowhere to go.
Mako trying to find the countergates, but it might not matter, still in the midst of everything.
Tana's so damn tanky, they weren't ready for that, and Jin might not kill towers, but he kills people.
Jackie Love popped off.
A quadra kill for the Jin means that just like that, Top Esports have turned this game around.
T1 were riding with so much momentum and confidence, they set their sights on the blue buff,
Wombo combo looked good, but the threat to Jackalove just wasn't there.
From a distance, he was able to pick apart those T1 members
and immediately bring them back into the game.
That 3K gold lead has shrunk to a 1K1, and let's look back at this.
That's Faker, turns into a minion.
He sets up with his team, carry out, looks for the engage,
the knockup initially comes through.
They burst out, but look at the positioning of Jackalove.
The Wombo combo looks good,
But Jekulov, the bouncing grenade doing work, the static shiv as well.
And Tian on the front line able to soak up so much damage with the ultimate to clean things up.
That's four he finds four.
Incredible stuff there because we talked about how hard it can be sometimes for TES to find fights,
but if they absorb that initial blow and Tian and Mako are still sanding,
all of that rel CC is put to such fantastic use.
You highlight it, Jekulov.
Really just got to hang out.
Now, the only person in our MasterCard
in the economy snap shot with an individual lead,
they're not out of the tough times yet.
So there's good news and bad news.
The good news, Jackie Love, now very strong
in a position to be the carry for top eSports.
Bad news, every member of T1 has now picked a target,
and he will now be the one that they are all
gunning for in the upcoming team fights.
And it's tricky, we've talked about this.
Yes, he has flash and cleanse.
That'll make things a little bit easier.
But there is so much non-committal CC
from the side of T1.
It's easy for them to just look for those angles.
It's the fight for Rift Herald.
Lot of posturing.
TEF with a little bit better vision control.
Might be in a position where T1 has to conceive.
You see both top laners resetting.
3-6-9 sprinting to the area.
Has Black Cleaver now completed.
TP.
Zayas finishing his try-force at the same time.
Both top laners ready to get involved.
Their TP's there.
There's a handshake here on the fist fight
around the subjective.
Mako trying to find that angle,
trying to find that engage.
Guma with a red buff.
poking, chipping away the eye-procked.
Dream now walking in.
Between worlds is there.
It's gonna be difficult for Gumi to stay too long.
Not having vision of that brush a bit devastating
is Mako just constantly threatening
probably just the 50-50 on the smite.
2k on the Herald.
Faker is now a blue buff,
but the Herald's gone down, Tien.
Also walking to pick this one up should be able to do so.
T1 are they willing to commit more resources to deny?
Just...
just poking and prodding.
But ultimately 50-50 goes to TES, so not a lot to say.
I think the positioning from Top Esports was really good because Cream is in a position to constantly make it difficult for
Oner to find that engage that he was looking for. Trying to come from the fog of war to catch Top Esports off guard.
Meanwhile, 3-6-9 and Zeus was just kind of battling in the mid lane, trying to fight for access who could get that better position
ready for the upcoming team fight. But no one from T1 was really ready to pull the trigger. They don't really want to start the initiation onto Tien.
They either want to find Cream or Jaki Love, but they weren't presenting any openings.
opening. So with the Herald being within range of Tian and him being this Tanki
Skana, he was just slowly wearing it down and able to secure that objective
uncontested. The gold still in favor of T1, but top esports, even after all the
tower shenanigans and everything that's happened in the other game, have been
prioritizing these objectives very well. Only losing those first three grubs.
Definitely. And third Drake, 20 seconds away. Fighting now for pushing the
bottom side. As far as AS has been able to get this, but you can see
T369 happy to step up knowing the team will be there to back him up. He needs to fight with Zayas
Taking a look at the vision control right now
TES much better control the brush that Mako just walked through crucial for T1 to have that vision so they don't get picked off
They go so good hiding in that fog of war and setting up these traps as instead TES knowing they have the Herald
Going to try and force T1 on the back, but they don't have a wave mid
But it looks like they don't even care about it cream moving in was invisible
between worlds not gonna come out no one there to follow so a bit of an awkward
herald usage gives them access into the river at least a little bit as carrier
still maintaining vision control I think it's because Zayus able to have that
push in the bomb wave base gonna come in through 369 should allow Zayus to
catch this wave but the pressure remains mid for top-e sports they know
where they have control but we talked about the range it's difficult to
approach this composition from T1 underneath the tower but now it's
They make their way into the river. You've got to keep your eyes on the flank from Zayas. He is pinged out by the side of top e-sports
Slowly clearing out this vision. T1 could use
Excuse me TES could use their prior to keep that vision control in their favor
Such an awkward back and forth dance. You highlighted so well, right?
Zayas playing through bottom side getting him access to that objective having that angle of attack
Whereas TES committed to playing through mid if T1 don't commit enough members still instantly lose that tower and it gets much harder
but a TES over commit it's so easy for Zayas to find that flank.
Faker looking to get his off-tubble knock-up.
It's Zillie Zayas in the midst of everything and down!
Go, Jackie! Love!
One fed member! God in the blink of an eye,
TNGut does not have enough luck to attack a finished radical fight.
Faker truly is timeless.
An incredible engage from him.
Once more on the world stage to set up the fight for T1.
Top Esports were caught unaware as
and away as Jackula didn't even get an opportunity to flash away and with him
taking out all of the gold leaders gone and just keep your eyes on Faker
mimicking the Wukong finds the angle pops the ultimate their target
immediately Jackula the look at the follow-up there all four members locked
down the 80 carry and don't give him the opportunity to play the game and
perfect follow-up from Zess an owner and credit to Faker right he throws
himself forward like he's the fake clone like he's the one just going for a
bit of vision but this one time every other time the 90 other times he sent
the clone in it was not the actual Niko he's literally like the wukong there's
four wukongs he can make four like that's crazy like oh my goodness crazy
stuff and you want back in the driver's seat and we look at our future
matchup presented by Mercedes Benz right it's all about top lane and while 369
hasn't been the crux of GES.
You can see all of the money is going to Zayus.
Yes, Faker gets the setup, but it's Zayus flashing
and getting that counter strike, finishing that kill.
And now 1.7k gold lead, almost two items,
20 minutes into the game.
This Jax is a massive threat on the sideline.
369 really can't afford to walk up.
I mean, 369 from the very start of this game
has been a target for T1.
They were able to find first blood,
who has denied a lot of experience of farm
in the early laning phase,
and she hasn't been able to find these angles of attack in any of the fights.
The matchup's only going to get harder as now Sunded Sky finished for Zeyas alongside the journey force.
Where do you think the quadra kill was on her?
Tower should finally go down? Nope. But again just come back to that point of
look at how difficult this composition is to siege against right?
The threat of the Ash Arrow, Faker could at any moment pop the ultimate.
The threat of the Wukong flank.
Thank you.
Starting, knowing the tower isn't really much to defend there.
Now between worlds coming out, Jackie Love for now on touch on the backside can look to
start to finish up these kills.
But Xayah submits to everything, just gave up his counter strike.
Now needs retreat.
Massive healing coming in for 369, but not nearly enough.
Curtain call coming out though and looking to finish the job.
So much damage.
And again, Jackie Love clutching the fight.
As long as Jackie Love has position, there's always an opportunity for Toppy
sports to turn the fights around.
They still didn't burn his flash in that engage, but it was Top Esports to put the pressure onto T1.
They were the initiators, and they put T1 on the back foot, allowing Jackie Love to find good position
and turn the fight around.
9-9 in kills, Top Esports are going to get two talents.
But I think the hero of the day is Manko there.
So many of these engages have been all about that role.
He and Tien both with 100% kill participation this game.
Yes, Jackie Love is the one who's walking away with the money, the score line, the accolades,
know down my mind that the supporting cast here has been so good for TES.
I mean you're completely right and think about every exchange that happens between
the two teams. Cream is quick to throw out the ultimate so we start the
initiation with Mako saying we need this tower let's go.
Ono becomes the target and he takes a lot of damage at the start of the fight
as Zayac, uh, 369 keeps Zayac out of the fight.
Jackie Love on the back line, the ultimate connects under the front and you
think at this point it's dangerous but look at the damage being done by
cream as well follow that up with the ultimate from Jackie love and it is a one-sided fight as
T1 is forced to retreat and I'm gonna be honest I was not excited about static ship gin generally
until this game and now I am a believer Jackie love single-handedly convincing me or on the other
hand I did believe it and I think those numbers are starting to remind us why this game does a
hell of a lot of damage and just makes it so easy for your follow-up CC to land right if you
You just put them in the circle.
There's really nowhere for them to dodge.
And it's great to see from Kream as well.
This year was the first time we got to see him
on the international stage.
Of course, no rookie by any means domestically,
but as a player, he's really shown a lot of evolution,
a lot of growth.
Initially known as this kind of assassin type of player,
especially known for things like the Zakali,
but this year especially, he's come into his own,
he's grown a lot.
And now showcasing the Aurora,
having huge impact in these fights.
I hope he can maintain that performance.
Getting a win against T1 would be huge
for the momentum on top of these sports,
Shaya Atmos' World Championship.
You can't really imagine a better way for an LPL team
to start this tournament,
to start to rewrite everything that happened at Worlds 2023.
Do you want it?
Hot water here as they try to get out of the jungle,
owner, luckily, still has the clone.
They'll be happy to just try and get the hard steal
prog, even though they didn't quite,
and Zayas still pretty favored in that one.
If he won, is Tien now trying to get something
started here spotting out Zayas.
Zayas still has allies to go back to,
captive audience hitting those big,
Gold T now to fall, they want to delete this Jax!
Got Ash Arrow there, stunning up T-Ant to allow for Zayas to bend Chumpoid to safety.
The midway completely abandoned as both teams hover around the bot side of the map.
Dragon spawning though in 10 seconds.
We'll give an opportunity for Zayas to go back to base, spend what gold he can.
Has the TP available, not going to spend that much, only picking up an Apto and a Control Ward.
ES, pinging on the Baron, starting to move up, get a bit more control up there just in case
T1 trying to leverage their position to start Drake.
The beautiful thing about this game is it's showcased already.
Oh hang on, Baker kicking himself and only catching the jungler, only catching TN.
The deadly floor is not going to hit, luckily.
See, we'll not get rooted.
But a bit of a cruiser, ultimate missed.
Jackie Love, once again not forced to expend any summoners.
Dragon is secured for T1.
But the good news is he buys time for his team to take the Drake and TES in the meantime
can't go start the Baron or even really set up better positioning.
But T1 need to be careful about approaching here.
Two fold Hex not going to connect.
about 45 seconds until Faker's ultimate is back up. T1 have to play defensively until that moment.
I mean I feel like Top Esports should set their sights on the top tier 1 and he's objective for them to secure
but at the same time they don't want to concede this mid tier 1, it gives so much access into the jungle
you don't really want to give it away completely for free
but it does look like Top Esports slowly shifting their attention towards that top side of the map
there's a reset sign to come through, but they're cautious about the potential Baron T1
T1 they don't have any vision and T1 have a pretty quick baron all things considered TES much slower
T1 of course I mean historically they had that year where they were just a 20 minute baron T and I think it's something
It has to be in the back of TES's mind as they go for the crosshairs is still a best-of thing
I think it's less for a while. It was like the thing. I think it's a show the show less emblematic still still in the toolkit though
So maybe I have to respect Guma catching the midway resets now coming out
Friar and the Balane will be responded to by TES and the next big objective is this Baron
in T1 looking to clear out some of his vision, potentially set a trap.
Crucially the Infinity Edge done for Jaki-Love is a huge power spike.
A bit of an interrupt there onto Karia but of course on this for Khan he should be
able to get away to safety and tower in the mid lane so low as Faker does his
attention towards top Cree, does have a bit of an experience advantage over Faker.
If he's able to catch that top wave, you'll be a full level over him.
Faker's been overgrouping a lot to set up for plays with his team.
But say, he's comfortably winning this match now.
Flash, nice reaction from 369.
He does of course extend that summoner spell to get away to safety.
The trade and vision, the back and forth.
Now the team confidence setting up.
I'm going to be honest, the 26 minute, zero goal difference between two teams.
Visible worlds to see.
What was even more beautiful was that it was a period in time where the gold at the top of the screen was 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4.
And I just feel like the gym would be proud of that moment.
I'm just saying that the fans are eating good this game.
Most certainly.
You got a quadra kill, fours across the board.
Alright.
We're setting up for the baron.
And as you talked about, topping sports are hesitant to just start it off.
Because they have gym.
And as we already learned this game, people, he killed very good.
Unfortunately, we're in season 14, only four bullets, he has to read out.
Crazy what they did.
But he's in a very powerful position.
And I mean, what I will say is top eSports, I feel, have very easy objectives on the maps to play for.
On the maps, on the map. They're pinging out the bot tower right now, and I think that is the easiest one, given how low HP it is.
But also I'm sure they'd love to secure that top tower as well.
They were able to get two in the mid lane, but these tier ones are crucial because it just makes it easier to move into the enemy jungle, right?
Jack certainly does.
And it allows you to get deeper push on these side lanes which buys you more time to then regroup and then look for plays on the map.
But I think you can see that 369 doesn't want to overcommit on side. He doesn't have TP.
They don't want to send cream to go up against the Jacks and it puts them in this awkward situation where, yes, they finally get the tower, but it took a lot longer that they would have liked.
would have liked. Now the setup though, line is firm as strong. TN just looking to fully
his way in, certainly has a big enough health bar. TES taking control of the area, they have
mid push, Guma going to respond. Some of this vision will get cleared out to dance. The
classic Baron back and forth. You push, you take what vision is there, maybe you
can start it, but neither side really with a big enough advantage on side to begin
that objective. It's been a very tense affair for the last five minutes or so.
The team has tried to force that fight, but of course the dragon now amended away.
This will likely be the next big objective that both teams set their sights on, and the
fight there could even determine the Baron, depending on how one sided of an affair it
could be.
Faker very far away from level 15.
A little bit behind in terms of gold, as we look towards the bot side of the map,
that's about a 1k gold lead still for Jackie Love.
Experience though, pretty even, and Gumi-Yushi is still comfortable when it comes to itemization.
And again, a lot of the reason the gold is closed is because Guma was able to get so many plates early on,
whereas Jackie really was not. It's the kills that have balanced things out for him.
As we get later, I think, you know, Mountain Drake, not always my favorite to see,
but I think when you have a Wukong against so much physical damage, when he naturally already gets so much armor for free,
Jackie Love has to continue to play these fights
excellently, because owner has a very easy time to just ignore
so much of the damage that Jackie Love can put out. Now, admittedly,
Getting closer to a complete armor penetration item for Jackyla, but this next fight might still be a struggle to burst through owner's health bar in isolation.
TP's committed.
And red popper owner as well, wants the physical vamp.
Carrier needs to be careful here.
We'll get away to safety, leveraging the blast cone. Once again, Zayas with the push and bot, allows T1 and Avenue into the river while top esports may take control around it.
They're gonna start the objective themselves.
T1 very split right now. TES, five members strong.
Giving respect to that clone. Last time the clone was the real thing.
And they were caught off guard. This time around, they're now up to take that risk.
Keria threatening. Zayas waiting behind Contaxian off his support.
Objective getting lower and lower. But they've already got it on the side of TES.
T1 now going to try to get the pick on 369, hoping that maybe they can get the bear in the meantime, but...
TES already out. Zayas now getting shipped away at...
Not really much there to play, but Faker again trying to make the play happen.
It's a different follow up coming in from Keria. Zayas off to the side. They're going to delete 369,
Jacky Lover still standing tall, Zayas going in 1v1 for Jacky Lover, he's all on his lonesome.
And as long as that AD carry is standing, as long as that mid laner is standing, TES
or winning the fight, Guma would nowhere left to go, the ball doesn't even hit him.
He's dead as it's flying, shut down coming in, TES barreling down the mid lane.
That is a fight for Oase, and Draco's thinking about to end the game right now.
Another fantastic play from Top East ports, and as long as the carries were left untouched,
They were able to clean up the fights.
I think that's going to be it.
So much of the early game was in control of T1.
It felt like they come ahead in the lane swaps,
but in the fights, TES have been better.
The turns.
T1, the ones who overextended in TES's jungle.
Giving those kills to Jackie Love costs them is TES.
Take down T1.
And in a statement game, the early game
looked a little shaky.
But you talked about it, Dracos.
The support staff on the side of top e-sports, Tian,
and made go of that jungle support combo.
100% kill participation for both of them.
Cream quick to drop the ultimates down when ready.
I mean, great team fighting from them.
Fantastic.
As much as I love us talking about it,
let's see what the analyst has to say
about that incredible game two.
Well, it's coming up, Jackie Love.
And as a European fan, I've been on that side
of things before, so I know how much it hurts.
But what is particularly impressive to me is how it came off the back of a T1 that at that early game strategically looked really in the bag.
T1 was looking good for a lot of this game until they lost every fight consecutively.
No, I think the early game was actually so much better than I had anticipated coming into it.
For one, I didn't expect them to opt into the lane swap, but I really liked how they operated with sails in that.
Through his demolish, they pretty much just got to up lane after the first spot.
a bit of a mistake for 369, but it's the way that now that there's no longer any top turret,
they just push out top as much as they can. That gives sales a lot of time to roam around.
He helps in mid lane. They have that played down in bottom lane. I gotta say, like the
mad movement from T1 in the early game, super crisp.
Yeah, but blah, blah, blah. You know what I mean? Look at Chris. Look at him. He's
in the game.
It was fun. It was a fun game to just see back-to-back two fights. Like even just
the T1 fight that happened in the river where it was like, wait a minute, is T1
just going to win this thing because they got the kill on Jackie love like okay
this is what I'm here for yeah you're setting up for the interview that's why
yeah it's almost a little deflating because I was riding the T1 plot armor
for a lot of literally never get on Jackie love and Raz brought up during
the game like something about the Aurora and her ability to protect the
AD carry because if you just alt you can never really get back there and I
I don't think Jackie got like hit in any of the team fighters.
The fun thing with this is if he made the old miss,
Scott of an old, direct him into the ultimate,
and now they're stuck in it.
It came to me like, there was the mid-fight,
and I'm sure we'll talk about it after,
but the fact that like, Rekon tried.
Rekon tried to get to Jackie Love,
and was just blocked because of the overall T.
So I was like, ah, this is gonna be annoying.
Yeah, and then in the final fight,
we thought Faker got this huge ultimate off,
but it was just on three Bruisers.
Yeah.
So it didn't do anything.
And then they were like, oh, here we go.
I was ready for something.
I gotta say, after that dragon fight, we were believing.
You've always believed, but we were like,
okay, this is how it's going to be for the rest of this game.
I've been wrong a lot in this world.
Seconds a lot, if they just three-oh'd.
There need to be some ups and downs.
You can't let them have it all the way.
No, we are still waiting for the interview to get set up.
I'd love to get, like, can I tease who it's going to be with?
Or do we not know yet?
Who deserves to be talked to?
Jack-in-law.
Jack-in-law.
He has to be Jack-in-law.
I mean, that's gone or had a lot of money. Also, I know we'll talk about the entire world, but
well, Scarner is just a cheat sheet. The engage if you get engaged on you end up getting even if
it's two or three people and easy go signal for rel a concern that I always had for rel as a pick
is like, how are you going to find that one fight? But that's a great that's a great fight to
have if you have a scarner that's grabbing two to three people. So I think that's a great
It's grabbing two to three people that's trying to engage into you.
So I think that's a great combo that we'll see for the rest of the week.
I mean, it goes both ways because if Skanna can't find that ultimate when he finds multiple
people, Rael will drag multiple people together and then you find the Skanna ultimate.
So it's really, they go hand in hand like that.
They do.
And it's Mako, of course, on Rael as well.
You know, when it comes to finding engages, finding angles, finding ways in, we didn't
actually, we had a long delay.
We didn't even talk about it, but it is something that's super exciting every time
watch TES specifically and especially at Worlds and wow it's so crazy because we
had our kind of pre-game expectations and I'm not saying pre-tournament
expectations are not the window it was one best the one. Listen, number two seed
from the LPL versus number four seed from the LCK if you take history away from it
this wouldn't be a surprising result. As you mentioned you know what wasn't
that long ago that or it's been a long time since MSI. Yeah, yeah I mean it
feels like a long time ago but I will say as well I definitely thought that
the top we supposed was about to choke this one. We filled them up we
We talked about the domestic resolve, they're going to be a different beast this time around
coming into the international stage and then that early game happened, I'm like damn, it's
kind of happening again, isn't it?
But they managed to stabilize, so we're ready.
Yeah, it's time for the Verizon post-game interview.
Let's get going.
Tien, thank you so much for joining me after this first win at the World Championship.
I want to start by asking you about Scarner because it was one of the most banned and
a prioritized champion in the playing stage, but you picked it rather late.
What is your priority of Skarner, and how much do you think it's going to be a central pick here at Worlds?
First of all, when I was in the LPL, I felt that this hero was very strong.
And when it came to this version, the other heroes were defeated, and this hero was even more outstanding.
And then, this hero himself, he has not really improved much, so maybe this priority is not so high in our team.
So, first of all, I think this Scarner was super power when I was in the playoffs in LPL.
And right now, since the other junglers have been nerfed, so Scarra's priority kind of increased a little bit, but I don't think I grasp all of the knowledge of Scarra very well, that's why we got these champions later in the Bampus strat stage.
Interesting, let's see how it evolves in the later stages of Worlds.
off topic, but I saw that your bot lane shows their solo queue EUW name based on the speech that you did when you got MVP.
How did that make you feel?
The second question, I wanted to ask,
we have been focusing on the ID of the team that you are playing in these last two days.
I am the team, I am the god, do you think that they use this as a classic?
What do you think of this?
I feel like my teammates are always on my side,
they want to see me like I was in 2019.
I think the viewers of Europe will also want to see me in 2019.
So first of all, I think my team is kind of
polished me, just like a joking, and I think they really want to see the 10 of 2019.
And I'm sure that audience here also wants to see the 10 of 2019 version.
It is a perfect transition to my last question.
2019, you won Worlds that year.
How does it change the expectations you had about the upcoming run at Worlds?
You're going to have this year.
In 2019, Tian once held the global championship trophy here.
How will he look forward to the European Championship again this year?
When I came here, I felt everything was very familiar.
The air was very...
It was the same as the 2019.
And now I'm a new team and a new identity. I think I can do it all in 2019. I think we can do it in 2024.
team with a brand new role. I think I can make it in 2019 and this time it's going to
be the same script.
Wishing you the same success you had back in 2019.
Thank you so much for the interview. Kristina, we can't see you but thank you so much for
the translation and that's all for us here.
Thank you so much.
Hoping for the best, hoping for the same since 2019. Speak for yourself.
I'm Charlie, of course.
Take second place again for the LAC.
Nah, you know, once you've been to a couple of finals, you wouldn't get it, then you got it.
We were in a file, unfortunately, LAC did that to us again, didn't it?
Okay, anyways, all trolling aside, yes, we would like Tien to have that form of 2019.
In fact, you know, when you look at TES and also how they played in this first game, including Jackie Love,
it was phenomenal when it came to taking back control over this game.
And I would like to take another look at Jackie Love's quadra kill in our HyperX Reflex replay.
You said he's static shiving them.
It seems like that's what happened
because he literally just had static shift
that started this play.
And if the very open, it does look like T1
has a strong engage with the Wukong.
With them, it's really just about how they turn it around.
Your war gets down a lot of damage just by dying.
And then Jackie, as you mentioned,
gets hit by half of all you in this fight
before blowing them up.
Yeah, I mean, it's the bouncing grenade together
with that static from.
As you already said, if you don't know,
it does more damage if it executes champions instead.
And that rarely ever matters with that item.
But that was one of the few fights
you got to see the full value of it. You did and we saw it a couple of times after that again if
we roll into our replay at 30 minutes where T1 could have still taken the game back or taken
some ground back, I want to say, but T has completely shut the door. Yeah, it was insane to
just be able to see the fights and for me a lot of it was Jacula playing decently at a distance,
not being in range of any of the engage. So like owners, all he doesn't turn into anything,
They find like Zeus who's basically alone and just see what exactly love exactly it was a nice hole
But where's the follow-up and Jack loves in a great spot just fire off
So they were able to get the care kill on carrier and the rest of them and at this stage
I think they were already pretty far behind because of the fight that happened mid lane
So it was like a great engage not a great follow-up and it's an interesting because it goes of course
In tandem with the draft that TES decided to field you said already about the Aurora
What were you wiling about just the difference that the big pop-up?
I mean the fact that Aurora did the most damage in this game is a little bit surprising
So much of that damage is hard to see because we saw all the kills from Jackie
But when everyone was so grouped up
Everything Aurora is doing is AoE. Yeah, it really just added up throughout the game
It did and this goes back to me because like when we're looking at the whole tournament expectation of the draft
It's going to be that's a lot of people with what they've been asking is like what's the draft priority?
going to be. And it's the Aurora. We've seen a little bit of it in Champions Q in Europe,
but it's just how flexible it actually is between mid and top lane. You can go grasp
in all these things. And then just in those fights that we saw, yeah, T1's engaging,
but the moment you see the Aurora, Alti, the Skarner Alti that comes immediately
afterwards, that's an amazing setup for your fight.
It's true. And maybe T1 will have to take some lessons as well. They saw that Jhin
on the other side. They wanted to go for the Ash Day love so much. And in team
It just didn't work against this composition specifically a lot of learnings
But when we come back Gen G is taking on a way boat. We'll be right back
It kills people, Frickos, thinking we're dead in the game right now.
Welcome back to the world's 2024 Swiss State,
where we are moments away from our third game of the day,
Gen.G versus Waybo.
And look, we're all just wondering,
is Gen.G still the best team in the world?
Like, can we still say that?
And is Waybo ready to upset those expectations?
Because, again, we talked about it coming into this tournament.
Waybo's a team that's pretty constantly discounted
by everybody, but K-Draw.
Great, and this is a team that despite that last year made finals. Yes, they lost to T1
But they did the impossible on upsetting PLG and the question is can they start another tournament full of upsets by taking down Genji today?
I really think the introduction of Tarzan is a wonders for the Weibo roster like he is an incredible jungler
It is a pleasure to watch him play and think he's a large part of where a lot of their success has come from
But he's gonna be going up against an old rival in Canyon a back in 2018 with Griffin and Damwon playing up against each other
They were regarded as two of the best junglers in the world at the time
But their trajectories and accolades have been quite different since then with Canyon hoisting
Trophy after trophy after trophy in Tarzan
Struggling to find his footing in a hole why he could find success
Domestically, internationally, Canyon's kind of done it all, right?
Whereas Tarzan, a regional gauntlet, you don't get a trophy for that, but it gets you to worlds, right?
That's the thing that he's come first in regular seasons.
He's come first, but hasn't always been able to finish, hasn't ever been able to finish it.
We'll see.
If he can start changing the narrative here, because while he and Canyon might be old rivalries,
Chovy and LaHen's old teammates, we know LaHen likes to roast him about it on occasion,
but he's quote-unquote the reason that they weren't able to get a title on Griffin.
So some, you know, playful banter between former teammates,
but you know that that just makes it this much more important
to show up in this first game you're playing against each other,
to find that win, to push yourself ahead of the Swiss stage.
I'm excited for this one because on paper,
it's the reverse of what we have in the previous matchup.
We've got second seed from the SK going up against the fourth seed,
but, you know, many pundits, analysts, enthusiasts, haters
We'll say that Gen.G are the best team still coming out of Korea.
The finals was a situation where it was like HLE was better on the day,
but Gen.G is still the better team and it's on their standard war that argument comes from,
especially when you look at how dominant their regular season was.
The expectation was that they would sweep through playoffs,
but here they are as Korea's second seed.
Let's see what they prepared for us in the draft.
No surprise the Ziggs gonna be taken away from Paze, Orianna and Renekton removed on the side of Gen.G.
So limiting some of those safe blind picks and Ziggs obviously can't just be a bit of a wild card in terms of how we can change team compositions.
Aurora 2 gonna hit the bench. And after that last game, it's gonna sound weird to say which I just realized that Aurora also is the defensive tool.
But I just realized Aurora also is the defensive tool, which makes an already very strong champion turbo broken.
And so, good job, TES, for reminding us all of how incredibly impactful that champion could be.
And remember that we have two LCK vs LPL matchups today. LPL already got one win.
So, Wave will get one here and again. I don't know, I think if you're an LPL fan, you're starting to feel a little bit better.
I mean, you're already 2-0 on the day, LPL. They're off to a fantastic start.
Let's see if Gen.G can turn things around for the LCK.
Do you want it to be bad?
Smolder would be something new, something fresh.
it is locked in something we saw a lot from domestic teams coming into their
playoffs and something that we did see come out from Chovy in the finals as
well that he was given one game and then it was bound away a lot yes it's a
champion that chovy doesn't have a lot of food the game agency on but because
of how talented of a middle-laner he is in the late-game team fights he is
an absolute monster no surprise the Gen G once again that's up but remember
it can be flexed something that it can be moved between mid lane top lane and
Even 80 carry even though we don't see it in the 80 carry position very often these days and always nice to have kind of that late game insurance not as
Insanely powerful as it once was it's not as simple as you get to 25 stacks and you're just playing the game
But still a late game powerhouse will see who ends up piloting in the poppy
Universally a pretty good pick right still incredibly high win rate on support still can be played jungle or top lane
I imagine it goes with support position
Especially as we see the jacks suffered over here
But still room for waybo to decide not showing too much of their hand early on just opting for some
relatively strong blind picks overall and immediately the Maokai response
reminder if you just watched playoffs you're just coming to world-wide nerfed
repeatedly rumble nerfed repeatedly this is the playoffs meta this is what
Genji were drafting in their playoffs domestically like this is their
priority and I mean like if you're good at it sure it makes sense the test is
gonna be can weibo's adaptation have they showcased more in contrast to
Gen.G just not really showcasing anything new and just sticking to what they reliable and comfortable on.
And the question kind of always is, you know, you want to give a team the benefit of the doubt,
is this over reliance on previous meta? Is this a bad read or is this perhaps just an understanding
that all of these champs are still good. Lucian the final pick here from the side of Weibo.
And again, I expect that most likely to go into the bottom side of the map, maybe we get a Nami
ban to try to limit some of those combos. So we're looking at a poppy jungle, most likely
for Tarzan, with the Jax going into the top lane and then the Lucian down pod. Don't love
the idea of Lucian Poppy as a bot lane 2 vs 2, but maybe I will be surprised. Light getting
his hands on the Lucian is exciting to see for sure. I think he's really been a highlight
of Weibo when we think back to Summer at a core part of how they've been able to find
so much success. Seeing him go up against Paze is going to be an exciting one. As
we move into the band, Blitzcrank going to be removed. Weibo likely looking to try
Well, they probably want to save this up off the last pick, given that Poppy can always flex there.
And they note that the smolder is very likely going into the mid lane,
which means that they can give something towards Xiaohu.
I'm hoping we get to see a Syndra man.
Like, Xiaohu, he played that stuff top.
Yeah, he's one tournament playing Syndra in multiple roles.
This is like, we have three incredible Syndra players at this tournament,
between Knight, Xiaohu, and Showmaker, right?
three iconic syndrome is not that there are other people who can play it so it
would be a treat to see it that's a gin band away Lucian technically still a
flex in the spirit of you know
yeah
it's a problem you're shopping to a game with so many veterans and a new
medic you're like there was a period in time where they had a different name
right we can't use play rumble so I don't think it's good but you always
have to throw it out there just in case all right well with the nidalee
band away from Tarzan, which is a very good band if you've ever watched Tarzan play.
Let's see what they decide to lock in, because it's always the possibility of that flex, and
you called it, Drakos, the flexibility of this Lucian.
The Jinx 80 carry lock in means we're going to get to see Xiaohu's Lucian mids.
Also, the threat of a lane swap just went up exponentially the second you see that
Jinx locked in.
There's really no champion that can match the tower threat that the Jinx has.
The Felyos historically has been the only one, but not considered good by the vast majority of pro teams.
Let's see how Gen.G round things out with the bot lane that we're expected to come through here.
Callista, the option.
Callista and Ana.
I'm going to be honest, the bot lane, that's a pretty damn good bottom lane.
Jax and Poppy are going to have a hell of a time to get through that hostile.
I mean, I will say that they did pick Callista into Poppy, which is always a little questionable,
that just showcases the confidence
that this bot lane has with this matchup.
The Poppy looking to go into the support position.
Sorry, I mean, if we woke up today
and we said we're gonna cast Tarzan versus Canyon
in the matchup, is Ivern versus Malkai?
It might have to play it.
It's a battle of the minds, Strykovs.
Well, I don't think they're gonna be
the center of attention for their respective teams,
but obviously, Ivern plus Jinx,
plus the Poppy to defend.
Yeah, I don't think Jinx, Poppy
is the strongest bot lane.
2v2, but the Ivern Jinx poppies we get later into the game in incredibly strong teamfighting core.
Just last game we got some fantastic teamfights from both Top Esports and T1,
and I'm hoping that this game will give us something similar.
You talked about the likelihood of a lane swap, and when it's Poppy Jinx versus Kalista Renata,
I can tell you right now that Weibo is not super keen to fight that 2v2,
And also to try and put this Rumble in a lane swap position is only good news for Waybov.
So let's see if they can execute upon it.
That's really been a big test for this world championship as it has returned to the meta in full effect.
Reminder the Rumble Q damage down about 20 at level 1.
The passive overheat damage on his auto attacks also down.
There are some top laners that say he's still playable.
Obviously not as oppressive as he once was.
Keep that in mind as we watch.
He's not able to find those trades.
He's not able to find those leads.
But of course the lane swap, number one thing on our minds
It seems likely for Waybo.
You highlighted it. Let's see if they can pull it off.
All I know is that red carpet, when it's laid out,
you're either walking to the grave or you're walking home
because the amount of damage that it can do is still something to be respected.
Yeah, they didn't know if that ability, that ability is still very good.
Leandre is still very good.
Let's see what the rumble looks like in this game.
We've got a third game of the day, our second LPL versus LCK showdown of the day.
The beautiful thing about this matchup is you highlighted it.
Waybo is unpredictable.
They're a team that you genuinely don't know the level that they're going to deliver on the day.
They've beaten some of the best teams in the LPL. They've lost to some of the worst.
Like, they are a team. They're at the wild card, you know?
And I think many didn't expect them to qualify, but here we are.
We find ourselves in a position where, and again, like a lot of it,
I think a lot of the crowd needs to go to Tarzan.
I love watching his early passing, the impact that he has.
I would say that Waybo is typically a bot focused team,
a team that likes to play around the bot side of the map.
Are they? Oh, we are deep in the mind games. So for anyone, of course, lane swap, great.
But it looks like Gen.G Pro can be trying to gain control of the topside because they want this 2v2.
They are so much stronger than 2v2. The second they see Chris has aftershock, they know they just body that level one.
So trying to put priority on figuring out where the Jinx is going to go, where light is going to lane, with Paze still here mid.
They've seen the Jax, so they think that the Jax is on the topside of the map, but look at where the Jinx is going.
goes back to base. He's waiting to see who shows. He's trying to avoid any
potential wards. Lane swap haters are like, oh god this is the worst version of me clutch.
But the analysts are like, oh it's so smart. Vision, breathe walking in. Just to
try to be disruptive. And this is also a very classic top lane move, right? To
interrupt, get in the way. Chris now making his way over will be the
number's difference that Genji is not expecting.
Canyon.
The E?
No.
No.
Managers to get away.
Chris might have had the angle if he stepped forward with a bit more confidence, but wasn't
100% certain.
But Wavo successfully got the lane swap that they were after.
Breathe is taking a lot of damage, but now he makes his way towards top lane.
It's the same thing that we've seen multiple times where the support will go mid, try
and get XP.
You get the level 2, you then path towards bot, and you're ready for the potential
dive on the stacked wave.
Breathe will be able to TP to bot lane with the level 2 and you hope that you can then outplay the potential diet that is going to come through from Gen.G.
Meanwhile, the split map is occurring, Tarzan makes his way towards the top side of Gen.G's jungle.
And here we go.
And this is one of the big strengths of Ivern, of course, very easy for him to steal away camps,
but also just clears all things considered much faster than most junglers, so usually has 20 to 30 extra seconds to go for early ganks,
Ganks go for early plays whereas
Yeah, I can't even get involved but will fall pretty far behind if he tries to match as Tarzan is
Odd vision, but it's really just taking his time setting up all these camps. Now keep your eyes on Chris
He's now making his way towards the bot side of the map. There's only the two members so far
General not in a position remember that Canyon's clear did get interrupted
He started on the top side but the maps he's a little slow so Chris was able to arrive
I'm being lost still but as long as brief can get the XP level 3 is gonna tick over
and there it is so now the dive becomes a lot harder can you gonna start off the
grump let's see if they still commit to the dive maybe just want to be able to
crash that way then Keen still pretty powerful despite lights range advantage
I mean crucially while all of this is happening Keen is just catching the
waves top he's only in a one versus one there's no threat of a dive on
his side of the map. And remember if you if you're not familiar with lane swaps the
kind of logic here even as they've made the towers tank here it's not about
trading even it's about getting jinx out of what would have been a miserable
miserable 2v2 and at this point it just becomes a game about XP and about
saving what would have felt like inevitable losses if you had lane 2v2
against this Clis for an audit yes it sucks to give up three plates but this
duo is so powerful that you probably would have lost a comparable amount of
money trying to play that to me but I think that way we'll want to try and
swap this back as quickly as they can now because the damage that's how it is
significance and Genji are not gonna slow down with the push can insecure the
blue buff you can see the jinx now recalling of course no TP is available
he's mid lane keep doing a good job of just getting farm and experience on the
top side of that he really is the one that benefited the most from this
exchange looks like they're gonna keep the swap they're actually gonna keep
sending the Jinx top. It comes back to that point you made in the previous game
round. Perhaps the priorities around the grubs. Nothing else you're getting solo
experience onto light. Maybe they believe that even in this situation they
couldn't win out on the two versus two and the threat of a dive is very real. So
instead they're gonna have light catch this wave in top. But now keep your eyes
on Paze and LaHens. They've decided you know what we're not letting this
happen anymore. We're moving up towards the top side. If you want to go for
the grubs you're gonna have to fight us first. Now with the boots
Boots completed, Paze is poised to go for a fight.
Boots to Proclista at this point in the game is very nice to have,
looking to be much more powerful.
It does come down to Skirmish.
Paze fighting for a bit of that vision control is on award, of course.
Gen.G really want to establish control on the top side of the map,
match what Wave will be bringing.
LCK of course, compared to the LPL,
pretty consistently grubs focus.
LPL may be willing to trade more around Drake or early plates.
They often LCK teams straight to grubs at 6 minutes, we're seeing that a little bit here.
Space and land, happy to be laning and will eventually be a 2v2 as Crypt shows his presence
on the top side.
The only gold lead remaining for Weibo is Tarzan in the jungle, not the biggest deal
on the Ivern, but of course the faster he gets to level 6 the more impact he can
have.
Now, Weibo find themselves in a 2v2 that is difficult to play.
This is the thing they've been doing their best to avoid, the gold advantage that
pays sits on is because of the place that was secured early shahoo finding
advantages in the mid lane one versus one but nothing so significant that
chovies really in a position to be worried about grubs now spawning and
genji in a position to secure that first objective of the game excellent
position to be in waving a neutral state forcing light and criss to push out
if they want to come down but genji so quick to take these early objectives
and I think the introduction of grubs just a big buff to Callista because
She's so good at securing and taking those neutral objectives.
Now Paiso really wants that farm.
It's not certain if this fight is going to take off or not.
Canyon smiting the last one away, trying to get the hell out.
Get away from Xiaohu as the Kholing is there.
Shields are there.
Joby ready to body block.
They force Canyon's flash.
At the very least, they get the super mega death
rocket out from white as well.
Good flash from Canyon, respecting the damage that
was coming out from Xiaohu.
And honestly, I'd forgotten about the jink.
But clearly, he hadn't recognized that, all right,
I need to get out of here.
the security objective that he was after. Three grubs locked down and Genji is still able to leverage the strength of this bot lane 2 vs 2.
The farm discrepancy nothing too significant, Light is able to secure that level 6 as we already know.
So at the very least, Waybo relying on the scaling element that they have going into the late game, Ivern plus Jinx, a terrifying combo the longer this game goes on.
Tarzan walking up, Crisp, Candy find the angle, good handshake to stun the duo, denying the play.
Tarzan will at least clear out the vision for good discipline from Gen.G.
Helping them get that base off, lights.
Looking to reset, have to spend some gold.
Maybe even swap back so they can be in a position to contest the drake.
Perhaps Wayvo is happy to forego any of these early drakes simply due to the strength of this Callister.
But Gen.G's seeing an opportunity for more plights.
And frankly in the mid lane, you've got a smolder who's chilling, right?
Chovy weathering the storm nicely.
Early plated steel caps to mitigate any of Shahu's kill pressure, part of the chaos of this map set means it's pretty hard for junglers to solely play around mid or try to support any early advantage the Lucian could have.
That said, I don't know when the mid lane smolter starts doing damage on this patch. Right now he pokes and he stacks, at the very least.
I mean, look at this life. You'll know.
I'm gonna be able to tell you in advance, but I can tell you when I see it on my screen, if that's not the play-by-play life.
I don't know what it is, it's totally flaps out to safety and we're now ready to commit a bit more resources around mid lane trying to help
Shahu get the push so they can look towards this drake. Gengi have already reset their bottom lane already to fight back at least a little bit
Nice engage coming in, Chris mid triple aftershock fading away. That copy is dead. Well played by Gengi
Chris isolated in the river
Gengi just moving that bot lane smartly around the map to help secure these objectives
as Kalista continues to get stronger as first blood is secured for Genji.
Genji overall, trawling all these objectives you know the Kalista or not
is going to be stronger earlier on, but you still have to navigate the map
statewide to be able to leverage the advantage. I just like the way in which
they they save this bot lane pick for last because it's their bridge into the
late game, right? You know you have the smolder and maybe the early game
of rumble was impacted and you expect these lane soaps who's going to be
put a little bit behind, you have this bot lane which you can play through in the other
game and they're playing through it incredibly well. They were able to secure a three-flate
spot, they swapped to top, they secured the crubs, they swapped them back to bot, find
a kill, get the dragon and it's just Canyon working in tandem with his bot lane to dominate
this other game, resulting in a 1k gold lead for Gen.G so far, which when you also
have this smaller sitting in mid lane farming away, you're in a pretty happy spot. Certainly
And we'll have to see if Xiaohu can get a bit more involved in some of these map plays
once he has an item completion under his belt.
We know the Lucian on one item can be very powerful, paired with Tarzan who's there to buff him up.
Could get a lot of work done, but for now Gen.G, playing at a very comfortable game pace that has continued to favor them.
The gold, yes, within touching distance, but you talked about it, the late game scaling insurance.
The fact that Canyon's been able to pick up this early lock, it means that the coming fights should be quite easy for Gen.G to navigate.
I mean also my only concern for Gen G is I say they're engaged isn't the most reliable
But I guess you make the same argument for Waybo, but like who really starts the fights
Are you both you both pray the other side's gonna start the fight
So you can now guy we're not off their face or poppy off them now you kind of you
I'm deciding if it's better for you to be the first on it probably is better for you to be on the first
The object is so they walk into you close to all this is literally the best engage tool in the game
Which is a very weird thing to say
It's the most reliable piece, it's crisp.
Which is all, see, it's all more reliable.
Daisy called out, four grubs already picked up,
has Altyn over the wall, that's gonna be big pair,
beautifully with the rubble, the two quick flashes
out from Waibo means they're gonna still be standing crisp.
Isolated, but now the TV coming in from behind
with Breathe, the Jax could be big here.
Canyon caught out for a brief moment,
they're instantly turning back on Breathe,
Altyn made it a little bit extra tanky,
it's the light, still untouched for now.
Chobe coming in mom, called, first kill picked up.
Rocket going a little bit wide,
as Chobe tries to flap out to safety,
much left on the counter strike. Brief, can he continue to chase? The answer is no,
but two for two, the overall kill score. So we see in this exchange why it is better
for you to be the first on the objective. How much harder it is to approach
especially the things like the Renata ultimate and the Maokai ultimate, but
ultimately those tools were used very early to secure the grubs, but once the
grubs are secured, Waybo will find a really nice angle for the re-engage
with a good TP flank coming in from Brief. So you'll notice at the start of
this fight, tools were used to mainly try and get a pick onto Krust, but also to
disown these members away from the grubs. So there's the Renata ultimate, there's
the Malkai ultimate, and in combination with the rumble ultimate too, it's forcing
them back. So that's three ultimates now gone, and now the re-engage comes in.
Xiaohu on the right side, Breathe on the left side, and this is where Genji is
forced to scatter and disengage. A nice ulti from Chovy is able to
the very least secure one kill, but the fact that they're able to get away
still with three and all of the grubs. A great situation for Genji. Yeah, six grubs, not normally
allowed in competitive League of Legends. We see in LCK and LPL, right? Teams will fight to get four,
and they're often very willing to concede the last two because it's so unlikely and can be very
high risk to stick around for too long. We're here, Genji. Really set up to just start pushing
out these lanes. Show of you again, very comfortably scaling 109 stacks, 12 minutes of the game,
125 the next big break point. It's good pace.
It's nice for sure.
And I think that we need to kind of see more from Wabble in these fights because giving away six grubs
very frustrating because Kalista normally not the best JV to the game of taking towers.
Not always in a position to match Janks, but when you have six grubs, it feels a lot closer.
Play to the Rune King being completed for Paze, because this Kalista are in a very scary smalt already.
Gen.G taking their time, they find themselves at a slight gold deficit but it's nothing
really to be too worried about as they continue to ramp up. We think about next objectives
they can play for, they've moved their bottom lane into the mid lane, trying to potentially
start securing some of these plates that are available in the mid lane but also just
so that it's easier to move from mid into these sides, maintain control of that parryo.
You can already see them doing it, push in mid, move in towards the bot river and
Now you can start threatening towards that top tower, deep vision, or assaults of options.
And Chovy conceding farm in the bottom lane, to try to be first to the objective here.
Both the Herald and the Drake will be spawning at the exact same time, but Gen.G again, shifting
their focus to the top side of the map.
Now Chovy returns, just trying to keep his options open, waiting for that wave to be
pushed in by Shahu.
Shahu is sticking around wanting to keep Chovy in lane at least a little bit.
It does have the TP advantage crucially, so it can come to the objective as Weibo now move into the river,
starts to take control around the bay here 12 seconds before the objective responds.
Weibo have a first to enter, I should say, at the top of the river, get a bit of deep vision.
Light's gonna have access onto this midway, push this one out.
He's pays a banning the waves, he looks for a pick.
Where's the engage gonna go?
I take it back, it's not that reliant.
Well, I was...
There's a questionable statement.
Especially when Aurora exists, Flasher lands.
Very well positioned to make it over the traps with the knockback still coming through.
I'm not quite able to find the Rupa Chow that's starting the objective here.
Chew doing no damage.
Only hit there as Chovy just continues to stack and Genji will be able to at least threaten this tower.
You can see in the meantime, Canyon happy to just start up the objective.
They already got one Drake, willing to concede the Herald it would seem.
Interestingly, you can see the gold and the lane economy snapshot.
It's not a massive difference between either side, but gold's slightly favoring the side of Wave Overall.
I told you, when we hyped up this jungle matchup, it was always going to be a battle of the minds.
So much high level play.
So much thinking.
So much thinking.
So little fighting.
We used the herald here though, I like this.
Brush setup is good as well.
Should we just be able to break this one down?
And they TP bot to catch that wave.
Or his light just using this as an escape taxi.
He's just going out.
Yeah, he's fine.
He knows it's not going to crash.
They'll just instantly one-shot it, so instead,
drives it away, and will now use it to at least push
slightly more favorably.
Aja'u has moved off to a sliver in himself,
but is putting some pressure down onto Keen
on the top side.
With all the vision invested on this top side
of the river as well, Keen has
to be careful about who is where on the map, which
That's why he's showcasing that respect, going back to base, TPing bots to match up into the
Jax, knowing that he should have a slightly easier time.
Doesn't quite yet have the Leandres, the Trini Force completed on Tabreve, benefiting from
some of the early gold advantages he was able to get, of course he is sitting on a kill
as well.
It's a comfortable spot right now, but overall a very close game with Waybug sitting
on the gold lead, by and large because of the advantages they've been able
to find on the top side of the map and crucially lights.
I mean, it's just passively been farming very well.
Even though Genji could sort of control the early game very well,
ultimately Weibo haven't fallen prey to any really bad fights.
In fact, they've been able to find that good fight
around the Herald themselves.
So we talked about the scaling of the Smolder,
something that is always going to be terrifying to deal with.
But the strangest thing about this game
is going to be about how they start fights.
Because setting up around objectives
is going to be crucial.
being first on the objective means that the enemy is going to be forced to walk into you
and that means you're either walking into a poppy who can knock you away, you're walking
into the range of a jacks flank or you're walking into an alkyl ultimate or an altar
ultimate. Like obviously the advantage of an alkyl ultimate is it can be used to zone
you off of an objective which is always a scary situation to find yourself in. But
when both sides have more disengaged tours than they have actually hard engaged tours
like a Leona or a Raul, for example. Yeah, you're going to end up in this passive game
where both teams are kind of hesitant to pull the trigger to start the fight.
In the awkward situation, you can see their observers wonderfully hiding, breathe, debating
if you wanted to leverage that canyon, or enemy canyon minion, not canyon minion, not
one of them jungle. Set up the wave, this Rumble still hasn't been able to get back.
Leave that Leandrys, but it's a good point, right? So, objective setup going to
be big throughout the entirety of this game because if you would force the enemy team to
come to you, you'll be fighting in a much more favorable position.
Xiaohu continuing to be that threat on the side lane.
Two items almost completed here.
Six grubs does mean that Keen is going to be able to grab that bot lane tower at a
much faster pace.
Get reset first for Xiaohu instead of trying to delete the tower immediately.
Just trying to deny as much CS as possible from Chovy.
An interesting game state is just cross maps continue to come through both these scenes just kind of waiting for those spikes waiting for those
Major objectives to respawn about a minute and a half until this infernal dragon
Respect being shown from both sides
We're getting closer and closer to some of those big spikes first items across the board already been completed for a while
And now the contest over the midway begins
Light and crisp doing what they can, obviously as long as Tarzan's there it's pretty easy
for Light to walk up, doesn't really matter if he takes 100-200 damage the Ivern shielding.
It'll be more than enough to protect him.
Hasn't completed that second item, would love to do so before the next major objective
you highlighted.
It's been an embarrassment on the drake, both teams pushing out to side and I'm
going to be honest, when we started this game I thought we were going to have
time to talk about Jovi for show.
Just ended up being about who played the map better.
All the accolades, all the history, yeah, it's still exciting.
But I think generally this game has been so much about the team across the board.
Crips caught out once or twice a bit tragic for Weibo, but overall Weibo,
despite difficulties early on with those objectives, still holding onto that gold lead,
still in a pretty positive position, you can see the win probability very, very close.
I mean, yeah, it is very close.
Like the goal difference I think doesn't do just this really to the state of the game
Small item advantage for breeze but dragon spawning in 15 seconds. This could be crucial
Genji have
Game purchased to the river through the bot lane the top wave continues to be pushed in
This is something we both just done very well this game just keeping control of these side lanes
The Jax continues to mount pressure in the top side of the map smaller is actually going to go unanswered
And Genji in a bit of an awkward position here close to only has one and a half items
Light technically ahead. Yes, he has gone for two components, the zeal and the last whisper, but feeling pretty confident in that item advantage
TP going in, Chovy is here, but in the meantime
Breed is gonna start pushing, does have a TP of his own, will show up on the bottom side of the map waiting in the brush, Genji do spot him
And are they gonna collapse or are they gonna go for the 50-50 knockback coming in?
Chris channeling that ultimate. Will get the jungler out of the pen now they can just burst it and go for it.
It's not even gonna be a 50-50 rumble. All this solid mom called in, but it might not matter.
Dragon taken. Wave will need to get out though.
Shao Hu Lo healing coming in for the redemption.
Gen G, do they still want this fight? Breathe into the backline.
Pays, now gonna be in trouble. Knockback coming in. LaHens, now trying to stand up the hostile takeover
but it's only gonna connect under the jacks. Breathe likely to fall here but the rest of Wave-o
now ready to follow up. Pays getting one. No kill going over. I mean no reset for the jinx quite yet.
They're desperate to get something else for Light, Chris knocked down into the wall.
Canyon going back through healing above the pass of his clutch.
There's Light, no mana, but still wants to keep hitting.
Handshake down to Connection, who finished in the first kill.
Reset coming in.
Genji backing away with a Drake going to Weibo.
The health bars are blinking across both sides.
The level of patience showcased from those Genji players stuck in the pit
to hold onto their flashes until the very last moment was crazy.
Ultimately, it's Weibo that do secure themselves the dragon. They deny Soulpoint away from Genji, and it's just a one for one.
But notice that the gold lead just continues to mount in favour of Weibo.
This fight starts with a good poppy ultimate onto Canyon, getting him out of the fight.
The combination of the Malk Elton and the rumble ultimate looks promising to start with,
but there's difference between the range. Look at how light ships away at Choviz HP bar,
the redemption doing work for Tarzan and Zhao, who are the backside, and then Breathe.
Working well by going for the 1v3, but then the Renalta ultimate zoning the rest of Waco away from the exchange
But now there's just no more HP for Genji to really look for another fight
So that force to play defensively that force to retreat and then unfortunately for lands
He didn't quite expect the damage to come out from Chow resulting at a 1 for 1
And it's important to understand that like Genji have to play that fight
that well, or it gets much much worse. Light only gets the first reset, only gets
the first passive proc when they're already over the wall. That'd have them
sooner, that jinx would have torn through the entire team, and it's high
stakes in these fights. Whoever gets that first kill, very likely to take the
entire fight, and you can see that with the Maokai being so tanky, with the
supportive itemization of Tarzan, it's not as simple as get a couple good
alts and the fight is over. But just the thing to notice is the farm at
at the bottom of your screen.
Because for a lot of this early game,
it was either Gen G or even R ahead
in a lot of these departments
because of how well they were dominating the early game.
But notice how Breed is consistently fine.
He's on a sideline again.
Like he hasn't stopped.
Oh, he's saying it's stopped.
Xiaohu's kind of chobying chobie.
Yeah, exactly, right?
That's my point, that Xiaohu is the other man
on the sideline, alongside Breed,
who just keep this pressure up.
Nirmal Light is soaking up every single wave in mid.
He's also being donated farm from his jungler.
Like the carries across the board
are just farming incredibly well.
And while Gen.G trying to find plays
they're looking for picks,
like Wabo are just passively picking up a lot of gold
by maximizing the amount of farm
that they're able to get on the map.
So they now find themselves with a 3K gold lead
without finding any significant team fight.
They've just been playing well on the sides.
They've secured all of the outer towers now
and they're in a great position.
And we talked about how Wabo is a team
that just surprises.
Gen.G is a team that when the full five games
finals. They are MSI champions. They are touted as one of the teams to win this whole tournament.
And he's Weibo with a 3k goal lead. They are the epitome of unpredictable because they have
stable players, they have great playmakers and they're a team that are very often difficult to
judge. And I feel like so far in this game they're proving why. They have a nice lead,
they're in a good position, they now just need to be able to close it out, which
Which is a tough thing to do against Gen.G.
Certainly is.
Gen.G a very tenacious team.
Rumble all going down.
Hopefully we can just get a little bit of poke.
Maybe holding the zone on the top of the tower as well.
But way bow.
Unafraid!
Shadow off on the side, starting to call.
Only connecting on the canyon though.
Maybe not ideal.
Does give room for Chris to move in mid lane.
But to pop him not that tanky,
you have to be careful and keep in mind
Chovy has hit that stack threshold.
The execute is online.
Rock it for a bit of poke.
Nice.
Barrier there from Paze.
It's gonna start to hurt in these fights. It's really gonna be Smulder versus Jynx in terms of the overall scaling.
Are you looking for the flank? Genji just five-man grouping.
Sidelanes?
Braver's chilling. But you can see how awkward it is to vote teams.
Because of how little engage they have. They're just chipping away, they're waiting for someone to owe the step, make a mistake.
Do it. You won't. No, you do it.
Yeah.
I mean, they're just trying to bait each other into a fight. And the Sidelanes are relatively even, right?
Bolling is essentially dead even.
even for you finally gonna go down to catch that one top lane not really pushing some parts of either side losing out on a
Lot of CS or gold to just hang out in the mid lane and posture
But a very awkward you're right because these are teams who normally you're like all perfect precise engages
But they just they don't have the tools. Yeah, they don't and honestly this benefits
What pushes more than anyone else because if you can't get engaged on in mid lane
It doesn't matter if you're five versus four this James is gonna look you and be like, okay
Okay, cool. My Jax is taking your bot tier too by the way.
Lord Dominic is finished by Light. Let's see what he finishes for the zeal item here as well.
Now, what they could do is they could have Jax just solo the dragon by the way while keeping pressure and mids
because Genji are trying to contest this mid wave as the culling comes out from Xiao who good damage.
Damage. Still have some tools as Chovy forced it all.
Can you do it? Do you want to start the fight here? Brief still waiting.
I was like breathing, deciding not to. He's hesitant about the potential engage, but...
It's such a good game, but it's such a goofy game.
Because they just... you're right, they cannot engage on each other.
The calling looks great, but it's just both sides trying to see fish for an angle.
You're literally waiting for an overstep, for a flash W from Canyon,
for a route to land from Tarzan, for someone to overstep where they shouldn't be.
Chris maybe finds a flash E into a wall, or someone starts an engage.
Genji just getting pushed out. They don't really have control of their mid lane.
Yep, the top is respawning. They'll get pushed first.
Weibo in a very commanding position. Recalls are now being forced out.
Luckily Genji have decent vision around the objective, but Chris kind of shepherding them.
Like a border call, he up towards the top side of the map,
is what that's getting lower and lower. Rocket hit, stops the recall.
Weibo is a-
Rejection! Rejection!
Forcing a flash!
They're being hurted!
Weibo!
The TP's gonna come out from the smolder as well.
And now they can just walk away?
I mean, they get the push in mids, the wave does get caught by Key and they now have clean
access towards the dragon.
While all of this has been happening, I do think they could have just kept Breed there,
but I guess the fact that he doesn't have the TP was the biggest thing that they were
concerned about in the event that a fight did kick off.
Either way though, now, I do wonder if Wabo are overstepping here.
Looks like they will be fine, yeah, okay.
I was worried because with Breed going to the top lane and Genji actually having
an opportunity to reset after all that pressure, there was a world where Genji
you can then look for an engage.
But I say that, this is their window,
so now they're setting up for the Baron.
And they're going for this now,
knowing that someone really should probably try
to pick up that farm in the bottom wave.
It will cost Wave-O to be here.
Be present in this play.
Poffy all gonna be big Canyon.
Nice W, twisted advance, keeping him in the play.
They just need to finish the objective.
They just need to get the Baron down.
They will do so.
Breed, now with no man's land.
Ulti now used by the Kalista.
Breed locked up for a brief moment.
Trying to find the Sun.
Trying to find the angle.
Flashing out of safety.
Kohling from Xiaohu doing a whole hell
of a lot of damage to Starz.
But Chobee crucially attached, flashes for Chris, trying to finish the job, the bailout there, the bailout is out of that breed.
Still going, Xiaowu, flashing in with full confidence.
But Chobee, it's alive, looking for the reset.
Stars in now trying to get the hell out.
Chobee looking to finish one more, Kale Canyon, going to get the job done.
Weibo with the man advantage four to three.
Overall, the fight calming down.
Genji just want to get the hell out with their Baron buffs.
Maybe grab Midlane Tower on the way.
Genji recognized the amount of time that Weibo spent on the map and they see a window to go
for the Baron. They're able to secure it, but it costs them two members. The TP now coming back in.
Fight not done yet. Breathe chasing.
No, this fight is done. I do not think that Weibo can continue to chase this.
I think that was an overzealous TP play for sure. At the very least, they're back out onto
the map a little bit quicker. But the reason why I was concerned about the start of this
dragon was because they spent so much time on the map. That gave a great
Winner for Genji to go for the brown. They rush it down, use the Malki ultimate, zone away
But then they turn their attention to breathe and they think this could be an easy pick
He buys a lot of time and Genji becomes split up that allows for Weibo to capitalise on the splits up members
They target the bot lane and they're able to find two kills. The downside for Weibo is that Tarzan does lose his life in the river
But ultimately it's a Baron secured for Genji
Now
Here's the biggest problem with what has just happened
Neither team hasn't engaged the team that has the Baron kind of lost the fight
And so what you're saying is we go again. We just kind of go again
I like what Genji's doing though
They've abandoned bot side of the map the committing members top leveraging the stacked waves that they do have and they're gonna see it
Onto this tower good use of the Baron. They're immediately now moving into the topside jungle
And they're kind of shifting that today
They're no longer just sitting in mid, concentrating back and forth, they're trying to get more elsewhere on the map.
And while Weibo did get some kills, 1500 gold from the Baron, tower's now starting to fall, keep in mind about 2 or 3 waves of CS were also deleted and bottling in the midst of that entire Baron play, so the gold is basically equalized, only about a 2k difference between the teams.
But item completions overall, essentially dead even, yes Xiao who has a little bit of a lead, but that means the fights are going to be pretty damn close.
We find ourselves once again in a tense affair.
Weibo and Gen G going toe to toe.
Reminder this is the best of one. Round one on the Swissage.
A lot on the line here. You want to be 1-0.
You want to find that advantage, get out as quick as you can. Remember 3 in here
and 2-3 in here. Great ulti kick in.
Tarzan got a beautiful layering of the CC.
And now Gen G set up on this next tower. Knockback from Chris not really going to connect us.
He's forced the ult out from Paze at the very least, but with Red Bull Baron Powerplay only growing more and more in the favor of Gen.G.
I mean, Gen.G figured out the formula. Just stack enough ults and you'll force him in cage eventually.
Really nice use of the Rumble ult with the Malkai ult.
Breathe on the sideline, gonna knock down this tier two, but TP now coming in from Xiaohu as well wants to tease behind them.
Is he some flanking Lucian?
Yes, sir, it is.
He's brought it out on a ward, they know he is there.
This is incredibly awkward.
Breathe as well.
Gen.G actually has to be careful though, their TP's coming in but it's going to be a little bit late.
If Wabo gets...
First draw on the fight, he might be able to get something done but now it's Keen behind him.
Light going to be the one in trouble. Hoss will take over coming in. Just barely going to cut them shut down as big.
Keep in mind that smolder's been stacking this entire time.
400 for Joby, Bree trying to get in the mix. Wants to finish off that dragon but he doesn't have the damage.
Double kill from Joby. Wabo sent packing.
And now the momentum has completely shifted.
Gen.G punished the re-engage from Wabo.
disconnected in their approach with a TP flanking Lucian, things begin to fall apart.
As Genji- Ooh, Chouvi.
Chouvi trying to finish, can't get too low.
One dash, one auto, but there's PACE!
Who gets the shutdown onto Chouvi
and Genji now showcasing their dominance 304 for Chouvi 403 for PACE.
And credit to Gen G again, discipline in these fights.
They've been so good across the entire game.
Dropping vision, saving vision to put in those
Ivan brushes so they can play on even footing.
Not getting freaked out by this TP Lucian.
We're getting caught up in the moment.
That discipline, paying dividends.
As you can see, Weibo feeling under this pressure
to force these plays.
And as we highlighted, if you're the one forced
to engage, forced to make the play,
you're pretty disadvantaged in the context of this game
when there's so many great disengaged tools,
so many threats that can blow you up.
Yeah, I mean, I think when they did that mid tower siege, we really got to see the form of how this comp wants to work.
And it's basically just R, R, R, R, R.
Not the normal, like, mount fight, you know, Jarvan, whatever.
Yeah, it's a little bit more ranged to it, but, you know, you throw the Maokai Ultimate,
and then you, the Rumble Ultimate slows you down as well, making it harder to get away from the Maokai Ultimate.
And then on top of that, Chovy's Ultimate is gonna fly on top.
There's a lot of fire, and a lot of destruction raining from the sky.
Ivern can't shield everybody.
You know, redemption takes a little bit of time.
And Joby is, again, only continuing to stack, only getting scarier and scarier.
And here he comes again.
And if anyone tries to walk up, things are going to get dicey fast.
There's that combination.
This time they didn't commit Keynes ulti.
They'll be happy with the objective, though.
Crisp eating about 400 damage, just to try to walk up there.
But Gen.G went from feeling a bit out of sorts that Baron got them time
and then that mid lane push ultimately what really heavily shifted this game in their favor.
Well yeah, getting the Baron just gave them all the tools they needed to really begin their siege,
right? Because empowering those minions really hurt Waveless ability to stall out and wave clear.
They secured the top tower, they secured the mid one, and now when they're sieging on these
towers, especially with these Baron-empowered minions, their ultimates just become that much
more powerful. So with the Baron back on the table once more, we see both teams setting up
to be objective. They also have no magic damage at all. So Canyon's having a great time. True.
We normally see Malkai's with at least three or four deaths in the context of the game, but he's
just been able to build full armor this entire game and he doesn't need to worry about any of
the tiny bits of magic damage from Tarzan or from Shiloh's passive whatsoever. So a lot of the
things in this game, these little edges favoring Gen.G, whether it's the scaling of the smolder,
whether it's the range on these ultimates, or the full AD kind of composition that Webo
have brought together. Yeah, I just noticed that the Rando wins on Paze as well. That's a high value
Rando. That's basically just an additional 25% damage reduction for everything. Because basically
everyone is critic at this point. This Baron becomes the big point of contention breathing,
what he can to push in the side lane. Void staff now secured for Key,
but the little magic resist that does sit on the side of Wayboat looking to get shredded.
Paze though, struggling to contest that midway, the Culling once again.
Decent chunk, mid prior to the favor of Weibo for a brief moment.
They're now trying to use it to collapse onto Lahans.
Lahans flashing out, Torzan flashing in.
Hostile takeover is there, but Breeze still onto the back line.
Could be forced to use the ulti out from Paze.
Buys a bit more time.
Reset is there.
Hostile takeover didn't do much, but now Breeze.
In the midst of the entire team is still about to get shredded.
But finally, Lahans will drop.
Light on the backside of the resets.
They're starting to come in.
Chris still standing for an extra moment here.
The knockback is there.
But down goes the tank.
Xiaohu finding the kill.
Paze, Chovy, Keen still standing.
Looking to push Weibo back to two for two thus far.
The slow under Jauhu from the Malkai is crucial, even from the Grave Canyon, having that impact and the fight just stops there. Nobody really has the tools to follow up.
A very close affair. If Weber was able to find more out of that collapse, they could have converted into a Baron, but Genji responds in kind.
They're starting the Baron without a smite of their own. They do of course have the Callista.
Everend.
TP behind, Gen.G betting, maybe not everything, but a whole hell of a lot on this play.
Shalvao in the midst, trying to get a bit more damage, now flashed in from Paze,
Keem going gold, and Jaho needs to get the hell away, Paze just running him down in the 1v1!
Now it's Chovy and Paze, a 2v2, and we just keep going.
7 seconds on 3, but he doesn't have the TP.
Canyon up in 5.
Don't think anyone else is starting the Baron, but I'll...
Oh my goodness, it's Canyon.
It gets interrupted, which is huge, with the Dragons spawning in about a minute and a half,
buying time for the rest of your team to get settled back out onto the map, allow for Shao Hu to
respawn. Just buys a little bit more time, 36 minutes in. It's an interesting affair when both
teams just keep going back and forth, pays nothing but confidence as he dived in for that one.
True. I was wondering why he took so little damage from Shao Hu but
it's just such a high value item in the context of this game.
And JG, both the Hunter and the Tank. Come at me, Jahu!
The nightmare of anyone playing against Callistas when she has the time and money to build the defensive idol.
QSS is well there for Chovy.
But we go again, Dracos. The contest around the mid lane once more.
Chovy's catching the bot wave. Breathe once more. Pushes out the top.
Chovy in the bottom lane. Not great flanking TPs. We'll just TP the group with the team.
Wabo now coming in for a brief moment here they have a man advantage while Keen is
forced to catch that wave Chris is trying to capitalize on it extra movement
speed coming in Chovy standing behind the lines as he's once again vulnerable
but Paze is there to try to save him angle coming in for the knockback
Poppy gonna find one Chovy out of the fight immediately Wabo turn back to
give Jeff if they want to try and force down this Baron. They have to stop this Baron.
A bold move but it's melting with double AD carries.
Tenon can he get into the pit ulti coming in 5k getting lower and lower
This now comes to try and steal it away, but no Tarzan finds the angle.
Hopper crisp already going down, Breathe off on the flank hoping to find an angle into this fight.
All of Weibo retreating.
Genji might not have gotten the objective, but it looks like they're taking control of us far.
Breathe instantly into the backline.
Jack's finding a knockabout or two.
The stun, excuse me, as we continue the fight, but off the side it's Chovy.
Finally getting evolved again. The execute's coming in.
He's just sneezing on him, but it's not enough to get the job done.
Light's still standing.
Pays, still standing.
It's a hot mess.
Waybo down a man but upper Baron.
He's trying to get an execute on someone recalling but he's not going to be able to find anything.
But the problem for Waybo is yes they're able to get the Baron but they lose three members
and the soul is available.
Genji are going to make a beeline towards that objective, get the Infernal Soul for themselves.
And wow, what a back and forth.
The craziest thing about that last teamfight.
Daisy got a three man knockout.
I really hope we get to see a replay of that one, because it was a chaotic teamfight.
Chovy with an ambitious flash to shut down Light, and he almost got the execute, but
he died just before he was able to get enough damage.
And surely a full build smolder with 425 stacks of infernal souls enough to end the game,
but this fight.
So great rumble ultimate onto the backflip, but it doesn't actually end up doing as
much damage as I thought it did.
First bend of getting melted immediately, the Jinx positioning is great, Lens isn't
dying initially, it's this flank from breathing, but look at that 3 man knockup coming out
from Daisy, provides good utility, it's Chobee fun to kill in the Baron pit, and then once
this flashing from Chobee tries to get the last bit of damage, not quite enough as
Breathe comes over to help, and then it ends up being a 3 for 2.
As Jinx is full build now, I mean nearly everyone is full build, we're approaching
Time of the game breathe now with the arm guard
We're taking a look across the board all T cool downs are available a lot of flashes missing light
No flash will be big in the fights to come a similar story for chovy
Feels like it might just be one final fight perhaps an elder
Baron buff really not going to be used for much of anything other than some sideline pressure from breathe
It's crazy to me in a meta where we expected the return of mages, right?
This is what happens in this AD carry meta whether they just not that much utility yeah like few stuns that like what there's a route
There's a slow. There's a stun like this overall both sides. It's just kind of dancing
That's why positioning is so crucial if you overstep you're gonna get one shot
But now things become much harder for way, but just do the presence of this infernal soul inside of Gen G
You thought small to hurt before well now he just hurts a lot more and so
So navigating these fights is gonna be that much harder.
I mean, there's so many abilities in this game
that have the potential to just end this game rapidly, right?
There's no cleanse on light right now.
Hostile takeover, hitting either of the 80 carries here.
Likely means they instantly kill their team.
Yes, Tarzan does have access to the Mikaeles,
but it's gonna have to be quick with it.
And on the opposite side, Poppy all right?
If Chris can knock a carry out of the fight again,
Wave-O can very easily start to clean up,
but you know, those are both slow,
Very telecraft abilities.
And it's just, I feel like we're a broken record here, but we have to say like this is a really hard game to play out because you have to be completely confident if you're going to pull the trigger on an engage, or you will be the reason your team loses the game.
Because the thing is like, if Canyon flash W's in, you've got to bear in mind that there's not exactly a lot of follow-up CC that can come from that, right?
So he may just find himself deep.
Speaking of the CC, there's the ulties stacked on top of each other.
who going back immediately, Kale's getting used.
Gen G breaking down to tier two.
Decent position, if they can force another fight,
where the Mikales isn't available,
that much more of an advantage.
I like how they're playing around these objectives,
the way in which they utilize the Maokai ultimate
in conjunction with the ultimates
available in the party composition.
And while Maokai was nerfed,
and the duration on these saplings is reduced,
or at least the scaling in terms of how much duration
they get off his max HP,
This free vision control is still just so massive for Genji.
It means the setup around the next objective is that much easier.
We are two minutes away.
It feels like it's probably going to come down short of some sort of sign lane pick.
Yeah, elder or a Baron fight.
One more 5v5.
5 more games after this.
I mean, we've got Panatic versus D plus Kia after this one, which, you know, you thought
that engaging was a problem in this game.
I tell you engaging is going to be a problem in that game.
No matter what kind of vision you're fighting.
Let's round things out here 42 minutes in
And both teams pretty much full belt the gold doesn't really matter GA render wins for pay. This is great
Try and kill me now. I mean he really like it's even in the face of armor pen
You still take so wait. I'm actually sold this QSS and he bought around wins as well
Yeah, okay, well, alright, it's like if you guys had figured this out three packs ago,
we wouldn't have had to take 80s out of mid lane entirely.
Okay, so it's Genji once again with control of a mid wave, unsurprisingly, breed funds
itself to the side lane pushing.
The Jax trying to get some work done.
If they can continue to stall, which they're doing a good job of so far, maybe you can
even put some pressure onto that tier two, but Keen is going to go and answer.
Teams are all up. We're ready for a full 5v5 full strength from both sides.
Way bow.
C Rumble respond, feel confident they can step forward as a 4 man core.
20 seconds on the baron.
A minute on the elder. Elder with a great equalizer. No matter what lead you think you have,
team gets elder. Pretty much just instantly start winning fights.
I mean, it is tight. Like this game, while it is just the best of one, determines a lot.
It's going to impact the whole tournament, whether you go 1-0-0-1, your future opponents
will be determined by that. Going 1-0 here gives you a little bit more breathing room.
Certainly going 0-1 already starts to put the pressure on you. But also, with expectations
so high on the side of Gen G coming in as one of the tournament favourites to lose
hits a way boat already is gonna shift a lot of perspectives. Gen G top of the
table we've in terms of the overall power rankings we go around 11th the team
that we did not nearly as highly across the board a lot of people skeptical as
to how good they would be on the international stage and all this game
has been back and forth all it matters is the win that well wait that's huge
actually 10 seconds until elder and breathe is going to be forced to go
back to base a single trade could be massive in the context of what's
about to happen. Can he cancel the recall one more time.
Jahu in a similar position right now coming in forcing the flash out from
Chris. Now it's Gen G who have main control over this river. They have no
way to get in here. Wave will have to force it again whoever has to force
Barry like he moves the right. They know that it's coming. Breathe on the way in.
Rumble equalizer not doing much gets a bit of space for Chris. Pay is starting to
step up. All of the coming in from Choby. Hopped will take over big. Light
immediately gonna clench. Doesn't want to get too much. Pay is trying to get through the backline trying to make sure the lights
and every room to work, and already the Elder is taken down
and instantly in the blink of an eye, 44 minutes in.
It's an ace for Gen G as they look to close it out here.
Mom and Dad just melt away Wayboe
as the Elder was enough to secure the fight.
Once again, five for zero,
and Gen G will assert themselves as the dominant force.
Incredible stuff, the confidence from Gen G,
finding that window of opportunity keen,
Quiet hero across the game forcing breathe back giving them the ability to start that major objective
The first LPL LCK matchup might have favored the LPL
But this one going in the favor of Gen G as they take down Wayvo
Unclose back and forth between Gen G and Wayvo
You know what you've heard for a month for 45 minutes. Let's quickly toss it over to the analyst desk
Thank you so much, Petty. Of course you need to keep your energy in check for this long
day, but exactly, Gen.G, even up the score again between the LCK and the LPL with their
victory and they did it by saying, we don't care about patch 14.18.
We can't read! Nope, we were fishing!
Our entire topside will be, you know, the nerfed rumble, the nerfed mild guy, the
nerfed smolder, but that doesn't always mean everything.
No, it's certainly just now. I think the Gen.G macro is still very much prevalent, despite how many issues they had in the early game in terms of finding a gold lead.
They still found the six drops, they didn't, they found it not just the first, but the second dragon as well, and they just put them in such a position where they have such a late game composition.
But they were allowed to have that late game composition because there was nothing Wavebook could do to accelerate the game even further.
They had to sit around, get that third drake, still lose the fight, and it was just so back and forth.
Yeah, I mean Gen G was this patient and it felt it may really felt the moralizing because you could see the
Stacks coming up. You're like, oh god. We're actually getting to the 500 stack mark. This is the type of game
We're having. How do they actually?
Kind of come back into it and it felt like they had to find some sort of play but even when smolder was topside
They was just getting covered by
Canyons, so I was like, yeah, I don't know about this one way
Is this Gen G though?
Like is this really gonna be Genji at Worlds?
No, this is maybe there. Let's try this first.
I hope so. I hope this is like a...
We're don't want to give away anything.
Yeah.
We got our new picks for later rounds of Swiss when it really matters.
Are you not pleased?
I'm actually not.
Because that was tense.
That was tense.
That was a tense attack.
There's no anticipation in that game.
What do we always say about the LCK?
They might not come in the sharpest with the best meta reads,
but the later you get in the tournament, they rank up this one.
You just got to win it, Jack.
I mean, true.
And at the same time, you think about how much better
this would have been a month ago.
Like, they would have really dominated this game a month ago.
Yeah, the champions are actually strong.
So in that case, it's impressive.
But I just, I really don't like the meta read.
I understand why you're going to play what you're comfortable with
in the first day of World Swiss.
But I think as like them and BLG and HLE are the three tournament favorites.
Yes.
And that did not look like a type of performance
that's going to win Worlds.
I know that's a high bar and they did win.
and we should be celebrating them.
That's a long way off for sure.
I want to see a little bit faster games.
Alright, let's see if Keen has asked about that in the Verizon Post Game Interview.
And welcome back to the World's Sweet Stage.
For this Verizon Post Game interview here with Keen,
and you're going to say, oh, thank you so much for joining me.
This game was messy in terms of...
I don't quite understand what is the meta right now
because neither of you guys had hard engaged.
It felt like the game was really difficult to close out.
What is your take on Demetra right now in this game of role?
I think it was interesting.
I think it was interesting.
I think it was interesting.
Because it's the first day, so we are also unsure what champions, what kind of strategy
the opponents are going to bring, so we wanted to focus on the picks that we are thinking
that's really good.
Also I think we're still in the stage of kind of reading out the meta.
Of course, first day absolutely understandable.
Then in that sense, let's talk about Rumble because the expectation was Rumble was
not going to be a strong pick coming here at Worlds.
It was picked during the playing stage.
You played it today and added a lot of impacts.
How would you rate the champion right now?
I'm curious about your opinion on Rumble, but a lot of people have predicted that Rumble will no longer be available, but the playing stage has been released, and you showed Rumble's play today. How do you feel about Rumble right now?
In the beginning, there was a little damage nerf, so the lane phase has become weaker, but the more items you have, the more damage you have. I think it's similar to before.
I think it's a card that can be used to match the combination.
a little affected the laning phase is not as strong, but also I still think that as he
picks up more items, he's almost the same as the old Rumble, so looking at the comp,
you think Rumble is right, you can go for it.
Alright, the champion we could see more than here.
Adwell's last question for Yu-Ki-En.
You're one of the tournament's favorites, but I want to know about the synergy between
you guys, how has Lehen been treating you recently?
We all know Leehands is always picking on me, but the rest of the players are doing a great job picking care of me, so the team synergy is safe.
That's amazing to hear. Thank you so much, Keen, for the interview, Jason.
Thank you so much for the translation.
We're going to take a short break and we'll be back in just a couple of minutes.
First Nadeed versus Diplosquia. Don't go anywhere.
What's that? What auto? What's that?
You're a dork. And already the elder is taking down it instantly.
And the blip is an ace for Gen G.
They look to close it out here.
The post game breakdown of our previous game, Gen G versus Waybo.
One, two, three, four, five.
Wait, that's six because it's a five, two times.
That was a really bad guess.
Yeah.
Yep.
You're right.
It's when you said use five words that my brain already goes into.
I don't know nothing.
But that game was a roller coaster.
Waybo.
And that was with 10s as we said.
They got outscaled.
Well, they didn't have any, you know, pick potential with that.
It's sad. It's sad.
But hey, it's time for something really, really special.
We've got a double feature up in our cinema we're going to watch.
I think two amazing movies that are incredibly back and forth.
We're going to start with Fanatic versus Diploskea,
and then we're going into TL versus LNG.
I mean, in terms of kind of storytelling, impossible passion,
and back and forth and chaos.
It has it all.
It should.
Absolute cinema, believe in the show.
And GB, you know this, both of these teams, you've lived it, especially from Fnatic's side.
I mean, definitely left side, we've failed out multiple times before.
I mean, I already love this because of the Twitter slogan, the teams are going for as well.
So I think this not only reflects what they want to prove here at the World Championship,
but it also kind of reflects their playstyle from Fnatic.
It is absolute cinema. It's back and forth. It's a plot line you're not expecting.
I don't remember seeing the PGPs we had from the G2 series as well.
If you remember back to some of the finals, not season finals, but also a little bit,
but some are final specifically for people that have missed it yeah i mean it was a tragedy this
is fanatic second seed um the lc second seed that was a bad intro i said it was a tragedy this is
lc second seed fanatic oscar inna and razork humanoid noah and june and we will um talk a little
bit more about kind of what our issues were with fanatic i feel like this year but we will also
also introduce LCK's third seed in Diploskea with Kay and Lucid Showmaker, aiming and Moham.
And I think our trepidation comes from the fact that if Fnatic was 10% better in the
entire year, they probably would have won one of the titles that they were in contention
for, but in crucial games, they couldn't drive it home.
And I feel like the same thing goes for Diploskea in some other games.
It's one of those things.
I mean, you can see it on your screen right here that if you can't finish a game
domestically, you have a lot of question marks when you start going into the
international stage because when you play against the best of the best teams they know
how to solve it you're bad early game and make sure you can win through me a great macro
of what are you doing with that?
A great macro from mid to late game but one of the things that you don't believe in
suddenly is when there's a team that starts throwing these things you need to be able
to know how to close out a game when you're playing against the best of the best.
Yeah and it's frustrating one.
And that's the thing like you've already talked about it from fanatic side how unpredictable
they can be because they can get that early game lead but everything else is
the movie like for me watching in North America I don't know what I can get out of
a fanatic versus G2 or fanatic versus anyone for that matter and for dumb for
DK plus it's a process for me my brain is not working properly but for D plus the
thing for them is the same kind of storytelling they have incredible
individual players for me Lucid has been so fun to watch and you know show
So, you know, the game is not as much of a playmaker as you can get, but then the leads they have, you just can't expect them to hold it.
No, that's the thing, because that one has kind of been the team in the LCK as well, where it's fallen apart in that mid to late game session.
They've had some oopsies as well, where they're kind of just crap walking around looking at their opponent, then we start a fight, or maybe it wasn't the best.
So I think there's a lot of fans coming into this game who's going to feel like Fnatic is going to get completely dumpstered.
And they're definitely coming in as underdog against D plus for sure, but it's one of those things where D plus is not perfect team either
They're a team that also has had some issues with the meta as it currently was at the LCK domestically
I think the hope for a lot of LCK fans to always that they are going to be more comfortable coming into the mid lane meta
That's now happening with Lucid who's already been a great jungler surrounding showmaker 2 the 2v2 from the mid lane
It's going to be what I'm having my eyes on today because I think it's going to be defining the series
It absolutely is. I mean I think bot is also gonna have something to say about it
but you did mention the meta and we have to talk about showmaker being back at
Worlds and the fact that he had a pretty miserable time in the ADC meta right
the return to kind of what he is known for could be a big boon for D plus
Kia. Yeah I mean he literally named his account Syndra like he is ready for it
and you can already see both these teams are ready for it walking on the stage
for the brawl. Let's watch the movie.
Boys, here we are for the cinema, for the show, movie stuff.
Back fans, party loud, nightshare taken to the stage.
They look to defend on their home track, up against DK.
And no, not Donkey Kong D plus Kia, although they're also here to kick some tail.
Thank you for looking on that one.
I looked at the lyrics to the Donkey Kong.
I was going to quote it more, but I was like, I don't know this is the best one.
I mean, this is the game I'm genuinely been the most excited about, which worries me a
bit because I'm like, I'm over-hyped it because the expectation surrounding this is, would
it be a movie if someone had an overhyped it?
Yeah, it would be cinema.
That's true.
It's a situation where you've got two teams that have incredible talent domestically.
Yes.
They've showcased they've been able to compete with the best the region has
to offer, but their macro is lack, it results in messy bans, crazy side lanes, flip-flop
dives, it's all sorts of chaos and we think back to the summer season ending for Fnatic,
the fact that they didn't get a single win against G2 and they definitely probably should
have won that series in contrast to D plus Kia who recently had a nail bite of best
to five against T1 and it was a spectacle for sure.
So that's the impression that people
have of both of these organizations.
And so I'm excited to see what, for the purpose of entertainment,
I hope they haven't improved at all.
But obviously, we want to see these games get better.
We want to see them adapting to the meta more
with majors returning into the mid lane.
Obviously, the previous game was not
a great indicator of that.
And we're hoping that that doesn't
set any precedent for the rest of the tournament.
And look, all I'm going to say is I feel like the best version of both these teams has just been riding that mid-jungle 2v2 to close it out the game.
And that doesn't always been the cleanest version, but like you look at Showmaker Lucid, I feel like Lucid's just ready to go.
Showmaker's ready to go. And it's a similar story for Razzwork and Humorite. Yes, Fnatic have tried playing towards Violin and tried a lot of other things.
But I feel like the most effective version of this team is still when Razzwork and Humorite are working together to build these massive leads and have to see if that's what the strategy they're going to go for today is.
Now, naturally, the big elephant in the room is the contrast between the two 80 carries,
with Noah having struggling performances internationally with an aiming looking incredible across the LCK Summer Speed this season.
He is a large part of why D++ were even in contention for those top spots.
He's had so many solo carry performances.
Some incredible games that you have to feel like that when it comes to the 80-carat matchup
aiming is a heavy favorite coming into today's best squad.
And we'll see, you know, Fnatic is a team that has been very defined by momentum for so much of this year, right?
When they're in a good mood and in a good headspace, you can tell they play much better with much more confidence.
So the importance of this first one is not a series.
We have to play against tomorrow and both these teams looking to start off 1-0.
We're gonna face the other 1-0 teams, get a bit of a lead early on, falling down can
be devastating.
It all takes a single upset when you're in that 0-1 track to be putting you in best of
three elimination territory for now.
Vi, Ziggs, Orianna all banned away.
Vi, you know, against Lucian, you got to respect it.
Yes, man likes to go in-kank and Vi the best champion to do so.
His two most played across his career at least in Vi, right?
And we've seen how effective Vi can be in the meta.
Rorobang going to come through from Fnatic on the blue side. A little telling that perhaps they don't want to prioritise the Eronon
comfortable playing it. The respect being shown towards Razzle with the Ivern taken away.
How will T plus Kia round things out on their sides? Skana still available. Ash still available.
Ezreal is something we've seen Noah lean on a lot, especially when he's looking to try and play
more on the weak side and Fnatic have more of a mid focus. Depending on what this
major priority is it's going to be the small removal they saw the impact that
I had at the previous game from Gen G and said you know we don't want to give
humanoid that possibility and the Yone blind pick coming in from Fnatic is this
a potential flex bit we don't typically see it from Oscar we did see a few games
of it from humanoid throughout the season finals yeah and it was one of
the big improvement points for Fnatic was that for a while I felt like
humanoid wasn't the most comfortable on 80 champions had very few options
compared to the rest of the league but had a fantastic glow on the Yone
Now going to be the prioritized first pick obviously a champion that everyone has high expectations of looking at early does mean giving over
At the very least the scarner high priority
I'm gonna say jungle pick but technically a flex can't be taken top lane as well
Right now deepless Kia just flowing through some of the hovers
This you know they pick is definitely interesting for them to want to boost pick it is a surprise the knob line gonna come through
Now we know Oskar, he's no stranger to the Camille, it's a question of whether or not that's the direction they're thinking about.
You're going to need some AP to come through somewhere for Fnatic, with six removed it's unlikely to come from the bot lane, which means they need to come in from the jungle or the top lane.
It's going to be the Zyra, so we talked about adaptation to the meta, Fnatic sticking to a meta that was very familiar to them domestically.
them domestically desire was something that we haven't seen so far at the world
championship but razzle saying I think it's still good and they've built
themselves a strong topside there's the Humber from Showmaker Showmaker I think
this matchup is really good for this intro by the way it's interesting
because before he came to EUSO Q and named himself Cindra he had an
interview with Crys and Esports with Ashley where he said actually I think
it's only good in like a couple circumstances and it's not that great
that you cool down sucks, it's like really niche.
But I'm not sure because that interview was so old
that he has changed his mind
and it's just like a jam cinder all the time situation.
Or if, you know, which is the true version of Showmaker?
I mean, we have to acknowledge at some point
that Orianna is definitely clearly higher
on the priority list
and cinder is definitely formed to the wayside
in contrast to what our initial expectations
were coming into the tournament.
With the Ezreal locked in,
this is still a flex pick possibility
for both showmaker and aiming.
More likely going in the direction of aiming,
We'll have to wait and see is the ash band now comes through from the side of D plus here
I'm showing her a guy who was vocal about not being super comfortable in the double AD meta AD with an AP jungle
I was a bit bit lucid
I think the best a guy who likes to be on these much more proactive playmakers
So would be a shame for him to come in on a new patch a new tournament have to go right back to ADs in the midnight
We'll see though what they want to go for as less ash close to both the more lane dominant options taken away
Probably the band now for oh Leona, so fanatic is looking at something like a gin rail probably
Maybe they are not enthusiastic about the Jhin going up against the Skarner.
I wonder if they would consider something like a Jhin's, but they need a way to start fights.
We've already seen what can happen if you don't have that engage and so far.
DooblessGear are already lacking on that front with both the Skarner and the Nara available.
They could lock in the Ralfa themselves.
That's showmakers LeBlanc. We talked about it as a potential ban and he's going to lock it in.
Exciting stuff.
He was able to have pretty significant impact on it in the game 5 against T1 to even qualify for the World Championship.
It's a favourite of his and something that he is very well respected for.
We'll see what he's able to do up against Humanoid on this UNA.
Kaisa and Jin are the two hoppers right now for Fnatic.
We talked about how much the Brawl makes sense.
You've got to remember though that's an Ezreal and a Leblanc.
A lot of mobility, maybe more or less.
With a little bit more lockdown would have made more sense, but instead they want this big AoE engage.
They want that reliable way to stop the fights and it looks like they're gonna pad that up with the Kaisa.
The Kaisa interesting, obviously really good matchup into the Ezreal, can't get in, but instead Jhin
They're debating, flexing between the two.
I mean it's tough because you have so much upfront damage on this team that Jhin will feel really good
if he can stay far enough out of position, if he can find access into the fights.
But the Kaisa's much safer as we get later into the game, so instead the Kaisa going to be the option here, still has good poke.
Obviously if they do want to go for the AP itemization choice,
But Braum and Poppy are both really good to this competition.
They definitely are. There's a lot of dive on the side of Fnatic.
And Braum can just make their lives miserable.
That's exactly what it's going to do. Pair up Maistir with the Ezreal.
It's a very safe defensive bot lane 2 vs 2.
The idea behind picking Kaisa into Ezreal is that you can have a relatively easy laning phase
to allow the Kaisa to scale up, get that early static shift, have a little bit more wave clip.
The problem points are going to be this mid-lane matchup.
LeBlanc vs. Yonei in the other game, LeBlanc is going to be able to have a lot of pressure.
The side lane threat, it's going to get a little bit easier as Yonei gets more items,
especially once you're 3 on Yonei, you become this monster side laner that really very few champions in the game can contest.
But with this peepy frontline on the side of T-plus Kier in the skana and the brawl,
it's just like a very difficult wall that in fact are going to struggle to break through.
Certainly, and I'm also concerned that if we end up in a situation where DK fine and early mid jungle advantage
And in Trazor, it's going to be the one who suffers, because while Zyra packs a punch,
most certainly very vulnerable to that Scarred Oblok, a single piece of CC hits her, we're
likely to get taken off the rift.
I don't want to, I want to early game, it's all right, now I was going to say early game
I just think the thing that we have to keep our eyes on, right?
We talked so much about mid-jungle, now it's time to see if that's going to be the
name of the game or if teams are going to put their focus elsewhere.
And I want to remind viewers at home that even though we've talked about our
expectations all the way, looking for a chaotic game between these two teams, DeepLosKey
is still the favorites coming into this matchup right the reality is that
domestically they still just smash teams that are worse than that and this is going to be the
test for finale what do you think where on the totem pole do you fall in the context of the lck
and uh i'm looking forward EU versus the lck EU started off rough up against BLG to start off
the day right now the lpl has one up on us will the lck also have one up on the lc let's
Let's find out. We're jumping into the game. It's game 4 of the day.
Fanatic versus D plus Kia. I'm excited. You should be excited as well.
I'm hoping we get a lot of brawls, a lot of fighting.
Goateens are making their way out onto the Rift and already. D plus Kia.
They keep that presence known in the Fanatic bot side jungle.
And I like this.
Overall, early contest on the rafter spawn,
knowing the brawn gives them the much stronger level 1.
Can't just get really aggressive because what are Fanatic gonna do level 1?
Kaisa level 1? Yone level 1? Hard for them to stop DK from wandering in. No wards placed
however, instead just retreating to defend their own side of the map. They started with
two sweepers. Ping's have come down from the side of Fanatik. King is going to run face
first into Oscar or not. He's going to take the safe way around. A lot of pings. Some
moments go to the top of your screen. Global powering is powered by EWS Fanatik
of 13th decage at 7th and coming in here. The lane swapped through from Fnatic. Gonna play
it safe. Already jungle and support. Well I say that, jungle and top lane are paired
up. Razor gonna start alone. Support gonna go into the mid lane as you would expect.
Top lane to top. I feel like a broken record as I've now explained this every single game
but I'm gonna keep explaining because he was just tuned in. Expectation is definitely
interesting from the player's side. Yeah and Razor are coming in with a lot of confidence
when he spoke to Ashley Corrison earlier?
A medium amount of confidence.
I think it might be really fast again.
I'm not sure we need to see where new Fanatic, hopefully,
we don't throw leads.
And then he said, hopefully, one more time.
Which undermined, I think, a little bit
the sense of what he was trying to say,
but Fanatic aware of their own chaotic team,
aware of some of the struggles that they've had.
And I think it is a similar story for DK, D plus Q.
And I think on the outside, we've now got the 2v2 mid
set up, Oskar and Innova trying to do damage.
But again, you can see what 85% fortification looks
like those autos do not do damage to them.
What's crucial here is because Jhin has been pushed underneath this tower, he's been denied
the level 2, he's still one creep on bit I think, and Moham has access here, gonna be
playing a bit of spoiler. Jhin's saying if I can just get to the tower, one minion
dies, I get level 2, the TP can come in from Oscar, he can catch that wave, we're chilling.
It's really awkward though because his aftershock was procced by him hitting the
blast cone I believe, onto Moham.
And here comes the TP.
Which means if anyone hits him, he is likely dead.
But Oscar is here.
Fury stacked.
He's going to take over to level three off of this.
He's taking his time.
Waits to keep until he knows he's got it.
Just forced away.
Jenner being denied so much XP.
There comes the dive.
Mark's there.
Custom blows, making this dive easy.
As Oscar tries to make it out of safety,
knockback into the wall is big, ish tall's edge.
Oscar's still standing for now, though.
King debating if he wants to go any further.
The redive should just come through.
Oscar needs a bit more time before he gets the cold
to meet back.
Jun trying to body block, but the boomerang's still there.
Q flash, not gonna do much of anything in Junt, now in trouble they tried to outplay him but they're getting taken down in the end.
A clean bot side dive from D plus KIA.
Great patience from D plus KIA and good management of the aggro from the tower as well.
Razlok does finally arrive but it's too late, no TP available for Oskar.
Kingen gets to assist, one kill goes over to aiming as well.
D plus KIA are just setting themselves up nicely to start off this game.
That's about as good as you can hope of a start. Not only are you the team not swapping, so it's easier for you to take plates, but you're able to make this dive happen.
Yeah, they get a lot of damage off onto Oscar to start off the play.
Aiming does take tower aggro at the very end, but he's able to disengage.
And then like you see a nice little hop here from Kingen.
And combined with Aiming, they're able to deal enough damage, and then Jern, he just doesn't have the cooldowns this early onto the game.
Edge is very well played. They did their best to outplay. Oscar even committed the flash, but that's now a summoner spell down.
We find ourselves back in standard lane matchups.
but with D plus Kia having advantages across the board.
Noa and Jun got away from the first few levels of the lane at the very least, but
I think the only silver lining of this all is aiming, goes back, he buys a tier, he buys some components, but
early itemization at least forcing Ezreal away from more combat stats.
There's not too much of a discrepancy of the 1v1, although he will be able to spam a lot more Qs.
He need to keep our eyes as well on mid lane.
Keep our eye on Fanatic prioritizing this Yone very highly.
We're actually partially due to the lane swap in the 2v2, as well as a difficult lane match
if we just haven't seen anything from it quite yet.
He's downflash and down TP, which is going to make things pretty difficult.
Yeah, Sharks made an interesting point where Humanoid is a player who's branded as someone
that rise to the occasion as opponents, but really we haven't seen that for a while,
right?
And you can only hold that moniker for so long without any results to back to the
statement like that.
And it's a difficult position for him to be in because that was kind of the
saving grace of some inconsistencies in his performance was that when it mattered
he did show up that's no longer there you know so this game will be a big test
for him as well like so far he's settled off the lane pretty well you can see the
stacked wave that he's gonna have to catch underneath the towers deepless gear
already gonna secure that dragon and watching for fanatic there a bit behind
on the play they don't have control over the mid wave ready to set up for the
grubs on the top side they didn't commit for any type of swap so while
Concentrates back and forth in the mid lane one versus one. It's a D-plus Kia that maintain control over the map
See what these lanes look like once levels six sixes start to come through showmaker just getting his
King it pretty behind in terms of XP Oscar and I'm gonna get to a much faster level six
But I mentioned I'll be pretty difficult for him to leverage that spike and let's King it go for steps here
I'm going to commit to a base here investing in early management positions to help with the pressure as Lucid already starting off those grubs
What the productivity here remember the human has gone back to base. Razor gets a load. I mean Lucid
Hit of a risky play overall, right?
Fanatic up the reset first is bot lane just now recalling
So the downside of kind of going for that gamble is that it's easy for Razor to walk in and take two away
But frankly probably shouldn't have been able to get any of them
So an aggressive choice, but does at least pay off a little bit notice though that while the chaos has been happening in the other game
And D plus key have been able to find these advantages. That's looks a little six
He's just been power farming his way through the other game and already with that ultimate available put some in a very scary spot
Fanatic swap their bot lane to talk gonna unlock some plates for themselves
The idea was here you swap and then be in a position to secure the grubs are because Lucifer already started them
They're not really able to do that the swap is gonna be matched
And, uh, aiming, after securing that first kill, already finds himself with about a 400
goals lead and the Sheen already secured.
The Sheen gonna make a lot of these trades much more favorable, but overall no objective
on the map to play for at this stage, 7 minutes in, both Grubbs and Dragon off the board
means that, see what Fnatic want to do with their topside pressure and if they can
sustain it.
Bin Lane is still very much in favor of Showmaker in terms of the overall push.
We'll get a bit better for human-wise, he gets more attack speed and more magic for this, but for now, we'll long still very much running the show.
Oscar able to push in King in, but you can see Lucid there to support. We need to punish if Oscar over commits.
And so far nothing too crazy outside of that initial dive.
DeepLessKia did a really good job of, you know, reacting to the lane swap as you're supposed to.
Ultimately, when you get to that point of the dive, it all comes down to execution, and they were able to out-execute that of Fnatic.
In terms of the early objectives though, it's pretty even. Loosened now with the level 6 himself as full clears continue to come across the board.
Jun is clearing out a bit of vision on the top side. It's showing, you can see it's a very nice trade. You're seeing in this early game how favorable it is.
Okay, gets the flash out. Q3 there for humanoid does make him shalocken up.
Jonimedia locked down coming in as well.
Showmaker the clone is there, he's able to get out to safety just in time.
Razor throwing down the ultimate, but hand delivered.
Lucid bringing Jon back under the tower to punish.
Really nice outplay from the mid jungle of D plus Kia.
Ultimately it was a bit of an over commitment.
Fnatic were a bit disconnected on the play because Razor couldn't quite get in range in time,
which meant that he wasn't able to land that ultimate,
all that final Q onto Showmaker. They didn't have the damage,
But then because Jun was pulled underneath the tower, and the chains connected as well,
the tower shots were enough to trade back the kill.
And what's frustrating there is that while Jun was there for the play,
that was a 2v3 where Fanatic had more members, and you can see now the price of that play
is that Aimee and Moham just get to get two plates uncontested as Noah is forced under tower.
He's gonna need to reset soon, only half his life bar remaining.
Two kills now for Lucid.
This gun is gonna become a very serious problem with the rate that he's being accelerated.
pushing the top side for the bot lane of DK as they secure themselves a few more plates.
Lucid coming can go through the wall. They don't really have good vision coverage.
Well, no, he's coming as soon as he uses the edge to our edge.
Shouldn't know a step up here at all. They'll be in trouble, but Razork is there to cover crucially.
Still a bit surely.
DK just building lead after lead. They're just finding these small opportunities.
The lanes are going their way as well.
The farm is just slowly starting to build up in their favor.
And again, like it comes back to what we talked about in the regular season.
DK, because they just have strong individuals, they are just good at building leads independently, you know?
Early game leads are something that they're not strangers to.
It's the mid game where sometimes we see some questionable decisions, so to find themselves with a lead like this shouldn't come as a surprise.
Ultimately, it's going to come down to their execution once they start moving out of the laning phase.
when they start setting up around these barons, playing for the neutral objectives.
And how well Fanatic can respond?
Because truthfully Fanatic's macro has been one of the biggest question marks to them throughout the year.
Definitely has.
Can always be difficult when they fall behind.
Noah has finished the statics, will be able to at least match a bit more.
The wave clear that Amy can bring to the table with his ultimate.
DK setting up for their second drake in a much better position to do so.
But it will at least this time be a trade as Fanatic are already on the top side,
focusing down those grubs for the threshold again that really matters no be
able to grab it the question is can they actually find advantages enough in these
lanes to leverage that grubbup to good news no already top lane already pushing
will force the TP out from showmaker but he needs to be careful showmaker has
the tools to chase him down now I will acknowledge that I haven't been keeping
track of the top laners because rarely do you in a red X in versus normal matchup
hi-hop lucid lucid going in has already locked up humanoid humanoid wants to
You don't have to save to the ulti though. Hits a target, means he doesn't really have
anywhere else to go. Ignite still there Lucid!
Snipes him down with a rock!
You thought it would be aiming that finds the Q connect, but by Jun blocking that projectile,
he couldn't block the projectile from Lucid. A nice angle comes in from the D plus gear jungler.
And he's gonna put free on the board. 4-0 now, the kill score on favor of DK.
Nice snipe there to finish. In good position as well to make sure that humanoid could not use that ultimate to get out for free.
DK now, transitioning that pressure topside, Shoemaker already pushing in, and this is such a comfort zone for DK.
Loosa, Shoemaker, having those individual leads now, extending their reach across the map.
Razork is there trying to punish, but they don't really have a whole lot of ball damage.
Shubroi now on the way, and he needs to get that Q3 ready to go.
Razork still alive standing behind the blue buff.
Shoemaker trying to finish off the first kill, and it was used so successfully.
Loosa gets a quick ulti off, Blascoe is going to take him to safety.
Oscar in a desperate to get in here and get something back no on the chase Razork as well Oscar nice stun
Not sure if he has the slice dice cool down yet
Guess is correct on which one's the real showmaker root is there showmaker will just dash out to safety
Five kills. They really not gonna get anything. Is he gonna get the execute?
John
Actually gets the execute that's zero kills for fanatic
Wow, I can't believe that's how it played out
DK, they're able to get the kill on to Jun, they're able to spread out, and then they walk away without giving over anything to Fnatic.
3K now, the gold lead in the early game, and Fnatic are very quickly falling apart.
Gaming is just in the face of no one Jun Poovie winning. Completely unafraid.
Humanoid will catch a wave on the bottom side, hasn't even completed a 9-up yet, but this is a terrifying position.
Only Noah and Razorok have completed an item thus far.
You've got Triforce, Ludin's, Heartsteal on the three middle members of DK.
It's going to be really tough for them to contest anything, and it's a minute away from that Herald.
And they are just being rooted in the early game by just Lucid's presence being everywhere on the map.
He's been involved in every single kill that DK have been able to find for themselves.
They have a 2.5k gold lead, and it's just evenly spread across the map.
Even the Braum has a 600 gold lead.
I don't think that one's important.
That one's less important, obviously, but Kingen, he is a full level down.
I wasn't keeping track of how he ended up falling so far behind, but ultimately, he's still going to have value and relevance with these fights coming up.
And also, we already talked about it, Renekton up against Abram is going to be very difficult to play,
especially with how much strong Lucid is. This frontline is going to be so difficult for Fnatic to find their way past.
And if Cussive blows, Abram's passive is just so difficult to play against for any champion that wants to dive.
Dance around auto attacks. You will eventually get stunned no matter what you do.
It's humanoid. It's a soul unbound back. Q3.
Try to set up some control on the bottom side of the map, but you can see in the
mid lane Noah slowly getting pushed in aiming with a pretty clear range advantage
makes it easy for him to get first pushes.
Jon and Razor debating if they want to go for a play here.
Some resources, excuse me, Burner to Bohans that now Noah trying to start things off with aiming,
but there is Lucid waiting, trying to hand deliver. Noah flots me over to Kale,
at least gets the one for one.
Wow, a heavy commitment from Noah,
as he does end up trading one for one in the mid lane.
And Luce had not been there.
Maybe it could have gone more favorably for him.
Meanwhile on the bot side of map,
Kingen getting zoned away from his tower,
as Shoemaker finding advantages from himself
from the top side, pushing Oscar in and out of the lane.
But the Herald's still gonna go in the way,
go in favor, sorry, of T plus Kia.
You can see here in the, in the economy snapshot,
ah, it's pretty favored right now.
To the side of T plus Kia,
Oscar in and getting something back but again getting impact out of this redacted
It looks like we'll be stridebreaker. It's gonna be tough. Hopefully he'll be able to stick to those targets is
Okay, just continue that topside threat
I only have one grub, but still putting so much pressure down
I think when it comes to expectation setting, right? We talked about how DK should come in as the favorites
Yeah, we talked about how while they can be a chaotic team so far this game's locks have been very clean
And look, we talked to Chronicle, and the thing Chronicle said is, if you want to understand
if you care winning the game, the most common version is mid-jungle 2v2 domination.
And that has basically been the game so far.
Take a look back at this sequence.
There was a pick on side.
This was during the NOAA 1v1.
If anyone was at least able to grab that kill on a Moham.
Valuable, a much needed kill as well, as Fnatic continuing to fall further and further behind.
They set their sights on the mid lane. Razzork getting zoned out. Razzork has the flash!
He'll make her now chasing.
Little bit of damage back from Razzork.
This is the change, which means that Razzork just barely gets away with his life, but the mid tower still goes down.
Humanoid secures the top tier 1, but DK, they're not gonna slow down here. They still have the Herald,
and they wanna put some pressure down onto this tier 2, especially given that Razzork is under way right now.
They don't have any damage! I think that's just a bit of a fake trying to get DK to back off.
They'll take their time. Aiming will knock down the tower.
The push and bot, they can smoothly rotate over to the dragon, this is going to be the
third one of the game.
Humanoid is going to try and keep his pressure into the top lane as Kingon commits the TP
to try and stop him.
Knock-up there from Humanoid, well timed on the TP.
Now TP's more coming in from Fanatic, it's going to be 2v2 on the top side.
Oscar is here as well, they're trying to lock up Showmaker, trying as much damage
as possible.
Oscar taking the tower, but he just gets to lead it.
Now Humanoid is going and trying to get Showmaker, but he can't get into the
gun mode, I'm here to interrupt.
Oh that's not good for Fanatic, Q3 back at the very least gets a kill, but
they can't finish off Showmaker.
Tier 2 at least will drop and the dragon falls in the meantime, it's chaos!
Yes!
Treykos, yes it is!
This is what we've come to expect from Fnatic.
They know that they're not in a position to contest the dragon, so instead they go for the Crossman.
Once Showmaker teeps in to help defend that top tower, it's a 2v2, but Fnatic just overforce.
They're convinced that they're able to one-shot Showmaker, but they just don't quite have the damage.
Instead, Oscar loses his life.
They still are able to kill King and because Razzle and Juna are able to make their way up towards the top side.
Ultimately they get the top tower but they still find themselves about two and a half, nearly 3k cold down.
Well, now DK are on sole point.
Yes.
Which is very terrifying.
Not even 20 minutes in.
Yeah, I guess LeBlanc and Ezreal also double scary.
As Amon continues to be relatively unfazed in the mid lane,
Noah did find that all in but it was still very close even without Lucid getting involved.
See what the setup on the next objective is going to look like. Two minutes, tell that Baron.
Can't imagine that either team is going to rush for it.
And Oscar just shepherding in this bot lane wave.
It's Fanatic trying to find somewhere to play.
Humor one once again sent out to a side lane. It's Fanatic, classic for Showmaker.
Ready to try and punish it. Blast cone over, dash in.
Immediate dash back and they're just dancing around each other.
Lucid there to support in case Showmaker wants to go in for another trade.
Blade is a huge spike for Yone, the thing is Lucid is there to cover with Moham right behind him,
humanoid alone won't be enough to look for any type of play against all these players.
The Lucid with continuing his strong jungle coverage, sure he's behind and far but in terms of
impact on the map he has just been absolutely everywhere. Stealing away this Gromp knows
he should be safe to do so as Shomake continues to push in that top wave. Yeah, Oscar's found
and a nice push in bot, but that level lead that he had earlier is completely disappeared,
his king can catch that.
And if we just take a look at the vision that Fnatic had, it's almost nothing.
You can see, question mark pings out a little bit on the bottom side, they know showmakers
here, they assume Lucid is here, but they don't really have that concrete information,
so Humanoid really can't push much further than this until his team is here to support
and clear out some of that vision, push out some of these waves alongside him.
DK just lingering lurking in the far-off ready to try and find these picks.
Be careful, there's lucid spots out there.
This dragon is going to be extremely important for Fnatic.
They're going to have to find a way to gain some control.
Of course, it's still two and a half minutes away.
Baron's going to be the first objective spawn,
but I'd be surprised if DK tried to force that one.
They can set up for the bot tier two. They have a wave on its way.
Keep mid pushed in, have Shoemaker go top.
He doesn't have TP available at the moment, but Yone's in a similar boat.
I don't know, over staying on the top side of the map, maybe he's going to look for a play.
But I think the smarter decision is to recall, spend more gold you can.
I will say this two-on-a-spite for Razor can be very devastating in fights.
Rylai's absolutely disgusting item on the Zyra certainly simplifies a lot of the CC.
For the side of Fanatic makes it easier for Humanoid to follow up.
Maybe that is something they can leverage to try to find a better or more favorable fight.
Barron's now on the board, DK with really solid topside control, strong side laners as well.
I mean this Ezreal is spiking so hard right now as well, that's one of the most concerning things.
I think Noa is still quite away from the Rageblade.
And it's really tough to play this one out because even if you do get that Rageblade, right,
Moham is there and you're in such a lead for the side of DK that you really can just save that
that unbreakable for when Noah does decide to go in or Razork tries to burn all those cool downs
two items three only is a big breakpoint strike breakers an incredibly strong item on this patch
maybe that is enough but so far this game DK have really just been running the show and
back have not been able to find a fight that's very favorable for them at all right now
Phenatic prioritizing the Navy lane humanoid to farm on a side lane which on the one hand
is fine the dragon's a minute away you've got to be shifting your perspective towards that
objective you cannot afford to give soul over towards a Leblanc and an Ezreal.
Their poke damage is just too much. I'm sure Humanoid is desperate to get enough gold to complete
his second item. You can see the Raidblade now finish Vanua which is a good upgrade.
Humanoid can get the item, complete the Stridebreaker before the fight. They're essentially
uneven footing in terms of item completion. That is what matters. Item completions,
all these XP relatively close this would be the closest fight the fanatic of that
access to all game over all these decades and they have no set up right now but
they do have items true okay is that the stridebreaker completed
huh yes it is okay so this is what they were waiting for they're now gonna be I
mean it's the best circumstance to try and take a fight but now they've got to
make their way into the river which is not gonna be no easy feat they were
They're always going to be at a disadvantage there to choose between setup or itemization.
They chose setup.
So fighting through this show point will be tricky, especially the showmaker just lingering,
constantly harassing.
Gnatic moving in.
Observer showing us the vision.
They see really nothing.
Razorak needs to be ready to go over the wall.
Objective getting lower and lower.
Remember, this is sole point for the side of DK.
Lucid still in the area.
2K getting lower.
Razorak gets it!
Crucial steal.
The rest of the team now just getting out.
They got what they came for.
Humorak has to be careful.
Quick ulti back to safety.
They took away the drink.
want any other part of this fight they don't want to overstay their welcome it
looks like that the title of jungle steel King still holds true for Razor
domestically he was always happy to take those fights of course DK they
recognize what they can still do on the map good chip damage onto this tier two
in the bot lane Oscar can't afford to overextend here is the rest of T plus
Kia are shifting their attention towards the topside river they still have
smite available on lucid and they're just not starting the objective but they're
putting that pressure down on to fanatic forcing them to overstay a little bit
giving DK the opportunity to reset and get back down to the map. And it's good
that we're early in the game for the side of fanatic because Oscar showing
in the bot lane at the same time as humanoid could have been really rough
for that bearing contest. DK not really in a strong enough position to burn
through that health bar quickly would take quite a lot of time and both
TPs are available for the fanatic solo laners. So all things considered across the board, you know DK
Yes, they're still on sole point, but too much more advantage their 2k gold lead is very spread out really aiming the only one with a
Significant individual lead and this is starting to a pretty close game all things considered
Yeah
I mean the good news for fanatic is the lead hasn't grown bigger right DK haven't successfully been able to
converted into any additional objectives outside of the ones they're able to
secure in the early game. They've done some good damage onto that bot tier 2 but
ultimately they are still in a better position and mid tower still stands
strong it's not going to be an easy see for them especially with the low-range
champions of Yone and Kaisa. So they're going to need to find a fight or some
type of advantage in order to really knock that tower down. You'll see
the DK always first on that midway with humanoid, going for a bit of a trade here.
Being incredibly aggressive, quicksoul unbound right as the Meganar comes through,
stops Kingen from using that North, they do want to fight here but again there's no objective to fight for.
Flash.
Flash up, Kingen is nice, slow there from the Rylai's means Lucid can't really approach.
They're being herded into the bottom side and meanwhile on the top lane you've got Showmaker pushing that tower,
Oscar really cannot contest this LeBlanc.
Cannot.
But it's an interesting dynamic where King and in the extended fight can't really contest
humanoid either.
The great thing about this Yone is he does scale exceptionally well.
He's an absolute menace to deal with in the side lane.
He's got a decent amount of HP now as well, thanks to the Strybreaker.
Yeah, the sustain, the dash on the Q3, the ability to mitigate so much CC with the
Soul on Bound.
It's difficult to match.
Of course, Showmaker probably has the tools to do it decently well, but King certainly
Oh yeah.
Jermak is definitely never gonna die to humanoid, that's for sure, unless he fully commends everything.
I would be surprised if he did that.
Aiming now three items and that is a problem for the side of Fnatic.
Noah only just got the blasting one.
Fnatic though, still ready to fist fight for this setup.
Lucid will win that smite fight.
Ulti from aiming, chucking out Razor.
Both sides posturing.
With humanoid playing in bottom lane,
him lane he will have a bit of time to try and hit that tier 2 however will need
to immediately TP if a fight does break out where a showmaker is much much
closer both teams don't want to over extend the first one of worlds is
incredibly valuable at least sees second seed versus the other case third
because I think if you'd ask many they were not expecting T Bliskey to be
the third seed but here we go the band started off banana have no
information of this being started. No, of course. Voidseeker. Nice to have that long-range poke tool
to give them at least a little bit of information, but you're right, DK. I think maybe undo hesitation
if they had perfect information that they would have realized they probably could force that down.
The thing is, Dragon spawns in a minute. True. So the worst case scenario is no one gets the
the ban, right? But you've lost a lot of HP and now Fnatic because you're in the
river have better position over mid giving them access to the dragon so you
then can't contest it. So yeah they fished and they said you know what this
isn't safe enough instead we're gonna go back to base set up for the dragon
spend what gold we can Fnatic's in a similar position where they want to
spend as much as they can. Ingen Chunked does have the TP but the midway of
control is just consistently in the favor of D plus Kia. I mean it's just so
hard to step up against Ezreal right he just gets hit the way for free with
mistake shot. You always have to put yourself in jeopardy if you're Noah to step into that
wave when you don't have the team to support you as Fanatic. Again, find themselves in a
position where they may have to fight through this choke point, both teams sprinting towards
that mid wave to try to get push or at least send it to a neutral state. Bot wave in
favor of Fanatic gives them an angle to play through, but you can see that control
ward in the brush. The minimap at the bottom of your screen does mean that Kingen
always has a TP flank angle. No rage, however, Megan R won't be available too
quickly as Fanatic, again, trying to take away this objective Lucid Miles away.
They just need to burn this down now well played from an ad that can secure this decay
If they don't find the fight that's big now instantly the fall coming from humanoid soul on bound
Gonna find three on the knock-up
Oh!
Snapback is detaineesly and that's the power of the pick
Noah goes in right after him, a perfect one-two punch to find the shutdown on the aiming
I don't know where Fnatic find a massive fight
They shut down the bot lane of D plus Kia and now there's a potential baron on the cards
The fight that they needed they're able to find off the back of humanoid for the great alternates
Fantastic engage, Jun and Humanoid together, Noah, following now though. They're trying out the pace of the game.
This is where it starts, they see the showmaker, came, they turn this one back to the power of the Ori, this fight is huge, shut down there.
Humanoid starting to look like a monster, trying to 2v1 the solo laners on the side of DK, while his team finishes the objective, flashback to safety.
Showmaker wants to finish the job, Humanoid now in trouble, and the Baron still tearing through his team as showmaker and King get...
Look at them, circle them, try to find these angles, Jun coming over the wall.
What is the call here? Fanatic desperate to finish this objective playing with fire getting lower and lower Baron taken by Razor Secures there
But now Kinga going mega Kinga trying to finish the job
AS REAL ALL TO THE BEST OF IT ALL
But now it's Noah vs Kinga and NO ONE GETS THE FIGHT
This is the chaos we were waiting for
Absolute cinema delivering as Fanatic find the Baron, but what did it cost them all for other members?
Yone over steps, Humanoid tries to go for 2v1 and he just can't win that.
King and is able to get the Mechana, connects the jungler into the wall along with the support.
Oskar gets killed by the snipe, I mean I think it was the siren that had enough burst to actually take out Showmaker at the very end there.
And then Noah stays alive. The coaching staff is stressed.
And that was the situation where I really think that Humanoid was feeling himself a little too much.
and he oversteps, but the Baron is secured. Another call is dead even.
Yeah, this is what we want to see.
Whoa, look at that. That play will be very heavily decided by whether or not Fnatic win this game.
If they win this game, you know, respect the humanoid for having the gusto to go for it.
We didn't get a replay of the previous fight, but you have to give credit for humanoid
for finding that incredible ultimate at the bot side river, setting up the rest of Fnatic
for a huge teamfight win.
But this is the beauty of both these teams and now that we enter a state where no one has a clear advantage
Analyzation is largely equal across the boards. Oh
Nice damage coming out from no good agent loosen on the way in
You've got three members of fanatic just teaching onto me. Not really making much progress
Joe now in an awkward position as you might continues to push in bots
And this is kind of the range advantage we talked about right
It's very easy for aiming and showmaker to get down a little bit poke showmaker might have to eat some damage on the way in
Get it down, but it's a good work thus far TP bot side quick ulti from humanoid a bit of extra movements
Be now coming in knock back into the wall lucid should just be a quick kill pick up here
Nowhere for humanoid to go excellent pig to just further disrupt the potential of this Baron from fanatic. Yeah, I mean it's
Just a big misplay the rest of his team is disengaging from mid and he walks through his bot side
Generally, he pushes away that he shouldn't have pushed and you know I'd be so lock in for the sake of fanatic because
this Baron even though they're able to secure it all that ultimately does is neutralize the game
they're not able to convert it they would have loved to be able to unlock this mid tower it gives
you so much more access into the enemy jungle but instead yes well you can't say that it's not
a banger whatever else you want to say about this game it is a 300 gold baron power play
rebel baron power play excuse me which means they've lost about 1100 golds since they got
got that Baron, which does make sense, because everybody on their team died, except for Gila.
They're now really just trying to leverage those last few seconds of Baron-empowered minions
to push in mid, but it doesn't work.
Mid lane tier one is still up.
Betty.
Yeah, it is.
You know what's good for Fnatic?
Again, well, this is the silver linings for Fnatic cast.
Why?
Just for context, DeepLessGear is still winning.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, they're still in great.
If they...
All it takes is one Drake to go into November, this game's over.
Whoa!
That was close.
Yeah, we have a situation where it looks very likely that DK are going to be first on objective setup.
Yes.
And Fnatic are going to have to walk through a choke to try and contest.
And while they've gotten the last two drakes, again, every single one has the potential to be taken away by lucid.
That's very scary. Observe is showing how little Fnatic can really see.
And that's a dangerous position to be in. So they're going to do the smart thing and gain access through mid.
Oskar takes the dangerous path, doesn't get punished too much for it.
Ooh, I say that show me go with great damage.
Kinging off to the side as well.
If Fanatic can wait out the mego without losing too much more HP, it's not a bad trade deal.
It's humanly keeps his eyes locked on this tower.
They finally secure it, but it's still D plus Kia that have control over the band.
Admittedly, Blanc lost a decent amount of HP.
Oskar though continues to get chipped away from.
He needs to go back to base, TP back into the fight.
He needs to go urgently.
No deep wards, really.
Oh, there's one in the tri-brush.
There's one on the big plate.
And again, just soloing the objective.
John has no HP.
Showmaker is doing so much work in the river,
forcing Fnatic to face check.
This is exactly how you want to play.
Razor is about to just get one shot by Showmaker here.
He has forced to throw down the ultimate.
Will not get to the pit.
That is it, Vernal Solo.
And now this fight went from bad to worse.
But instantly, they find the engage.
They pull the trigger, and maybe it'll be enough.
Lucy with an excellent ultimate to try to disrupt the fight.
They're now trying to retreat.
But again, humanoid, Noah, together in the clutch.
They may have lost the objective.
But they find the angle, King in now chasing, triple kill for Noah.
Baffled and Stile fanatic found that fight.
It looked like the whole team had been chunked out that they didn't have the HP to contest.
D plus K still secured the soul, but it's Jun with an incredible ultimate to engage
followed up by humanoid that set up for the fight.
So the TP comes in from Oscar.
Look at the damage from Showmaker.
Razor can't get into the pit, the soul is secured.
Juno, no HP goes in, gets a free man ulti-connect, Noah immediately follows up,
Humanoid follows up, they force aiming out of the fight, and while Razork does fall,
the chase comes through from Noah, he's able to get a snipe with the W,
and he walks away with a triple kill. We talked about how coming into this game,
lives were going to be on the AD carry matchup, and Noah is showing up today.
I mean he persevered through what was a pretty difficult early game,
all things considered, Humanoid though, still bringing in so much damage,
He's doing so much work in those moments and you can see aiming while he is strong all things considered in terms of itemization
It's so hard for him to play fights once any piece of CC hits once he's marked at all by Noah
He really just runs out of space
Phenagnum now find themselves staring down a soul of course
They're gonna be feeling a lot more confident with more items coming through nearly full build for Noah
The Baron spawning its Phenagnum first time really this whole game gaining vision control over DK side of the map
Showmaker, oh my goodness, just look at the damage.
The Baron being stotted by Fnatic.
This is very confident, but Humor and Oscar Shredd are quite quickly know it as well.
But Showmaker's damage is so scary.
Healing now coming in, they're forcing out the early ultimate.
They managed to lock up Zhun, the bomb, engage. It's still going to be there.
Humor and Oint so fighting multiple. The Baron taking it down in the meantime.
Showmaker doing so much work, but all of DK has grouped up into a death ball.
Looking to finish these kills, Noa goes gold and Noa trying to flash out.
Blastco just knocks him straight into the airhouse.
Humor and Oint gets picked off by Showmaker on the side.
Showmaker on the side, Sean taking out as well.
It's a disaster for Fnatic.
They're getting run down, King and Flash forward.
Throws a ball, they're the wallop one hit,
but Showmaker certainly will.
Razor taking out.
The Baron costs them everything.
Oskar's the only member still alive.
That was a massive overforce from Fnatic.
And with these death timers and a wave push in mid,
Diplos came in very well,
looked to try and end the game right now.
Oskar has to delete this wave.
They don't have Baron, but if he steps up at all, he dies.
15 seconds, aren't you? 25 on human oids.
Tension mounting, Fnatic.
I don't think he can hold this.
He doesn't have the ultimate available.
Was it an overstep?
The answer seems to be yes.
Oscar dead, wave gone, base gone.
DK a bit back and forth there for a few moments,
where they'll close this game out clean.
And just like that, the game is over.
D plus gear getting the better of Fnatic
the final fight a crazy back and forth some highs some lows but ultimately it's decided off a single fight
I don't even know what to say about that one Yone looks very good great moments questable
moments but that's enough from us here at the cash desk let's send it back over to the ad to
break that one down thank you so much we promised you absolute cinema or uh yeah i forgot
We believe in the show!
You lost that thingy! You didn't believe!
We got both of it, and it was really interesting to see how the things we said that were going to make this interesting is that we have two teams who once they are in control cannot keep that control and steer it into a victory.
And we saw that from DK, from D plus Kia, and we saw it from Fnatic, and oh, the final fight you did.
Yeah, for sure. That final fight was definitely...
It was a bit of a yikes. It felt like it already looked a bit dire,
but as soon as Noah is ulting into that one, it's definitely a rough one.
But I will say, I was saying at the start while watching the game,
Fnatic can't throw if they don't have the lead.
So for the longest time, they didn't have the lead, right?
But then the problem actually became, they got a lead,
and then suddenly what they had a lead, they started throwing,
but then DK got a lead, and then they...
Like, it was really whoever had the lead really didn't want it.
It was really tough, and a lot of it for me was just how often Yone was getting picked in fight, but he was the point.
Noah and five guys, it was really tough for him to get out of this situation.
He doesn't even get a burger out of it.
He doesn't, he doesn't.
I'm gonna zag.
Okay.
Go ahead.
This is not Noah's fault, guys.
There's already an infernal soul, and like, sure, this is the final fight, and people are predisposed to say,
lol noa yeah but come on sure yeah for sure if you're asking me about the game
completely agree noa held them in that game for so long he find a solo kill as well and aiming in
this game state where it looks super dire they trade one-for-one i think noa had an incredible
early mid game here especially considering how whack that early game looks like right
but it's still the same trick or point that happens in that late game
you're only as good as your last fight i'm sorry to say it and you're on the world state so it
So it has to be made so perfect.
To me, it was simply about they had the lead, first of all.
And then Bear's, we'll talk about it afterwards.
Talk about it later.
We've all that's ShowMaker standing by
in the Verizon Post Game Interview.
And we're back to the stage for the first victory
of Diploskea.
And I have ShowMaker with me to talk about this one.
Thank you so much for joining me after this game.
It was a complicated one.
Even though you had an early lead,
what happened in game?
And also, what do you think of the damage distribution
in your composition?
because it felt like you were not dealing enough damage in the end.
I think it was hard because we made some mistakes in the mid-range.
I don't think we had a lot of trouble with our damage, because we had a longer range.
I have the world's trailer video you were seeing 2019, it was my first world, I'm such a different player now.
What changed mostly for you Shoemaker in all these years?
You played for the first time in 2019, and you've grown a lot and you're a different player.
What kind of changes did you experience?
I've played a lot of tournaments, and I've had some good and some bad results.
But I think I've grown more as I've experienced many things, both as a pro and as a pro gamer.
I think that's what I heard.
I'm confident in my performance, so please look forward to it.
in two of Riot's music videos.
Are you the best Syndra at Weltshramaker?
Yes.
The question that I have for you is that I remember
that last time you were in Europe,
you talked about the UW server as some villains
inhabitating that server.
I know you had an awful time.
Has the server been treating you nice this time?
How is solo queue for you?
I didn't really get to play a lot of solo queue games so far,
but they were still welcoming me already.
And I'm excited to say hello to all the users out there
in UW solo queue.
Stay tuned for Showmakers solo queue adventures.
Thank you so much for the interview.
Congrats on winning your first game.
G-Song, thank you again for the translation.
And we will be back for game five right after this.
Yes.
Get out to safety just in time.
Rise and turn down the ultimate,
but hand delivered.
Lucid bringing just half under the tower of punish.
Lucid going in and already lost the keeper
and he's going to go to safety.
All to go.
Head to target, he's going to have anywhere else
to go.
I'm gonna lose today.
We got fight after this.
Fight, fight, fight, fight.
Round, round, round, round.
Let's get it, let's get it.
Look at me, look at me, look at me.
I cannot kill her.
Zaskar dead, wave gone, base gone.
DK been back and forth there for a few moments.
Without closes.
What are you waiting for?
Waiting for the opponent to see how much they want to win.
Waiting for everything to go well to my brain.
No one would listen.
All the features are alluding to the fact we hope these will be
two of the most insane back-and-forth games of today.
Now I didn't like the first movie.
Perhaps I will like Team Liquid vs. LNG.
Oh man. I enjoyed the first movie.
I'm sure you did.
I hate her.
It had everything.
This was also going to have everything.
I may not like the result.
We'll see.
We'll see.
We'll see.
Let's introduce our teams.
We're going to start with LNG, the third seed coming out of BLPL with Zika Weiwei, Scout
Gala, and Hangan.
I think it is very, very important here.
There was a lot of questions about whether Scout would be making it.
There was even a post that Yigao would be able to fill in for him, but he's made
it.
The question would just be about how much time they've had to practice together,
how much they were preparing to play without him.
But this is ultimately the right thing because it is the five players that qualified
the world. Exactly. And he was kind of the heart and soul of the reasons why they're even here to
begin with. So it would have been tragic if like they couldn't play without him. But here he is
with his crazy hair and all and his play style. So I'm going to be excited to see how he performs
in this game and how the team can rally around. Yeah, only six days, uh, you know, together,
I think at most right in terms of the practicing, but of course, you know each other
very well, then over to team liquid, not the first seed out of the LCS, but the second
Seed will talk about why impact MTA PA yawn and core JJ. Yeah, and the story very much was this split that they had the perfect
Split in the regular season. They were going into playoffs with all the confidence is the best North American team
And then a widow minion just hit the turret the next
Something Gen G less of a favorite because they didn't win
Exactly. I like the call on this one and a lot of it was based off this man in front of you
Well, now it's CoreJJ, but it's both of them.
CoreJJ and Impact.
Yeah.
Both of these guys really are the commanders in the team, really command the early game
and also how they play out lane swaps and the mid game.
They're an incredibly smart team.
And my focus a lot of the time is going to be on Impact, who is the MVP of this split,
which is crazy how long in story his career was when he was having his MVP interview
on stage.
He was talking about how that was the one award that he was really looking forward
getting that it really meant a lot to him because he's a teacher but he's also a constant student of
the game. And this is some highlights from the final that they did play. Very competitive, best of
five. Was very like for you to go to game five as Team Liquid almost came back in game four. But
ultimately the story of their split was incredible team fighting. One of the best lane swapping
teams in the world actually with how many innovations they made throughout the split
and how they really drove the meta throughout the LCS and then it was capped off by
by impacting MVP, but he was MVP in part
because the team was so cohesive
in their ways of playing lane swaps
and he'd always be levels ahead of the other top laner.
We just cut away from that solo kill,
but he was getting a lot of them.
He was getting a lot of them.
You can't throw them all.
You know, we gotta get to the film.
Fair enough.
Let's check in with our MasterCard fan predictions
for this one, where, you know,
we'll see if the fans are realistic.
Maybe we've got some believers out there.
Hold on, why are they realistic?
I don't know if this is actually,
I think 50-50 is realistic.
I got asked to my face by team liquid when I walked into the hotel the other day. What's your chance?
I said 40 60. Yeah, so this is actually very realistic. That's a decent chance
I'm just checking what time it is right now in Los Angeles for us to be having this kind of
Let me ask you. The East Coast exists just two razz. That's fair enough, three hours to the LA time. Yeah, it's noon.
I'm gonna ask you, I asked you. Like this team liquid, you know, yes
They lost the finals, but it was the most hype I've ever heard about an NA team
I think maybe in ten years coming into this world championship, right?
Is that really all deflated because of that finals?
Not at all.
I think it is.
I think we're hoping.
Then you should give it a 50-50.
Yeah!
At least.
It's a 50-50.
GV's not here to say it.
I'm going to say it.
All right.
Caster's.
It's a 50-50.
They can do it.
Yes.
A 50-50.
Yes, it is.
OK, 50-50.
There you go.
Perfect.
Jett's just being a heavy downer.
Where's the NA hype?
We haven't even lost yet, Jett.
Evil people are right.
He just wants to throw it out there.
I mean, there is a lot of hype coming around
as they all, by the way, might be cursed.
But today's the day we break it, I think.
No, I have cast Best of One wins.
I just never cast a series win, Fred.
So we're fine.
If you're in any game, not a series.
Not a series.
It's fine.
It's just the best of one.
I've cast those wins.
To be fair, like they said on the desk as well,
this is a very hype about matchup
because a lot of people have questions about LNG
after watching through their summer playoffs.
Obviously getting wiped out by Wayvo for them
to make the run.
They came through a stirred seed.
But again, I think there were a lot of questions about Waybo in that series.
And I think it was kind of a one-off when you consider how strong the other
sides of the LPL are and how much LNG had to actually do for us to give them faith.
They only just started running in summer.
Before then, they were one of the worst teams in the LPL, at least one of the best question.
Yeah, absolutely.
And I mean, I do think that LNG, you know, has their vulnerabilities.
You know, they're not a bulletproof team.
They do make mistakes.
Sometimes they have poor engagement signs.
They aren't really perfectly coordinated in how they actually want to play out the game.
But on the other side, TL, I think this is going
to be a big test for them.
There is a lot of hype around this team.
I absolutely agree with Shox.
I think this is the most excited I have heard fans
and analysts and stuff be about a team.
Really says like 2016 TSM, which did not work out at all.
But it is really exciting to see a team performing
at this level.
They swept an attic multiple times this year in VO3 series
that they ran into them.
They almost beat T1 twice.
They were able to take games off them.
So really the next step, if there is to be one moving
forward is to take a series off of an Eastern team.
And I know that TL has been working incredibly hard
to really develop as a squad and to try to be able to do that.
So we're going to see, are they going
to be able to be competitive against LNG?
It is just a one game.
It is just a B01.
But I think people are really going
to make a lot of judgments based on this first game
here at Worlds.
And let's be very real as well in this game.
I feel like we're going to be expecting a line swap as TL.
It's at Brett and Bada, one of the best to do it as well.
Let's look through as we get the Lucian Ben on the other side
of Roar going as well.
It's gonna open for TL to try and work that magic with the onkliks.
Yeah, I mean the big question for me is just what style is TL going to bring out?
Because we have seen even some of the very best teams bring out old styles, right?
You know, when we look at Gen.G draft, when we look to play in day one with PSG going back to these champions that were nerfed.
Even Rumble here, gonna get picked for Zika, and he's one of the champions that was heavily nerfed.
And initially people were saying, okay, it's gonna be dead.
So I'm really curious to see what APA is gonna bring out.
You know, there's a lot of questions on like, oh, well can APA actually work well in this meta?
He was known as a mage guy like I think it's really weird when I hear people talking about you know
He's he can only play 80 carries. How are they gonna be able to make it work?
I'm like bro a year ago everyone was calling him a zigz a soul to say so like you know what is it?
So I'm gonna be interested
You know is he gonna be going back to to that sort of style is he gonna be trying to just play meta and play
Syndra and play Ori is gonna be playing something completely different
But with those first three picks pretty aggressive stuff here y'all gonna be grabbing the kaisa
We have a jacks here as well as that scarner
There is some slight potential for it to be flexed around, but the expectation definitely that it is going to be jacks top your port impact
Which is not really the TL style, you know, generally he is just kind of on another meatball and TL traditionally throughout this year
Really did play to carry comps, you know almost exclusively
They would play APA and yawn on carries and they would kind of just play three other champions to enable and set them up
So in fact, we're gonna be playing a little bit of a different match up here
And we'll see if that doesn't work out for him where LNG. Yeah, they're still playing a couple patches ago
Oh, yeah, and we'll see if this does work because this is Tristana mid for a scout
You know he was excellent on these types of picks
This is gonna be the the rumble tough as well
So a couple shims that have been pretty heavily nerfed, but you know that they definitely can make work
I know there's a big discussion about the scrim bubbles as well since Asia came late to to Europe
You know only a couple of days ago. We were just talking about it
And you know for Korea for China these teams that have come alongside these leagues
We don't know what they've been screwing. We don't know how different it is
And who's been lingering in the past as you were saying who's right and who's wrong. Yeah, that's right
It develops over the matter. That's why Swiss is so good because as you start getting into the BO3s
You start getting a closer look as well now
I want to continue with draft because I feel like now it's gonna show our head of what way where wants to pilot
Running into this scanner to Lee is the banner way the
Malkai denial from TL side as well giving way way a bit more agencies
We know historically especially last year on Waybo. It was way ways bread and butter as well
Yeah, absolutely. I mean and this year for LNG, you know, he was playing a lot of said 20
So we definitely can play that facilitative role.
Also did play, obviously, a lot of AP junglers,
as most junglers around the world did do.
So it's just really kind of anyone's guess
as to what the teams reads are.
Because clearly, we're having some very different reads.
Some teams are playing more kind of what's expected,
this new age style.
But a lot of our top teams and a lot of these Eastern teams
are coming out and just saying, you know what?
We're just kind of playing the old thing.
We had Chabu on Lucian.
We had Choby playing Smulder.
We're having Scout playing the Tristana.
Or having all these kind of different picks that were considered to be that old style.
And we'll have to see if this continues to work, hey, maybe other teams are going to be reverting back to it.
And it's going to be really interesting as Arel would be a pretty obvious pick here.
A potential takeaway for him.
Core JJ obviously a good pairing with the Kaisa.
Nautilus has also been banned out.
Those are kind of the two main pairings that you do generally look for with the Kaisa.
And Alistar is also banned by TL.
So they are pretty limited as far as that kind of support
and gauge pool.
It really is those four champions that are considered
kind of like that top tier of engaged supports.
Of course, there are other ways you can go,
but it will be interesting to see what Core wants
to bring out here.
As they do know what the 2v2 is now,
so their one kind of edge is that they could actually
pick potentially four, that 2v2 lane,
and it is going to be Niko.
So this is one of the things that APA was bringing out
quite a while ago and did have some success with.
You know, it definitely wasn't succeeding in lane,
but was more known for his team fights.
But he has improved massively over the year.
If you haven't watched this guy since Worlds last year,
he had played a handful of games with TL before playoffs.
And he was a sub in summer last year.
And him and Yon have improved so much since last year's Worlds.
So I know they're really looking to try
to have a good performance and showcase to the world,
hey, we are not those same players we were last year.
We really have come here to compete.
I mean, I remember at MSI reflecting
going like the talent on this team is insane.
In fact, watching domestically for LCS, you know that's only grown, you know, with Impact and CoreJJ being such a stellar standout to the LCS end of TL.
Having a stronger foundation only makes this team scary now. We've hyped up TL. Of course I've got a Xael here, so I'm going to milk it as much as I can.
But on the other side for LNG, I mean, solo laners have a bit of prowess here again. You're expecting to be facilitated by Weiwei.
This feels about right, with Gala and Hung playing, you know, bot-centric duty with the gym, with the setup duty.
I've talked about before this feels like an LNG comp where again you look for those solo liners to be in a good spot
So the LNG don't fall behind and look like headless chickens
And I've got to say I find rumble said one he a pretty terrifying 2v2 there, you know for the jacks for the scarter
That's gonna be really scary for impact again. He's not really known
You know as a guy who is kind of that carry player
He does bring them out from time to time and he can't be successful on them
His world skin is a jack skin
But that was a long time ago and that's not really how he's kind of you know one MVP this year
it's not really how he's been at the top of the LCS for so long and even been
really competitive internationally this is a guy that does command a lot of
respect when he does go there so I do think Weiwei and Zika could have a lot
of pressure on topside it's gonna be up to omt to try to keep impact safe and
we'll see if this Jax can avoid falling behind because he'd be useless
very very quickly if it does. Let's see if TL can bring themselves up the
region's merit because a hundred p's getting knocked out in play-ins with a
big sting to North America there are high expectations on TL there are
high expectations on FlyQuest and even though TL didn't win the championship I
think a lot of analysts and a lot of people are saying the same thing like
this is still the best team coming out of LCS when you look at the whole of summer
and their progression throughout and how dominant they were. Exactly I mean I
think it's the same discussion that people are having with Gen.G where a lot
of people are still favoring Gen.G over HLE because you're looking at the
entirety of the year the entirety of the split you know not just one best
of five at the end of the day where FlyQuest did really perform
incredibly well and deservedly are the champions but people still have a
lot of expectations here for TL. Now for the other side for LNG. Yes, their power rankings are hard. Thank you to AWS. But LNG were
managing to come through in a 3-0 fashion versus Waybo in that regional finals. The biggest thing about LNG for me is that seeing
scouts succeed is a big tick. You know, getting him ahead and getting him to a good spot. And he is such a great player. But
then again, if LNG don't have that direction, that's when things get a little bit dicey, as I was saying in the lead up.
Absolutely, and TL are looking like they're going into lane swap, so we can talk a little bit about
you know, Yon and APA and their development. So this is all pro votes that they actually received.
You're going back all the way to summer last year as MT.
He's just getting hungier.
We'll be able to farm the APA in even spring this year. Didn't get a single vote,
not a single point in all pro voting, and he was very heavily the favorite and one first team all pro this split.
You know he has developed massively, Janna as well, you know got a couple points
You know kind of some third place votes and things like that in the past
But these players have just worked so hard and proved so fast
That it has really been a big part of why this team got so much better, you know
Obviously core and impact they are legends
They were already kind of that basis for the team with APA and Janna improving around them
It's been something that has allowed this team to really kind of build around that and have that as their focus for these
two carry comps as we are seeing impact here potentially going to get doh but
core did base early top and he is running straight down so we'll see if he's going
to get there in time and got a level off it as well of course as well levels
very important in the lane swaps we've seen are not only throughout today but the
course of worlds counting on that impact as you look at rough and wayways
level three as well is it going to be enough of jack says you said core is
now shadowing LNG trying to commit to this dive big wave coming through
full shot the start of the damage goes into turret Zika hovering top and
And I said no as I'll they're like yep, we're leaving it. This is actually massive as
They're gonna just have been in the dies
So they didn't have confidence that they could actually pull it off with chords AJ showing up
So core making a really good move there. This is something that they've been getting so much credit for in NA
Especially but even from a lot of analysts around the world is TL is so adept at playing out these lanes
What they really know their timings there
some of the in the LCS was constantly innovating the way in which we played out these lanes
swaps and really making a lot of other teams in the LCS look kind of dizzy in
these situations. He's into the narrative I know you guys been talking about me in
the whole year and also been talking to you about particularly that Khor is just
so smart as well with his map placement in the early game and how they can play
around his movements. I mean it's it's really funny when you talk to other
pros against Khor as we're gonna have to play here. It is a big brain one if
that the start of soft but impact gets on out and Gala and Hump just too
strong getting some damage back on to you. A lot of pros always talk about how
there's always a point in the game where there's this one wave you need
to crash, or there's one part where you need to be covered.
And they're saying if you're playing against CORE,
you can guarantee he's in the brush.
Like, he's going to be there to mess it up.
He's going to be there to really put pressure on you.
And he kind of has that aura, I guess, about it.
In the LCS, people really do struggle to play against them.
And he always seems to know exactly where
to be on the map here.
But LNG, we have to talk about them.
This is obviously incredibly stacked team.
They are so strong when they are working well.
I think their struggles can come at times when they're
not on the same page and how they're playing on the team
fights.
I think Hun can be a little bit up and down
and how it works with way.
Isn't always at the same level as those top support jungle
duos in the LPL.
But Scout is truly world class.
I think it's truly world class.
Scali is incredible.
Like these guys are some of the best carries around.
When they're on their game, they can be nearly unbeatable.
I mean, Zicker is now for sure, right?
I think this year has been a great development year for him
as well.
Rough spring as we already mentioned to Ellen Jane.
And now we're going into the stories,
but it's a general line swap guys
We've seen the defense from Core JJ,
I'm now unable to stop the back.
As he tries a shadowing strike into Fog of War,
Core just backs away and he looks to go and match top yet again.
But my point being that LNG, I was surprised in team,
the fact that they even made it here
with this last minute run with this pop off from Scout
with Zika's development.
And the fact that if you look at the Waybo 3-0
in Regionals, Zika was a real big carry of that series.
Things like his gnaw are incredible
and Zika's just matured so much as a player.
I missed a league where we have incredible, I said,
we on LEC now, they have incredible top laners in the league.
I said, I'm not caught, it's all right.
Yeah, yeah, saved it, saved it for sure.
LNG has opened up a little lead here,
but not too big of a deal.
And again, I think, you know,
TL's going to be pretty happy to have avoided
that early lane stay, you know,
talking about that rumble,
a Cedruani into the jacks, that's definitely problematic.
And Jen, obviously, a really strong early laner here
as well.
So definitely happy to be just down a little bit
gold here. At the end of the day it's just about 200 gold. It's pretty much just that
plate and a little bit of farm. So not really a big deal whatsoever. And Teal is just gonna
be looking to play potentially for these grubs here. We'll see if they're gonna be looking
towards that. It's traditionally in the LCS they have been pretty heavily preferring
to go for the grubs instead of down towards dragon. Once again said earlier before by
Dragos and Betty about the dragon priority for LPL teams considering the potlenders
they have now corrupt spawned.
Wayway is up here at the right time.
But you can see as well as that comes through
from the bottom lane of Yon,
TL still aren't gonna find themselves into a fight.
Yeah, I mean, TL has push in mid
and they have push in top,
so they're feeling pretty good.
You can see that the clone from APA,
he actually just sent it up over towards Raptors
and had the recall there,
which extends the clone animation.
So we have a little bit of scouting
and now Core gonna move in.
LNG didn't actually get to trade
anything on the other side of the map.
We'll see if they can look for an angle here
on Yon though as they have found him
a little bit exposed. Not confident to go for it though, because I don't actually think
that Core was ever spotted leaving me. So they're not sure if he's in that side rush,
and it's going to be TL's looking for their play mid.
Well the double whammy on the scout, pop blossom down, interrupts the jump, and a Tangle
barbs hits max range. He flashed in a straight line, and that's an easy rush into the
wall. TL open up, blood first in mid.
Nicely done from TL, striking first, they're going to try to get Yon back, but a good
killer instinct there, pulls him to safety after the cleanse is used. The interrupt
on the rocket jump, the timing there really nice from APA, Scout a little bit late on
the buster shot to try to knock him back to safety, ends up dying, loses his flash and has
no TP so it's a bit of a costly death there for him.
UmT unfortunately is the one that gets the kill, it's not going to be going over on
APA but still TL going to be really happy about how this game is starting out and
let's see if they can remain calm, play their game because this NNA was definitely their
comfort zone.
You know they are a team that when they get ahead are really adept at taking
over enemy space on the map, pressuring jungle camps, and this is something that last year
they really started to talk about where they really wanted to make a transformation and
try to turn themselves into that top team.
And they talked about, you know, you can be scared of a play going wrong, or you can
just make the correct decision and say, this is the right play to go for, who cares if
it goes wrong?
We need to actually believe in our mechanics, we need to believe in our ability to play
it out.
So they became a team that really was contesting a lot for objectives when they're ahead,
they're going to fight you for camps, they're going to fight you at every turn, and
believe that they're gonna be able to pull it off and we'll see if they can do it at this elite level here at Worlds.
It's what would give them a head start here in the Swiss stage. Again against LNG, we said this was competitive for a big reason.
And in this early game, not just that first blood, but the three grubs going over to TL as well.
Dragon sits here and missed for now as top laners are still bot, bot laners are still top, and core consistently moving now to match Hung,
who's also trying to find an angle around this mid lane.
Yeah, it's grooving up here with Weiwei.
Obviously, TL made that first strike with the Leona
and that Skarner combo.
But APA is getting out to the side there again.
Just going to be constantly using that clone recall.
Does extend the animation, allows you to scout,
allows you to check these brushes pretty safely.
And Yan, obviously, has core behind him,
knows that MT is in the area.
So they're feeling confident then,
pushed back up towards this top side.
You're going to be ceiling core, move, and play
with MT so heavily.
It often means Yan is having to play in these 1v1, 1v2
situations and he's become pretty comfortable in those spots but it is
something that LNG could look to try to capitalize on. If they can get vision, if
they can find core on a roam, you can sometimes punish those windows. Like
right now, as he sits on the wall, Whiteway is already up in this topside
jungle. As he clears Krugs, it's umpti also sitting in the bottom. So you're
right, this could be bad as the setup's there but pull away. Yeah and
Sika was actually just basing, so if Teal over commits to this, there could
be a TP on that play potentially to the tower. You know, dropping
equalizer actually excuse me he did just drop the equalizer push the wave so not
much of an opportunity to do that but doesn't amount in anything you know Zika
just gets the pushing with that equalizer does go back to base just kind
of using that for a tempo and scouting APA just farming out APA does have that
slight farm advantage they didn't think he'd sit around way way just stayed up
until he could find the plan core JJ is gonna be the victim Carla gets his
first kill of this best of one and umpire now looking for a response play
but it's free tarplating for Carlos he's still engaged on umpire once the
angle but out of range still slowed down but you got to ask yourself what can he
find and impale is exactly that but hung tries to get out the shattering strike
down it won't matter he disengages an LNG walk away now looking at grubs in 30
seconds yeah not gonna be able to get really get anything from that now with
that ulti down it's a lot higher to actually fight on the grub so a good
punish on core as they're gonna engage empty doubling down himself throws a
rock with damage onto gala maybe that changes the grub play here is there's
It does.
So much damage, hauling from your Carla Haster Flash.
And I think it definitely changes the landscape of those grubs.
Yeah, that was actually really nice.
The extended play there from Umti, delaying the recall again.
They're trying to set themselves up for this grub play.
And they know they didn't get a kill with the ulti.
So they had to get that extra man advantage there.
And now they will be able to have that.
Umti is going to be able to start it up.
But we'll take him some time.
They're just spawning now.
But TL, at the very least, are going to get four.
We'll see if LNG can even get over there to contest anything.
But with APA having full push mid,
with that extra extended play up on the topside,
forcing out Gala's flash. This is looking like it's just going to be a six grub game here for
Chial, and they're going to be feeling really happy about that, especially when you consider
the fact that Jax is in this game, Chial who can play through side lanes very well later
on, but even if they do just end up getting the five, they're going to be pretty happy
about that as Hung's looking mid with Zika, IPA maybe in a bit of trouble. They pick
the wrong target though, he tries to cut out Thurth, but drawn back into the Magnus
Swarmus, on P tries to carry, even though he's brought Zika back into turret range,
It's not enough damage.
They find the mid laner of TL.
But they got five grubs in the end.
Anyway, Weiwei just has to get the scraps off of the play.
Definitely a mistake from APA though.
It was actually a nice back step on that deadly flourish
from the Jhin.
But then you need to flash.
You need to be able to just spend the summoner,
survive in that situation.
It does get a little bit greedy.
I think thought he could fully outplay it.
Then when he actually gets safe out of the CC from rail,
realizes, you know what?
I'm dead.
I'm not going to expend the flash.
So correct decision from that spot.
But definitely a mistake and a good punish there
from LNG, who opened up a small gold advantage here.
But this is one that is very, very even and TL,
we're gonna see if they can make it happen in the teamfights
where LNG can really make some magic happen here
and Golanow has the early two kills.
Remember, Dragon's still sitting there,
12 minutes into the game,
Thirst, Ragn just ignored,
and I wanna talk about the other objective that was taken.
I think the biggest part is the fact
that they denied it from LNG,
the fact that you have Rumble and Sidelang,
you have Scout on this Tristana,
no grubs here outside of the one
is always important to know,
especially when a team can push so fast.
Now that's an engage from CoreJJ, it's a Zenith blade with a Deadly Farsh mixed on in, you add tonic to that, you get a nice drink, but for now TL just get the push in, bot and defense comes through as LNG hovers in case there's more.
Yeah exactly, they're just gonna move over to this dragon, LNG know it's a little bit dicey if you do contest here with Gala having no flash because Core has his flash back, empty has his flash, so it could be scary, APA even held onto his obviously in mid lane, so I do think they're likely to just give this one up.
But LNG at least poking around hung just making sure that there is space for Gala to push out the wave on bot side
And he is gonna be able to at least do that so TL take another objective
LNG just get control of the waves and we continue forward. It's just been kind of a very calm game
They are gonna try to see if there's an angle for Hong for damage and scana does do damage
Yes, the flash away because the empower probably gets a kill with the help of a general umpti's support as well as young nearby
Yeah, good bit a little bit of pressure here from umpti has been pretty effective in these ganks
You know did actually force the flash from Gala helped get the kill in mid lane with that first blood now forces another flash down here
I'm on bot side
But if you just finished this recall could be in trouble on the core JJ is a glacial prison
But omki still here but shattering strike stops in mid wall TL stuck in a 3v3 with health bar disadvantages
LNG still hover around it's a good attempt, but now they're looking for Zika. It's a cheeky minion now
That's a sus guy. How did he get here says Zika as he's got his flash available on the wrong side of the rip
but a pop loss on down means it's an easy kill.
Always plan ahead with your teleport
is a good reminder for T.L. Second kill.
Nicely done by APA, gets absolutely towards the top side.
T's able to cover the attack on bot side there from Weiwei.
You know, Core wanted to go for the re-engage onto Hung
and might've been able to kill him
if that Xenoplay connected.
Who knows, it would've been a pretty close fight,
I think, but I wasn't quite able to connect it,
but they do make a play on the top side impact,
joining up there with APA, punishing Zucka,
and wasn't able to really get much of an advantage at all
with this early rumble.
Obviously, Ken still be a strong team fight pick,
but Impact on the Jax is gonna be feeling so good
about his spot, has the five grubs here.
It is gonna be able to outscale this rumble
pretty heavily in the 1v1.
Oh yeah.
And that could be problematic for LNG later on
if Zika gets put into a spot where he's just forced
to group and Impact can kind of have his run
in the sideline.
But Harold has spawned an LNG looking their eyes
towards it.
It's a mastercard, like an economy snapshot.
It's going to show you this early game is a little bit tilted, gala in a good spot,
but also APA in a great spot considering the early gank that came through from Humpty.
So it's a bit of a mixed-back goal, it's quite even here.
Remembering the grubs, the only big advantage with the dragon on top.
And APA is going a pretty aggressive build here, you did go storm surge,
so we'll see if he's just going storm surge Ludens, which is kind of the popular build right now on this patch.
But a lot of Niko players do go different builds, you know, proto bell, things like that.
So we'll see where he is going to play.
Targonas low by the way.
And as LNG are able to take that top lane turret,
but TL obviously pushing mid, and also
are able to grab that tower very likely on the bottom side,
as Yan is down there, where he sends out the prison,
but it's a good kite away.
It's only a clone in the end from APA.
And Yan's going to get solo gold here on the bot lane
tower, so it is going to be a trade with obviously first
tower going to LNG.
But all of the gold getting isolated on Yan
is a really good thing for the TL AD carry,
who they do have so much faith in at this point.
I mean, again, you talk about him being a bit more stable
coming into summer as well, and I love the story,
especially when you're against such veterans,
when you're with such veterans, I should say.
That has the chance to be an insane North American owner.
Let's just call it like, Western bottom line.
Yeah, yeah, no, absolutely.
The next couple of years, I mean, now, right?
Yeah, yeah, you know, Yon has improved a lot,
and we'll see, as it's gonna be another flash force
there by Humpty, but Humpty is gonna be in some trouble.
He is in no man's land,
but he won't get pulled out of the wall
so he drifts his way out.
TL are still thinking about the engage.
As Zed of Flame turns it on his head,
so he'll find a gala on the back, pop-loss him.
He's no one.
Gala flashes away and hung.
Disengages rather, resets up the equalizer,
hurting as well, separating TL from one another.
And Zika just lets the flamethrower unleash.
LNG knows they've got them on the run
and TL can't stay and can't stick around any further.
Yeah, I can't find anyone with that ultimate
as Gala was able to flash out.
The earlier ultimate from Skarner
also forced the flash from Zika,
So they do get some summoners, but as a result,
LNG dodged those big team flight alties
and are able to win out pretty massively
because Scout wasn't even there.
So Scout's taking the bot lane tier one,
they're gonna crash the Herald into mid,
they're likely gonna get both of these powers,
and that is gonna open up a significant advantage
for LNG.
TL really over committing in that top side there
to try to go for this fight.
I mean, impact even tp'd in,
and it couldn't even really join.
If he just stayed down towards bot side and covered,
it wouldn't have been that much of a loss
to just have that one kill given over
for a couple of flashes, but now TL find themselves
out of nowhere at a 2.5K Gold lead.
Thank you, and I'll say, excuse me.
It's huge, right?
But I think we're talking backstage about
the difference of like some of these Eastern teams,
when you make one mistake against them,
some of the better teams, their ability to punish is huge.
Yeah.
And the quickness to punish as well,
I think it's another big factor.
They move to mid, they get bought as well.
Three Alcatars now taken by LNG
to move them into a 2K Gold lead.
And I mean, the real question now for TL
is the only thing you've got from that
is some flashes, right?
So now you have to be able to punish Gala.
Now you have to be able to punish Zika
and have something come from that fight.
Otherwise, it's a complete loss.
Because LNG just put the map.
They're able to get these towers.
They went out on the fight.
So they're feeling so good about their position.
And we'll see if TL can make anything happen
with those slight advantages, with those summers
that they weren't able to force.
But it's going to be tough, because obviously there's
no flash on APA or empty either.
Core in a spot here could be dangerous.
He engaged something like that.
He's now using solo flare.
But Hung and Zika are the ones in trouble.
Ramzy man, but he doesn't get until the impale brings it back locked in place Zika
It's a free target beyond to get a kill lower health bars on the jungle here, but TL find a pick right before the dragon
Yeah, they're really get that pick. That's pretty big. Um T
I thought was actually gonna drive him to safety for a second
That got a little bit dicey and then as young was pushing forward he had to actually walk on the equalizer finish off
The kill so not as clean as TL would like Scout is coming impact also here on the flank
Like, LNG looking like V, potentially want to keep fighting this, because Zika's gonna be up in 12 seconds and he has TP, so they'll have a massive HP advantage if they can make this time.
Impact has everything available, though. Curtain call is brought into the forefront as TL's top laner thinks of an angle himself, but CoreJJ has to absorb the bullet onto the backline.
No, it's going over to TL, the dragon, but they're caught in the middle, but TP bringing Zika back in as you labeled before as UpD drives out of there.
TL looking for the grand escape but the impact's now lost his team. He's behind enemy line, but not far much longer
As LNG look for another chase down. Yone's soloed. Coredjane kill range as well
He'll sacrifice his life giving another killover for the dragon that makes two LNG get some gold back
Honestly, not that bad though because they're gonna get the mid lane tier one as well
So they do get something back here
But we'll see if Scout can actually find a kill. ETP deep to try to look for APA not able to find it
So TL do get the dragon here. They are winning the objective game a little bit
But LNG maintaining that about 2,000 gold lead has closed itself down a little bit
But this was honestly really well played by LNG to just buy time because they knew that they had the HP advantage as soon as they
Could be rejoining the fight. It's gonna be a one 5v5 for them. No problem
So TL just had to focus down on that dragon
But the general bought so much time and created so much chaos for TL
So they couldn't really just kind of fully focus on what they wanted to do killing that dragon and getting out
It allows them to catch up kill impact and also core on the exit here and in fact
You know have that strong early game, but really has not made it any
Any difference in the game thus far, you know hasn't been able to put much pressure on in the sidelines
Hasn't really been able to find a way in in these 5v5s
So he's got to be careful because you know if you do spend too much time as grouping as Jackson
You aren't able to really make a big difference and you're not getting that gold right and this is one of the things
I've always kind of had as a criticism of impact when he plays carries because he is such a selfless player
which is great when you're playing tanks and playing that supportive style.
Oh, yeah.
But when you put yourself on a carry, you need to be greedy.
You need to play for yourself.
Put yourself in a position to win.
Play for your goal.
Play for your lane.
And sometimes I do think he overgroups.
He plays towards those tank tendencies, which can really hurt him on a champion like this.
And especially in the game against Zicker.
Last year, we were talking about Zicker's ability to be flexible.
Kind of a mix between 369 and bin.
And I think he's become a lot better at carries,
but he's still got that selfless style as well.
He's still very flexible as a player, even on things like Rumble.
It's a nice comparison here as we set TL up for the potential Baron.
It's a set up of picks with the deadly flash on the other side,
and it is a miss in the end.
Yeah, the Skarner ult not able to connect there.
Thought he might have had an angle to get scout.
Goes for it, does end up missing.
So now that's kind of TL's turn, so to speak, over on the map.
It's going to be LNG.
We're going to be able to move in, take some vision,
but then should clear out some of these wards around the Baron.
That TL does have, and we see impact down towards that bot lane.
Going to be looking to push that wave up here.
Trying to put on a little bit of pressure,
But obviously TL don't have a lot of deep vision, so he doesn't have that one pink ward that's a little bit shallow
and one ward over behind the enemy wolves, which is going to keep him somewhat safe and kind of give him that confidence.
He also knows of course that LNG are clearing out the vision over here, so APA going to look for a potential angle, but nothing there just yet.
We'll see if they can try to find him.
He can be a ward.
He can be a control ward.
He's now adaptive.
And also APA, he's got a rocket belt, as well as his flash available.
I don't know, when Niko's in the meta, we always take account of the Flash being one of the most important tools to angle yourself as we saw earlier on.
Players like Faker pulling it out and almost clutching a wing.
Yeah, exactly, right? And we saw kind of both sides of it. We saw Faker have some incredible engages, but if you do swing and you miss, right, if they're able to flash out, you don't really have much after it.
It's kind of that one punch teamfight.
So it's really tough because, yeah, you have the Flash, you have the Rocket Bell, but you have to be so on point with your engages because if you go in for that big combo, they flash out of it.
It can just be a straight up lost team fight unless you are really creating enough chaos that the rest of your team is able to get that work done.
So that's where he has to coordinate with them to with impact so that even if they're flashing out of that Niko ultimate
They're flashing into the waiting arms of the skarner of the Jax
Otherwise things definitely could look bad for them here because LNG has a lot of damage a lot of consistent damage here
We're gonna as well as that TL they don't spot that war
It's an LNG have full info on this bit, but they're not reactive
Scout also just backed and he teleports not up and available yet.
They just were not reacting at all. They're just standing there on the bot side.
LNG is gone.
There's a ward that you saved at Baron!
That was bizarre.
What in the OME was that?
LNG just lost Baron and TL just snuck it!
Yeah, I mean this is like TL did a lot in the LCS, but they had a ward that was on it.
They reacted so slowly. I guess they just decided, you know what?
Checkmate, you got us like, they thought they couldn't get there in time or something,
But that was really really weird because it was such a delayed reaction from LNG
They see them over by the bear and they don't actually end up moving
I want to see that replay because I'm so curious like I assume that that word gave them full vision
But maybe there's somehow the teal was in the only on the bottom side of the pit and like because there are some weird
Words on the map where they don't give you the vision where you think it was.
It's another toggle vision and showed us, you know, LNG's viewpoint. I'm so I'm so confused.
Well, LNG do give up the fair in TL pulling that gold back to pretty much even here
and now you have five grubs on impact.
You have Scout, though, playing towards Zika,
which is something he did so much in the LPL.
They love to overload these side lanes
with both their solo laners.
Look for picks.
We'll see if Scout commits to this.
They don't see Scout anywhere,
so Impact should have an idea that this could be going on.
He just needs a slow play.
Allow TL to grab the dragon here.
Don't give an angle,
and that's exactly what he's doing.
Now once Scout shows in mid,
Impact can start to push forward once again here,
and we'll see if TL can make it happen.
As Zika's going back to base
and preparing for a potential TP.
TP wards are deep, though.
There's only one right in front of the dragon here if TL overextend into the enemy jungle
So LNG have that angle as Zika now just receives the next wave as you see scout has already walked down and for this third dragon
I will say giving it to TL though opens up a lot of doors in this game
Well look at mid lane
This is the problem is is LNG have kind of over committed to this bot side
They're lost control of mid lane so TL are gonna say yeah go for it great
You take the dragon we can potentially go for this tier 2 mid and now impacts coming from below
They're gonna look for the fight here comes Niko
Maverion as well can find the angle as you said that's only a clone.
Impact is already teleported in but it's a crushing blow!
Impact finds the one man as the pop losser,
on two on the edge is good but Hung keeps him at bay.
Zika just runs through the rest of them with a good ol' kiddie!
As he burns them down, Corky, Jayce, Naxx,
you can see Hung on this rail played such a big role!
And TL not getting the perfect fight we wanted,
that we talked about moments ago, cost them dearly.
Yeah, Helen, she win the fight there.
I want to see that one more time because it looked like APA fully whiffed on the ulti
I think he was trying to flash over the fat wall there to actually get back on the Gala
Who impact was able to force the flash out for him, you know Gala is flashing away
I thought he thought he was gonna get over the wall here
Let's watch this one more time because he's coming in from above
The idea very clearly is impact seeming to come from below push them up into the waiting arms of the Niko here
But let's watch APA one more time as he's looking for the angle here, and yeah
Yeah, that flash.
I mean, he gets nothing, right?
Like, absolutely nothing there.
He did, yeah.
No, so an absolute fail flash there from APA.
Not the debut he won on the world stage.
This guy has improved monumentally,
but obviously feeling the pressure here.
Didn't have a good showing at Worlds last year.
And that is tough, because that's the kind of fight.
And you can see the stress on the coach's face there.
Spawn and Rainover, they know it.
That could have been the game-deciding fight.
They were in such a good position.
If you crush that fight, as they probably should have with Eko on the flank, that could be a massive goal lead.
That could put them in a position to just take the whole game and instead, it's a whiffed engage there from APA, falls flat on his face, and LNG definitely take advantage of it.
So close. Again, only by an inch it really feels like an again timing, a big factor there, but as it hurts to watch, you can look at LNG on the other side and see what they've got from it.
they stop the dragon stacking.
It's not game defining yet,
but Zika picking up so many more resources now,
he's also got to seek his armor guard
to run him into the fight
with a fully completed second item here.
So here we go,
T.L. is just gonna try and push through mid as LNG,
look for another angle or another afterthought.
And that being said, you know, at the end of the day,
the gold is still very even,
you know, T.L. is still in this game.
It's definitely a failed fight there
and one that T.L. are gonna want back,
A.P.A. especially.
But they need to stay calm,
they need to be able to just kind of realize,
You know what, game is still on our hands.
We still have an ability to win this one.
We'll see if they are going to be able to do it as Scout
is just playing so heavily through side lanes,
creating more and more of an advantage.
He's quietly opened up 1,000 gold here over APA.
And Impact has not been spending as much time
in those side lanes.
So hasn't gotten quite as strong as he would like to get,
though he is in quite a good spot here.
Has this under his guy, has a triforce.
Likely working towards a Randoans next against the WAD.
Makes a lot of sense.
You can see the Randoans already completed there
on empty as well.
Gala has delayed his armor pen, so Blasphus we're going to be coming in fourth for him.
But he could struggle with some of these frontliners until that is completed.
But at least some of the flies like Yon and APA are going to be destroyed by Gala's damages.
Had a bit of a lead earlier on. He was in a decent spot, but I shouldn't say.
Yon has still been keeping up three items for this kaiser as well.
And I am looking at Scout as you mentioned. We do have some healing cut to be used
against TL in this game, specifically not sure as in Payle goes Golden and Zika just avoids,
but a tank of barbs as well, equalizes down Zika, has his own time to spare, but he's not dead,
he's not dead! Scout teleported in, sends him Skyward, but Gala's ulti tags in the back end,
APA lucky to be alive as Sean as well, these two carries are too low, TL need to scram,
but he can't get away, that's Ongty stuck in the ground as LNG just take him out for free.
Yeah, that's awful there was a great inquisitor from Zika to buy some time and TL just kind of panicked and just trying to run for it there
It looked like they thought someone else is gonna finish it off surely
But no one else was able to stay and finish it off and now Corka died
This could be Baron potentially and it's gonna be spawning soon. It's a permafrost
It's an easy kill nice Magnus Storm from Hongala picks it up
And as you said that Baron is up in 20 seconds
And there's an Anatar with a wave down at the bot side as well think about that means they could play that really well
Well, the Stasis used the stickers there to immune the scunner all by his time, did have
that Rue timed well from APA, but they just didn't have the damage actually fully burst
him out.
They commit heavily to it and they're all kind of just roasting Eden the equalizer
to try to finish him off.
They're getting so low they realize that LNG is coming with reinforcements and no
one has the confidence to actually stay in and try to finish him there before they
did.
And hey, maybe if they stay they all die, but it didn't work out, it's a great
play from Zika.
LNG get even more.
It doesn't look like they're going to try to set up for any sort of an
early Baron push though, so will just be another kill and a slight gold advantage here to LNG.
It's 2.5k which obviously isn't nothing but that's the same gold they had when they took
two towers off that play like during 10 minutes ago.
So really it's all down to the execution and these last couple of fights CL just has not
had it.
And if they go wrong again we talked about Scout, what he can do inside for now.
He's joined the team, impaled and hit.
General, what are we doing?
How can you lead the troops like that as LNG converge on his position and he'll
we taken out 07 to that guy for 40 seconds while Barron's up into 5 versus 4.
Yeah, TL really failing on some of these execution plays.
They're looking very nervous, and now LG are on the baron.
APA does have an angle here on a potential flank, but so does Hung below.
Yonga's bottom now.
CoreJJ is going to get whacked for a few to start it off.
But Shattering Strike, they glide the lane perfectly to bear.
CoreJJ is ticking down.
APA finally hits an ulti though, but the Magnus Storm is already back up.
Can they get the damage down?
You know the answer is no when Scout is hitting around, but the impact plays some time against these carries.
He picked up a triple, but Gala and Scout are still standing, and that's all that matters as the ace blows him over.
Yeah, it's a nice try there for TL. They are obviously down a man, but in the 45, they do get three for four.
There are three kills going over on impact. Scout and Gala can't do the Baron. They know the MC is respawning, so they're just going to run down and take the dragon here, and the game will continue.
just about that 3,000 gold lead.
Finally, APA finding a good engage on this angle.
But Sica's equalizers have been so perfect,
it feels like, in these fights and in these situations,
they engage there from APA really nice.
Yon's able to get into the back line
and try to really get some damage down,
but he just gets focused down by Scout and Gala.
Like, yes, you found a multi-man engage,
but the two key carries were not touched,
and that's why LNG was always going to win that fight.
And you can see the frustration from empty
that's very likely off of the Miss Alty
from before he died.
He knows, you know, they are in a spot
where they can win this game.
They just have to execute, but they're feeling to do so.
And that's obviously really weighing on them.
And, you know, coming into this game, I was like,
well, I feel like Omdik, for me, from what I've watched,
especially in that finals, was the weak portion.
I feel like Inspite very much out-jungled him.
But coming into this game,
we have seen some really aggressive early play
that's been great in his name.
I think the Scarlet Pick has done a lot.
It's just some of these last few fights
haven't come through till,
haven't been able to execute
all the angles that we talked about.
But there's still hope here,
and the hope in NA is not me glazing them.
No, they're not a donut here.
They're 3K down into the depths,
but they're not out of the shadows.
TL trying to set up to see if LNG stopped this baron.
Yeah, still, it's about a 2,000,
a little bit over at 2.5K goal lead.
You know, it really doesn't matter at this point.
We'll see if impact can get things done,
because he is really strong.
It's a death cap done for APA,
so if he hits that engage,
he can 100 or zero these players,
and he is getting into the backline.
Goal doesn't see him.
Until now pop awesome there he flashes over the wall he reacts in time and it feels like at the edge
He could see that little minion walking towards him as impact in the permafrost range, but LNG have walked away
So they force the flash but again, this is the weakness here of champions are so ulti reliant you force the flash
But now you can't do anything until your ulti really is back up
So LNG are gonna probably try to pressure the Baron they know there's not that much threat from TL without the Niko ultimate here
So TL do spot it
We'll see if they can find a way to make this fight happen missing that Niko alt Zika is coming in
He's just walked from mid-wave, there's simply a clone for now.
He takes the bait of LNG, his impact walks into the pit at 4k.
Weiwei thinks about flipping the game and classic LPL style in front of the pit.
He does flip to the bar and it goes to LNG.
The curtain call sits over the wall and now looks for new targets as Sean has to get out of it.
He's getting fried. He walks from the last four shot.
That's good, but Zika now walking in after overheating himself on LNG.
The five stack, seeing blood.
It's good burst damage here from APA off the side and Yon helps with that,
But it hasn't stopped here.
LNG just want that little tick.
But for Baron, they still walk out, not losing anything.
Even though they couldn't chase TL down,
that looked like free fishing.
Yeah, this is just so well done here by LNG,
just recognizing, yes, you just lost your flash.
But who cares?
Niko doesn't have ult.
Niko has no threat right now, which forced the Baron.
They do it expertly.
You call it a flip, but really, it wasn't because Scout
just buster shots empty away as he's
trying to get into the pit.
The timing was very good.
LNG execute really well on the play,
Showing their skill here on the world stage, Gala and Scout are really opening up massive advantages here
and TL at this point, you are one fight away from losing the game. You have got to be on point.
They've got to find a way to punish these missing flashes and as a result they're going to try to overload the side lane here.
They're going to look for Scout. Remember, we have no cleanse. If they can land the CC, they've got to...
As he comes in, he ends pop blossom. He did. He did his homework, but he has to flush away from Omdi while the tower goes down regardless of an attempt.
Night again.
Yep, so at least they didn't commit flashes from TL. It's a good move to lure the side lane.
They do take down a Tier 2 early and they're going to be able to recall in time to likely
try to defend their inhibitor.
They're obviously always going to lose this power here.
But Yon with Core on the side, they've got to start clearing out this wave if they can.
LNG could try to push the tempo here.
They're going to go.
They're going to continue forward.
As you said, the turret's going to turn into mincemeat.
It's CoreJJ locked on any turns into the Zenit plate because he can only engage.
But Gala takes him downtown, a fourth shot into the ground as Omki tried to get
it once again.
It's a war for now, but TL have lost too much damage on their jungler again.
A chin, all the easier is that.
As APA almost gets clipped on the side,
it's a good guy who goes golden by his time.
It picks over anyway, and that makes a double hit for Gala.
And LNG in front of the Nexus turret that 34 minutes.
Yes, it was back and forth for a while.
Yes, TL had some options, but LNG remained valiant.
And in their first game of the world here on the Swiss stage,
the LPL third seed as they run into impact
and burn down the rest will take their first win to lead them 1 and 0.
Well done by LNG.
Scout and Gala standing strong here for the LPL, for LNG,
really able to take over this game.
TL had their opportunities, but failed to ax you on them
in some key moments here.
This is a game they're really going to want back.
You don't get a lot of chances at the world stage
to take down teams like LNG.
They had one here today, but they couldn't quite execute on it.
LNG just better in those key moments,
recognizing when TL was weak and punishing them heavily.
Well, a lot of questions about LNG,
but at least some answers in their opening day here
as they take their fouls for their win.
We're going to roll back to the analyst desk
to break down that gap.
Indeed, we will.
I think I have probably two very frustrated LCS analysts
flanking me because congratulations to LNG
for winning that game,
but it did really feel like Team Liquid.
You know, at many points in this game,
I had the possibility to blow up their gold lead, I think.
I'm depressed, Shox.
Yeah, me too, bro.
You don't get to tell that popcorn, please.
I don't want any popcorn.
I don't have an appetite right now.
I mean, it was close.
Yeah.
Sorry.
You definitely want to come away with the win here.
But ultimately, as we said with the format beforehand,
Lose to three unique teams to be eliminated, beat three unique teams to move on to the next round.
So, as long as they don't over tilt off this, I think there were some positive signs.
What were they?
So, positive signs would be, I think they played the early game pretty well.
I think they were in a pretty strong position, specifically the moment where an APA
failed this flash over the wall and Jan went in as if that was going to land.
They make that fight work. They're on sole point and maybe they win the game.
Things went bad after that, but that's the moment I'd like them to focus on.
Yeah, I got to say I was really nervous for LNG in the beginning.
That looked like spring split LNG coming into this. I see scout kind of having it if you wanted to stand in the mid lane
Where he gets caught off guard no buff on the Niko also with with the W fail flashes afterwards and dies
I thought LNG we're just gonna do the classic where they tilt of the face of the earth and they never come back into it
Get it out of a system. He did he did and I apologize for those watching. I'm full cope right now
Oh full cope. That's a loud. They definitely tilted in that game. I'd say LNG definitely didn't I think scout
looks fine even if Trist we didn't think we'd see that much Trist after we saw
him playing and then it failed but it looks like these picks that we thought
were out of the meta and nerfed are still in the meta. LPLLCK teams love them.
Yeah and on top of that there are a few moments even just one moment on top side
where Kaisa was able to tag I think it was Gen Alties lost the mana so she
couldn't Q couldn't get the kill so there were a lot of like tip-for-tap
moments where anything could have meant for a larger advantage for team
with him. Yeah but Scout comes out on top and he's in the Verizon post game
interview. And we're back to the side of the stage for LNG's first victory here at the
World Street Stage and a half scout with me. Thank you so much for joining me. Congrats on
making it to Worlds. I know the road was not easy for you. You actually found out recently that
you are going to be able to make it. How much of an impact did it have on you personally,
but also for the rest of the prep and the rest of the team? The fact that you came last
minute here. So first of all, congratulations on your victory in this game. I'd like to
Do you have any thoughts on the players you would like to ask about the World Championship?
I don't know if there are any other players who would like to join the World Championship.
Actually, I have no idea the impact on the other team mates, but for me it's just fine.
But finally, eventually, I can hear, since I'm here for wars, I'm going to strive for
it and go all out for it.
We're just happy that you can make it in the end.
That's just what matters.
And talking about LNG and your run last year in Korea, you made it to quarterfinals,
but no more.
What makes you sure that this year is going to be different, especially given the fact
that it's almost the same team, except Weiwei in the jungle?
Last year, you entered the quarter-finals in Korea, but you didn't make it to the last round.
This year's LNG was especially included in the match against Wei Wei.
So what's the difference between this year and last year's LNG?
Compared to last year, it's still about the same.
And our playstyle is still the same.
Let's see how we did in the previous season.
So I think it's quite similar to the last year's LNG in terms of our playstyle,
but it all comes down or depends on the early game.
All right, well thinking about LNG at Worlds,
I know there's always huge expectations when it comes to LPL teams in general.
Where would you guys rank yourself at Worlds right now?
What do you think about it?
I think it's still a long line in the LPL, right?
I think the LPL will have a lot of hope every year.
so much. I can assume it was incredibly stressful. Maybe that's why, as to GV's point, they reverted
a little bit to kind of spring LNG in the tendencies. Maybe they're catching up a bit,
catching their groove. And despite this being a very, very close game for TL,
you got to hope that if things go the way they want, and I'm not saying they have been good
the entire year in LPL, even, you know, sometimes in playoffs, you will not have seen what you've
wanted. But if Scout is firing on all cylinders, if Zika has a breakout tournament, which he
He could be on track to show, there is a lot of promise, but the competition is stiff.
It is, but I don't think LNG is the only team that's shown this.
We've already seen it from a lot of the Asian teams.
I think as long as we go into the second round of Swiss,
we'll definitely see a much more defined meta as well,
and probably also just the teams being a bit more cohesive.
But yeah, LNG, I think they're very happy with the way this game played,
because the early game did not look good for them.
The only reason they came back was because TL went for a massive overstep here in the enemy jungle.
They did, and this is also while Scout is bot lane pushing on Tristana, so it was a five before where they were the ones that lost.
So not only did they lose the gold, they lost a massive amount of tempo on this play.
Yeah, there was a few times in which they had actually looked for a play in the jungle, and even if they ended up losing Flash for it,
I mean, getting a Flash off of the gen, they can't really make a repeat play happening afterwards to your point.
Yes, across the map, LNG is getting gold back for themselves. That's where the gold advantage is coming in there for them.
And a question to you in terms of TL, when they do fall behind a little or they don't have kind of like complete control of the game in the LCS, this year, do you feel like they made macro mistakes or over push mistakes like this or is this out of character?
Here's what I think. I'm ready for it. With Team Liquid. I'm ready for it.
At MSI, they were worse, but less nervous. Here, they are better, but nervier. So they've actually improved, but they put so much pressure on themselves that they choked.
like they just those are not moves you see from them normally but the fact that
they were in the position to throw those throw those moments actually shows a
level of improvement. So it's a matter of getting
your last half full is so so good.
Oh my god.
The reason I'm around.
So honestly.
No I love it.
I believe now.
But yes there were so many moments that people from the community will stick to of course
the fail flash from the Niko, the play that happened in the enemy side jungle, the ultimate
that clearly Umpty was frustrated with. But if you look towards the LNG side, there's a
lot to be excited about because that was them with the least amount of practice. Getting
a game like that, and Zika to your point, his rumble alties were game changing and created
a lot of space.
They were. Also, Jhin was really good, and thanks to the reliable Cisco Network,
LNG was able to out team fight Team Liquid at the dragon to take control, and this
This is one where Gala I think goes pretty crazy.
Yeah, I mean he definitely has a nice cleanse just to get out of it immediately, flash away
from the counter strike after.
Unfortunate ultimate from APA because TL has done a great job.
They got Gala's cleanse, they got it flashed.
Wait a minute, he's dead.
The last thing just couldn't connect, but that's where the rest of LNG is already in
position where Gala has bought them so much space, they've used so much of their
abilities to try and get on the gym that when the rest of LNG finally comes around,
it's over.
Did you just say that just because I called?
I mean, I thought it was another replay and-
I mean, totally, but I was trying to...
He's trying to cover for it, you see.
I'm sorry.
I'm sorry.
You're doing exactly what I was saying.
That's making sure.
My space.
It's crazy.
He's doing great in his grave.
That's sick.
Good to see you.
Anyways, oof, you know it's a long day, but-
We have three more games!
We do.
And on the cope side, one game sample size.
Who cares?
Yeah.
And listen, that wasn't even North America's number one seed.
Exactly.
FlyQuest is playing later.
And we haven't even seen a used number one seed.
Both N and E are going to get Wednesday shocks.
Yes.
I guarantee it.
LCS's number one seed has never lost a game.
Wait.
Number three seed, number three seed.
We have as well.
It's all good.
Yeah, we're going to take a quick break.
I think we have three more games to come.
So that's very exciting.
Grab a snack as well.
We have some popcorn.
I'm gonna commiserate a little bit with my LCS colleagues
because things aren't going good for us,
but we'll see you right back here in a jiffy.
We're gonna win soon.
And you get it now.
Little guys, take a look at the crowd,
pick out some faces,
make sure that you're enjoying the environment.
This is actually a beautiful stage,
it's a lot so much better here.
Should be really, really comfortable playing here.
Yeah, those way down though, okay?
I'll get you.
I'm coming for you.
Please jump, please.
You got the catch there?
Befosch, befosch, jump.
Yep.
Here you go.
I think everyone is going to say, you know, HLE, massive, massive favorites, but you never
know PSG, you know, they pull off some miracles in the past.
They warmed up in the playing stage.
At first, if we saw them on the day one, as to what they are now,
you'd be like, no, no way is this team going to get through.
But in recency, PSG did get there.
They're drafts against 100 Thieves.
You know, gameplay aside, because 100 Thieves obviously
didn't play well, and PSG just slammed them.
But they're drafts against 100 Thieves, I really like.
They were just playing like standard, solid stuff.
This is a good team.
They're a good macro team that can play some really solid
League of Legends here.
I do think they're draft reads,
as you're kind of alluding to in the first series
they played were really poor and even against Madd in the second series I thought they were
pretty poor as well so you know I do think they were kind of like scaling into play-ins
and I think this is a team that will have really benefited from actually getting to play
in play-ins before coming up against an incredibly difficult opponent obviously HLE is still
that all being said is still massively favored but you know PSG maybe they can throw back
to the Flash Wolves days and be some LCK killers pull off some sort of an upset
It is a B01 so anything's possible to be a one, you know, but I mean all my life is is looking so strong
I mean they were able to overcome
And even though everyone's talking about Gen G is there with the number one seed HLE did upset them in the finals
This is Gen G 2.0. Don't forget it is the light paint in the same roster. So it's just another Gen G
Anyway, absolutely, and you're paired up with a couple world champs
So not too shabby is that guy and Viper these guys are absolutely incredible and I believe it was a
19 game or series losing streak that I don't have had against Gen G before they beat them in the finals.
So it was crazy. That was like absolutely insane. They played incredibly well, but even the finals aside
This team I think you know if you look at the the totality of the year
I think they were the second best team in the LCK obviously they did kind of get upset in spring by T1
And they didn't end up finishing top two
But you know they were really really solid. I think peanut is playing incredibly well
Yeah, I do think that Zeca the meta could fit him very very well
obviously, you know, he has become such a well-rounded player and I think the way
that I've heard a lot of people in the West talking about some of these
players, I think he's like very outdated. I think that, you know, people still think
of Zeke, if you think back to his world performance where he won Worlds, like,
ah, this guy's just like a melee only player. Well, he was actually nasty on
AD carries as well. Yes, he still brought in Yone, yes, he still brought in,
you know, those kind of specialist champions and maybe could still bring
those in here to really kind of put him over the top. And Doron as well, I
just feel like I'm kind of like almost frustrated with the narrative
around him, I think that he gets...
No one likes him.
Well, I just think people give him so much hate,
and I feel like it's so unjust.
I do think he's a really strong player.
Is he Ben?
No, but like, he is a really elite level top laner
in the world, and yes, he has some kind of
really big end games, and I think that's where
people really kind of just like latch onto that,
and they see a really bad game from him,
and like, oh, this guy's trash,
or this guy's garbage, but...
Even in the finals, you go back to the LCK finals,
versus Gen.G, Epic, Milvers, Jax game
where he got absolutely bodied,
but then he turns around and Doron on Jax
completely different base and that shows the high highs that he can have and yes Doran you know
it was the MSI a world they've been world last year. I think it was MSI more important the only
recency where Doran, I'm thinking of worlds last year I'm getting confused again, is where Doran had
a really good tournament. Yeah I mean he's been playing really well I think for quite some time
and honestly he's a very flexible player you know sometimes if I give people talking about
oh look he's just like Mr. Weekside and stuff I also don't think that is true at all I think
He can play the carries and think he can really play at that top level.
So I've just kind of gotten a little sick of all the the Doran flame that I've
been hearing online, all the Doran slanders.
I had to white knight him a little bit because I do think he is deserving of that.
But you know, Pina has been so solid.
Obviously I do think people will always when it comes to worlds, look at Pina
and say, ah, he's a choker.
He hasn't gotten it done because he hasn't won a world championship.
But he's done like everything else beside that.
And he has been so consistent for so long, successful across many different
rosters in the LCK playing at that elite level.
And I have just been so impressed by him this year.
He has been so stalwart for the team.
Oh, yeah.
We are really good at setting them up
on a lot of these kind of facilitated picks.
And here are the teams starting to walk out.
PSC versus HLE.
It's going to be a really exciting one.
We're going to see the debut here of the LCK number one seed.
Oh, yeah, the people that created the upset.
Everyone said it was Gen.G's golden rod,
and you would have had to come in as high cap step.
We would have had to listen to the Golden Road,
this, the Grand Slam, that H.L.A. made it so that us
casters don't have to keep going on about that.
They broke that up and it was crazy again.
It was such a fun finals to go back and watch
in a five game series, but you know,
Zeca, as you were talking about at the very start,
Zeca had an insane finals and I think, again,
Zeca's gonna be more flexible than those people
who only chewed in, you know,
maybe all the way back to 2020, 2022 DRX.
Exactly.
And are stuck in that past
where they don't see what the new Zeca is like now,
who's returning to that world finals,
for more or at least getting close to it.
I mean, I think he's pretty much there.
Like this guy has been playing so incredibly well.
And I do think again, if people are right
and it is gonna end up being kind of more
of those melee champions in the meta,
he is really going to shine.
Yes, I did say he can play incredibly well
in the AD carry, he did great in the LCK on that.
But this guy is magic on Yone,
on Akali, on Sylas.
Everyone knows that from his World Championship run.
He got a lot better remember his corky was made on domestically and Zach is corky even got better
And I mean delight this guy is you know, mr. Engage is Rickon is absolutely next level
It is like almost a guaranteed perfect engage it feels like every single time so it will be exciting
You know, I do think the medican fit them very very well
PSG over on the other side of his who talked about them a little bit
But gonna be really interesting to see how they can perform. You know, this is maple's last para here
Having some really legendary players kind of make that announcement, Levi and Maple, both these massive mainstays
You know, kind of players that have been dominating their region for so long
You know, see them in the international stage so many times
I want to see if they can kind of make a really great run for themselves here on their last go at Worlds
And so many other, you know, other teams as well that we're questioning roster
You know T1 comes into that argument
I know that that's going to look at that throughout the day or at least throughout the tournament
But let's focus in on this because for draft HLE, it'll take you away
That's kind of it again. I know that a lot of Korean junglers have been spamming in solo queue and champs queue at the moment to
Poppy against the light is funny considering what we've seen over the playoffs and of course that bigs against 5-2 and
Against most teams has just been to take away. Yeah, Ziggs obviously, you know, is very strong in the meta
Mostly been playing bot these days
But just kind of waiting to see what HLA's read is because we did see you know Gen. G was kind of playing very much an old style
We've seen a lot of the Eastern teams I think so far, you know that are debuting here on the Swiss stage
Kind of playing what is considered to be the old meta, you know a couple patches ago
Whether or not that is them just saying you know what our first match we expect to win
So why would we show anything? You know, we're just gonna kind of you know hide our bags
It's interesting actually. You don't really know if it's gonna be that you don't really know if it's just gonna be
You know what we could be nervous first game on stage
Let's play comfort picks could be any number of reasons
But definitely not the same kind of priority that we've been expecting on champions like Sandra like Ori
You know like you and a those are kind of the big three that a lot people were talking about especially in mid lane
And top lane has been pretty much
I think par for the course of income at the top lane was basically the same
Well, you know he's open on that note as well by the way
So HLE can just show us a priority of that and again we talked about it for someone like Zeka
Yeah, that is a powerful peak to leave open against HLE
Yeah, that's terrifying because I think this pick is just terrifying in its own right and Zeka is so good on it
You know this definitely could be problematic for them
70% win rate on it in the LCK.
This split was really looking good on this pick.
Sejwani, it feels like a pretty smart takeaway here.
It's obviously such a strong pairing with Dione,
and it is something that is definitely comfort
for Pina as well, was his most played in the LCK
by quite a bit, if I recall correctly.
Gonna be interested to see
what the pairings for PSG are, though,
as they're gonna go jacks.
And we saw some Akali and stuff from April,
so they couldn't even go sort of double melee
Soul leaners here potentially if they wanted to.
We've also sent some Renekton mid two as well,
something that a lot of you already means hate running into.
Hasn't really worked, but we did see it.
We have seen it.
Wish we hadn't.
Yeah.
Well, let's see if they can surprise us on the other side.
Hey, Jelly, thinking about a jungle pick.
And again, Wavi and Mimu is real.
We haven't seen it just yet.
It's Malkai back for Peanut.
OK, old reliable here for the pairing of Doran
on something like Ticassante.
Also seems right for what we've seen from hey, Jelly,
slapping Doran on something like the Cassante that Renekton already mentioned before as well.
Potential for the Naha here as that also gets locked in. So Nara's going to come in here.
This is a pretty comfortable matchup. I always look at this as slightly Nara-favored early and
obviously Jax can outscale, but I think it's pretty skill-based and a lot of the best Nara
players really just don't give good windows for the Jax to be able to kill. I actually love
Sylas here. There are incredible ultimates to steal with the Malkai and the Nara and it is
a secondary, you know, melee soul laner there for this F1 E,
but I'm not sure if he's going to be comfortable in that matchup against the One.
So he is going back to the call that I mentioned earlier.
He had some really strong games on Akali in play-ins.
In that final series against Hunter D,
he was just kind of playing more standard mage stuff.
But even in the loss, he was looking incredible on Akali,
and he had like basically three or four back-to-back-to-back games
in play-ins where he was just straight smurfing on this pick.
Oh, yeah, I mean you could get up to two items and then he ran the fights
So for maple again, he's gonna try and run that back in as they already pointed it and acknowledge before it's double
Solar laners in melee which means it's gonna buff ginger as well here for the early skirmishes on the other side the pick potential
Getting taken away as PSG take that ash off the board. No way to carry yet. Hey here for HLE or PSG
So expect many of those balls to get mighty pinched here as we go into the second phase
We've been seeing a lot of prior on Jin thus far, so Red is going to get banned out.
Jin just really is great, especially when you have someone else alongside it that is going
to bring that consistent damage.
I don't like Jin if you're playing like Jin Leblanc because you're only threats and things
like that.
But Jin is such a facilitator, you know, is able to follow up on engages, can open
up and really create chaos on a lot of these fights, create windows for your other
carries that really put on pressure.
Ezreal getting banned out, that is another Viper special here.
This guy obviously is so good on the Ezreal.
He's really going to finish every champion.
He is one of the best AD carries in the world, absolutely.
But definitely Ken Shine.
I feel like most on those real hyper carries,
when he is playing something, like the Zerri, like the Kaisa.
The ADG days, right?
It's like, I just have that special place in my arm, man,
for a Kairi Viper on those big carries.
He was crazy.
He is crazy, like that you mentioned it again.
Got high hopes for Viper here as we don't take an AD carry
off here, Patrioli.
In the end, it's the Nautilus.
It's the Engage.
They give away the Kaisa here.
and all of a sudden we keep seeing more dive out of PSG
built for this game of Swiss.
Yeah, the Nautilus ban here is interesting.
You know, it does kind of leave me to believe
that maybe we want to play a high mobility carry here
for Viper, you know, something that makes it
a little bit more difficult to lock down here.
This would be something that's really strong
against what PSG has shown.
This is hard engage, and they're going to draft
an engage support as well, pretty much guaranteed.
Zaya answers that beautifully.
I absolutely love it, and Rakan is up.
And the light is incredibly good at it.
Talking about it at the start of draft, I was just excited.
It's just going to be the pairing.
I feel like it definitely could be.
And they say, whatever tank rail will just
put the light on comfort, we'll put the light on that same champion
that he's so well known for.
I mean, he is so well known for it.
I just feel like it is just screaming out the call
out of that at that point.
And he is going to answer.
We are going to get the Delay Recon.
I don't know, man.
I am pretty nervous for PSG.
Just even looking at some of the, like,
If you're playing, you know, nameplates off, then you can go either way, but when you realize it's like second guy Yone Delight is gone or a con.
Pane out on Mount Comfort as well.
Yeah, Pane out on Mount Comfort.
This is super comfort. Viper is going to be incredibly difficult to dive, and you're kind of like full committed to this hard con, uh, dive, right?
I'll start just even more of that, but it's not like you can pivot out of that and say, let's draft something else now.
Yeah.
If you were going triple melee topside with a Kaisa, it's full dive, you're committed.
Now as we've ran out of the comps, there is one stat I need to share with everyone at home
and Betty's brought this up to me last night, he's like, hang on a minute, he's like, wait,
peanut this entire year, only lost one game on Maokai out of 18 games. And it was in the grand
final that he lost the game against Gen G. But again, shout out to Betty for bringing that to my
attention. He is 17 and one on the pick in 2024, which is an insane stat here when,
I mean, you are talking about one of the best junglers in the ELSA game. Yes,
I guess I'm a lot through win a lot, but still it's just crazy to throw that in there as they debut on the Swiss
But to put it in their perspective their their teammate who game score over the whole year that is 70% win rate
Which is obviously incredibly good. Yeah, but now guy ninety four point four percent
So it is still, you know very
Suddenly above the average that their team does win sometimes when it's gonna be kind of kind of fraudulent be like this guy's insane
The ship he has 60% win rate. It's like well your team has a 70%
Yeah, it's a good throwback.
Who could forget?
It was such a crazy team.
No one expected them to win Worlds.
Hummer Life this time.
A lot of people are putting them in the top three, top four to win Worlds.
And as they debut here against PSG.
I mean, PSG is the player's run real.
Can they use that momentum and take a win off tournament?
I mean, it's a great team.
It's a great team.
It's a great team.
It's a great team.
It's a great team.
It's a great team.
It's a great team.
and take a win-off, tournament favourites, it would set up their tournament, it would set up the Swiss stage,
and it would throw expectations out the window.
As again today, we've had some pretty close match-ups with LCK versus other members of the East,
and here against PSG we get to find out if that's going to be the case again.
Yeah, we have had some really close match-ups, they had opportunities in their game,
a Waveball got way closer against Zengi, then I think people were exciting.
TL obviously had their windows against LNG.
T1 lost out to top A sports before yep. Yep. So we've had some really close really competitive games
I say we've gotten way more good games than I was kind of expecting
Coming into this first day. I thought there was gonna be a lot more lopsided matches
And we'll see if that does continue here for the last couple that we have scheduled
Well, it should be good because I know after this
fly versus
Fly versus game. I just saw a man walking along in the audience
So he's definitely getting ready for that and as I'll let's hope you're not another curse for now though. I take it away
I'm not gonna throw that in here. Don't you put that out there. I'm sorry
I felt guilty as soon as I said it every time Annie loses
50 tweets
Get off the cash the DMs must be nuts. I'll feel sorry for you. They're in good fun to be fair, but
There's an edge of truth to it. They're like well, it's been a lot of losses
Maybe we should never now I was gonna say that this looks like the most sad and sad
But of course Betty and Woody are gonna go against that and they're gonna swap you on the side part is you're right
It is the most interesting world so like every single game. It feels like it's just a lane stop today
Which I mean it lives up can be interesting, you know, they can be strategically cool
Especially if there is some sort of adaptation that's going on true
But when you come to worlds you want to see the best players in the world laning against each other
You know, you just want to see the 1v1s you want to see the 2v2s you want to see those out plays
And Lane's off. So unfortunately do deny us a bit of that
We'll have to see though, if PSG can get too much from this, obviously Alistar kind of famously
awful level 1, so a lot of players here, you know, just electing to lane so often they do
have Alistar, even if it's just a quick push towards level 2, and that's exactly what
they're doing.
This is kind of a similar situation that we saw CORE and INVAC in last game, where
obviously Woody's going to be going down bot lane to try to cover Aja here on the
Jax.
Of course we know that HLE isn't looking to dive, they're just going to farm and
They're just chilling and continue to move around the map here as Doran's gonna TP back towards top catch that wave and
Peanut is just power farming here on the mount guy
So HLE is already up, you know good 400 gold and they're just saying you know what if you're gonna give us that advantage
We're just gonna take that gold lead and we're just run with it
I mean again the difference is it like this time as well
There's no setup of the dive right the support so moves to the same position, but junglers are popping towards top and
Doran was able to get some experience through mid
But now it receives the wife Betty's pushed to only looks like a couple of waves
They're not that big bill to stack up that we saw even in the last game as they all were
It was about denying as much experience and gold as possible. Yeah, absolutely
But I mean honestly, you know Betty elects not to do that that massive stack wave because Woody is basic, right?
So they're pushing to get level too fast as what he's gonna look mid and
Force a flash so as soon as they want to try to go for that fast level to that means you can't really slow stack it
Right you have to just you're kind of opting into a different strategy
where you have to fast push a little bit more,
get the fast level 2 for Woody
so we can get back down to bot
to cover a potential dive.
Obviously that didn't end up happening,
but he is able to find something there.
And so we're in Hobson.
Meaning he blocks away his door
and wasn't able to get his drill thrown out,
but you notice bot side,
some heavy trades coming through,
under half HP, but Viper and Delight
just keep walking on up,
getting some heavy trades once again
and looking for more play.
Well, this is the thing, right?
You know, they're just farming plates.
They're saying, great, like you're going for this.
Penis is going to cover Dorian, there's no way you're ever diving this, just the absolute
zero chance it would work in a 3v2.
So you know it's great cover here from HLE and they're saying, yeah sure, do the lane
swap, who cares?
We're going to have Viper way ahead in gold, we're going to get a gold lead as well on
Dorian and we're just in a much better spot in this situation.
Oh, Maple didn't want that, he took a turret shot as well, he does level up so some
health came back on in, but still that could have been more disastrous here, second
with him. I mean this is just looking so miserable for Aja because every time
generally when you play Jax in these kind of 1vx situations the way that you
get any farm is every time Counterstrike stuff you walk forward you use the
Counterstrike and you actually just use that to protect yourself from the AD
carry and then pick up a minion or two and now what we're seeing Delight is
doing which this is honestly just kind of a master class from here is every
time Aja walks up with Counterstrike he's actually you know just
knocking him up and jumping back but he's still nying his ability to
actually get to those minions to get any farm he's constantly see seeing him
harassing him, and then yeah sure, even if you land a counter strike on him, Viper's
putting in the Feathers 3, so you have to watch out for the pullback, so
Oxygen basically every time he steps forward is being forced to immediately
lead strike backwards to a minion, and that's why he wasn't able to really get
any farm until just now when they base, and he can finally push out that wave,
but look at what Doran's done, right? You know, Doran is a little bit behind
an XP, but he has an additional 14 minions, and that's over two full waves,
and has not really been pressured in that same way, so Viper in delight
Just doing a great job with it as the light again moving towards topside anytime. There's any opportunity
They're saying you know what Doran would you be vulnerable on these waves? Yes, I would okay
Someone is there to cover first it was peanut and now since the wave head down story needs push it out
That's why there's someone here again, and this is just simple stuff, but it makes such a big difference
You know if there isn't someone there to cover you on this push you could easily into in this situation
But because HLE have them covered entirely
It's just looks like there's nothing happening. Such clean assignments and such clean that play here from HLE
And his delight moves up top to also cover Doran as
Junja was spotted in the area
He just moves away after the waves pushed up Doran can walk back if he needs but
Cancers is back for the meantime grubs are also up and available
And I also noticed that Doran is about to hit level six a couple more minions
And he will be able to impact this as PSG start them off at the very least
Yeah, gonna be able to start up these grubs here and at the very least they will get one right away
Maple does move first, but it's still missing a little bit of health and Zephyr did just buy, so
We'll see if they want to try to get in for one, but it doesn't look like they're gonna go for it
Which is almost level six. He won't get it off this last grub
No, he will not indeed just got the massive boost from the first so three grubs go over to PSG
Despite what was happening, but when your bot lane is still up at the top side
I may now I guess it's least to be expected and it's still an e100 goal lead for HLE with really nothing happening
Right, and we barely had any fighting.
Mazza gets a nice little trade there.
As he finally knows, the light, of course,
was up on that top side.
He showed.
He was kind of harassing Junja over on those grubs.
And Mazza is going to try to just sit back,
making sure he is not exposing himself
to any sort of a gank from Pina.
Because they know that control ward is there over by a try.
So he doesn't really have any vision in the enemy jungle.
And that's why he has to play so safe,
even though potentially he could put some pressure
on and farm these minions.
He just can't afford to expose himself,
because he doesn't know if he's going to get wrapped around her like the vision
talk because the river right now is controlled at least towards mid laners
the second map where we get a quick snapshot of what's going on there was a
good control war there's a river ward up in top side as well the HLE just doing
their due diligence is delight once again makes himself known towards mid
peanut now has level six as well sees junja in the jungle just does a
bramble smash to get on out while he also covers for five or again me
just covering these lanes seems like the early game talk here once again in
It feels like every game we talk about who's covering who and how important it is at the time
Absolutely, I mean especially if you have really a lot of confidence that you can win out in the later stages
Why not?
Well on the ZECA remember he's flushes Burn-Ely it's still not up great timer from PSG
First blood taken away is ZECA can't get his fate sealed instead he gets his fate put in the dirt
His first blood over to PSG. Nicely done. Would he just find the engage and no hesitation
Would he impressed me so much when I was watching the PCS this guy is mechanically very very good
He has that killer rinse thing. He has that edge that you need as an engaged player to find that small window and just no hesitation
You have to immediately have confidence. You have to go for it
He absolutely rinsed 100 thieves to some of those engages finding flanks
Especially in that last game with River on the Lilia
It just felt like anytime River showed himself Woody is flashing on his head Woody is finding the kill on him and
and setting up his team for success helps to eliminate almost all that gold lead that HLE had been slowly growing.
And from the bottom lane especially, Viper was the one with a bit of a lead, Betty picks up the kill and now he's in the driver's seat here already.
He's got the red tricks, he's got the recurve bow and as Betty looks to push in this wave with Peanut, not spotted on a ward but will be on the pixel brush.
He walks away in a very good spot in this early game. So nice setup from PSG, they also picked up Grubbs before.
Dragon sits there, but Grubbs in 1 minute 30.
And some of the early game mitigation is nice to see considering
when they were hyping up Piazzini as not this walkover,
if they play like they did from the end of playing the stage.
Yeah, absolutely. And I mean, if they play like they did at MSI,
this team went five games against BLG, right?
Like, this is a team that is having a very good year.
I think people sometimes talk strangely about the BCS.
It's like they almost pretend that they have always been like they were,
you know, in like 2015 and stuff back in the Flash all days.
And it's not really true.
I mean, last year alone,
they failed to make it out of play into that MSI and Worlds.
And that's not to criticize.
That's to say, you know,
we need to call attention to the improvement
to how good of a year they're having.
This is a standout year that it's so well at MSI.
Doran in trouble here,
Genshin's behind them.
He's flushed over the wall,
but gonna be meant to counter-strike
in the stunning place.
No mega, no.
And they take him before he evolves.
Now for Peanut, he's left here without his top laner.
He needs some assistance,
but following over the wall,
Archer gets a flush out of him,
but Junja matches,
presses W, gets the kill.
But for HLE, they need a response.
They pull the feathers in and for Viper.
It's good damage down.
He takes down Junja, gets a one for two.
But remember, PSG took the fight there and won it out.
And we are dead even.
It's just a great read and great play
from Asha and Junja.
Junja just gets behind Doran and he's sitting
in a position knowing that's exactly where
the Jax is going to put him.
That is really good stuff from the top side duo here
from PSG.
They play an abnormal amount towards Asha.
So these guys really are an experienced duo, as a top and jungle pairing there.
You know, they love to play towards top lane.
Like, it is crazy how much more they do than the average team, at least in the PCS.
Yeah, I mean, Junja not only in Plains, we saw some of that attention.
But we also saw that when you play through Archer in the PCS, he can be a reliable carry now.
His development this year, he's insane.
When I remember casting the guy back in the day and I said it in Plains,
He got outclassed by people like rest in the league.
People like, you know, the rest of the PCS players,
I was gonna say YSKM probably not the right player,
if those fans remember.
Now for PSG, they're starting to take this grub
to the topside.
On a ward is Junja.
He's already gotten four,
but this might just be a five grub,
excuse me, a six grub game,
picked up by PSG,
because HummerLife got beaten out the full.
Yeah, it's looking really good.
I mean, off of that pressure that they got on topside,
They get the kills, they now have six grubs here.
And the gold, 200 gold for HLE, now 300, but I mean it's just between that two, 300 mark.
Honestly, who cares? The gold lead pretty much is nothing.
They just need to make sure that Aja isn't going to get picked on here.
As Pina is moving down towards that bottom side, you can see on the minimap,
and Aja obviously way down on farm, he didn't get the kill and those furnishes on the top side.
Pina knows he hasn't been spotted yet. Aja is playing with respect to this,
but again that means he's just going to be losing even more farm.
He desperately wants that cannon, this could be his life.
He gets the Undyne bolted back and as Hell says, yeah that means the death knell's there.
Bramble smash the wrong way but for Penna still getting the engage with the counter strike.
Set up by the Glacial Prison means the Peer Shaking try and turn this in with Maple in.
They will indeed! Fate sealed in onto Hummer Life is good and Zaka brings a fight back.
Maple jumps in under Taric, but this time he might want to go further.
Flash, perfect execution there. Hummer Life lucky to be alive with another trade.
Yeah it was really good setup there from HLE though. They know that Aishah is
really gonna be desperate for that cannon. He has been getting zoned off so much farm.
It is just so juicy. Can't pass it up. So it goes in for that cannon. But
PSG had the TP from Maple to cover. They quickly come in on that, and they punish the missing
Flash from Peanut. Because remember, they have that timer from him running away. You got killed
up by Gengen on that top side. So Maple arrives. They get that kill, and it's just the one for
one trade. But it's again, that proactive play, that cover that you need to have there
from PSG they are not rolling over here against HLE by any means and they're
setting themselves up to have a real chance in the 5v5 in the skirmishes and
that's where they have to really prove that they're going to be able to deal
with the engage from Delight that they're gonna be able to find some way to
problem-solve the issue that is going to be vibrant here on this sire well
Lisa Jacks is gonna have impact and Juju again has that impact in this
early game we already talked about him shadowing Archer I think the big
thing is people forget that coming into worlds he was first in CS per minute
as a jungler and this guy's on sejuani ganking and still up here on top
not as what's that target goes down while we're glazing PSG a bit how my life
do get themselves first turret blood which leads them into a gold lead but
as dragon stares them in the face I mean PSG are still nearby if this turns
into an all out for all yep you know PSG you know are gonna have to stay
aggressive they're gonna have to keep looking for these plays in the
Ken in theory play through side lanes but at a certain point you're gonna
have to deal with the 5v5 and I think it is gonna be so problematic
because while PSG are winning out on some of these hermishes,
they still have not really had to deal with Viper,
have not really had to deal with Delight,
and Viper is just going to be so well set up
to be safe in these fights and with his eye ultimate,
with the cleanse, with the amount of heal between the Malkai,
the Gnar, as well as this Rakan,
it's so tough for them to get to him.
So PSG is going to be in this difficult situation
where not only do you have to execute really, really well in the 5v5,
you have to find the multiple angles on these flanks
because it has to be someone getting in,
Max gets in on top of Iberny, pops the ultimate,
all of a sudden Maple's there too from somewhere else
and that's the kind of stuff you're gonna be able
to need to move off because if you're just running
straight at him, you have absolutely no chance
in ever getting to.
That's what I like from PSG is that we get the
MasterCart Land Economy snapshot to show you
that yes, jungle's ahead once again,
but everyone from HLE despite the circumstances
is ahead in goal.
I love again that PSG tried to pull this comp out
in their debut on Swiss and they're like,
we can do it, we can operate it
and while picks early have come into fruition,
Now, as you say, it gets more difficult into the 5B5s, into the later objective setups.
Look at the Herald that's just spawned here as Delight and Viper sit around mid,
try to force out for the extra range there for Delight hitting so they can walk away, while PSG try to get themselves into the river.
Exactly, and PSG just, again, going to be playing towards the topside objectives.
They're going to be looking for the Herald, looking for the Scuttle. They already got all six Grubs here.
So we'll see if this is going to be a contest from HLE. Of course, the Essence Reaver is done,
Runeking's done, try for us, lock it, you know all these key items have now come through for HLE
So I think that they're not just going to be giving this up and you know
Can be moving in and pulling aggro now on that Herald they have made it already so here we go
An award so they'll know the exact health bar here PSG still angling for the fight Betty took a bit of damage
Which might hurt a bit but at 4k it goes down HLE draw PSG in but Archer wants a 1v1 off the back end
1500 on the health bar, Junja for the steal, the ulti sent out, he runs in, in the herald, it's not taken
but now for the quickness, HLE take the fight and take the brute force, get the damage down, the fates yield as well
five members left standing as the feathers fly up, you set it as ill, you set our heart, it's going to be a thoron, wax them back
for the kickflip, ulti, Archer sent packing and a double over the door round with a beautiful nah, ulti
Make it three HLE with their hands again just like finals debut big on Swiss
Yeah, they just have the outplay in that 5v5. They have the Herald as well. They have three kills on the NAR
They're gonna push top for that tower. They're gonna take the mid lane tier one
And they're gonna get a charge on the second tower here as well
They may not finish this off, but this just
Exploded the game here for HLE. They're an incredible spot now
Now look at the NAR gold lead as he gets the solo gold on that, he's nearly 2k ahead.
Now Zeca is 1.6k ahead, sure, you killed Viper, but at what cost?
It just all exploded at once, Naples gonna make a teleport play, he flashes from the 5 point strike, but actually imagine he's about to go to make it up, gets a stun, ulti again, Naples against the wall as Zeca starts free-barring and Jorja can't save the situation, it's a turn of our play and Jorja needs to run, run, run the hell away.
Just when you think PSG were finding angles in this game after that fight, after that pick,
it's a four and a half K gold lead!
Yeah, I mean, at the end of the day, they played really well through the early stages,
but it's always going to be that question. Can you out team fight a team like HLE?
They've given themselves an opportunity to do so, but they are so good in these skirmishes,
so adept at playing out the fights. And again, you have to commit so much to killing Viper off
that it means Zaka's going crazy, Doran's going crazy. The rest of the team
was not even threatened at all.
You had to send everything and the kitchen sink
to kill off this Ziya and it ends up costing you the fight,
ends up costing you multiple towers.
And some people might meme on that play from Maple,
but he knows after that fight and all the towers,
they lost there in a terrible spot.
So he teepees before Doran buys
to try to get the bounty.
And honestly, I kind of respect it
because you were just in a terrible spot
from this position.
I mean, again, it's just talking about Doran,
where he was last year at Worlds,
and the expectations we have as this kind of player.
And when we come back to it, he still hits high highs.
He gets banged on sometimes, but he still has high highs.
And here in this opening game on the NAR,
some beautiful team fight positioning and play,
this guy's leading the charge.
Absolutely.
I mean, I think this is kind of something
that just honestly happens, not just with Doran,
but it's just the nature of the game,
and especially international,
where people obviously haven't necessarily seen
a lot of games of these players all year long.
They see one moment or one thing,
And that's kind of what you latch onto and that becomes, you know,
the reputation or the narrative or whatever for players.
But I do think it is kind of sad sometimes because it can erase, you know,
all of the good work and all the things that these players are doing so well.
And so I just always like to kind of call it out a little bit when I see it.
And then it's valid. And in this game, HLE, again, I said it before,
working with their hands like it just felt like you watch the finals and
you watch some of the best HLE games of this split or playoffs itself.
And it's always this team just finding the margins.
I'll never forget game one as long as I live at them versus Gen.G of that fight top with second Viper
Absolutely hands-dipping again to use the word in that first game against Gen.G
Yeah, they can absolutely pull it off. They are spectacular
have that highest level
incredible mechanics on this team and
Now PSG are in for a world of hurt
You know, we'll see if they can find any sort of a way to really make some magic happen here
You're going to have to look for some sort of a pick.
You know, you basically at this point are depending upon,
you know, getting an instant kill at the start of the fight
on one of the key members.
It basically has to be Zeca or Viper dying as soon as the fight starts,
or you're just not going to win the fight.
So it is going to be up to Jhinja, up to Woody,
up to these guys that are on those playmakers
to find that perfect initial engage on a key member.
And it's going to be up to HLE to deny that.
And your job gets so much harder
when you're playing against the Peanut Malkai
because he's going to be throwing saplings in every brush.
He's going to be throwing down things like this.
The ulti is just a secure Viper that's here to mid,
so he grabs that, gets the local gold on it,
and there's no way that PSG can actually move to contest.
As they take the turret, we move to 5k.
Baron's up in three seconds,
there's something that can be forced,
and again, you've got Yone, you've got Niren,
you've also got Zyra, HLE.
One mistake can lead into this objective
that'll go down quite quickly.
And Sidelane's now fedora,
and two are looking even better and better.
He's heading towards the Sterak's gauge,
it looks like, for a second item,
and he should be there relatively soon.
He's also got a 60 CS lead over Archer.
Now I know they were Lancelot.
I know that Doran got the play out.
He's solo named for a little bit longer without much stress.
But it's still just kind of showing you
how this guy knows how to push a lead as HLE
all individually have shown us that in this game too.
Absolutely.
And also just, I mean, yeah, some of it's from Lancelot,
but credit to HLE on how they actually handled that.
Every time there was any sort of window of opportunity
for PSG to punish Nar, there's someone there covering him.
Peanuts there covering him.
Delights there covering him.
You know, helping him push out the wave.
They just did that so incredibly well, and on the other side, Delayne and Viper pressured
Aja on every single wave.
He just couldn't farm.
So, you know, you're expanding this advantage more and more and more, and HLE did an incredible
job with that, and now that's being done because, guess what, now in the 1v1, Aja doesn't
really stand too much of a chance here against Doran.
You know, he's just in such a better spot, so it means that Aja's going to
miss even more and more farm, and HLE can just look to extend this lead.
You expect the same as Zeca who's two items up versus one and a half for Maple is damaged even if Junja here
He goes over the wall maple tags in there might take this all in they hit everything under Zeca
It's caught a fish in headlights
It looks like that's a shut down there now by HLE the rest of the fight won't go as smoothly
But a good male cry off from peanut stops PSG from the chase as they get the pick that gives them a numbers advantage
Yeah, that's actually huge. They got the shutdown and they got both summoners and ulti off Viper
If that is massive there for PSG, it's exactly the kind of play that they do need to continually make here against HLE.
They are staying competitive. They really are making it difficult here for HLE to just run away with this game.
But HLE are just going to say, you know what? You're missing all your tools. We're just going to start baron.
Zed has TP, 10 seconds. He can just join him. They are on a ward though, but another scrying ward to see.
The ultimate information is Doran goes over the wall.
He do a 1v3, he goes into Megana, keeping them at bay, his ulti, Grady flashes back over,
but Baron getting low, maybe tries to jump in, but a smite is the way to go!
I just tried to spin, but now Zacca teleported back in and finds back line access!
PSG are running for their lives, they've got no health left, no regards, and with Betty down as well,
hey, Chilly, take the Baron, take the kill, take the blood that we're looking for,
and PSG are now got their heads in the air.
Yeah, Zeca, TP's back in, get some revenge for the pick on him.
HLE playing that out really well, again,
realizing that there is a lack of resources here.
Missing owners, missing ultimates,
they can force the play on the bearer,
and they're able to secure it.
Zeca, TP's back in.
PSG try to make something happen,
as multiple members, they're going into the pit,
trying to see if they can find a way to steal it,
but they can't make it happen.
And now PSG just back out on the map.
Really all they can do is just continually look
for these fights.
Might be a long chase here from Woody.
He's going to try to see if he can find someone
on that long run back.
But doesn't find an angle as they all do group together.
So they just have to admit and look for that one more time.
As yes, over the wall here, Doran is in some trouble.
But flashes back in the pit, and Maple takes the E.
But look at that counter-engage from the light.
Instantaneously charms him out of the E there.
I think he maybe even disjointed the shirk and flip
damage as he interrupted him coming over the wall.
So he couldn't get that finish.
Audrey goes in to try to bail him out,
Try to make something happen. They realize again, this is desperation hours here when you are in that spot
But it's a perfect counter-engage there from Delight. They're gonna look for Viper
They're okay Delight Bond here, 007 is once again showing up on this pick. We talked about it
And I think a lot of people have been talking about Delight. I
Could flash back to the final Blitzcrank game
He's got a lot of picks that really resonate with me here is HLE in the river and PSG want to take another bottom
And they're falling so far behind as Zekka
Re-engages, looks for the angle himself, gets a four man knocker, sets him into the corner!
The baits him on three rubberists, all that comes in with a parapet quickness!
It's beautiful to watch as everything used on Archer,
Naples tries to get in the thick of it, but he can't get anything more than a kill.
Over the wall he finds himself, but a feather through the heart,
seals the deal, a triple over to Viper,
and Hummelife are not taking any prisoners in their debut!
Man, it's just PSG going into the bounce house there.
HLE, CC him up against the wall.
The knockups from Zeca.
The stuns from Doran.
The knockups and CC from Deli.
Just up so incredibly well there for Viper.
Just a really well ex-Unit team fight there.
His dorm was able to push out Betty.
He couldn't really be involved in it.
Naples goes in, tries to salvage something,
does get a kill onto Zeca.
But again, there's no pressure on Viper.
When everything is being said at Zeca there,
and Viper is just able to crush them in the fight.
It's 11k gold, they're just about at 25 minutes
into the game, it started with that fight in top,
it continues to happen when PSG wanna scuffle down
and get dirty with it, we watch one of those fights again
and hey, jelly pivot around.
And they truly just bought so much time,
this is the key thing here, they pull back
and then as that solo bound is about to expire,
he goes back in with the fatal shield,
multiple members there, then the light,
charms up three, gets all the knockups,
You can see all of this CC coming in onto PSG, and on the other side, Fettie had already been pushed out there by Doran.
Viper not threatened at all, and no way Mabel was going to be able to take the portal out to safety.
It's a good try, but you can see now, IE done for Viper, he's already on three items, plus has the Hex Trinker.
This guy is going to be a nightmare.
You called it a bounce house before, just going back and watching the replay, like five, six people all moshed up together.
It's a lot of fun watching this game, but to the reality of it again,
with no objectives up for a while, with HLE just finding themselves on these waves,
the pressure continues to mouth, and PSG playing the defensive game now,
while people like Zeca hold himself in the side wave,
and PSG has scattered thin here, looking where to defend.
It's an over 10,000 gold lead at this point.
HLE haven't even lost a single tower at this point in the game.
They're pushing through multiple lanes here.
You can see Doran down towards the bot side.
he's gonna get that wave moving.
And they're just gonna take over vision
on this topside jungle bounce between the lanes,
continually take away enemy jungle camps,
and just extend this gold lead even further.
They're gonna really choke out PSG,
make them look for plays, make them face check in positions
where they're not really set up for the fight.
Man, it's always a pseudo-moralizing
when you're like, well, maybe we can get a pick,
and then you look over and there's a lock in.
And they look over and there's a Mikhail.
So then they look over and there's another lock in.
And there's just all of these tools.
Cause really when you're this way or behind,
your only hope is finding that miracle pick right and well now said one he can't
really do anything if the lights even in the area how much damage of these
carries him dude let me have a look at their items to help us and more as well
or at least a double I think strict yeah well there's three items you know it
is level 16 whoops don't like that no not at all and you know again I think
it's been a lot of stars of this show in this first game special mention to
the light here in this game as you said two items strong here on this
for Khan. Oh, he's the real Gary. That's true. He is. He is the
carry. I mean, he's been claimed. Oh, he's is on the
Recon. It's just a sure thing, isn't it? And you're from the
future. You called up the model is actually what you knew is
about to find out. There you go. I thought he's up for a
mistake turned into a correct answer. Yes, and four items
to three. Yep, sells everyone with a massive gold lead and
we're waiting for this Baron for Britain using home alive
just around topside now their vision shifts. Doran with TP available gets that bot wave into
receivership for Archer to look at while Peanut says hello Junjup did you think this was your jungle
with the teleport now flying through and a flank at that PSG want to fight and fight their way
out of the mud but the quickness is there waiting for Archer a beautiful blade caller as well
the feathers fly out a second time blades be damned as when he gets the great multi man but his
And this cow is about to go into the grinder as well.
I think that beat will sell for $5.99 a kilo as Junja runs for his life with Zekka on his tail.
Doran as well. Ha ha!
Hops over the wall, takes him down and HLE now dealing with the top lane of fed to the ground.
Betty as well is like wait now he's going mega now it gets more dangerous but HLE are ignoring that because they're going to end the game.
Yeah, they're gonna end the game. HLE have had enough 13,000 Goldy 28 minutes in. They're looking for the Nexus.
It's a good run. It was scrappy. It was fun from PSG. But Hummer Live for the LCK first seed.
There is no stopping the handstiff when Hummer Live play like this and with this star-started roster,
they look for more kills just to pad the stabs of bare Nexus in the end too.
but that'll be taken down HLE debut in successful fashion.
A tronking there for HLE really played out the early minutes well
and in those skirmishes they absolutely smurfed. So Russ tell me what went wrong.
Go on Russ.
Oh my god he does not.
No I can only tell you one way right.
Yeah exactly. Also I don't like being told what to do.
Exactly that's fair.
All right, he's not gonna do your jobs, fine.
We went over this in the LCS.
You cannot get him to do anything.
All right, fine.
Okay, let me start with HLE first seed out of the LCK.
A lot of pressure, bit of a dicey start.
Jack, but in the end, small feet.
Number one seed from the LCK.
This is what it looks like.
At the very start of the game,
I was really hoping to be able to drop some fire memes of PSG beat them
and say like, you know, 100thies lost to this,
but I didn't get to do it
because HLE actually did show up.
there is there's a big storyline this tournament for me about peanut and
whether or not he's going to be able to show up because he's had a lot of
chances at the world championship yeah it's never gone his way but he has
another powerhouse team now who have honestly one of the best game ones we've
seen of any team at worlds today that's a good point and talk about like
having a lot of chances and not capitalizing on it some of people only
get one chance and they immediately capitalize on it Zeka he's also our
I don't think so, they're our Oppo player of the game.
But this is the best Min Maxer I've ever seen in my life.
He is just one of the most clutch players in League of Legends.
Like, he shows up when it matters.
The ramp up he had going into Summer and just his playoffs performance in general was incredible.
You thought that when he won the World Championship, that was the best of Seca you were going to get.
It was for two years.
And it certainly was. You're right about that.
But hey, World Championship is back.
So is Seca and he's looking phenomenal.
Something that I loved about how the Honolive play around Zeka is they know how to get gold on top of him.
This game, he was the one that was finding the plays.
The chase down the house that was happening bot lane, he gets a kill there.
We already saw the riptero play, he got a kill there.
A lot of the times he is operating these fights so well and he's finding the opportunity.
That was really sick.
Man, I find Zeka and Peanut being teammates to be amazing.
Yeah.
Because Zeka, he played great in his latest LCK final,
But he's the guy who shows up at Worlds super average in the LCK.
Peanut, like one of the LCK jungle goats at Worlds, super mid.
Yeah, so now you combine these two together and they're going to make the perfect pair.
Yeah, they're going to balance each other out.
It's a great beat and Zaka is standing by in our Verizon post-game interview.
First win here at Worlds.
Zaka, thank you so much for joining me after this game.
Shox was actually just talking about the synergy between you and Peanut.
Can you tell me more about the relationship you guys have?
Congratulations on your victory and thank you for the interview.
You just said that you are really good at pin-up and jack-of-all-trades.
Can you tell us more about your team-work?
I thought that I would get along well with Wang Ho before I started the game.
I think I could keep playing for a year and get a good result in the summer.
can be a really good mid-jungle duo. And then throughout this year we were able to grow so much together
and then we managed to win the summer season and we're now at Worlds so I'm excited. Fantastic and
I keep on hearing that he's the lucky charm for the LCK as we saw in the opening teaser.
Does it feel like this to you? Is it actually Peanut who is the lucky charm for the LCK and Honwa life maybe as well?
What do you think about this year's LCK team?
I'm curious.
I heard that Wang Ho won the LCK team every time Wang Ho came to the World Cup.
Now that Wang Ho has come to the LCK team, we'll make sure that Wang Ho smiles.
Every time when we had peanuts making it to Worlds, we had an LCK team winning Worlds.
And as an LCK team, I hope I can make Peanut smile in the end.
This and the white jersey of this year set up for success.
But talking about Yuzuka, you showed up in 2022, won Worlds again.
All expectations coming as the underdog.
This time is a completely different story.
You're the LCK winner.
There's a lot of expectations for Honwa Life eSports.
How much does it change your perception of Worlds
and how you're going to attack this championship?
In fact, when I look back on the 22-year-old Worlds,
I was a little underdog at the time.
I participated and wrote a record of winning.
But this time, the LCK has become the champion of the first seed.
Do you feel the same way?
And does it make you feel different about the LCK?
It feels different from the last two years.
I feel the same way, and I feel the same pressure.
But I think that I have to take responsibility as the first seed.
I think I have to do well.
Well, obviously, compared to 2022,
I'm feeling a lot more pressure and maybe more stress
because we are representing LCK as the first seed, but I think it's a responsibility that
every first seed team has to take.
All right, we'll see how you deal with pressure this time around, fantastic job, and a debut
for you at Worlds.
Interview.
Thank you so much, Jisun, for the translation.
And that's all for us here on this side of the stage.
We'll be back for the seventh game of this evening.
It's going to be FlyQuest, making their debut against Gammys for a stadium.
by this glad mission at a town condition in the top division this is dominant pressure is on
still have two best ones to go it's very serious it's a real championship
but it's two possible chances back to back for euna respectively to win we've got fly cross versus
gam up next and then we've got g2 versus pain so not all is lost yet we're going to start with
this one and uh with gam they are our vcs's first seed now you may remember them from the
the planes because they came through completely unscathed to zero ssg and
rainbow seven best performing team in planes yeah I think for sure with the
ability to win every game key I was the one that was most impressive to me he
had back-to-back Aurora wins in his first series and I forget what he played
in the second series right as of now but it must have been good there's a
lot of Aurora in my eyes the other champion
to be the your rubber. Why are we doing this? I feel like we should just move on. It was
great performance. It was great. What I was more impressed with with GAM in general was
actually the fact of how controlled they were with their gameplay because it was not your
ordinary VCS gameplay that came out where they're just going mega hard with Timbo and
taking every fight they can. It was macro gameplay and it was through Levi specifically.
One of my favorite games from Levi was his Shyvana game just because of how controlled
how efficient his pathing was and yes I
know you love Shyvana great champion
at that first is the LCS first seed you
heard that right it's fly quest you know
and rumble what that makes sense but
talk to me about how fly quest ended
up as your number one seed a lot of it
was just how good they were and team
fighting and how much they leveled up
around this guy right here quad
became the best mid laner in the LCS
by the playoffs. And a lot of it was how they funneled resources to him on
sidelines. I think they were really smart around it and how good they were
around what was like Ivern, Renekton comps or specifically how they're playing
teamfights around the space that Bucca was providing. So it felt like they all
clicked in by the time they were in the finals versus team liquid. They were
really committed to their identity, but their identity did shift from the last
time that I think a lot of people saw FlyQuest when they lost at MSI
plans to PSG. So they would pick Renekton. Every single time was up if it was there and I think
they played so much more around their true carries Quad and Masu and then Inspired was also very
willing to play support of junglers. So they really did manage to pivot their style and playoffs
and that's ultimately what led them to a championship. Yeah I know we don't have the
camera on us right now. I thought you were about to point in the minion in the fridge
Razz when you were talking about
They smuggled one here
Absolutely did and I mean what a crazy ending to a final as well
I still think with like when I look at most people and talking out of North American teams
They still feel like team liquid seemed like the stronger team
But like was is the first seed as well coming into it
And I think they have the level of play to showcase at their best what it means to be an NA team liquid lost their last game
So my best friend is like West now and inspired.
Inspired, I mean, best Western jungler coming into the tournament.
Question mark. Yes, undoubtedly.
And he's such a complete player, as you can see, at the beginning of the split,
he was playing such a carry centric style.
You can see the Nidalee, Carthus, Taliyah and all these things.
But then by the end to the point that Jatt was making,
their carries were Quad and Masu.
And he made the joke of him being like a kitten
because he was playing Ivern he was going bot lane a lot he was basically saying oh I'm playing supportive styles
He was letting those two carries really go for it. So it really is as flexible as a player
He is we already know how smart and vocal as he is in term in the game
um
The team is really rallied around and they've been consistent themselves one thing
I will say was inspired though and I think we saw this reared ugly head at msi is if
Other players on his team are struggling. I think that can throw inspired off his game
But if his lanes are stable and he's trusting them, then he really gets to shine because it'll be extremely efficient in pathing
And he knows like how to win the game through teamfighting
But as the opponents of his laners get stronger, yeah
Sometimes I can get a fee and two players that I would say from both sides that I'm looking forward to from
Gamside emo because he was a player that actually really was delightful for me with this yone play
They're probably gonna ban it away from me. He was too good on he was too good on that from
I think he's going to have a much better performance here today.
All right. Now I wanted to take a look at how the VCS, but Gam specifically has been doing against NA because we have a couple of memories.
So we're going to pull up that record. Gam 3, NA 4 in terms of match record, best ofs.
And then Gam 5, 9.
And then Gam 5, 9.
And then Gam 5, 9.
And then Gam 5, 9.
And then Gam 5, 9.
and a four in terms of match record best of them again five nine so it's it's
better and best of ones. I know it certainly is but I also think like sure
historically we can talk about these things but this game that's been showing
up this time seems so much more control than the game we saw earlier. I
understand how some teams will kind of just get sucked into that chaos that
they bring but that's not really going to be the case this time around and
I'm keeping my eyes on the top side of map for of the map for game. Yes. Yeah
it's been phenomenal. I'm personally really looking forward to the matchup
against Wipo. He's been talking a big game. I want to see what he's bringing out against
KIAIA. And then he inspires versus Levi, Levi the best Vietnamese jungler as well. Well,
the rest of the map from Gam is going to bring, I think that is yet to be decided. I think
they've been really good match players and some just leveling up, but I generally
think that... I don't care, I don't care. Wipo versus KIAIA. I'm so excited because
come on. And the review afterwards. The review afterwards. I mean it's, it's, I like,
You know, he's giving all of the notes and the pointers to everyone.
And it's just like, I feel like it's putting a lot of pressure on yourself.
Oh, certainly. Yeah.
And Gam is going to make it a messy game.
So almost certainly we're going to get a review.
Like, it's a matter of what, because they're going to team fight.
Gam is going to come in.
They're going to play Shyvana, Aurora.
They're going to make these fights messy.
And it's just going to be fly quest that has to try and keep it on the rail.
I mean, I'd love to like get him to do review live on the desk.
If he's down, if we could pull it off, it would be incredible.
I heard we have an additional minute to cover here, but yeah, I mean, I think what's fair to say is that
Flyquests should not be underestimating game here
You were really taken aback that the flyquests picked right there actually the first or the only team today to do so if they had a choice
Yeah, we realized that so throughout the entire
Swiss stage the team from the higher pool gets to choose sides and of the eight teams that got to choose as you
Said flyquests is the only team to choose red also similar to what they did in playoffs
We had entire best of fives where they'd be on red side every single game because they'd pick red and their opponents would pick blue just over and over again.
So they're very committed to this side.
I wish I knew exactly why they do it because it's not like they're utilizing a huge toppling counter pick.
As you said, BWIPO is literally just from playing Renekton whenever it's open and will probably continue to do that at Worlds.
But they're very comfortable on this side.
They're committed to the bit.
They are.
It's always funny because Blue side will get picked so much more because you can kind of plan the draft a little bit more on the first three picks.
But on red side, you're like, but you can probably get not only does the top lane counter, but the support counted
There's a lot of things there. I want to see what they're trapped
That's gonna be the most important question just so we're sure going to the casters you holding you're holding the fly quest one and you
I want to practice. Yeah
Just so we know free what people think let's go
What are you telling me?
This has been just a blast.
It's been a blast.
You guys have lost it.
You guys have lost it down there.
Hey, right.
We need some adults over on the
on the analyst test to separate the children.
We're probably the adults, I guess.
I was sharing since the sale
and we've got game versus fly.
Now it is good having a resident
NA caster.
Let me say, you know, play by a boy caster.
and you're also a desk out on it. You can do it all. Thank you. So you've got you've got the full layout of this flight quest
Yeah, that made the upset in the finals versus TL. I don't know your first seat. Yeah, TL who's heard of that?
This is our first seat, you know, this is where we're pinning all our hopes here to try to get that NA win today
At least, yeah. FlyQuest, you know has really developed a lot
You know, they talked about it obviously on the desk
But I was just so impressed by how much the team leveled up in playoffs and also the shift in playstyle in playoffs was also really important as well
Similarly to how you know, it's talking about TL
This is a team that if you look back to spring and you only watch them in spring or going in MSI
Everyone just talked about how it's just all about inspired playing towards whoop-o and like that's kind of their thing
And they're gonna win if they can do that. Well, well, it shifted massively
You know, obviously Razz was talking about Quad and highlighting him
But it's also about Masu and just having a lot of faith in these young carries in Quad and Masu
You know to be able to really get it done and going into playoffs inspired really moved away from what was his heavy farming style
And he was spending Ivern and a Moo Moo and champions like this to just enable his team
You know what? I really liked as well about both in 18s, but TL and fly quest I noticed from MSI as well
That trajectory just kept going up. There was more and more development
And I know you know we talked about it with APA before we talked about it with John as well and how they facilitate
Yeah, where they get into the team with fly quest to
You know having more versatility more of a foundation gives you more hope for this team as they go up against game
And a lot of people are saying this should be a win if you want to believe in North America or at least flyquests here at this
Well, absolutely. I mean, this is one of those situations where this is the result of you getting first place, right?
They got an easier draw your playing against the team from play ends
You're not having to play against an LPL or an LCK team. Does that mean it's a free win? No
No, does that mean it's an easy win? No, you have to take it seriously
So you have to still play well to be able to take down these teams.
Gam, they played very well in play-ins.
They went 4-0, did not drop a game.
The only team to actually not drop a game getting through play-ins.
So we don't know exactly how high they can go.
And Kiyahia, they talked about this on the desk as well,
really was impressive to me.
He was such a standout.
He shut down Summit absolutely after Summit
was getting some monster lane advantages.
And my big question for Flypuss coming into Worlds
was kind of like, which whippo is going to show up?
Because boobo during the regular season, you know,
really wasn't making the kind of impact
that you would expect from him.
Yeah, little mistakes.
But then in playoffs, really did step up.
And especially, you know, in the finals weekend,
he's bringing out the Olaf.
He's bringing out the Gare.
And he's bringing out all these picks
and really making things happen.
And this is kind of right back to where
Fleck was left off in playoffs going to the Ivern.
This is something that became pretty much
perm banned against them after they were doing
a lot of double AD carries with Ivern.
I don't know if that's exactly what they'll go to here.
But at the time, Quad was playing like Smulder and Xerri and things like this.
And they just pair that with Ivern.
And they'd say, you know what?
We're just going to scale and we're just going to out team fight you.
Well, with that locked in again, we get confident also with the Calista that
sets up for a more aggressive bot lane.
Talk about confidence in your lane is this also shows a little bit more of
that here with fly putting emphasis on that 2v2.
Exactly.
I mean, Masu rookie of the year.
This guy, I cannot say enough good things about him and his development.
His rise has been meteoric in 2022.
This guy was in amateur.
In 2023, he won most valuable prospect in Academy.
In 2024, he's at Worlds.
He won a title and he's rookie of the year.
I can't believe he went from that to like MSI and Worlds
in the same year.
Exactly, like.
He's done it a year.
It's crazy.
It's really incredible.
You can't really ask for more than that.
Boussio obviously has really had that kind of incredible career
as well as far as his trajectory.
He was the most valuable prospect as well the year
before in the NICL.
It's a very young bot lane.
They're trying to obviously kind of smooth things out,
really get everything working.
And they have been able to do that quite a lot towards summer.
They became a very well-respected 2v2
as far as their laning phase in the LCS,
where in spring teams were really not giving them
that respect when you talk to other bot laners and other pros
in the league.
So we'll see if they can make it work here
with the Calista.
Obviously aggressive pick, but Masu has the confidence
to play this sort of stuff.
And over on the other side, we
have some great denial picks here with a poppy.
When you're talking about Calista,
you're talking about Leona.
It can really shut you down pretty heavily.
I mean, seeing that Jin get locked in for Gam as well
is a good feel considering that the easy level
was his most played 100% win rate.
I mean, Gam won every single game,
so take that for granted.
But again, our most successful playing team
is what they're being called
as they get a lot of comfort here to open up
and they deny some of those other power picks
like the Jax here in his second rotation.
Yeah, and it's worth noting that Shyvana,
if you're wondering why was that ban?
Well, this is actually a really big pick for Levi.
Oh, yeah.
Not just in play-ins, but actually regionally as well.
This is a most played champion throughout summer split.
So he really is very adept at these heavy farming styles.
And when that was banned out from him in play-ins,
he went towards the Wukong.
So he's going a bit of a different style.
He's playing heavy towards the engage.
And they're banning out the Jax,
they're banning out Cassante, they're banning out Renekton.
These are a lot of these picks, four-foot build,
that all-in-comfort.
We'll be curious to see where he does elect to go,
as Kiyaya has his rumble removed.
Was very good for him.
And it's going to be quad on the Oriana.
So this was kind of my big question is,
And we hadn't seen any of the LEC or LCS teams go back to like, you know, Tristana mid and double AD carry and this sort of stuff.
So I was curious with the Ivern if they were going to go back that route, but instead it is going to be the Orianna.
So there's a lot of protection for Mossu here and quite high damage, so great scaling over on the FlyQuest side, obviously from their mid laner.
And going to be curious to see how Gam rounds out their comp, you know, with the Jhin you generally want to have to have alongside the Vi and the Poppy.
and that Kali is going to give them just that.
A lot of backline access.
A lot of ability to stall the send.
You're playing the game, right?
Yeah, I mean, if you go Camille,
this is absolutely just like a full send comp.
Almost full physical, of course,
Akali obviously is going to be mad at,
but if you went towards a tank, that could be problematic.
Vladimir would be really interesting,
but I'm going to start talking about hovers
because it is going to be NAR.
It is all dive pretty much here.
So it's going to be poppy support,
Akali mid, NAR top, alongside that vibe.
There's a 0% chance that this is going to get locked in for both a 0% chance there's this is just a hover from bucio
I truly will never believe that that's gonna get locked in
This is what's gonna get locked in
Okay, so he he will tell you as much as you know
He is getting some flak you know some people love it some people hate it
We'll tell you whatever he thinks whether he's right whether he's wrong doesn't really matter
He's gonna give you his honest opinion on anything this guy
I remember the first time I met him was actually at a riff rivals event when it was you know
LCS versus
LEC and
First time I've met I'm never talking about life. He just started telling me their whole trap plan. I'm like
He's just you know, he's really open. He's really talkative. He's great
You know as far as that goes and he's been creating I think so much content around world
But he's been great. He's been like the little villain, right?
Yeah, as much as you know, some people don't like it and some people don't like how I have spoken
I mean, again, as you said, great content, but also sets up this nice narrative that
if Wimbo starts winning as well, he can walk the walk that he talks.
Exactly.
It's great.
But the other part of it is, is that as much as people are like, ah, he's getting an ego,
he will tell you, and it's said constantly, he thinks he's the worst player on his team.
And he's saying, you know, it's a privilege to play on a team where you are the worst
player on your team.
And you need to be working hard to live up to that, to be able to keep pace
with your teammates, and to be able to make sure you're doing your job.
And this is what he's talked about time and time again.
If you watch his stream is that he is going to do his job.
He is going to play to set up his teammates for success.
And that is the role that he sees for himself now on this team.
And so as much as people want to talk about ego to me,
that is about as like humble as it gets.
I mean, again, it's a great narrative coming in because FlyQuest in their debut
have got a lot to show up here for North America.
The earlier loss for TL stings a little bit
when it was so winnable against LNG.
Now this one people are saying should be FlyQuest.
but Gann came through play-ins so unconditionally well, undefeated.
It's a Gann time or fly time, we're about to find out here in our second last game of day number one here for Swiss.
And as you said before, Gann have built a comp that wants to send it and try and send it on top of Massive.
And what I will say is their engage needs to be perfect because if you fail your engage against Ivern
and redemption comes down and multiple shields come down and Daisy is interrupting you and all these things are happening,
you are going to lose the fight for sure.
So, your engage needs to be picture perfect,
but this is a two-threat comp over on FlyQuest.
So, if you can nail that engage, instantly kill Quater,
instantly kill Masu, all of a sudden,
FlyQuest is going to be sorely lacking in damage,
whereas over on the other side,
there's really four threats from Gam.
You know, yeah, Nara's not a true carry,
but these are some real damage dealers on that team.
So, you know, it is kind of a high-risk,
high-reward for FlyQuest.
If you can perfectly protect those carries,
have that counter-engage, it could go really well,
But if you don't pick a fall flat on his face now just an update on the other pick that should be highly contested here is again
We're just looking at the star of gam while you can see his world appearance this guy's got ten of the VCS of the 11
Championships again, I mean on the Vi here is a big playmate for this game
And he is well, you know talk about this in April
He is in his last world appearance and he's talked about that retirement
Yeah, and he has been so incredible so many people think back to you know him playing like the knock turn the
Power farming Nocturne, and we got the same in this worlds too, right?
Exactly, the surprise plays that he has been able to pull off,
he has brought some incredible moments to worlds.
This guy truly is worlds class, and he's so exciting, so fun to watch,
a great personality as well.
So, Black West are into the lane, so up here Sion, obviously very adept at that,
but we're going to be taking a lot of damage, but did start W level one,
so was able to soak that, and wanted to walk forward to get the experience.
It was not about farm, just wanted to make sure he was soaking enough experience,
Because even if you dive a sign, he can form a lot of this with his zombie passive.
And we'll see if Bustio is going to do the same thing.
We've been seeing a lot today from Core and from HLE as well, where he gets level 2 and then bases to cover,
but it doesn't look like he's going for it.
So, Gam, I think for sure, are going to try to dive this,
and it's going to be up to Inspire to try to cover here with Levi waiting in the brush.
Well, what's wrong about the Nocturne for Levi?
Of course, that was Audi on the other side.
It might not be wrong about how well this dive goes,
because this wave is getting bigger and bigger.
We've got, has the attention of Inspire spotted out by Levi,
Where is the attention going Keia? You're also walking down here. This is a risk you try and works out your right
This is really risky. They're gonna go for it. Oh, it's clean, but the shielding's huge
It comes through clutch a bit over the over the top easy love gets the rain shot a beautiful finisher and gab
Layering of CC was still clean. Yeah, really nicely done there
Even with those shields, you know, I thought it might have turned around a little bit
But they weren't able to survive long enough, but this is the benefit of sight. Yeah, you died
But he didn't really miss any experience. He farmed a lot of the wave before he died
And then he just immediately teepees back and he's like well you can't do it again
So you know that is kind of that difficulty
But thankfully for gam that kill went exactly where you would want it
It went to easy love that I would have been way less beneficial if it went so like you know the poppy support or something like that
True and we'll see as poppy's here. Lio tries to bring Buzio back into right some good damage danymo in trouble
like Quad waits, he's got so much to do.
He's run low on Manic here, but forces him around
as he gets a low health buff.
Yeah, Quad has become a very strong laner.
You know, one of the things that FlyQuest talked a lot about
again is that this is a guy who is too selfless
and they really kind of wanted to instill into him
that, no, you are gonna carry the game.
You need to be greedy, you need to play for yourself.
And so that is something that FlyQuest
has really been working on
and that Quad has really been working on
is to try to really set himself up for success
and not always feel like he needs to not call for resources.
And that's part of what kind of is having
inspired all these supportive styles.
When you think of inspired, you think of power farming.
People are calling him the full clear CEO and stuff,
and all of these kind of memes.
But he is willing to play all of the styles.
And I think that's what makes him
such an impressive jungler is that this guy is
one MVP in multiple leagues, and he really
can play such a high level for pretty much every champion.
And I mean, again, having so much versatility
is a jungler is such a good thing here especially heading towards a summer
championships where I feel I can spy at a gap to empty in that file it's not even
all that happened right he absolutely crushed him and I mean that he is
someone that oh deep for bulls here but he's okay here with the shield up and
that's a little bit of chunk there and now when with that chunk you start to
get nervous about you know can I walk forward on this wave you know mossy was
kind of thinning it out a little bit they're allowed to keep pushing out
towards like us and gonna just hold this and make sure to keep denying as
as much as possible from Kiaia, whereas on the other side,
guess what, Jin cannot pressure a sign in a 1v1,
so BuPo's gonna keep farming,
and BuPo is getting way ahead as far as that CS is concerned.
We saw it before, you know,
and what we call the T1 early game masterclass,
where Jackie Love on this Jin couldn't really pressure sides,
couldn't really get away with open map,
because the Jin was slower pushing,
slower taking down some of these tanks as well,
as you just highlighted there.
It's a nice touch considering,
as the push comes out, BuPo's okay for now.
He's picked up quite a lot of CS in this lane,
as well, 400 gold lead while Qiyai, as you said,
comes in pressure out of there while he has to reset
and go bot.
Exactly.
It's a smart play here from FlyQuest,
just utilizing the sign, utilizing that passive,
picking up as much farm as possible.
And so Levi does get eyes on inspired,
but he'll just use the smite and then go back towards his
crud to pick that up and be able to be there
to cover any sort of thing top.
As they are pushing the poppy out,
we can see Jyn's moving towards top.
Wipo is going to move forward and try to proxy this wave
and keep Qiyai away from it.
You can see on the minimap, they're
jostling for position.
While that is happening, this is all lost farm here, so Bwipo even spending the ult, he has a two level advantage.
And he's doing a lot of damage, waiting for the decimating smash, he finds out he gets a grass stack, presses E.
If he goes to the zombie, he'll also kill Kiaya.
He's just waiting for the cooldown and it's just such a classic scion play, the flash away is Bwipo just tries to survive.
He's got no mana, no TP to come back and he's already burned the ult.
It's just really smart play from Bwipo here, it's great stuff.
He forces the flash, he knows he has a level advantage, he's zoning Kiaya away.
So even though QIS survives, it costs him his flash, it means he lost multiple minions to that.
And on the top side, they're utilizing the pile that they have with Kalista to get all three of this growth.
So this is really good stuff here on the map from FlyQuest.
They are down a first blood, which is worth 400 gold, and they are up 1,000 gold here.
Not even 7 minutes in.
I mean, again, remember that because of all the health that he's gained off that W as well,
from killing the minions with the minion advantage we talked about before,
makes those dives worse and worse and worse, the game goes on and obviously gets tankier
and tankier and tankier. Even in this early game, well Gama at the very least you can
say they've started this dragon, they'll take this dragon, fly it with the ones we picked
up, two of the grubs for Thor, so that's the trade we're looking at for now.
But we also know that there's two parts of the game. We've seen a number of teams
play really well on the map movement. You think back to the TL game early, their
early stages were great. I do think they were out playing LNG as far as their late
assignments as far as how they were moving around the map. But you have to be
able to execute in those 5v5s and here they go.
OK, well, they set it up and Poppy tries to stop them
with the step pass present, but it matters not.
Masu picks up the kill and Boussion flushes away.
He survives.
EC Love now has a lot of spears in him.
Gets rendered out of Masu.
Use the rest of his matter to safe back off.
Yeah, great play there from Masu,
just utilizing the ulti.
Buppo's up here to go top, and they're
going to rotate their bot back towards bot lane.
Buppo almost has the ulti, and if that comes up,
then EZ Love is still here.
It could get a little bit dicey, to be honest.
So, EZLOT does need to pay some respect to it.
He's got the thumbs up, I'm waiting for it too.
As Daisy says, bye bye.
Inspired, just hopped us over the bot wave.
Buibo, I think we're mega close to that.
And as you said, EZLOT has to back before he gets taken out.
But their tempo is so bad because he's basing so much later
and Kea'a has no TP.
So Kea'a bases now, goes top, and guess what's happening?
Again, you're losing the wave to the tower.
So, you know, their map movements are a bit slow.
Obviously, this is partially because Fly have the bush,
but I also think Gammon, some of these resets
being a little bit greedy, a little bit late to the punch.
That's an entire wave that is gone.
And that is nearly a 2,000 gold lead now for FlyQuest here.
And this is not even nine minutes in.
This is what I guess the best part of the lane swap is.
You can see so many minute differences,
but when it exploits like this, as Whitmore looks
for the decimating smash damage,
you just see what a team that is experiencing this,
I guess, going up against TL has given them
a lot of experience, especially in the domestic league.
What FlyQuest can do with an early game
that's exposed like this?
Absolutely, I mean we'll see if they can make it happen when it does come down to those team fights
But it is a map kingdom here for fly quest there playing the map really really well
They're excelling in that macro game
We'll see if they can kind of continue developing with this as football obviously eventually you are gonna be pretty far on the back
Foot against this narfoot you're hoping at that point
You're just so tanky that the nar really can't pressure you out
And then you just have more value in the 5-5
You're not worried about the early game in that regard, are you?
Because you're almost at 1k gold up here on this NAR, 20 CS up.
I love it, you know, the first sign coming out here at Worlds.
And this innovation leads me to believe that, again, Bufo's in fine form,
as we talked about a little bit before.
And Bro has not taken any damage with the chain vest, with the Kindle gem already picked up.
Things looking good here for the FlyQuest early game that we talked about.
You mentioned 2k, I'm also looking at those grubs spawning in one minute and thinking,
Well, with that gold, you can probably use that to their advantage.
The shot road comes through, Emo in a bit of trouble.
He's got flash of the eye.
A lot of trouble.
There's a dissonance that comes through.
Emo almost got solo killed again.
Yeah.
I mean, Quad has just been putting on a lot of pressure.
I mean, Quad is basically kills worth of gold ahead of his opponent
without actually getting that kill.
He's just constantly pushing in, constantly harassing him,
not allowing Emo to get any free CS at any point in this game.
And he's even going to get a plate off this pretty much guaranteed.
guaranteed, so is in a great spot that's going to be now going on a 600 gold lead for Quad
without a kill without really any jungle intervention either and that's definitely setting himself
up for success. He already has that early tier. He's stacking it up. You can see tier two
boots kind of almost across the board here for Black West and the first item already
done now for Buipo as he's got the unending spare. So Black West again, just moving
around the map really pressuring well and now that Buzio has six, it does get a
little bit scarier here if you do show up in a side lane because not only is
there that long-range engage, you know throwing them in with that Gliss
ultimate, there's Leona ult, there's so much to see there to follow. You notice as
well teleport was burned by KiA to move towards mid, that's because those grubs
talking about contested of what game really seeking after. They're the
only ones here, Flive just said whatever, they leap, whip on a side lane
and inspire, starts traveling down to see if there's anything he can do so
at least game getting the objective here when they're so far behind.
Yeah, they will be able to get the objective and this is going to be four grubs for them
So they are going to get the void might spawn that is very very nice
Who's he'll gets eyes on this and we'll be going back up towards top to cover it
Nice, you can tell he's a little bit nervous always someone coming
So he's gonna pull it back and make sure that he can secure this just I think it was probably
Waiting to make sure that there's no chance of any sort of contest
We of course know that inspired was not there but inspired now has the redemption done black quest starting you complete these items
they're not going to feel pressure with this style of comp.
I know they have an incredible amount of confidence
that when they are playing these style of compositions
with the Ivern, that they will outscale,
that they will win 5v5, but they do get spotted moving in here
and Levi's coming top lane, so it could be a play.
He's a bit far away for now, but he has flash and ulti
available, as you said, and the Jhin traps also help out
with the vision game too.
The fly quest, notice him or at least.
You think he's spotted?
No, it wasn't.
No, definitely didn't have vision on there,
but they are going to check.
And they are definitely aware of the possibility,
So Levi will get spotted
So the next question is what happens with this dragon downfall because you can see that in spite is there now that Levi spotted out top
Are they gonna commit for the dive? Are they gonna continue for this play and try and maximize it?
Or does Levi now need to sprint towards bot and try make something happen?
I think it would be too hard of a play to really make happen honestly
But at the same time I don't think flyquests are gonna be that quick to be starting up the dragon
They don't really have a lot of damage here with the Ivern
Yeah, that's true
You know if they send their bot lane down there then maybe they're gonna be looking towards it
There's really not been too much prior on the dragons thus far. They're happy to just continue farming
They feel they have a scaling advantage and they're going to keep playing towards that as Bupo can be able to grab a plate
For that time that was spent top from Levi Bupo knows, you know what? I'm not pressured if there's no jungler here
You're not killing me one-by-one so walks up claims the plate and they're just going to keep pushing towards these first item
Completions where they'll feel very strong. You know, you can see I don't have done here for quad
There's waiting on the blade of Rune King for Masu
And that's where I think we're gonna see fly quest start to come alive a little bit more and start feeling confident that they can look towards some of these fights
But really the pressure is way more on game when you're playing this style of comp like you're effectively formulae. Yeah, there's many
Not for range, but you're effectively formulae and full dive that you need to make things happen
Way more. I think the fly quest does as you said full commit and I think that's just showing game
Like kind of like what we're talking about with pay as G pulling out what you'd argue is a risky composition, right?
has good thematics but against a team like Fly, against a Swiss team, is showing a bit of a risk.
Good sure he can flip his email, has to get on out because Quad is continuing to use the range.
Well, Gamm just take care of Daisy, now finally looking towards the bottom side,
with setup on Scuttle, potentially set up around the dragon as well while Fly looked off.
Yeah, nice little trick there, didn't make too much of a difference, but he did actually
leash Daisy by outranging it, sending it the opposite direction from him, so denies that
kill goal from him. So one of the tricks you'll see both Ivern and Andy players do,
is you can actually walk the opposite way. You can also do a Shaco alt clone.
As soon as one of those little things, that just kind of showcases mastery on the champ
and is going to move topside, just play for some camps, but game are coming. They want to fight here.
Here he gets a set up. It's a set pass presence. Set up by the keepers, verdict,
and Fly getting out of the redemption comes in handy. The engage is deep from Boussier
to try and get on Alba. Now he's got Quad. A one-man shockwave onto Emo means perfect
execution out. No one dies as a set up and summoner is a burn in the process.
Yeah, Levi looking to try to pressure Quad here, at least keeping away from some
of those minions. The invade, not working out there for fly at the end of the day is going to be the flash for inspired for a little bit of time there from the gam squad but the redemption keeping them safe along with quad moving over to try to cover they couldn't really chase past into quad they would have been really difficult to pull that off.
But again, the Goldy just slowly, but surely extending more and more.
We're now up about 2.5, 2.6K, and this tower is getting incredibly close to dying.
Easylove is just going to get ignored.
Jin does not hurt tanks, and he is going to be problematic.
I mean, sure, like if you give tons and tons of time to Nar on a side lane,
eventually he can deal with it.
But like, you cannot win a teamfight where Nar just sits there and autosign 300 times.
So who's supposed to kill this guy, right?
Like, he's going to be walking at Jin in almost every teamfight.
And Jin just kind of has to walk away.
I mean again with all the resources Wippo is getting,
Armazaki is going to come through soon,
he's sitting on MR, but like you've got,
you know, got the Akali, but the rest is AD.
So for Wippo, so easy in this game to automize, right?
Oh, sorry, the unending despair is Armastar.
Yeah, and he might be going towards, we'll see,
you know, when you watch him play this a lot,
he'll go towards Titanic,
or sometimes he'll go towards like Sterics
and play these more kind of damagey, bruiser styles,
which can work really, really well
because I can get so much free HP with that W Passive that you were talking about and you can see
you know the number below his flash TP that's how much health he's already gotten so you know going
on 700 free health already so Ken definitely make him a threat you know even just with that one
arm right in a ton of HP it's tough to focus him down into 5v5 so if he builds a little bit
of damage he then has the actual kill threat or that real difficulty where you can't ignore him
and you can't really kill them, so then it becomes, okay, well, what now?
I mean, the health stacking is at 715, by the way, just from that W.
Yeah, and this tower top is likely going to die too, so FlyQuest just slowly but surely
moving around the map, chipping away at these advantages.
It's not a lot of fighting, it's not a lot of kills, but it doesn't need to be.
It's frustrating for GAM, like it doesn't need to be for Fly, but you can see GAM are getting
edgy and they're like, we need to find a pick on Debussy, and no, denied.
Massus nearby, Poopo's now moved into position as well.
It's all around this Herald that's just sitting there glanting an eye to see who starts it off,
but Gann don't want to do it because Fly are around and they still keep finding a pick,
but no overextensions here as Fly still playing it so patiently, as you said.
Exactly. And it's so frustrating, as you say, playing against this style,
and it can sometimes make you overcome into a dive or overcome into a play where you say,
we just have to do something, and that is where Ivern will kill you.
If you do not have the perfect execution on that dive, if you go into the back line,
Redemption comes down, the shield comes down from Ivor, Daisy's there peeling, Barrier gets popped, Orianna's shield comes through
All of a sudden you're not even close to killing them and you're all dead
Oh my god, MasterCard lane economy snapshot on the main wall, 18 other gold mid
I'm sorry, in top, mid's about 1k and everything else is Daisy's and Peach is here
The Fly is uh...
Yeah, it is so frustrating, it's been a slow game, you guys sitting at home going, well when the action gonna happen but
you know, for Fly, they're picking up these one items,
the two items coming across and starting to build towards as well.
They have the gold lead, they'll have the item advantage,
they'll have the fight advantage here as third dragon comes up and obviously
that's going to be something they'll deny,
but I think they'll be happy taking the fight at that point as it's denied anyway.
Yeah, exactly. I think that's what FlyQuest is going to look towards
and then the question is, well, what can Gam do about it?
You know, can Gam really make a play happen?
Because as much as they are building this slow incremental lead,
if all of a sudden Gam pull off that perfect fight,
Insta kill quad or insta kill masu at that dragon put themselves at some point
Well, now there's a very easy win condition that you can look towards as we'll put boxy ulti
And is not going to be able to make his way back to the tower just yet
We walk slowly but your rider goes down in the end so again get some more gold on the map right before this dragon
But we're not having the ulti before that objective might mean something here as he just catches the wave
And you can see the rest of flight move down to try and position and get themselves in river a little bit before the sports
Yeah, but Mausoleum needs to go back to base. He's sitting on 1800 gold, so he must
You know feel like he needs a certain power spike that he's waiting for to actually complete
You know at least a major component
Inspired to just go back to base. He's already on two items now
Of course, they are cheap ones on the Ivern, but that's part of the advantage of this champ
Like he's already on moonstone plus redemption. That's full build for Ivern.
Yes, it went up.
No, it went up
Yeah, it's annoying as well. The longer these fights go the more that moonstone gets value and
A lot of the poi of Arvin, you're right, it's just so cheap.
And Masu, you know, he's now the only one that has actually been.
Bupu went back and spent, got his tier 2 boots.
Everyone else on Flyquest hasn't found that time to base.
Masu maybe won't feel that he needs to, but I mean he is sitting on 2k, so as much as there is a gold lead for Flyquest,
a lot of it are in his pockets right now.
Harold might be start off the corner of that spot from Levi in the middle, so it looks like.
He needs to do a quick smart, because another 30 or 40 seconds that's going to de spawn anyway.
As Blipo just walks into Emo, and cares not, he gets grasped.
He's got the ulti in 3 seconds, or rather 7, if my eyes could count properly.
He just sends him away, he won't pop anything off-light, deny the dragon stack,
and looks like Levi will stay true to it, Harold.
I mean, it's kind of like, as Emo, what are you supposed to do?
Saiyan walks at you, are you going to e into him?
Like, fight.
You're going to maybe break his shield, you know?
It gets very, very difficult. They just have no sustained damage.
It's hard to like think of a comp that's worse at killing tanks, so let Gamm have draft it.
Of course, their goal is not to kill the tanks, it's to go past the tanks
and just be able to kill off the carries, but that is very tough with Ironburn with Ori,
you know, with some of these defensive items, you can see second item now complete for Quad,
and I think Maus is probably gonna have a second item nearly done by the time he goes back.
He's gonna be working towards that rageblade very likely here,
and you're gonna be sitting in a really good spot.
But I have to say, I mean, I've seen many comms out of fly, and especially, you know, looking back in the finals, looking back in the series versus 100th page as well.
This feels like a very patient fly quest. It feels like a very not reserved, but like well thought out style of fly quest in the first 20 minutes of this game.
I can tell you from talking to some of these guys and talking to the coaches, like this is just a draft where I think they thought they wanted draft if they play slow.
So they're gonna try to not rush it. They're gonna try to not get nervous
They're saying you know what our win condition is farm and do nothing and game has to disrupt us
So if they feel that they're in that spot, especially playing towards Mountain Soul, which is horrible for game
You know that is really rough. They're gonna be happy to just play as low solo player
They can't kill Buzio yet. He gets ignited down, but here he comes
Unstoppable on foot for the flash from Elio and Gwipo just gets in the way
He's trying to block some of these shots in the end, but they did all their damage on a Leona at half HP
It matters not there's a moonstone renewal Ivan and there you go. That's games engage. That's how hard this game is
Yeah, I mean, it's really really tough, you know again
It's one of those situations where you say well
Why are you engaging on Leona because Leona was the only one showing and they haven't found anything rights
You're getting frustrated. You're feeling the game is slipping away
Yeah, and it's it's one of those situations where we've all been in these games
You play league where you feel like you're losing and there hasn't even been a fight yet
Like nothing has happened, but you feel like you're losing the game.
So it really does put pressure on them to try to make some sort of a thing.
They go for Buzio, but he has Lockett.
There's an Ivoryn Shield.
There's a Redemption.
And, you know, that's kind of it.
You know, I'm going to try this because I don't only make American references,
but this game is like the game.
It's like going to Walmart and there's no cheese, but it's taco night.
And you need to kind of taco without cheese.
Right? That's what this game feels like.
I'm assuming Walmart sells cheese.
I don't know what that shop is.
How is that no American reference just because they're from Walmart?
Because they're from Walmart, isn't it?
I took it away.
I didn't use Woolworths.
I didn't use Cole, which is what we got back home.
I didn't use Reaver.
You know we do an LA for talk tonight?
We go out to get some street tacos.
Oh, much better.
The van's not there.
Gann don't have the van.
So what do they do?
What do they do?
I guess if you don't have a van, how are you going to Walmart?
That's right.
How are you going to Walmart?
We come back to the setup point.
And then we question, what a Gann
gonna do with this game. Where will they get their cheese? If you don't follow the
reference, then let's go back to the start. They try to go to warm-up and for
Gam as they defend this mid lane turret again, maybe the doors are closed and
with Daisy out of for six versus five, but the whole of Gam, even as they move in,
they're getting forced off. The keepers verdict is out. It hits back line, it's
good and Gam finally pulls a trigger for Puypo with a three-man knockup set up
with a decimating smash. Still gets them all. They find back line, I says, but
Masu takes so long to die, and he still survives!
It's just hopeless, man!
Fly quest with the draft in, I think it's safe to say.
Masu played that so well in the fight, though they initially tried to go in for inspired,
looked at you to burst him out, they can't do it,
and then they full send it on to Masu,
but perfectly timing the flash, dancing around in the fight,
dodging skill shots is able to survive,
and just like that, you get the fight you wanted.
It's not the fight the game wanted, though.
As FlyQuest are going to crush the fight, going to take the Baron and get a stranglehold on this game.
This is looking clinical. This is looking well thought out of the FlyQuest.
Steps away from bringing the first win of the Swiss stage to North America.
It is a masterclass at this point as they move to a 6k gold lead with the Red Bull Baron power play.
Yeah, they are looking really, really strong. The Sterex is complete for Buipo.
So two items across the board now here as we can watch this one more time.
damn you know what they say are enough is enough they're pushing their CG
interface who was taking the tower so they just full go with it they try to
get in the back line and burst out inspired he flashes he shields himself
he drops a redemption you can see Kiaia is just full targeting onto Maasu here
but Maasu kites back he flashes out of the meganar dodging the gin ulty at the
same time good patience on his summoners he did not panic when he was
getting low there played it out really well and you can see the intensity
on their faces. Yeah, the game is going well, but they know it is not over till it's over,
and the coaching staff looking pretty stressed there. I'm not going to lie.
Not for the start today after the tee, okay?
I'm going to toss you the damage by the way.
It's huge isn't it? I mean you saw at the end of the day before she dodged out of that,
it's dissipating, so that's why we don't have enough damage, but BuPo cleans it up
anyway.
And BuPo as well, you know he turned in almost 4k damage himself. That's what I'm
talking about when you can't kill the tank in this situation. You can build
little bit damaged like the Sterak's as it synergizes so incredibly well with
his HP stacking passive gives him so much bonus AD on this champ that it kind of
gets a little bit crazy. I mean he's getting 61 bonus AD from from the
Sterak's alone like that is an enormous amount. I mean thoughts about overlord to
Blood Metal, let's talk about that in a second. Ulti used that point-blank
range, Levi in trouble as they keep trying to dive this here. I don't know, he just dies.
One hit away. That play from Ganna was two turrets in the topside so
You know why we are talking about fly in the Baron play for now things are stabilized as fly try to trade out through bot as we saw on a mini map
Yeah, exactly
I mean it's smart play from game because if you can't defend then you cross map right like their wave clear is
Absolutely abysmal like how are you supposed to actually stop the Baron bush here with four melee champs basically and a gym
It's just not really gonna happen
So they try to look for a play on the other side
But we'll defense as well as he can almost gets a kill like let's get some gold down on the bot side
And this Baron power play is still going up despite the fact that they did grab a couple of those towers on that top side of the map from GAM
So flies are just gonna keep playing it out slow and steady. They've gotten their second mountain dragon
They can work towards this mountain soul mountain soul with four mountain dragons
Well, if you thought the sign was hanging out just white doesn't get better buckle up
I made again that Calisthen with three lines in the minefield here
for the ginshaps. Time to sell your items and go AP, see if someone will step on them.
And then Wipo would just run it down, make it with the ulti and it doesn't matter anymore.
Well, while FlyQuest is pushing out the map, they're just going to play 1-4.
No need to get too over-complicated here. Wipo cannot be killed.
It's just not going to happen. Or if he is, you're sending five people and they're ending the game.
So FlyQuest are just going to stay around. They're taking over vision in the enemy jungle,
making sure there's no possibility of a flank.
Inspired just needs to make sure that he's not getting one shot at the start of the fight
And he can just support these teams as the Doncourt done now as well
So he gets even more
Support of here the shields are getting larger and larger and this TV is gonna come in
But is it in time it is in time only just quick but demolishes it almost takes it down
The fly is still sticking around with my just stands in front and you can see the grubs
They even doing their own work as Daisy gets a nice knock up with them again
Point blank range with the unsolved on slot and Quad takes him down
Helio to the ground and a double already picked up and at 27 minutes
This looks like it could be the final on-sword here as Gamm right out of energy
I don't know how good the energy wasn't the start of the game, but this has been a massacre
Yeah, like I started up worlds with a bang here looking incredibly strong here against Gamm
Give him no chance
It felt like start to finish great draft patient play and they're looking to clean it up
Well as they run towards the next turret Emo, just sure can flip down, he's got nowhere to go, and Wippo stands up, he's taken the turret, now he TP's to the minion, they want to end it in his final push, as the Nexus explodes and North America have turned up FlyQuest with a dominating performance against our favorites from the playing stage.
The only depth here on FlyQuest was that initial dive off the lane swap where Wipo was even able to farm with a way of TPing right back.
Gam just got no momentum at all in this game here. They had such a strong chunk camp over on the FlyQuest side.
Knew that they could just kind of play it slow, scale it up. They played the map better than their opponents. They lane better than their opponents.
and in those team fights they were able to execute what it mattered most.
It's exactly what you want to see from your top seed here going up against a strong team like GAM.
You can't underestimate them. You need to play with that respect.
But this was a really good start to the Black West World's performance here,
especially after MSI. They really want to show up, have a strong tournament.
And thus far they're doing great.
A clean performance that we can't really fault in for GAM.
You know, it does feel like we talked about the draft a lot.
draft a lot we criticize that because there were no options here and it did it
did feel like there were a couple of plays that looked good but again the other
side of the map was always burning down with on that side on that was a
bottom down down at all I mean he had a clean game he did exactly what he needed
to insides even did his walk afterwards I mean that guy's in fine form but they
were he was looking really good I mean he got so much done I think the
weather he actually played that game out was so incredibly smart obviously
the sign was a great pick but how much pressure he was actually putting on
Kiyaya forcing the flash when he was coming back to wave was really really nice as well.
FlyQuest it's good to get that first win at Worlds out of the way here you know we've
seen a lot of teams sometimes you know look a little bit nervous at the start and being
able to have a strong confident win like that is going to set you up for success
in this second round where it's going to be a lot of beasts in the 1-0 bracket so
there's no easy draws for FlyQuest so they've got to make sure they are absolutely
on point coming into this next match if they want to have a shot at it.
But hell with a performance like that I mean again momentum is a very real thing
I think a lot of people cop it out and say it's it's just a quote that people
use because they don't know why teams are playing so well but overall from
that game I have a lot more faith in FlyQuest I have a lot more faith that
it's not just like oh yeah BuiPo's just gonna play you know Olaf or
something like reneced it as he constantly does it can be messy I
think BuiPo's got a lot of strength to him as we throw it over the law
standing by with the Vrozen, post game interview on stage.
Flakwests are the first Western teams to grab a victory here at Worlds,
and I have Wipo with me. Thank you so much for joining me.
Thank you very much.
Welcome back to the studio, even if it's a new layout.
Yeah, you like it here?
Yeah, it's upgraded.
All right, all right.
We'll talk about you coming back in Europe a bit later,
but I feel like it's time for a review, Wipo.
We're going to review Lensop,
because I feel like it's been the main thing that we've seen today.
It doesn't usually go well, but you're the first ones to actually make it successful.
So let's review the lane swap from a game perspective because
You ended up in a pretty good situation
Soaking SP actually being leveled up at the end of the lane swap the dive that happened
I don't really know what happened there. So you're the review master. Go ahead. Oh, yeah. I mean honestly, I was shocked that I ended up dying here
Holy
That deals some damage
But fortunately for me I have two health bars.
So maybe that was a nice little trick.
Anything that could have been executed better on their side maybe?
Oh yeah, I mean I'm not sure honestly. I think they dove me.
I think just the way they drafted the best thing they can do is flip it.
I don't know, hope they don't get flopped on.
The game was pretty slow pace in terms of kills actually.
I was wondering what was going on here.
Is this something you expected with the compositions that you have on both sides?
Oh yeah, I mean the enemy team drafted Vi, Nara, Kali and Jin, I locked in sound so I knew that it was going to take Jin like what, 29 bullets to kill me?
It only goes 4.
Yeah, it only goes 4, it takes a long time. And you guys got the victory in the end. As I was saying, you're back in the ADC studio, I don't know how long it's been since the last time you were here, but how good does it feel to be back in Europe, competing for walls as the first seat for NA?
What do you think, people?
I feel fantastic honestly Europe has been nothing but kind to me. I really am grateful for all the fans all of you here
Thank you very much
I feel really hopeful, you know the last time I was the first seed competing at Worlds. I made a final
What is the hope here? So funny guys. I keep on hearing good things about you
I don't want to talk about screams too much, but I hear things are going well for you guys. I think
Final is a bit too overzealous, but I do think we'll make it out of Swiss. I have a great confidence in my team
I think all of our players are exceptionally talented and worked very hard
and I have nothing but great expectations and I think we can live up to them.
And I cannot wait to see more from you and Faker Esmipo. Thank you so much for the interview.
Thank you very much.
On the first victory here, that's all for us on the side of the stage.
Last game of the first day coming up, pain gaming versus G2 Esports.
Stay tuned.
See you in West Bank.
We're going into the game because we have three players that are playing for the first time at Worlds.
So, it's a good start for us, I think.
The nurse for the second game will probably be lower.
We're kinda getting used to the stage.
I played here already, but what I was playing here, it was completely different.
Like, the experience right now was like...
Oh no, it's just like night and day.
It's somewhat different, the stage, and the fact that the crowd is in front of me, and like...
I don't know, I liked it, so overall it was a good experience today.
Yeah, it didn't look nervous, I wanna say.
Yeah, not at all.
In fact, you guys have been here just like bootcamping a little bit.
Have you been able to like soak in Berlin just a little bit as you said?
I know that he's talking about.
Not really, I think mostly we're just practicing and preparing for the game.
Yeah, right.
It's a little nostalgic.
Anyways, we're going to get into our last game of the day
and they finally got their win.
The question is, will you finally get their win as well?
You might say, of course they will shocks, it's versus the C.B. Law in pain, and I've got a tale to tell you.
It's a tale that includes an alliance and a kaboom and an EVG and an I&Z.
So I'm just going to say, this is our first seed out of the C.B. Law and absolutely huge DB that they made it through the play-ins.
They set aside Rainbow 7, who of course set aside Hunter Thieves, so they kind of, they took it.
Yeah, but I mean it's kind of the way they got out of play-ins, right?
It's not just the fact that they were taking games of other minor regions. They're taking games of PSG as well
I mean, yeah, they didn't win the series
But they showcase that they have potential of taking games of opponents that on paper should be better than you
And I think they've really leveled up coming into this well play-ins and then now tournament of worlds as well
Just because they have been able to play through their bot lane in a way that didn't get disrupted like they were actually able to
Do what they did domestically and I think that's what really stands out to me about this pain Ross
Their star was for sure, Chitan, in the bot lane.
He was just completely rolling, I would say, the Rainbow 7's bot lane,
and I think that's going to be the target going into today's games.
We've heard some things, some whispers of some,
I don't know if it was like Five Man or Scrims inspired,
have you heard the same things about Payne?
I mean, I saw them beating BLG and LNG players,
I think yesterday in the Champions'Q.
I was really, like, pretty impressed.
And also, I played with the ADC in Champions'Q,
He also seemed pretty good to me.
Like, he's aggressive in lane, he plays all these aggressive champions.
I also saw him play Lucian Nami, which I think they didn't really play at Worlds yet.
So...
Wicked!
I mean, they beat you with a ace, right?
They beat you.
You're good.
It was in the inters... also, champions queue.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And, yeah, I think it's gonna be a lot of fighting in the bot side.
Because everyone knows Hansa and Miki X playstyle.
They are just gonna trade you and seems like the other team also have the same playstyle.
playstyle so I think it's gonna be very bloody down there. I agree with you
hopefully we get a really exciting last game and G2 is of course the LEC's first
seed once again we owe them very well they've been together for 652 days and
I was kind of thinking a little bit about this remember T1 last year I'm
not comparing G2 to T1 hold your horses.
When we were talking about how long that team had been together and how
They really wanted that victories. Of course, you won't got much closer
Then G2 did but I have a similar feeling for me this G2 right now
It is put up or shut up, you know
You have worked now for two years towards this goal to be good internationally you've put all your
Your your thoughts and your preparation into it as we hear from everyone in the coaching staff
We really need to see that big performance. No, absolutely, especially because they've had the failings they've had in international
We always say that once you go to an international you fail, but at least they learn from it
but at some point you have to have learned everything you can learn as a roster
where you bring that point of view actually being able to try and contest for it.
And I agree with you, I'm not saying they're going to be T1 coming into this tournament,
but I think a lot of people were a bit disappointed when we saw them last time
because the early game did not look the greatest, but luckily their macro has always been good
and going into this world championship, you're hoping they have fixed some of those early game
issues. Yeah and I think we have the big view here of course you know when they go up
and other opponents not saying they should underestimate pain at all because, you know, it happens.
But, Inspired, have you been able to scrim G2?
What is your impression of them if you've been able to watch or do you just not care because you're in LCS now?
I mean, I did watch them for the whole season and they did look the most like the most clutch out of all the teams.
Like, no matter what was happening in the regular season or in playoffs at the beginning of the playoffs,
I was like thinking, G2 is going to win anyway.
Like, they're just way too clutched for other teams and in practice they were not looking that great, suddenly.
Oh!
But that's a good thing, because they keep bringing streams.
They used to be the world champions of streams, so now it's opposite.
Maybe it's their time to shine.
Yeah!
That's a W mentality right there.
That's a W mentality.
I mean, it is true.
Maybe Romain will post it and it'll be all losses, but they've gotten to the semifinals and that's fine with me.
I'm waiting for that post.
I'm reading it between the lines, FlyQuest is absolutely destroying G2.
It is. It's actually kind of crazy because it felt like a very similar story for MSI where it was like spring.
I was like, oh, it's getting a little iffy for G2 consistently in domestic play.
But then they went to MSI and they had that boot camp and they performed next to some of the best.
some of the best. So I think it's going to look good. This is
when the pressure is on and they do well under pressure.
This is what they came for. This is what they asked for.
Exactly. Exactly. Let's see. Thank you so much, inspired for
joining us. Thank you. And good luck tomorrow. And now it's
time for Jethu versus Payne. Alright, let's see if you can
do the same. It looked good for Fly. It was clean for
Fly. But, uh, Panjee, a very different team. Also came
through plans, but a lot messier or maybe a lot more
Strenuous, but your CB law might have this far now
We have to see how much more damage they can do because if they can beat G2
Then my lord this team will be the biggest question mark for whoever they go up against next. Yeah, absolutely
I mean, it's gonna be really exciting
I mean just for the CB law fans and there are so many
Passionate CB law fans up to see them at the Swiss stage
It has been eight long years since the CB law team has been here and it's been nine years since pain
made the group stage here as well and G2 of course the hometown favorites they're
getting a big cheer from the crowd the G2 chance are coming out already they
want to see Europe getting off their number one seed here they want to see
domination because already Matt and Fnatic both fell you want to have your
number one team representing well and the number one team that by the way if
anyone didn't watch LEC this year a number one by a large margin winter
spring, summer, season finals, all four shields were taken by G2 and every time
there was a challenger like Mad or Fnatic that came up against them, G2 still
even with doubts, even with expectations being a little bit mid, was still able to
clutch it out and be the better team. This is Europe's best hope at making a
big run and making it out of Swiss. Exactly I mean and we heard Inspire
talking about it and I really did carry in with him calling them just clutch
Right because at the end of the day we saw G2 looking vulnerable in a lot of series way more than I'm used to seeing
I mean they lost the best of 5 to Fnatic, they lost the best of 5 to Matt
They almost got swept by BDS and then reverse swept, but you still always feel like when you're watching G2
Yeah, but they're gonna pull it out. Yeah, but they're gonna come back
Yeah, but they're gonna win in the end and a lot of that magic really is just caps
Let's be honest this guy has been running the LEC for so many years
last time fanatic won a trophy it was with caps and ever since he's been on G2
they have picked up trophy after trophy after trophy after trophy and they are
looking to get back to those big international performances that they
had you know back in in the kind of 2019 era I know it's gonna hurt a lot of
people but he's the best player of the West now you can get out
anyone I think everyone agrees well I should at the very least but I don't
know I don't offend anyone anyway you can offend if they're offended by
that they need to wash back at least for now though we get a couple of mid-lane
fans taken away from said man but this time Jin Kieros Kali was also pinched
out of the pool considering we saw that a few times actually in the playing
stage yeah it's gonna be exciting to see exactly what pain comes out with
she's honest is a player who's been getting a lot of hype a lot of
excitement you know has been doing very well in champs queue a lot of
who are pretty impressed with him.
And let's be honest, he's just a really fun player to watch.
When you watch him in the ZP lul, and also how he played,
he was able to bring this to the play in stage.
He is so aggressive.
He'll look for 1v1 kills.
If your supports are both roaming,
he's going to try to fight you.
He's going to try to go for those kills.
He's going to look for the 2v2 outplays.
And he's going to let you know about it
if he does outplay you.
They're jumping up on stage.
They're popping off.
And they're making those big moments here
as G2 are going to get Yone, which
It has been looking so good so far.
And again, Broken Blade plays his top.
So definitely going to be a flex here.
And the question of Aurora, it's going to be the same.
On the side of pain gaming is Karaoke
on something to set up.
The Malkai here, a really solid pick.
Like Karaoke has been someone to play Sedge.
Malkai, as you know, this is the guy that
sets up some of these bigger carries.
As we saw, something like the Sedge, the Malkai,
and the Scana picked up a few times here
in the playing stage.
Yep, absolutely.
I mean, it has really kind of maintained.
Malka has taken so many nerfs throughout the year.
But it just doesn't really go away
because it sets up incredibly well for your team.
It controls vision very, very well with saplings.
And it makes it very difficult to deal with.
And Yike, bringing out the brand,
it was his most played in the summer.
Definitely did like a lot of those power farming AP
junglers.
This is another one of those picks
so that people were kind of thinking had actually
fallen out of meta.
And when I look back at playing, there was a couple plays of it, just the three picks.
It wasn't super popular.
It hasn't been picked so far today, but it is always a massive threat when you come up to the 5v5.
Brad, if you get one full combo out, get that ulti bouncing everywhere.
It is just such a nightmare to deal with.
Well, Real picked up for Mickey X as well.
His most played.
So we're talking about comfort here for G2.
Especially when Mickey feels like such an important part to G2.
I love seeing him on the snapping gauge.
seeing them on the priority support here while smolders picked up on there it's
like a pain gaming so we potentially have our solo laners big question mark as
to whether that goes Bob but right now it's looking like mid and top are locked
yeah it's definitely the assumption that would be mid or top and it is just a
quick possibility of where they're gonna go right like are they gonna flex this
around because smolder can be played top as well depending on the matchup
especially if it is no less threatening matchup like a broken blade
where to pick a tank or something you can kind of just like go grass
smaller and farm stacks on them, which can be quite effective.
We'll see if you can really outpace karaoke,
because this brand, if you do get really ahead of the Malkai,
obviously Malkai does have a decent clear,
but it did take some nerves to that.
Both these champions have taken some nerves.
You can start to really outpace the Malkai,
especially because no one is really going AP Malkai
these days.
It feels like full supportive style.
And you can get ahead of them, really just shut
up Power Farm and be a monster in those 5v5s.
Now, why did he carry getting banned?
Focus towards the next picks, because here,
everyone at home probably saying like,
G-tarn's Ezreal has been looked at in champskew,
has been looking really good in the lead up to Swiss stage.
Maybe that's one of the takeaways here,
is Han Farmer driving an absolute classic
to be taken away here,
with already set up for a big 2v2 thanks to that heavy engage.
I mean, he has been so well known for that pick
for a very long time.
Oh, yeah.
One of those pocket picks that he always can bring out
and really threaten you with.
Ash, obviously gonna be banned away here by G2,
starting to limit that AD carry pool that did already ban out Lucian that was
kind of talked about on the desk earlier on and now Calista. So banning out some
of these kind of aggressive picks here, Porchitan, both Lucian and the Calista
can be problematic. I don't really love the Zai here honestly because I don't
think G2 have hard committed to like a full dive comp. You know you could
even just go something that's a little bit lower commitment in mid and
you know put the you on a top or something that is a little bit more
kind of pokey from the ad carry so I do think that I can really struggle into
range and I'm just kind of curious if G2 are gonna full commit to a dive comp or
if they are gonna draft a little bit more range here on somebody okay we get
the brothers on the same team win bros but I'm just gonna leave this out there
again you can still flex this around but you're kind of assuming you're
kind of assuming that broken blood gonna take his your knee top caps yes
I mean against Smolder it's in kind of the Corky effect, right?
We saw a lot of Yasuo into Corky to deny the range and poke.
Yeah, I mean it's gonna be really interesting to see how G2 has to pull this off.
They obviously have the Relfar setup, but you can also kind of set each other up here.
There is the knockup from the Yone for that Yasuo as well.
This is gonna be really exciting here.
Broken Blade has brought out the Yasuo in the past as well.
He used to bring it out, you know, as kind of NAR counter pick and he's very good on it.
Yeah, that's a really good point you just brought up as they all he's pulled it out actually more to to that note as well
Caps only once here in the course of 2024
So yeah, it does look like it will be BB taking that up into the topside to deal with the Aurora
I love that you also mentioned something like the nah, you know utilizing range in the matchup as well
Aurora very good at poking out clearing waves
Maybe this will be a new tech here for BB as we know G2 a very good at applying new tech
We need to least expect I mean when you think of G2 at their best
It's always when they are creative. It's always when they're unleashing with these drafts
You know they were just so well known for having so much confidence
You think to like pike soul lanes you think to all this creativity and flexibility that they showcased over so many years
Even back when parks was playing AD for the team and they're bringing mages bot
They're doing all kinds of crazy stuff. That's g2 at their best and this is gonna be a really exciting start here
I do worry for the early levels here of the also against their roar
I wonder how confident he's gonna be to just kind of dash in and trade because you also can just start E and some of these
Matchups and just kind of just run up and start mailing you
I don't know exactly how this matchup does go
But generally Aurora has a really good time
It gets a lot of the melee matchups and mailies do need to kind of survive with resolve a second win with D
Shield and you're kind of looking to get some levels in before you can really start winning these trades then you're
Trying to chunk out the Aurora and be able to put her low enough health that you can threaten something like that all in
If you can't do that and you just kind of try to sit back and farm it becomes very very
oppressive because she can poke and prod under the tower and it can become a bit of a nightmare.
Well Wiser vs Bb just got more and more interesting as we get into our last game of the opening
day of Swiss here at Worlds 24.
And my eyes light up because I see G2 trying to be innovative yet again.
As Isael just said, this is the bread and butter of this team.
This is what's made them so interesting and I think at Worlds and even at MSI
right the adaptation of what they see in the meta they're like okay we're gonna
try and pull this out and see if it sticks. It's always what makes this
team unreliable in such a good sense for the unit team. Yeah unpredictable is what
I would say. That's a big word. Not unreliable, unpredictable as far as I would say for sure.
I mean because G2 especially if they come out and if they look really
dominant with this kind of draft then no matter who draws them for the next
game whether or not G2 is planning on bringing it out again you have to
worry about it and that is the trick against these kind of teams that can
bring out flex picks and bring out these really interesting skill matchups is
all of a sudden that's in the back of your head like ooh should we pick this
why don't they play us so atop does that actually ruin our draft you know it's
always gonna be kind of weighing on you so the G2 now they have to execute
they've gone with the cool draft you cooked it up if you can really make it
work and crush pain here but people are gonna stand up and take notice of
these picks. Well on the other side for Kerioca remember he's got the
Malkai again, he's got a facilitating jungler again and for PNG their biggest surprise going
through play-ins they're way to beat R7 with some of these carries that came through I think
wiser on Jax's had a really good setup at the start of Worlds, Jitarn has been an insane
80 carry and here on the Zyra again he's got scaling, he's got team fight presence once more.
And while you know we do have to really credit you know Payne for being able to make it here
and you know that definitely is a massive accomplishment at the same time let's be
honest their series against R7 was incredibly sloppy it was and G2 is such a good team on the map
that even when they fall behind and they didn't really have a good early game to be honest in the
LAC when you take back to even some of the fanatic series it's like three times in a row they beat
fanatic giving up monster early game leads they are so good on the map they really know how to
spread you out and take advantages in the macro game i think pain is really going to struggle
against that so you know even if pain gets at themselves up well it doesn't necessarily mean
that that's going to result in a victory here because G2 really can run the map,
know exactly how to play out these situations and are very clever, very clutch.
I think Payne is pretty reliant on creating advantages here, but they do have some good scaling
and we'll see how many stacks this Mulder can get in that 1v1.
Yes, it's a melee matchup, but Yone is pretty evasive and can be a little bit annoying sometimes to be able to trade with.
And when his all-in comes through it is absolutely complete on the note of g2 by the way
I mean such a great point that the early game always felt like a weakness and over the course of this year
They were talking about working on their mid game and their mid game became so concrete
But that's what the nuisance is
That's what the annoyance is when you talk about the likes of fanatic going head-to-head with them
That's some good traits come down here on the bot side now
Hunts on it was engaged on before but they just pull back and get some damage down as Korean Chitarn
just walk it back themselves.
Caps walks into Jinkietta,
but some autos come through it and even try.
Yeah, and you can see how much faster Yike cleared.
Karaoke's just now finally killing his Bromp,
whereas the first scuttle is already dead from Yike.
So he's more than a full camp ahead
because he walked all the way there.
Karaoke's gonna cross map though
and gonna be able to get the topside one
because Wiser has pushed,
Jinkietta pushed in Caps' mid.
He's getting a decent amount of stacks there.
He already has 18 already.
So that is quite nice.
Yes, there is a big focus on just perfect CS and being able to farm stacks off that.
But if you can scrap, it accelerates your stacking so incredibly fast on this champion.
So when you are playing into melee matchups, it can really accelerate you to the point where
you're hitting these breakpoints faster and then all of a sudden that's making you farm even faster.
You hit 25 faster. Now you have the AOE, it's easier to get all the range minions.
Then you're hitting, you know, 125 and all of a sudden you're getting, you know,
more and more splash through, it's getting more stacks. You can really kind of ramp up
but then accelerate.
Complacant things as well.
Kerriga hasn't made his back yet
as he still continues to try and clear out.
He's sitting on the same margin as Broken Blade
just walks up into top and runs into Wiser.
Now this matchup so far, it feels like there was
a small CS advantage for Wiser before
as Broken Blade gets it push in.
And of course there will be considering 32 to 31
with his full wave into Wiser
means that Aurora has a small CS lead.
Yep, but maybe doing well,
really you just have to survive generally
in these matchups.
It usually does get better for you.
as the melee into the range as you are starting to be able to get some attack speed, you know,
obviously your Q cooldown goes down a lot, you can start to push, you can start to be able to
actually take trades more effectively, and Broken Blade is playing Grasp, so if you haven't seen
that fleet got nerfed for range, but a lot of people really started trying Grasp, and it kind of
just became very, very popular across a lot of champions, you know, we saw it even from
Zekker earlier on Yone, it's playing played on Rain champions, playing played on melee champions,
people are just honestly really liking Grasp kind of across the board, and you can see that
over on the pain side as it is grass smolder and grass aurora as well.
It's like when Label Temp started getting explored with it and everyone's like,
oh I can run this on this champion as well. It's like it's possible anyway.
It feels like half the mollusk has been for a while, there's a subset of aurora anyway.
Plus I swear, the ruins like that just give you dopamine because the
numbers keep going up and you're just getting health every time you proc it.
Oh yeah. It's a massive dopamine proc isn't it?
Yeah, it feels so good to proc grasp and the sound is kind of satisfying as well.
Well, it really is, and I've killed myself way too many times.
Trying to get a stack.
Yeah, like, ooh, I can take this chain here.
It's like how you felt about dark, obviously, like, oh, man,
but I get a stack here.
It's worse than it was.
It's like, oh, a good progress.
It feels so good as Grubb's starting off a G2.
They move up to top first, so they're
going to pick this up in the course of three,
and you already just talked about the power of Yike.
This just comes into fruition.
Yet again, three picked up, and three,
even though he's here to try and roam around,
Mickey just forces him out.
Yep, going to be able to push him back.
just power farming thus far and in great spot already three grubs outpacing what the Malchai is able to do and again
Malchai just gonna be going for this trade on bot side, which has become the standard
But G2 walked through mid get the push there and now it looked like they just pull up the dragon they give up
They're gonna try to turn on the A
He's walking blind he just gets altered from another world, but he's still not dead the fates he'll save his life
First blood goes the worst in Kieto and makes himself known to get the trade kill
Caps doesn't have anything more in the bank. He flashed away and G2 get the first blood, but they quickly traded it on.
Yeah, they do get that first blood, but it does cost them the flash of Caps, the flash of Yike, and Yike does die.
But critically, Yike, using that XP advantage because he was 6, and if you don't insta-kill a brand who's level 6,
gets one combo and spells out, and you are gonna really pay for it.
So was able to do just that, and it does mean that pain gave up the attempt at a dragon, right?
because they pulled off that dragon so there's no objective trade it's just the one-for-one in kills
and G2 end up getting the grubs before that so they are feeling very good I think about that overall.
And you actually got a lot more to clear as well look at the camps on the other side still respawning for Karaoke
you mentioned the levels Karaoke only just ticked over 6, Jark will be half way through as he clears his top side
and his PNG continue keeping their bot in the top to keep that trade in action.
Yeah I mean grubs obviously does give you the bonus xp but Karaoke also invested time hitting dragon
didn't end up getting anything from that.
So that's the time he could have been spending doing something
else, performing additional camps, getting that experience.
So, you know, Yike already has the components there.
Quarterly injuries are going to be looking really powerful
when he does compete that first item.
And Hans just up on topside here with Mickey pushing that in.
You can see, obviously, the top laners have swapped down to bot.
There is a slight CS lead for Wiser,
but nothing really to worry about.
And Caps now has tier two boots, has VAMP Sector.
So he's not really going to be getting poked out.
For Junkito again, it's just about really farming this to axe and he's doing a pretty good job of it up to about 60
But you know, it's nothing insane at this point
And we'll see if he can continue to accelerate that like a lot of small will just get away with the lane is also known
As we get around this dragon Mickey is almost level six is you know, this is a nice quote
I know you said this up as hell because we're talking about g2's expectations on a player who is a lot been alongside this
roster as they said over 650 days
Like this could be another great chance for you
Absolutely, and I mean they're putting that pressure on themselves, you know
This is not something they're saying when the pressure actively after they already did well
Yeah, I also saw something very similar from broken blade where they're basically saying, you know
we've been together for a couple years now and
Basically, if not now when we have got to do it now
We've got to have those international performances and we'll see if they can find it now. We'll play like this
I mean quickness comes through remember Mickey's not level six yet
There is no Magnus not available
He was one minion off
But it's a curtain call sets up with the seer and the flash away from karaoke. There's no kill in response
Paying get one and get away and I will say this is one of the bad habits that we did see from Mickey
You know Mickey at times this year
Did get a little bit. Let's say loose with it on some of his engages
EXP did you and you know did end up giving over a lot of kills this time gives a bit of a freebie over to pain
But G2 still in the driver's seat, you know, they already stealing well
It's just such a big question about how will you engage?
how you'll be able to pull this off on the G2 side. Of course, Mickey X can be setting them up,
the cats can also potentially set up Broken Blade, he can also set it himself up.
The counter engage is pretty difficult to deal with because if you're sending in both the
Asso and the Yone, well all of a sudden Recon can be there with the counter engage. You're
gonna be getting hit by Aurora, there can be the roots from Malfi, there's lots of lockdown,
and your main target, Chidon, is very difficult to actually get because of the Zaya ult,
so you're gonna have to be looking more towards Jin Kato, who does have the safety of course
of the flap. Encounter engage is huge when you talk about Aurora in the mix as well. The zone control
from this champion is nuts and there's a reason it starts getting banned more and more. When I see
it left open I think what is your response for this? G2 cooked with the Acero. Okay for the
laning phase or at least beyond that as you said it needs to stay safe. But my concern is always
when we get to these skirmishes these fights and what Aurora so far at Worlds has shown us.
That champion is broken and that champion when able to zone out two or three people changes
This is a whole course of a teamfight.
Absolutely, but Wynmore also going to be really strong here.
You can't just throw out the mouth guy ult
because Wynmore could actually block that.
You know, that's going to be really strong,
also against double AD carries.
As G2 looking to set up a dive,
Wiser is very low.
Kerio could try to come in.
That's still Tempest needs a hit for the last breath,
but Karioka gets caught out in the mix as well.
This time, the Max Storm is up and available,
so GJ have more to work with, but there we go.
The ulti we talked about quickly disengaged from G2.
Know that now they have the turning play.
The last breath is going to be the last hit
Wiser in this fight as they'll just take everything in the kitchen sink a good punish from g2. Yeah, really well done there by
G2 great map movement
They wrap around behind him and even though karaoke tries to come cover the dive
Why is there's just too low to really contribute too much to the fight?
So he gets caught out wiser can't really do much back G2 playing the map as I said
They're so good at playing the map
Yeah, and they just set this fight up really well
BB trades heavily on the wiser
Karaoka gets caught and if you get stunned that you are getting full combo by the brand and that is going to destroy you as a tank
So even though wiser comes over drops the ulti they try to get this opportunity to peel just really there's no recourse and
Is that all that the recourse doesn't come through also because the ult at level one is only 1.25 seconds right now. It's so quick
And there's not much you can do to build around it as G2
Obviously finding the play there and playing getting pushed behind
You brought it up earlier in the game how quick yike was to the setup here as broken blade as a flash away
Went in a bit too deep as now becomes a 1v2
But yike is 30 CS off yike is 1.5 K up and I know in champs do this guy has been cooking on more than just brand yike
Has been having a good setup to run into this world's as it is brand
It's just such a nightmare when it gets this far ahead and you get a quick two items
You get level 11 all of a sudden it's just like yeah, okay great
We dealt with the also we dealt with the only but some random brand bounces just kill our whole team like you know
It's what happened it can happen to you
It can get very very annoying and she too has such a clear easy to execute comp like well
I shouldn't say it's easy to execute but clear idea of how they want to execute pressure box right exactly
I mean you open up with the general you're flying forward with the rail
There's a brand-all bouncing around you know Yone and Yasuo are going in wind wall is protecting from the adc
It's a very clear idea of what they want to do
Of course, if you do misstep on the only or the asshole can be very difficult and can get turned around on you
But oh the cops in a little bit spicy here. We're gonna set up. It's a fight sealed karaoke
Just engages. He took phase rush into the battle. So capsule all for the trade
Yeah, why don't you try to steal away that cap because karaoke early smited on the Krugs
So caps trying to go a little bit spicy with it does get jumped on and zinkito and curry trying to move down here
But you do again, they're just gonna play the map. They're gonna run you in circles here towers gone six grubs
It shreds
I mean in the early game again, and I feel like we've got three of these games today
Where there's been nice back-and-forth trading the PSG one hits the mind
But the map state and the way that G2 have played it here is obviously so far superior
Okay, gold lead coming up the 14 minutes when it has been a bit back and forth and kills
It ain't the same way with the way that they're playing the map state exactly
I mean, G2 are just really showing their class on their macro
and how they play the map.
I mean, great.
Painter are fighting pretty well, but it
doesn't matter if you're just getting destroyed
on the map movements.
You're losing the grubs.
You're losing these towers left, right, and center.
They're now 4,000 gold behind here.
They're only up the one kill, but they are very far down.
11 turrets went the way up G2.
And so now that advantage is getting bigger.
Double blade, the Rune King is completed
for broken blade and caps.
They're twinning on the items, have the exact same ones completed there and Hans has done one, we already know Yike has been completed on one for a while, so Painter can get the dragon, but can they get out?
The question is that with the curtain called, Mastercard we don't have time because we're going to fight this one out, it's sent up central for broken play to get the last breath and Karioka is going to be abandoned by Pain.
G2 give another kill or rather they first kill over the top lane.
Yep, going to be able to grab that one and G2 going to be feeling really good about it.
Again, Maokai, you're ulted really hard to use if you can't actually force out the windwall first.
There's almost no value from it, so broken blade just windwalls that they walk right through it.
You can even do some builds where you cook with like flicker blade, where you have a really low windwall CD,
which some of the others are actually really liking against comps like this where it gets a ton of value.
And look at the tradesmen. That's with broken blade taking a tower shot that he doesn't care about
because he can just slice you up off of the wave.
And uh, Jin Kato, only at the 130 or so stacks, I mean, it's not bad, but it's not enough
to overcome exactly.
At this point, it's the biggest question.
Is the game still going to be going?
Oh, they're gonna commit to this.
You mentioned as well that the commitment is there, but I'm a little bit worried.
At least the old comsor and yike is caught out.
The most fat member of G2 is down.
A pyroclusm thrown out on his deathbed, but broken blade and mickey are running
afar.
This is going to be no loss right here off the set off on the steel tempest and G2's jungle is dead.
But look at mid right? This is the problem again. You're over committing, you're setting five members down.
If they got all three and they got the bottom lane tower, great.
But you're getting one, you're TPing, you're spending ult, you're spending flashing knight on Curry.
You're losing your mid lane tier one, you're losing minions top, you're losing your Krugs now as well as Kaps is going to farm those away.
So sure, you got to kill, but you fell more behind in gold off the play at the end of the day.
Gigi's early game here is a really nice setup.
Coming in we criticised and of course anyone who watched LEC all year would say that it was probably their weak point.
Here against PNG it has been a nice snapshot to the setup of their tournament.
Yeah, I mean they're definitely looking really good. I mean G2 must be honest, coming to this big favourites.
This is the LEC number one seed.
Favourites to win at all.
There you go.
Okay.
Win at all against ping gaming, yes.
Okay, thank you, Ezale.
I mean, you know, this is a team that, you know, their expectations, even from the own players are saying, you know,
we want to win the whole thing. We want to win worlds, right?
And, uh, Payne, you know, they haven't even been able to make it to the Swiss stage in quite a long time.
They did do it this time, and that is obviously incredible for them.
But G2 is definitely at a different level than the teams they did fight in the play-in stage.
So they need to really step it up here, and they have got to really not only execute on these fighters,
I think they're doing fine. They're playing fine in the services,
But they've got to make sure they're answering the map movements here from g2 or you can keep winning every fight
But you're gonna lose the game
It's slowly but surely right
Goldleaf will keep track of top of your screen. You can all see it at home
But at least pain to be able to get the dragons
That's one thing in the backcourt two minutes ten to the third that can start pressuring here
There's a mixture of fans in the audience today, and I love it. I mean g2 fans always get a
a massive crowd. The pain off the side still. The fans allowed them proud and you can see
why. To make it this far. I mean it's been so, it's been such a long ride for them. And
again it was so well earned. It was a messy game, but against LLA you know they were
the team that stood fast. A lot better. Yeah, no absolutely. I mean they did show up
when it mattered most and have rightfully earned their spot here. We'll see how
how much further they can go.
And thinking, try to claw this one back against you too.
You saw that gold difference.
It's just been kind of up and to the right.
Boy, that's just a couple spells there.
Okay, between two worlds and set up,
as Wiza has done a good old team,
but the setup for Mickey might be better.
A last breath to send the world.
All the way to another universe.
A curtain call to call it a night.
And G2 are always willing to take the fight.
Yeah, Payne tried to look for the engage there.
It's a good initial look, but again, the wind wall just gets insane value against what they are doing.
And at the end of the day, they can't even finish our broken blade.
He's able to flash out and look at Ginkado not having flung over there against Caps.
Flashes away and Caps almost gets a solo kill.
The grass just tickles his fancy on the side while Inatar on the bot side dead.
Caps with another wave gets top and that's dead too.
Mid wave is pushing in and everything is going G2's way in this debut.
I mean, it's already business, just a map master class here, you know,
how they want to play the map.
They're moving around, they're taking all of these camps away.
They're taking the towers away.
They're playing the map so well.
So when you start winning the fights too, well, then there's not a lot going for pain.
And G2 showcasing that they can do just that.
I know I'm looking to hope him, but NA and EU's first seed debut has been really good.
Yes.
I know a lot of the time the debut looks good because I feel like, again,
You know, they come through with good meta raids.
I think G2 and Fly have obviously been a bit more adaptive as well in their drafts,
but it's been good all the time.
It has, it has definitely been good, but you look at some of these teams that won today,
there's not a lot of easy draws, and it does always become that funny situation
where FlyQuest is sitting there and they're like,
well, if G2 wins, I'd really like to draw G2, and G2 is sitting there and saying,
well, I'd really like to draw FlyQuest, and both teams kind of end up wanting to
to play against each other,
because do you want to play against BLG?
Do you want to play against GenG?
You want to play against HLE?
You have no choice.
It's really rough out there in those 1-0 matches.
So if G2 are able to close this one up,
it's going to get a lot tougher for them.
Both Black West and G2 were recipients of teams from play
and because they were number one seed.
So that's kind of the benefit that they got.
It does mean you get a game that's
going to kind of ease you into the competition
a little bit more.
But then it's a very steep jump in competition, because as Swiss Stage works, if you're 1-0 you only play another 1-0 team, and those are all beasts.
And there's no rematches, remember, unless it's mathematically impossible that you have to have the rematch, but we're assuming that that choice won't come up, that chance won't come up, and no rematches is also very big, depending on how main goes,
depending on how game goes as well. If things go rough, it ends up being a 1-1, then you won't face them again.
But for this game, it's still not over, and Payne is having a goal down.
Let's be real.
This game is looking real rough, with Dragon stacking now stopped,
thanks to G2 getting the Ocean Dragon.
So Payne needs some kind of wombo, some kind of dream in this game,
some kind of smolder stacking miracle as he gets the execution,
that they can fall back and find some goal back in this final game of the day.
Yeah, I mean, it's going to be tough, because even if he gets the stacks right now,
then you really are still waiting for rapid fire,
There's just so much threat over on the G2 side that it's like, okay, if you're even in gold or you're a little bit ahead in gold for pain
Then it's a very tough to execute for G2 because they have to be so perfect to be able to pull it off
But when you're you know closing in on 8,000 gold lead this early on and they're probably gonna get the bear in here as well
Well, then you are really in a lot of trouble over on the pain side
Karioka spotted on a ward and trouble might be the middle name of G2 as they look for a turn
when they fake take it or rather fake started
and walk away and caps.
This is the problem.
It's again, the map pain over commit everyone to one ride.
They're always overloading because they feel that they're
behind. So they're saying, okay, we're behind.
We need to group and get a man advantage.
And you do saying, great, we're not going to fight you.
And they're just going to take things in the side lane.
So it becomes this kind of crash 22 where pain feels
we can't win an even man fight,
but we can't actually be able to get a fight.
You know, so it's like really, really difficult
because they just sent five members to one side,
G2 takes more of an image in the side lane,
they get nothing from it.
And it's just kind of rinse and repeat this entire game
as G2 are constantly willing to go to those side lanes
and Pane just can't match.
It's push and pull, and especially with two items as well,
for G2 they are shredding these waves so quick.
Their brother's building the same as well, by the way.
So, Broke and Blade with the Shrite break a second,
lot of chase, lot of sticking potential here
for the soul liners of G2 as they just return back to it.
As you said, we just do it again.
Look at where Capz is back with the teleport available.
He goes to bot.
Pg now have to be here to be around the Baron.
But G2 aren't going to start it.
They're just going to go la, la, la.
Exactly.
I mean, you just keep putting pressure on it, right?
If you clear all the vision and Pane
aren't respecting the Baron, you start hitting the Baron.
You don't have to commit to it.
If they ignore it, you take it for free.
But if you then get found out,
you can just keep it leashed until they respond,
right?
If Wiser TP's are they overcommit,
you're going to have to look for a turn,
Or you can just take that win of getting the teleport out of getting some small little thing as little wiser
He does not like that one-by-one. That's an alt traded and he was getting obliterated
At least the old was traded but as he teleports in or if he does wiser not having that's going to be a bigger deal
Nice sears set up with the blaze and karaoke takes a bit of HP as well ignite burnt by Mickey as G2
Still hover around this enemy jungle looking for that next pick
Oh, they're actually looking for right now as an execute there
So they're going to take the quickness at least as the hail Mary and this time around again
The nature's grass gets the target mum flies through as well
But how far ahead are they broken blade with the last breath takes out to before himself
Jin Kieto flushes out. He's trying to kite around some big plays from this mid smolder and a shut down taboo
Jin Kieto is alive for now until caps rocks on up and takes him down
To left of G2 is the best you can hope for when pain was so far behind
Yeah, Payne honestly doing a pretty good job there. It isn't three for four, but at the end of the day G2 stands strong
Their jungler is alive their mid laner is alive
And that means the Baron is not long for this world, but wiser trying to stop them. There's so much damage though
Can he escape the wrath of Caps?
G2's hopes and dreams with another one and G2
Sitting there confidently is a great great start at the very least
So he just pushed them off the baron and Curry's able to get vision of that cool stat
That I was curious because I didn't remember ever seeing Yone and Yasuo together in a game
The stat team did check and confirm. It's the first time Yone and Yasuo has ever been played together internationally in League of Legends
So definitely cooking here on the G2 side not that we needed that stat to confirm it
But it is cool to see they have the first team ever actually bring it out internationally
I'm into the comp, it's worked seamlessly, they've been fighting for the majority of the game and then they just join in all in and
the all-ins have been hitting.
You can see Jengito working towards that rapid fire. That is where things start to get a lot more problematic for the other side.
As you can kind of just become this potion if you just kind of straight back and forth, wait for rapid fire procs
and then you use that obviously on your Q, you're putting it on that true damage burn,
and you're kind of poking and prodding, trying to push your opponents lower and lower and get them into a
rough spot here. Zhitun does have a very high DPS build here. Obviously the IE and S3 are done,
but you look over on the other side. And three items are really starting to come through for pretty
much everyone. Yike even has a Banshee's Vail, which means it's even harder to get any sort of a
pick, which you kind of be depending upon. And Han's is super strong on three, Cap's is super
strong on three. So G2 obviously still massively in the lead here. About 9k is their advantage.
The pain, getting a little bit of hope, I would say after a fairly even fight over on that top side,
even though Cap's wasn't there at the start, it was in the same position where G2, it got a little bit of messy
and Pain would take that every day of the week.
You mentioned the gold lead again, 9000 will work with, and yet Cap's here comes the bush,
looking broken blades in the top lane as well, and Pain is just struggling for vision to try and claw some out of G2's hand.
I mean it's just so hard. G2 just has to sit here and wait for Cap to do his work.
Neither of the solo-inners from Payne can do anything about the One.
We saw that Wiser couldn't touch him at all, and definitely Jinkato cannot win that 1v1
unless Cap's make a serious mistake, or really a series of serious mistakes.
So now G2 starts this up again, and Cap's just gonna go forward, keep pressuring.
He's gonna be able to get that inhibitor, no problem, and now Payne
are gonna have to decide, do we challenge here?
What do we do? Because Cap's always running in the game, nature's grass starts it off, and
as you said, the wind wall is such a pain, Mickey gets the engage.
Cap still hangs around, the wave disappears while Miki goes down
with a pyroclasm that sets the fight alight.
And now for G2, the question is whether they're all right.
Cap's just holding both waves at once,
and with range in the making as well, G2,
just keeping them at bay.
Gitan is able to get that one kill onto Miki,
so not bad by pain, but you are always going to lose
the inhibitor on the bot side,
so now that is going to be holding the back
even more difficult.
Chitan, his ulti was burned and Broken Blade just closes their cap.
An easy one.
Thanks to Hansama with the support.
Wys is still here as well in G2.
Let's dance around Baron.
Mumbo number five.
Yeah, nicely done there by G2.
Broken Blade just commits the flash.
Hans opens up and then when the curtain calls going through,
you basically are forced to be juking back and forth from the side there.
But Payne not going to give this one up.
The question is, can they actually get a fight here before Capsa sends the game?
Because Capsa's not coming.
He's not.
If someone doesn't base, you have to decide,
Are you gonna hard to get here right now or are you gonna answer caps to people backing away to deal with it
He just walks on up with six grubs half help on the next as far as parents are going down by the way this time
It might be for real carry over need the miracle still while they commit the caps and he's just gonna leave it
It'll go down no contest and caps gets out on the side of your screen the Red Bull Baron power play
This is how G2 will take the game to a win. Yeah, they're looking really strong
Long caps just so dominant in the side lanes there.
Payne make a call.
OK, we can't get this bear.
And we're going to overload the side lanes.
And both of our solos back instead of just one.
And we're going to try to get picked with the overall.
But Caps just alts out of it.
No problem.
Almost knocked down a Nexus tower as well
and was never even close to being endangered
or going down there.
So again, G2 just pulling them apart,
not allowing Payne to really find anything here.
They have no answer for either of the win bros here
on G2.
The win bros.
It's so tough man, you're just gonna pull the part.
That's really nice to see, you know, since you joined me.
What is your favorite win bro?
I think it's Yone now.
Yeah, I played too much Yone top.
I watched Zayas too much and I fell into the degeneracy,
you know, you know, it was really funny to me.
It is also much easier and I think much more overpowered.
Yeah.
You reckon it's easier, it's definitely way easier
than Yasuo.
Yeah, it's easier to int on Yasuo, isn't it?
But you can still int very easily on Yone if you know how.
But you just press E and then you can always go back.
The problem is with the Ocelot, I can't go back.
Yeah, that's right.
Where's the mission?
I can go in, but I can't.
True.
You usually am dead after that.
Actually, maybe it is either.
So I need to change the Ocelot.
OK, point taken here.
At the end of Swiss, I hope we see some more at the very
least.
Like, we've talked up innovation from G2.
It's what we expected.
We know they have so much more in their pocket, by the way.
This is only the beginning of nature's grasp.
Again, win, wall, the sail.
Walk me through it.
There it is.
Between two welters, Weld swarms them down, Mum does a bit, but Mickey's engaged!
Gives a nice last breath to Payne gaming.
That's because they can't breathe anymore as Broken Blade ran all the way in to give Mickey a death.
The Fatesfield won't connect, but G2 are now playing Koi.
PNG stuck in their base while the bottom wave is going to start crashing in.
Yeah, it's going to get so difficult for them with all of these waves pushing in.
Payne do still have the two main carries alive here though, so a little bit of wave clear is available to them,
them, but you said it. Super scumming in bot, the Baron up wave in mid and top. They just
can't be everywhere once. They can't clear this out fast enough, and even the wind wall
protecting the Baron up cannon is already annoying. As you can see, even more damage
being dealt to this Nexus tower. Karioko trying to hold mid there. They're trying
to get as much gold as possible into these carries, but look at Caps. He went dead,
man. So he's really cooking. Wants the additional move speed there on it, and
It's going to be extremely annoying to deal with.
One tank in the game, right?
Who's going to do the damage?
Well, Smolder, thankfully.
The majority of that is still AD.
And with the Zyra as well, caps can just run on in.
There's the Felicit Yonez.
Now, you can build things like Jack's Show.
You can build Deadmans, Randoons.
He's got so many builds out there,
the versatility is just insane.
Yeah, I mean, he now has the movespeed from the Deadmans.
Plus, he gives you that 10% movespeed when you do E in.
So it has even additional mobility,
double lifesteal items there's quite a bit of HP on the Strybreaker so you're not
gonna 100-0 them you're not gonna outdool them and it just gets really really
difficult for them. G2 playing it slow and steady but definitely have been in full
control of this one for a very long time. That's why I was excited before Fly
the same last game G2 the same this game although very different games and
very different compositions it just feels like the first seed of both
the UNNA have come into today so well-prepped and like no over-forcing.
We like to see it.
Yeah.
I mean, I think that's some of the most fun parts of Worlds is you can have two
teams that are obviously very good teams but play completely differently, right?
And I think that showcases the depth of the game, of League.
And then you get to go to Worlds, you get to see these teams match up
potentially and kind of have this clash of styles, right?
You know, which style is better, which draft is better, which player is better.
Like, these are the fun things about Worlds.
getting to have some of those questions answered.
And it's just great to watch.
It really is, especially when they're performing well.
G2 moments away from moving up to the one and zero.
And us, again, don't forget,
SwissDraw comes in right after our broadcast today.
It's the best part of the day.
It is.
You sit there and you're like,
what's gonna happen next?
Ever since we brought this format in,
I have been such a big fan.
Like, the draws also make it so much more fun.
It actually makes the end of the day
one of the highlights of the day, right?
It makes it really exciting as you are praying for specific draws.
You're hoping to dodge opponents, you're hoping for specific match-ups.
And especially if you drop the game 1, then you are really hoping to get a good match-up in the second one.
Mickey all aiming on this. Now Chetan has his ulti and flash available, but they just wanted to pull it out.
Ignite is so strong and the fourth shot would be even stronger.
Kuri needs to protect Jitan. They get him anyway!
Han's Sama from the Secret Service or what?
Han just bends the bullet, snipes out Jitan, leaving no doubt of who the veteran is.
Oh, the last breath as well. What a way to end the show as Jin Kiyoto finds Miki.
It might not be over for Payne for now, but the fate sealed into the back, gets wiser,
Caps with a beautiful knockup, the fate indeed shielded another way, as Hans in style helps out with that last kill.
It looks to be a TP to end here as Caps or Brahler, broken blade, walks towards the Nexus turrets.
G2 have been splitting the map all game, but there's no more map left for Payne to play in.
It's a clean entrance for EU's first seed, it's a win, bros, to put it as the sale said.
Open us up with a 1-0 star, the end of Swiss Day 1 could not be more clean.
You and I both getting a win on the board here to close things out, both of the 1 seats will advance.
And now they can be really happy about that, they can breathe a sigh of relief here.
First step on the road here is done for G2.
And they can look forward now to the draw to finding out who their next opponent is.
And again, there are so many sharks in the 1-0 waters, man.
There are so many ridiculously top teams.
But those are the kind of teams that G2 wants to take down.
And those are the kind of teams that you must be able to take down
if you want to achieve the goals that they have set for themselves.
When you're talking about if not when, you know, if not now when, you know,
you're talking about winning worlds.
You're talking about having that international success.
You have got to be able to beat those big dogs,
and they're going to have their opportunity.
There's so many big rosters in this tournament, and it's great to see that we can include G2 as one of them.
And again, I've got EU buyers, so I don't deny that, especially being on the home stage here.
Where we can't here for a week.
G2 are a fun team, man.
They are really fun.
It's okay to load that team.
It's nice because, again, they pull out drafts like this, and you go,
we just had a Yasuo top in their debut game in Swiss, and it looked clean,
and the draft had a lot of merit to it as well.
They weren't just cooking for the sake of it.
They weren't disrespecting their opponent.
They pulled out something out of the hat and again, they showcased how well they can play the map, right?
And I think that is what it was really all about. You know, yeah, pain won some fights. Yeah, pain got some kills
But G2 were always running away with the advantages on the map. You know, they overload one side
G2 is not panicking. They're taking towers. They're slowly chipping away at you
That is about as close to as a true split push victory as you can get these days in League
I mean caps was literally hitting the Nexus towers, right?
Like he was just crushing the game through side lanes and that is a rarity in modern League of Legends
I think you really have to have a great understanding of how to play the matchups and how to play the map how far is too far
Knowing your limits exactly so you're not just getting picked off in side lanes and inting and G2 really showcased that well
I mean again
It's really nice to see as well caps in solid form not only through the map site
But the fact that caps as well was playing a clean game well clean enough game, right?
I feel like in the end they were kind of playing around and
seeing what could stick as well as, you know, broken blade, another good performance, clean.
Okay, yeah, you're right. Sorry, I'm thinking of the other win, bro.
One death.
Yeah, one death.
Shame on you, broken blade.
What were you doing?
Come on.
I should talk out, Mickey, because Mickey again sees a plate, he's like, oh, I'll take that one off.
Yeah, no, absolutely.
But I mean, he was setting them up for success, had a great engage in those final moments.
He was able to set up, fortunately, these alties here from broken blade.
Well, I've been told that we're going to Verizon Post Game interview on the stage with the man himself.
Welcome back to the stage for the last interview of this Swiss Day 1 Top Father.
Thank you so much for joining me.
Great games, table, everything. How do you reflect on what happened?
What grade would you give yourself if you had from 0 to 10 from the game you played?
I would say 10.
Nice victory.
But there's a 10 with improvement still inside, but I had a lot of fun playing this game,
playing the brothers, you know, Yasuo was very fun, me and Caps, especially in the later stages.
I also think Jyke played amazing today.
Yeah, great job from everyone honestly.
Did you know who was going to play Yone and who was going to play Yasuo?
Did you just flip it?
I mean, you never know in G2 who plays what, but in this case I was like,
like, oh, probably I'll play a little bit of a Yasuo today.
So it was nice, it was fun, it was very fun actually.
I didn't expect myself to play Yasuo for the first game.
All right.
Any other things that you have planned
in terms of pick and his specific?
I know, in-houses have been fun,
but I know that in-houses, more fun than not,
they don't look like scrims,
but anything weird that you prepped for walls,
does the meta allow it?
I know you can't say champion's names, but.
I mean, there's always something I prepare to win.
also to be creative. I think that is the beauty of my career, my playstyle. I really like to
pull off something that is unusual and also make it work. So yeah, maybe, but I can't
promise anything, of course, and also can't leak, right?
Let's not disclose anything. We'll keep this for later. I want to follow up on the
honestly amazing interview you had with Dom and the rest of the crew, letting a
a lot of stuff that we didn't know about G2 actually, about the summer that you guys had,
about the fact that you were not on the same page, that some players were feeling a bit low.
When you think about this and what happened at Worlds last year and the fact that you don't
want to have this run ever again, you want to have the best, you want to make the best out
of the situation you have, what have you guys been working on to be on the same page,
to peek at the same moment and to come ready for Worlds this year?
For us, the biggest thing was matching against the Eastern teams when it comes to mid-game.
I feel like when you look at Worlds, a lot of the times a lot of teams get advantage in
early game against the Eastern teams, but then they lose out in the mid-game.
The teamfights are less clutch and the macro is less good, and I feel like this year
we've really been improving that, so I'm really excited to play them again.
I think in MSI we showed a good performance and we want to be even better this year.
Something that we hear about G2, of course,
walls being back in Europe.
You think about the 2019 lineup.
You are not part of it, but you have two players
who are part of this lineup.
And the fact that everyone keeps on thinking
about what happened in 2019,
the fact that there's hope for walls,
there's hope for Europe, and there's hope for G2 this year.
What is the weight of this legacy?
How heavy is this legacy of this G2 2019 lineup
when you come into worlds this year?
G2 2019 I wasn't part of that story and G2 2024 is the story that I want to create where we win worlds
So yeah, that is basically how I think how I believe
How what I want to make happen and I think everyone in the team is aligned on this
This is our goal and this is what we want to achieve make them believe
That's what we'll say
Thank you so much for this interview amazing as always last question for you
So we're gonna have the draw show in just a few minutes.
Who would you like to face tomorrow, if you could choose?
We have BBBB Gaming, Top Esports, Gen G, Diplasquilla,
LNG, Hanoi, Flakwests.
I would like to draw Flakwests.
Little N-A-R-Z-U.
Love some rivalry.
Thank you so much, BB.
Good luck tomorrow.
Good luck for the draw as well.
That's all for us here on this side of the stage.
We'll be right back for the draw in just a few minutes.
Break.
Is there?
Where the break?
No.
I think, we just keep talking.
Special guest, Villain's here with us.
So BrocaBlades said, in terms of the draw show, he'd like to play FlyQuest.
But remember, you can't replay anyone.
So wouldn't it be better to beat, I don't know, Gen.G in a best of one,
then you don't have to play them in a best of three?
Oh, yeah, but I also feel like you get a full series win of points
off of just the best of ones, so I feel like the value is pretty good.
I wouldn't mind playing FlyQuest, also the EU anything is always a special one.
But I don't know it's a it's a very high variance draw, so it's very different based on who you get
It's crazy. How happy are you today with the performance of the brothers?
I like the double brothers Yasuo Yon double samurai comp very G2s
We played it like a bunch of times throughout the years actually, but usually it's the other version usually
It was actually caps on Yasuo and BB on Yon
So this was our first time with caps BB version of G2 where we did this one and you know
We already asked you all fair, but who's what do you prefer?
For this meta, right now, I think both of them are probably more practiced and better at these particular champions. I'll say that.
So you mean the way it was today?
Yeah.
That's a thumbs up.
That's a thumbs up.
How do you like the team's macro?
Because this is like, as I mentioned it, it's like the truest kind of form of a split push win as you guys are just knocking on their nexus throughout the game.
the game. Yeah, so anyone who's watched this a lot in Europe probably has known we play a lot with
Capstone Sidelane this year. He played a lot of split push champs. He's always pressuring to end the
game, pressuring on inhibitors. We've grown quite accustomed to playing that way, so a Fed Yone is
like one of the best to do that. So yeah, it really is our playstyle. Worked out really all
this game. Hopefully we can replicate it in future games. Talking about replicating, you know,
there's always that question when you play a comp like this and when you approach it in a certain
way and you say it I'm sure that everyone who you're going to play knows that he likes to play
this way is there a pitfall of you going into a game and knowing this is exactly how I want to play
and then maybe in the mid game it falls apart in the Europe versus a team who is maybe even better
at macro or perhaps a team fighting so like I think sometimes the side of the comps are a bit
weaker in team fight if you have a fed malkai playing front to back in a pure 5v5 the brother
is probably not as strong as when he's threatening to end the game so I think that's one
potential weakness. Also you need to be very crisp on your movement right as soon as if caps gets
caught and dies on side and they just TP to Nash and take it that can be another way you can lose so
it definitely you need to be used to playing this way but uh we like it seems to work for us yeah
yeah these are very fun comps to watch as well probably very fun comps to play as well and i'm
wondering not so much from a gameplay perspective but more from a mentality perspective how the
boys doing coming into this world because usually g2 they play quite well when they're having fun
So, what's the environment like having it in the studio and just everything being day-to-day for you guys?
So, it being here in Europe, I think helps a bit.
When you have to travel all the way across the world and be in a different environment, that always just makes things a bit harder.
So, it felt really good coming here to the studio and being prepared.
Scrims have been good, mostly good, like a bit of a mixed bag, but we're learning a lot, right?
As you can see there's a lot of lane swaps, there's a lot of very different big meta shake-ups.
So there's just a lot of different stuff going on.
Do you think that helps you guys more?
Because there's been times where you guys have been winning a lot.
And I've seen quotes in InterU as like, well, it felt like sometimes they learned more from us than we learned from them.
Do you feel like this time around it's a bit different or how is it?
Like a lot of people say that from my perspective.
I'd always just rather win when everything.
That would probably make me feel the best.
But yeah, no, absolutely.
There is that feeling of oh, this is what's been working for us. This is what has not so we can kind of try and have these strategies
Have you ever felt like there was a I?
Wouldn't say a problem, but like a motivation thing because like during the regular season
You guys are winning a lot and it feels like you guys are guaranteed for international play
I you know early games can feel a little sloppy or some of the gameplay can feel a little sloppy
But then I kind of I guess an example would be MSI where you guys looked incredible
Do you feel as though when the pressure is on that you guys really come online and feel like you guys come together or is that, you know, what do you experience?
No, no, of course. Like, when you're at Worlds, you're at MSI, you're playing the top teams in the world.
Even when you're preparing for like a big stadium, like for the EU LEC finals, we just get that energy and try that much harder, a bit more practice, a bit more everything for sure.
And of course, one of the big questions is, you have last year's Worlds, which I know
was kind of like, I feel like probably the most disappointing thing that could ever happen
in this 600 plus day run with this particular iteration of the team.
But I feel like sometimes we hear this from teams, right, they say it wasn't our day,
you know, and I feel like that's something, is that something you can completely eradicate
you feel like or how do you feel you've made progress in that regard, knowing that
No, we are actually at a point where we feel pretty unshakable that if we are the team that does go into a best of as the favorites
That we should be able to close it out. Yeah
Well, I think already this year we won every split in Europe instead of dropping one
We are a lot more consistent when it really mattered in Europe as well
But it's competition right there's always that element of we go into worlds last year beat LCK beat LPL back to back
And then our condition became very poor when we lost
But it works the other way as well right we control up to a day and play really really well and take games or series off
the best teams. So it's fun. That's like the whole reason we're here in the first place.
It's the way to cookie crumble. You're right. No, it's true. It's so exciting. It was so great
last year at the end, particularly, you know, just kidding, of course. And I'm super excited.
Any predictions for the draw show? I think we're super close, like 30 seconds. Any matchup
you really want to see? I mean, E versus NA matchup play. Like a flag pass versus GT, please.
We're about like the 01 matchups.
It's possible.
TL Fanatic, it's already possible.
Oh my god.
That's true too.
I've seen that a bit too many times already, and I know how
no one knows.
Please, please.
I think a lot of people will look at who T1 draws.
I think that'll be the one.
That's true.
Oh, true.
That 1-0 pool is so completely stacked, actually.
It's getting ready.
It's getting ready, so we're going to be giving it over
to the world's 2024 Swiss stage.
Stage 2, draw show.
Let's go.
Welcome everyone to the world's 2024 SWEET stage draw show.
I'm joined by Riot Games Tournament official Malou.
Thank you so much for joining me on stage.
And for tonight's draw, our 16 teams will be divided based on today's results.
The first set of teams consists on those that went 1 and 0 today,
and the second set of teams are those that went 0 and 1.
Now, for the round 2 of the SWEET stage, there are no restrictions on matchups,
which means that two teams from the same region can face off.
Our 1-0 team consists of Billy Billy Gaming, Top Esports, Gen.G, D-Plus Kia, LNG, Honwa Life Esports, FlyQuest and G2 Esports.
Now, Malou, if you would please draw the first team.
And they will be facing against.
All right, now to the second matchup.
Malou, please, if you withdraw the second team.
And they will be facing.
And now for the third matchup, Malou.
Now let's draw Genji's opponent.
Pop is fourth.
All right, now for the fourth matchup.
And they will be facing.
There's nothing in the bowl.
But there's only one team left.
And the only team left is NNG.
And now for the O and 1 teams that we have
Mad Lions Koi, T1, Webo Gaming, Fnatic, Team Liquid, Honda, PSG Talon, Gam E Sports and Pain Gaming.
Now, Malou, would you please try the first team?
Gam E Sports and they will be facing off against.
We are going to take a quick break in the draw here and send it back to the desk for a bit, we'll be back soon.
Reset. I think a draw is going to be reset. I don't know, Dylan is hoping it's the whole draw.
It's not a funny matter actually. I'm waiting for an update because we'd really get a little bit more information, but for sure obviously the second part.
You know what I'm not going to speak because I don't want to give any misinformation.
That's just I'm gonna assume the first ones were correct. We'll just go over it anyways
What I wrote okay, so what I wrote down is g2 versus HLE you can actually kind of talk about it immediately if you'd like to yeah
Yeah, obviously one of the harder teams we could have faced one else. Okay, very good. Is that a lady own today?
Saying caps caps you on it was also very good. So yeah, no, I think we can take a game off anyone
Especially in this setting, but yeah
I think that's really cool. There was an interview with Secker as well where the player he really
wanted to play against was actually Caps as well, because he's been here for so long.
I think in terms of player profile, these are two incredibly clutch midlaners when it
matters. I think with a champion pool that also sometimes requires a bit more mechanics.
I think just from a mid lane perspective, this is such an incredible fun matchup to watch.
Maybe not for you right now, but I feel like as a viewer and a fan, that is really
succinct. Two of the best midlaners go at it.
We will be redrawing our 0-1 team, so we're just getting that set up as our 1-0 by literally
luck of the draw.
The last ball was just the last remaining matchup.
That does mean that we get BLGLNG for a team kill, but it's not for elimination.
The other matchup, yes, BLGLNG, GenG, Tess, D-plus versus Fly.
Why do you think about that?
The D-plus versus Fly?
Yeah.
Oh my God.
I'm pretty happy about that overall, actually.
I'm pretty happy.
from FlyQuest's perspective, I think D-Plus's games, especially domestically, were a bit
messy. Like the early games are quite good. But a lot of the times when they get into mid
games, they can get a little bit too hyphy.
What happened today?
Exactly. So like, oh my God, they had the lead and then completely threw it. And then
it didn't matter anyways because it got thrown back into them. So I think one thing that
FlyQuest is genuinely good at is being able to maintain the advantages that they
have. And they're a great team fighting team. And I think Inspired and Wippo, they
showcase it today that they are able to at least in the mid game have a really
strong kind of like their calls are great they play the map really well so I'm
actually I think that's the best one we could have gotten other than like an
LNG. Yeah I think that's a good read I think
Showmaker was phenomenal today though I mean even in all the throws he really
kept everything I mean he I don't want to say he won the game for DK but he
kept a lot of pressure up specifically to write that chip. It's like
Historically as well, he's just always been one of the pioneers for the blank mid as well. I think he really
But no, I think historically in competitive he's been incredibly gifted on the blank
He's always found windows to make it matter in team fights
I think there's a clear difference between a guy who knows what he needs to do in a blank when you're in a
mid to late game scenario and set up up around objectives and a guy who doesn't
and show me just clearly one of the best when it comes to this. I think it would
be interesting to see how that works draft wise though and match prep wise as
well because FlyQuest they had some some tricks today the whole Sion Ivern
lane swap stuff and if you're gonna play mages or assassins like the bonk
like showmakers and playing a lot recently I don't know how that's
gonna work mid late game versus the idea at least that FlyQuest put
together today so I think from a prep perspective that's a very interesting
matchup. What's your favorite matchup of the four? Of course your matchup, the plus
versus fly, Gen GTS, BLGLNG. So I have to go prepare for one of those four
matchups, so that's probably more than what I'm thinking about. Yeah. I think my
favorite probably actually would be dumb on fly, I would say. I think that's the
most interesting one. Are you Canadian or are you American? I am Canadian.
Oh, a parkana! Toronto.
Okay, I'm Cal Gilberta.
Try and then catch that. Is the draw ready?
In 10 seconds. Perfect.
So we're going to kick it back over and redraw, or draw rather, for our 0-1 teams.
Take it away, Laura.
And we are back on stage now.
League officials have validated the upper bracket
and we're going to reset completely for the lower bracket and the 0-1 teams.
Sorry about that, Malu, if you would please draw the first team.
They will be playing against, now for the second matchup, the first team is G Talon.
And they will be facing against, now for the third matchup, the first team is, and
their opponent will be, and now for the next matchup, their opponent will be Esports.
These are the matchups for round 2 of the World's 2024 sweet stage.
We will return tomorrow on October 4th at 2pm CEST.
Remember that League officials will confirm the order of the matches tonight.
What you see here is not the final schedule so be sure to follow us on lollisport.com for
more info on the schedule.
That's all for us here.
Have a good night and see you tomorrow.
We can all take a match.
It's been a good night.
It's been a good night.
Just to explain, this is going out to everyone, right?
So it's not because we are still here that everyone's still here.
That's right.
We're not center of the universe, especially not as EU at Worlds.
Let's talk about the second draw, T1 Pain, that is pain.
It's literal pain.
They're being put through the ringer.
PSG-MDK rematch.
That's pretty cool.
Especially because MDK won that.
So that's also revenge matchup for PSG coming into this one.
TL got, I think, the hardest out of the two, like out of the draw.
They could have gotten T1 or Wave, I think, are kind of the trickiest ones, if we're honest.
We're honest. Yeah, they got a tricky one and a fanatic game and you're reminded us GV that
Dylan was actually present for the original fanatic game situation. What happened there?
That was in 2017 nobody in the world lane swapped not not like these days they lane swapped
We were unprepared let's just put it that way and Nocturne for some reason was level six at five minutes
Yeah, I don't know if that record has ever been broken
He killed him and he carried the whole game crazy. So yeah, we'll see I think fanatic
Fnatic, their confidence is probably shook after today and we know that when it wavers,
it crashes man.
Yeah.
Because that game versus D-plus, I don't know if you caught it.
It was so back and forth, they got put behind early, they got back in the lead and once
they did, they just lost their composure unfortunately.
Like, I actually thought Fnatic played okay.
Okay.
I thought they found a lot of clutch fights.
Yeah.
Some clutch, yo notes by humanoid.
I thought their draft ideas were decent, like if not pretty good.
Yeah.
when you're facing very good teams,
you make a mistake late game,
and the game just ends.
But I think they can bounce back
and win tomorrow for sure.
Yeah, I like the fact that we can kind of see Fnatic
out team fight them out of a bad situation
because yeah, their early game didn't go that way.
And we've kind of seen that a couple of times before now.
They still have struggled with that a little bit.
But I think it's really clutched to see
that they find a way where they're not
just getting tilted in the match.
They actually have a way of getting back in the game.
Did they throw a last team fight here and there?
Was that bad decision?
Yes, obviously.
but in terms of what they brought,
I still think they got foundation to build on.
Yeah, I'm a doomer.
Don't listen to me.
I think the bands today against GAM were also quite good
because the one thing we were constantly harping on
was like,
no, I'm talking about GAM.
The GAM drafts were actually very good,
they're good bands.
For instance, Aurora bands and the Shyvana bands,
because that was what they were actually kind of
abusing quite heavily in play-ins.
So I was very happy that that was completely taken out.
I have a lot of faith in Fnatic. Team Liquid, kind of sad that they're going up against
Webo. As you kind of mentioned, like those are the two teams you would want to go up
against, both Webo Gaming or T1, and we got that team. Overall, I think Webo Gaming has
an incredibly good bot lane. And I think that's kind of what I'm looking at. Thankfully,
I think Yon and CoreJJ can be able to handle that quite well. Honestly, I have
a lot of faith in the coaching staff of the team. I think there's like a few
moments within the game that Team Liquid had that they can just brush up and
be a lot better. So I'm looking forward to that matchup. That'll be a really solid one. Similar
vibes from the fanatic game I feel like right when you maybe you kind of rewatching it you're like
oh so sad they didn't close that but you got to look at the things that did go well. Yes. And
we're going to hang on to that positive positive energy. That's it for us here. Good luck tomorrow.
Dylan versus HRE Super Hype matchup as said we'll know the order of the matchups later
I think in an hour or something but we will be back tomorrow at 2 p.m CEST 8 a.m Eastern US.
Thank you so much for watching. See you then!
He's a target. He doesn't have anywhere else to go.
It's totally a blue check!
Rom-rom-rom-rom-rom-rom-rom-rom-rom-rom-rom-rom-rom.
Tune in, it goes to the opening.
Arms reach and slip to Los Edokos,
Me and Adyles hope more than any other folks
to strip this old road.
I'm at Liberty to trunk, so it's the same old soles.
Same old goles that stick to the script.
I'm sick of what's been written and sold.
This isn't it. I can't let this empty sink for old.
The moment I'm just stuck there, I swear my pants.
I'm up here underneath this one is a sunny.
I don't know my knees as I bleed Scream in my speech and promise
One more chance, man Who's gonna really take it from me?
I get my hands up To any Chinese to stand up in front
Convincing myself Before I sit on the shelf
It's in my destiny The best of me to reach and bring my left
Perform mother nature as I work We cooking up a storm, I'm coming
My feet gon' take me there Ain't no feet to get the fit
I guess we button in the years now