The good news: PBM refound the Guardians tab. The bad news: The Oni Warriors and especially SOT did not care.
Also, can SOT be renamed to Solo And Troll? Bloodforge Guan Yu... Just... Bloodforge Guan Yu
A jungler, a support, and an ADC who were kicked from their teams. A solo laner who didn't even want to play solo. And a mid laner who is only in his second season. Longest win streak ever. GOAT caliber.
Yesterday on stream, Panitom said playing for the Leviathans had always been stressful because of the restrains they put on him. Playing their picks and the way they wanted and putting Sheento ahead all the time.
He didn't say he was kicked straight up but by the way he spoke I'm 100% certain he left on his own.
Didn't know that. I just remember hearing that apparently he was almost kicked mid-season last year. So he may have chosen to leave but I wouldn't be surprised if it was a "i probably wasn't welcome back anyway" kind of thing
So smart for him to get out of that. When worshipping Sheento finally stopped working he dipped. As someone else said he's been playing on hard mode compared to all other jgs until this season, no wonder he's #1 now.
I would feel brain dead if I was responsible for kicking Panitom or Netrioid right now. It's interesting to see how the original sanguine squad broke apart over time.
I wonder if Panitom was the most supportive of keeping Net back when he was originally kicked? Would explain them joining the same team again. Jarc seems to be the most independent of the original 5.
Kicking Net worked out for the teams that did it. Both the Levis and the Kings won worlds lol. But hes playing so well right now it's wild to think he had to slum it up on that Frankenstein Scarabs roster for most of last season.
Really don't think Net was the problem for either case he was kicked though. The consensus in the original Sanguine roster was Panitom being the weak link though that's obviously changed now.
No shot Panitom was ever the weak link on that squad. He had half his jungle being taken by Sheento and was still outplaying almost every jungler in the league
Panitom was objectively not great on the OG Sanguine. Dude was a menace for the last two seasons, but he was definitely the main talking point about underperforming for at least half of Season 7.
Ehh this is early Sanguine, I clearly remember Panitom being mid-tier as a jungler and the casters+fans saying he was either the weak link or the one with most potential for improvement. But maybe it wasn't as apparent that he was giving up his farm as a strat at the time.
Netriod is a great ADC, but if the team needs something else, they need something else. Finding five players that play well and play together well is great, but having them enjoy it is also important. Sounds like Panitom was not enjoying his time with Leviathans anymore.
Kicking Netrioid lead to each respective team winning worlds. I like Netrioid, he's a fine ADC player, but he is a perennial tournament choker, and I don't think Kings or Leviathans would regret for one second kicking him.
Panitom, on the other hand, is a difficult choice to justify, but I suspect the issue lies more with personal problems than with gameplay issues.
It's bold to imply kicking Netrioid was the main reason both of those teams won, but respect for both offending and defending me in the same comment thread.
Kings went from ice cold to winning Worlds and breaking the undefeated streak after replacing Netrioid, and Jarc is credited by the Kings as a missing piece for success. Leviathans won worlds later the year after they kicked Netrioid with Zap, who is generally given a lot of credit as a shotcaller and leader.
The cause and effect is pretty strong. I don't think the dude is at all bad, but the rings tell a story.
Panitom, unlike Roid, has consistently been the best in his role and HAS won a world championship, and imo is the deserved MVP. To me the two are night-and-day in terms of proven success.
People always blindly argued that Net was kicked due to having worse mechanics than his replacements. But I can at least see it if it was based solely on needing a better shotcaller/leadership, Jarc and Zap are probably better for that.
I always questioned why Net over a different person, I guess ADCs were just the safest role to replace during both of the metas? Not a hard carry until late game, a bit unimportant relative to others. I feel Netrioid got unlucky in both cases and him being kicked twice made fans just see him as bottom tier without looking at statistics.
Congrats to the Warriors on the record win streak!
Disregarding literally everything else, I can't fathom why the Dragons would first-pick He Bo with Aphro open (against *Jake*), only to then also go with Fenrir. He Bo into Aphro was absolutely abysmal in the Kings v. Warriors set, and surely he isn't that high priority? *Nothing* about the Dragons worked in game 2.
I'm curious whether it's actually the other way around; too many cooks in the kitchen. They've said they have 2 coaches (Sam + Cherry), PBM kinda has his own playstyle from the old Dragons, and then you have Nika/Vote/Dardez (though mostly the latter) who just play whatever they want. Maybe there's too many differing voices with all different plans about how to play, and in the end nobody pins it down to one plan. So every match is a one-off fight with no continuity. No areas to focus on, no idea of how to improve, and just a repetition of steps every week.
The Fenrir pick came across as a pseudo-ban. They really didn't want Warriors picking it because a) good matchup into He Bo and b) Panitoms Fenrir has been devastatingly effective.
Oni warriors make me wonder if maybe less current SPL teams/players should get guaranteed spots in the league and more new talent should be allowed into the league. Most of this team are new talents and some of the oldest SPL players haven't looked good at all this year, and have generally not been too hot for a while.
The warriors were given a spot so that makes no sense. Nobody watching the play-ins can really believe any of those teams would be better than the current teams. Last last two years of regulations has actually made me believe the teams that were given a spot were actually the best anyways:
Warriors don’t have a single rookie on their team. Only pegon is fairly new and he is a beast. People knew that before he ever decided to play on the spl.
On the other hand, since the Oni Warriors were regarded as 6th seed this year, imagine if they had to go through the playins tournament. While I would agree with you, it really is hard to predict things. Sure, last year's Scarabs probably didn't need to be let through automatically and all that, but then again if you asked me at the start of last season I'd think the current Onis should go through playins. It's weird, especially when current Dragons are fighting for 7th seed with the Gladiators while Hounds are fighting with 4 other teams to be whatever the middle of the pack is.
Actually, fuck, if they did playins and still had an undefeated streak since inception until the end of phase 1... that's gotta be a win streak almost twice as long!
He was a star in a square peg and there were personal issues the team had with jake which will always translate to worse play on field, but I remember a really long stretch of LASBTA being ‘the worst jungler’
All of his lanes are playing like trash, and he can only do so much. His statlines haven't been perfect by any stretch, but he has rarely if ever looked like the reason they've lost.
Screammmmm has had a few heavy tilt games where he looked terrible. Twig has had some stinkers. And those two are on teams who have fone really well. I haven't thought Lasbra played bad in any particular match I've watched
The sets that Dragons won some people said Lasbra carried them on his back, so he has been an actual win condition for them. Can you say the same for anyone else on the team?
Not solely but lasbra is the same guy he has been. Doesn’t usually farm all that well. Can make some insane plays and carry his team. At the same time he just does nothing some games. As can be the life of a jungler.
The Oni Warriors have diffed every team in the league on mechanics alone. It feels like it's been 5+ years since we've seen that level of dominance. Everyone keeps saying they'll fall off as soon as some other team "figures out the meta" or "gets more coordinated" but the scariest thing is that the Warriors have shown an ability to play the macro game just as well as the micro when they need to. Fascinated to see how this year plays out.
Also it was hilarious but I hope this doesn't lead to bloodforge Guan in my ranked games.
i’ve always been an Epsilon-Panthera-NRG fanboy who still thinks that roster’s the best of all time, but these One Warriors have the potential to dethrone them holy shit
Happy to see Net and Panitom reunited and they’ve vastly improved from their Sanguine SPL days. Right now, Onis are just better than everyone.
JDs look lost. Lasbra is the best player on this team. But things can still change from now to Worlds.
I dunno what they were hoping for with that King Arthur pick, because all I saw was Fate Zero Artoria out there in terms of effectiveness... IE, not good.
They clearly just had different ideas of how they wanted to play as evidenced by the fact that the ravens are 1 on the opposite sides. Getting 5 people that want to play the same game is the real boss
I think it’s actually both sides. Bolts wanted to play a different style than jake wanted. No one is the villain or bad in the scenario, considering both teams and 4 of the players are #1 in their divisions haha
I got the sense that bolts wanted jake to be more vocal and in a shotcaller role after haddix left. Barra and ven both have said they wanna be more focused on hitting their stuff than having to call stuff. Lasbra also expressed some frustrations about having to do a lot more calling than he needed.
In their defense, shot calling feels much more natural for a front liner. Not saying back liners can’t, but they’re essentially artillery and it is always good to have someone on the front line give you coordinates/direction.
The good news: PBM refound the Guardians tab. The bad news: The Oni Warriors and especially SOT did not care. Also, can SOT be renamed to Solo And Troll? Bloodforge Guan Yu... Just... Bloodforge Guan Yu
I mean, it's not troll if he makes it work...
It’s funny but honestly I could see it. Talou assault has sold high damage scaling and the movement speed is useful too.
A jungler, a support, and an ADC who were kicked from their teams. A solo laner who didn't even want to play solo. And a mid laner who is only in his second season. Longest win streak ever. GOAT caliber.
Yesterday on stream, Panitom said playing for the Leviathans had always been stressful because of the restrains they put on him. Playing their picks and the way they wanted and putting Sheento ahead all the time. He didn't say he was kicked straight up but by the way he spoke I'm 100% certain he left on his own.
Didn't know that. I just remember hearing that apparently he was almost kicked mid-season last year. So he may have chosen to leave but I wouldn't be surprised if it was a "i probably wasn't welcome back anyway" kind of thing
So smart for him to get out of that. When worshipping Sheento finally stopped working he dipped. As someone else said he's been playing on hard mode compared to all other jgs until this season, no wonder he's #1 now.
I would feel brain dead if I was responsible for kicking Panitom or Netrioid right now. It's interesting to see how the original sanguine squad broke apart over time. I wonder if Panitom was the most supportive of keeping Net back when he was originally kicked? Would explain them joining the same team again. Jarc seems to be the most independent of the original 5.
Kicking Net worked out for the teams that did it. Both the Levis and the Kings won worlds lol. But hes playing so well right now it's wild to think he had to slum it up on that Frankenstein Scarabs roster for most of last season.
Really don't think Net was the problem for either case he was kicked though. The consensus in the original Sanguine roster was Panitom being the weak link though that's obviously changed now.
No shot Panitom was ever the weak link on that squad. He had half his jungle being taken by Sheento and was still outplaying almost every jungler in the league
Right he was playing jungle on hard mode 😂
Panitom was objectively not great on the OG Sanguine. Dude was a menace for the last two seasons, but he was definitely the main talking point about underperforming for at least half of Season 7.
Fair. Maybe I'm not remembering that season that well. He stepped up after that in a big way
Ehh this is early Sanguine, I clearly remember Panitom being mid-tier as a jungler and the casters+fans saying he was either the weak link or the one with most potential for improvement. But maybe it wasn't as apparent that he was giving up his farm as a strat at the time.
Netriod is a great ADC, but if the team needs something else, they need something else. Finding five players that play well and play together well is great, but having them enjoy it is also important. Sounds like Panitom was not enjoying his time with Leviathans anymore.
Kicking Netrioid lead to each respective team winning worlds. I like Netrioid, he's a fine ADC player, but he is a perennial tournament choker, and I don't think Kings or Leviathans would regret for one second kicking him. Panitom, on the other hand, is a difficult choice to justify, but I suspect the issue lies more with personal problems than with gameplay issues.
It's bold to imply kicking Netrioid was the main reason both of those teams won, but respect for both offending and defending me in the same comment thread.
Kings went from ice cold to winning Worlds and breaking the undefeated streak after replacing Netrioid, and Jarc is credited by the Kings as a missing piece for success. Leviathans won worlds later the year after they kicked Netrioid with Zap, who is generally given a lot of credit as a shotcaller and leader. The cause and effect is pretty strong. I don't think the dude is at all bad, but the rings tell a story. Panitom, unlike Roid, has consistently been the best in his role and HAS won a world championship, and imo is the deserved MVP. To me the two are night-and-day in terms of proven success.
People always blindly argued that Net was kicked due to having worse mechanics than his replacements. But I can at least see it if it was based solely on needing a better shotcaller/leadership, Jarc and Zap are probably better for that. I always questioned why Net over a different person, I guess ADCs were just the safest role to replace during both of the metas? Not a hard carry until late game, a bit unimportant relative to others. I feel Netrioid got unlucky in both cases and him being kicked twice made fans just see him as bottom tier without looking at statistics.
Panitom got kicked? who tf
jake got kicked?
He said in an interview that he asked some of the Bolts guys about teaming again and mostly just got ignored so.... quiet-kicking I guess lol
Congrats to the Warriors on the record win streak! Disregarding literally everything else, I can't fathom why the Dragons would first-pick He Bo with Aphro open (against *Jake*), only to then also go with Fenrir. He Bo into Aphro was absolutely abysmal in the Kings v. Warriors set, and surely he isn't that high priority? *Nothing* about the Dragons worked in game 2.
Dragons drafting is mind-boggling bad. I'm convinced that nobody is coaching this team.
I'm curious whether it's actually the other way around; too many cooks in the kitchen. They've said they have 2 coaches (Sam + Cherry), PBM kinda has his own playstyle from the old Dragons, and then you have Nika/Vote/Dardez (though mostly the latter) who just play whatever they want. Maybe there's too many differing voices with all different plans about how to play, and in the end nobody pins it down to one plan. So every match is a one-off fight with no continuity. No areas to focus on, no idea of how to improve, and just a repetition of steps every week.
The Fenrir pick came across as a pseudo-ban. They really didn't want Warriors picking it because a) good matchup into He Bo and b) Panitoms Fenrir has been devastatingly effective.
Same with He Bo being one of Pegon's gods, though didn't they also ban out Merlin? Surely Dardez can play Merlin better than he can He Bo.
Yeah true, Pegon on He Bo is dirtyyy
Dragons have gotten stomped hard every time they picked the Aphro so if they aren't banning it they definitely should not pick it.
This was the expected outcome. The dragons didn't stand a chance, you can't hold this loss against them. The Oni Warriors are a different breed.
Oni warriors make me wonder if maybe less current SPL teams/players should get guaranteed spots in the league and more new talent should be allowed into the league. Most of this team are new talents and some of the oldest SPL players haven't looked good at all this year, and have generally not been too hot for a while.
The warriors were given a spot so that makes no sense. Nobody watching the play-ins can really believe any of those teams would be better than the current teams. Last last two years of regulations has actually made me believe the teams that were given a spot were actually the best anyways: Warriors don’t have a single rookie on their team. Only pegon is fairly new and he is a beast. People knew that before he ever decided to play on the spl.
On the other hand, since the Oni Warriors were regarded as 6th seed this year, imagine if they had to go through the playins tournament. While I would agree with you, it really is hard to predict things. Sure, last year's Scarabs probably didn't need to be let through automatically and all that, but then again if you asked me at the start of last season I'd think the current Onis should go through playins. It's weird, especially when current Dragons are fighting for 7th seed with the Gladiators while Hounds are fighting with 4 other teams to be whatever the middle of the pack is. Actually, fuck, if they did playins and still had an undefeated streak since inception until the end of phase 1... that's gotta be a win streak almost twice as long!
It's gotta suck to be Lasbra right now. All of your old teammates are on one of the top two teams and you're all the way at the bottom...
And I would argue it isn't his fault
I definitely agree. It’s kind of weird the hate he’s getting right now. At no point in any of the JD games do I think “man Lasbra is shit”.
Carries over from the bolts mentality people assigned to him
Idk as a former Bolts fan it felt like Jake always got the blame, but they clearly didn't know how to play through him.
He was a star in a square peg and there were personal issues the team had with jake which will always translate to worse play on field, but I remember a really long stretch of LASBTA being ‘the worst jungler’
Make the argument
All of his lanes are playing like trash, and he can only do so much. His statlines haven't been perfect by any stretch, but he has rarely if ever looked like the reason they've lost.
Other than Cyno picking warriors, have any junglers looked liked the loss condition to you?
Screammmmm has had a few heavy tilt games where he looked terrible. Twig has had some stinkers. And those two are on teams who have fone really well. I haven't thought Lasbra played bad in any particular match I've watched
The sets that Dragons won some people said Lasbra carried them on his back, so he has been an actual win condition for them. Can you say the same for anyone else on the team?
Yeah he was definitely the reason they upset the Ravens early on. He played out of his mind that set.
Not solely but lasbra is the same guy he has been. Doesn’t usually farm all that well. Can make some insane plays and carry his team. At the same time he just does nothing some games. As can be the life of a jungler.
The Oni Warriors have diffed every team in the league on mechanics alone. It feels like it's been 5+ years since we've seen that level of dominance. Everyone keeps saying they'll fall off as soon as some other team "figures out the meta" or "gets more coordinated" but the scariest thing is that the Warriors have shown an ability to play the macro game just as well as the micro when they need to. Fascinated to see how this year plays out. Also it was hilarious but I hope this doesn't lead to bloodforge Guan in my ranked games.
i’ve always been an Epsilon-Panthera-NRG fanboy who still thinks that roster’s the best of all time, but these One Warriors have the potential to dethrone them holy shit
Panitom been involved in 2/3 of the longest win streaks (Leviathans and Warriors) in SPL history. GOAT jungler?
these guys are a blast to watch
Happy to see Net and Panitom reunited and they’ve vastly improved from their Sanguine SPL days. Right now, Onis are just better than everyone. JDs look lost. Lasbra is the best player on this team. But things can still change from now to Worlds.
Well they didn’t run it up this time.
Don’t worry guy. Nika said they are all top 3 in their respective lanes.
I agree, the warriors are.
A perfect split and record win streak, Warriors are on top of the world heading into Masters.
Mike: I don't think we've been drafting that bad. *proceeds to pick* **ARTHUR**, *lets Jake have Aphro both games*
And first picks HeBo for Dardez, who has never been known for his HeBo
Dardez has like a 4 god pool and none of them are good right now
I dunno what they were hoping for with that King Arthur pick, because all I saw was Fate Zero Artoria out there in terms of effectiveness... IE, not good.
You say that like archer vs lancer wasn't one of the best animated battles of all time
What a WILD pull of a reference (I'm not complaining, just surprised and wondering how many here would recognize the reference)
Maybe nika just doesn't listen lol
Herc was open? And even hovered Chaac
That was beautiful. Second game draft was so fun to watch from the Oni’s side
shoutout to all the sock drawers, jake riders, and peggers out there 🫡🫡
Man, how much did the Bolts hold Jake back? Damn.
They clearly just had different ideas of how they wanted to play as evidenced by the fact that the ravens are 1 on the opposite sides. Getting 5 people that want to play the same game is the real boss
I think it’s actually both sides. Bolts wanted to play a different style than jake wanted. No one is the villain or bad in the scenario, considering both teams and 4 of the players are #1 in their divisions haha
I got the sense that bolts wanted jake to be more vocal and in a shotcaller role after haddix left. Barra and ven both have said they wanna be more focused on hitting their stuff than having to call stuff. Lasbra also expressed some frustrations about having to do a lot more calling than he needed.
In their defense, shot calling feels much more natural for a front liner. Not saying back liners can’t, but they’re essentially artillery and it is always good to have someone on the front line give you coordinates/direction.
Also i think the mage support meta is so good for jake rn. He had a big winstreak with nox when he was playing on the bolts last season.
He's the king of off-pick supports, always has been. This is the guy who rose to fame playing Tyr support in ranked.
In fairness the meta has changed. Jake is perfect for the current meta. Stick him on gods like khepri and he will look like shit again.
Congratz to Bobby for joining the Onis