Team Liquid gives Cloud9 their first LCS regular season loss of 2026

Naerlyn Published July 27, 2026

Team Liquid beat Cloud9 2-0 in Week 1 of the LCS 2026 Summer Split. This is the first regular season match that C9 has lost in over a year, since Spring 2025. With their new roster, will C9 miss first place for the first time since 2024?

Team Liquid beat Cloud9 2-0

Ahead of the Summer Split, C9 made changes to their roster. For seven back-to-back splits, the team has had an incredible regular season performance before failing to qualify for the upcoming international.

In an attempt to correct course, Cloud9 made a few roster swaps. The team is now playing with a seven-man roster, with Lee “Loki” Sang-min joining Eain “APA” Stearns in the mid lane, and Edward “Tactical” Ra sharing the bot lane playtime with Jesper “Zven” Svenningsen. Additionally, they made several changes to the coaching staff.

The starting players will swap based on the series, and C9 fielded Loki and Tactical against TL. However, it did not go as they’d hoped.

Robert “Blaber” Huang started the game with an inexcusable death, trying to take the crab on 100 HP while knowing an enemy was just in front of him. Afterwards, it was the Locke show as Lim “Quid” Hyeon-seung finished the game with 10 kills. The second map went no better as C9 ran out of gas by minute 15.

C9 lost their first match with their new roster. Image credit: Stefan Wisnoski / Riot Games

A new order for the LCS?

Obviously, this is only a single loss. While very unusual for Cloud9, it doesn’t have to imply anything for the remainder of the split. Six teams qualify for the playoffs, and they won’t drop below that. However, this one loss could jeopardize a top two finish, if LYON beats them next.

The big question is whether they’ll manage to qualify for the World Championship. As three teams can make it, this means that they likely only need to beat FlyQuest in the playoffs. Bigger upsets have happened to them in past qualifiers, but the odds favor them.

For TLAW on the other hand, this win might end up granting them a round 2 bye in the playoffs. Team Liquid will face their second big challenge in LYON on Week 6 of the LCS Summer Split.

Featured image credit: Shannon Cottrell / Riot Games

Related to:

Team Liquid

Cloud9 LCS Summer 2026 Regular Season