C9 Vulcan: "Even though it didn’t show today, we’re on an upward trajectory going into playoffs"

Week 6 of the 2026 League of Legends Championship Series (LCS) had arrive at Homegrounds: Mexico City tied for third, and saw them leave tied for third. The mid-season road show saw them face both teams with a record of 3-1: home team and event organizers and .

C9 showed positive signs against the Mexican side, but they were unable to massively upset the Pride at their Den. However, C9 came up victorious in a close series against SR. Following his match against LYON but before his match against the Rebels, Sheep Esports spoke with C9’s support Philippe “" Laflamme. The current MVP spoke about C9’s areas of opportunity, his previous experience in Mexico City, and his pick for the Hall of Legends induction.

Phillipe “Vulcan” Laflamme: “Honestly, it’s been very fun to be in Mexico. All the fans are very excited because they don’t get to see events here, and everyone is coming in full force and super excited. Even though most people are cheering for LYON, we’re still getting a good amount of support, and people are super excited to see us. It’s been cool. I’ve also seen at least one fan who told me that they were here when I was in EG back in 2022. They came here and saw me then, and they were super excited that I was back this time around, so it was cool.

Vulcan: I remember (Joseph Joon Pyun) drinking because it was his birthday. We went out; maybe it was after our 3-0 against MAD Lions. We went out and got some tequila that time. There is an iconic picture of him with a sombrero and two shots of tequila. That’s a pretty good memory.

Vulcan: Honestly, the prep has been a little bit difficult. We had a bunch of issues with people being sick in the past week or two. People were taking turns not feeling super well, and we had scrim cancellations because of it, and even other teams cancelling on us. The practice hasn’t been the best. We scrimmed a little bit yesterday when we got here, but it wasn’t the most… It was tough. I think every team is in the same boat.

I don’t think any of the four teams here have had the best week of practice. It is what it is, but at least we’re all on the same even footing, at least. That’s okay, and we just have to deal with it. Our preparation was mostly about the draft and what we want to play. We’re kind of aware of what they want to play. We had two drafts that we were pretty happy with, so our prep was good, but it was mostly execution that was lacking today.

Vulcan: It’s a good question. Our big focus is team fights. In this meta, it always comes down to team fights. We can always do a better job at walking forward, taking space, knowing ability usage, who’s a priority target, and what our mindset is going into team fights. These are things we have to continuously work on and improve because all the teams are really good and they will test you on these.

Another things are how we use tempo on the map, where we decide to allocate ourselves in the mid game with solo laners, and how we play situations like how we want to set up the map. Sometimes we have a little bit of an issue where we have two people sort of on autopilot, and we have all three people run to three different lanes, and some bad stuff can happen. We’re trying to focus on playing each game by game, and try to decide the best setup for this specific game. This will help us improve at identifying this setup and executing it as fast as you need to during the game. These were the big things for us.

Vulcan: We’re taking it week by week. LYON and are clearly better than us, and then after that we have Shopify, , and to worry about. Every team that made the playoffs has a decent shot at making Worlds. We need to make sure we keep improving, and that… Well, I’m not sure what we can do exactly to prevent a playoff choke as we had, but this time around we’re not first after the regular season. After today, we have no chance to be first, so we aren’t going to have the big expectations. Maybe that will alleviate some of the pressure for us, and that could help us play better during the playoffs.

We’re trying to play more consistently and find a playstyle that is more reliable when we get to stage, so we’re able to transfer what we practice towards playoff success. For me, we have to work on botlane planning. In Game 2, we kind off solo lost the game when Lee Sin ganked us, and we died as Caitlyn against Yunara and Lulu; it makes the game a lot harder. We had chances, but our job that game was to push Yunara-Lulu, and then I needed to help Orianna against LeBlanc and Lee Sin. We must have Bard help Orianna farm minions and win lane, but after what happened during the early game, we weren’t able to do that. We have to be more consistent going into playoffs. I’m hopeful that we will do better. We have a great group of people, and we’re all trying super hard in scrims. Even though it didn’t show today, we’re on an upward trajectory going into playoffs.

Vulcan: Well, MVP or not, I don’t really think about it anymore; it’s kind of in the past now. It’s very nice to have won it one time, just to say that I have done it. Other than that, I’m going into it like any other match. They played a very solid Game 1 today. I was very impressed that they beat TL in a game. Their preparation was really solid, and they executed it well. They’re a good team, but I feel like we usually match up pretty well against Shopify. I don’t know if we’ve lost a game against them this year?

Vulcan: Maybe, so we’re undefeated. We usually match up against them pretty well in scrims, but they’re not the strongest scrim team. They usually play better on stage, so we’ll see. (Tristan Stidam) has been playing really well for someone who’s coming in after a year-long break or so. He has been doing pretty well, so I’ll have to be on top of my game, but I’m confident going against them.

Vulcan: Oof… That is the hardest question I’ve had in a long time. Hall of Legends inductee… There’s a theory going around that it should come from someone from NA. It’s a hard argument to make because of how NA shapes up against some of the other regions. I would go with someone from the LCK or the LPL. (Ryu Min-seok) is someone who comes to mind because, ever since he came onto the scene with DRX, he has always performed very well individually and pushed his team forward. That would be my choice, but if we were going to NA, it would be between (Yiliang Peng) and Bjergsen (Soren Bjerg). I’m a Bjergsen enjoyer, so I would have a preference. If they would want to do the NA thing, I would go Bjergsen.