LYON chooses to play against the winner of Cloud9 vs. Shopify Rebellion

The League of Legends Championship Series (LCS) Summer Split Playoffs will kick off this weekend with the Round 1 matchups, as will face , while the will look to take down . and , who finished first and second in the regular season respectively, are absent from Round 1 and will therefore start directly in Round 2.

In this format, similar to the LCK, the top-seeded team has the advantage of choosing its opponent. However, LYON had to make their choice before the Round 1 best-of series were played, meaning they did not know the results of those matchups. They ultimately chose to face the winner of C9 vs. SR, sending the winner of FLY vs. SEN to face TL, according to The Dive, LCS podcast.

During the regular season, C9 finished third, followed by the Sentinels, FlyQuest, and finally Shopify Rebellion in sixth. LYON’s decision to pick the series with the third-place team, and therefore potentially the strongest team available, may seem surprising, even if a Shopify win cannot necessarily be ruled out.

However, the decision is not necessarily incomprehensible. Even if C9 win the series, LYON remain the stronger team on paper. As the two-time defending LCS champions, they also beat C9 2-0 in their head-to-head matchup, with the Sentinels being the only team to challenge and defeat LYON during the regular season, doing so in Week 4.

At the end of the playoffs, three Worlds slots will be on the line, with the top two seeds qualifying directly for the event’s Main Stage, while the third seed will have to go through the Play-In . The fourth and fifth-place teams, meanwhile, will qualify for the 2026 Demacia Cup Global Invitational, a tournament featuring mid-table teams from the six major regions. Of the six teams participating in the playoffs, only one will therefore miss out on an international event.

C9, meanwhile, made several changes during the Summer Split, bringing in Edward "Tactical" Ra and Lee "Loki" Sang-min at ADC and midlane respectively, replacing Jesper "" Svenningsen and Eain "" Stearns. There was also a change to the coaching staff, with Nicholas "Inero" Smith no longer at the helm of the team, replaced by his assistant Christian "IWDominate" Rivera.

These changes could therefore create a honeymoon effect for the American team and result in some very strong performances, or, on the contrary, lead to weaker showings, especially against a LYON side that has stuck with the same roster throughout the year, aside from Cho "Castle" Hyeon-seong playing three games in place of Niship "Dhokla" Doshi in the toplane.