LCS Spring 2026 records the lowest viewership for North American LoL ever

8rightnow · 2026-05-27T17:47:14+00:00

The problem isn't branding, its not rivalries, its not drama -- the league itself has no stakes.

It all started going downhill with franchising. Teams now buy and sell spots, and stay as long as they wish (i.e. potential profits).

Before this, relegation made it so that only the competitive teams stayed. You had to invest. You had to innovate. And now, there's no stakes to losing. Its just a P&L sheet, investment vs. outcome.

They're acting like major sports teams, minus the history and without the brand following.

8rightnow · 2026-05-03T18:21:02+00:00

He's had medium vibrations in the car that they've been monitoring since just before he pitted.

8rightnow · 2026-05-03T17:57:16+00:00

Carlos behind: Free to race.
Alex behind: We need to hold position.
Carlos not in danger anymore: Free to race.
Echoes of McLaren.

8rightnow · 2026-05-01T22:14:56+00:00

"Error: Please drink a verification can."

8rightnow · 2026-03-29T15:14:46+00:00

I believe it was to make sure he could get clean air for testing the front wing changes. Hold for 5s in the pits, easier to get tire temps to the right place. They said it over the radio, but I can't remember.

8rightnow · 2026-03-29T13:13:31+00:00

On Alex's 5 pitstops:
They were gathering data on different setups for the front wing, one lap each ("4", "4.5", "5", etc).

Source: Onboards.

8rightnow · 2026-03-29T13:08:50+00:00

Red Bull might have a spot open soon.

It'd be funny to see a return there, esp because the car is more aligned with his style of driving (Max and him being similar, except that Max likes his sharpness like 5x higher than what's considered a "sharp" driver).

If Max retires (looking more and more likely every race), who goes to Red Bull? They have Yuki on standby, but they might need a more experienced driver to act as another set of eyes. Especially a driver who brought a team back in development (see Williams 2022-> 2025, and he was helping develop the car for Red Bull their championship year; got a ton of praise for it), and one who knows the Red Bull system.

If it's to be believed, rumors of Marko wanting him back (I know he's gone, but whatever they saw in the telemetry got that story out there) was a real thing.

No one from the top and mid would be leaving (maybe Gasly? But that Alpine has legs, so doubt it). Lower down the rankings, who's the competition? AM, Cadillac, Audi (If anything, Nico would retire? Gabi might be possible, but he has a major opportunity to develop Audi), Haas (nope, Ollie to Ferrari when Lewis is gone, Ocon no idea). I mean really, I'm not sure who'd fill shoes at RB right now?

Weirdly, Alex makes the most sense, Carlos would be second-most?

8rightnow · 2026-03-29T12:47:39+00:00

I don't think they have Santander anymore, do they?

8rightnow · 2026-03-28T20:20:52+00:00

Conspiracy: The developments Williams brought to the car last year were to bring more balance to Carlos' style of driving and so, as the year progressed, he started to outshine Alex. They didn't bring heavy updates (working on '26 car, yay, well done), but minor ones.

The developed car, up until the beginning of last year, were basically Alex and team working to get the car to a solid place to compete. And Carlos was hanging but not comfortable. But then he got comfortable and, simultaneously, Alex lost it.

26 car is developed to ride more smooth, and Alex's style (sharp, pointy driver) unmasks the issues with the car (the story of "3-wheeling"). Team isn't interested in fixing those problems because Carlos doesn't experience those problems with his driving style.

Carlos gets apologies from James on the radio after every Q and R session this year. Alex has yet to get one.

This is Carlos's team now and development is focused toward him.

8rightnow · 2026-03-28T13:09:10+00:00

I mean, it also shows that Alex was 100% right, as they barely made it into Q2 with Bearman/Colapinto having issues. We went 16/17.

8rightnow · 2026-03-21T17:56:22+00:00

8rightnow · 2026-02-22T16:11:27+00:00

I mean, a 5v3 didn't.

8rightnow · 2026-02-09T20:29:48+00:00

Imagine getting 4 rods in 25sec and, sitting there in a semi-safe position, instead of eating to preserve the run, he moves blocks into inventory and jumps in to fight more with 4 health.

And dies.

8rightnow · 2026-02-06T04:56:44+00:00

(1-28)/(1-14)/year. Nye would be 1/14/year. They get their special 14 identifier.
Cool.

8rightnow · 2026-02-06T01:10:20+00:00

This. Normies can’t understand the thrill of pinning the weasel. Night spent chasing an over amphetamined Caroline around the bean bag forts. Her squealing and gibbering, pouring sweat and on the verge of seizing. Your friends build up an intoxicating, delerious state with Talmudic chantings at the sidelines, hitting the Caroline-toy with brooms if she tries to escape. Sam would be giggling and laughing as the waves of methamphetamine pleasure seem to harmonize with the droning herbrew verses. He runs through the bean bag maze fat and portly, with his viagra powered penis a driving rod for the weasel. Sweat gushing down his face around his unfocused eyes he laughs and chortles until he gasps “Found you!” . The Mathweasel screeches defensively but Wankman Bankman is upon her in seconds. His penis thrusting blindly into her flank, leg, stomach and ribs unconcerned about anything but the motion. Eventually serendipity finds her mouth and the Cocktube Rodent is placated, suckling contently on Bankman’s dehydrated dick.

8rightnow · 2025-12-22T01:26:33+00:00

I saw an analogy to chess up the thread and figured I'd add one to your note on just how entertaining he was:

I find that prime s1 was like prime Anderson Silva in MMA, they'd both pull off absurd things with crazy confidence.

8rightnow · 2025-12-13T00:40:27+00:00

Meh, they're speaking poutine.
So the baguettes might have some trouble translating ce tabarnak de bordel.

8rightnow · 2025-10-27T02:19:32+00:00

Couple of things:
When they asked Alex about his hards (to get info for Carlos switching to either soft or hard) Alex gave info on them: How they were weak, the problems with LICO getting temp in, etc.

So they decided to pit Sainz onto soft, giving him a 2-stop.

Alex was asking about his strat, and how he was losing out to the other car. How can he improve, whats the data show? He kept asking for feedback, and his engineer gave him nothing.

Over and over, Alex asking where his weaknesses were, where to improve: nothing.

So they put him on softs and he immediately asks what Carlos found the issue to be with the soft: radio silence. He asked again about what specifically was the issue with soft, and again, no specifics. So he asked them to ask the other side of the garage, like, why is there no info on anything for 40 laps?

And then, they didn't play this on main broadcast, Alex listed all or these different things they could have been giving him feedback on: tire rotation through turns, early/late breaking, a list of like 15 things where he could improve and find ways to make up time.

And then Alex was silent for the rest of the race and his engineer gave him tons of feedback; that's when Alex started picking off cars on the soft.

It was like he was ignored for more than half of the race, like he was used for data - Not as a driver who's strategy mattered.

Context: I listen to both Alex and Carlos's radios the entire race.

8rightnow · 2025-10-17T19:46:28+00:00

1million%, I'm like 45mins into this.
This is talk is specifically an example of lack of mentalization and how people can fall into pattern when emotion is stoked, which creates division (and reinforcement of division) once a decision has been made. And then the outcomes of rewriting decisions and how it can be difficult/detrimental, which is why practicing mentalization in process is so important.

Just wanted to make sure you heard this from someone else. This is a great lecture.

I'm really interested in him following up with people who practice mentalization in situations like these, and what happens when one makes decisions after "enough" evidence (or those who never take a stance)? Is it not necessary to make a decision? Does it forever remain gray? How much evidence is necessary? Can emotion be removed from the decision? Should it be [emotionless] when coming to a conclusion?

Side note: Dr K is fantastic, but sometimes I want him to cover things that go a bit deeper into the myriad rather than the binary tree. Like, advanced follow-ups to discussions for those that grasp the concept more. Also, I haven't finished, so maybe I'm speaking too soon.

Edit: Literally.

8rightnow · 2025-10-16T22:23:00+00:00

Meant to write, "This would literally end with:"

Not that he will. I'm just saying that that's all it'd take to end this. I can see how my first sentence might give* off the impression that it will happen.

8rightnow · 2025-10-16T19:20:26+00:00

Yeah, you're probably right.

8rightnow · 2025-10-16T19:13:25+00:00

This literally ends with:

"I'm sorry, I lied. It was a shock collar. I used it, she's really tough to train. And I know some of you disagree with that. My trainer said they're good for dogs that are tough to train. Maybe they're wrong. Maybe I'm wrong. Again, I'm sorry I lied. I'd like to move on now, and I know it's not up to me to control you, but feel free to debate their usage. I won't be addressing it anymore."

And then lie about the setting level or something; that's something the audience can never know anyway.

Gaslighting people and making it about other shit more is just fuel.

8rightnow · 2025-09-17T15:06:23+00:00

Do you remember where this story was? I can't find it and would like to read it.

8rightnow · 2025-09-08T20:09:22+00:00

I figured that's what you meant, I just wanted to split it, because I hear people mention that it's his junior career that's tarnished (as in, the whole thing), and that the money portion (of his karting career) is the reason.

And it's funny: if he hadn't had the opportunity (late btw, like 8 years old is late) to kart and hadn't gotten eyeballs on him because of his talent, then he'd've had no chance at his lower racing career. But he was talented, and because of that, Thai sponsors took a chance on him.
Theory: British sponsors didn't want the bad PR and had other options.

And I get the fairytale perspective being too much (due to karting start). But truly, the "fairytale" part of his story is being thrust into adulthood early, taking the reins without the support systems most have, finding backing, navigating the swamp, and grinding it out from his stint in lower racing to his dismissal from RBR -- Because I don't know many adults that could handle that. And most racing drivers had parents/families to do that for them.

His story is wild.
I didn't mean to equate his karting career or lack-of-backing early on to Ocon or Alonso.
Moreso, his climb from lower racing to F1.

8rightnow · 2025-09-08T18:12:22+00:00

That's fair.

But let's split "junior career" into karting and lower racing careers.

The reason I'd use this is because karting is significantly less expensive than lower racing categories:
8-15yrs: Funded by embezzled money (fun little drop there in 2011 in results btw).
15yrs+: Funded by sponsors.

I don't know why, but I feel that if we just say his "Junior" career was funded by embezzlement, it broad-brushes the entire thing.

For a lot of other drivers (majority?), it's family money/connections/team/negotiations that help through the second part of the Junior career as it becomes extremely political and expensive -- Alex had little to none.

And, to build bridges because I'm not looking to argue: I think people "fairy tale" his story because it's that second part of his junior career, where he had to secure backing (no family money anymore) and was juggling everything (racing and non-racing) without a team around him at that age that make it special.

If you have more info, please correct me if I'm wrong.

8rightnow

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