LCS 2026 Lock-In: 5 lessons we learned from this weekend’s action

The LCS 2026 Lock-In tournament started with a bang — It was honestly one of the best openers to an LCS season in many years. Not just because of the lackluster LTA North branding gone to the wind; every series had drama, solid gameplay, and spicy takes.

From a battle between LCS giants C9 and Team Liquid, to the young guns of FlyQuest shocking the scene, there was drama around every turn. But what did we learn? Stay tuned as we give you five of the biggest talking points from this week’s LCS Lock-In action. 

LCS 2026 will hopefully be a year of young talent, with so many players debuting this week in NA, and so many of them popping off. From Sajed to Gryffinn, to Cryogen, who has only played a handful of professional games, each series that involved a young player was exciting to watch. And while you could point to a potential honeymoon phase, what’s the fun in that? These players looked incredible, and it begs the question: What have North American general managers been doing all of these years? Especially those who neglected North American talent in favour of a revolving door of imports. Gryffinn is a star in the making, and even if in the coming weeks he gets humbled, his personality alone will make him the face of the league when it’s all said and done. 

This LCS weekend recap takes us back to the very top of the week with LCS royalty in the wake of Cloud9 and Team Liquid. Coming into this series, despite the respect C9 has amongst the community, it was heavily in favour of Team Liquid, which, despite not scrimming with Morgan, was apparently slaughtering the league in scrims. As we all know, however, scrim performances do not translate to the stage, and Cloud9 made easy pickings of the LCS favourites. 

The star of the show was its new mid laner, APA, who put on a 1v9 performance to drag his team over the line in game one, followed by an incredible showing on Taliyah in game two. Loki’s departure was an unfortunate one, but the signing of APA was the next best choice, and you could argue his intangibles make him a better fit for the “win-now” build of this Cloud9 roster.

Shopify Rebellion was the disappointment of week one. FlyQuest beating SR 2-0 was not one of the early LCS 2026 results on the bingo card. This was with the early game going so right for the team in game one, too. It had a comp that could kill immobile carries, such as Orianna, on repeat, and that was what happened before FlyQuest turned the tide. Shopify simply failed to keep pace with the young stars on the FLY side.

It was a bold move for SR to try to match that pace. And frankly, it got punished for it. It was one of Ceos’s worst performances since coming to North America, and he will need to step it up as the team faces Team Liquid next week. Zinnie looked as good as he was going to be, with only a couple of days’ practise after visa issues, so I have no doubt he will improve.

If Disguised is the floor in the LCS, then it’s a pretty damn strong floor. It was incredible in its series against Sentinels, another unexpected result given that SEN took the majority of its roster. The team even had a substitute jungler in Kisno, another player viewers should be expecting to hit the LCS stage any time now. While everyone played great, Sajed was the star of the weekend and was in contention for player of the week. He was simply phenomenal, and it’s a sign of great things to come. Even in defeat, he was trying his hardest to get them over the finish line. 

There’s no better way to end this recap than with the league itself. The branding, the LCS, was the return to normalcy for so many North American fans. But viewership still isn’t where it could be, and it shouldn’t be; the LTA was a catastrophe that could have done irreparable damage to the league. It will take hard work from the entire crew, the teams, and the players to start rebuilding the brand. 

There was just an energy about the place, both online and in the arena, that hasn’t been felt in a long time. Fans felt like they had their league back, and every time the casters said “LCS”, it gave me goosebumps. The LCS is back, and it’s here to stay.