After a poor start to the 2026 LCS Lock-In tournament, LYON managed to run the entire losers’ bracket and defeat a heavy favorite C9 in the grand finals, and qualified for the First Stand 2026.
This is a monumental improvement after the entirety of 2025, where LYON consistently placed 7-8th in the standings.
The LCS Lock-In tournament started with an emergency sub for LYON, as Zamudo could not get his Visa approved on time. The team had to make a signing, and they reached out to Dhokla, who showed himself quite well in the latter half of 2025, both in LTA and at the Worlds.
The change didn’t bring immediate benefits, as LYON went 1:2 in the Swiss stage, but still made it into the playoffs in the losers’ bracket. Their first match was against FlyQuest, which was sent down by Cloud 9. Unexpectedly, LYON swept their opponent 3:0, and then went on to beat Team Liquid and Sentinels to make it into the grand finals against C9.
Cloud 9, on the other hand, found its way to the grand finals to be much easier: two 3:0 games against FlyQuest and Sentinels, with the players’ form indicating that they would be major favorites against anyone in the region.
But as it turns out, Inspired is the one who runs the region. LYON’s jungler, who left FlyQuest last year after a hugely successful stint, helped his new team win its first major LCS honor.
LYON defeated Cloud 9 in four games: the first one ended in victory for Cloud 9 after a phenomenal performance by APA and Thanatos, and Berserker’s fed Ezreal wasn’t enough to stop them. But then LYON took over the initiative and took three games in a row, with some impressive plays from every single member of the roster: Saint showed up on Ahri, Dhokla played a fearsome Zaahen, Berserker was a threat in every single match, Isles’ Poppy was a treat to watch, and Inspired led them with his sharp decisions and calls.
With this win, LYON will be North America’s representative at the First Stand 2026 in Brazil, where the Mexican team is joined by the likes of Gen.G, G2, and LOUD.
