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The stages of depression and excitement for each individual is so funny I feel like I had to share. Despair for EU obviously but Kobe, Spawn and Azael's relief that HLE would be an invalid matchup because of LOS/G2 playing earlier is hilarious
I barely even play League anymore, aside from couple of ARAMs, but, every single year, Worlds gets me so fucking hyped.
I'm a massive football fan. But there's genuinely nothing in sports that gets me as excited as Worlds does.
The EU vs NA trash talk, the yearly question of whether the gap between the West and the East is finally closing, the underdog stories, the insane upsets, and somehow T1 always finding a way to become an entirely different beast when Worlds comes around. And even though I'm a EU fan and certified NA hater, the second NA faces an Eastern team, I'm their biggest supporter.
And as a European, there's something special about watching Worlds. We spend the entire year flaming each other's teams, arguing about who's overrated and who's going to choke internationally. But the moment Worlds starts, all of that goes out the window. Suddenly, you're cheering for teams you've been making fun of all year, just because they're representing EU. And every year, no matter how hopeless it looks, there's that tiny bit of belief that maybe, just maybe, this is finally our year. Also even thought i´m a EU fan, the second NA faces an Eastern team, i´m their biggest supporter
It's the storylines, the rivalries, the history, the atmosphere, the stakes. Everything just feels bigger at Worlds.
It's honestly crazy how a game I barely even play can still make me feel like a kid looking forward to Christmas once a year.
In the worst case scenario for the west in the 2-1 bracket, Lyon loses to IG and KOI loses to T1. If KC at the very least beats CFO, then there will be a minimum of 4 western teams in the 2-2 bracket between Lyon, KOI, KC, and the winner of TL vs LOS, guaranteeing one team to get out. In a slightly better scenario, the four western teams get put into 2 matchups, meaning 2 teams get out. This is also assuming that HLE beats G2. If G2 are able to overcome HLE alongside KC beating CFO, two western teams will be guaranteed top 8 given 5 of the 6 teams in the 2-2 bracket will be western.
In the copium scenario of Lyon and KOI beating IG and T1, the west can theoretically get 5 teams out of groups assuming perfect draws.
\assuming your definition of West includes Brazil)
Former competitive gamer Lauri "Cyanide" Happonen has died at the age of 31. This has been confirmed to Ilta-Sanomat by the Digital and Population Data Services Agency (DVV). He passed away on July 31. The cause of death is not known. Happonen was one of the first stars of the game League of Legends.
He won the game’s world championship at the age of 16 in 2011, reached the world championship semi-finals in 2013, and was crowned the European league champion three times in a row between 2013 and 2014.
I'm a former multi-season GM/Chall player who recently returned after a few years away from the game, and I've been seeing a lot of people blaming Busio's Renata W usage for KC's lost teamfights. After going through the fights frame by frame, I think a lot of that criticism is misplaced.
There are several individual mechanical mistakes and positioning errors that have a much bigger impact on these fights, particularly from Caliste, Kyeahoo, and Yike.
I'll break down three of the major teamfights, explain what went wrong, and highlight how relatively small decisions could have completely changed their outcomes.
TL;DR: Canna has a terrible Rumble ult, Caliste makes two poor movement inputs, and Kyeahoo takes a reasonable but ultimately unsuccessful skillcheck.
The fight starts with a poor Rumble ult from Canna and Busio posturing too far forward.
Meanwhile, Kyeahoo is rotating from topside to catch the mid wave. This is important and necessary: even if KC secure the dragon, without mid priority they're forced to exit through botside and potentially concede their mid T1.
Two individual mistakes immediately afterward significantly change the outcome of the fight.
1. Kyeahoo flank & flash W on Bezerker
Kyeahoo attempts to skillcheck Berserker with a Flash W, and Berserker passes the skillcheck.
The likely idea is that if the W connects, Kalista ult provides the knockup, Lee Sin connects from the left, and they can kick and potentially one-shot Berserker.
With hindsight, saving Flash W for the three-man Renata R would have allowed KC to wipe the fight.
However, I don't think the initial decision is unreasonable given the positioning at the exact moment he commits. [Freeze frame below]
Kyeahoo is likely concerned that if he doesn't apply pressure and force LYON upward, they can simply run forward as five onto Rumble before the rest of KC can connect.
Even so, I think he could have been more patient and found a better Flash W opportunity.
2. Caliste's 2 bad Kalista hops
This is arguably the more important mechanical mistake.
After the freeze frame above, Caliste makes three Kalista hops:
First hop: Right. Correct. This positions him next to the wall.
Second hop: Forward. Incorrect. This brings him into range of Inspired's Flash R.
Third hop: Back-left. Incorrect. This moves him too far away from the wall to flash over it in response to Wukong's engage.
That last point is especially important because Wukong's Flash R is very reactable from Caliste's original position, and would put him in perfect position to connect with Busio.
I've seen people asking why Busio doesn't ult toward Wukong, or blaming him for not using W on Kalista.
But watch Inspired's movement carefully.
He's already backstepping as soon as Kalista R begins, and waits until the Kalista ult animation is traveling upward before flashing onto Caliste.
As for Busio's W, he starts channeling Renata R immediately upon landing from Kalista ult and is polymorphed almost instantly afterward.
If he chooses to W Kalista instead of ulting, the fight is still lost. Busio dies, and Kalista doesn't have anyone sufficiently low to secure a Bailout reset.
The alternative:
If Caliste makes the correct movement inputs, he can flash over the wall, connect with Busio's Renata R, and receive Bailout while both Wukong and Galio are left completely out of position.
Instead of the fight collapsing, KC potentially win it outright.
TL;DR: Yike misses a potentially game-winning kick, Caliste hops to the wrong side of the fight, and Kyeahoo commits to an optional re-engage.
The fight starts with Canna using Rumble ult on the right side to chunk and zone LYON off the dragon. He then absorbs Syndra ult, uses Zhonya's, and buys space for his team.
KC secure the dragon.
At this point, they have the option to disengage using Renata ult and simply walk away. Instead, Kyeahoo commits to a flank on Cassiopeia.
I don't necessarily think this is a bad decision. While the fight isn't required, KC may want to prevent LYON from gaining the inside track toward Baron.
Kyeahoo also creates a considerable amount of space: Wukong ult is used, Lulu and Yunara are chunked, and LYON's formation is disrupted.
Once again, though, I've seen people blaming Busio for not using W on Kalista.
I actually think Busio plays this fight well. The more consequential mistakes come from Yike and Caliste.
1. Yike misses a potentially game winning kick
At this exact freeze frame, Yike has an opportunity to potentially solo-win the fight.
Instead of targeting Syndra, he can go onto Yunara and hit a three-man kick.
Lulu is also affected by Renata R, meaning she can't immediately Mikael's Yunara to allow her to flash out.
With Kalista ult available to follow up from the bottom side, and Kyeahoo coming out of Zhonya's, this could have been a game-winning engage.
2. Caliste hops to the wrong side of the fight
At this freeze frame, Kalista ult has already knocked up Yunara, and Caliste's next auto is about to kill Lulu.
Busio has two options:
W Kalista immediately.
Flash out of Galio R, avoiding the incoming Wukong follow-up, and then W Kalista.
The second option is perfectly reasonable, both as an in-the-moment reaction and when reviewing the fight afterward.
In fact, Busio successfully avoids Wukong's Flash R by doing exactly this.
Now look at Caliste's positioning.
He can hop backward or forward, with the forward hop going either left or right.
Hopping backward would get him out of Galio R, but it also sacrifices a significant amount of DPS and prevents him from continuing to hop forward.
So hopping forward is correct. The problem is the direction.
Instead of hopping forward-left toward Renata and Cassiopeia, Caliste hops forward-right.
This creates three major problems:
It encourages Saint to flash left toward his team, rather than right toward Lee Sin.
It puts Caliste outside Renata's Bailout range.
It severely limits his next movement options. He can either flash right over the wall to escape Galio R, which is a poor position, or continue forward without Bailout.
Now consider what happens if he hops forward-left instead.
He stays within Bailout range, forces Saint into a much worse flash direction toward Lee Sin, and gives himself considerably more room to kite after Galio R lands.
He can then flash left out of Galio R and potentially proc Wukong's GA, or flash onto the CC'd Yunara and kill her.
The main counterargument is that moving left exposes him to Wukong R.
But that's also reactable, as Busio demonstrates by flashing the same engage moments earlier.
TL;DR: Canna looks like he's inting, but the bigger issue appears to be a failed team movement and Yike's positioning. Caliste also misses a small but potentially important auto later in the fight.
The fight starts with Berserker heavily chunking Canna before following up onto Kyeahoo. We all know how that ends.
1. Canna's positioning looks like a team call, not an individual int
At first glance, Canna walking up looks terrible.
However, I think KC's intention is actually reasonable.
Yunara and Lulu shouldn't be allowed to establish that much mid priority for free, especially when KC have just seen Saint on the top wave moments earlier.
It looks like KC make a team call to push Yunara and Lulu out of mid, which is supported by Busio and Caliste moving in the same direction as Canna.
And conceptually, I think that call is correct.
The actual problem is that Yike is in absolute Narnia near the Baron pit.
If Yike is positioned with the rest of KC, they have the numbers and threat necessary to push Yunara and Lulu out.
Instead, by the time KC recognize that they need to rotate around, Canna is already too far forward.
At that point, his options are extremely limited: he either continues along that path or risks getting collapsed on by Galio and Wukong.
I think Yike should be marking Galio/Wukong and moving with the team to contest mid priority.
What makes this particularly frustrating is that KC appear to initially commit to the correct team movement before abandoning it, leaving Canna exposed.
And given that they know Syndra isn't there, they have a legitimate window to make that play.
Obviously, without comms we can't know for certain who made the call. But judging by the synchronized movement, this looks much more like a team coordination failure than Canna randomly walking up and inting.
2. Caliste misses a potentially important auto after GA
This one is much more minor, but it's worth pointing out.
Toward the end of the fight, Kalista does receive Bailout and successfully procs it before entering GA.
I've seen people claim otherwise, but you can clearly see it in the replay.
After coming out of GA, Caliste has an opportunity to kill Saint with a single auto, which would also give him a Triumph heal, before being polymorphed.
There's then a small possibility that he survives the polymorph, lands two autos plus E onto Inspired, and continues kiting Lulu.
It's obviously a long shot, and I'm not claiming KC definitely win from that position.
But Caliste misclicks his auto onto Wukong instead, removing even that slim possibility.
It's another example of a small mechanical error that gets overlooked when the discussion focuses entirely on Busio.
If people enjoy this kind of frame-by-frame, high-level analysis, I'm happy to do more.
Feel free to disagree or point out anything I've missed. I'd be interested in hearing other perspectives, especially on the decision-making leading into these fights.
Following up on my KC vs LYON analysis, since a few people asked me to break down the BLG game, which I was already working on.
Former multi-season GM/Chall player here, recently returned after a few years away from League.
I wanted to look at three of the major teamfights, including the lost Soul fight and the infamous Jhin emote. There are some pretty significant individual mistakes, but also a few situations where I think the wrong players are getting blamed (and definitely some where the right players are getting blamed).
TL;DR: Kyeahoo's positioning loses KC the fight, Yike wastes Lee Sin R, and Busio's awkward Alistar W xD.
The fight starts with KC setting up around the dragon, with Soul on the line.
1. Should Busio Flash Q the enemy carries?
Caedrel wondered on stream whether Busio could have found a Flash Q onto BLG's carries here.
I actually don't think this is a good play.
Both carries still have Flash available, so there's no guarantee the engage accomplishes anything. More importantly, Kyeahoo is already being marked by Nautilus R.
If Busio commits forward, Kyeahoo is left completely exposed to Ambessa and Jarvan, who can simply collapse onto him.
I think Busio staying back to peel is the correct decision here, rather than gambling on a Flash Q that the carries can likely just flash and put himself too deep.
2. Kyeahoo walks too far forward and effectively loses the fight
This is the biggest individual mistake of the fight, in my opinion.
Kyeahoo steps significantly too far forward, putting himself in range of Nautilus hook and forcing himself to use Zhonya's.
The issue is that Zhonya's doesn't actually accomplish anything in this position. He's still surrounded by threats when it ends, and BLG can simply collapse onto him.
3. Yike completely wastes Lee Sin R
Yike kicks a full-HP Jarvan, hitting absolutely nobody else.
It doesn't create an engage, peel a meaningful threat, or help KC secure the objective.
Dragon is still sitting at roughly 4.5k HP, so the kick doesn't meaningfully contribute to securing it either.
This is a pretty significant cooldown to waste in a Soul fight, especially when Lee Sin R could potentially be used to peel Ambessa/Jarvan or create a better angle later.
4. Honorable Mentions: Busio's W & Flash Q
Busio is trying to zone Ambessa away from his carries using Alistar W.
Unfortunately, the knockback ends up sending Ambessa toward them instead.
Obviously this looks awful, and I can understand why people would immediately blame him when watching the fight.
But by this point, Kyeahoo has already overextended and put KC in a nearly unwinnable position.
Busio is attempting to create space, and the direction Ambessa gets knocked is unfortunate, but the fight is pretty over already from Kyeahoo.
Toward the end of the fight, he Flash Q's Kai'Sa, but there's basically no follow-up available.
Lee Sin is in GA, so Kai'Sa doesn't have an immediate target to hit there, and Jhin isn't in range to capitalize on the knockup.
The fight is already pretty cooked at this point, but there's a slight argument that holding Flash could have given Busio another opportunity to do something afterward.
It's a minor mistake compared to the earlier ones, but the Flash Q doesn't really accomplish anything.
TL;DR: Caliste taking blue buff causes Kyeahoo to run OOM, nobody properly marks Ambessa for Jhin R, and Canna fails to help finish a crucial kill during the extended fight.
The fight starts with Busio walking up to create space around dragon while Caliste begins channeling Jhin R in the background.
This is a reasonable setup. Busio wants to control the space in front of Jhin, allowing Caliste to get his ultimate off while KC contest the objective.
The issue is that nobody actually marks Ambessa.
She's allowed to walk forward and R onto Jhin, forcing KC to turn away from the dragon and respond to her instead.
This disrupts their formation, and KC eventually lose the dragon.
1. Caliste taking blue buff is a pretty significant mistake
This is probably the most straightforward mistake in the fight.
Caliste takes blue buff instead of leaving it for Kyeahoo.
During the extended chase afterward, Kyeahoo runs completely OOM.
This isn't just a hypothetical argument about Viktor benefiting from blue buff. We can directly see how running out of mana prevents him from continuing to contribute damage and finish kills.
It's a small decision before the fight that ends up having a pretty significant impact on the outcome.
2. Nobody marks Ambessa for Jhin R
This is the biggest coordination issue in the initial setup.
When Jhin starts channeling R, somebody needs to make sure Ambessa can't simply walk forward and engage onto him for free.
There are several ways KC can accomplish this:
Busio: Alistar can walk forward and W Ambessa away.
Canna: Rumble can connect E or threaten enough damage to discourage Ambessa from walking forward.
Instead, nobody meaningfully contests her positioning.
Ambessa gets to walk up and R Jhin, pulling KC away from the objective and preventing Caliste from getting full value out of his ultimate.
I don't think this is necessarily one player's fault. It's a team coordination failure where several players have the tools to address the threat, but nobody does.
3. Canna does almost nothing during a crucial part of the extended fight
During the extended fight, Kyeahoo is OOM and struggling to finish off Nautilus.
Canna is in a position to help him secure the kill, but instead puts a bit of Flamespitter damage into Ambessa, which is completely absorbed by her Maw shield.
This accomplishes essentially nothing.
If Canna helps Kyeahoo finish Nautilus, it removes a major source of CC and potentially prevents Kai'Sa from finding the subsequent re-engage.
Instead, Nautilus survives, contributes to another kill onto Lee Sin, and Kyeahoo ends up dying as well.
TL;DR: Caliste should absolutely space better, but Alistar and Lee Sin also fail to create the space necessary for Jhin to safely play the fight.
This is the fight a few people specifically asked me to look at.
KC initiate with Jhin R, Caliste emotes, immediately gets hooked, and dies.
Obviously, the sequence is hilarious, and I can understand why people are flaming him for it.
But there are actually two separate issues here.
wtf is my alistar and lee sin positioning
1. Caliste is standing on Orianna W
One thing that's easy to miss is that Caliste is standing directly on Orianna W, meaning he's slowed when the Nautilus hook comes out.
This makes the hook significantly harder to dodge.
That said, this doesn't completely excuse Caliste. He should be spacing better in the first place and avoiding the Orianna W rather than allowing himself to get slowed in a position where Nautilus can threaten him.
So yes, Caliste makes an individual positioning mistake here.
2. Busio and Yike aren't creating space
However, I think the bigger issue is that neither Busio nor Yike is properly creating space for Jhin.
KC are the ones initiating with Jhin R, so their frontline should be moving forward to control the area in front of Caliste and prevent Nautilus from freely threatening him.
Alistar should be walking up, and Lee Sin should be moving with him.
Instead, neither player is in front of him and give Naut a nice free hook.
This leaves Caliste in a position where he's forced to deal with the hook himself, despite having two champions on his team who should be helping control that space.
It's especially frustrating because KC are initiating the fight. They're not being unexpectedly engaged on while rotating or trying to disengage.
Obviously, without comms we can't know exactly what KC were calling, and I'm not claiming every alternative play guarantees a win.
But I think these are the more interesting things to look at when trying to understand why these fights went wrong.
Feel free to disagree or point out anything I've missed. I enjoyed the discussion on the LYON post, so I'm happy to keep doing these if people find them useful.
On Chovy: “I think Chovy is like a transcendent player. I think he’s the best in the world - probably the best player in the world. Chovy in mid lane is just unmovable in any matchup. Blind pick or counterpick, he’s just unbelievable.”
On Keria: “I think Keria’s arguable as well, I think he’s also fantastic. T1, I think, is the only team in the entire world where their support is their best player.”
On how LYON drafted against him: “We had a lot of priority on mid bans, trying to shut down Chovy - I think a lot of people probably would have noticed that in our drafts - and picking jungle matchups where our jungler is going to have agency.”
On Gen.G: “Everyone thinks they’re the best team in the world, they’ve shown time and time again their pedigree, their standard. I’ve seen all of their games, and we scrimmed them, and they’re unbelievable. Any angle you give them, they will take.”
On Inspired’s Xin Zhao: “I think Inspired is probably the best Xin Zhao in the whole world. He understands when the champion is strong. He coordinates the team around it so unbelievably well. He just really knows where the win condition is.”
On going double ranged bot lane: “A lot of the reason is we wanted to have counter pick mid in many of the games. If someone had to pick, it was going to be us, we were just going to pick a duo together. I wouldn’t say it’s a confidence thing. I think we’re confident in many lanes.”
On LYON’s teamfighting: “When Inspired is playing Xin Zhao, I think these comps look perfect when we play them. It’s a style that fits us. Ever since the LCS finals, I think it’s gotten a lot better. Just playing as a coordinated team has looked much better for us.”
On his own year: “I always just credit my teammates. I think Berserker and Inspired have been instrumental to my growth this year. I think just a little bit of confidence for me, and the nurturing of my teammates over this year, is what’s led to the results you see.”
This is a picture taken of TheShy as he steps onto the stage on Day 3 of the Worlds 2026 Swiss Stage, where Invictus Gaming was drawn against fellow tournament heavyweights Hanwha Life Esports.
Note: This post does not spoil the results of any match from the past 24 hours.
The Swiss Stage resumes today at 1700 UTC+0, where T1 will play CTBC Flying Oyster.
