After losing 0-3 to T1, Team Liquid responded exactly how they needed to — a 3-0 sweep of DCG to stay alive at MSI. Next up is KC, with the winner earning a rematch against T1 for the play-in final. Head coach Jake "Spawn" Tiberi sat down with RFT.GG right after, candid about the DCG match, the pressure of beating , and what would make this three-year project a success.
It feels really good. When we were watching the VODs, we knew they were a team that plays incredibly quickly and that it was going to be quite messy. That's what we saw today — some messy games, but they're good games to win because you have to really fight for them. They're an opponent that when they lose, they kind of lose ugly. We made them do it a couple of times, so it was a good win.
Yeah. If you opt into the Bard-Camille, Raptor invade style, you have the opportunity as a team to make the other team match you in that style. If both teams handshake and they're equal strength and don't want to do anything, it can be a little boring. But the good news is, if you see a crack in the game, you can exploit it quite hard.
I think the only choice in League of Legends right now is to fight back. So that's what you have to do.
It's not that we should have won — it's that we were in a position where we could have won one or two games. And as a coach, having a 0% conversion rate as opposed to 50% or 100% is just really disappointing. In the game we were ahead, we slowed down way too much and gave a talented team like T1 a lot of opportunities to look for their own plays. We had a lot of conversations about that last night. And in game three, we needed some luck on the 50/50 smites and we just didn't get them at all. Today we were very lucky — we got pretty much every 50/50 smite. But Oner's just the GOAT at it apparently. I actually saw in the KC game he won the 50/50 smite at red buff again today.
It's just crazy. Sometimes — I said to the guys — sometimes you wake up in the morning and God says you're not going to win today. So shit happens.
We're crazy people at Team Liquid.
We actually went back, ate really quickly, watched the games back, and then had a scrim block last night.
Then I went back and got some good sleep — I'm really lucky. I've got my assistant coach Spookz and Haytham, my head analyst, and we were able to take some good takeaways. The lucky thing for me as a head coach is that it was very similar to how we lost to LYON. When you lose two series back to back in similar areas, it's clear — okay, we need to keep working on the things we're working on.
We're trying to implement it right now, because the issue is when we get a lead, we don't look secure with it. That's a pretty bad issue to have and something we need to work on quite quickly.
There were a lot of comments yesterday about 'oh, he's so positive' — and that's the first time anyone's ever called me a positive coach in my life. The old meme was that I used to wear a belt to beat my players with. What I'm trying to do is — as a professional player, there's a lot you control through your attitude and your outlook on the game.
League rewards you for being proactive and playing with good intention.
So I need to do a good job: if my team is too over-hyped or overreactive, saying: 'no, no, come back with me, let's focus on the strategy.' And if they're going at each other, in the weeds, saying: 'forget about all that, go out there and play with good energy.'
Yesterday, after game two specifically, we were really in the weeds about the details — 'we need to do this better, Faker's cheating every side lane, what's going on here'. That's why I was telling the guys, if we don't push the game forward with good intent, we'll lose the game before it starts. And that's kind of what happened in game one versus LYON — we had a very stern talk after the game, came out flat in game two, and they ran over us. So I was conscious of that happening. I'm trying to do the best job I can at balancing it. Maybe I messed up, who knows? But I was quite happy with how we played.
Absolutely. There are two factors. First — 'oh my God, we're about to beat T1'. We actually had this at EWC 2024 — we had a 7,000 gold lead, Umti flashed into their whole team, and threw the game. Then we go to Baron, they win the Baron smite, and it's over. So the pressure of beating T1 is always there. And the other thing is that T1 is playing at home — the crowd here is amazing for them. Anything happens and you hear the crowd go berserk. Very lucky to be in Korea for this, but North American crowds are a bit smaller and maybe not as passionate.
It's like a pop straight away. That pressure is something some of our newer players are getting used to — double-edged pressure. I've got to do a better job of preparing them.
I love that kid, to be honest. I really enjoy working with people like Quid who have such an open mind to different ideas. Just reassuring him — I picked him up for a reason, we have absolute confidence in him.
It doesn't have to happen right away, but it does have to happen, and every step of the way I'm going to be there with him.
We played Akali again today, because one bad game isn't going to deter me for a player like Quid. You just have to keep backing him, giving him that confidence.
I often tell him: even if you don't believe in yourself, know that I will always believe in you to go out there and play well. That's my job.
I think so. We played them at First Stand last year and we have a lot of respect for them. We picked up that series win, but it could have gone either way to be completely honest. We're really lucky as regions to have players like Caliste and Yeon coming through right now who are so exciting. I think that matchup will be close, and probably not pretty again because both teams like to fight a lot. It should be fun — an absolute banger.
Europe versus North America, winner gets to play T1 and try to get some revenge. What better script could you ask for?
A little bit different. I think kyeahoo is a bit different from Vladi in how he plays. And we have a different piece in top lane — last year it was more about Impact holding down the fort versus Canna in the laning phase and impacting the map.
Whereas Morgan versus Canna is more like fire with fire up top.
So a slightly different strategy. That said, there are some structural things, and I know Reapered (KC's head coach) quite well from North America, so there are things we'll take away from that. Obviously Reapered knows Team Liquid insanely well too, so it's not a huge advantage. But we'll use everything we can.
If a top laner gets really far ahead, it could dictate the pace of the game.
However, I think it'll probably come down to Yeon versus Caliste, and whoever plays better will probably win the series.
Absolutely. What we've seen is their willingness to fight fire with fire is higher than in the past.
Before, when T1 played opponents they thought they were better than, they'd slow down and grind you out. But they're not grinding anyone out at the moment — they're really going for it.
So that gives us a lot more hope in how we're going to play.
Nah, we will just be playing some good League of Legends against them. When we played at EWC 2024, we should have beaten them, to be completely honest. We took a game off them at MSI a couple of years ago as well.
It's not like we think they're unbeatable. I know we can kill the Nexus. And if you can kill it once, you can kill it three times.
So we'll see how it goes.
We need to make a semifinal at something for me to feel like I've nailed this. If I got a quarterfinal, I'd say okay, I've done a good enough job.
If we keep losing in groups, then I've just done the same thing every other coach has done, and I wouldn't be satisfied with that.
That said, we have to be realistic — the MSI format is very unforgiving. If we make it here, that's great. If not, we'll keep pushing for Worlds, and that's in North America this year — it would be pretty sweet to get it done there.
