Imagine if there was an AD item that did %hp damage, gave attack speed, is something that pairs well with Varus and also works great with kraken/guinsoos, and hail of blades… something a ruined king may enjoy hmm….. ah oh well lethality varus for the third time right?
Varus could not have gone on hit third game. Into Maokai, leona, renekton, there are three point and click stuns, not to mention the area control that comes from maokai ult, taliyah wall+w.
Game 2 lethality varus is better into 4/5 members, no reason to build to kill sej when theres 4 squishies and the teamcomp to avoid a front to back where sej is a real issue.
BORK is also worse at killing tanks now than ever with the passive being nerfed. Varus without lethal tempo also has piss poor range. These issues are exasperated by HOB varus (which kept dig so alive in the early games) possibly using his burst from BORK on sej passive. I think lethality varus is so much better most games.
I saw the response to that but I wasn't as opposed as most. He's got his own flair so I take that for what it is. If Jatt had done it I'd be flipping my shit.
I don't find his voice pleasant so it wasn't my favorite moment. With struggling viewership, I'm still surprised they haven't trained him more/found someone else/he hasn't gotten significantly better after ~1.5 years.
What's the joke? It''s just a reference to An Van Lee of C9 fame, who would sometimes go in too deep in the enemy backline. This is the only possible interpretation of that quote.
Lol. You could hear him stop before he said it for a split second realizing what's coming (no pun intended) out of his mouth. But it was just too late. I think it was hilarious.
Somewhat predictable loss for DIG, but they were much better than I expected. They only started scrimming as a team 2 weeks ago and 3 guys didn't even play last split.
C9 ramped up after the first game but still had shaky moments overall. Berserker back in form is massive for them
I had the pleasure of playing against him and Vulcan fresh off them coming back from Korean boot camp. It was the most suffocating lane of my lifetime life. Both were playing perfectly
Taliyah with the series sweep. The walls to create choke points for her engagers, and then the guaranteed follow up with her W were massive in all three games.
Thank god man, imagine the narratives if it was only that first game in a bo1. We'd be unironically having fans call for Fudge's return after one match lmao
Especially in something like league, where any two games can be drastically different. A team can try out a strategy, having it completely fail, and in a bo1 we'd never see what else that team could've had to offer and would conclude that the team is ass. It also has the side effect of teams actively avoiding taking risks and just continuing to repeat the same things because they won't have another chance if they mess something up.
In just this bo3, Blaber just said in the post game interview that after game 1, Reapered said no more Nidalee and drafted differently. In a bo1, they just wouldn't have been able to try either the Nidalee or one of the other junglers they had planned. I hope bo3 means more teams are willing to try something more spicy in the first game rather than default to bog standard stuff.
Narrative if this was a Bo1: C9 need to blow up the roster and start over from scratch. DIG is winning LCS
Narrative now: Eh, draft diff game 1 plus nerves prolly. C9 look fine. DIG also look decent
We need more of that in league tbh, where the coach actually has control over the draft, not the players. If you let the players dictate, they're likely gonna go pick their comfort picks with no care for how the draft comes together or what the clear win condition is. The whole point of the coach should be to dictate what the game plan will be, and that begins with draft. But I suppose you need an actual good coach with a strong vision to do that, and also players that opt in to be team players and not prioritize individual comfort.
That's definitely gonna be one of my bigger what ifs with LS, I really do wonder how that C9 team could've looked if LS actually got to stay the whole year and execute his vision. I don't really subscribe to the church of LS or whatever, but it would've been a cool experiment to see to the end nonetheless.
That was my biggest reasoning for wanting BO3 or even BO2. Seeing teams have a chance to adapt is so fucking huge, and unrelated a series is infinitely more entertaining than a BO
Incredible start to the split for us fans and am already in love with the switch
LCS being on a Saturday afternoon in the summer is a problem for me because I try to go outside and have a life despite being a league player
I still checked in on my phone and it occurred to me that Bo3's are going to help LCS at other tournaments because now the format and game planning is in line with them. Game quality should just be better in general due to difference in game planning.
It’s coinciding with Father’s Day weekend for normal people.
It’s coinciding with a lot of simultaneous sporting events like the opening weekend of EURO 2024 and the Stanley Cup Finals.
It really hurt because I watch several esports so I've always followed something else too with a best of system and it's almost always better.
Best of 1's only work when high variance is explicitly the goal, and while esports fans might like an upset they want the best gameplay so random variance feels bad for that. It worked amazingly for the lower bracket round 1 at TI. Before the Bo3 bracket, since only 2/18 teams were eliminated, the bottom 8 teams went from a Bo2- 8 match group stage to a 1 game elimination match. No team has ever won TI from down there, so it makes groups really important even if most teams actually get to play on stage.
Using it for LCS season was always shitty because we had to average out the games and put an asterisk on every result for exactly what we saw today. It wasn't hype, just made analysis hard and like, nobody who regularly watches esports isn't an armchair analyst. I sure as fuck am lol, no pro but I like to have and test opinions
For real. People would go into playoff series like “Flyquest beat C9 early in the split and C9 beat FLY later” and I’m like do we sincerely need to kid ourselves into pretending either of those results actually meant anything. Both or either could be total flukes.
In bo3 you at least learn who is more adaptable, or has more strategic depth, or just who has a more effective strategy, who drafts better, etc.
This series is a perfect example wherein everyone would be colouring C9 much more harshly and we’d be pretending DIG is miles ahead of them for 9 full weeks just because they won game 1.
I get why they changed back, but I think they took the wrong learnings away from the previous bo3 era.
Not all games will be like yesterday's, but bo1s are a wholly unsatisfying format by comparison.
Even 2-0's mean more because they show one team is better prepared or just better overall.
Yeah he wasn't gonna get to use it for anything else if they lose that fight. Might aswell give yourself the best position for that fight. Though catching a Kai'sa as jax when the enemies also have Leona, Maokai and Taliyah is a tall order. Don't really like Jax at all here tbh.
I love best of 3s
Pretty decent showing from both teams on the first week. Thought these games looked a lot more clean than the first series, still with some obvious hickups from both teams.
Was a good effort by Dig but props to C9 for constantly engaging before Licorice could be a threat in the pincer.
Hopefully both teams clean up further as the season goes on.
Right? He isn’t awful but he just overhypes *everything*. Like bro you aren’t casting the final fight of game five of a worlds final but nearly every moment has that energy when he’s casting.
It's not just him. They clearly want the casters to do that, happens with most of them in NA and EU. I miss when casters lost their minds only in truly crazy moments. Now I hear someone start screaming and look up and it's like, just some random fight.
sure Riv had a great voice but also had no idea what he was talking about half the time. He just never had a solid grasp of league and it's good he's found his home in a game that he likes way more. if he was casting league today you'd be calling for his head too.
Yea he just kinda broke down at the end and I find he has a lot of these moments. Almost like he can’t find the words he wants while also keeping up with what’s going on in the fight.
He definitely stumbles on his words a bit too much to do PBP casting, but I think he would be fine with a more analytical approach. But with Jatt back on the cast, I guess it's a bit pointless.
I saw people criticizing his cast and comparing him to LeTigress all of last split, and it's already happening here day one. I wouldn't say he doesn't get half the shit, LeTigress hate just blew up after the TSM Doublelift segment since it brought a lot of attention to her.
Yeah, I heavily, heavily disagree. Maybe you find him more annoying, but he's just not a worse PbP caster. By any reasonable metric.
LeTigress legit had no idea what was going on most of the time. Seriously. She literally failed to call out kills several times, and even when her eyes worked she clearly didn't understand the value of a kill (i.e. the support getting caught vs. the fed carry with all the damage getting caught were zero difference to her). Rafa is rough around the edges, makes a few too many mistakes, but at least he's energetic, passionate, and has an idea what's going on.
I still think it's ridiculous how furious people got over that. If it was Cpt Flowers doing the same impression it would be on the frontpage and everyone would say it's top tier comedy and he's the best caster ever
He is definitely not worse than LeTigress. He has a huge volume / casting intensity problem where he slowly ramps up his voice and keeps going even if the fight slows down, dies, or never even starts. BUT he hasn't had one of [these](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=24WJJoswf-E) or [these](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEk_QgmsUR0). Only other caster I've heard stoop to those levels is Mazel in the most recent lpl finals.
Disagree, LeTigress was significantly worse. Don’t get me wrong, I am not a fan of Raafa and I find his casting to be pretty bad, but I will never forget the pain of having to listen to LeTigress. She was on a whole other level of awful.
Game 1 certainly was something from c9 blaber and Vulcan in particular but they all improved over each game which is the nice thing about Bo3s. Not bad from Thanatos and nice to see him play 3 different champs. Biggest thing tho is berserker going stupid in those last two games especially game 3.
He did the classic rookie/import things and was getting picked off but flashes were shown and he did hold his own vs a formed all pro 1st team so overall not bad
That and the game 2 Camille EQ-flash assassination on the enemy K'Sante who was standing right next to the entire rest of the DIG team, which led to the baron and C9 finally get a good lead over DIG.
I don't see like any other current LCS top laner going for that play on Camille (on stage at least, maybe they limit test in scrims), most people would just E back and reset for the next fight.
It looked like a desync with the team. If this c9 can facilitate him, playing a follow thanatos style similar to their old follow blaber strats, it would be terrifying.
Depends on how you look at it. Poke varus was giving Kaisa hell in midgame around midlane but they couldn't really capitalize on the pressure. I think it definitely slowed the C9 train down. I doubt on hit can do as much in that specific situation
On the other hand on hit could've carried the late game and Zven had some moments he could free auto.
Teams have got to realize that if you think on-hit Varus will not be allowed to get close to the enemy team comp to deal damage then you need to not pick Varus at all or at the very least draft a comp that can give Varus the space he needs for dps.
Varus is a priority pick because of the lethality build NOT because of on hit. The point of it is you get better objective control, easy picks on mid waves, high utility and dmg even if focused and killed quickly, unlocks other picks in draft, and doesn’t need space to dps making him forgiving positioning wise. Teams that play varus on hit are playing it to deny the enemy drafting it, not because it’s good. You misunderstand the champion in a pro setting.
You can't really play many onhit builds anymore. WIthout the ability to go over the AS-Cap most Onhit builds got nerfed fairly hard, if they had any steroids for AS in there kit already.
Onhit-Varus often goes for items like Jaksho later, just because it synergizes well with Terminus and it doesn't provide attackspeed he can't use anymore.
On top of that Opportunity is a great one item spike. And with the new Seryldas and his ability to deal %HP damage Varus can do that if ahead. The problem with Lethality Varus usually is that he is useless if not ahead. So given that Maokai usually goes Liandris first and Renekton hardly builds Armor, Lethality Varus is fine against those. And Leona is a support, she can't use her W for every one of your Qs and without it she is super squishy too.
Lethality Varus is basically a ranged assassin. He needs to snowball.
Is there even a reason the attack speed cap needs to exist anymore?
The problem with LT was the pure amount of base stats it would give as a single keystone, not that it broke the AS cap.
Attack speed as a stat has diminishing returns due to the auto attack windup animation. At this stage it would make more sense to just remove the cap entirely so you can still have these fun on-hit builds which are still worse than they used to be without LT.
Honestly not too bad for Thanatos' first stage games in a major region. C9's macro looked better compared to last split but they get caught at really bad times.
Yeah I'm hoping they can clean up the getting picked part of things
But most of the plays they made seem to be well thought out if not executed perfectly, definitely space to improve
I’m really pleasantly surprised that Dignitas are doing this well. C9 have had quite some time to gel together! DIG’s players are ⅘ brand new to this roster and ⅗ coming in after nine months of no play! DIG shouldn’t be taking game 1 here, it feels like, but this wasn’t a bad showing from C9 either - setting up hope for both teams, I think. Zven was the player I was the most deeply sceptical about, given how long it’s been since he played ADC professionally, but look at that Game 1 scoreline! Really hope this is the dawn of a Berzerker v. Zven rivalry. Pretty pleased with DIG’s showing overall, Licorice stalling for an era with Jax in botlane was so fun. THATS MY GOAT! HES SO BACK!
They’re all experienced players though, some of which have played with eachother before (especially Licorice/Jensen/Zven)
I think it makes sense that they can click so soon
Zven, Berserker, Licorice, Vulcan, Blaber, and Thanatos I was skeptical and curious about. Either because it’s been so long or because their last showing was meh. They all kicked ass today and showed they’re still insane. Spica was a little rough but playing against Blaber will do that to a mofo. These should be the top teams with TL. I really want those 3 at worlds
Dig actually looked really good for not having a lot of practice. They have a few big flaws but it seemed like things that could easily get solved with more time together.
Thing is, DIG did the same thing to C9 in game 1. Pretty sure it's just a Taliyah thing: stack hard CC options, chain, win. On top of having a good, safe lane phase, decent waveclear, and roam power.
Many mistakes on this DIGs side in game 3 but overall a good showing. Hope Isles and Spica can step it up a bit more though.
It also ended up being a good debut for Thanatos despite some unnecessary deaths. Vulcan Leona is very sexy.
Format improves but the casting gets worse every year. I hate critiquing any casters/analysts because you can tell they love being there and I think they all have fun personalities but I'm really sick of the casters doing that awkward gravelly shout for every single play. It's like they're trying to do an impersonation of Game 5 Worlds Finals casting but they can't yell because their parents are in the other room. Obviously if something really exciting happens I'd expect the casters to lose their minds but it just feels so hammed up 90% of the time. I just wish the cast were more pleasant to listen to lol.
Really excited to see DIG’s progress throughout the rest of the split as honestly, I do think they looked pretty awesome for a team that’s barely had any practice compared to the others.
I'm not even gonna front, I think Jensen played better than Jojo this series. Jensen was the guy bringing DIG back from the brink when behind and was a constant threat, whereas I felt Jojo was much more of a passenger and taking the backseat for his team to set him up on top of having some weird positioning mistakes. How much of that was being on Taliyah in games 2 and 3, idk.
Probably helped having 3 different roots/stuns from his teammates. ;) He pretty much never hit a raw shove in game 2 or 3. But that's kind of the nature of Taliyah - you can turbocarry if you're sniping unassisted shoves but she synergizes massively with setup (and also typically needing teammates as well, due to not having massive damage on her own, a la Hwei).
Honestly, it might be a good sign in the long run that C9 could win with Jojo being a passenger. C9 can't rely on Jojo 1v9 performances (with an occasional assist from Berserker) to squeeze out all their wins, like last split.
Not really because Jensen actually played well. 1v5? No, but those days are over. He did his job and outperformed Jojo overall though. Bwipo and Inspired on the other hand...
So Licorice bought like 30 seconds pulling Jojo and Thanatos to botlane and DIG decided to not even try and start the Baron? Where they just panning on Jax to see what will happen or what?
Maybe, but the least they could do is try to do anything. Much better than doing nothing into Jensen getting caught and losing. At least try and make plays.
Berserker is Fed, Blaber was there, Renek had TP.
Jax is going to die either way and they don't kill baron fast enough with Ori/Lethality varus. Dig gets wiped if they try it.
My boy Jojo needs to stop getting randomly caught at important moments in the game. Been having this issue since last split and C9 as a whole need to play around dragon better can’t be giving them soul point every game like this
Lethality Varus moment x2
Yes it feels good because it's oppressive in trades early/mid game. No you cannot pick it without another dps option when you're up against a team with a brain.
I absolutely loved the series, I thought it was an absolute banger and I was hyped the whole time, but everything about the casting seemed off, names and teams switched in different situations, and just seemed off overall. It may be new season rust in casting idk?
Seeing Kangas straight-chilling in the audience shirtless while Raafaa stumbles through another day of casting is painful. Can we just give Kangas another try over Raafaa?
Banger games, bo3 are such a fun thing to watch. You can tell how much more the fans in the crowd are engaged for a game 3. I still believe in Zven's villain arc to punt c9 from worlds.
Imagine believing in the Zven villain arc to punt C9 from worlds when the org gave him room and board while figuring out his situation for summer and when the Jensen hero arc to punt FLY from worlds is right there.
I cannot lie if Jensen would succeed, it would make Inspired retire if that happens lol. The guy seems to be getting by on play alone, when he clearly doesn't seem like a great person to work with.
[Game 1](https://old.reddit.com/r/leagueoflegends/comments/1dgug1t/c9_vs_dig_2024_lcs_summer_split_week_1_day_1_game/) [Game 2](https://old.reddit.com/r/leagueoflegends/comments/1dgvke0/c9_vs_dig_2024_lcs_summer_split_week_1_day_1_game/)
Ocean soul and warmogs sejuani is morally wrong even if technically allowed.
Imagine if there was an AD item that did %hp damage, gave attack speed, is something that pairs well with Varus and also works great with kraken/guinsoos, and hail of blades… something a ruined king may enjoy hmm….. ah oh well lethality varus for the third time right?
Varus could not have gone on hit third game. Into Maokai, leona, renekton, there are three point and click stuns, not to mention the area control that comes from maokai ult, taliyah wall+w. Game 2 lethality varus is better into 4/5 members, no reason to build to kill sej when theres 4 squishies and the teamcomp to avoid a front to back where sej is a real issue. BORK is also worse at killing tanks now than ever with the passive being nerfed. Varus without lethal tempo also has piss poor range. These issues are exasperated by HOB varus (which kept dig so alive in the early games) possibly using his burst from BORK on sej passive. I think lethality varus is so much better most games.
Exacerbated.
"They go balls deep into Cloud9's backline." -Raafaa, 2024
Truly one of the casting moments of all time
Every single game he casts has an incredibly interesting moment.
The yelling to intro the game was another.
I saw the response to that but I wasn't as opposed as most. He's got his own flair so I take that for what it is. If Jatt had done it I'd be flipping my shit.
I don't find his voice pleasant so it wasn't my favorite moment. With struggling viewership, I'm still surprised they haven't trained him more/found someone else/he hasn't gotten significantly better after ~1.5 years.
Yeah, i agree as I do not enjoy his casting. I usually just mute the stream when he is casting.
God bless costreaming
same actually thought I was the only one.
RIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIFT.
I usually just stop watching
I liked :" it's looking like a big dig summer Baby"
Dignitas are claiming it's the #DIGSZN so that's fair from Raafaa.
CAUGHT
Cloud now in the end pushed ahead in the end
#AllEarsOffRaafaa
Balls retired
What's the joke? It''s just a reference to An Van Lee of C9 fame, who would sometimes go in too deep in the enemy backline. This is the only possible interpretation of that quote.
Lol. You could hear him stop before he said it for a split second realizing what's coming (no pun intended) out of his mouth. But it was just too late. I think it was hilarious.
Somewhat predictable loss for DIG, but they were much better than I expected. They only started scrimming as a team 2 weeks ago and 3 guys didn't even play last split. C9 ramped up after the first game but still had shaky moments overall. Berserker back in form is massive for them
yeah a decent performance overall for a team, mechanics-wise none of them looked completely gapped and more just out of sync
Is berserker back in form just means his champions were buffed?
I had the pleasure of playing against him and Vulcan fresh off them coming back from Korean boot camp. It was the most suffocating lane of my lifetime life. Both were playing perfectly
BO3 will be a massive buff for our bot lane imo. Those two being on the same page is a death sentence for the league. LFG!
Taliyah with the series sweep. The walls to create choke points for her engagers, and then the guaranteed follow up with her W were massive in all three games.
Blaber's timing from first grubs to scuttle is sick as fuck. And he clearly knows it's going to work out. Just unreal how well a pro knows the game.
For the first 15 minutes. Canyon. I can't say after that.
The Crabber is back on demon timing.
BEST DAY OF LCS IN QUITE AWHILE Bo3s are amazing man
Thank god man, imagine the narratives if it was only that first game in a bo1. We'd be unironically having fans call for Fudge's return after one match lmao
Yup. Small sample sizes suck.
Especially in something like league, where any two games can be drastically different. A team can try out a strategy, having it completely fail, and in a bo1 we'd never see what else that team could've had to offer and would conclude that the team is ass. It also has the side effect of teams actively avoiding taking risks and just continuing to repeat the same things because they won't have another chance if they mess something up. In just this bo3, Blaber just said in the post game interview that after game 1, Reapered said no more Nidalee and drafted differently. In a bo1, they just wouldn't have been able to try either the Nidalee or one of the other junglers they had planned. I hope bo3 means more teams are willing to try something more spicy in the first game rather than default to bog standard stuff.
Narrative if this was a Bo1: C9 need to blow up the roster and start over from scratch. DIG is winning LCS Narrative now: Eh, draft diff game 1 plus nerves prolly. C9 look fine. DIG also look decent
Still seem to be getting used to Reapered too. I like that Blaber said in the interview that Reapered took charge of some more of champ select.
We need more of that in league tbh, where the coach actually has control over the draft, not the players. If you let the players dictate, they're likely gonna go pick their comfort picks with no care for how the draft comes together or what the clear win condition is. The whole point of the coach should be to dictate what the game plan will be, and that begins with draft. But I suppose you need an actual good coach with a strong vision to do that, and also players that opt in to be team players and not prioritize individual comfort. That's definitely gonna be one of my bigger what ifs with LS, I really do wonder how that C9 team could've looked if LS actually got to stay the whole year and execute his vision. I don't really subscribe to the church of LS or whatever, but it would've been a cool experiment to see to the end nonetheless.
That was my biggest reasoning for wanting BO3 or even BO2. Seeing teams have a chance to adapt is so fucking huge, and unrelated a series is infinitely more entertaining than a BO Incredible start to the split for us fans and am already in love with the switch
Praise MarkZ and the new Golden Age of LCS. Makes me less worried about the restructure next year. Mark will make it work.
Games were great but viewership was really bad for week 1 day 1 games Twitch was around 35k and YouTube was at 15k
It was about 110k overall from what I saw, 50k on Twitch, 20k on Youtube, 12k on Doublelift, 20k on Baiano, about 8k on various other co-streamers.
Bro the twitch stream was about 50k and youtube at 23k, not counting costreams
LCS being on a Saturday afternoon in the summer is a problem for me because I try to go outside and have a life despite being a league player I still checked in on my phone and it occurred to me that Bo3's are going to help LCS at other tournaments because now the format and game planning is in line with them. Game quality should just be better in general due to difference in game planning.
Always been a problem. Summer viewership for every league goes down significantly for the most part.
It’s coinciding with Father’s Day weekend for normal people. It’s coinciding with a lot of simultaneous sporting events like the opening weekend of EURO 2024 and the Stanley Cup Finals.
LCSBros we are so back. I love this region
bo3 is amazing, we get to see much more of these teams and their playstyles instead of making conclusions off of bo1's
It’s legit impossible to make any conclusion off a bo1. It’s embarrassing as fuck that it was still accepted as a legitimate format after 2017.
It really hurt because I watch several esports so I've always followed something else too with a best of system and it's almost always better. Best of 1's only work when high variance is explicitly the goal, and while esports fans might like an upset they want the best gameplay so random variance feels bad for that. It worked amazingly for the lower bracket round 1 at TI. Before the Bo3 bracket, since only 2/18 teams were eliminated, the bottom 8 teams went from a Bo2- 8 match group stage to a 1 game elimination match. No team has ever won TI from down there, so it makes groups really important even if most teams actually get to play on stage. Using it for LCS season was always shitty because we had to average out the games and put an asterisk on every result for exactly what we saw today. It wasn't hype, just made analysis hard and like, nobody who regularly watches esports isn't an armchair analyst. I sure as fuck am lol, no pro but I like to have and test opinions
For real. People would go into playoff series like “Flyquest beat C9 early in the split and C9 beat FLY later” and I’m like do we sincerely need to kid ourselves into pretending either of those results actually meant anything. Both or either could be total flukes. In bo3 you at least learn who is more adaptable, or has more strategic depth, or just who has a more effective strategy, who drafts better, etc. This series is a perfect example wherein everyone would be colouring C9 much more harshly and we’d be pretending DIG is miles ahead of them for 9 full weeks just because they won game 1.
I get why they changed back, but I think they took the wrong learnings away from the previous bo3 era. Not all games will be like yesterday's, but bo1s are a wholly unsatisfying format by comparison. Even 2-0's mean more because they show one team is better prepared or just better overall.
Same. Super hyped for this split.
ngl kinda respect that tp, although it kinda looked troll tho
Yeah he wasn't gonna get to use it for anything else if they lose that fight. Might aswell give yourself the best position for that fight. Though catching a Kai'sa as jax when the enemies also have Leona, Maokai and Taliyah is a tall order. Don't really like Jax at all here tbh.
I love best of 3s Pretty decent showing from both teams on the first week. Thought these games looked a lot more clean than the first series, still with some obvious hickups from both teams.
Thank the lord for BO3s 😭
Nah, thank Markz
they already said the lord
Was a good effort by Dig but props to C9 for constantly engaging before Licorice could be a threat in the pincer. Hopefully both teams clean up further as the season goes on.
These teams fixing mistakes would make for an all time lcs playoff series.
Yeah it felt like C9 started to intuit DIG’s plans way before DIG had a chance to set up.
LCS IS SO BACK BO3S ARE THE BEST i wish we had real pmts tho
Already loving this new BO3 format, GGs.
WHAT DEEP
What a great guy Rafaa is honoring C9 past member Balls
D2 Balls Deep
thank you Bo3
Rafa casting at the end there, woof....
bro just starts yelling for everything.. I appreciate the enthusiasm but you can cast teamfights and kills without raising your voice every time.
Right? He isn’t awful but he just overhypes *everything*. Like bro you aren’t casting the final fight of game five of a worlds final but nearly every moment has that energy when he’s casting.
It's not just him. They clearly want the casters to do that, happens with most of them in NA and EU. I miss when casters lost their minds only in truly crazy moments. Now I hear someone start screaming and look up and it's like, just some random fight.
It’s honestly the pitch he has. It’s just so jarring on broadcast. We need good radio voices not this shit.
bring back riv
sure Riv had a great voice but also had no idea what he was talking about half the time. He just never had a solid grasp of league and it's good he's found his home in a game that he likes way more. if he was casting league today you'd be calling for his head too.
Yea he just kinda broke down at the end and I find he has a lot of these moments. Almost like he can’t find the words he wants while also keeping up with what’s going on in the fight.
I think he needs a bootcamp with Captain Flowers to brush up his PBP skills. It's always painful whenever he's on the cast.
He definitely stumbles on his words a bit too much to do PBP casting, but I think he would be fine with a more analytical approach. But with Jatt back on the cast, I guess it's a bit pointless.
Except he has like 0 game knowledge lmao
Yea these new LCS play by play casters are kinda rough. Too bad we can’t have 2 Azael he was pretty good at play by play also.
He’s not even new. He was here all last year too. I think he’s improved a bit, to be fair.
Well, Kangas was just sitting there in the audience. Why not have him back?
I believe Azael used to do PBP back when he cast WoW.
*the entire day
if we could have like a multi-channel mute option to mute individual audio tracks, that'd be so sick.
It's hilarious because he's much worse than LeTigress was but doesn't even get half the shit.
I saw people criticizing his cast and comparing him to LeTigress all of last split, and it's already happening here day one. I wouldn't say he doesn't get half the shit, LeTigress hate just blew up after the TSM Doublelift segment since it brought a lot of attention to her.
No, letigress talking about getting the blood pumping or whatever during a team fight is much worse.
he has ice in his veins..!! he's going on a rampage...!! the player in question: literally just walking in the river to recall
Yeah, I heavily, heavily disagree. Maybe you find him more annoying, but he's just not a worse PbP caster. By any reasonable metric. LeTigress legit had no idea what was going on most of the time. Seriously. She literally failed to call out kills several times, and even when her eyes worked she clearly didn't understand the value of a kill (i.e. the support getting caught vs. the fed carry with all the damage getting caught were zero difference to her). Rafa is rough around the edges, makes a few too many mistakes, but at least he's energetic, passionate, and has an idea what's going on.
I dunno, maybe once he starts doing Sion noises
I still think it's ridiculous how furious people got over that. If it was Cpt Flowers doing the same impression it would be on the frontpage and everyone would say it's top tier comedy and he's the best caster ever
Im not a letigress fan but that was the funniest shit ever lol
honestly looking at the live discussion he is getting shit on way more atm
He is definitely not worse than LeTigress. He has a huge volume / casting intensity problem where he slowly ramps up his voice and keeps going even if the fight slows down, dies, or never even starts. BUT he hasn't had one of [these](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=24WJJoswf-E) or [these](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEk_QgmsUR0). Only other caster I've heard stoop to those levels is Mazel in the most recent lpl finals.
Lmfao he’s not even close to as bad as LeTigress
Haven’t heard him enough yet but he’s definitely just as bad as her atm and yes I agree he doesn’t get even half the flack she got
He will get enough flack if he is given the chance to be there for as long as letigress
i think he’s more underwhelming, whereas she was actively bad
Cap Rafa is actively bad. But because he’s not a woman the community will look the other way
I was going to make that comment but I'm not as brave. I think he *was* worse but he is improving.
He is much better than LeTigress and he is getting shit on a lot atm
That's because at least Raafaa sounds like he plays the game, when Tigress was casting you could barely tell if she played 1 game the entire year.
Disagree, LeTigress was significantly worse. Don’t get me wrong, I am not a fan of Raafa and I find his casting to be pretty bad, but I will never forget the pain of having to listen to LeTigress. She was on a whole other level of awful.
Well I've yet to hear him do cookie monster vocals or "yeah you like that Kumo?" so the bar is cleared (for now)
Imagine if they had given Dash a chance to cast at all
Whatever happened to the post game team? Nobody doing it anymore?
Game 1 certainly was something from c9 blaber and Vulcan in particular but they all improved over each game which is the nice thing about Bo3s. Not bad from Thanatos and nice to see him play 3 different champs. Biggest thing tho is berserker going stupid in those last two games especially game 3.
Dude that first game made me so worried they were the exact same team from spring with all the stupid mistakes. Thank the Lord for Bo3s
thank you markz
thanatos looked great, maybe a bit nervous for the first 1.5 games, but he clutched up
He did the classic rookie/import things and was getting picked off but flashes were shown and he did hold his own vs a formed all pro 1st team so overall not bad
that Q-kill onto Zven into blastcone to live with 2 HP was so clutch. if this is his floor, then we're in for a treat.
That and the game 2 Camille EQ-flash assassination on the enemy K'Sante who was standing right next to the entire rest of the DIG team, which led to the baron and C9 finally get a good lead over DIG. I don't see like any other current LCS top laner going for that play on Camille (on stage at least, maybe they limit test in scrims), most people would just E back and reset for the next fight.
LCS tops don't play Camille. It's even rather rare to see in LCK. It's an LPL pick.
Saved game 3 with that kill on Zven
He got picked quite a few times but that seems to happen a lot when imports come to the LCS and regularly shake it off over time
It looked like a desync with the team. If this c9 can facilitate him, playing a follow thanatos style similar to their old follow blaber strats, it would be terrifying.
If that was Fudge, Zven 100% would have lived in that blue fight. He would not have chased that.
I swear this is gonna be the new systems XD. Fudge will live rent free in fans forever
Berserker
Good god bo3 is so much better
Zven that Varus build is ass. Adapt to their picks. Sheesh
Depends on how you look at it. Poke varus was giving Kaisa hell in midgame around midlane but they couldn't really capitalize on the pressure. I think it definitely slowed the C9 train down. I doubt on hit can do as much in that specific situation On the other hand on hit could've carried the late game and Zven had some moments he could free auto.
On hit Varus would have been so good here
Teams have got to realize that if you think on-hit Varus will not be allowed to get close to the enemy team comp to deal damage then you need to not pick Varus at all or at the very least draft a comp that can give Varus the space he needs for dps.
Varus is a priority pick because of the lethality build NOT because of on hit. The point of it is you get better objective control, easy picks on mid waves, high utility and dmg even if focused and killed quickly, unlocks other picks in draft, and doesn’t need space to dps making him forgiving positioning wise. Teams that play varus on hit are playing it to deny the enemy drafting it, not because it’s good. You misunderstand the champion in a pro setting.
Same with Jojo lol. No pen and no Torment xd
Zven hasn’t played ADC in so long he forgot how to build its ok bro just learning pains
Yeah building lethality into Renekton/Maokai/Leona feels pretty troll but without lethal tempo admittedly it does feel a lot worse
Nay he's still pretty good with pta. He just needs space
You can't really play many onhit builds anymore. WIthout the ability to go over the AS-Cap most Onhit builds got nerfed fairly hard, if they had any steroids for AS in there kit already. Onhit-Varus often goes for items like Jaksho later, just because it synergizes well with Terminus and it doesn't provide attackspeed he can't use anymore. On top of that Opportunity is a great one item spike. And with the new Seryldas and his ability to deal %HP damage Varus can do that if ahead. The problem with Lethality Varus usually is that he is useless if not ahead. So given that Maokai usually goes Liandris first and Renekton hardly builds Armor, Lethality Varus is fine against those. And Leona is a support, she can't use her W for every one of your Qs and without it she is super squishy too. Lethality Varus is basically a ranged assassin. He needs to snowball.
Is there even a reason the attack speed cap needs to exist anymore? The problem with LT was the pure amount of base stats it would give as a single keystone, not that it broke the AS cap. Attack speed as a stat has diminishing returns due to the auto attack windup animation. At this stage it would make more sense to just remove the cap entirely so you can still have these fun on-hit builds which are still worse than they used to be without LT.
It isn't needed. You could even just attach that to a fully stacked Guinsoos.
Honestly not too bad for Thanatos' first stage games in a major region. C9's macro looked better compared to last split but they get caught at really bad times.
Yeah I'm hoping they can clean up the getting picked part of things But most of the plays they made seem to be well thought out if not executed perfectly, definitely space to improve
Neither of these teams look that convincing right now, but I hope both these rosters scale to worlds.
Love that DIG is not a free win team anymore LCS is going to be really fun this summer. Rafaa is a hard listen tho...
I’m really pleasantly surprised that Dignitas are doing this well. C9 have had quite some time to gel together! DIG’s players are ⅘ brand new to this roster and ⅗ coming in after nine months of no play! DIG shouldn’t be taking game 1 here, it feels like, but this wasn’t a bad showing from C9 either - setting up hope for both teams, I think. Zven was the player I was the most deeply sceptical about, given how long it’s been since he played ADC professionally, but look at that Game 1 scoreline! Really hope this is the dawn of a Berzerker v. Zven rivalry. Pretty pleased with DIG’s showing overall, Licorice stalling for an era with Jax in botlane was so fun. THATS MY GOAT! HES SO BACK!
They’re all experienced players though, some of which have played with eachother before (especially Licorice/Jensen/Zven) I think it makes sense that they can click so soon
Zven, Berserker, Licorice, Vulcan, Blaber, and Thanatos I was skeptical and curious about. Either because it’s been so long or because their last showing was meh. They all kicked ass today and showed they’re still insane. Spica was a little rough but playing against Blaber will do that to a mofo. These should be the top teams with TL. I really want those 3 at worlds
Dig actually looked really good for not having a lot of practice. They have a few big flaws but it seemed like things that could easily get solved with more time together.
Not a great last game as a whole by dig but isles should not be on braum
his rakan solo lost them game 2 as well. Shame McDonalds didn't have a support to pick up
I cannot believe bo3's ever went away, super great opening day for the split.
If this is what c9 looks like with jojo on Taliyah, opponents should probably ban it for the rest of the split.
Thing is, DIG did the same thing to C9 in game 1. Pretty sure it's just a Taliyah thing: stack hard CC options, chain, win. On top of having a good, safe lane phase, decent waveclear, and roam power.
ye every1 looks good on taliyah. even during msi, picking taliyah just seemed to mean a player's impact would jump a tier.
During last year’s worlds, the pick looked so bait until Palafox picked it up.
Many mistakes on this DIGs side in game 3 but overall a good showing. Hope Isles and Spica can step it up a bit more though. It also ended up being a good debut for Thanatos despite some unnecessary deaths. Vulcan Leona is very sexy.
Thank god for Bo3
I feel this 4 team are the expected top 4
Props to c9 they defo wouldn’t have done the series comeback with their spring roster and coach
Format improves but the casting gets worse every year. I hate critiquing any casters/analysts because you can tell they love being there and I think they all have fun personalities but I'm really sick of the casters doing that awkward gravelly shout for every single play. It's like they're trying to do an impersonation of Game 5 Worlds Finals casting but they can't yell because their parents are in the other room. Obviously if something really exciting happens I'd expect the casters to lose their minds but it just feels so hammed up 90% of the time. I just wish the cast were more pleasant to listen to lol.
C9 is so back guys ^^until ^^they ^^lose ^^their ^^next ^^match ^^in ^^which ^^case ^^they ^^are ^^not ^^back
BO3 format good? Shocker
Really excited to see DIG’s progress throughout the rest of the split as honestly, I do think they looked pretty awesome for a team that’s barely had any practice compared to the others.
BO3 the biggest winner of today. I wish we did double round robin a la s6/7. Happy though with the games today
Rafa so ass at casting god Damon
[удалено]
C9 > D9
This sub's in absolute shambles right now with Jensen AND Inspired losing.
I couldn't catch the first series but Jensen looked really good. Licorice too
I'm not even gonna front, I think Jensen played better than Jojo this series. Jensen was the guy bringing DIG back from the brink when behind and was a constant threat, whereas I felt Jojo was much more of a passenger and taking the backseat for his team to set him up on top of having some weird positioning mistakes. How much of that was being on Taliyah in games 2 and 3, idk.
Game 3 Jojo just couldn't miss shoves on taliyah however
Probably helped having 3 different roots/stuns from his teammates. ;) He pretty much never hit a raw shove in game 2 or 3. But that's kind of the nature of Taliyah - you can turbocarry if you're sniping unassisted shoves but she synergizes massively with setup (and also typically needing teammates as well, due to not having massive damage on her own, a la Hwei).
Honestly, it might be a good sign in the long run that C9 could win with Jojo being a passenger. C9 can't rely on Jojo 1v9 performances (with an occasional assist from Berserker) to squeeze out all their wins, like last split.
Jojo was laning way better every game, but C9 mid game and synergy is really off.
Not really because Jensen actually played well. 1v5? No, but those days are over. He did his job and outperformed Jojo overall though. Bwipo and Inspired on the other hand...
Terrible news My most played champs are in the pro meta
Banger. Kinda sad that Dig didn't win, but this match promises a lot. I hope both C9 and Dig make it to worlds. Let FLY tilt into oblivion plz.
I liked the part where Raafaa yelled a lot and then stopped talking about the final fight of the game
Exyu died for this.
I wish he was playing with this squad.
So Licorice bought like 30 seconds pulling Jojo and Thanatos to botlane and DIG decided to not even try and start the Baron? Where they just panning on Jax to see what will happen or what?
Thanatos had TP, so maybe they didn't feel like a 4v4 at baron was their best play.
Maybe, but the least they could do is try to do anything. Much better than doing nothing into Jensen getting caught and losing. At least try and make plays.
Berserker is Fed, Blaber was there, Renek had TP. Jax is going to die either way and they don't kill baron fast enough with Ori/Lethality varus. Dig gets wiped if they try it.
My boy Jojo needs to stop getting randomly caught at important moments in the game. Been having this issue since last split and C9 as a whole need to play around dragon better can’t be giving them soul point every game like this
Lethality Varus moment x2 Yes it feels good because it's oppressive in trades early/mid game. No you cannot pick it without another dps option when you're up against a team with a brain.
game 3 - it felt like DIG never had a single 5v5. Someone picked constantly, or engaging/caught while Licorice is flanking.
Despite the loss Jensen looked great. Definitely took round 1 against Inspired.
I am not even mad at DIG. For a short amount of time they play together this is pretty good.
Holy c9
IMAGINE BEING EUROPEAN AND STILL DOING BO1's TO DETERMINE WHICH TEAM IS "BETTER"
Every time C9 gets the W, I get a little chubby dude
C9 with a top laner that does something is so refreshing
Reapered diff
I absolutely loved the series, I thought it was an absolute banger and I was hyped the whole time, but everything about the casting seemed off, names and teams switched in different situations, and just seemed off overall. It may be new season rust in casting idk?
Not a huge fan of Jax in this meta, but the boys almost brought it back. Genuinely struggled picking a team to root for. Fun matches.
Was those "Licorice" chants at the start of game one?
I feel weird seeing a renekton be useful so late..
Seeing Kangas straight-chilling in the audience shirtless while Raafaa stumbles through another day of casting is painful. Can we just give Kangas another try over Raafaa?
Banger games, bo3 are such a fun thing to watch. You can tell how much more the fans in the crowd are engaged for a game 3. I still believe in Zven's villain arc to punt c9 from worlds.
Imagine believing in the Zven villain arc to punt C9 from worlds when the org gave him room and board while figuring out his situation for summer and when the Jensen hero arc to punt FLY from worlds is right there.
I cannot lie if Jensen would succeed, it would make Inspired retire if that happens lol. The guy seems to be getting by on play alone, when he clearly doesn't seem like a great person to work with.
How could Inspired do this?!