LCS Power Rankings & Crazy Off-Season Changes | The Dive Driven by Kia

[@C9LoL]

Can’t wait to play C9 Yellow!

[@ScottNatter]

I'm glad to see that we're right back with making fun of Meteos for the whole movie-standing-up-debacle.😂

[@JacobPorterLadder]

The most heartfelt interview I saw with Bwipo was him calling someone else an NPC, then getting caught looking at his minimap. I couldn't care less about him

[@SnowLepard92]

Mr Beast: I just bought all of the LCS teams and they will be stranded on this island for a month 😂

[@Jeffrey_Tyler]

It would be the most popular the LCS has ever been 😂

[@robertrhoades6830]

And whoever last the longest picks a nacl team for him to support

[@djbeachgirl]

9 minutes in between games... APA has been preparing for this.

[@nhart4325]

APA planning ahead and defining the meta

[@jesseyang5771]

ayyyy meteos and the dive is back.... been waiting to hear you guys again. LCS is King

[@drac9634]

THE DIVEEEEE MY KINGS

[@DevanMccallister]

Ew, don’t call me a king. That’s what a female says.

[@IAmMurdrface]

I love Meteos being the C9 car salesman lol. "Forget the last split model, look at this new shiny Thanatanos model!" *slaps the roof*

[@burritogod59]

100T and getting shafted in the Dive's power rankings. Name a more iconic duo!

[@veila0924]

Everyone who shat on them was right though. They had some nice best of 1s but once the playoffs started they sunk like a cinder block at sea 😂

[@gyromite]

Yeon's evolved form is Triplelift

[@sennit]

I cant wait to see how full fearless does in NACL. I would love to see that make it to the LCS next year, its so refreshing to see more champions used in a game that has so many to offer.

[@poppinov8797]

I also think it would be good for the NACL players to be forced to play a variety of champions. So that there are less one tricks coming from NACL into the LCS. If they had Fearless when Apa was in Challenger, would he be a one trick that can be easily pinched in ban phase? Probably not. Either he would be able to play more champions because of Fearless or Fearless would have exposed him in Challenger and he wouldn't be in LCS. (just one example, there have been plenty of other one tricks that have this problem its not just him)

[@Mastrivy]

I think forcing fearless upon LCS and LEC will benefit them because as we have seen LCK & LPL just outclassed the west on traditional picks. G2 has been the only team able to compete with the East because of their creativity. So forcing these leagues to get at least a little creative could help push them internationally

[@FFearFun]

Agree with Meteos, the T1 vs TL series felt really good to watch as a long time LCS fan. TL showed up big, excited for summer. KEEP YAPPIN, CAPPIN

[@markfredciron841]

Aight EUphoria and The Dive released new ep around the same time? grabbing a popcorn now.

[@blueleaftuber]

Are you listening to them both at the same time?

[@markfredciron841]

@@blueleaftuber Cmon man. I'm not Faker

[@MrDukejt]

C9 for life! And I’ll watch every B03 series!

[@antgm93]

havent watched league since 2018, so stoked to get back into it this split!

[@sennit]

LCS should show standings this split as Match Score (Game Score) to give a bit more of a picture how teams have been perfroming.

[@donovanogilvy5364]

I remember they often did when it was Bo3 before.

[@BrendanZanitCoen]

Finally Brandon Sanderson gonna bring us the perfect NACL script.

[@mrdevonscook]

Gotta call out Meteos real quick. You showed up to co-host the dive and didn’t watch the 8-minute commissioner video ahead of time????? C’mon man, it’s eight minutes. You can be more professional than that. If I were that lackadaisical about my current job, I would be out of a job pretty quick. EDIT: Lots of comments saying, "it's just his style." . . . It's cringe. I love Meteos as a commentator and a host on the podcast. Also, not prepping for the leading segment of the show is cringe. It just is. Azael and Kobe always show up prepared and ready to go, like professionals.

[@noflex7511]

Great point, especially with the gravity of the changes highlighted in the video.

[@BDonOne]

I agree it’s kinda rude

[@SeedRamples]

Imagine if Aphromoo was here instead. The Dive would be goated

[@SlowChemicalXV]

I love Meteos, but 100% agreed

[@ethangilworth7891]

From what it seemed like he knew the changes just hadn’t necessarily watched the video.

[@kokobo690]

On the topic of the $500 skin, I think the price tag would be fine if it was some random, cool skin. I think the issue is that it is tied to Faker and his induction into the hall of legends. The hall of legends seems like it should be a celebration of what players like Faker have done for the League scene, but now it instead seems like a profit-generating mechanism. I think connecting the two has cheapened the honor; it feels like Riot is trying to squeeze more money out of Faker’s name rather than genuinely celebrating what he’s done for the game.

[@Dman42997]

I DO NOT think the price would be fine if it was some random skin. It's ridiculous in any context. But I agree it's especially bad given your other points

[@poppinov8797]

they have to pay off the lawsuit somehow. lawyers ain't cheap

[@kokobo690]

Oh, I mean, I agree it is ridiculous and would never buy it, but if someone wants to pay that much for a skin, to me that’s their business. Except in this case Riot has made it everyone’s business by associating it with Faker.

[@coderaven1107]

@@kokobo690 Also making it only available for a short time to generate maximum FOMO is a HUGE problem imo. The Hall of Legends Skins should be available for a longer time. If they want to make it available for a restricted time, why not only on specific dates, like Fakers first game or his birthday?

[@noahmetzger852]

The other problem is who’s gona pay $500 for the next player’s skin that gets introduced? I don’t think anyone pulls nearly as much interest as faker does. So what does riot do next year? Only charge $200 for the next player’s skin? It’s a weird situation placing a value on celebrating someone’s legacy

[@Megan-sb2ju]

me as a bo3 enjoyer who will be working weekends and cant vote with my eyeballs

[@drogon4235]

Does watching the VODS help with viewership numbers? Honestly don't know.

[@2LettersSho]

Yeah, I hope watching the edited costream on Sneaky's channel counts as voting with my eyeballs :)

[@Megan-sb2ju]

@@drogon4235 i don’t think so sadly, live viewership is what’s counted for the most part

[@gregpartridge7554]

@@Megan-sb2ju I'm curious whether I count then - I'm often watching the youtube stream but rewinded an hour or so back from live

[@sushyisama]

I missed this show. So good to have it back

[@DinoDisguised]

So glad to have the dive back! Thank you guys!

[@frostypoot2299]

I watched the entire thing and it's a great episode!

[@starloft3]

100% 5 stars i bought this for my husband and he loved it

[@noelbate505]

100T will exceed expectations again imo, I don't see them regressing if anything they will only look better especially Quid and Sniper

[@killeryodellingmonkey4192]

I'm so stoked to see Sniper develop into a domestic BEAST. His attitude seems great for improvement and his personality is so much fun to follow

[@Geddyleefan30]

So glad The Dive is back, best League podcast out there!

[@devinkubina9518]

I will buy every LCS book Brandon Sanderson writes.

[@markstenquist2315]

Lol. Like you, me and everybody else doesn't buy every book the guy writes.

[@zaimanity8893]

The only way to combat the whales is to permanently ban Ahri for life.

[@Shrroomgaming]

This is the way

[@guevara148]

Why would you want to combat the whales? They give money to the game and keep it up float, so other people don't need to invest in it that much

[@DemonicGorilla]

​@@guevara148 I dont want mentally ill people who spend $500 on a skin to be able to use said skin.

[@Darkstormsun9865]

​@@guevara148cuz league players are stupid and play league religiously like a drug

[@allenlin3050]

@@guevara148 crazy that you think the majority of the profits from this skin are going to to be reinvested into the LoL ecosystem and not to fund another billionaire's yacht.

[@ryanstark5497]

If Americas and LEC want to compete internationally they need to be playing the same formats as the East and the tournaments which are ALL BO3 and BO5.

[@DorkSideStudio]

I like how Kobe tries to keep the junglers identity secrect but its obviously Contractz.

[@indigorune]

This season of LCS is going to be so incredibly competitive. So many teams are looking really good.

[@Dewkage]

Yay happy that the dive is back

[@ac8598]

Its great to have the Dive back, another enjoyable episode, the only part I didn't like was the Ahri skin discussion, feels like the missed the whole point on why people aren't happy, but hey, no one is perfect!Looking forward to the LCS, looks like this split is gonna be competitive.

[@DBasedAlex]

Not sure who OTK is but I’m always down for more LCS publicity :)

[@Ocsomj]

hell yeah brothers, love me some dives dive-ins and dives!

[@arlow7705]

Glad the Dive is back!

[@arbyssauce]

If I see the Ahri skin on my team, I'm running it the fuck down.

[@cedrichofstetter4057]

Banger episode, I can't wait for LCS to start!

[@archique9701]

I wonder what the alt draft versions that got cooked up were like. I always wondered whatd itd be like if teams voted on a pool of champs that were perma-banned through a patch. Or vote in 60 champs and its a limited pool. Almost like MTG standard vs modern.

[@woodwest11]

THE DIVE IS BACK BABY

[@michaelzell9906]

love when 100T is power ranked low so they can prove everyone wrong 💯

[@veila0924]

They didn't though 😅

[@Jeffrey_Tyler]

Making the NACS prosper is the most important thing for NA to ever have any hope at being good. If you don't have a system for players to learn to play the game then you get the league we have now. All three top regions, CN, KR, EU, all have strong, established minor leagues.

[@paradigmschism2324]

THE BOYS OF SUMMER (Split LCS)

[@thereddhare]

Azael's continued anti-FLY bias is crazy. Thanatos didn't even play last split because Siwoo was straight better yet Quad, who had the highest CSD@15 IN THE WORLD for Mids may have trouble adjusting? His takes are absolutely baffling every Dive. Just wrong every time.

[@chadkingsley3693]

crazy that jensen would be the one to get traded when he protected his bot with a stable mid against an inting top+jg 😊

[@JacksonOwex]

Might be that Jensen is the one that wants to leave and they are willing to make an attempt at doing that for him!

[@TheJodalorn]

I think with regards to 100 thieves, the fact this split will be Bo3 is going to have them looking exactly the same as playoffs in Spring but now it'll be Summer split where they rack up all these losses. Definitely felt like a pure Bo1 team.

[@mango6894]

Remember when yeon and apa said theyd outwork everyone? Now they are competitive, and pple say it isnt just how hard asian teams push lol

[@AshendisTV]

I say Yeon going from "Yaaaaawn" to "YERRRRRRR" is a pretty good evolution.

[@Cryingdolphins]

Jensen was leaving a toxic work environment where instead of helping your comrades.. you throw a grenade

[@babooskii5710]

During the Ssumday retirement, Mateo’s brings up a golden point more teams need to do - contracting pros to help their team rather than full blown hiring. I think C9 did this with sven and G2 have talked about top with alphari and look at the success of these organizations

[@NeusReeves]

The Dive!!!

[@monomythism303]

I'd rather watch Azael and Kobe walk to starbucks together because I don't want to see the homies fight

[@JacksonOwex]

It would also be entertaining as HELL with those two!!!

[@dedratrs]

I think C9 would have been better off keeping Fudge and getting a top half LCK support. Vulcan has played his entire career in the LCS with top ADCs. He's had Zven, peak Danny, Prince, and Berserker. People have seemingly always referred to him as one of the top supports in NA, but I've never seen it. His mistakes outweigh his good plays. To me Berserker played last split like he didn't trust his support. He would flash in trying to get kills, and it felt like he had the mindset that he needed to solo carry games. Not saying thats entirely Vulcans fault, but the synergy was never there.

[@Jeffrey_Tyler]

Kobe summed up the LCS perfectly in the first 2:30 minutes. Teams are upset about Bo3's because they won't have enough time to make memes. That's the LCS in a nutshell.

[@Darkstormsun9865]

Huh? B03s give them more time wdym, they have a whole week where they don't play and don't prep for matches.

[@distrez]

3:39 You know what else brings in the crowd who doesn't like b03s, when your region starts becoming competitive vs other regions because of playing best of series.

[@Darkstormsun9865]

​@BB-ze3by expecting to compete with them at all is ridiculous. Like I seriously don't understand why yall think worst regions SHOULD be beating the best teams in the world.

[@littlerascal22]

As a long time Dig fan, I am excited

[@sennit]

The Dive is back baby!

[@GrayReactsYT]

I think Azaels point on the viewership is a valid concern i will say with less teams and most of the teamps ramping up im a lot less worried about the "lower tier" teams not getting viewership because even Dig is looking exciting Immortals is kinda the team nobody looks forward to seeing but whoever their facing we may be excited about!

[@StarlessSky2000]

Each player picks 3 champs, the teams ban 1 of the three and then you get to pick one of the remaining two for game or something like that could be an interesting draft idea

[@ryzeking33]

please make a ryze tier list! or who is the best ryze player in NA? I think ablazeofolive is p good

[@the_lord_nick]

As The Dig fan I will take a page from the Cowboys fans of the NFL, "THIS OUR YEAR!!!"

[@JacksonOwex]

Well at least you can have that thought and not be completely insane! As a Bears fan I scream from the hilltops when they win week one because for at least one week they are UNDEFEATED!!! It usually ends after week two, I have to take what I can get!!!

[@Kurrybo]

While I agree that voting with your wallet is the best course of action, the justification of the skin being $500 is "everyone does it" is so bad. Just because it exists everywhere does not mean its a good thing, like literally mentioned later with selling early access in games.

[@lizzb1065]

Great episode!! Did y'all end up sharing the individual power rankings at the end..? Maybe I missed it, and if so, someone please reply with a timestamp. 🙏 But I also thought maybe they just forgot to add that in... Still, I'm super hype for more Dive episodes and also for a BANGER LCS SUMMER SPLIT 2024, WOOOOO!!!! WE STILL BETTER THAN EUROPE 🦅🦅🦅🇺🇲🎆🍔🗽🦅🦅🦅

[@Kitbats]

The CBLoL practice is rlly interesting, been done in sports already in Baseball and currently Pep Guardiola's Man City. It does yield consistent results, but in high pressure situations it tends to fall off. Wondering how itll go.

[@horyzen6631]

Let’s go the dive is back!!

[@vexar7575]

best lcs show with the jatt msi and world one

[@Khalolz]

We are SO back 💪💪💪

[@eargandonaa]

Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeees the Dive is back! lets gooooooo

[@PlsDontReadThis123]

The money matches for the NACL Sounds hilarious. I'm all in.

[@scotthoran8855]

Missed the dive soo much

[@Evongelo]

I loved TL vs SKT. Great games, even the last one. Sure it went side ways fast but they knew it and just threw the kitchen sink in that game. It was fun.

[@petertran4774]

THE DIVE IS BACK! YAY!. Question why does Why do people say viewership drops when its seeing how good they are b4 worlds hits and who is repping us. Also with the meme of "spring doesn't" matter I would feel like summer would have more viewership usually.

[@arcanet1482]

glad its back :D

[@Arthali]

Wild predict from me, and definitely a chance im just completely wrong, but i think shopify is really going to surprise people and be a top 4 team.

[@Axel-fn]

Thanatos in LCKCL was the best player in the league. Most of us DK fans wanted him promoted this offseason. Hope he does well in NA

[@markjugson-vx9go]

No he wasn't lol, Lucid was. Thanatos was individually more impressive in S12 than S13.

[@thereddhare]

Thanatos was benched all of LCKCL because the player behind him was better lol...

[@markjugson-vx9go]

@rhedde1 the disconnect between Thanatos his skill and the community perception is absurd. Guy gets passed over for Canna, Kingen and Siwoo, but surely he's Zeus 2.0. Only thing these two have in common is a cool name.

[@killerkupid]

Love to see corejj getting the credit he deserved

[@fullmetal929]

Man, I was saying before they switched to BO3s that BO2 double round robin was the way to go. I'm hoping they consider it for next year. And don't get me wrong, I'll still take the bo3s, but single round robin feels weird.

[@Jeffrey_Tyler]

"Dude we have 170 champions!" And it's been the same 20-30 champs rotating in and out of meta for the last 5+years. Fearless is a gimmick, but at least it would change things up for once.

[@JacksonOwex]

Yeah! I LOVED the Worlds(2022?) when there was like 100 unique champs that were played! I saw Champs I didn't even know existed! I don't play League very often(almost none) and have only been watching competitive play for a handful of years! I had a hole left by HotS getting canned and League felt like the best option to try and fill that hole!

[@StarlessSky2000]

I was really anti bo2s until I realized you could run 2-3-3 sets on friday sat sun and do double round robin. Would have been sick.

[@dwarlock]

Yeon went above and be-yeond this MSI!

[@tylerbott4242]

Yessss!!! The best show of the year is back bsby

[@hammema]

1:14:00-ish "There is no right way to play league".... except lane swaps, apparently that's bad. I loved the lane swap meta and would love to see teams flexing with new lane swap ideas and showing that hey, we can put one palyer behind and be greater as a whole. I'd rather watch a lane swap than watch a clearly bad bot lane matchup that was basically Rock,Paper,Scissors. Lane swap is a great reaction in game to losing the draft phase. Give me more

[@gregpartridge7554]

It's fine if lane swaps are sometimes a viable strategy, as a counter to certain compositions and such; it's not fine if they're so strong that they're the only viable strategy most of the time.

[@matt60591]

Commenting for the algo, keep doing great things

[@joshtucci468]

DIG (C9 Yellow) will make worlds I reckon!

[@bobbysimon1078]

We sleeping on 100T AGAIN this spilt? Ok. Can' t wait to see y'all proved wrong.

[@barindersingh8537]

omg we were so due

[@ricebag22]

Imagine Brandon Sanderson writing Runeterra novels with the Riot lore team working as his writing room

[@jonaskohler7683]

shitty american novelty author teaming up with game company - we will not be there

[@Kimpan96]

have none of them seen an LCK? why are they so confused about game score? there is a reason why people were much more positive of the Nongshim 3/15 then Bros 2/16 and it was the game score (and the eye test)

[@whydidyoutubeaddthis]

The difference in those genshin comparisons is that it takes advantage of the literal mental disorder that gamblers have. "A lot of people do it" so its fine when the people doing it literally cannot control themselves cannot be a serious argument. Like thats dumb af. Its similar, tho not the same, but people aren't making smart choices when they buy these skins. Its taking advantage of people who are literally too stupid for their own good. I can't blame riot for that, but i 100% can judge them for it

[@ac8598]

Yeah, I gave up on gaming community for actually acknowledging mental illness that is addiction and/with gambling need sto empathised with and not to be encouraged by. and prayed upon.

[@JacksonOwex]

I hate when Twitch streamers complaining about people not gambling enough channel points too! I even left a LENGTHY and (probably too) harsh comment on a YT upload of a replay once and then proceeded to stop watching that channel! Though the worst part of those aren't the streamers I guess, it's Twitch itself having created it! It's a gamble that someone can do but it has no real downside to losing, you spent some points that don't do ANYTHING anywhere else, but an addict will think: "Well that one didn't go sideways! Perhaps I can go make a 'real' bet and that won't go sideways either?"

[@XarisAC]

In this full fearless, if I'm up 2-0 in a best of 5, since the other team gets side selection off of your win, you might almost pick your opponent's pocket pick as a support or something and throw the game, so you can enter game 4 with side selection and also guarantee the other team can't pull out something special in game 5.

[@willyoung859]

Is there any casual audience left for league? Who are the new people coming in?

[@mustard9933]

Its gross that riot decided to make their "flex good" using fakers good name. Charging triple digit price tags for cosmetics in games should not be normalized period.

[@EveryTimeIDavid]

Man, I hard disagree with Azael's take on some early access games. Especially in the case of like Super Giant and Larian who support the hell out of their games and listen to feedback from supporters. Development takes such a long time, and for devs to stay independent that support throughout the dev process is necessary.

[@gregpartridge7554]

I think people are talking about two different types of early access. (1) you pay for the game early and play while it's still being developed, or (2) you pay extra beyond the normal game purchase price to play a fully developed game a bit earlier than its official release date. Azael is arguing against (2).

[@EveryTimeIDavid]

@@gregpartridge7554 He went in on both though. He said Hades 2 as an example as well as the limited time pre-launch access (a la EA)

[@justinpark3996]

Can't wait for my Bridge Four team in NACL

[@cloudsidky]

Y'all are sleeping on my Shopify Crew. We'll prove you wrong

[@mikusama8030]

I have quite a few issues with the HOL Ahri bundles. The biggest issue is there are 4 Chromas all locked to the $500 bundle. Having a single special item that is just meant for flexing your money is one thing, locking 1/4 of the new content to a single $500 bundle is a bit much. These 4 chromas are being valued higher than the Ahri skin itself which I don't think is right. I do think the changes from the mid-tier to the high-tier bundles in terms of the Ahri skin itself is perfectly reasonable. Faker's signature on everything, as well as a special exclusive emote attached to the skin (the Ctrl+5 one). It also comes with an exclusive icon and emote. All of that I think is reasonable to consider part of the luxury bundle since none of it really has any value outside of flexing. What I don't like is the price of the mid-tier bundle. Nearly $300 USD for what is essentially an Ultimate skin is ludicrous. The skin doesn't include any of the Faker celebration stuff, no signatures, no special Ctrl+5 emote, nothing. It just gives you the full skin plus an icon and an emote. The $50 bundle is actually a great deal, you get the base form of the Ahri skin, the HOL event pass, an icon, and an emote. The bundle also includes Ahri herself if you don't already own her. Since most do, and if they don't they can just grab her for some BE, that knocks off about $5 from the price making it about $45 instead. The real issue is if people don't want the event pass they have no way of getting the Ahri skin without buying the pass anyways. The skin is exclusive to the bundle when on its own it would be priced at the same as a Legendary skin. Not that Riot would ever listen to a single random stranger on the internet, but if I were in charge of this whole thing I would make the following changes. First, allow the base Ahri skin to be purchased separately, as well as in the standard icon+border bundle if someone wants that. Next, remove the 4 chromas from the bundles all together and instead have them unlockable from the HOL pass using event tokens (I've heard rumors that this event does not have event tokens though and if that's the case I would also change that). Next, cut the price of the mid-tier bundle down to the RP equivalent of about $100-$150. Finally, the highest tier bundle can stay at $500 however every level players earn in the HOL pass prior to buying the bundle will discount the bundle by about $2 per level up to level 100. Reaching level 100 before buying the bundle would cause the bundle to drop down to ~$300 in price to reward people who truly love the game. Purchasing before reaching level 100 will automatically skip straight to level 100 on the pass with the discount applied depending on the level reached. I feel this satisfies the most number of people while still providing the opportunity for a massive profit margin on the high-tier bundle. The goal of each bundle, in Riots own words, "[W]e thought it essential for there to be something for you-and for everyone-as we celebrate our first Hall of Legends inductee." In simple terms, there should be a bundle for every type of consumer. Current pricing on the bundles excludes the middle class of players, long-time fans and collectors aren't always rich whales but will typically have the money to spare, up to a reasonable amount, for their collections. Right now there are 2 options for low spenders, no options for big spenders, and 2 options for whales. Since whales are significantly more likely to buy the most expensive option available, dropping the lower of the 2 choices down into the big spender range increases the opportunity for profit while providing something for the collectors to enjoy owning. This also still leaves the exclusive luxury bundle for those who can afford it to flex their wealth. The splitting of the bundles and separating some of the items to be obtainable in other ways allows average players to get the one thing they really want from the event without needing to pay for a bunch of things they don't want.

[@UltimacraftedArmy]

Nice episode guys!

[@flames_fan_328]

Still wish they’d do BO3 double round robin. Play Thursday-Sunday. Just give us more games man

[@jasperh8065]

where were u guys??? missed the dive

[@Mastrivy]

I think forcing fearless upon LCS and LEC will benefit them because as we have seen LCK & LPL just outclassed the west on traditional picks. G2 has been the only team able to compete with the East because of their creativity. So forcing these leagues to get at least a little creative could help push them internationally

[@PanJust]

nice video!