Summoning Insight

Rumors swirl that all major regions, LCS, LCK, and LPL, will be changing their formats next year to accommodate an additional international event, which sounds like a return to the League of Legends circuit from ten years ago. Fnatic's additions of Trymbi and Noah seem to have helped with the longstanding synergy issues between Humanoid and Razork, but will this new bot lane allow them to take the LEC title? JDG is a juggernaut and should be the favorites to win Worlds in almost any scenario, especially as they tore through the TOP Esports last week. Thorin and Monte discuss what makes them so strong and if any teams from the LCK can currently compete with the LPL's best. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

All the major regions in League of Legends are up and running, so it's time to check in on the general level of play at the start of summer with LPL as the clear leader. Teams in LCS and LEC look poor at the moment and the LCS' viewership is hitting an all-time low, so it may be a rough Worlds for the West in 2023. Monte and Thorin chat about the upcoming telecom war in LCK and why fans should have hope that KT can finally beat T1, as well as the possibility of an upset by Dplus over GenG. They also discuss which teams might be currently overperforming, such as Team Liquid, Heretics, and Evil Geniuses, and why they expect those teams to fall back to Earth. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Harris Peskin, attorney at ESG Law, comes on the show to finalize the discussion of the LCS player walk-out and debate whether the players themselves have taken too much money to make the league sustainable. They also discuss the possibility of unionization and salary caps for the professional players, which may be the only path forward to responsibly continue the LCS. The teams appear to have received the worst pain from the bursting of the esports bubble, so what will they need to do to survive? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Richard "RichsWrath" Wells joins the show to discuss the ongoing walk-out saga from the LCS Players' Association and the current financial realities of player salaries within the League of Legends ecosystem. They dive into Doublelift's on-stream responses to the player walkout and his potential sabotage of the collective negotiating efforts. Other topics of discussion include Sjokz's surprise announcement that she'll be taking a break from the LEC broadcast for the Summer Split, the staleness of the meta as LPL kicks off once more, and the ethics of being a scab player for LCS teams. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Monte and Thorin are joined by eight classic Summoning Insight guests to share memories of League of Legends esports as a celebration of 200 episodes of the show! Taking turns on the podcast are Edward "Edward" Abgaryan, Nick "LS" De Cesare, Jakob "YamatoCannon" Mebdi, Maurice "Amazing" Stückenschneider, Yoon-seop "Locodoco" Choi, Erik "DoA" Lonnquist, Will "Chobra" Cho, and Christoph "nRated" Seitz. Learn the truth behind the Gambit Pringles sponsorship, the definition of a toxic cesspool of negativity, and stroll down memory lane from 10 years of League of Legends esports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

MSI ends with an all-LPL final and a convincing win for the JDG super team, and Summoning Insight is here to break down all the details. What went wrong for T1 and Gen.G? TSM announces their departure from the LCS for another region, which ends the TSM holy war in a final victory for Monte and Thorin. The North American academy system is in trouble as the teams vote to end the challenger team requirement and the players' association makes demands, but does this make sense financially in League of Legends? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

T1, JDG, and Gen.G all have strong claims to become the next MSI champion, but who do Thorin and Monte predict will claim the title? Spanish and French fans are crossing a line with player criticism and deserve to be called out, even though player performance from Europe has not been up to its usual international standards. T1 roars back after losing their Korean crown to GenG and we're here to break down why fortunes reversed and the teams evolved since their last best-of-five showdown in the LCK finals. JDG seem like the team to beat with spectacular teamfighting and a favorable meta that enables their superstar ADC, Ruler, but they showed some flaws in the LPL that have yet to be revealed on the MSI stage... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On the cusp of MSI playoffs, Thorin and Monte preview each match and discuss why the Western teams have slim odds of an upset and how each team matches up stylistically with their opponents. MAD Lions and Golden Guardians have been borrowing strategies from T1 and GenG, but how can they win as they face the real thing? G2's wacky team compositions won't be enough to topple the macro gods of GenG, especially if they continue to play without a teleport in top lane. Analysts have been talking a big game about NA's performance at play-ins at international tournaments, but Monte and Thorin are here to dispel that delusion and question how satisfied North American fans should be. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

MSI is almost upon us! Monte and Thorin are very excited about the format and chat about their expectations for the teams as they head to London. They recap the LEC finals and celebrate MAD Lions' epic run through the lower bracket while remaining a bit wary about their tendency to throw. Evil Geniuses appear to be cutting their budget and releasing their player, but why not fire the management as well? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Riot's global head of esports, John Needham, wrote a blog post and conducted an interview with Travis Gafford outlining Riot's future plans for esports given the industry's current crisis and the financial struggles of many of the teams. Monte and Thorin react to Riot's plans and pierce through the PR veneer to get to the core issues and evaluate whether the changes to the LoL ecosystem can be successful. Leaks have sprouted around Riot's plans to allow teams to field up to three imported players, but will this be successful at making more competitive teams from LCS? The LPL finals and LEC Spring groups round out the conversation alongside some healthy appreciate for the upcoming MSI and its exciting format. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices