Once again,
find themselves in the top four of the
2026 LEC. While they may not have been considered favorites heading into their matchup against
, the squad delivered a commanding performance and took down the Hive. With little time to prepare, GIANTX now advance to face
for a spot in the semifinals.
In an exclusive interview, toplaner
sat down with
Sheep Esports to reflect on the victory, discuss the Olaf pick in game three, and share thoughts on his LEC journey so far, along with the pride he takes in his progress over the last year and a half.
How do you feel about taking down Vitality in such a convincing fashion?
Eren "Lot" Yıldız: “It feels great. Even if the games were not the best, we’ve been working hard on our mid game, and it ended up being the thing that won us this series. I’m just really happy about seeing that improvement. There’s a certain satisfaction to being able to fix your weak spots as a team, and turning them into win conditions.
said the team didn't expect the Akali response when picking Olaf. What was your perspective on that matchup?
Lot: [Laughs] Jackies probably didn't listen to me enough because when I was picking Olaf, I predicted they would go Akali, which I thought was bad into our comp. I didn’t have many blind picks anyways in this scenario, so Olaf felt like sort of the best pick I had for that position. I wanted to bait them into picking Akali.
Even though it's a bad matchup, I can handle it. And if I do, I felt like the game would be easy. I knew we would outscale them hard in mid to late game for teamfights—and it paid off.
It didn’t matter if I was maybe 3000 gold behind or 1-7, Olaf is just an annoying champ. I start hitting them, and they’re forced to go back. It’s a good champ in that sense.
You were very vocal in comms and making a lot of curious noises. Does playing Olaf put you in a mindset where you have to go a bit crazy as well?
Lot: Kind of. When you play Olaf, if you don't have a good matchup, you can end up going maybe 0-10 even, and you should be aiming to go a bit crazy in those moments.
“You just need to close your eyes, ignore all noises, and go vroom vroom, you know? That's what I was trying to achieve.”
You’ll be facing Karmine Corp tomorrow with little time to prepare. You did beat them in Madrid earlier this split, so how are you approaching the preparation for this match?
Lot: I feel confident. Coming into today’s match, we had really bad scrims. In the past, we’d have times when we’d go 6-0 in scrims but get swept in playoffs—today, we go 0-5 in scrims and stomp our opponents 3-0.
We’re in a phase where we’ve stopped caring about scrim results—we just show up and play. We know that if we play to our strengths and do what we know best, we have good chances. It might not end up enough to beat the top three teams, but if it is, I know we’ll win through that. We don’t wanna go for cheesy plays and flip a win, we want to be true to ourselves and do what we do best.
If this split were to end tomorrow, would you still be satisfied with it, or would it feel like a disappointment?
Lot: I would still feel happy. Last split, we got top four, but it didn't feel right because we didn't play against Vitality or KC when they were playing good. We beat NAVI, and then we got swept.
“This time, we earned our spot by beating the team we thought most deserved top four.”
This shows that we actually deserve that spot, you know? Reaching back-to-back fourth place is already pretty good—it’s part of what we wanted to achieve this year—but now, we need to build onto this.
Karmine Corp was a team we could never beat in the past, and we won against them in Madrid. Still, no one in the team will just be satisfied from this, even if it feels good. We want to push further than we have so far.
Do you feel pressure around long-term goals like making Worlds, especially given the team has been together for a while, and do you see that as important for judging the success of the project?
Lot: It’s too early to feel pressure about making Worlds, and right now we’re just looking to improve as much as possible. We’ll see if it’ll be enough or not. What we want is to achieve the best results we can.
We’ve already achieved part of what we wanted to do. In the past, we were the LEC top 5 gatekeepers—now we’re the top 4 gatekeepers. Maybe in the future we’ll be able to become the top 3 gatekeepers, you know? We need to work for it, and we’ll see where that leads us.
How do you feel overall about your growth as a player? Are you proud of what you’ve achieved so far in the LEC, and what does it mean to you beyond just being a player?
Lot: I'm very proud of myself. There are so many things that happened inside and outside the game, and I grew so much—I'm really proud of it. Being in the LEC helped me develop my personality and find myself as a person.
“Before you make it to the LEC, you're just a kid playing a video game. You might be good at what you do, but when you reach the LEC, that’s when you become a professional.”
It becomes your job, and you need to work constantly, since everyone there will be trying just as hard to keep proving themselves. It’s not like in ERLs, and you need to step up to match that level. You can’t have days where you slack off and just chill. You need to be constantly working on your mindset, gameplay, but also your health.
I feel like I’ve truly become the person I envisioned my future self to be back then. I’m proud of everything I’ve done in the LEC. If you never fail, you cannot achieve greatness. I want to become a really good LEC toplaner in the future, and I know I’ll need to fail a lot of times to achieve that. I’m just putting in as much work as I can so I can achieve my dreams.
Lot: Maybe I will. That said, I’m fine not being in the All-Pro Teams. I don’t really care, to be honest. I just want to be a player that fulfills what my team needs—I don’t care about being seen as good in other people’s eyes. I just want to be there for my team, and do what they need of me. I will just keep doing what I believe is good, I don’t care about anything else.
You know, All-Pro Teams are a bit hit or miss as well—sometimes they are good, and sometimes bad. If I get on it, it’s a nice bonus, but it doesn’t mean anything if I’m not on that list.
Would you say you enjoy your time in the LEC more, as much as, or equally as when you first arrived in the LEC? And how does your experience compare to when you first started in the ERLs?
Lot: The LEC is the most stressful environment one can be in, but that’s where you have the most fun, you know? For people like me who loves surpassing themselves, pushing forward constantly, it’s the perfect environment to evolve in, since it’s simply the best league in Europe. I really like the LEC”
