Overdunk
109: Overdunk Ep.110 Worlds Groups Drawn!
(upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) Welcome back to Overnight, everybody. Your favorite competitive Pokemon Unite podcast. This is episode 110, and it is a very exciting one. Thanks, in part, to Wonder Chef, and of course, other co-commentators, Pragels. We have the World's Groups finally announced after a delightful group-choosing show. It was very exciting to watch. Wonder Chef will talk a little bit more about that in a minute, but since I've addressed them twice already, I may as well mention it. We have a special guest on this episode. Unfortunately, no Duce next. Apparently, Tornado watch, local Duce next. So, be safe, Snax family. But we have gotten a very fantastic member who has been, I guess, quite a few times on the show before. Wonder Chef, welcome back to Overnight. Thanks, yeah, it seems like it's a good week for me to show up anyway, you know? I guess it's a fun little thing, and it's exciting to talk about what our final thoughts going into worlds are. I guess, technically, there's gonna be another patch, but we can at least look at the teams, right? - Yeah, it's just over a month now, right? Well, maybe a month and a week or a month and two weeks kind of thing is what we're like. It's near the end of August, where it's like my little child's brain is just like, I just have to wait until August, and then I get to go to Worlds, but then I have to remember, okay, but it's also at the end of August, so it's still a long time. But one day, one day we'll get there. But yeah, it's coming up soon. Of course, we now have a new piece of information. But Bridget, over the last weekend, you were doing some pretty fun stuff, Pokemon related, maybe not Unite related, but if you did play some Unite games out there, let us know. But what were you doing this weekend and why am I personally so excited about it? - I got to go to New York Go Fest. It was a really, really great time. - Sweet, sweet. What, for a lot of our audience, I assume, is mostly just your Unite audience and not greater Pokemon audience. So what do you do, or rather, what did you do, at a New York Go Fest? - So it's basically an event for Pokemon Go. That's an in-person event. You get special spawns and a bunch of bonus stuff and exclusive stuff before the Global Go Fest, which is this upcoming weekend. - Right, right. - So there's a specific park that you can book your reservation with. And actually, it's kind of interesting. I was like, do we have a ticket? Do they like, how do we get into the park? And they're like, oh, it's just on your phone. There'll be a ton of spawns. If you bought the ticket and if you didn't, there'll be nothing here. So really, anyone could be there, but there would just be nothing to do. Which is kind of, I thought was kind of funny. - Which is the infamous, like, what was it in Vegas where they were like, please don't come to the park because the word was like slowing down the internet. I remember. - I can't remember. - Yeah. So we did, you could have done that all week and long. We went on Friday afternoon was when our reservation was. It was a blast. It was very hot, but we really set a breeze and drank lemonade. And honestly, I feel like suffering in the heat, like, made it almost better because we were in pain together. - I'm also just remembering that we had an ongoing bit that people who play Pokemon Go intensely could easily be recruited for the army because of all the crazy things you do. Pokemon Go to the army. That way, so the sun was melting our brains, but I think made everything funnier. I'm not sure. - Okay. - But there also is a city wide pass. So you can, of course, buy that as well and then be anywhere in the city and get the event spawned. So we did that the other day. So we got to go to Central Park and play with a bunch of people there. And that was one of the cooler parts too. It was that we, you didn't have to just go to the in park experience. So it was stuff all throughout the city. And truly, you saw so many people playing. It was kind of insane. - Felt like that 2016 summer again, when I was watching. - It really does. - It was like, oh my gosh. Yeah, I have never been to a go. Well, okay, that's not true. I went to the first ever Go Fest, technically, when it was in Chicago. But I didn't have a ticket or anything. I just kind of showed up and walked around and checked it out. So when I say I went to, I didn't really attend. I was just nearby it when it was happening. But they have definitely upgraded many, many times since then. And it seems like a super cool event. So if you are just a Unite gamer, you casually play Pokemon Go, I'd say, Bridget, do you suggest someone goes to a Go Fest? Is it worth it? - Oh, highly recommend. It is probably a little more, I had never been to New York before, but I was with friends who had been and that was definitely extremely helpful. And also, if you have friends who are in the Pogo, playing with them is also a lot of fun because they kind of know what to look for. But even, I would say I'm medium casual. I just kind of like to collect the little silly guys. - Yeah. - So I had a blast. - I do love that I'm the silly guys. That's awesome. - Exactly. - And they're in chat right now, but obviously one of the best parts was that summer was there. - Yeah. - This summer, thank you for taking care of our co-host and having a blast at a Pokemon Go because I think, again, so jealous. I'll definitely be there next year. Wherever it is, honestly, I don't know, chase it down. I need to go to a Go Fest again. Relive my 2016 experience. - Exactly. - But okay, let's talk about the main topic that we have for tonight. No big patch in the Unite yet. We're kind of expecting probably one more ranked seasons about to end all those kind of things, but we're gonna kind of put a lot of the game stuff in the back burner because the big topic of today's episode, of course, is that the World Championships have finally announced the groups, all eight groups. We talked about it before. The format is slightly changing this year, but just to recap, if you did not listen to the previous episodes when we talked about World's Format, we are returning to eight groups of four, where in this case, two groups are groups of three, just because of how many world spots are allocated, but eight groups, but this year, two teams are gonna make it out of each group and play in a single elimination bracket on day two. So, a chance for a round robin in groups. We are competing to get that top two, in most cases, two out of four, style of spot, but in day two, it's single olim, win or go home all the way for that championship title. And I believe that, actually, I don't wanna speak out of my butt when I'm talking about prize money, because I know it's not to all 30 teams. I forget where the cutoff is, though, in terms of prize money. So, definitely making it into day two is gonna be your best chance to get into the cash, as well. But, we'll be talking about all of that. But, one, you were actually there physically pulling the names out of, I believe it was, Pineapples and Coconuts, which was amazing. How was the shoot? Like, what was, talked to us a little bit about what the group stage poll was. I think last year was just sprinkled. So, this year, you got to do it, and you got to return to the studio. So, talk to us about what that looked like. - Yeah, it was really fun, getting to go back, being able to be with the stairs, as usual. But, I was surprised, of course, little background, obviously. It's kind of based around who's around the studio. So, we've got to do it, which is really cool. And, unfortunately, of course, you and Doof Snacks couldn't be there. I think one with all four of us would be extremely fun one day. That would be-- - Extremely fun. - So chaotic, like, it's already chaotic with just the two of you. But, you add Snacks and I, I don't know. That might be too much. We also have more fruits, who knows. Okay, continue. - Yeah, and originally, they were like, "Do you want to do the draw?" And I was like, "All right, yeah, it's kind of serious." And they were like, "Oh, here's the concept." And then they sent me this picture of an inflatable bucket for drinks with a palm tree, inflatable palm tree, and all these drinks that you drink. I don't even know what they are. They're like cups, kind of. I was going to do a little bit, but I have them still. So, they're like cups that you can open up, of course. - Cool. - And I was like, "What is this? This is awesome. I'm all about this." It was actually really scary, because the, it had to be done all in like one take, because we wanted to make sure that there was no, like, you know, everybody, it needed to be clear for everybody. Like, this is, this was all one thing. This is actually how we drew it. Make sure that everybody knew that it was like 100% honest. And so, I was like, "I'm going to mess something up. I'm going to mess something up really bad. I don't know what it's going to be. I want to trip." I think I actually did trip a little bit in one of the, the takes that they used, like later on. - Leave it in. - Yeah, they didn't leave it in. But it was super fun. We got to have a good time. Every time after we opened them, we would throw them into a trash bin. And I really hope they saved the picture of how many we hit and how many we missed, 'cause we were getting pretty good at it by the end. - I thought it was so funny how often you guys were talking about the throwing bit. And I remember while watching it live, being like, "I can't believe they stuck to this bit for so long." Like, and they didn't like cut around this or anything at all then. I learned like what you just mentioned for legal reasons. It had to be one giant cut. You can't split it up because you have to prove that it was, in fact, a honest draw. And I thought that was so hilarious. But I thought it was so fun. Bridget, obviously you were in New York or on an airplane at this time or whatever. What were, did you get to watch the actual video of the drawings? - I actually have not gone back and watched it. I had one of my friends, April sending me the play-by-play. - Oh, awesome. - 'Cause she watched it, but we were running around quite a bit on Friday. So I did get to look at the results, but not the video yet. - Sweet. Yeah, I, okay. Also, this is just a shout out to anyone listening to the podcast that this might be relevant to. I don't know what I've done. I think because I co-streamed what event, but I had like, I think upwards of four players message me about co-streaming rules for the group stage draw. I was like, I don't know why I'm the authority on this, but like-- - She seemed like the guy. - I think because I did one like live stream of the like Japan event, people were like, okay, am I allowed to do this? Yeah, go ahead. Like, you just gotta do this or whatever. But it is funny because there are some esports that are a little notorious for not allowing co-streaming and rules and things, but actually Pokemon's been pretty fantastic with it in the last couple of years. They've been promoting more and more co-streamers on their own side of things. And there is some pretty clear cut rules. You can find them on Pokemon.com, but essentially the rules are just, you have to be providing commentary. You can't just do a straight up, just restream and like not talk or not be on the screen. You can't just, you know, stream the same event happening somewhere else and do nothing with it. You gotta add some kind of detail in, whether it's your commentary or just being on screen or whatever. And then, I think you just can't promote anything, like super, that Pokemon would agree. Pokemon basically just like holds the ability to be like, "Hey, if we don't like it, we're taking it." That kind of thing. - They actually tweeted the guidelines this time around. Right before it happened, that was kind of cool. They were like, "Yeah, if anybody wants to stream it, here's how." - Yeah, which is even weirder why people were asking me, but whatever. So, I'm happy. I'm happy it all worked out. It was a lot of fun. And yeah, I gotta ask, Chef, right after the draw was finished, were there any that like you and Jake were looking at that big giant screen at the groups, you were like, "Oh boy, this group is gonna be insane." Just cold turkey, any of those that were really exciting. - Honestly, I mean, I can't speak for Jake, obviously. But for me, and I kind of felt like the vibe, 'cause you know, we kind of had to read them all off. We took a look at them. - And personally, I feel like these are really well split up groups. Like for every game that I've ever watched, there's always like real obvious death groups. And there are certainly some in this that are like, okay, this is like definitely a group that I would not want to be in if I was playing, but I feel like the split's pretty good. So, I don't think there was one single one where it was like, "Oh my goodness, the only one, the only thing that we immediately basically reacted to was S-A-U-L playing against Luminosity again, which is just such a funny draw. That is a absolutely wild thing that's happening yet again. I wanted Nouns to be thrown into that group so bad for like the tune versus baby Mazo run back from last year, but that is a very, very exciting group. Kind of crazy to see S-A-U-L being like drawn literally first out of all the groups. That was wild stuff. But okay, without further ado, let's flip over and take a look at the group stage itself. This is what we ended up with. I'm gonna do a very quick, annoying rundown for video listeners so that the audio listeners can catch up if you're only watching this in the podcast world. But group A is made up of S-A-U-L esports from India, legacy from Brazil, Ethan Ayumento from APAC East and Luminosity from North America, Group B, Talon from APAC East, Cake A Lock from APAC West, Imperial Esports from Latin America South, G from North America. Group C, Nouns esports from EU, Zora Tigers Gaming from Korea, Antic Esports from OC and Reject from Japan, Group D is Shin Rude from APAC East, Ground Zero from OC and Dreamax Esports from Brazil and Rework Respawn from Lattam North. Group E is Champion Lord from Japan, Janice HG, rather from Latin America North, Elevate from APAC East and Vamos from EU, low-key my group of death. Group F, Nanae, North Juicers, Fusion from Lattam South, Evos Onix from APAC West and Yala Bingo from EU. Group G, we're down to the two, three team groups. Group G has Onik Rise, Zeta Division from Japan, Latin America South, three Juditos. Digitos? I totally added a second T in there for no reason. Three Digitos. And then Group H has Team MYS from APAC West and Taku from Lattam North and Nemesis from North America. That makes up the 30 teams representing their regions at Worlds. This is so crazy. It's so exciting. I cannot wait to see these teams play. Bridget, how about you? First reaction, when April was given you the play-by-play, what were you and April's reacting to? Would you be like, what? They're together. What group was it? - I think Group F is pretty scary to me. That's Orange Juicers, Fusion, Evos Onix and Yala Bingo. - Yeah. - But as far as like matchups within the groups, I am excited for a lot of the matchups in Group C with Nounds and Zora and Ticket Reject, JC. - It's a real proved Zoinks is worth his salt as an analyst group. And I really don't like that one. Really hold it on to believe for Group C. Group E I think is really interesting. Like John is HG peaking in Lattam North at the right time with the regionals and then elevate literally the world's runner-ups last year in APAC East. - I've almost got a tough pull because obviously they only got moved in because Team Talibobo had to back out. So it's a whole thing there. - Oh, imagine Talibobo in that group though. - Oh, I know. Oh my gosh. Yeah. - Holy. - Yeah. That is interesting. But okay, we'll be getting into these groups. We are going to do predictions at some point tonight. Just a few more things I want to mention about the World Championships. The group stage pull and everything like that. I had some people asking me on Twitter as well. I don't know, maybe they just didn't watch the view or just saw the page or whatever. There were a couple of rules in this group one. First obvious one is no region could be a repeat in a group at all. So you can't have two EU teams in the same group, for example. Always would have to change up that. And then the second one, of course, is that you could not have more than two first seeds in a group. So I guess really weird with APAC because they have like a bajillion first seeds because they had a bunch of regional qualifiers. And then the LCQ countered as a second place seed. So it's a whole thing. But that's why along the top of all the regions on the first and second spot for the most part are the first seeds. That's why that works like that. Whereas group G and group age only have one first seed apiece. But yeah. Yeah. That's just basically how it turned out. Oh, and then the last thing, when we do pivot to predictions at some point, we are going to be predicting the first seed out of every group and the second seed out of every group. Well, man, yeah, I know we got to make this hard somehow. It is not, it has not been announced of why that's going to be relevant. But I think it is very safe to say that coming out of a first seed out of a group will most likely place you against a second seed of another group. I would be baffled if that was not the case. So just got to remember you want to be in that first spot position. But yeah, we'll be jumping into that for a moment. But I actually, admittedly, I want to pivot away to something that I found very exciting on Twitter this last week is where people were utilizing the power rankings with the group stage. The power rankings, of course, I'm referring to the whiteboard I have behind me right now of the teams that I was moving around and things like that to try to power rank the entire region. We have a few interesting stats. So we had three entries on Twitter that people were setting as a shout out to. Order in on Twitter, Shink Pokey on Twitter as well, and Dextro Dome, they all reached out and threw out these different ideas. So the first one is if you rant how hard each group is based on each team's placement on those mixed power rankings, this, this is what it would be. And these are the average placements of every single one. So group G is actually listed as the toughest group at 11.6 average power ranking on my power ranking. Now group G is one of the regions that has, here, this is what I'm going to do. I'll move it here. There we go. So group G is onic rise, ZetaVision, and three Jita. So those two bring up that ranking quite a bit. Group A goes all the way down to 20th. So I think SAUL, Legacy, Eastern Alumentto, and actually Luminosity ranked quite low on this. Definitely brings down the lower average of things like that, which I thought was kind of interesting in terms of team's average placement. So I want to hear from you too. How accurate do you think that this is to depicting the group's powers, if we go by my average power rankings within the group? - Kind of interesting because I feel like it makes it hard to compare the groups to one another, but it's almost saying that like, oh, whoever wins group G is winning the hardest group and are more likely to go further in the bracket. - Yes, that is probably what these statistics are pointing towards, for sure. - The only three groups make it harder, for sure. - They bring the average a little bit more. I think like this list kind of cruises of a little bit with group F. Like so many people are talking about how group F is so terrifying and difficult and group E. Group F and group E are second and third on this list. Group G is almost an anomaly. It kind of feels like when a lot of graphs you have to take away the largest and the smallest to get the median or whatever it is. I think that's how math works. It feels like maybe this list would work that same way, but yeah, this list kind of showcasing that F and E is extremely difficult. Group H, D, and C are extremely close. 15, 15.25 and 15.5 in H, D, and C, which I think very interesting. I'll extremely close on the averages. - I like the idea. I think it is a little bit weighted towards just like how good of a team you have because it gets split up like obviously quite well, just based on the fact there's like a bunch of first seeds and then a bunch of like later seeds. So like I feel like you, when you have like a Japanese team, for example, in there you get rated super high just because of your power rankings, which is probably true. But I feel like it's pretty good. Yeah, yeah, I mean, that's like a, I mean, obviously it's really hard to judge any difficulty, right? But I feel like it goes off of your power rankings very well, is what I'll say. - Okay, yeah, I will totally agree with that. It makes the numbers I'm working with make sense. So I think that is fair. Let's go on to the second one. This is actually my favorite one. So this one comes from Shinkpokey who does, basically they ranked the third ranked team in each group to talk about maybe what would be the most difficult. So in group A, for example, S-A-U-L is ranked the third placement out of all four teams at 19th. Whereas a higher group like in group H in Teku is there. It was ranked rather low on the power rankings. However, group E and C are very difficult because C has the lowest being 15th. So the lowest strength team in my eyes, of course, in this group is that directly in the middle and in group E they're actually just above that middle with Johnus being the lowest ranked team in that group. So group E being Johnus Elevate, wait. Oh yeah, Elevate Vamos a champion load. Of course not the lowest ranked group, the third ranked group. Now the reason you choose the third one is because they're always gonna be the wild card team in a group stage that is attempting to qualify two teams. What can that third place team do to really make movement happen? How do we like the third ranking team of each group? Do we think this what is a solid way to do things? Or an interesting thing to look at, Bridget, how about you? - Yeah, definitely. Can you flip back to it, actually, sorry? - It's not in order, so it's hard to read. - Yes, it's in group order. - Okay. - It's in group order, it's in ABCD-E-F-G-H. - Right. - Yeah, I like this a lot as like the disruptors, for sure. - Yeah, just be like, okay, well, I mean, in group C, sure, there's some other solid teams, but like Bridget's like 15th, like they could easily break through and make it into top 16, especially because that is what the cut is into day two, right, is that top 16 spot, which means there are three teams above that cut, which obviously can't work for how the format's gonna go, which I like quite a bit. Chef, any more thoughts on the rank of the third ranked team in each group? - Yeah, I think it's super smart because you don't really need to win your group, right? Like, of course, our difficulty is like how, you know, winning your group, but that, well, not obviously, I genuinely have no idea how it's gonna work, everybody out there, but I'm assuming, like you said, that winning your group is gonna be a bit better seating, but it's not like it's gonna put you in winners versus losers or anything like that. Like, when you get to a single limb, it's like you're gonna have to do what you're gonna have to do anyway since top 16 single limb. So I would have actually really liked to see this, but a combination, like the average or the combination of third and fourth of every group. I feel like that's a really good signifier of like how difficult it can be to get out. And I like that, that would've been good, too. - Third is well, though, because it doesn't take two to beat you, it just takes one to beat you. So I think this is really cool. It's like a, it's a whole different like strategy as far as like looking like, do you wanna win your group or do you wanna just get out of your group? - Right. - Honestly, I know the answer I think for most teams is just get out of your group. - Okay, well, if the question is what group is the most difficult base of these power reggigs, I actually think Dextro's stats might be one of the most interesting. And they put them in a descending order for all of you, which I know you enjoy. But Dextro did this ranking groups based on the standard deviation of power rankings. Basically from the highest ranked team to the bottom ranked team, what is the greatest difference between them? Greatest difference, standard deviation. I'm sure that's more math. Basically, it's saying how tightly packed are the groups based on the power rankings? And group A is actually listed at the top at 4.74 by far the tightest. The next one being 7.26 placements between them. And let me show you group A again for everybody needs to see it. S-A-U-L, Legacy, E-SEN, I-U-MENTO, and Luminosity. And that should make sense. All of those teams are extremely closely ranked with E-SEN, I-U-MENTO being kind of the difference maker. That one, E-SEN, I-U-MENTO at 28th, but S-A-U-L, Luminosity, and of course, Legacy, yeah, thank you so much. Being extremely close, just two placements away from each other. And Luminosity and Legacy being only one placement. So, yeah, very, very interesting that teams team's so tight. - I love this. - Mm-hmm. Yeah, go ahead. - I just think it's really interesting. Like, you guys were kind of saying with the last one, it really only takes one team to knock you out of that day, too, and so seeing who is in Zwing/RIs, the most close. - Mm-hmm. - I mean, really for Group A, I could see any of those three teams, LG, Legacy, and Slate moving on, so. - Yeah, it's a super big toss-up group, which I think is really interesting. Let's look at the other side of this. So, the bottom end, the biggest disparities, are Group F and Group B. Now, why is Group F so abnormally? Look, so, I mean, we're talking about how such a competitive group I see. So, Onyx and Yallabingo are ranked quite low, and Orange Juicers are ranked very, very high. Unfusion, obviously rank one. Orange Juicers currently sitting at rank six on this power rankings, and then Yallabingo and Evo's Onyx are both kind of sub 18 and low, Yallabingo being at 18. So, a huge disparity between those squads, obviously Orange Juicers and Yallabingo, which allows for this big gap, which is honestly, and I'm gonna say it, one of the reasons I had myself scratching my head at why everyone was saying Group F is the group of death. I was like, yeah, it's a tough group, but I think it's a pretty clear Orange Juicers infusion out. Unless people are really gassing up Yallabingo, maybe. I'm not too sure, but yeah, Bridget, how about you? - I honestly think Yallabingo has a very good chance. I think they've won a lot of their regional competitions. They've pretty much stuck together this entire season. I do believe they could make this group pretty interesting. Obviously, number one team in NA right now, Orange Juicers, and number one team from AS fusion, that's an insane group to have to knock them off, but I don't totally count them out at all. - Okay, yeah, I mean, I could see Yallabingo winning games against any of them, that's fair. I will say this, I think Yallabingo is probably one of the teams I have ranked too low under power rankings. I will accept that slight against my big whiteboard and numbers because I do think, yeah, hot take against myself. - I hate to think that is one that I could probably be moving up, but okay. - Well, I didn't ask for that, but thank you so much to everyone who chose to engage. Yeah, thank you Bridget and Wonder Chef for going through those stats, but I thought it was some really interesting points across the board, but let's get down to business, shall we? Let's predict the future and choose what teams are going to, I have no chef, you already had to choose these teams and what group they go in. But now it's time we choose what groups, or what teams make it out of these groups. I don't see any reason to go outside of alphabetical, so why don't we start with group A? Who do we got in first seed out of group A? And chat please, feel free to join in on the conversation. We want to hear what y'all are thinking for who is top out of this group, who's second place, everything like that. Wonder Chef, maybe let's start with you. Who is your heart leading to in terms of first place out of this group? Okay, this is, so I agree with the variance that this group has the highest potential of anybody making it out, in my opinion. Yeah, it's, mm-hmm. Yeah, so obviously all the teams are really good, but also the meadows of all of these regions are very different, and that's something that I feel like I'm gonna talk about a lot as we go through all of them, is I feel like a lot of my predictions are gonna go out the window once I see like which region's meta kind of works out. 'Cause like Japan's meta is so different than like the North American meta, which is so different from like the South American meta. It's like, it's very, very different all across the board, and if I had to make a guess personally, okay, okay. So I'm gonna go a little more in depth if this was one of the other ones. I'm not gonna take this long for the other ones, but-- - Totally fine. - We got time. Wonder Chef, historically-- - All right. - This podcast goes long. - I don't know why that-- - I don't know if you've heard that. - I've said like two times ever. - So I just definitely said it so many more times than you have ever said it. - I know, and I'm not even complaining about it going long. It's just that every single time that it does go long, Zoinks is like, oh, well, you know, it always just points it out. So I'm always just making a point of pointing it out, but okay, so I think that Luminosity obviously very good, but still we need to see how they gel together as a team. They've got a lot of time before Worlds even now, which is great and they had a lot of time since their last tournament. But admittedly, even at NAIC, they weren't looking world champion level, so we'll see. But obviously we know that the players can be. Legacy, we know that they can do better than they have been performing based on the players who are on that team, so they're another team where it's like, yeah, two months can change the world for them. I say UL, I have a lot of confidence in them. I have a lot of confidence in India based on how they've been playing. And then Ethan Almento, I think is, I mean, they're solid and I'm not sure if the teams are gonna prepare for them with who else is in their group. And there's a lot of potential inconsistency in that group. - Yeah, let me before you make your prediction, Chef. I just wanna jump in and talk about a few of the points you make as I think you bang on and a few of them. India has done very well this year in competition. We don't have a lot to point to in terms of global competition, but ACL obviously, true gravity made a huge splash at that tournament. It went extremely far and an extremely good run there. And I say UL beat them, so transitive property is definitely gassing up, I say UL quite a bit in this situation. Ethan Almento, I think is a team that a lot of people ranked quite low because they were the LCQ team, right? So they didn't make it out in their own group qualifier. They had to play in kind of the regions all mashed up together, LCQ. Being said, they still won an LCQ competing against other regions other than just their home region, which isn't an easy task to do. So this is, an APAC East last year was a region to have two teams in the top eight of groups, so they're two teams make it out of the groups last year, as did Japan. They were the only two regions to do that. So things to weigh in on, Bridget, any storyline or points that you wanna bring up on group A before we make our predictions here? - I don't think so. I think you had a good point about Sol 8 and just how good True Gravity was in ACL and that they were able to beat them for the spot is definitely not something we should be sleeping on. - Right. Also, also, even last year, I thought exit UL was extremely good, but the group, I guess, format from Worlds last year meant that they lost, they did not make it out of groups because they lost two to one. The only team to do that against the world champions. So clearly they were good and they were looking so good in that set. So I really, really think that if the format was different last year, they would have been maybe even like top four with how they were playing in that game and they're continuing to be good and it seems like they got even more competition this year. So I don't know, I just got, I got a lot of, in the confidence. - Oh man, I gotta admit, I don't share it. I, they look so good against LG in that one game. And then after that, they just, they just, I think they got O2'd everywhere else. I, I don't know. - It didn't matter. It doesn't matter because they, they lost and then they knew they couldn't qualify. So. - Yeah. - No, you're right. - That was the problem with the format last year is that we saw a bunch of teams that looked really bad after they lost one game because they're like, well, we're out. Why are we even playing? - I know. It's just, the community gives this team so much gas for almost winning a game one time. And that, I don't know, it just sits wrong with me. - That's the best team in the world. - Yes. - The only team to be. - That no one else was able to do. - Okay. Maybe you're right. - Okay. - I have like two squirm. - Oh, I'm glad I'm not on cam because I am moving in the abs area. Okay. I don't know what squirm, I don't know what muscles you used to squirm. Okay. - I guess you're abs. - I guess you're abs. Okay. Oh man. I'm just deflecting. I don't want to make a prediction. Okay. - The first group. - Yeah. I know we're already breaking it down. Okay. I think. Do any of us not have luminosity making out of this group? - What if I said me? - Do you not have LG making it out? - I'm leaving. I have such a Brazil stance like. - Oh. - We're going to disagree. - Okay. So you're vouching for like, is it legacy S-A-U-L? Is that your vouch, Bridget? - Yeah. I'm feeling crazy. - Okay. - Okay. I'm already group A. Yes. (laughing) Okay. Wonderchef, okay. Wonderchef, where does your vote go? - This is actually really truly so hard. - I think Dextro frickin nailed it on the group breakdown. - Yeah. - Now I'm like, okay. This is so hard actually in this one group. - We should have gone backwards. So that we're starting with this one. - Yeah. Actually. - Yeah. - Yeah. - Yeah. - Too late now. - Okay. So I'll say this, I'll say this. I cannot know what the teams will do. Post the, or like within these two months, basically from the last tournaments to worlds. So if I had to say based on the results from, like just taking a screenshot from previous. S-A-U-L makes out in my eyes and Luminosity makes out in my eyes. It's second seed. - Okay. Ooh, legacy first seed. - No, no, no. - Oh, eight first. - Oh. S-A-U. Oh, so you're going S-A-U-L and Luminosity. - Yes. - Oh, man. - I think I'm going out Luminosity and legacy. We got the three way time. - Okay. - Oh my Jesus. - That means that Easton almento is definitely making it. - Yeah. - First one. - Yeah. - They're actually the number, let's see. - Okay, okay, okay, okay. - They could though. They absolutely could. - Unironically. - Yeah, yeah. Like, it's not just that like, like you mentioned, like they had to play in an LCQ that's kind of like harder than their normal tournaments because it was multi-region. And yeah, I think, I think they very easily could. And also, just with how aggressive, you know, APAC is, I think they could like just kind of run over somebody without them knowing and I don't know. - Real. - It's possible to tell. - Easton almento is the like Pikachu team, I think. If I'm remembering correctly. - I did the vaud review of this region so long ago and they're the group that's like, "We're picking Pikachu every freaking time." I'm like, "I don't know why we're drafting Pikachu here," but. - Oh, don't, they're giving away their stretch. (laughs) - That's my job, Bridget. That's literally my whole job. - Okay. - That's crazy. (laughs) - All right. - I'm not a press those fan. I cannot say anything bad about choosing Pikachu. - No, okay, fair enough, fair enough. I cannot deny that. All right. All right. I'll give. I got about her legacy in this, I think. I think, okay. So I'm gonna put legacy, let's put legacy second seed. Thoughts? - Okay. - Sure, yeah. - All right. I'm gonna say blue is our second seed highlighter and green is our first solid. - Oh wait, we have to combine and choose. We can't each choose our own. - We have to, like, come to an agreement. - Yeah. I think we put a ton of asterisks on this group. (gasps) That's the name for this group. - Asterix. - Asterix can droop asterix. (laughs) - Uh oh. - Real group of does? - It's actually called wild card because I don't know how to spell asterisks. - Just use the symbol. - Yeah, just yeah, I'll do what you know. Oops. - Also, it's A-F-T-E-R-I-S-K, but. - Yeah, that's too late. - Yep. (laughs) - Thank you for this. (laughs) - He's already, he's gone. - It's over, yeah, yeah, yeah. - All right, there. That's group A. - It looks like it's wearing like a allow, like a... - Naomi just came in and said where we at. - Naomi, we are on group one. - We're on the first one, baby. - First one. - Okay. - Oh man. - All right, Bridget. Well actually, okay, legacy wasn't on your choice at all. Right, Wonder Chef? - Or yours, right, Chuck? - Right, we, no, no, we actually kind of went in like a full circle, I think. - Yeah, we did, we three-way time. But that's what I'm saying, I am opting for legacy, so your choice wasn't chosen at all. So in this realm where legacy gets second, do you choose S-A-U-L or Luminosity to get first? - S-A-U-L. - Oh my gosh. - Oh my gosh. - We're gonna get used to it. - Hold on, Twitter. - We don't have our homework, you have sex, heat, you know? This is what happens. - This is pre, this is pre the two month training, right? This is pre the two month training. - True. - So we'll see. - Oh man, I can't believe it. - We're gonna cut. - We just predicted two-time world champions, Luminosity came to not be- - There's one guy, there's one guy, is it two time champion? - Bridget, that one guy, I think the majority of people to agree is the best player in the world. - I'm not saying you're wrong, I'm just saying you slow bar old dot guy. - I like the way you say, okay, oh man. Yeah, I mean, okay, look, I'm basing this off of just what we saw from them at AIC. And I know that they admitted like this is still not where we wanna be at an AIC, which is totally like, they understand what they had to do in these two months, but you can't guess that they're gonna, you know, jump up a million, you know, places in two months. You just have to go off the last known thing, but I do have confidence that they can get back to 100%, or pass 100% with that roster. It's so ridiculous. I have that confidence, but you just, you can't base it off of that confidence, you know? - Yeah. - Can we switch S-A-U-L in legacy? You want legacy first, see it out? - I don't want-- - Are you serious? - I don't want S-A-U-L for me! - I just don't know how I got convinced into India making it out of this group. - I don't know how you got convinced to put Brazil first in a group. - Oh, I like it better than S-A-U-L for some group. - Oh, listen, I'll, I'll mentor out. There, they'll be first. - Yeah, legacy first, each time, so second. - Okay, well, for all of those wondering, the reason there's stars above group A is because we are naming this group Asterisk, because we really have no idea. This is the biggest wild card group. I'm just calling it wild card. Asterisk is not gonna translate to Twitter. - We need to wild card there. - And that is gonna be-- - You should put group after it. - Group, wild card group. Oh, I see what you're saying, okay. - You'll know what you're doing. - Sure. (laughing) - All right, is-- - Am I editing? - Yeah, so sorry, is this taking way too long? - No, this is perfect. - Yeah, I mean, this is-- - This is really great for audio listening. - This is very, this is very overdone right now. (laughing) Wild card group, there we go. We have now named the group. All right, let's move on to group B. Let's move on to group B. If we need separate bets, I know, we do. I mean, I'll make my own individual ones later. - Yeah, so I'm just like, I'm not cositing those. (laughing) - Hey, no, I mean, I have to. That's the game on this podcast. - It's just vaseous, whoa. (laughing) - I don't know what's up with that, but-- - All right, let's move on to group B. - Let me take a minute. - All right, group B, group B, group B. - Talon, cake lock, Imperial, and G. Let's move on. I think this group is a little easier to predict. My two clear teams out of this group are Talon and G. Is there any debate there? - Not for me. - I do not think so. - Okay, Talon first or Talon second? I'm saying Talon first. - I also think Talon first. - I think Talon second. I really have a lot of confidence in G after, after their last performance. I don't know. I mean, I don't know. Okay, listen, listen. I know that Talon's really good right now, but I also don't, I still don't understand exactly, and that's a me problem. Why like, you know, like for example, like why everybody who's saying like, have them, or are they fourth in your power ranking? - Yeah. - Admittedly, that might be a little too high, but they are up there. - I mean, they won their region and got second in world last year, no? - Elevate got second. - Elevate got second. - But they be elevated in regional finals. - Okay, that's, okay. - Yeah, okay. I feel like a lot of like the APAC community reached them like very high. - Yeah, definitely. - Yeah, that's true for sure. I mean, again, it's just to maybe a thing I don't know, but I think G's gonna do really well, especially with their like, they've got a lot of offline experience, which I think is gonna help out a lot. And obviously also world's repeater, right? We're world champion repeater. So that's always gonna be like nice little boost to your confidence, but I don't know. I think I just don't know about talent, maybe. It's very possible. - Okay, okay. - That's fair. - How do we feel about this, the APAC rated group? Like, I feel like talent gets so much gas just from their own region, right? Like it's the-- - Yeah, APAC homers. - Ooh, APAC homers is good. - Channeling dubestacks. - Okay, this is the APAC homers group. That is what we were calling, but just fun exists to APAC teams when we're choosing one, but it's fine. Okay, let's move on to group C. A lot of people's group of death. This was, that was mine when I was originally looking at it. Apparently it's low-key group A. But group C, Nounsy Sports, Zora Tigers Gaming, Antic Esports and Reject. So I think we might want to talk about this group a little bit more than we have, at least over group B. Nounsy Sports, obviously, a team that's hitting the ground running right now. They're absolutely crushing it. I think a lot of people are gonna have them ranked first over this group. I'm gonna be included. Zora Tigers Gaming, a team I am extremely high on. I think this team is so, so good. Just from what I've seen in the eye test, they have not gotten to compete very much internationally outside of ACL, which they place fifth against some very incredible regions in their own right, and they dominated their own region. Two owing everybody even, even Stix teams. So I got Zora Tigers Gaming there. There is Antic in this group as well, not the regional winners. They qualify through championship points, and then Reject JSB, a Japan team, so instantly already gets extra rated, and they're the secret ship squad. They have that magic behind them, they just do. So that is another thing to consider when it comes to that squad. So with that, I am vouching for Noun's first place out of the group. How about you two? - I agree, okay? - Yeah, that's hard one to fight. - All right, sick. So we got that in place now. May I interest you in Zora Tigers Gaming's second place? - Oh, that's a hard one. - No, but yeah, that guy, that is secret ship. I mean, it's three members, that's old secret ship, right? It's three members, it's not the entirety of the old squad, but the yackos on that team and that whole crew, so. But which is kind of cursed to not make it in a group's in-world, say if the last two years or they have the magic for their regional final, and then it just drops out a little bit, but. So I'm vouching for Zora Tigers Gaming. How about you, Wonder Chef? - I, well, okay, before anything, I will say that while I'm not voting for ANTIC, I think that this could potentially be a really good pull for ANTIC because. - Oh, okay. - I know that, I mean, it's not a good pull for ANTIC, it's a tough group, but as far as like an upset potential, I think they've got something there, just because we know that Toulou is like a big studier and specifically has more knowledge of a lot of the Asian teams than kind of anybody that I know, it's really impressive. - Okay. - Like when we were watching ACL, he was like, oh yeah, this team's great, this team is super strong at this, blah, blah, and happened to get the Japanese team and then Zora Tigers Gaming in there, and now this is like whatever, I don't know if you're gonna have a chance there, but just that knowledge might be good to pull off some sort of upset, have some sort of counter, but unfortunately I'm not voting for ANTIC, even though I love the OC crew, and I'm voting for Zora Tigers Gaming as well, honestly. - That's cool. - Okay, that is two votes, so it will be getting highlighted, but Bridget, I will allow you to speak your piece, would you have been vouching for any other team? Reject or ANTIC? - As much as I wish I could vouch for ANTIC, it's just really hard knowing how much smaller their pull is compared to especially Japan and Korea and even Europe. And I did pull up my World's Friendship from last year, just to see how Secret Ship did, and they were the only Japan team to not make it out of their group, and went 03, so I will co-sign the Zora Tigers Gaming. - Okay, okay, yeah, I think Rejecting has some chance, I saw people mentioning in chat, Reject did beat Unite Holic to qualify here, which is kind of crazy, right? So that is a big vouch. This is another group that obviously has some pretty big toss ups. Any vouches for the name that we wanna give this? Obviously, chat, we've decided that group C is a boring name, and we want to instead name the groups. I actually, I have a suggestion. Okay, let me change it, hold on, change that, and then do this, and this. Surely, this time, tune. - Oh, bro! - There. - Dad, that's kind of sad. You have to read it to the class. - Can we add from Zoints at the end of that one? - No. (laughing) - Oh, maybe, is that too much? Is that too, should we issue? - Oh, but then I put the question mark after tune, and then I think it's good. - It's surely this time, tune? Group? (laughing) - Yeah. Yeah, exactly. - No, it's good, okay. Ooh, X-Factor for Zor Tigers is actually pretty good. Last chance, do we change it to group X-Factor? - I like you trying to get us blown up on Twitter. - Yeah, I like the drama. - Oh, man, okay. - Why are you, you're the one who bought it up? - I know, 'cause I thought it was funny, you know, I feel bad, but all right, all right, all right. - He likes the banter. - He does, except he always beats me in the banter, but we'll move on. (laughing) Group D, shit and Rude from APAC East, ground zero gaming from OC, the 32, first seeds, second seeds are Dream Max Esports and rework Respawn from Lattam North. This is a really interesting group, actually. Another one that was pretty high on the like close in comparison rankings, ground zero definitely like pulls it down a little bit, but ground zero low, Dream Max in the middle of the pack and then shin and Rude and rework Respawn both being ranked extremely high. She has a pretty even spread on this group, so it gets kind of interesting there. My vouchers, I mean, mine are pretty safe in this region as it's just shin and Rude and rework Respawn, probably an opposite order of the ones I said, I actually might have rework out of first seed in this. I believe in this team. I believe in rework real hard. I know they kind of biffed it in their regional finals, but I think they're way bigger than that. So I'm vouching Rude first, shin and Rude second. - Did it, or excuse me, did it rework Respawn do really good in, was it Unity Clash recently? - Yes. - A grassroots tourney, I believe they actually showed up pretty or before that was out of semi global scale. So I know Ping, Avi, but yeah, I would cosign R-R first. - Okay, okay. Well, it's kind of two votes. I'm just trying to click the highlights. - Um, we'll hit that a little bit. How about you, Wonder Chef? - Yeah, it's just like the extra just said in chat. I was gonna bring that up, so I'm angry that it was brought up before I got to say it, and I'm just kidding. Rematch, obviously, third and fourth place from AS Cup, so we get a pretty direct, one of the only directions between regions that we get to see here. Obviously, that was 6,000 years ago, and true. I'm really in bed as a go. - Yeah, in esports years, it's ancient history, but. - Yeah, it's beyond my memory at this point. But that's cool to see, and I do. First of all, I gotta say, I've been saying, or writing shin and Rude wrong this entire time, and I think it was misspelled somewhere, and nobody ever corrected it, and I think people have been spelling it wrong as well. But it's Rude, exactly like that. But I agree with y'all, Rude Respawn, Shin, Rude. - Definitely, second place. - Yeah, it could easily go either way. I think if there was one group that I had to say the first and second place is as close as it could possibly be. It's probably that one, but I have to vote just based on what we've seen. - Oh my gosh, I keep grabbing this stupid wrong thing. I'm gonna lock it. - I will say, I'm calling this one the revenge group, because of the rematch. I think that's fun. I think that is what we're gonna call group D, is revenge group. Now I have to move everything because I, okay. All right, we're halfway through, everybody. We're halfway through, we're doing it. We are so doing it. Let's move on to group E, champion Lord, Johnna Sage G, Elevate, and Vamos. Did I spell revenge wrong? Okay, I don't know. I don't know if someone's suggesting a name or correcting my spelling. It's fine, my spelling is horrendous. Group E, I just mentioned the teams. This is, this feels like another group A to me. I'm not gonna lie. I actually don't know where to go first off. Oh, okay, hold on. Does anyone not have champion Lord first place out of this group? - They're Duffer first. - Okay, yeah, well it's two vouches, so. - I have to vote for them as well. I feel like there's a chance that they don't end up, that doesn't end up happening, but I think-- - For sure. - You have to vote for them. - All right, all right. Who goes second? Is it extremely hot right now, Janice? Or is it not so hot in their regional finals, but very hot last year at World's Elevate? Or Vamos, the true wild card? - I think EU plays really funny in a good way, complimentary, and I think that any EU team can pull off any upset. I mean, nouns, I think they play a little bit more kind of normalish, but specifically Vamos and Yalabingo. Actually, especially Yalabingo, we'll talk about that later. They play kind of wild, you know? We've seen it a lot in their meta over there, like monthly cups, and I'm not sure of the other teams we're gonna be ready for, but that's not my vote. My second vote is probably, I don't know. (laughing) - It's probably, I was just talking to try and build myself time, and I just, it wasn't enough time. - Okay, so here's what I'm thinking with this team. I, my vote, is gonna go to Janus. Recency bias aside, we already have two APAC East teams making it through. What are the odds three APAC, three out of four APAC East teams make it out, you know? - I mean, I just think that just means it's a strong region. - No, it does, it does, it's a extremely strong region. It's totally fair, but I'm trying to play the odds here. - I am also leaning towards Janus, Janus. - I've said it four different ways in this one. - All right, great. - I really don't know, I really don't know. - It's definitely your guys' fault. - Yeah, chat's actually kind of going off for Janus too. So if we're including them, which we never do, but if we want to, we are, okay, now Ripto says elevate. Now, now you swing in and say elevate Ripto. But yeah, I'm thinking Janus right now. - I could definitely see elevate locking in. - For sure. - Depending on the meta, like, I am so excited to see like the clash of all the regions. - Do we want to talk about how-- - But then North just plays soda for the new packies, so it'll be interesting. - All that is true. We want to talk about how elevate their best player on that team, I think a lot of people would argue, is their Mew player, who's like a god-like Mew intel, and we don't see that Pokemon very much at all in competitive right now. - Girl. - Maybe. I don't know, I mean, I think we could, and it would still do fine. It's just a Mew. - Mew, yeah. - Mew's kind of always good. - Yeah. - Doesn't match up pretty solely on, I think, but yeah. I'm vouching Janus. That is my vote. Bridget, is that your vote? - It is. - All right, Wonder Chef. - All right, just like we're gang up on Wonder Chef, I'm not gonna lie to you. - Hey. - That's fine. - SAUL is first seeded of Group A because of the match. - I don't know what happened in Group A, I flocked out. - Yeah, we all blacked out at Group A. - I was like, what happened to him? - Why is Libidosity not making it out? - I don't know what happens. - Oh my gosh, yeah. - We could rethink that one, but I think it's funny to leave it this way, so. - Yeah. - I agree. - Is also, I don't know if Isen Aumento is a sponsored team, but is Group A the most sponsored teams we have? - Oh wow. - In a group? - SAUL, Legacy and Luminosity are all rather large orgs, while Shin and Rude, Ground Zero, and Dreamax are all also orgs, I suppose. - Antic Nouns and Reject are all for sure groups. I don't know if Zora Tigers is a boyfriend or not. - I'd have to assume. - Yeah, if you put gaming at the end of your name, you're probably an org. - Yeah, it actually might be C, might be-- - And I think C might be four for four sponsored teams. - That's actually pretty sick to see. Like, now that I'm taking a look at it, we have a lot of sponsored teams, that's awesome. - Good job, gosh. - Yeah, shout out, get that money. Okay, all right, well, Group E, Champion, Lord and Jonas, what do we want to give the name for Group E? Any ideas for names? Chat, feel free to sound off if you have a name for Group E. - Mm. - Group. - I don't know, that's a tough one. I thought originally we were gonna do something with like using the letters of the name, but we're not doing that. - Race for second is very good. - Race for second. - I love Naomi just wanting to call it Japan. - Japan and who else? - Japan and friends. (laughing) - And Seam. Oh, Antic makes it up. Oh, ICC. Oh, Vamos makes it up, eh, good to have them. If they don't get their absol band against them, that's it. All right, Group F, shall we? What a lot of people we're losing their mind on Twitter about, Orange Juicers from North America, Fusion from Latin America South, Evo's Onix from APEC West, and Yalabengo from EU. I mean, it's just, it's just Orange Juicers Fusion, right? - Yeah, as much as I think Yalabengo could make something happen, I cannot bet against. - For sure, for sure. - Either of those teams. - Totally give it that. I give it that. Wonder Chef, would you vouch for Evo's Onix or Yalabengo? - I mean, I vouch for the machines, but. - Oh, for sure. Listen, listen, this is the world championships, right? Like, all the teams here are frickin' gods at the game. Like, they are all extremely, we have luminosity, not making it out of group A. Like, there are, there are incredible teams here. So yeah, definitely, we'll give the teams their flowers, but who you got winning? - I think, I mean, if we're talking about like, who's winning first place in it? I gotta give it to Fusion. I mean, I don't have the reason to think otherwise. - Bridget, how do you think? I don't know how you think it. - I'm going through Zarkmit, though. - Yeah, I must say Fusion, as well. - Okay. - Orange users has been looking great, though. So, and we haven't, you know, Orange users wasn't a team, necessarily when Aos happened, so. - True. And the players on Orange users who were at Aoscup, all did quite well, right? Like, you think about like where they were on at teams at that time, like, they were doing quite well. Like, rolling in particular, but. - Great. - Okay. - Okay. - Group F, I'm gonna call. Group, oh, well, it's wrong color, crap. Hold on. - Group, you fake group of death. - Fake group of death? - Yeah, I mean, it's a really hard group. I do really think, especially, especially, if I had to choose one team that could pull off like maybe the biggest upset of the entire tournament, it's possibly Yalabingo. - Mm. - Whoa, win the whole tournament? - No, I didn't say win the whole tournament. I said pull off the biggest upset of the whole tournament. - Yeah, thank you. - Oh, I thought you said if there was one team that randomly won the whole tournament, it'd be Yalabingo. I was like, okay, let's go. But yeah, yeah, whoever gets a win off fusion probably gets out of groups, that's true. Yeah, yeah, most likely, I will say. Okay, let's move on. Group G, only three teams in these last two groups so basically only one team is getting the boot. We have Ryze, Zeta Division, three Jiditos. I, pretty clear, Zeta Division first, Ryze second for me. How are you all feeling? - Zeta Division is-- - Copy chance. - Copy chance for those who may not know. - And Ryze was RRQ from last year. - Oh, yeah. - And I mean, just Ryze from this year. They've been doing quite well. It's like your and that whole group. - Yeah, I fully agree. I mean, as good three Jiditos, they pushed fusion to a bracket reset in grand finals, right? The final game, game five for sure. But it's just like, I'd set it with SAUL. I don't like giving teams a ton of gas for almost winning a game one time. You know what I mean? So that's where I'm going. I'm going Zeta first, Ryze seconds. - I actually think that secretly this is kind of a group of death. - That's what I'm saying, right? Yeah. - Yeah. - Only three is a little scary. - Okay. - Yeah, that actually does make it even scarier, honestly, in some way. - Ryze is the low-key scary group? - Low-key scary, or high-key scary. - All right. Group H, y'all. Group H, the final group of the night. Team M-Y-S, and TECU, and Nemesis. Interesting. Okay, another three teams. So obviously, the teams that are chilling in Group H and G, quite excited about the fact that they have a very, very good chance to make it out of the groups and in today too. But still, they do have some stiff competition. Who are we all thinking for first place out of this group? I think, are we most likely saying that N-TECU is not making it today too? - Yeah, I think I would have to probably agree with that. Actually, I don't know. - Yeah. - Okay, okay. Actually, I think Nemesis is making it today too. - Agreed. - And pass that. I think, kind of, anything could happen. I think it's very possible that anything could happen. - Oh, so you're vouching for Nemesis for a seed then? - Yeah. - Okay, okay. How about you, Bridget? - Not. - Okay. - Hey, listen, I should, but the, okay, we talked about it a little bit with Talon. M-Y-S is one of those teams that in region, people will not shut up about how good they are. Like, in APAC, people are like, M-Y-S is the frickin' bastard, M-Y-S is so good. Yeah, they didn't do that well in that tournament, but they're so good. It's like, oh, man. - I'm not, is it the same roster as last year? Do you know? - I think they switched out one player before the most part, it is the same roster, yeah. - They did it day two last year. Obviously, it was only top eight. They lost to M-J-K in Japan, but they were able to be team peps and T-TV. - Sheesh. - So, they seem to have the Western (laughs) at a down, at least from a year ago. I would say M-Y-S and them, but I'm not sure who I would put first. - I guess none. - Yeah, I think if we're all collectively saying them, very okay to vouch for them first place year. Second place, let's go ahead and just lock down M-Y-S, and Teku has some great players. - Yeah. - And he sucks, it's a mean buzz will, I'll say it. But I just, I mean, those are all first timers on to a world stage. I mean, I can pull whatever narrative I want. I think Nemesis and M-Y-S just are like, the more notorious teams, they got that name factor. I feel like they're gonna be able to rock it in, but whoever throws less gets first. (laughs) - Really? - I mean, no one's some of those teams, some of those players, yeah, maybe you're right. Maybe you're right. Okay, do we have a group name for group H? Any ideas from anybody? Chat or Bridget or Wunderchef? Group, hard for and Teku. - Oh, wait, hold on, I like this one from Chat. The Nemesis. - That's not even like a... - Oh, I can't do capitals in this. - Shout out any stuff. - It still works, I think it still works. - Oh, I just have to like spell it different. - No, I didn't even do any M-Y-S-I-S. It goes through, it gets through. - There we go. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. I'm just gonna spell Nemesis wrong. It's basically... - And shout out any SUS and parentheses. - Yeah. Also, they're not even called Nemesis anymore. They're the Fluffy Amers. - Oh, I forgot. - Aren't they Fluffy Nemesis now? They're still kind of Nemesis, right? - Yeah, they're Fluffy Nemesis, which is crazy. - Nemesis, Nemesis, yeah, it is crazy. But okay, there we go. People, screen cap it, clip it, whatever you like. That is our final group predictions. Just to run it down for you, audio listeners, one more time. In group A, AKA the wild card group. - Oh, God. - In first place, we have S-A-U-L esports and legacy in second place, moving on. In group A, it group B, AKA the APAG Homer's group. We have Talon going out first and G going through second. In group C, AKA the Shirley This Time Tune group. We have Nouns esports going out first place and Zora Tiger's gaming second place at a group C. Group D, we have the Revenge group. And we have Rework, Respawn of Latin America, North coming in first place and Shinden Rudy of APEC East coming in second place. In group E, AKA the Race for Second group. Yeah, that might be my favorite one. We have Champion Lord in first place and Latin America North in second, sorry. Latin America North is Johnus HG in second place. In group F, AKA the Fake Group of Death. We have Latin America South's Fusion in first place and Orange Juicers from North America in second place. In group G, AKA the low-key scary group, question mark. We have Japan's Zated Division in first place and APAC West's Rise or Onik Rise in second place. And our final group, group H, AKA the Nemesis, so you gotta look how it's spelled group, is gonna be Nemesis in first place and Team MYS from APAC West in second place. And that's the whole crew. That is the whole crew. We did it, folks. I can't believe it, but in the end, we got all the groups, crazy stuff. Any regrets from the two of you or? - So many, so many regrets, so many. - I should not have agreed to come on this episode. I should have said no, I'm busy tonight. - Let's go. - I'm playing 5/14, please. - Oh my gosh. - Little free you soon. - It's, yeah, that's, I mean, that's the life we chose when we picked up podcasting it. I don't know. Anyway, so that's it. If you're watching this episode on YouTube, hopefully we get it up in some time. We're really behind on the YouTube and podcast uploads, so we're really sorry about that again. I know, I'm even apologizing for that, but that's on me. But thank you everybody for the constant support. Specifically, you, Wonder Chef, and Bridget, for joining and doing this really, really fun predictions show. And I think with one thing that all three of us can say with absolute certainty is there is no way that this even remotely reflects what's actually gonna happen at Worlds. Like, oh, it's-- - I said my Mo-Toe is gonna win it all. - He said my Mo-Toe, he said my Mo-Toe. - That is true. Wait, hold on, hold on. That's the last question I have for all of you, including chat. What team that we don't have highlighted is the most likely team to win Worlds? - Ooh. - To win Worlds? - Yes, out of all the teams that we don't have predicted to make it out of groups, what team is the most likely to win Worlds? - LG, bro. - LG, what am I talking about? I forgot 'cause I voted for LG, and that could be LG. Can we do this question without LG? I feel like that is more interesting. - Okay, I mean, really? - I also feel like we should double highlight LG in that group. - The funniest part is we don't have first or second place making it out from last year, making it out, 'cause elevator also are making it out. - Okay, we're actually demons for this. - Of course, to be fair, to be fair, let me just, let me, for anybody who's watching or listening, I voted for Luminosity to make out of pools and I voted making out of pools, but this is a, that won't hold up a court, that won't hold up a court, race it for the record, it won't hold up a court. - We all held hands and agreed on this. - Oh my gosh, okay, so you're both voting LG. - I'm voting reject J-S-V, baby. - Secret ship to the Moon, plus it's just when in doubt, always bet on Japan, that's what I'm betting for this year. We'll see, we'll see. Gosh, that is gonna be a crazy, crazy lineup. Okay, just a few little quick stats before we get to the end of it. In leading out of the groups, we have three teams from North America, that is the most representation of any of the regions, from the teams that we chose. We only have two APAC East teams, we only have two APAC West teams, and same with Latin America North, Japan only having two as well, so somewhat interesting. Obviously, there's a few regions, we only have one. We only have one EU team, out of the three that are qualifying, yeah, some other interesting stuff like that, and of course, the two teams going to us, it's crazy, but okay, let's close up shop on this episode, Bridget, anything that you wanna shout out before we end stream? - Unite Mike's Mayhem starts next week, correct? - This week starts tomorrow. - This week, it starts tomorrow, I knew that. (laughing) - Yes, yes, yes. Okay, yeah, for everybody who's wondering, Unite Mike's Mayhem starts literally tomorrow. We are going to be doing our event yet again. If anybody does not know what Unite Mike's Mayhem is, is watching this channel, it is, Doop's Nice and Nice, the Unite Mike's channel's Invitational Tournament Series. We do three nights, a very like Fight Night-esque, if you're a fan of other esports that do weekly evening tournaments. But basically, we invite four teams to have a competition where you play for a $100 prize pool, four teams, single limb, very straightforward, but then out of those three weeks, we take the winners, and they all play the winner of last season's Unite Mike's Mayhem, which was Nemesis, so we're gonna have those three teams competing. I will give you the teams that are playing tomorrow, but just for a little bit of hype, Nemesis obviously waiting on that championship day on the 31st, but all four of the NA reps have all confirmed to me and signed up for different events and different days that they'll be playing in, so each week we'll have a different World's Qualified North American team competing, I'm very excited. - You wanna suck? - Potentially getting some rework response, definitely that too, we'll see, we'll see. But G is gonna be competing tomorrow, and as well as Umbravolpium, we'll be playing Pocket Rockets, if you have not watched Grassroots Turnipids right now, you might've not got the chance to watch Pocket Rockets play, they are notorious for playing the support, but champ, or as Inder likes to call it, the quarterback, so you might wanna check it out, it's very, very good, and then the final team playing is going to be the Mighty Ducks, which is kind of like a new look at Exile this year, so yeah, it'll be a very exciting evening of Pokemon Unite tomorrow night, so make sure to tune in. It will be at 9.30pm Eastern, happening here on the Unite Mix channel, so be there, be square, you know the vibes, we'll probably be doing some giveaways and stuff, I don't know what exactly it tells on that, pay attention to the Twitter, you know where to find us. Wonder Chef, how about you? - No, I don't got anything, honestly, I'm boring right now, I feel like we're just, yeah, I was gonna say, I was gonna say the tournament thing as well, but-- - Oh my God, it's there stuff. - Yeah, so I'll just be the one to awkwardly say, let's look forward to Worlds, woo! - Yeah, woo! Yeah, awesome, I can't wait, we're probably gonna be covering more and more Worlds stuff, we'll be talking about the groups as we get closer to the actual event date, of course, over now, we'll keep on chugging out new episodes, but thank you everybody for tuning in, it was a super fun live stream here on Twitch, but make sure to tune in to the episodes on YouTube as they go up, leave a comment about what we got wrong, what we got right in the group, so I really wanna hear from you all, and by that, I am terrified. So, we'll see you all next week, when potentially that boy, Mark, will be on the episode, but we'll see you all then, and have a great rest of your night, bye-bye! (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music)