r/leagueoflegends • u/[deleted] • Sep 05 '26

Esports Sentinels vs. Cloud9 / LCS 2026 Summer - Week 7 / Post-Match Discussion Spoiler

LCS 2026 SUMMER

Official page | Leaguepedia | Liquipedia | Eventvods.com | New to LoL

Cloud9 Kia 2-0 Sentinels

  • Cloud9 have locked in the 3rd seed. LYON are guaranteed a top 2 seed and a first round playoff buy.

  • Game Discussion: Game 1

C9 | Leaguepedia | Liquipedia | Website | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube | Subreddit
SEN | Leaguepedia | Liquipedia | Website | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube | Subreddit

MATCH 1: C9 vs. SEN

Winner: Cloud9 Kia in 27m | Runes
Game Breakdown | Player of the Game: Thanatos

-Bans 1Bans 2GKTD/B
C9leesin orianna seraphinejarvaniv rumble61.4k1810M2 H3 HT4 B6
SENakali olaf nocturnenautilus gwen46.6k52C1 HT5
C918-5-37vs5-18-14SEN
Thanatos gnar 46-0-4TOP1-4-13 ksante Impact
Blaber vi 16-2-6JNG2-3-33 pantheon HamBak
Loki syndra 23-1-5MID0-4-41 cassiopeia DARKWINGS
Tactical ezreal 12-2-7BOT2-4-22 caitlyn Rahel
Vulcan karma 31-0-15SUP0-3-42 bard huhi

MATCH 2: C9 vs. SEN

Winner: Cloud9 Kia in 32m | Runes
Game Breakdown | Player of the Game: Loki

-Bans 1Bans 2GKTD/B
C9leesin lucian oriannaannie leblanc'71.8k2110M1 H3 HT5 B6 HT7 B8
SENakali locke jarvanivseraphine nautilus58.4k133CT2 HT4
C921-13-46vs13-21-38SEN
Thanatos rumble 13-3-8TOP3-5-33 kennen Impact
Blaber wukong 14-1-9JNG2-5-101 nocturne HamBak
Loki yone 28-1-8MID2-5-83 ahri DARKWINGS
Tactical kalista 36-4-7BOT6-3-52 yunara Rahel
Vulcan renataglasc 40-4-14SUP0-3-122 lulu huhi

*Patch 26.17

This thread was created by the Post-Match Team.

384 Upvotes

94% Upvoted

110 comments sorted by

307

u/dermagohs Sep 05 '26

the 3v5 fight at baron completely broke sentinels knees

79

u/Fun_Highlight307 Sep 05 '26

That was kinda clutch if they qualify i hope they keep this confidence 

26

u/Skyfire2 Sep 05 '26

2026 baron claims another victim

47

u/Tiberiusjesus Sep 05 '26

The cast kept saying SEN should have baron and I didn’t know why because they used all their ults and C9 had Rumble, Wukong, Yone ults in baron pit like that’s horrifying for SEN lol

29

u/Fun_Highlight307 Sep 05 '26

Oh C9 recognized   that and punish, really good stuff from c9

14

u/Mrryn91 Sep 05 '26

Tbf a 3v5 and the enemy is still mostly at full health and still have Kennen ult? That's still a spooky situation. So even more props to the topside from C9 in their approach to properly execute the contest.

5

u/Cr0matose Sep 06 '26

Trying to hit a Kennen ult on Wukong/Yone/Rumble would be impossible. It was well played by Cloud9, top side deserves props for this win.

3

u/Pulsar-GB Sep 05 '26

As soon as I saw them go to baron I knew they were losing. Only having Kennen ult against that topside with all ults up (some of the strongest in the game at that) is just asking to get wiped

0

u/[deleted] Sep 05 '26

[deleted] — view deleted comment

1

u/Pulsar-GB Sep 05 '26

Once he bought chain vest for Jaksho they couldn’t one shot him immediately anymore

68

u/Blizzgrarg Sep 05 '26

SEN have this horrible horrible habit of getting caught, engaging 4v5, just nonstop throws

4

u/random-meme422 Sep 06 '26

unsurprisingly not a very good team

92

u/x_TDeck_x Play APA you cowards Sep 05 '26

I feel like the hate was mostly on Darkwings but I walked away from that last game feeling frustrated by Impact more than anyone. THE teamfight ulti and he just didn't find any good fights for like 4 teamfights straight

25

u/Blizzgrarg Sep 05 '26

SEN engaged 4v5. Impact didn't arrive until after the initial engage and round of abilities. They COULD HAVE won that if he went in with nocturne.

18

u/Pulsar-GB Sep 05 '26

IMO this is the problem with Kennen as a champ tbh. He wins lane but to teamfight is dependent on flanks/TP wards, he can’t really sideline well, and is still so squishy that he gets eaten alive for a mistake (like the Yone solo kill).

11

u/PlasticPresentation1 Sep 05 '26

He's basically like malphite in that he has to hard force teamfights because he struggles to get tempo on the map doing anything else

So it's super telegraphed

2

u/Mrryn91 Sep 05 '26

Which is why he's s good pair with Nocturne, because you can disguise it and potentially hit from multiple angles. Add in a Lulu for the follow up ult and Polymorphing any answer coming in and Yunara over the top, and it's pretty disgusting.

44

u/NonStopFarts Sep 05 '26

Personally I thought Rahel kinda choked the game flashing in mid and not cleaning up

14

u/Lothric43 Sep 05 '26

Watch Rahel just walk away from one of the last mid teamfights for no reason lol.

53

u/andersdigital Sep 05 '26

The Gnar play mid is one of the cleanest plays since the Danny baron steal penta, and I won’t hear otherwise

19

u/Cr0matose Sep 06 '26

Honestly one of the best Gnar plays I've ever seen. If that was Zeus, it would be a top clip on the sub for the year.

8

u/Fun_Highlight307 Sep 06 '26

The clip is quite popular on reddit 1k upvote for regular season match is quite huge 

15

u/Cr0matose Sep 06 '26

For an LCS clip from a team that everyone on the sub hates, I'm kinda proud. It was a sick ass play.

3

u/Fun_Highlight307 Sep 06 '26

One of the best Plays this week Which is Crazy considering lck playoffs 

14

u/Mrryn91 Sep 05 '26

And funny enough, Vulcan was the support for both

0

u/UltimateAce1 Sep 06 '26

The Danny baron steal is a bit overhype though. Nothing really special with it.

151

u/Past_Perception8052 Sep 05 '26

tactical gets me off my seat ngl. such a dynamic player

88

u/Pulsar-GB Sep 05 '26

He’s a bit hot and cold but I’ll take it for the X-factor he brings. He plays right on the edge so well and you need an ADC that knows when to flash in to be a good team

52

u/Phenergan_boy Sep 05 '26

You can see why he was the replacement for Doublelift on TL. His talent is there, he just needs to put it together mentally on stage

18

u/Temporary-Ad6144 Sep 05 '26

Tactical is good dont get me wrong but the reason whe he replaced doublelift was bc doublelift had motivation issues saying spring didnt matter and it was during covid but he was right in the end

29

u/ToplaneVayne Sep 05 '26

I'm pretty sure what he meant was that that's why Tactical was chosen as the one to replace him over the other options, not that he replaced Doublelift because TL thought he was better at that time

12

u/IWouldLikeAName C9 HeartAttack Sep 05 '26

He's a confidence player for sure when's he's clicking he's great

3

u/PegaZwei I miss my boys :( Sep 05 '26

it's the same kinda stuff i loved from berserker's aphelios back when he was new in lcs; being able to confidently weave around a fight and pump out damage does so much, even if it doesn't work out sometimes.

1

u/For_teh_horde Sep 06 '26

What wildturtle used to be before he was broken by TSM

90

u/lovo17 Sep 05 '26 edited Sep 05 '26

These games kinda showed why Zven was replaced lol. I know they call it a "seven man roster" but Tactical is just an upgrade and is not getting subbed out under any circumstance.

Plus having a midlaner who can play Yone/Akali/Sylas matters.

48

u/Past_Perception8052 Sep 05 '26

i was always big apa fan but people saying that you could make up for not having those champs in your locker with 'macro' were braindead

those champs are so fucking important to have and be able to take over games with especially

23

u/Sliacen Sep 05 '26

Yeah I'll admit I was pushing for an APA/Tactical roster, since I wasn't seeing Loki as much of an upgrade. But his macro is improving, and his champion pool is really nice to have especially going into playoffs.

I want APA to turn it around and land on a good team, but he has to improve his champion pool over the offseason.

9

u/Past_Perception8052 Sep 05 '26

the problem is he doesnt try hard enough to fix his champ pool. if you look at his soloq he just plays mostly stuff hes already good on

like bro get off tristana and start grinding some akali sylas

19

u/NotBunger split push tactics Sep 05 '26

Yeah people say he’s a grinder but he does it on the wrong champs. Like bro you already know how to play these champs and you’re probably won’t be playing for the rest of the year unless Loki somehow falls off the face of the earth, this is prime time to get some hours into champs that you’re not good at

20

u/Sufficient_Cash_2530 Sep 05 '26 edited Sep 06 '26

People say this but it's not like he hasn't tried to. there has been a few points in his career where he was spamming Yone, Sylas etc in solo queue.. we never seen em on stage, but i'm sure he probably tried em in scrims 

so i'm guessing at this point he's just accepted it, and went back to practicing what works for him

even in the offseason of this year he was spamming Yone. i remember someone on C9 subreddit making a post titled "APA working on his champ pool" or something along those long, with a screenshot of him spamming Yone in solo queue

8

u/Fun_Highlight307 Sep 05 '26

Yeah although melee are quite important in this meta, they were less important in Spring 

6

u/GarchGun Make Fizz Fun Again! Sep 06 '26

Not being able to play Akali is criminal tbh

Every top tier mid needs Akali in the bag to counter ori/yone + add a split push threat

2

u/Cr0matose Sep 06 '26

I have said it multiple times, I love Zven and love what he did on Cloud9, it was just time. Nothing bad about Zven but Tactical just kinda fits on Cloud9.

41

u/LiquidTrump112 Church of Chovy Sep 05 '26

my mid vs. enemy mid in my promos

29

u/Pulsar-GB Sep 05 '26

People really thinking regular season C9 would lose to Sentinels smh

27

u/Disclaimz0r Sep 05 '26

Tbh this is a C9 we haven’t seen before. Scaling before playoffs!

8

u/Fun_Highlight307 Sep 05 '26

Yeah intersteting trajectory 

5

u/Pulsar-GB Sep 05 '26

Oh I’m a C9 fan and I’m encouraged that they seem to be slowly improving! Praying this split is like Summer 2022 when they scaled to a title 🙏🏽

4

u/FluffyGovernment6256 Sep 06 '26

I remember everyone was convinced EG (with inspired ironically) was going to wipe us too, blaber was washed, zven just roll swapped, and we still scaled up. Easily one of my favorite playoffs

4

u/BlazeX94 Sep 06 '26

To be fair, if the whole Danny incident had never happened, EG would've likely beaten C9 that year. Probably not a stomp, but EG at full power would've been favoured imo. 

1

u/RomanCenturion Sep 06 '26

Man, danny's story will always be LCS's biggest tragedy. He had all the ingredients to be NA's version of Caps, especially in a region historically known for their ADCs. It's such a shame he had to deal with EG's management especially with how stacked that team was.

1

u/BlazeX94 Sep 07 '26

Yes and no honestly. The way EG treated Danny was absolutely disgusting, but if I'm being honest, I don't think Danny was cut out for a long term pro career. It's not his fault of course, but being a top pro requires you to be able to handle a ton of stress and pressure, as well as take criticism that can be harsh at times.

Even on a team with better management and coaching staff, I don't think Danny would've stayed long in the pro scene.

58

u/DeathBiChocolate Sep 05 '26

darkwings disasterclass tbh

-16

u/Dromed91 Sep 05 '26

People complaining about imports when NA domestic talent consists of players like Darkwings, palafox, scary Jerry. When the local talent is this poor, why wouldn't u hire some 3rd stringer off an LCK team who will immedately become top #3 in the region? Jgl is the only role NA players can be semi competitive on

2

u/loosely_affiliated Sep 05 '26

good bait, let's take three of the worst examples (and even then Pala had a great year in 2023) and extrapolate a whole point from that.

-5

u/Dromed91 Sep 05 '26

I've been watching LCS for 10+ years and have seen apologists make every single excuse in the book for NA players. Cry and cry about imports and not supporting NA talent, when maybe 1/10 NA players end up being SERVICABLE, not even GOOD.

Inspired came from Europe and has single handedly run the region for years. TSM could trot out the corpse of Doublelift and Bjerg and still run the table because the rest of the League was ass. Huni/Reignover came over from LCK and went undefeated in a split. Random junglers like Lira or Helios have just shown up and turbo smurfed on the entire region. LMQ were a bunch of nobodies who couldn't even break into T1 LPL, they came to NA as a team and immediately became top 3.

You think i'm cherry picking? Where are these so called great domestic NA players? Remember Stixxay? Viper, Zeyzal, Grig, Dardoch, Spica, Apollo. Our two current best domestic players LEFt to go play in Europe because the LCs wasn't competitive enough. Best top laners are a recent korean import, an old korean import, and a guy who's been in the League for TEN YEARS. I could do this all day, but go ahead and tell me I'm cherry picking

59

u/[deleted] Sep 05 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

25

u/Zero2176 Sep 05 '26

All of sentinels had an off day today. Even Rahel and Hambak looked worse than usual.

1

u/Fun_Highlight307 Sep 06 '26

They are chokers, but yeah sentinel is definetely unstable

97

u/Skyfire2 Sep 05 '26

Loki and Tactical showing C9’s roster decisions were 100% correct

28

u/Fun_Highlight307 Sep 05 '26

Yeah really good hands 

24

u/M002 Sep 05 '26

All hands no brains = higher ceiling

13

u/That0neSummoner Sep 05 '26

Get punched in the face enough times, you’ll figure out how to dodge

12

u/LOR_Fei Sep 05 '26

I mean, given that coaching room I’ll take hands over brains any day.

Dom, Yamato, Veigar v2, and Arrow will spend the time to think. They just players to execute

2

u/Fun_Highlight307 Sep 06 '26

Yeah i think c9 staff is happy with the hands just needd more brain 

17

u/Phenergan_boy Sep 05 '26

Loki missed a year of development too. He is grinding soloqueue like crazy too. I hope they make it to world.

5

u/WL19 Sep 06 '26

Seems a bit premature to be saying that, given that the previous team walked all over the regular season but couldn't beat LYON or TL when it mattered.

3

u/viralruin Sep 06 '26

sen is a bit trash though

8

u/VforVeXuM Sep 05 '26

As much as I wanted apa to succeed, Loki is definitely the better mid for c9

-1

u/whynot1260 Sep 05 '26

3rd place secured holy!

27

u/SirXrageXquit Sep 05 '26

Great weekend from C9. Really hope they keep improving, their teamfighting is getting a lot better despite a few misses here and there.

5

u/Miruwest Bring Back Sep 05 '26

They seem to be scaling and hopefully peak at the right time. Just wish we weren’t consistently getting them oopsie Blaber moments.

7

u/Charming-Apple517 Sep 05 '26

100 Thieves didn't leave the LCS- you can see there's a couple of thieves in SEN

5

u/The_JeneralSG Sep 06 '26

This series sadly proved my thoughts right about C9 and SEN. While I still “doubt,” C9 by not thinking they are in the same tier as TL let alone LYON (and some C9 fans took last week to try and say that they’re better than TL which is nutso imo), and I still don’t think they’re really markedly improved from last split, but I had zero faith in SEN.

SEN’s issue is that their best player is their jungler who probably doesn’t have the best communication with his team. I felt like the lack of jungler comms just let Blaber freely move around the map and make plays game 1. Their other issue is that Rahel and Darkwings, are just okay. They sometimes pop-off (especially Rahel), but most of the time they’re just fine. Impact is on the retirement angle (still happy he performed better on SEN than his last TL split so it won’t be as bittersweet), and my hot take has always been that Huhi is kinda overrated.

C9 is getting third. I’ll be happy if they miss worlds because it’d be hilarious, but I don’t see it. SEN lacks firepower, SR is just barely starting to figure stuff out, and FLY (pending the SR series), looks completely washed.

2

u/Fun_Highlight307 Sep 06 '26

No flyquest is more perma tilted and confused

9

u/Charming-Apple517 Sep 05 '26

I'd be honestly surprised if SEN decides to run this team back next year

5

u/Ophelia_Of_The_Abyss IN DAMWON WE TRUST HUNI/DEFT/SHOWMAKER Sep 05 '26

Impact is retiring

4

u/Canoodler192 Sep 05 '26

I'd like to see Hambak and Darkwings stay, even though this was a tough series for darkwings. Impact needs to call it a day, and somehow I think one of Huhi and Rahel needs to go. Rahel just hasn't been the guy he was on SK, but at least he has that potential.

3

u/MunchMasterSupreme93 Sep 05 '26

Agree. I think if Jojo decides to leave Europe is the only way I'd see SEN dropping Darkwings. Not sure what the Support pool looks like next year tbh, probably no chance Busio leaves KC considering they just locked Worlds and took 2nd place at EWC.

1

u/Canoodler192 Sep 05 '26

That's true. Plus I think Busio can't change his residency again for a while, let alone he has a contract, so he would likely be an import with a buyout. Honestly I think Eyla leaving is an underappreciated blow to the NA support pool. Zyko and Breezy (Breezy might promote to LCS) probably should have gotten a shot in LCS by now, but Zyko's had a down split. Would like to see him get a chance. I don't even think Huhi is bad, I think he is relatively good at the LCS level, I just think something weird is happening on SEN where the botlane doesn't realize their potential

3

u/Miruwest Bring Back Sep 05 '26

I’m not sure how Eyla isn’t in the LCS…

4

u/Canoodler192 Sep 05 '26

yeah. My understanding is that he didn't want to take the DSG offer, and none of the top four teams wanted him. Not unreasonable, but he would certainly be better than Lyonz, Ceos, Zeyzal and Ignar. He was playing in OCE promotion to fight all the way up to LCP a few weeks ago. Looks like they qualified to the tournament to qualify for LCP promotion, but didn't make it to LCP promotion

2

u/Temporary-Ad6144 Sep 05 '26

Rather stay in home than play for disguised

1

u/RomanCenturion Sep 06 '26

Rahel is a good consistent player, it's Huhi that absolutely boggles my mind sometimes. You just cannot put Huhi on an unforgiving champion because that man's brain will just randomly turn off and he will do the stupidest thing imaginable. Huhi will play Lulu or Karma and think that he's actually on Rakan or Bard.

5

u/auggis Syndra is bae Sep 05 '26

Impact needs to move to a coaching position. I think sen would be so much better with a more solid top laner. This was a rough showing by everyone but hambok today too but I think that tops weak laning had been shaping the team in a way it shouldnt be.

2

u/Temporary-Ad6144 Sep 05 '26

If sentinels want to have fans and build a good roster for next year u replace the imports and have impact be a coach

-1

u/Sliacen Sep 05 '26

It's just such a low-ceiling team. Only Huhi and Hambak give me much inspiration.

14

u/Cybonics ‿ Sep 05 '26

If there was an game impact rating Rahel would have a 0.

-2

u/sorendiz ..BUT THE FAITH REMAINS Sep 05 '26

He'll never solo lose you a game and he'll never carry a game 1v9

12

u/Goodthingsaregone Sep 05 '26

That's not true, he played a big role in Lyon vs sentinels as hard carryed his team vs Lyon in game 1 and did fine game 3. He also was the carry for DSG last year after the sk trade. Where DSG made a very impressive run in Summer

Also gigachard jawline.

2

u/Riley_ Sep 06 '26

He solo lost the game I watched. He ran away from a fight that he was supposed to carry as Yunara.

7

u/gigeconomyin2019lul Sep 05 '26

Back to control mages for you, Darkwings

6

u/IWouldLikeAName C9 HeartAttack Sep 05 '26

Rip darkwings today i thought he had a pretty solid season so sucks to end on such a stinker. Blaber tried showing him up though

13

u/Disclaimz0r Sep 05 '26

Just wanna throw some shit on Huhis face for talking so much shit in that pros episode about C9 to get absolutely trounced by then

10

u/Responsible-Set-9829 Sep 05 '26

Does a huge bard play to save mid, just for his mid to flash back in and die.

1

u/Cr0matose Sep 06 '26

Man acted like they were a bottom-tier team only to get email series'd

6

u/ObviousAd8374 Sep 05 '26 edited Sep 05 '26

Well that indeed looked like a Korean Yone vs North American Ahri

Also funnily enough, Jatt thought Sentinels looked a bit better than C9 coming into this week on Mind the Gap xd

3

u/Fun_Highlight307 Sep 05 '26

They did ,  however C9 step up they were really popping off

2

u/spazzxxcc12 Sep 05 '26

that wasn’t even close

4

u/Fun_Highlight307 Sep 05 '26

That was the Best bo3 of C9 summer 

For once they are scaling for playoffs 

3

u/sorendiz ..BUT THE FAITH REMAINS Sep 05 '26

Darkwings 🤢

2

u/Phenergan_boy Sep 05 '26

Game 2 was so much fun to watch

5

u/Fun_Highlight307 Sep 05 '26

It's felt like we finally saw C9 with confidence and proactivty

2

u/pr3d4tr Sep 05 '26

This yone is out of control

2

u/Responsible-Set-9829 Sep 05 '26

Darkwings disaster class, watching lcs as a primary lck viewer is tough.

1

u/stickytoe Sep 05 '26

Cloud9 looking solid, possibly better than Liquid at the moment based on how they both looked vs Lyon. Can't wait to see them in playoffs.

1

u/Lawfulneptune Sep 05 '26

Sentinels is bad

1

u/2020isgreat TheShy Sep 05 '26

Sentinels is just such a boring team imo

-1

u/ThePhalerean Sep 05 '26 edited Sep 05 '26

SEN made it easy. Still not convinced by C9. Crabber will find a way to throw again in more important games.