The Dive | NA WINS & HOPIUM FOR ALL

In this special episode of The Dive, Kobe & Mark welcome for the first time LPL caster Dagda to give us his thoughts on Play-Ins & the upcoming Group Stage. If things look odd, it's because our fantastic tech team ships necessary equipment to New York City & we had to step away from our usual cameras for The Dive. For those of you wondering about Divephoria, that's next week! (When the Euphoria folk land in NYC) We went forward with this format because it just seemed weird to not do SOMETHING ahead of the Groups Stage.
The Trio reviews the highs of the Play-In Stage, take some time huff hopium all thanks to Champions Queue & made predictions heading into the Group Stage. Where will we find the upsets? What teams are worthy of the hopium? What teams are overrated?
If you like Dagda's comfy poncho, check it out at merch.riotgames.com to pick up one of your own. Anecdotally, our producer is def getting one it's perfect for being a degen gamer BUT FASHION.
We'll be returning with Divephoria episodes from NYC to ATL to San Fran! So make sure you meet us here in the lolesports youtube channel or wherever you listen to audio podcasts! The Worlds Group stage kicks off with another EU vs. NA matchup, Cloud9 vs. FNC at 2PM PT/5PM ET on Friday. Don't you miss it!
00:05 - Intro! Welcome to Worlds!
00:39 - Talking right after Play-In Bo5s in Worlds gear (available at merch.riotgames.com) & it was the MOST competitive Play-Ins
02:55 - MAD vs EG Series - A Historical NA stomp & the JOJOPYUN GLOBAL TAUNT
07:18 - DFM vs RNG, how much do we take away from that 1 game DFM took? What do we make of the meta?
14:27 - GROUPS DISCUSSION, Group A is CHOCK full of story T1, C9, EDG, FNC
18:52 - Group A predictions, Kobe's Single Favorite Group
25:40 - Twitter Question from Kurt Koehler "Who you guys got, Berserker or Guma?"
26:47 - Group B, Dagda's BOLD predictions for JDG & what are EG's chances? DWG, EG, G2, JDG
32:39 - Group B predictions
35:34 - Group C, the Hopium Group! RGE, GAM, DRX, TES
43:38 - Group C predictions
46:48 - Group D, the slow group & Kobe has a new favorite Player. GenG, Flying Oysters, 100, RNG
54:47 - Group D predictions
58:05 - Look ahead to Groups Day 1, PACKED DAY, what's your Match of the Day?

[@lolesports]

Hey everybody! Excuse the different look for The Dive as we ship our equipment to NYC! Expect Divephoria Episodes from here on out as we reunite with our Euphoria brethren for the Group Stage! Timestamps below: 00:05 - Intro! Welcome to Worlds! 00:39 - Talking right after Play-In Bo5s in Worlds gear (available at merch.riotgames.com) & it was the MOST competitive Play-Ins 02:55 - MAD vs EG Series - A Historical NA stomp & the JOJOPYUN GLOBAL TAUNT 07:18 - DFM vs RNG, how much do we take away from that 1 game DFM took? What do we make of the meta? 14:27 - GROUPS DISCUSSION, Group A is CHOCK full of story T1, C9, EDG, FNC 18:52 - Group A predictions, Kobe's Single Favorite Group 25:40 - Twitter Question from Kurt Koehler "Who you guys got, Berserker or Guma?" 26:47 - Group B, Dagda's BOLD predictions for JDG & what are EG's chances? DWG, EG, G2, JDG 32:39 - Group B predictions 35:34 - Group C, the Hopium Group! RGE, GAM, DRX, TES 43:38 - Group C predictions 46:48 - Group D, the slow group & Kobe has a new favorite Player. GenG, Flying Oysters, 100, RNG 54:47 - Group D predictions 58:05 - Look ahead to Groups Day 1, PACKED DAY, what's your Match of the Day?

[@derekloche2795]

It looks good honestly?

[@tynivinnie]

Loving this camera/lens set up actually. Looks sick. Especially the camera on Kobe/Mark. BOKEH

[@jacquiepick5055]

Is that Military Time? I'm a bit confused by that but otherwise. I'll kick the doors because I have ADHD 🤪🤡🤗🙏🇺🇸🥃❤️😎

[@TheAllinpodcast]

Can definitely see the fatigue in Kobe and Mark, but can I get a NAmen for them pushing through and providing us with another banger episode?!! Keep up the good stuff NA!

[@pace7029]

The cameras on this episode look so crisp.

[@clever_wild]

Ireland is so proud. We love you Dagda!

[@lostboi2271]

German/Swede here, love Dagda as well

[@conorreade1952]

Finally seeing the recognition he deserves so happy for him !

[@or3476]

yes we are ❤❤

[@mithex8414]

proud of what?

[@silversan9743]

Looking back at that after only week 1 is so funny. So much hopium for NA, they took 0 t2 tower in the first 9 games.

[@josephgeneroza8003]

Group A is the Group of History. The first round robin will just be a history lesson of Worlds lore.

[@Jonathan-gk6se]

I'm so excited for this group, I'm hoping each team comes away with at least two wins and everyone overdoses on copium

[@aviewerofu]

This years groups are quite unique(I don’t watch VCS and PCS so not gonna comment on them): Group A: consistent/stable mids (mostly), bot carry playstyle. Also storylines Group B: Top side carry and weak side bot playstyle (if G2 and DWG do it) and can play carry junglers Group C: Supportive junglers and previously unproven mids with hyper carry bot laners. Group D: Slowest teams with stable bots. So we will get very different playstyle matchups for knockouts

[@1372AT]

I wouldnt call geng a slow team

[@aviewerofu]

@@1372AT maybe, if Peanut shows up and jg diffs then I can see that, but GenG loves to get leads by themselves and wait until they can start tearing people.. comparing that to LPL who try to use their advantage as soon as possible. thats what I think... also GenG can play any playstyle in my opinion which is cool

[@1372AT]

@@aviewerofu yep espically for that reason bcuz idk wtf happened to peanaut this year but he has been absolutely amazing. Like geng has been smashing teams in lck like smashing them since mid its the best bot its probably the best and jngl is one of the best.

[@jacobbutcher1912]

Dagda was a great guest host.

[@dagamewhiz]

The quality in this video is crisp

[@psaltamontes6715]

Love this show so much!

[@Spawniiieh]

I love Dagda. Always so happy and knowledgeble

[@nikolaaleksovski4334]

just what i needed

[@dmitriigritiv6543]

Kobe golden words "I would just use Nuguri every single game"

[@cedrickporcena15]

Banger episode

[@mylatahiri2572]

I LOVE that spicy take favoring JDG to win it all hut also to just drop out in groups. Looking forward to see their crazyness firsthand.

[@xylerDark]

C9 catching strays xD 2:38

[@sambarnes9862]

Dang Kobe with a beard is definitely an improvement lol

[@cashmerefire7335]

Dude looks great either way

[@proctathon]

We need more Kobe beard

[@DaxonJones]

The beard is SOOOOOOOO good

[@ellesaye84]

Totally agree. I’m so tired of the Aatrox vs Gnar top lane. Not fun to watch at all.

[@Vizicsacsi113]

Banger alert 🚨

[@zmill9114]

Kind of crazy how much weight Kobe puts into champions queue.

[@Darkstormsun9865]

Because it's supposed to be a place where individual skill is more shown than team work. If flakked is really outplaying Viper then flakked really isn't that bad lmao. You don't just randomly start smacking God tier players.

[@ivailoivanov01]

BANGER EPISODE

[@Nordickaiser]

DAGDA my favorite caster

[@whatchachattin]

Dagda calls GenG a really slow team, even though their average game time during the season was shorter than that of V5, EDG, TES, and LNG.

[@sivasankars808]

It's about kills per minute, not game time

[@ksjsjhss3475]

@@sivasankars808 well ofc LPL teams would have much more kills/m doesnt mean they played faster than GEN. GEN couldve had 2 kills in 15 mins but already leading 8k in gold lmao. Thats playing faster than having 10 kills in 5 mins on an absolute fiesta game

[@sivasankars808]

@@ksjsjhss3475 I think slow team in a sense doing things, fights, objectives going slow, every lpl vs lpl games goes upto soul snd elder upto 40+ mins most of time it pretty obvious but we still call lpl as fast paced region

[@ksjsjhss3475]

@@sivasankars808 we can really never call GEN a slow team. I can understand calling LCK as a whole a slow region but GEN is 1 or even 2 tiers above all LCK teams the whole split. Slow can be having big gold lead but no kills and finishing the game too slow. But GEN always finish games in around 20-30 mins mark most of the time.

[@Gurpreet-sv5zg]

@@sivasankars808 This is wrong. LPL average game time does not sniff 40mins as well. You're just making up stuff at this point. The reality is with 17 teams they get a ton of quick/high kill games because you get really atrocious level competition.

[@patriarchparamour]

WE LOVE DAGDA 💖

[@jacekm5798]

I mostly agree with rankings. This time i have to feeling that even when done teams will not get out of group they can play spoils. I can see eg taking game out there, RGE or FNC winning vs eastern regions. They may shake some standings. Except for gen g don't see team that will go 6-0 in groups.

[@nathanielrobles3284]

I know gen.g was super strong last split but I think people are going overboard cause that time, picks and bans are so predicrable with few meta champs being used, you can even guess who they will pick. This is such a different meta now so I think they will be still very strong but not that a level ahead of the rest.

[@jacekm5798]

@@nathanielrobles3284 well, most of the teams played competitive month or more ago, we do prediction base of that. Every year someone flops and someone go further than expected. Base on knowledge and last performance gen g is the safest bet it doesn't mean someone else can't win but there are no proofs of that yet expect for speculations.

[@Gurpreet-sv5zg]

@@nathanielrobles3284 Copium take.

[@nathanielrobles3284]

@@jacekm5798 told yah!

[@nathanielrobles3284]

@@Gurpreet-sv5zg Okay, you can take your copium now.

[@enlightenedbeing7823]

Might be no western teams in quarters and I will be sad.

[@1372AT]

without any upsets i think it will be possible but its really less likely that no westerners make it

[@nathanielrobles3284]

Well I just hope for the west to train and play like the east like two bo3 per week a team instead of literally just 2 games in weekends. Feviben said it that most westeners don't take league that seriosly and it shows when it comes worlds. I also hope the coaches exert more effort to study the game and teach the players so that worlds can become unpredictable and not just LCK vs LPL all the time.

[@ksjsjhss3475]

@@nathanielrobles3284 bo3 in lec and lcs really cant save them. Its about mechanic diff. LCK and LPL players play in kr solo queue (lpl have super server as well) and in those servers are mechanical gods that they played against for like 10 hrs every single day. Thats the difference. You put all regions and let them play in kr solo queue and cn super server for 5 years you would see improvement. Its just like any other sports, lck and lpl are playing everyday against nba players while western players playing against g league players

[@Jonathan-gk6se]

That's said all the time now with 4 LPL/LCK teams in groups but it doesn't happen.

[@lamp007]

*Scratches neck*....Yo I heard you got a new supply of Hopium, I need a re-up before group stage begins!

[@JuiceReloaded]

Yo, That Blanket Dagda got on is actually kinda 🔥🔥 but LETS GO 100T!!!

[@triplesharigan]

I wonder how the public opinion on group D would be if PSG Talon had qualified, Flying Oysters could very well become 2nd.

[@tigers0214]

EU will remember this 😂

[@mbrown7325]

I definitely misread the meta. I 100% thought that teams would have seen the aatrox pick rate and win rate and decide to perma ban it. How wrong I was….

[@Darkstormsun9865]

He's not op enough to ban but I would assume he would get less play in groups as teams will start to counter pick it. Aatrox very well might be the most picked this tournament but cait or mf or Kalista are definitely the most banned.

[@nathanielrobles3284]

Yeah, Aatrox maybe overly tuned but nit OP but it is annoying that we see him too much like besides Aatrox, every lane is so much more diversed. He may not be OP but he is close to that to be always get picked.

[@Mrryn]

Honestly I goofed my "most picked" prediction as well for a similar reason. I assumed people would foresee just how flexible and strong Maokai is and how overtuned Hecarim is and that those two would be banned more often than not, leaving other jungle picks open. Hecarim was a better call as a ban, but teams just keep giving up Maokai and we've seen it in 3 roles now (but got that pickem right so far, champion played in most roles).

[@nathanielrobles3284]

@@Mrryn well I was really happy of maokai buffs cause I use him and I like him and was so frustrated before of how slow his ultimate is. Glad he is in pro play again and this meta is the most diversed. So far, Aatrox is the most overtuned champ. He has 71% winrate and 95% pick and ban rate. If they just remove him, top will be more diversed too.

[@tenki_]

DAGDAD FOR THE WINNNNNN

[@GSDGamingx]

New Cameras? 👀👀

[@Sarnji_]

Does anyone know what mic/boom arm combo they use?

[@Vex319]

IMO the beard looks great on Kobe.

[@DBasedAlex]

T1 had shared every single modern group stage with either EDG, C9, or FNC

[@LeonsHarmonica]

Camera crisp

[@deathblaizer]

Oh that’s Aatrox they’re playing, I thought it was riven rework my bad.

[@Darkstormsun9865]

Dead meme

[@1372AT]

Im sorry this guy just said Zeus had a rough split. LIKE HOW. PLEASE someone explain

[@jackscott1218]

To Kobe's Bel'Veth points at 19:52 I think that it's similar to the ASol problem where you actually just don't see her played super often. So the experienced players winrate will be inflated because they know exactly what she does and what her limits are, and their opponents will be at a massive knowledge disadvantage going into the game.

[@panos-senpai4728]

Isn’t Kobe with beard looking like Bjerg?

[@ManHeIsAwesome]

He is LPL caster no?

[@lazerfruit2121]

He does both LPL and LEC

[@mattaroniNcheese]

Does no one remember the infamous Licorice Aatrox counter, Hecarim top?

[@jasonzheng7436]

My gut feeling is that LPL teams won't do well at Group Stage because they aren't used to Bo1s. My gut feeling is usually wrong though.

[@Darkstormsun9865]

Then how is it your gut feeling?

[@tommytommy7535]

A bad gut is also a gut 😂

[@mbrown7325]

The Kobeum.

[@chickenyousobeautiful]

Knight is gonna school zeka

[@Lilmajudi]

It’s scary how everyone considers Damwon as a dark horse to win the whole thing My PTSD from 2020 is through the roof now as a Chovy fan

[@triplea3005]

Damwon is being so overrated they won’t even get out of groups

[@Lilmajudi]

@@triplea3005 Copium

[@riven4121]

It all depends on whether Deokdam, Kellin and Nuguri get it in gear and don't mental boom. If they all play at their absolute peak, Worlds groups and knockouts could be very close between all the top teams. That said I'm a believer in the Church of Chovy and think Gen.G can take it all. And that would be wonderful to see. Chovy's first LCK title into a Worlds title. Gen.G could legitimately be much like 2015/2016 SKT T1.

[@NyquilNinj4]

My boy Chovy got this.

[@andreviana1902]

5:05 2013 Worlds Quarterfinals(FNC x C9) So that´s 3. and now 4

[@Lenzo947]

That was a BO3 though, not a format I was fond of.

[@imCylo]

I'm on Mark's side about Aatrox. If you find Aatrox annoying to watch/play against in teamfights, just be grateful that you don't have to lane against it top.

[@adrianromero9323]

why is Kobe looking so hot?

[@1372AT]

people sleeping on wayward in my personal opinion 4th best top laner in the tourney

[@ChrisPost.]

Saying that Knight is somehow worse than Zeka(and citing champsq performance with subpar quality teammates) is one of the most intellectually dishonest and disgusting takes I've ever heard.

[@caimemonteiro3844]

content creator doesnt agree with my opinion?! HOW DARE HE

[@doom_heit]

No euphoria sadge

[@jacquiepick5055]

❤️❤️❤️❤️😎😎😎😎

[@MinecraftLambo]

Oh no is this because caedrel missed his flight lmao

[@fussysaur]

Ain't no way these guys deadass just called Zeka better than Knight

[@Darkstormsun9865]

Knight has been very unimpressive at worlds.

[@ksjsjhss3475]

its true that zeka played against wildcards but zeka styled against RNG so hard lol. Knight cant even play decent if his life is on the line like what happened on 2020 worlds against SUNING. And im a knight fan..

[@fussysaur]

@@Darkstormsun9865 ? Bro he played once at Worlds and that was 2 years ago, why would he suddenly become a worse player?

[@Darkstormsun9865]

@@fussysaur it's not that he's a worst player its that his first time was garbage and people hyped him up so much, but he didn't do anything. He was the true winner of Dade award. He also doesn't seem to be any better. Want to see him school on people or be a bigger factor to his team's wins.

[@fussysaur]

@@Darkstormsun9865 Okay but Zeka has never played at Worlds to begin with so in what way does he ever warrant being placed above Knight

[@dongjiang3893]

Imagine saying Zeka is better than Knight, like western analyst should really watch other regions more before commentating on their players.

[@1372AT]

this right guy like wtf is that week 1 of msi for one week g2 was the best bot lane of the world like what is that take

[@messwithhelpy]

RNG would have lost,... if DFM had Kog'Mah

[@bingobongo496]

39:00 Dagda are you on crack? Viego/Lee sin are viable for the G.O.A.T to smurf

[@Jnathyn123]

Plz korean sub

[@orionmilbury4817]

Mark looks so tired

[@chriswoolard7962]

Not 1 elder taken the whole play ins is crazy.

[@NZ_YT]

I think there may have been two, but unsure

[@Jonathan-gk6se]

Rng got one and lost the game to DFM immediately.

[@RogueLover1996]

First

[@RedzicMuharem]

inb4c9winsworlds

[@polowy9126]

Everyone forgets C9 going 3-0 over UOL at IEM Sanjose

[@cryptidian3530]

Kobe putting EDG 3rd is actually blasphemous.

[@Jack-yu4vq]

Edg finishing 4th lol

[@sivasankars808]

From what I have go through, I thing edg getting out of the groups and winning it all like last year makes biggest upset ever again for all, I swear again they are getting degraded

[@ksjsjhss3475]

@@sivasankars808 they are a tier below JDG and TES the whole split. Its delusional to say that they would win it all than saying they are not favorites

[@Jonathan-gk6se]

They are going to have an FPX moment

[@sivasankars808]

@@ksjsjhss3475 bro i am not saying they are favorites, I am just saying they have capability of winning tournament again

[@BingoBangoB0NGO8]

To me, predicting something and then following it up by saying that if you had to put money on the line you wouldn’t predict the same way is so not hype. Either stick with your guns or tell me the truth. I would mostly prefer the truth even if it’s boring. But if you are going to make a spicy fake prediction, at least pretend like it’s real.

[@papi-sauce]

name me the last time na got the grand finals ...........I'll wait

[@Ps-we3pp]

Not NA. Korean top, Eu jungler, Turkish ADC and 2 Canadians. NA won nothing lol

[@ivanlu8353]

canada is na

[@derekloche2795]

I found the salty EU fan.

[@shakespear7675]

What do you think NA means?? Hahahah eu education. With Danny, EG had 3 NA players and impact is honorary NA

[@triggerbutton9208]

COPIUM

[@akiltircuit7515]

Hater