Having your staff go on strike to prevent a NEOM merger isn’t the Riot triumph you’re describing it as. It’s like calling Amazon respectable for caving to workers demands for better wages.

The LEC casters/staff are the ones who stopped Riot. Not Riot themselves.

I was just watching that series again

Why would you subject yourself to that torture again by choice?

Hope you’re doing well, mate.

Appreciate the post as always.

Yeah he was dominant but not meta defining to the same extent?

For example, Kalista, Azir, and Reksai all had reworks because they were too strong in pro play. Braum’s strong but never needed to be reworked because he was too good (unless you count those ult changes that made the knockup based on distance).

I guess Gnar’s in the same boat? He’s permanently balanced around pro play because he’s so game warping in the right hands, but he’s never needed a full scale rework like those other 3.

2014 was the year of proplay huh?

Every single champ released was pro-meta defining for years (barring maybe Braum) and most are still picked to this day.

Is it coming back for LEC too, or just LCS?

It’s not a matter of reheated vs fresh pizza; cold pizza has a different appeal because its cold, like the difference between tomato soup and Gazpacho.

It’s not for every pizza (never try anchovy pizza cold, it is awful even if you like anchovy pizza warm), but with a nice mushroom/black olive or pepperoni pizza, it can even taste better cold rather than hot.

Summon Aery is a bit of a throwback to early Kayn lane tech (Happened 1-2 patches post release) where he used Deathfire Touch and Corrupting pot to stack orbs really quickly.

The idea is, you deal damage, you get an orb, Aery procs, you get an extra orb. Since Aery’s cd is tied to travel distance, the closer you stay on a target, the easier it is to get multiple procs, which scale up Kayn’s passive faster and gives decent damage since you chase/cling to enemies well.

With the Conq/First Strike nerfs, Aery isn’t a loss of potential damage anymore, it’s flexible for either Red or Blue Kayn, and the sorc tree has better scaling than Precision/Inspiration secondary masteries do. Longer games + Weaker keystones make Aery work better than it used to.

Have you never had cold pizza for breakfast before?

Duke was a sub on IG in 2018, playing 5/18 games at Worlds.

The ad support item (Spectral Scythe) was made because of Senna.

On release, Senna had a clunky passive that made Frost queen’s claim give her equivalent AD. Then, in preseason, they added an ad version, and removed that passive.

But if you think, “lol this guy stands no chance”, then I remind you that if we add MSI into equation, then last year at MSI-2022, RNG with Xiaohu won over T1 in Finals 3:2, and played 1:1 in groups.

Dude’s called the Spring Tiger for a reason. Lets see which curse is stronger; T1 in Finals or Xiaohu at Worlds.

Voice thy opinion, a pine, not ping

For inhibition tempers, whilst tempers sing

Want not for alert, nor timer, nor tine

Solely harsh rebuke such efforts find

Only when broached in constrained rote

Shall one’s request, in earnest, be note

A missive, penned, by dead man’s hand

Such prayers devoid of reprimand

“Vocal Lich of Ill Renown”

“Might thy Requiem bare down”

“And slay their wretch with thine own hand”

“So that thy riches may still expand?”

So it arrives, in windowed still

A small request for blood to spill

Met, in moments, by a pause

Prying hope from Cerberus’ jaws

Yet seconds tick, and fangs down bare

A threat escapes, still unaware

Of mercy given, salvation’s light

A request met, albeit with spite

“Fuck you no, I can’t kill twitch”

“I’d rather ult your mother, bitch”

“Dog teammates, all should uninstall”

“I’m afk once I recall”

Bot Lane,

Alas, your lane has done little in way of recompense to warrant such aid. Not only has your labor been cut to the bone by stratagem more befitting infants than the infantry you purport to be, but so too do your calls lack anything beyond a countenance of counterplay. I see no way to match blows with an enemy left high and dry despite dire diving, let alone secure capital punishment for such criminal execution.

Perhaps, should a similar situation recur, you might see to it that you avoid such mortal mistakes, andffffqqqqwwwwqqqq-

An Ally Has Been Slain

[10:17] [All] AbsenteeFather (Karthus): Fuck I was typing

There’s a layer of disassociation to it that helps numb the pain.

Twitter sucks these days, so here’s a transcript that isn’t just an image attachment.

“Scrims don’t matter as long as they perform on stage”

But they do

Scrims show that you are not hopelessly slaughtered in every team fight

Scrims get you a glimpse of how you can match anyone mechanically

Scrims give you a sense of how much everyone cares about practice. They show you are not an underdog everyone believes you are.

Scrims give you hope.

You can say that every other team was testing us, testing limits, that they don’t play their best in practice, or that we were just getting our comfort picks, but no other team in the West matched everyone, including LCK and LPL, that well in scrims. Every time you hear about LEC or LCS team doing well in scrims, it is extremely overplayed by Asian teams based on the 1-2 blocks they played.

People talk like good teams lose scrims on purpose to get better, but that’s just how Western teams are used to be doing every Worlds. People are so used to the West doing badly in scrims that somehow it became our mantra to get destroyed and just show up when it matters. Every win in Scrims vs East is called a fluke because - “well they are not trying”, or “we got lucky on the day”.

Everyone talks about how you can’t practice as hard as Asian teams, but that’s what we did. We tried as hard as we could and we gave a fight to everyone we met, including them. If you prove to them that you are good, they will tryhard against you. They played their best picks, they played extremely good league of legends in scrims. And we beat them there.

That gives me more hope in the West than any upset ever did.

It shows that if we put our mind to it, we can be the best. Maybe even in the world.

And that’s what broke our hearts last week.

I always believed in this roster for 2023, and I will always believe in it for 2024.

I hope you will continue to believe in us too