LYON Lacked Its Killer Instinct and Has to Find It to Make Worlds

It controlled its destiny with the ability to choose its opponent and didn’t have to pick the one team that defeated it earlier in the regular season. It selected the team that had a reputation of falling short in the high-stress series.

It had its all-World jungler back in full swing after a personal matter kept him out of most of the split.

LYON coach Kim "Reignover" Yeu-jin said his team made a lot of mistakes, from resource mismanagement to poor teamfight positioning.

All of that paled in comparison to what LYON failed to do. It broke away from the reputation it developed through the past five months in the LCS – a cold, composed team able to take leads and convert them to victories.

"I would say the biggest one was us not being able to play calm and play cold when we were in a winning position," Kim said.

LYON had moments in its 3-1 loss to Cloud9 Kia in the LCS Upper Bracket Playoffs, particularly in Game 1 and Game 3.

LYON had a choice – pick the winner of No. 4 seed Sentinels-No. 5 seed FlyQuest or No. 3 seed Cloud9-No. 6 seed Shopify Rebellion.

But LYON set its sights on the 3-6 matchup with the likelihood that Cloud9 would advance.

Kim said the decision came after a team talk, but it had little consequence – it walked in with the expectation that it would have to beat the best teams anyway.

Underneath that logic, LYON saw Cloud9 as the team that would "challenge" it the least in the laning phase and team fights.

It ended up being a perfect storm. Cloud9 played one of its best series of the year, while LYON failed to execute consistently to convert early advantages late.

"It was us actually playing worse in lane and in teamfights against Cloud9, so I think we just have to step it up," Kim said.

So how did it play worse?

Games 1 and 3 were two games that Kim felt his team should win.

"We ended up throwing away the advantages we had," he said. "We are simply not able to punish them when they were in bad position."

In Game 1, LYON bot laner Kim "Berserker" Min-Cheol secured a quadra-kill after Cloud9 secured Rift Herald, giving him an early gold and item advantage.

If there was anything LYON wanted, it was having its MVP-caliber bot laner with an early gold lead.

But Cloud9 maintained its composure, remaining selective in when to engage. It chose when to fight, locking in on the right time securing objectives. LYON built up a gold advantage, but after Cloud9 killed Baron Nashor at 29:00, the 2,300 gold advantage that LYON had built had fully evaporated. Over the next three minutes, Cloud9 grew its gold advantage, but LYON secured the Elder Dragon.

But even when LYON had the Elder’s highly powerful buff and execution ability, Cloud9 played safe and slow. LYON saw its advantage tick away without any damage done.

At 37:14, Cloud9 killed Berserker and did enough damage to win a teamfight that allowed it to secure Baron Nashor for an advantage. It won another teamfight at 40 minutes to secure a Game 1 win.

Game 2 was another wild affair with both teams trading kills, but LYON was able to do enough to secure a win with the Elder Dragon in 42:33.

"Game 2 was pretty clutch because it was the opposite. We had a strong early game comp," Reignover said. "We were the ones falling behind, so technically those games should be harder for us to play, but that game we ended up clutching and doing well."

But Game 3 was another example of LYON giving away advantages. The game didn’t register a kill until the 27th minute, which typically benefits LYON, which used that time to farm and build a gold advantage. LYON was also able to secure Inferno Soul, but a lost fight at Baron Nashor in the 42nd minute caused them to drop the game.

Cloud9 rode the Game 3 momentum and played a near-perfect game, going 13-0 to earn its berth to Worlds – its first international since 2023.

"We definitely played the LYON game more today," Cloud9 bot laner Edward "Tactical" Ra said. "I think their style is very smart and methodical, and everything has to make sense. You look for angles. I was really happy we were able to match that game. I felt like we were being pretty precise and very aware today."

For Reignover, it was uncharacteristic of his team to not convert two leads into victories.

"Usually our team, we are known as, when we get advantage or lead, we don’t throw it," he said. "I’ll say today’s series, we did it because Game 1 and 3 should have been our games for sure."

But why did LYON do that? Reignover sensed discomfort.

"I would say it’s just us not feeling comfortable, confident, or cold, being calm, just calm," he said.

Reignover continued, "Making enemies suffer as much as possible, and it shouldn’t be us being desperate. It should be them being desperate when we’re in a good position. But it feels like we were the ones who’s not doing the normal thing we used to do."

So, if LYON wants to secure a spot at Worlds, what will it need to do?

"We just have to bring back all the good habits we used to do well, and then we should be good," Reignover said.

Reignover didn’t dwell on the reality of its situation.

Yes, it is in the lower bracket, but the reward of being the top seed meant it still only had one win to make Worlds and keep its hopes of winning a third consecutive LCS title alive.

More importantly, he viewed the loss as a positive because it served as a reminder that anything less than its best will result in a failure to reach its goals.

"Honestly, it might actually be better for us in the end," Reignover said. "Losing like this one time before the finals or before Worlds happening, because we haven’t been challenged that much, at least in the LCS."

The loss means the team must look at itself and lock in on the details that made it successful before.

"It’s gonna be shocking for everyone," Reignover said. "But at least after this loss, things are very clear what we need to improve on as a team."