NA LCS: W6D2 (Spoilers)

--- C9 vs EG ---
Boo hoo, boring C9 roll-face.  Most impressive move from EG: Snoopeh's interview 30 seconds post-game.  That is one classy dude that we may all aspire to be like.  Don't believe me?  What, exactly, would any of us say into a microphone after getting beat up in the face in LoL?  Yeah that's what I thought.  Even in the pre-game interview with Dyrus, when Phreak asked him how the loss from the previous day was being digested, Dyrus was still bitter about it, and couldn't say much more than how much things sucked, in his ever-present Dyrus way. Snoopeh, on the other hand, is clear, articulate, and even educational.  We all learned something from that loss.

--- TSM vs Crs ---
Zac is back, but TSM proves plain better at team fight.  I'm not sure who is calling the shots now - Xspecial?  Bjergsen?  But their focus in team fights is obviously better than Crs's.  It looks a lot like Crs is running around in the fight going "what are we doing?" while TSM is just mowing people down steadily.

--- CST vs CLG ---
Quick aside: Leblanc was shown early by CST, and I was talking to my friend who has mained Leblanc for a long time now.  Of all champs, the most frustrating for him to lane against is Galio, so I was rooting for that.   Do you remember Galio?  He had a lot of MR and poke, and an awesome engage.  I don't know about his ratios anymore, but his kit was solid.  But I suppose Vayne, Alistar, and Orianna, are all comfort champs for CLG.
The game went exactly as I expected after watching picks and bans.  Too much comfort for CLG - Dexter was even on Elise.  Steady mow-down.  Is it worth watching the whole game to hear Phreak yell: "BALL DELIVERY COW"?

--- Dig vs XDG ---
Usually I like these teams, but they banned out the most entertaining champs right off the bat: LeBlanc, Pantheon, Lee Sin, Kassadin, Elise, Annie.  And as soon as the Lulu pick comes out for XDG, I have serious misgivings.  They are proven right.  XDG gets run over.  Important thing to note: Zuna's tendency to get too far out was bad as an ADC, and is still bad as a support.

--- SGD vs BCM ---
Three more great games, full of crazy fights at every turn.  They've finally hit a sweet spot of teams being closely equal in skill, but not so professional as to avoid team fights.  You know what I'm talking about?  Pro teams know that chaotic team fights come down to more luck than skill, and they avoid them.  Even in big mash ups, they disengage quickly and cleanly.  Non-pro level teams will just stick in a fight until they win or go out in a blaze of glory, much like the rest of us in soloQ.  It's just like football - at pros, there's a lot of subtle maneuvering and planning and defense.  In college, it's much more a crazy pile of chaos and scoring and superb-looking individual plays.
More new picks out of the collegiate scene, thank goodness.  I can't even recall the last time I saw Kassadin v Zed in the mid lane.  
Game two features a Blitzcrank on BCM, so it's even more of a don't-look-away kind of game.  And, Kobe makes the Kha'Zix noise at the end.
Game three has support Blitz v support Veigar, when was the last time you saw that.

NA LCS W6D1 (Spoilers)

--- Dignitas vs Evil Geniuses ---
I recommend this game ... if you enjoy enormous beatdowns.  It was good live, because the audience didn't know it was coming until it was too late.  Neither did Dignitas, I guess!  During picks and bans (which, if you're like me, you skip a lot of the time in the vod's) EG showed Thresh and Gragas picks early.  Dig responded with Zigs and Trundle, but then EG moved Gragas to top lane and took Zed.  Zed vs Zigs midlane just snowballed really fast in EG's favor, and everything collapsed from there.

--- TSM vs CST ---
Early entertainment by both teams - nothing to lose or gain for them, I guess, being so far apart in the standings.  The voting public gave CST only 6% chance to win, so they're basically playing with house money and so there was silly-bordering-on-ludicrous early engagement and jungle invade.  Do not try that at home, kids.
Anyhow, great game of early fights, they're everywhere.  These days, you see a lot of disengaging and poke-comps from EU and OGN.  Not the good old US-of-A.  All in, all the time.  Just fight until you die.  It's more entertaining, at least.  As CST pulls ahead in a few of these fights, the chants of "TSM!  TSM!  TSM!" fade away into awkward silence, punctuated by the two or three staunch CST supporters shouting encouragement.
A interesting game full of greater-than-usual excitement, all the way to the end.  Highly recommended.

--- C9 vs CRS ---
This one went more as you would expect.  A roll-face in favor of C9.

--- CLG vs XDG ---
This one was also a roll.  CLG looked really solid, or maybe it was the last-minute switchup in XDG, moving Zuna to the support role.  These two teams are moving in opposite directions, luckily for CLG fans.

--- BCM vs QM ---
Actually, these were pretty good games.  And it went to a third match in best of three.

--- SD vs UB ---
SD kind of dominated both games, but the second game ran Teemo top, so that is always worth a watch.  Global taunt is apparently still a thing!  I repeat if you're not paying attention: There was a SuperTeemo top lane in the second game of this matchup, and he DOMINATED.  There was this amazing double kill at one point that you will not want to miss.

Random Observation: How I Met Your Mother

Season 7, episode entitled "Tailgate".  Sandy Rivers is hosting a new years eve show and Robin is trying to produce.  As he gets drunker and more incoherent, the ticker at the bottom of the screen scrolls along, and starts to get funny:
"Cold front is headed towards New York City; storm watch in effect"
"New Year's Eve traffic at an all time high"
"Wow, he's totally wasted! Can we really keep airing this?"
"This is bad... Feel free to switch over to Seacrest, everybody."

TNG Musings: Hyrule Emblem

I don't rewatch the episode "Final Mission" very often.  It's not one of those super rewatchable ones.  But I was cycling through episodes on Netflix and managed to get all the way through it for once in a long time.
Near the end of the episode, when Picard is down for the count, Wesley is talking to him about... something.  My attention strayed to a canister in the background.  The golden Hyrule symbol is clearly printed on it.  I wonder...

Random Observation: How I Met Your Mother

In the episode "P.S. I Love You," at the very end during the music video, Goth-Robin is reading a pamphlet which I thought said "RIOT GRRRL," but I just now noticed that it actually says "RIOT CRRRL" and there's a picture of a curling stone.