SHFT Nuc: "We have to make up for nearly two years of lost progress in a single split"

Though the glory days of BDS are long gone, a glimmer of hope flickers ahead of . After multiple changes to its lineup, the squad is now making a push towards redemption in the 2026 Summer Split of the LEC after back-to-back failures earlier this year, hoping that the team can finally reach its first playoffs of the season.

Nevertheless, the road remains filled with ambushes, notably after the team started with a loss against . Even if the series ended 1-2, the match was close. Now, the Swiss organization turns towards , their second match of the week, and perhaps one of the most important if the team truly wants to prove they are among the best Europe has to offer.

In an exclusive interview, the team's midlaner, , sat down with Sheep Esports to discuss a potential return to form for Shifters, as well as how the last few splits have impacted him mentally, and the work ahead to ensure that they can finally conquer their demons.

Ilias "nuc" Bizriken: “I think we were pretty happy with Game 2’s draft. The moment the game really imploded was when we lost the fight at Void Grubs. That was a big turning point in the game because that was a fight we could have easily won. We misunderstood how we were supposed to play the fights, how we were supposed to play the space. For me, we just lost the game there.

The Game 3 draft was a bit... Actually, the problem with Fearless is that you get into situations where nobody really knows what to pick anymore, and it’s a bit of a mess. It’s by playing extended Fearless matches over and over that we can improve for those kinds of situations. I think the draft was OK, but we just fell behind in the early game, and with our draft, we absolutely wanted to be ahead.

Nuc: Yeah, it’s really linked to the fact that we’re a new team. Basically, each player’s priorities have to fit into the priorities of the others. And since we’re a new team, Stend wasn’t playing the same champions as Trymbi, which then leads to Paduck being able to play new champions—the Thresh-Kalista duo in Game 3, for example. Those are the kinds of things we weren’t doing before.

And the spots where we draft them... Currently, we’re not sure if those are the right picks until we’ve tried them. But for me, the draft wasn’t the problem, even if it can always be improved. Our first match was against MKOI, and they’re a very good team with very good players. Still, that doesn’t take away from the fact that we’re going to use this match to improve as much as possible and then, when we play the stronger teams, build on that and get some points.

Nuc: I’m feeling it a bit. Nevertheless, we have other issues that we’re trying to fix in practice. That’s our number one goal: really making practice effective every day, 24/7, because that’s where we improve. So that’s really the number one goal right now.

That aside, for me particularly, I’m just really happy to have Sheo back—my friend, my brother. Stend as well, another French guy. I think we have a group where we can tell each other everything, where we can all put things on the table and just move forward together. And now it’s about how much we can turn that into results in practice. I’m really happy.

I have to rediscover myself this split because everything is changing, and I really feel like we can do something with this roster, especially compared to the other splits, where we really weren’t a team. So I’m trying to find my place, find my role, and see what I can bring to the team in general.

Nuc: With the disastrous year and a half we’ve just had, our goal has to start with making playoffs. We’ve been struggling for a year and a half, so in one split, we basically have to make up for everything we’ve failed to learn and accomplish during that time. So yeah, playoffs to start with.

Obviously, I’d really love to play international tournaments again, like when I was at Worlds in 2023... Yeah, that would be my dream. But to climb the ladder, you have to take it step by step. So we’re focusing on the playoffs, getting comfortable, improving. It’s very important not to stagnate and to give it everything.

Nuc: I’m pretty happy that I played him in the first match, just to get back into it, get acclimated to the competition, and just play again. So yeah, happy with Game 1. I’ll be using that experience to improve on my laning phase, because he’s once again the best laner in the league. I’m looking forward to playing our next matches so I can use those learnings.

Nuc: No, no, right now I... Really not at all. I’m really not at 100%, I think I’m at 40-45%... It’s not a question of confidence, but more a question of what I can bring to the team. I’m only scratching the surface of what I can do in that regard.

Nuc: I’ve been focusing a lot on teamplay with this team. Basically, the way I saw the process was like: we have a new group and many different ways of seeing the game. We need to very quickly get our fundamentals back, especially since we’ve been unable to have solid ones in the last year and a half with the various rosters we’ve had.

I’ve done a lot of macro game reviews, concepts to integrate them with the team, so that we’re all on the same page. That was my main goal at first, and I think we’ve reached around 50%. At the beginning, it was really a struggle, but now we’ve reached around 50% on those macro plays.

And now I’m gradually shifting my focus towards myself, meaning: how I play, what I can bring—the individual stuff—which I’ve only started working on very recently. It’s about keeping those two sides working in a parallel manner—you have to put in more and more work. It’s important to keep working on various aspects, especially when you’re starting from this far behind the other teams.

Nuc: Not really. I’m someone who lives very much in the present. I just do my best and think about what I can do better in the present. Because I’m convinced that, no matter what happens in the future, I’ll know how to react, how to bounce back. So it’s really not something that worries me. Whatever happens, happens.

Nuc: No idea. We haven’t scrimmed them at all. We’ve scrimmed teams that have scrimmed against NAVI, so that’s our only point of reference in terms of level. But other than that, I think they’re a very system-oriented team, meaning everyone has their role very clearly defined, and they play well as a group.

And I think we have a bit of the same thing right now, in the sense that our group works well as a group. I think compared to the previous split, where we always struggled to beat NAVI, it’ll be much easier to play against them this time. Yeah, I’m looking forward to playing this match.

Nuc: The schedule is unusual. For example, usually our days off were after match days before, whereas now we just played against MKOI, we have two days of scrims, then we play again. Then we have two days of scrims again, then we play again. It’s a bit weird.

It’s just a rhythm you have to adapt to, and it’s not something that bothers me. Basically, it just keeps going. You play today, you don’t have time to think, “Oh fuck, we lost, that sucks, oh fuck, I should’ve done this,” and all that. No, what you are instead thinking about is how and what to improve on for the next match.

And by getting better little by little every day and every series, in the end you qualify for the playoffs. So that’s our initial goal, and then we go further.”