In the latest episode of Hot Takes, Lee, Davide, and Luca recap the Mid-Season Invitational Play-Ins stage, with a focus on Karmine Corp's disastrous elimination to Team Liquid. They also discuss TL's admirable run, which ended at the hands of T1 - the clear strongest team in this phase.

The trio also look ahead to the bracket, including Bilibili Gaming versus T1, G2 Esports' hopes against Top Esports, Hanwha Life Esports being heavy favourites against Team Secret Whales, and the all-Americas clash between LYON Gaming and FURIA.

Storied discussed:
https://www.hotspawn.com/league-of-legends/news/soboro-joins-fnatic
https://www.hotspawn.com/league-of-legends/news/fiesta-joins-team-vitality

00:00:00 - KC vs TL
00:19:21 - T1
00:23:00 - Bracket preview
00:42:48 - FNC & VIT roster moves

For more Hot Tier 1 esports news, as soon as it spawns, check out https://hotspawn.com for the latest in CS2, Dota 2, VALORANT, League of Legends, Fortnite and more.

Dan and Sophie are back from Cologne to discuss all things playoffs weekend!

In the latest Hot Takes episode, Lee, Davide, and special guest Armand Luque preview the upcoming Mid-Season Invitational in Daejeon, South Korea. The trio discuss their team rankings, including whether Bilibili Gaming, Hanwha Life Esports, or T1 are favourites, and black sheep Top Esports' chances at avoiding their international curse.

The trio also talk through the chances of western representatives G2 Esports, Karmine Corp, LYON Gaming, Team Liquid, and FURIA, as well as the LCP sides heading to the tournament.

Finally, the group decided on their lane rankings, creating a top five players list for top, jungle, mid, bot lane, and support.

00:00:00 - MSI Team Power Rankings
01:22:57 - Top 5 top laners
01:31:02 - Top 5 junglers
01:40:57 - Top 5 mid laners
01:46:01 - Top 5 bot laners
01:51:58 - Top 5 supports

Dan and Sophie are in the same room for once! Here at the IEM Cologne Major playoffs, they get into media day, brackets, predictions, roster changes and more.

In the latest Hot Takes episode, Lee, Zahk, and guest Zhobiii preview the VALORANT Masters London finals weekend, including the upper bracket clash between heavyweights EDward Gaming and Paper Rex. The trio also talked through the lower bracket game between Leviatan and Team Vitality, as well as the runs of other teams like G2, Team Heretics, Xi Lai Gaming, FUT Esports, and more.

00:00:00 - Intro
00:02:09 - NRG
00:06:36 - Leviatan
00:13:33 - Global Esports
00:18:50 - FULL SENSE
00:22:14 - G2 Esports poor
00:38:16 - Xi Lai Gaming exceed expectations
00:44:20 - FUT Esports & s0pp
00:52:00 - Team Heretics rubbish
00:55:20 - Team Vitality's superteam finally clicking
01:00:28 - EDG are back!
01:04:45 - Paper Rex favourites?
01:10:58 - Predictions & World Cup chat

In the latest episode of Hot Takes, Lee, Davide, Luca, and Ilyas discuss the final weekends of the LCK and LPL splits. They cover Gen.G's failure to qualify for the Mid-Season Invitational, losing the final place to Faker's T1, while Hanwha Life Esports qualifed as first seed.

In the LPL, Bilibili Gaming beat Top Esports 3-0 in the grand final to gain first seed, while Team WE's fairytale run ended without qualification. The trio also discussed the LCS finals weekend, including LYON Gaming beating Team Liquid in the grand final, and Cloud9 collapsing in third place.

Stories discussed:
https://www.hotspawn.com/news/hanwha-life-esports-msi-t1

00:00:00 - Intro & football talk
00:02:37 - HLE beats T1 for MSI #1 seed
00:11:50 - MSI seeding discussion
00:17:19 - T1 beats Gen.G for MSI #2 seed
00:47:55 - LYON wins LCS, C9 miss MSI
01:01:09 - BLG 3-2 Team WE
01:09:28 - BLG 3-0 TES

On this week's episode of Hot Takes: Counter Strike Edition, Dan has hayfever and Sophie has been cheating on CS. Here's their breakdown of the IEM Cologne Major stage 2 games so far!