are continuing their slow rise up the standings with a third win in a row at the conclusion of Week 3 of the
2026 LEC Summer Season. Despite a tough start to the split in Paris, the team has managed to turn hardship into renewed vigor, now sitting firmly in third place at 3-2 after taking down
and
over the past two weeks. Nevertheless, a worthy challenge now stands before them, with
hungry to take them down and claim the spot as Europe’s third-best team.
In an exclusive interview, jungler
sat down with
Sheep Esports to discuss what the team is still lacking and its road to improvement, the integration of
, and his goals for the rest of the year.
How has the team’s rhythm been with only one match per week, and how do you feel about the team’s progression after the difficult start to the split?
Linas "Lyncas" Nauncikas: “We started the split with a hard schedule, against three of the strongest teams in Europe. We managed to pick up one win there, so that was a relief. If we had started off 0-3, it could have been quite rough on the team mentally speaking. I’ve said it before, but when we were 0-2, I put a lot of effort into making sure the team’s mental would stay good.
But yeah, with that weekend out of the way, it felt good to beat SK and TH this week. Those should be easy wins on paper if we’re good. Our first game against SK was a bit rusty—the early game was not it for sure—so we’ll need to review what we did. We had a much better showing in the second game, though. Our schedule now is pretty solid as well—we’re playing one match per week almost throughout—so yeah, it’s good.
Do you already consider Vitality the third-best team in the LEC, or is it too early to say?
Lyncas: It’s hard to say. Movistar KOI are obviously in a slump, but I think they should pick themselves up—I guess we’ll see if they make it to their roadtrip. GIANTX are not looking bad as well. We’ll have to see how we play against them. I feel like we still have to earn that title of third-best team in the LEC.
How does it feel knowing you could be responsible for MKOI missing Madrid after beating them in Paris?
Lyncas: [Chuckles] I mean, it felt pretty good making them go 0-3 at the Paris roadtrip, but we don’t have anything against them personally, of course. One team had to go winless in the end, and I’m happy it’s not us.
How has your relationship with FIESTA been, and do you consciously try to make him feel welcome and help him integrate?
Lyncas: It was definitely a bit rough at the start, but he’s been integrating quite well now. His English is getting better and better. Overall, good teams have to make sure to keep lifting one another up—both in scrims and officials. That’s what I’m trying to do, not only with him but with everyone on the roster. Obviously, since he just joined, it’s normal to put more effort into helping him integrate. I want him to feel good in the team. Today against SK, he was honestly insane. He just played so well, especially in game 1 where he was making a lot of good calls. He stepped up a lot from his debut.
What is FIESTA like behind the scenes? Do you have any anecdotes about him?
Lyncas: [Laughs] Honestly, most of the anecdotes I have with him involve Carzzy (Matyáš Orság). All in all, FIESTA fits quite well in our team atmosphere—he finds it quite funny. He somewhat jokes around as well, especially as his English is getting better. I think he’s enjoying his time here.
Does the team environment feel more stable and positive now compared to Spring?
Lyncas: I would say that our work environment—how people’s mental is like in the office—is much better now. We just have to keep working and scaling for playoffs. There is not that much time left, and we have to keep getting better.
This is your third summer tenure with Vitality. Do you feel any pressure and need to qualify to Worlds? It feels like it could be your best shot at making it considering the current standing.
Lyncas: I wouldn’t say I feel any extra pressure. It’s not really how I think. I would say that 2025 was also a good opportunity for us to make it to Worlds, but we were just not good enough, even if KC was not that strong and we should have been able to beat them in a best-of-five. We just have to keep working. Right now, we have a really good opportunity to make it to top three, and I also definitely think I’m better than I was in previous years. I just really, really want to go to Worlds, and we need to show it with our gameplay.
What are you most proud of in your improvement compared to last year?
Lyncas: I’m not sure what I’m most proud of. I would say that I definitely feel like I improved a lot in kind of every aspect of my play. But I’m not sure about one specific thing that I’m most proud of compared to last year.
How do you feel your mentality has changed, both in and outside the game?
Lyncas: I think my mentality in and outside the game has been much more positive—I’m just much more confident. I try to inflict that on my teammates as well, especially on and before matchdays.
[Chuckles] I mean, I’m somewhat laughing because we had a rough week in the office before facing SK where I was quite tilted with how we were going as a team, and I probably didn't show that in the best light. But I made that clear to our staff.
But overall, I think just the big difference in mentality, just being more positive and trying to inflict it on others. And maybe taking it a bit easier overall than last year, like working hard but taking it easier overall on myself.
What happened during that difficult week you mentioned?
Lyncas: I just think that we just need to improve faster. I had a conversation with Pad (Patrick Suckow-Breum) about how I felt. I want us, as a team, to understand that there is not that much time before playoffs. Even if we are already taking scrims seriously, I think we can do more in that regard. We need to fix our mistakes faster. I was quite frustrated with that, but to be fair, that was maybe four days before our match against SK. Yesterday, for example, we scrimmed and played very well, so things are better now, and I’m quite happy.
Do you think taking scrims more seriously is an issue in Europe in general?
Lyncas: I would say there’s a lot of nuance to it. In our case, I can’t say that we’re not taking scrims seriously. It’s more that I think that we can do more. We could be doing a better job at not doing silly mistakes, like silly deaths before objectives for example—we can be more disciplined and demand more from ourselves.
Those issues are, in my mind, very simple to fix. If you are playing for soul in 20 seconds, and then you have a player randomly dying pushing a wave, then you most likely have to give up the fight. If it happens once, it’s fine, but if it happens on and on, then what the hell are you doing, right? When it comes to Europe in general, I can’t say exactly what goes on in other teams. I would love to see how the strongest in Europe work—G2 and KC. I know that G2 are very serious in how they practice, for example.
Have you not had the chance to scrim G2 and KC much?
Lyncas: Well, we didn’t get to scrim either before the roadtrip as we were going to play against them in officials—teams usually don’t scrim their future opponents. Now that this is behind us, we’ve been able to scrim G2 this week, and I think we have some scrims booked against KC in the future. Obviously, the strongest teams will try to scrim among themselves, and we’re now close to the top of the standings, right? So it’s beneficial for everyone.”
