people always say, "why is your syndra build so weird"? (mandate + stormsurge + shadowflame + cryptbloom) it's so that I can go around 1shotting people like the lobby admin IN CHALLENGER while still having haste/speed for fights, without EVER having to rely on my teammates to make plays. with tier 3 sorcs buff next patch, my build will be even more OP. don't buy disgusting rocketbelt / blackfire for "more rotations" or "mobility" when you can get the job done in 1 rotation with so much mpen that you deal true damage. and if your enemies manage to survive, your 2nd rotation is still up super fast with mandate and they can't play the game. FULL BUILD ORDER: your first 2 items are ALWAYS imperial mandate and stormsurge, with sorcerer's shoes. The purchase order depends on matchup. can 1shot: go stormsurge first, with a faerie charm to proc JoaT can't 1shot: go mandate first for more E's. prioritize 3 amp tombs and faerie charm for mana / jack. 3rd item: always shadowflame. 4th item: cryptbloom default. You deal true damage to every1 in the game with this purchase, or VERY close to it. 4th item alternative: seeker's armguard -> cryptbloom, or upgrade to zhonya's if needed (vs zed,fizz,qiyana,etc.) 5th item: deathcap/zhonyas/banshees. Final Item Insight: if you bought zhonya's or banshees, chances are you don't have Deathcap in your build. Honestly, i make it this far in like 1% of games, because my build is EXTREMELY good at closing games out. But if this happens to you, just sell shadowflame or stormsurge for deathcap when you can afford it. I prefer to keep stormsurge if i need movespeed, otherwise if I have flash/ghost then I sell stormsurge and keep shadowflame. Alternatively, if you are GIGA rich, you can sell your boots for deathcap (you need summs or else u are too slow). Another possibility is selling mandate for Cosmic Drive for speed/durability, so your build could look like: DCAP, Shadowflame, Stormsurge, Cosmic Drive, Zhonyas, Cryptbloom (no boots) RUNES: In 90% of games, go Comet, Manaflow, Transcendence, Scorch, with Cashback, Jack of all Trades. Your first 2 items are cheap, getting full utilization of Cashback ASAP. In 10% of games, vs unkillable matchups (yasuo,ekko,galio,any tank), go First Strike, Cashback, Triple Tonic, Jack of All Trades, Manaflow, Transcendence. EXPERT RUNES: Swap out manaflow band for Axiom Arcanist. You need to be VERY good at mana management to take this greedy option. When you deal true damage, 12% increased R damage is A LOT. And I have noticed this rune singlehandedly get me kills and win me games I had no business winning where my team was 5-10k gold down, just because you can transcend Syndra's damage limits and 1v9. And no, I NEVER go oom after mandate is purchased since that's when your passive starts refunding a ton of mana. But before mandate, you might go oom if you use too many abilities without getting a Splinter stack out of it. Syndra is uniquely able to go this build because she has mana sustain, whereas every other mage doesn't. Abuse for free LP.

mkoi carrying the hopes and dreams of EU on their shoulders

Saint's tristana build/itemization: BEFORE I BEGIN, I WANT TO CLARIFY, Saint played played exceptionally well today his build wasn't the reason LYON lost, but it wasn't helping him either. 1. RUNES - my only complaint here is alacrity instead of bloodline. while it is the only complaint, it is MASSIVE. t3 mid berserkers grants 5% lifesteal, so the 6.75% lifesteal and 85 bonus HP at max stacks has insanely high compounding value. alacrity: 7% lifesteal+vamp (dbow), atk speed +18% bloodline: +13% lifesteal+vamp, +85 max HP and versus poke champs like EZREAL JAYCE, the 7% lifesteal is SUPER noticable. it basically DOUBLES your healing per auto. and there was a lot of chunk happening before objectives. furthermore, tristana's Q is a +120% atk speed steroid, basically the highest in the game. with navori, it's perma uptime. so you really DON'T want to take alacrity when trist has a ton of it from abilities + items. 2. ITEMS - absolutely hate the Kraken slayer. Yuntal is WAY better. they both cost 3k gold, but Yuntal's stats are far superior, granting an extra 5 AD, 5% atk speed, and 25% crit chance. not to mention, +30% atk speed for 6 seconds passive at the start of a fight. if this attack speed gives even a single extra auto during a fight, then it is better than kraken slayer. the only time Kraken Slayer feels better is during the first 15 mins of the game because it has better components and completion spike, but from there it falls off a cliff. the reason for this is you are delaying the hell out of your 75%/100% crit spike. the expected value of an auto is higher with Kraken Slayer from 0-50% crit rate, but there's 2 issues with this: - 1st, kraken slayer's damage is conditional. let's say you land 2 autos, or 5 autos, or 8 autos - then you're getting severely reduced benefit from the item. especially vs Galio who will build Zhonyas, Camille who is mobile, and Jayce / Ezreal who outrange you and shouldn't be letting you auto them. - 2nd, Tristana's E damage scales off of crit rate and crit damage modifiers (IE). At 75% crit no IE, your E damage is increased by 30%. At 100% crit and IE, it will increase the damage of tristana E by 52%. Kraken Slayer does not add any value to this, and in fact delays it by 7 WHOLE MINUTES. Saint had 427 gold per minute, and the item costs 3000 gold. instead of being able to have Yuntal + Navori + Lord Dom's + BF sword (75% crit), we're instead stuck on Kraken Slayer + Navori + Lord Dom's + BF Sword (50% crit) and as a reminder, expected value of an auto =/= real value of an auto. 50% crit is leaving things up to god himself, whereas 75% crit is so close to guaranteeing crits so that THE MAN can take the wheel. not to mention, if he has enough gold, he can instead opt for Yuntal + Navori + Lord Dom's + (Pickaxe & Crit Cloak) which only costs 175 gold more and gives 90% CRIT. or even do some psycho shit like crit cloak + elixir of wrath for 1100 gold (+30 ad, +12% vamp, for a total of 6.75 + 1.5 + 5 + 12 = 25% lifesteal+vamp per auto) if you think a game-deciding fight is coming up. so what was actually built was 50% crit, as opposed to the alternatives of 75% crit or 90% crit, and tons of bonus E damage. the DPS difference is extremely noticable at these crit breakpoints. 3. ALT BUILD - this one might be a bit controversial, but i might have just skipped navori until 4th item. enemy team had Jayce Camille Galio Ezreal Naut, and realistically the only person who will sit there and just tank it is Naut, who really doesn't even matter if you're able to hit him. Camille has E,Q,R mobility, and Galio WILL build zhonyas a better 1v9 build (imo) is Yuntal -> IE -> Lord Dom's -> Navori, if anyone comes near you at any point in your build they just explode. whereas navori is good in continuous fights where the fighting doesn't stop until one side is dead, this alternate build has higher value in fights where multiple rotations are played in short bursts and you get higher value out of your limited # of autoattacks and while I am critiquing Saint's tristana build choices, i want to make it clear that as an NA player and fellow Korean, I am proud of his and LYON's performance today, even if they didn't ultimately win the series. they are the first team to ever make me feel like NA has a chance at worlds, and i'm rooting for them in their next series

first chovy, now showmaker is building mandate syndra?! i wish i had more time to play solo q, so i could introduce the eastern players to the power of mandate + sorcs + stormsurge + shadowflame syndra while mandate is still good with the haste build, it's BONKERS OP w/ mpen

if the past 3 worlds have taught me anything, never doubt t1...

holy moly i made it into worlds!! appreciate the shoutout boss @esportsjatt obviously, Chovy isn't doing my build configuration, all he bought was just the mandate IMO, i think cryptbloom would have been better in the long run, but mandate is nice for cheap op spike @ soul, especially with his teammates bringing high damage across top/jg/ad to take advantage of the 7% damage amp. think it was a pretty smart choice by chovy prioritizing an earlier item completion vs greeding for damage later, because you won't need that damage if you just win the soul fight. in general, mandate is more valuable when you're not building tons of ability haste because it lets you spec into more damage / magic pen, but the item is never bad on Syndra since her E is so impactful in fights. and do keep in mind, the way fights are played in solo queue vs worlds (the highest level of competitive play) are vastly different - having higher haste might give you more windows into a fight since you can create more opportunities to disrupt the fight. as opposed to solo queue teamfights where your enemies kind of just make positioning errors for free and you can just oneshot them

lck vs lck already wow it's gonna be a crazy weekend

chovy has never won worlds, despite being the best mid in the world for years. what was he missing? the NA superserver solo q training arc. this time he's got it in the bag. 2026 world champ incoming

been liking this ryze build on patch 26.21: - start dring 2 pots - rush seraph's -> actualizer -> stormsurge - always buy sorcerer's shoes when quest upgrade is available -pivot your 5th/6th item. go zhonya's vs burst, or default to deathcap for dmg + shield. go void vs MR stack

"i have no enemies" ahh ending

16% feeling a lot like 100% for the past 3 years

>be me >thinking i'm getting the na solo queue usual, inted by the master tier szn16 players on my mandated loss Reality: it's zeus on kayn top and keria mid #istandwithgeranimo

so mel is dead i guess -q gutted and initial dmg tickles -e root heavily nerfed unless max range (good players wont get hit by max range e) -w change is ok, but not if you destroy her dmg dealing kit for it -r cd reduction is whatever

57% winrate? faker's competitive wr is 66.2% (1077 wins 549 losses) confirmed NA solo queue > worlds NA superserver might just be the hyperbolic time chamber

rooting for g2 and caps this t1 winning script is getting old, let's instead have caps win worlds in his hall of legends year

excited to see how caps vs showmaker plays out battle of 2 goats

not even close

KC got this in the bag they got a top 10 adc in the world

while im sure this guy will get a ton of offers from the west, it'd be grief to do anything other than stay in lck wouldn't be surprised if he becomes a world champ someday

even when its lpl vs lck, it's still (some) koreans vs koreans i wonder if lck has ever imported from lpl before

free entry 10k prize pool pick'ems👀