TeamNade Ep31 - The OpTic Breakdown

In this podcast episode, the hosts discuss the recent happenings in the Halo competitive scene. They talk about the HCS Atlanta Open, where Quadrant emerged as the winners, and Mindfreak dominated in the ANZ region. They also mention upcoming matches and roster news. What is happening people? Welcome back to the team mate podcast episode number 31. It's the 24th of June joined today by the man himself Forbesy98 or Forbesy99 because a little bit of controversy around the name. What's happening, bro? You've been quiet for like four or five weeks like I'm so close to being able to change it. The people need to know bro like they need to know where they can find you in game. If you see Forbesy99 going around X to find lobbies, that's me. Yeah, and you can Ubisoft if it's Forbesy99. It's the guy. Catch me in the assassin's creed brotherhood online servers. Which one had the online multiplayer one that you just assassinated? Brotherhood I think. It was so bad but also so good at the same time. I was so mad at it. I remember the first time I played it. I think I was a target and I was like got to like the last like five seconds of the game and then someone just pulled me into a bush. There was nobody ever playing that ever but in the game it was so much fun. I enjoyed it so much. I definitely remember like there was people that were just like super sweaty as well. Oh yeah, but they had like level 99 plague doctors and stuff and I was just like oh okay cool. A sick one this one. Yeah, cheers. All right, nice one. I've literally never played this game online before but fuck me I guess. No, I'm doing well. I'm doing well. Thank you. How are you doing? I'm all right, man. I'm not too bad. Keeping you busy? Yeah, yeah, of course, man. Many things to be doing and not a lot of time to do all of them. We all know that, don't we? Never enough time in the day anymore. It's too much fucking shit to be doing. Everything else outside of work as well. Yeah, fuck all that shit, bro. I'm so fed up with doing washing. But that is not what the people are here for. They're not here to listen to us complain about our lives, bro. Are they not? No. Do you know what they are here for? What's that? Halo competitive news. Hey, yo. Let's get it, man. It's been a little under a week since we last caught up on this. So I'm not going to lie to you, bro. Before we get into this, I really don't like these Sunday, Thursday opens that they've got going on in America. They're so hard to keep track of. I can't lie. Like, you know what I mean? Working out which teams are still in and which they're not. It's just kind of just boring. But anyway. So much logistics for what it is. Yeah, exactly. In the EU, for HCS Atlanta Open number three. As expected, Quadrant and Into the Breach absolutely savaged their side of the bracket all the way to the winner's final. Well, I actually watched this game this week. Into the Breach looked quite good. I think they won game one and they lost the Slayer in game two. Their Slayers are not looking good. I can't lie, bro. How's their oddball looking? Because I know that was an issue that they had at the last major. I think they beat Quadrant in oddball. They beat Quadrant, yeah, in low-fire oddball. Because I remember I was in Wonder Boy's chat when I asked the major and he said their oddball was their worst. It's so bad. I mean, I think they're getting better. They looked good. They looked solid. Like, it's just the Slayers just seem a little bit iffy. But also, it's the Slayer in it. You know what I mean? I feel like with a Slayer, you can go into it with a plan and a strategy. But like... You can very quickly go out the window. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Like, that only goes as far as that very first gunfight in some cases. Like, you know what I mean? Yeah, because it was for oddball in that you can kind of control the game and how you want it to play out and where you want to hold it and whatever else. But that Slayer, it all depends on how the gunfights go. And if you lose gunfights, then that's your entire idea and the things you've talked about can about the window to a certain degree. I find that Slayer is my least favourite game mode in the game. I don't like it because it's boring. Yeah, it's just very, very boring. But yeah, man. So, Quadrant. They go Game 5 of Quadrant. Quadrant win the Slayer. They drop to the Losers Finals where they get their rematch against Bontan. Bontan is an interesting team. So, this is Sunrise, Mose, Bastos, and Millsy. So, actually, Bastos and Mose are new additions there, I think, for Kimbo and Zobey. I mean, I think they played all right. I think they're still kind of struggling against these top-tier teams. But, you know, on paper, that's a good team in my opinion. And then, so, Into the Breach beat Bontan. They go back to the Grand Finals and they get 3-1'd by Quadrant. So, Quadrant have won every single HCS Open in this split. Quadrant on top. Quadrant on top. They're also not going to be playing next week in the LCQ. And I think I just saw a tweet from the coach saying that they were bootcamping in America. So, I would expect them to fly out at some point. Probably not within the next two weeks. Probably a little bit after that. So, they get a decent amount of practice. In for the next major. In the ANZ region, Mindfreak. Mindfreak are just the best team in that region at the moment. And in the NX region, Alpha eSports took Siths to Game 5. These are the same rosters as last week, I think. I don't really follow Mexican Halo that closely as I should do to be able to say that. But I'm 99% sure they're the same. There's not a lot of Mexican teams, is there? No, I mean, how many teams played in this? The bracket was way bigger than the NX region. The new ANZ teams. The ANZ had one, two, three, four, five. Five teams. So, they had less teams than they did last week. Wow, okay. I think they had six last week. Which is kind of wild because it was three of the teams got a first-round bye. Right, okay. Interesting. You've got to feel sorry for Legit Gaming, man. Because they got 3-0'd immediately by Dscope. Oh, and then they beat another team last class. And then they matched into Dscope again and got 3-0'd. Dscope Gaming just absolutely have that number, apparently. Okay, now. This is the complicated part. Oh, okay. NA Open Series, June 16th to the 20th. So, this was the one with the team of, I think it was like, Eco, Renegade, Stellar, and Trippy. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I think this was the one with that team. So, it's looking like Rebellion took down quite a few big teams there. So, Rebellion went to the grand finals from the winner's bracket. And they matched against Sentinels. And they beat Sentinels 3-1. So, Rebellion take that one. Obviously, Sentinels took the one the week before. And we're still waiting to see what happens on Thursday. But some big games coming up on Thursday in this NA Open Series. Number three for whatever the date is. 23rd of June to the 27th. So, on Thursday, we've got PhaseCon versus Rebellion. Nice. And Space Station versus Optic in the upper bracket. Oh, my. Big games. Massive games. And then in the lower bracket, we've got PURE versus Something Cool. Okay. Ooh, Something Cool now sporting King J on the roster. The GOAT is a roster of King J, Piggy, Monster, and Rammy. And then PURE is Toilet Drug, Cherished, and Last Shot. What else have we got going on there? We've got Sentinels versus Complexity. Native versus Reversal Perfume. Cloud9 versus Incognito. Go on, bro. Yes, yes, yes. Piggy did. Piggy did do that. Piggy did do the fucking entire breakdown of Monster's gameplay and then... Where it's short of calling him cheating, but said that there was some suspicious stuff. Yeah. Yes. Didn't actually quite put it on the, he is cheating. It was, he's got a lot of perfect turns and perfect timing constantly. Yes. Perfect pre-aims, perfect nades, or lucky nades, as he put it. Interesting. Yeah, very interesting. But I mean, it's like, you know, every, well, I think everyone on Space Station said that he's hacking and they still teamed with him for one of the Opens. Everyone on FaZe probably said that he's hacking. And they had him on an Open, you know what I mean? So, you know, I feel the problem with Monster is that, like, he's just got so many pro points that if you want to qualify for anything, it makes sense for you to pick him up. Yeah. You know what I mean? Hacking or not, it's clearly, he's a decent enough player to, for the month, to pick him up and use him. Yeah. You know what I mean? Yeah, I mean, that's the thing, you know. But yeah, so that's the rundown of the results for the HCS Open Series number three. So on Thursday, we should probably know what the situation with the pools is saying, I think. I mean, next week we've got an LCQ in all regions. But I don't know what sort of implication that is actually going to have on the pool play. Don't we already sort of know the pools? Pretty much, yeah. I think we're still waiting for, like, two or three teams maybe to be confirmed. Yeah, because the pools were confirmed, like, some of the pools were already confirmed because of the way that they finished. Yeah. The Major, wasn't it? Yeah, exactly. I mean... In those final spots. I wonder if ITB will play in the Open next week, in the Open, in the LCQ, 3U. In fact, I don't know. I guess it remains to be seen. We'll have to keep an eye out for that one. Got a little bit of roster news as well. This comes from Complex at eHalo. So they have officially signed Rain. So that's Rain, Ryan, who duo is back together again. I have no idea how they've managed to get him out of retirement, personally, maybe he was just bored. But I don't really hate that pick up, I can't lie, because it's like, Rain and Ryan have teamed together for so long that clearly they're still, like, they just understand the way each other wants to play the game. Yeah. Which I think is obviously going to be massively beneficial. And their new fourth is Breaking Shot, which is also quite exciting, I can't lie. Because I think Breaking Shot's a good player. I think it'll be interesting for him to get an opportunity on a big team. You know what I mean? Yeah. Just the importance. Oh, actually, the LCQ are back will have a massive implication for Complex. Okay. Well, I mean, they got disqualified, didn't they, from the last event? So I guess they're probably trying to collate as many pro points as humanly possible. Yeah. So they don't end up with a shit suit. But we'll have to see how that shakes out. So this is all for the HCS Major in Atlanta, which is taking place on July the 26th, 28th, 2024. And which, as you pointed out just before we started recording, is the weekend after COD Champs, which means that in the space of time since we were at HCS London, which was only about three or four weeks ago. It'll be four weeks on Friday. Four weeks on Friday. The Call of Duty has managed to play an entire... Because the COD Major was the week before, right? I think it started the week of the Major. So basically, Call of Duty have been able to go through a full online split with two LAN events. Which I think is really interesting. I can't lie. People want to know why Halo's viewership numbers aren't very good. Probably because there's not really a lot of it to watch. Yeah. It's crazy to have all the online games, Major 4 and Champs, in between two Halo Majors. Two Halo Majors, yeah, exactly. Absolutely crazy. But yeah, that's pretty much it. There is something else that I wanted to talk about. Have you seen the most recent episode of The Process? I have. You have? I have a couple of thoughts about certain things that were said in there. A couple of takeaways. A couple of takeaways. So takeaway number one. Formal called the main stage setup unprofessional in London. Yes. Yes, he did. Which I thought was interesting, but not as interesting as it immediately going to Trippy being like, it was the best thing ever. I loved it. It was like an MLG vibe. And I was like, well, that's really interesting, right? Because I feel like a lot of the players said they really liked it. You know what I mean? Obviously, not ideal in certain situations and certain circumstances. But a lot of the players that were there said they enjoyed it, right? So this got me thinking about what we kind of know about formal. Um, and to be honest with you, like I, after seeing those interviews as part of the process, I genuinely 100% don't think he's playing Halo next year. I think he's done with it completely. I mean, like he's kind of, he said as much himself, right? But like this, those interviews for me just proved like the actual way that he's feeling, you know what I mean? Cause he just seemed so like. Defeated. Defeated. Yeah. Like the stage was shit. He was up early in the morning. So he was really tired. He was unwell. Like, you know what I mean? Which I feel like to a degree, they're so used to having it in America. That like the minute that they have to come across, it's kind of a little bit of a gripe. I mean, I'm not going to lie, I really don't understand why they didn't fly out in enough time to become acclimatized. Yeah. You know what I mean? Like I don't, I don't get to be honest with you. I really don't understand that. Um, cause it's like, I heard someone say the same thing about bound and SSG. Like SSG didn't turn up until like two days before the event or something. Yeah. And it's like, well, I mean, best case scenario, if you're coming from America to the UK, it's a seven hour time difference. Yes. Like that's like best case scenario. If you're coming from like fucking Cali or something, then it's like for like 10, 11 hours or something like that. Nine hours. Oh, I couldn't tell you. So it's a long time like that. You're going to have to try and deal with, you know what I mean? So the argument I would have for it's like, so like all the American teams obviously have to come over and acclimatize to our time zone and whatever other times that they'll play a year. So it's like, he can moan about it, which is fine. You have a right to moan about it, but then what about the, fair enough, it's not a lot of EU players, but it would be into the breach and quadrant who have to fly across to America to then acclimatize to their times to then be able to, fair enough, it might be easier because it's like, it's shift. It's like, you're not going, you're shifting it just for like a long, further along instead of going backwards. But it's like, they still have to change how they, their schedule. Yeah, exactly. To fit that, but you don't normally hear about them. No. Fair enough, they might not have the platform and the documentary style that the process has to have a little moan about it here and there. But it still affects them the other way. The first time in a long time that they've had to come across to here to do it. Yeah. Only people that we should be listening to in this conversation is anyone that's coming from ANZ to compete. Yeah. Because like, you talking about like time zone differences, like is the most insane shit in the world. You know what I mean? And if they're coming over and they're, you know what I mean? Like they're chilling. Like then I don't, I really, you know, don't know. I don't really get what you, what you fucking chatting about bro. But it is what it is. Like. You just have to deal with it, you can't have it your own way. Yeah, exactly. Like, I think he's just done with Halo. I wouldn't be surprised to see him go back to COD. I mean, personally, I don't want that. Like, I think that formal being involved with Halo is good for everybody. It brings a lot of attention to Halo. Brings a fucking a lot of attention, bro. Like so much attention. And it's also another question, right? Is like, you think about like scum's watch parties when it's a Halo major and they're watching it because formal's on the team. Yeah. They're not watching it because it's Optic Halo. Like, you know what I mean? I would argue both. I mean, now I would say both. But back when they first started doing it, it was because formal was there. Yeah. Like, because I mean, I feel like they definitely know the players a little bit better now. You know what I mean? Considering they've been involved in all the other different types of content that they've made and stuff. See, I feel like scum starting the watch party was clearly a thing that Hex wanted to push through because of the lack of viewership that was in Halo to make the Optic Halo side more viable. And obviously, people watch scum for scum as well. And because you watch scum, the reason you got into watching scum is because it's through Cods. If you're watching scum, then that's like pushing his viewers towards Halo, which then the more you push towards it, the more likely that people will be like, that's actually fun. I want to try it. I want to watch this more often than just watching because it's scum or formal or optic. Yeah, for sure. So it's just increasing the likelihood of that happening. But I get what you're saying. It's like most people only want to watch it for certain players. And you obviously see the viewership numbers jump up when it's a certain team playing. So if it's Optic or SSG or FaZe, their numbers rocket. You can say SSG and FaZe out of that. I don't know. I feel like they do have their own viewerships. They do, but not to the degree of Optic. Not in the same way, I don't think. But when you're watching, I don't know, one of the lesser teams in pool play, people are not there for it. No, I think a lot of it as well, especially with Optic, right, is like if you're watching an esport and Optic have a team, because of the type of organization that they are, you know that they're going to have a top three, top five team. You know what I mean? Yeah, yeah. And that can go out on any given Sunday and win a championship because that's that whole thing, you know, you know what I mean? Yeah, they're normally a very high-end team in every esport that they're involved in. Normally. Normally, yeah. Normally. I mean, I feel like we're going to get on to that. Do we have to? Can I just call it there? Definitely do, bro, because like... Bro, I just... Because it's big news, bro. Priesta woke up and remembered he's a world champion. Like, that's what we've got to talk about. Fine, fine. Okay, we will talk about the card. You really want to talk about the card, yeah? For sure. Because it's not going to be a fun experience. For who? Actually, it'll be funny for you. It's going to be great for me. It's not going to be very easy. No. Right. Fucking... Let me find this thing first before you start. There we go. Okay, right. I'm going to go through the card results for the last week. There you go, bro. Okay. Right. Friday the 21st of June, a Heretics 3, Surge 2, Phase 2, Ultra 3, Legion 1, LAT 3. So the biggest game that we get of that day was obviously the Phase Ultra. It went all the way to the Surge. It went back and forth. So it was 1-0 Ultra, 1-1 Phase, and it just kept going back and forth. Oil all the way up to the 6-star Surge and Destroy, which Ultra then won 6-4. There's a little bit of controversy in the control high-rise that gave Ultra a round because Cell blew up one of the propane tanks, which killed two of his teammates and himself. Oh yeah, I saw that. I thought that that wasn't happening anymore. So did I. From my understanding, the propane tanks are not supposed to kill people, or blow up and kill people. But that's several times that has now happened, and I don't understand it. Unless they're not playing on the old patch. They're not playing on the old patch because they've got the four-shot MCW. So it's like, right, you've got the MCW, but you've not got the new propane tanks. So I say that the tweet came out from Jeralza saying that that gave him a free round, which then followed up with a Scrap tweet saying, GG FaZe with Donald Duck with piano keys in his mouth to represent Jeralza's piano teeth. It was said by Scrap's Mrs. So that was a pretty good tweet. I like that. LAT have finally woken up as well. They're starting to really make some ground up. They're moving in the right direction, FaZe, man. Legion have fallen off a cliff as well. So they lost 3-0 to LAG last weekend, and then 3-1 against Thieves. So LAA team's on top. A very convincing 3-0 control invasion from the Thieves against Legion as well. Just didn't look great from Legion. Just kept losing the points and everything else. Saturday the 22nd of June, FaZe 3, Heretics 1, LAG 1, Surge 3. OpTic 2, Boston 3, Legion 3, ROKR now. Before I start ranting on about it, I'll leave the OpTic to the last. I have an entire section on my notepad that is labeled OpTic Breakdown. Oh, yes now. This is the content I'm here for, bro. So I'll leave that one to the last. We're not talking about OpTic at all until after this? Not just now. Not until after Sunday's results as well, and then we'll get on to it, right? Okay, okay, right. FaZe back into winning ways against the Heretics 3-1. Not really. It's FaZe versus Heretics. FaZe are the top two team. Them and OpTic are the top two teams just now. They're never really going to lose a series to Heretics. That's never looked unconvincing. It's Heretics, to be fair. Heretics did have chances to bring it to 3-2 to win a couple more maps, but they just didn't take them. It's typical Heretics at this point, really. Legion winning 3-0 against ROKR. Finally managed to bounce back after the LAT loss. ROKR, again, they're just so inconsistent. They have the players to do well. They just can't seem to make it work. Obviously, that was accuracy being back on the team after his little break with his family emergency. Kind of feel like they did better with support on the team, to be quite honest. It looked more convincing with support on the team. He actually put in work because they won 3-2 against OpTic. That was with accuracy. Where were we looking? They were 2-3 against New York last Friday, so they were actually able to put forward and look like a better team. Kind of just reverted back to the same. Sunday the 23rd of June. OpTic, 0. OpTic, 3. Ravens, 3. Boston, 1. LAT, 3. New York Subliners, 2. Wow. So before I go on to the OpTic one again, LAT reverse swept New York. Oh, come on. The reverse sweep of the Subliners is... Oh, man. That actually made me so happy. I can't even... Yeah. That's actually gas, bro. The only problem I have with New York is they either wipe a team entirely really convincingly, or they're just not convincing. The first two maps were really convincing. A 2.50 to 1.29 win on PowerPoint and Vista. Yeah. 100-point club, really convincing. 6-3 on Search, convincing. Then they lost 3-2. They lost 2.50 to 2.27. Then lost 6-4. Just... They were confident in all the other games. But it felt like they just got too comfortable. There was opportunities in the Control Invasion to win it. They just couldn't see it out. Like, it was... If you went back to the old patch with the trophy, you did more than just two projectiles stopped. They would have been all right to capture it. But because that's now reverted down to only stopping two, it's... Yeah, they couldn't hold it. It's cost them that. And... Right. Optic. I mean, let's go Thieves, man. Yeah, I'm on to Thieves. Shout out to the boy Dan Ghosty. Ghosty on top. Right, Optic. I've got an interesting question for you, right? After we've spoken about this. Right. As I said, I've got a bit on my notepad here of Optic breakdown. Hit me with it, bruv. Optic have gone from Major 3 champs, the highest you can get, down to the bottom seed. For Major 4. Worse than Bosted, who have done fucking nothing all fucking year. Bro, I don't think you understand. Bosted have won six series all fucking season. Six. They've lost 26. Oh, dear. I don't understand where the fuck... Nice shot, kid. From the very top to the very bottom, below Bosted, who gave up on their champs attempt about five, six weeks ago. Major 2, they were like, I'll let it down. Motherfucks. Major 3. Fucking write it all off. Oh, what's that? New game. Black Ops 6. We're sorting out for that one now. We're getting our numbers down for that. Don't give a fuck. Oh, my fucking God. Currently, right, Optic are now on a losing streak of 10 in a row for Search and Destroy. Do you know what the TGL record is? What was Bosted's record? 14? 13. For... Which we set this year. Oh, mate. Fucking please give me the Optic joke online. Okay, right. The Boston win, 3-2. Which, by the way, do you want to hear the fucking results from that Boston game? Don't know if you've seen them, right? Optic won the hardpoint search, the six point, six star hardpoint. 250, 170. Okay, convincing. Convincing. Lost the search and destroying six star. 6-4. Controlling. Optic won 3-2. Okay. They were 2-0 up, by the way. But they're 2-0 up convincingly cruising. So they got reverse swept in the game three? No, so Optic won the 3-2, but Optic were 2-0 up. And they went back to 2-2 and then Optic won at 3-2. So they almost... Oh, shit. Almost got the reverse sweep. It was 2-0. Convincing. Really convincing. And I just say, you know what? No, I don't like this. I want to make it harder. Take it to hardpoint on Rio. You know the map that they've absolutely dominated Ultron in the major four? In major three? Yeah. And I mean dominated heavily. 233 to 250 to breach. Yeah, that's not great. Followed by Rio search and destroy. Obviously, Boston breached six. Optic won. One. One round of fucking search. Which then... And Boston. And Boston. Which then... The league's worst S&D team. No, it's just the worst S&D team. The worst team we have seen in Cod history. Guys, last week... Last week, they were on a 14-series-in-a-row loss streak. That is the most in the CDL ever. The most. We said it last week. We're going... Optic are really having a really shit time. We're going to see where they are next week against this Boston game. Oh, would you look at that? Dog shit. That is the first time... First time that Boston have won since March 17th. That's 97 days ago on that game. 97 days. That's insane. Oh my days. Right, which then means Optic start bottom seed in the losers bracket for major four. Do you know when the last time they started in the losers bracket? Go on. Vanguard major four in 2022. Wasn't that also the last time they won a major? No. So that major four team, right, for Vanguard in 2022 was Shotzi, Dashi, Illion, Skump. Two of the people that are now in fucking losers bracket. No, sorry, wait a minute. I meant, isn't Vanguard the last time that Optic won a major? Before this one, yes. They won a major in Vanguard. What major did they win? Did they win three? No, they only won one. I think it was their home major. No, I mean, did they win major three? Oh, this one. In Vanguard. I will find out. Optic major win. Major one in March. Oh, okay, okay. I was going to say, bro, because that's so spooky. If they wouldn't major three, then started major four as like the LAN event as the lowest seeded team. Yeah. Because it's like, it's just going to be another two and a half thousand day. Wait for another minute, you know what I mean? So then obviously, so two of the same people that were on that last time they were losing brackets are still in the team today. One of them retired. One of them has gone missing off his place of the earth because he's taken off his fucking nut in that fucking interview. He's trying to pattern that fucking link, bro, leave him be. Which then, in that major, in that Vanguard major, they finished fourth. So they made a run. Okay, yeah. Yeah. As much as I am very optimistic, I'd like Optic to do well. I think they can make a run out of losers. If they start well. But if they carry on the fucking dog shit that they're doing, just throwing themselves at fucking things all the time, it's not going to work. So that real search and destroy, right? If it's 2v1 against Beans, Beans was attacking for a plant the bomb on A, you know, where the tools and then the white van and the flower at the top. Yes, I am actually really glad that you pointed out that A was that bomb site because I thought it was the Sodmead bomb. But yeah, go for it. Okay. Beans is sitting on the white van on the barbecue side. Yeah. Where's the barbecue? Well, P2. P2. Yeah, okay. Yeah, I know. He's that side, right? Yeah, yeah. 2v1. They know that he's there. Dashie jumps up top flowers, beams off his head. Didn't even get shot off. Died while mantling. Followed by Kenny, who now knows where he is, decides to mantle the white van in front of tools to get beamed off his fucking head. What the fuck are we doing? Why did they do that? Why are we doing it? Now, I don't know if the mantle by Kenny was accidental. Dashie's one was intentional because he was trying to find out where he was. Kenny's one might have been accidental. But like, I don't know how many times we've been playing, right? And we've been like, we're defending, they've got the plant. We know where he is. Don't fucking push it. Let him come to you. He had to do all the work. You can catch him while planting, if you're lucky enough to be at the right timing. But to fucking jump up on top of the van to just get your head beamed off after he was looking that direction is fucking ridiculous. It's just like, lazy, innit? Like, you know what I mean? It's just like, lazy. Like, oh, like, he wants to be looking. Or if he is looking, no, we're not going to fight. It's only beams. You know what I mean? It's also, Pred has been playing absolutely dreadful. And he hasn't even noticed it himself. He's saying it's not acceptable, his play, the way he's been playing. But he is constantly negative. Constantly losing the first bloods. Just throwing away lives just stupidly. Just throwing everything away in the hope that we can just make it work. And it's fucking ridiculous. It is such a fall from grace. As you said, a couple of weeks, the sort of picture of the sort of like, yeah, we've done this. Yeah, of course we've done this. To go from there, right to the bottom without winning a fucking game, without winning a series, is fucking stupid. Yeah, it's actually insane, bro. Like, it just, I mean, it does just feel to me like it's a... Oh, well. Like, fucking, we're the sickest team in the world. So, you know what I mean? Like, it's just like complacency issue. They've gone and won it. They've believed their own hype. And now, you know what I mean? They're getting what they deserve out of that, realistically. Like, this is a good team. Like, it can be a good team if they're all playing at the right fucking, doing the right shit, all at the right time. Yeah. It was even like, one of Kenny's tweet was like, we're not doing what we talked about. We're not implementing anything we've talked about. Did you see the clip from the WatchFi when they brought that up? No. Right, so there's a clip from Scum's WatchFi, and it was, when I saw it, it was, watch Hex during this segment, right? And it was like, you know, on the left-hand side, they have like the four cameras, right? Yeah. It was like, zoomed in on Hex at the bottom, and then Boaz was above him. And Scump read the tweet out from Kenny, and like, Hex was just kind of like, looking across the setup, because I feel he was like, sat like, deep left. He's like, looking across the setup at Scump, and he was just like, who tweeted that? Who said that? It's like, fucking, the guy was just so like, aggy. Like, just out of nowhere, he was just like, boom, like, super aggy. You know what I mean? And then Scump was like, oh, you know, like, we got to hope they're not getting too down on themselves. And it's just like, Hex is planning on firing some of these people. Well, because there was originally, there was a clip from, I think it was Major 2, I want to say, where obviously Hex came in after like, they'd lost, and Hex was like, I don't want to see any more fucking excuses, or this, that, and the next thing, blaming on other things on tweets. You accept the loss, you're gracious in it, and you move on. No more fucking excuses. And obviously, he's just fed up of people being like, trying to blame everything else as part of it. You're getting paid a lot of money on a very top team that you need to make results. Obviously, Hex is very much, there's winning, and there's nothing else. That's it. Yeah. First or nothing. It doesn't matter if you're second, third, whatever. It doesn't fucking matter. You're not first. He's not going to take anybody's shit, being like, making excuses. It's like, you are responsible for what happens. If you're not making it fucking happen, own it. Fucking take it. Yeah, I think that's the thing. You know, it's literally just like, you know what I mean? Fucking, I think this is what I've been trying to get out for the past few weeks, right? Is like, they should be, they are professional players, innit? Like, you know what I mean? Yeah. Like, if they lose a tough game, then their mentality should be like, they didn't beat us, we beat ourselves. They should just be like, okay, like, you know, fuck it, man. We're better than this. We pick ourselves back up, we go again. It was like when the shit about the ping, bro, and they were like, oh yeah, the ping's everywhere. Like, oh, ping is shit. We're pinging fucking ridiculous to this, that, and the other. It's like, I get that that would be a problem, right? But at the same time, if you're like, on like a shitty connection, like, I know it's slightly different, right? Because obviously it's a different game, you know? But it's like, if I'm playing Halo, and I'm on like a 400 ping server, there are certain things that I do completely differently than what I would do if I was on an 11. You know what I mean? Yeah, yeah. And it's, don't hang in doorways for ridiculous amounts of time. Don't just randomly ping, don't hang in doorways for ridiculous amounts of time. Don't just randomly, like, push people. Like, you know what I mean? It's like playing, like, literally just playing so safe all the time. And it's like, I get that that might not be like... Viable in that sort of environment. Viable in Call of Duty, especially in a professional lobby. But I just said, but like, I mean, like, I think the point I'm trying to get at is like, there must be something, there must be some way that they can switch up their individual play in order to... Make it work in their advantage. Yeah, try and balance that deficit that they're at. You know what I mean? Like, you know, it's just, it's just one of them, man. It's just not fucking good enough, is it? Realistically, like... No, it's a fucking top, this is a top team that's gone from the highest fucking thing you can get in, like, during the season to the fucking lowest. Yeah. And to then lose against, like, one of the worst, one of the worst teams in CDL history. Like, convincingly lose to them in a game five search. Six-one. Like, you can't buy a fucking round of search. You know what I mean? Like, it's just, like, I don't know what the fuck, I just don't get it. Like, everything is just falling apart. With the greatest of respect to the players on Boston Breach. They're not a great team. The four players on OpTic are individually better. Yeah, far better. Like, individually, they're far better than Boston. As a team, they're far better than Boston. Everybody, this is what I mean. The worst in CDL history, this Boston team. And they made new records for being so shit. And OpTic have gone, hold this, we're gonna lose. It's like, what are we doing? It's just wild, right? Seeing, like, how fucking difficult OpTic's climb was, and then how fast the fall was afterwards. Yeah. You know what I mean? Like, it's absolutely insane. Like, normally every sort of season, there's always like, no game is easy, right? Because it's like, you're playing against the best people in the world. Yeah, yeah, yeah. This year has been so top-heavy, and the four top teams. Yeah. OpTic have just gotten bored of that, and just said, let's just fucking ruin it. Lose to shit teams. Yeah, go on, man. Fuck it. Oh, we've won the fucking major. That doesn't matter. Whatever else happens here, we don't matter. Fair enough, like, it's fine, because they are third for champs. Probably not gonna lose third. They're not gonna lose third. So they're set for third in champs. I mean, if they're already at the third seed for champs, it's like, they've got a lot of margin for error at this major, realistically, haven't they? You know what I mean? To ensure that they still play at champs. I understand, to a certain degree, you've got to test out your map pool, and keep expanding your map pool and stuff. Yeah. You're not expanding your map pool when you're losing games so convincingly. No. 6-1 on a Rio against the worst team in the fucking league. It isn't expanding your map pool. It's doing shit. It's doing even the basics wrong. You look at fucking Ultra, like, they lost to OpTic 5-0 in the fucking grand finals of Major 4. Yeah. Major 3, sorry. They've gone, that's not fucking good enough. Let's strip it all back to the fucking basics. And now they're first seed going into Major 4. Yeah. And beat OpTic 3-0. I mean, it's all looking promising for OpTic 4-0. No, I don't think he'll go, I don't think he will. You know what I mean? No, I don't think he will. You don't think? I mean, I'm not going to lie to you, don't... Like, if this... The thing is, right, is like, if there is anyone in the world that is capable of doing what he... If he bunned Halo off at the end of the year, right? Yeah. And he wants to go back to COD. If there is anyone in the world that is capable individually and has the right people around him, it's that guy. I don't... The thing is, it's like, if he wants... If he's going to end up at OpTic, right, you've got to get rid of Kenny or Dashie, because they are two main Rs. Kenny's just signed a new contract, so you're literally looking at Dashie to get rid of him. But then Dashie is constantly being the sort of poster boy that they try to hold on to, to then build the team around. He's doing that now. I mean, like, here's the question, bro, right? Would you rather have... Formal? Yeah? Yeah. Or the shitter version of Formal? What would you rather have? I get what you're saying, but at the end of Vanguard, Formal was not great. No, but, like... It was negative compared to Dashie. I mean, I get the impression that, like, when Formal can't be bothered with something anymore... Was it Vanguard? It was Cold War. Sorry, not Vanguard. Like, when he can't be bothered with something anymore, he's not going to be put in the effort. You know what I mean? The other side of it is that the game... The players in the game have changed a lot since Formal has been there. Yeah. And right now, even if he came back and did a little bit of... Like, had a month of practice or whatever else and went into a pro team, I think he'd still get beamed out by most of the people in the league. Oh, yeah. He'd need way more time than that. Like, he has to... I feel like he'd literally have to be, like... Well, what? The Halo ends in October, I think, this year. And when does the CDO normally start? Like, January, February? I can double check. 8th of December. It starts 8th of December? That was the first opening game on series, just 8th of December. Okay. I think. So that's going to... So, like, say... What? I think it's the first weekend, second weekend in October, I think, is Champs. So it's like... He has, like, a month and some change. Yeah. To get up to speed. I mean, I wouldn't know. I would still get... Even with a little bit more than... If he started early, right? Started doing it on the side because he knew he was coming away from Halo. Fair enough, like, Halo is still his main priority, but he's still doing it, like, outwith. He would still get beamed off. He would still get battered by Scrap, Draza. Probably Cell as well. I mean, like, those are, like, the top three ARs in the league. Yeah, but he's got to be, like... He's got to be realistic about what he's coming into because Dash has been doing it for so long. And Dashy can be put into that conversation with the top ARs in the game. He's the top four AR in the league. But, like, I mean, I feel like if he does go back, their objective isn't going to be to qualify for Major One as the number one seed. No, I get that. But if he's going to try... If he's got to replace Dashy, he's got to be very quickly back into that top level ARs, which I think he'll struggle to get into. I think he can do it. I think Games just changed too much to him. Unless... The thing is, he might pick up Black Ops 6 and be ridiculous. Well, yeah, because this is the thing, man. Because I swear he picked up Infinite and was already, like, ridiculous. Yeah. Like, as soon as he started playing. Yeah. You know what I mean? But this is what I mean, though. It's like, the guy is just an absolute freak in Asia. Obviously, he's a fucking FPS goat for a reason. He's done multiple esports, and he could just pick up any game at any point and be absolutely cracked at it. But it's like, would he be pushing for that top spots in the league? I'm not sure. I don't know anymore. I'm not convinced, to put it that way. We'll have to see how it shakes out, man. I mean, the thing is, is I can't see them letting him go and compete for a different organization. I feel like if they did, it would be like a restricted free agent. Potentially. Yeah. There's potential in that. Oh. So, with that said, and that's the OpTic fucking breakdown finished with for now. Would you like to hear the fixtures for Major 4? Yeah, shoot, bro. So, Major 4 starting on the 27th of June, which is in three days time, Thursday. First of all, we've got Legion versus Surge, LAG versus Ultra, Subliners versus FaZe, Heretics versus LAT. So, the first time this year, we have a big game to start with. Yeah. We don't have all the fucking top four teams having individual, nice, easy first games. We've got a big hitter, straight away. Yeah. Third game of the weekend. A massive game. Moving on to Friday the 28th, we've got Ravens versus either Ultra or LAG, Boston versus Surge or Legion, Rocker versus FaZe or New York, and then OpTic versus LAT or Heretics. I think. Yes. And then, obviously, I can't do Saturdays and Sundays because this then gets into quite a lot of this team or that team or this team and that team, and it gets quite a lot. I have made up my bracket for how I think the weekend will go with my top four predictions. Okay. Would you like me to run through them? Yeah, run me through your bracket, bro. Okay. So, obviously, we've got Ultra versus LAG first. Yeah. Which I think is going to be an ultra win. I agree with that. Okay, good. LAT versus Heretics. I think Heretics will win that one. Then we've got FaZe versus New York, which I think FaZe will win. Yeah. Surge versus Legion, which I think Legion shall win. Interested in that because I agree with the ultra FaZe, but I believe in the Thieves. I think the Thieves will pull out against the Heretics. Okay, interesting. I think Surge will beat Legion because Legion... I don't think Legion are a very good team. They're not very good. They've played far better this split than they ever have done. Bring us on to losers bracket. Obviously, Ultra... LAG will drop down, so they'll play Ravens. Then I think Ravens will win that. I'm not going to lie, bro. Ravens are guaranteed to play until late in the evening on Saturday. You know what I mean? They're not quite a Sunday team, but they're going to... You know what I mean? They're going to get the game done. And then LAT, for me, will drop down to losers and they will play OpTic, which I am going to be optimistic and say that OpTic win that one. New York are going to come down again into losers and they're going to play Rocker, which I think New York will win that one. And then Surge will drop down against Boston, which then Surge will win that one. Okay. So I agree with the Gorillaz-Ravens. I think that's nailed on, right? Yep. I think Heretics are going to play OpTic. Yep. I think they're going to win. Okay. And I think fucking all four of them are going to stand up and start gesticulating across the stage of press. That's what I think is going to happen. In fact, no, I don't think that's what's going to happen. I want that to happen more than anything, bro. That's what I want to happen. You're going to be sat there for the next couple of days manifesting this to happen. Get the crystals on the go, bro. Oh no. So then you had New York dropping down against Rocker. Who wins that one? I think it's New York, realistically. I mean, I could see a world in which the Rocker win that, but like, no. It's just one of them. It depends which version of New York comes up. Yes. Yes. You know what I mean? Major one that was first first-rounded, double first-rounded. Yeah, exactly. Like, what version of New York are we actually going to get? Like, are we going to get World Championship caliber New York? Are we going to get Major One New York? Are we going to get somewhere in the middle New York? You can never fucking know anyone in New York, huh? And then you've got... You would have Legion versus Boston. Legion. Okay. So then we'll go back up to winners. So for me, I've got Ultra versus Heretics, which I think Ultra will win. And then I've got FaZe versus Legion, which I think FaZe will win. Yeah, I agree with both of them. We're basically saying, right, that in this top part of the bracket, winner's final is going to be Ultra FaZe. Yes, I agree with that. Yeah. So then for me, I've got OpTic versus Heretics, which I think for me... I'm going to still be optimistic. I think OpTic will win that one. I think they'll turn up for Atlanta. So you think OpTic will beat Ravens? Yes. Interesting. And then they'll beat the Heretics. And then I think for me, New York versus Legion. New York will beat Legion. So that leaves me, OpTic and New York and the... Is that the elimination bracket? I can't remember which one that is. Elimination round four. Then for you, what have you got? You've got Heretics here and Ravens. Ravens. Ravens. And that'd be Ravens versus LAT. FaZe. FaZe through there. Then you would have New York versus Legion here. New York. And then New York versus Surge. New York. New York. Okay. So then you'd have... So then I've got Ultra beating... No, Ultra losing to FaZe and winners. So FaZe will go through to champs. And then I have OpTic losing to New York. Okay. And then Ultra will beat New York to go to the grand finals. But who's going to win? Hang on, chill out. So then you've got LAT versus... No, yeah. LAT versus New York. FaZe. FaZe. Okay. Ultra versus FaZe. FaZe. Okay. So then Ultra versus FaZe. See, I want to say Thieves, but this time I'd be being disingenuous. I think that's going to be Ultra. Okay. And then Ultra versus FaZe for you. Who's winning? FaZe. I can't say Ultra. It's got to be FaZe. Come on. Okay. Well, I've got Ultra winning it. You've got Ultra winning it. See, I'm not going to lie to you, right? If... I mean, whichever way you want to sort it out. I think we're going to get Ultra-FaZe winners. Yes. And then I think we're going to get Ultra, more than likely, Ultra versus OpTic or Subliners in the lower bracket, right? In the elimination play-offs, yeah. I think Ultra will win that game. Yeah. And like, as much as I want to see FaZe win this event, I'm inclined to agree with you that if... Right. If they come through the losers bracket, like the elimination finals, I think Ultra will come back into that and then they'll eventually be out... FaZe. FaZe. Is it a better seven or a better nine in the grand finals in COD? Seven. Seven. Is it nine? I don't know. No, it's better than... No, it must be... I think it is better than nine. Oh, I think it is better than seven in a normal major and then it's nine at champs. Yes. Yeah, it must be. Yeah, because... Yeah. Yeah, it must be. Yes. Yes. Yes. Because OpTic beat Ultra 4-0 and then New York beat them 5-0. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No, because OpTic going into this are number one seed. They are the best team in the game currently. They've just beaten FaZe, so they know they can do it. They beat FaZe in the last major. They're on a good streak of it. Yeah. They're starting to be able to pick holes on FaZe, depending on if the map helps them or not. So then that leaves... For our top four, based off of your bracket, you've got FaZe winning it, Ultra 2nd, LAT3, and New York 4th. Yeah, I'll back that up, bro. Okay, my one is sitting at Ultra 1st, FaZe 2nd, New York 3rd, OpTic 4th. I think the top four teams will still be the top four. They'll finish the top four. I think OpTic are... I expect a massive fucking bounce back by OpTic on LAN. Yeah, I mean, I would be surprised if there isn't a massive bounce back by OpTic on LAN. I think, to be honest with you, right, like as... Annoying as it... Not annoying, but like as bad as the absolute capitulation has been from OpTic. Yeah. They've got to come different at LAN. Because if they don't, bro, like... It's got to be a team change. Yes. If they get rounded at LAN now, there has to be a team change, I think. I think they'll... Someone's got to go. Who that'll be, though, I have no idea. Yeah, that's better. It could be anybody. Are they even allowed to change team now? Not now, do I think. No, but I mean for champs. Not for champs, no. Not for champs. No, no, no, no, but I don't think you would. You would give yourself no time to prepare. Yeah, that's what I'm thinking. So like the team change would have to come at the end of the season, wouldn't it? Yeah. And that's it for the fixtures of COD. I have one other thing to talk about COD. I have one question for you before we move forward. Uh-huh. Damn Ghosty. Yeah. If Ghosty is still on OpTic... No. You don't even know what the question is yet. Okay, go on. Right, so it's a two-parter. Okay. Do you think they win Major 3? Right. And then do you think they perform this badly, if they've got Ghosty? No, we're not. I'm not convinced that they win, but I'm convinced that they wouldn't be bonded. No, no. No, they would not win Major 3. Yes, they would probably be as bad, if not worse. You need to put some respect on my brother's name, bro. No, I think Dan Ghost is a very good player. I don't think he's... He was not at the level to lead OpTic the last time he was on OpTic. You're completely correct, bro. He's too good for OpTic. There we go. We've settled it right now. He was not at the level. He was below the bar. He was below the level that he needed to be. Hence why he did not stay on OpTic, and he went to go to another team. He didn't stay on OpTic, because he fucking held Dashie accountable for a decision, and Dashie threw his toys at him. Right. That's the real reason he got binned off from OpTic. Okay. You buddies with Hex, eh? No. But Hex... I have my ear to the street. Ear to the street. I'm not gonna lie, bro. It's a bit weird, though, isn't it? How is that a bit weird? You, in the street, head down with your ear straight to the floor. Shake your gal. Oh, mate. Postie's come to deliver the mail, and you've just got your ear to the street. Hang on, mate. Get any info? What's that? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Dashie didn't want to be held accountable, so he threw his toys at the bram, which is what the scoops are saying, eh? They're scared of Dashie, man. I really don't like Dashie. Like, just get him out. Mate, those crystals are doing wonders for you, eh? Yeah, they are, bro. They're enhancing my mystical abilities. Mystical abil... Oh, bro, I'm... I say this every week, but we're getting closer and closer to ending this. Because I can't wait for you to start rubbing crystal to me. I'm like, yeah, it's going to be a good episode. It's going to go well. It's going to get lots of views. You come on here, right, before we start recording. We always have a little fucking talk before you go. I've rubbed my crystal city, because I hope we're going to have a good episode. I'm going to leave. I'm going to leave and never come back. The next time I jump in to this, like, in the cold, bro, right, I'll have the camera on, and I'm going to, like, come into the... There's going to be, like, a cloud, right? And then I'm going to come into the call with the finger gongs, and I'm going to sit cross-legged in front of the webcam, and I'm going to say namaste. That's what I'm going to do. Right. I've got a genuine question, right? Do you like having me around, like, to talk to and to do this with? Not particularly. Okay, well, do that, then. You'll never see me again. Because I'm not hanging around. I'll tell you that now. I'm not hanging around. I'm not kind of... You start a call with a fucking smoke machine, and then go namaste. I'm gone. You can't keep suppressing my spiritual growth, brother. No, I'm not suppressing it. You can grow all you want. You just won't have me there. That's just rude, man. It's just incredibly rude, bro. It's not rude. No, it's not. It just is. It's not. No, it's just the decision. You're making the decision to be more spiritual. I'm deciding that I don't need that in my life. And that is my opinion, and you should be respectful of my opinion. Just like I'm respectful of yours. Fucking stones. Yeah, okay, well... Fucking stones, man. You can get fucking stones out of being you, can't you? Yeah, I know, man. I can't believe Southgate didn't take him to the Euros. Fucking stones. I can get stones out of being you. Just make me more fucking spiritual. It's because they're not the right stones, bro. Oh, yeah. You have to get them out of a special store, you know? Yeah, you do. Because they're kind of dumb. Yeah, and they have to be super polished and sold to you for a premium price, or else they don't work. That's the rules, man. Don't you get it? It's a bastarded stone. Like, I could skip it across a pond. It would make so much fun. You couldn't, actually. Neither of them would fart. I'll watch me. Watch me skip it. I'll skip it and then watch you turn a fucking finder, man, with the power of spirits. I can hit this deep in a pond, just a hand in the air, and then I'll dive down and pick it out. Spirits did that. Reminds me, actually. I've got a story to tell you about ponds, but it'll have to be later. Oh, for fuck's sake. Right. I'm going to finish this last bit of news, and then fuck it, let's go. Yeah, hit me with it. Before I go on about money with fucking stones. So the news that broke today, only an hour ago, starting to record, at 8.33 PM, Cloud9 is set to partner with New York Subliners ahead of the EWC, which is the eSports World Cup, a merger between the two is expected to follow after the event, which I believe is going to be... After the event. I don't know if that's going to be at EWL or after Major 4. It's not really specific to say. There is a question of C9 and the Cloud League for 2025. So could the Subliners change into C9? Possibly. Or could it be a brand new team into C9? We don't know. But it is quite interesting that Cloud9 clearly weren't involved in the cash prize of 1.8 million for Modern Warfare 3. Cloud9 are currently competing in 14 different games, eSports-wise. They did have the really good roster on Halo. What was it? Not last year, year before? Yeah, Season 1. Yeah, Season 1, where they had what is now the SSG roster and got rid of it to get a wage bill. Yeah, okay, yeah. You know, apparently Renegades buyout cause when he was at C9 was fucking ridiculous as well, by the way. Really? Yeah, it was like... I think it was like half a mil. Okay. Which is like wild for a Halo player. You know what I mean? Yeah. In my opinion. Like, that's a lot of money. So they got rid of all that roster, the C9 one, which they were like a competitor team to the Halo for the first couple of seasons. They clearly got rid of them to get the wage bill down. When they were C9, they didn't finish outside of like top two or top three. Yeah. Clearly wage bills maybe got a little bit too much for them. Yeah, I mean, you have three former world champs on your roster. Yeah. You know what I mean? So they got rid of that and they've reduced it down quite a lot. And then they clearly want a part of that second 1.8 million. I mean, I'm wondering if this is like a way to get around any possible causes in CDL contracts. Yeah, maybe. Because if they're still like, because it's like if they're signed to the CDL contract, but then they're not competing as part of a CDL team, maybe they figured out a loophole there or something. You know what I mean? Yes. But obviously I'm not a contract worker, so I can't say anything about that. And I also don't know what sort of causes are included in a CDL contract. So again, it's all just speculation. It is. I wonder how that will develop over the next couple of weeks, couple of months, maybe. Yeah, definitely one to keep an eye on, for sure. Yeah, it's a backburner story for now. We're waiting to see if New York actually announced it. I don't know if it's just after the major, after the event. I don't know if that's after the EWC or after Major Four or even after champs. There's no real specifics. When is the EWC? I'm not sure about the EWC, but just a little bit of context for Major Four and champs. Obviously, Major Four this weekend, 27th to the 30th. And then champs is going to be one, two, three weeks later on this July 18th to July 21st. There is no online qualifiers. That is, online quali, online quad is done for the year until they bring up the next one, Black Ops 6, which is going to start in probably December. That's normally when it starts, as we said earlier. Thank fuck online quad is done, because it's dog shit to watch, to be honest, because it's dog shit to play. Boring, isn't it? It's just that the problem with playing online games is that there's no consistency with the connection and everything else. Which I understand, it's not an excuse for people to use, but it is a major part in it, because without it, you don't get to play it. So when's the EWC then? Well, it starts in eight days. In eight days? Yeah, but it's also an eight-week-long tournament. I'm just trying to find when the MW3 tournament is. So I think it starts with, like, Warzone starts, like, really early. Okay. Might be a fucking interesting topic to talk about. Week seven? Okay, so the group stage MW3 is on Thursday, the 15th of August. Yeah, so it's four weeks after CHAPS. Yeah, I mean, I think, when is it starting? Thursday, 15th of August, and it runs Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. Sunday. So it starts at, like, one on the Thursday. Yeah. It's three on the Friday, three on the Saturday, and then three o'clock on the Sunday. So it looks like it's running like a, you know what I mean, like a normal CDL. Which, to be honest with you, I guess they know what format it is that they want to operate in. So... Yes. Why not? You know what I mean? Yeah, if they keep it consistent like the normal events, then that's fine. Yeah. That's why I make it so seamless that people don't understand that it's an entirely different organization running these events. Compared to, like, the actual COD, or Halo, because is Halo involved in the... No. Fucking god no, bro. Like, come on now. I feel like it's such a fucking stupid thing, though. Like, this is, like, an opportunity to get the fucking Halo into it as well. You know what I mean? I just don't think... I don't think that they could have faired. And, like, also, like, all of these titles that are in here, right? So, like, in this week, the same week that the COD is on, it's, like, StarCraft 2, FIFA 24. So, like, that's the other games. The week after, it's, like, PUBG, Rocket League, Tekken, Counter-Strike. And then the week before, it's, like, Fortnite and stuff. So it's, like, the titles that they've got here are, like, big, big games. Big names. You know what I mean? God, they're missing out. It's, like, Apex is in there as well. God, they're still missing out. They could add in Halo in there, get more people involved. I mean, they could do. But I think the likelihood is that if they did the Halo thing because of when the event is, they... Oh, it's right in the middle of the season. It's right in the middle of the season, yeah. Yeah, okay. And they probably then have to shuffle stuff around on the back end of it to fit in. You know what I mean? Like, they probably have to replace one event with Halo. And then they'd have to move the Halo stuff until, like, the very last week. Which I don't think they... Well, I mean, they probably won't want to do. You know what I mean? But I'm fucking... What do I know, bruv? What do we know indeed? I mean, it's going to be an interesting one. I'm still not really sure whether to watch it or not. I can't... Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm not even really giving it much thought if I'm going to watch it or not. It fills in that gap, though, of, like, really nothing happening. Because, like, CoD finishes and then Halo, there's a little bit of gap. Because there's no Halo in August, is there? No. Yeah, so it fills that gap. No, there's absolutely nothing in August whatsoever for Halo. So it fills that gap, but it's like... I'm not sure. I've not decided yet. I might, I might not. I'll see how I feel when it comes around. I mean, I would hazard a guess that, like, it genuinely will depend upon the level of play. You know what I mean? Because it's like, if the CDL teams... If the CDL just turns around and says, you go and compete at this event and you're upfucked... No, all the CDL teams are upfucked. What are they going to do? All 12 teams have had an invite. Yeah, but I mean... That's the thing, it looks like... Have the AWC gone through CoD or anything, like... Have they gone to the CDL and spoke to them about it, yeah? Yeah, we're going to have... Can we hand out these invitations? Or have they just gone, like, fuck it, go beneath them and just fucking send them out anyway? Yeah. Be an interesting one to see how that fucking breaks. Well, I mean, depending on the C9 New York thing, they might have actually already gone through the CDL. I mean, yeah, maybe. Maybe that's why they've... Maybe that's why the C9 are getting involved. To be perfectly honest with you, bro, it wouldn't surprise me if the CDL... Obviously, like, from what we spoke about a couple of weeks ago, maybe even a couple of months ago now, with basically, like, the distribution deal falling into the hands of the people that own Ultra, it wouldn't surprise me if they're going to try and change the narrative somewhat around the CDL. I mean, because, like, isn't there a rumor that there's going to be more teams next year as well? There'll be, like, 16 teams rather than 12? Is there? Something... I've heard something about that. I can't remember where I heard that, but I swear I heard something about that. Interesting. So it's, like, it wouldn't surprise me if they... If... because it's, like, for them, as, like, an entertainment organization, like, it's, like, if you can introduce one of the teams as the eSports World Champions, you know what I mean? Yeah. Or, like, eSports World Cup winner C9 subliners or some shit, like, you know what I mean? I don't know. Like, it wouldn't surprise me if they were interested in getting that done purely because it'll allow them to introduce one of their teams in a way that will generate a lot more traffic for their product, you know what I mean? Quite, yeah, yeah. Because that's the name of the game, isn't it? It's, like, you know, it's an entertainment product. Like, they want it to be... They want people watching it. Yes. Because, like, the more people that watch it, the more money they can get from it, and... That's all they want at the end of the day. Yeah, effectively, it's just this money, and they don't really care about anything else. They just want to get their cash back. Yeah, very true. Which is what got them into this mess in the first place, bro. In fact, actually, it also wouldn't surprise me if the CDL had already greenlit that prior to them taking over. But with them going to the EWC. Because, I mean, we've seen the prize pools. Like, we don't know how much they've given out in... What's the best way to word this? Donations. Charitable donations. Charitable donations. You know what I mean? You get what I'm saying? I think so. Because, I mean, we know they're not afraid to grease a few palms. Yes. Yes, but we do know this. So, you know. See how that... Activision profit margin is going to display a massive increase in revenue. See how that cookie crumbles, eh? But yeah, interesting times, man. We'll see how it all goes. We'll see what comes of it in the next few months or so. Yeah, for sure. Well, I think that is us done for the day. I think that's a pause. I think that might be. That might be it. Happy days. Take us away. But you want me to do it? Well, it's your intro, so you're out for it. Oh, mate, okay. Oh, no. Oh, Neil. So, yeah. That was it, people. Team Ned episode 31. Don't laugh. Don't laugh. He's so unenthusiastic. Team Ned episode 31. Thank you for listening. Let us know what you thought. Get us on Twitter. Get us on Discord. You can send a carrier pigeon if you want. A little smoke signal. You know, we accept telegrams now as well. If you send a smoke signal, don't expect me to read it because I don't know what the fuck it... I don't know. It's on Morse code, isn't it? How do you read Morse code? Well, you just Google Morse code and then it tells you. Mate, if you can get a smoke signal near my fucking gaff... sound. Mate, nobody lives near my gaff. I thought you lived on a street now rather than... I don't think fucking neighbours next door listen to the Team Ned podcast. I hate neighbours. They might be, bruv. And if they're not, then why aren't they? You know what I mean? My neighbour listens to Team Ned podcast because he hears me record it every week because my walls are really thin. He loves it. I suppose he hears you screaming at Hello. Dad! Dad! Yeah, I mean, he definitely had the reversal perfect that Giza for the win the other day. I'm not gonna lie. Oh, yeah. I was like, fucking dopamine! One in the morning. That one that I did there, that hyped me up, bruv. I can't even lie. Like, still not quite sure how I managed to do that, but it is what it is. You know what I mean? So yeah, thank you for listening. Let us know what you think. Let us know if there's any topics you'd like us to discuss. We're always open to suggestions. But yeah, man. That's it. Happy days.