TL Spawn: "There’s nothing we’re doing that is working"

arrived at Worlds 2026 as the LCS champions and North America’s first seed, with the added motivation of playing at home. The Swiss Stage has not gone as planned. After losing to on opening day, Liquid fell to in the second round and are now 0-2, one loss away from elimination.

Their next match is a best-of-three elimination series against , the LPL’s first seed. Right after the loss to BLG, Sheep Esports had the opportunity to speak with the team’s head coach, Jake “Spawn” Tiberi.

Jake “Spawn” Tiberi: “It looked very similar, to be honest. We felt we had a pushing bottom matchup and a good top matchup, where we know we can play really well, especially early game. The issue is that we get outscaled, so we need to force action, which has honestly been our specialty in North America. For some reason at Worlds, we just can’t generate tempo, which is like speed in the game, the ability to accelerate the game and push it forward.

We just can’t find it. It starts with (Jo Yong-in) flash being used on bottom lane before the first crab, so we lose first crab, and that means we have to overstay. We lose a little advantage on mid lane there. Their top laner keeps his teleport advantage for Dragon, and we lose Dragon. We’re not able to generate a teleport, and then he holds it again for the crabs or the Herald fight. Then we get hooked and die before it can happen, and our top laner gets picked. So across the board, we’re making these uncharacteristic, unforced errors, which are super frustrating and cost us too much tempo.

Spawn: Yeah, I think so. We call it positive cycle. It’s when someone does something good on the map, then they reward someone by doing something good for them, and it keeps going. Our bottom lane laned really well for the first three waves, which means we should get that bottom crab for nothing. But then we make a mistake, and our positive cycle falls apart. Then (Lim Hyeon-seung) has to positive cycle for (Brandon Villegas), but our next turn is even weaker. So I agree with Yeon. We’re really struggling, we’re playing so poorly relative to our normal standard, and it’s so disappointing to see. I have to take accountability for that as a head coach. I need to figure out what’s going wrong. And I’m sure it’s really frustrating for him too, as the AD carry of our team, who is trying to do his job the best he can.

Spawn: Coming into Worlds, we had a really good bootcamp, especially against the European teams, so we had heaps of confidence. Our performance so far, you have to give us a 1. There’s nothing we’re doing that is working. What makes me confident? Our scrims were good, and our practice was good. We just have to get back to that and see whether we can replicate it in our elimination matches. Potentially, with our back against the wall, we’ll feel like we have nothing to lose, and we’ll come out and play some proper League of Legends.

Spawn: I think we need to agree on what our best draft is to be able to play Game 1, so we get some momentum back. I think we’re a little over the top in that, and we need to do a better job. Then we need to generate some speed on the map and be able to force some fights, because right now we’re fighting every single time the enemy wants to fight, and we’re not going to win many of them.

Spawn: Obviously, the LCK still looks the best, but everyone else is touchable. I don’t even think the LCK is untouchable at the moment. To be honest, I think anyone can beat anyone if they have good days. We’re just having really, really shocking days at the moment.

Spawn: Absolutely. We love the Latin fans, and everyone Josedeodo brought with him, the content they make around it, the joy they bring to the game. That’s so important to us, and I think we’ve lost some of that, to be honest. What I would ask from the Latin fans is, I know this is super frustrating, but if you could get behind Josedeodo and really support him. We know that at his best, he’s one of the best players in the world, and he doesn’t need critique right now.

He needs love, care and fun, because that’s the kind of person he is. He’s such a loving, caring and fun guy, so I would please ask the fans to try and support him. I need to do a better job as a head coach of unlocking him. He is so important to the team. The Josedeodo playing right now versus the José playing in the finals is two different people. So I’ll spend the next 48 hours working with the guy. But please, just do everything you can. We’re already down, and we don’t need to be kicked anymore at the moment. Just give him that appreciation, because he’s such a good guy.

Spawn: It definitely gives extra energy to me. When I heard the “Let’s Go Liquid” chant, I had goosebumps, to be honest. Maybe it’s bringing pressure to the team, but it shouldn’t, because we’re home. We should have the advantage. We need to protect our home, and we’re not doing it. We’re letting everyone down, we’re letting ourselves down. Hearing the crowd has been insane. I want to turn this into a positive memory. It’s so bad for me and the players. We have to figure this out, because this isn’t good enough.

Spawn: Sh*t... They’re a great team, obviously. That’s a rough draw, but honestly, we said we wanted to make top four, so we had to beat all these teams anyway. We had to be able to beat CFO and BLG to make top four. So if that’s AL, we have to figure it out and take them out. I’ll do my job, do my research, and work with Spookz (Samuel Broadley) to make sure we put our team in a good position to perform. But they’re a fantastic team, and that’s a rough one.”