SK Gaming came into the LEC 2026 with genuine ambitions. A top four finish was the stated minimum. After a disappointing Versus, Spring didn't start well either. Two series in, they've lost both — including a game three against Heretics that David "OWN3R" Rodriguez de la Torre himself described as a forfeit before the game even started. RFT caught up with the head coach right after the NAVI series to have more insights on the situation of the team.
How is it going?
It's rough. We don't have to lie about it, we don't have to be fake about it. It's been really hard for the team at the moment. Yesterday we didn't even show up — game three was a complete disaster. I think we FF'd before even joining the rift, and that's so sad to watch.
Everyone was embarrassed after.
Today at least we showed that we can play the game — we can hold a game for an Elder fight, a 50/50 Drake. If we get it, we probably win. At the moment we're working a lot on the resilience, trying to make the players keep doing what they have to do. It's a new team, it's true they wanted to play together, but they didn't play together before. We need to fix a lot of things — drafting, team dynamic. We are on it. But it's been rough. I'm honest.
You're talking about working on resilience, is it because the early game cannot be made up for? Laning phase, especially in the sololanes, does look like the main issue so far.
I think it's more than solo laners and laning — we just don't respect the jungler. I'm honest with you. The enemy jungler has one more camp to farm, he's full-clearing into kills in bot, mid or top. It's happening every game, it's happening in scrims, we are aware of it.
