KC Busio when asked about the EU-NA rivalry: "I feel rivalry with anyone I'm facing because I want to win every match"

Throughout League of Legends’ competitive history, teams that start their World Championship run through the Play-Ins usually create chaos at the main stage. This year, emerged from the ashes of the 2026 World Championship Play-Ins and will look to upset as many teams as possible as the French team debuts at the tournament.

As a third seed, the first match would always be difficult, but KC drew , a team they beat back during their dark horse run at EWC. Before the start of the Swiss Stage, Sheep Esports had an exclusive interview with Alan “" Cwalina. KC’s support shared how trust within the team has grown, his fierce competitiveness, and the lessons learned from Play-In.

Alan “Busio” Cwalina: “I would say I missed it. LCS studio is nicer than the LEC studio. I don't think many people would disagree. Not necessarily studio-specific, but Los Angeles is also nice. It was nice to see some local LCS fans whom I hadn't seen in a while. That was very nice, so the nostalgia factor was there.

Busio: Not many stories or anything, but on the first day, they're like, “Where's the bathroom?” I can just tell them. I've been there before, right?

Busio: I don't feel anything about the rivalry on my end, because it started way before my time. I feel rivalry with anyone I'm facing because I want to win every match, of course. It wasn't really personal. The match was very exciting. We played way below our standards. It was the first time we played in a while, so it's nothing to be super concerned about. As you saw, we picked it up in the rest of the play-ins, so it was a very chaotic start to the tournament.

Busio: Our disappointing finish in Nice gave us a lot of direction about what we needed to work on during our Korean bootcamp, the team did fantastic. We are much, much better after this failure. If we didn't have that result in Nice, we wouldn't be at the level we are now. Everyone's playing great, and we're at our peak as a team. We just need to show that on stage.

Busio: The biggest lesson for us happened when we faced C9. We weren't playing as we did in scrims at the start of that series, especially in Games 1 and 2, with pretty disastrous early games and mistakes we normally don't make. We did a really good job accepting that we weren’t really warmed up.

That's pretty normal, and we also did a good job making sure it wouldn't happen against MVK Esports the two times we played them. We started the series strong; we 3-0'd both, but even in Game 1, we were already warm. We were already playing closer to how we play in scrims, if not at the same level, so I was very happy with my personal and the team’s improvement in that regard.

Busio: Not really. Worlds is more important because it's the end of the year, but it's no different from the internationals we've already played this year in terms of what you do as a player. It's still the same changing environment, getting used to those very high-stakes matches against better players than you play in your region, so it's nothing new. They've already done it this year at MSI and EWC. They already have that experience, and everybody's different.

What I learned through my experiences could be very different from what they have to learn because they have different personalities than me. They think differently, so they fail in different places. They probably have learnings that I haven't even got because they're just different people. I trust them both, they have enough experience already from this year to do great in this tournament.

Busio: It’s important to share with your teammates how you think and feel, so they don't have to worry about you or assume things. Everyone's very open. I know how Kyeahoo and Caliste think, so you feel closer as a team. When you go on stage, you have full faith in your teammates, and you understand their conditions. Sharing is important so your teammates know what's going on.

Busio: I don't really have to help Caliste with that adversity because he has a very good mindset in dealing with failure or losses. It's a very common mindset as a competitor that you have to have. You know, you lose; it already happened. It's in the past. You can't change that. You have to take away what you can and move forward. Kyeahoo doesn’t have much experience, but this year has been full of tournaments, ups, and downs. He also has so much experience in that regard. They don't need help or mental coaching from me in that way. I just need to be a good teammate. That's all.

Busio. AL is the first seed from LPL, but I am not scared. We beat them before, but results don't mean everything. Just because we beat them before doesn't mean we will beat them again 100%. We still need to play well, but I believe we're at a really high peak for ourselves, so I'm as confident as ever.

Busio: This is our moment because we're professionals. We're trying to peak at the right time, so this is strategically our moment.”