SEN Goldenglue: "We have room to grow, and many things we need to learn, so we're in a crucial do-or-die moment."

The First Round of the 2026 League of Legends Championship Series (LCS) Summer Split Playoffs pitted two rivals with a history against each other: and . The Society entered the playoffs as the higher seed and had also won their most recent series.

The series record favored the Sentinels, yet FlyQuest triumphed in the only playoff series. Unfortunately for Society, they couldn’t repeat the feat and fell to the Loser’s Bracket after a 0-3 defeat. Following their match, Sheep Esports had an exclusive interview with Greyson “Goldenglue" Gilmer. Sentinels’ Head Coach shared his thoughts on his team’s shortcomings this series, how his team compares to their next opponent, , and the lessons he teaches his current team from his past underdog runs to Worlds.

Goldenglue: Honestly, I felt like FlyQuest did well in the team fights, better than they have been doing in the past. I still felt like they had some… Well, in Game 2, I thought their macro was okay, but in Game 1 and Game 3, we were controlling the map for the most part. We had good situations, but it came down to their teamfighting being better than ours today; that’s how I felt. The meta is not especially good or bad for either team. I think they came out today, and they fought better than us. We usually beat them in the teamfights, but we didn't today.

Goldenglue: One consistent problem we had today, and it showed up in every game, was clumping up too much. Our carries were clumping on each other, or we were all walking through choke points at the same place. When we're playing well, we're much better about taking up space and spreading out. Today, we didn't do that very well.

Goldenglue: It's funny, yeah. I’ve been saying, “I'm gonna keep doing it until somebody stops us,” and I would say FlyQuest stopped us a little bit. I felt we had pretty comfortable characters, but obviously they didn't let us touch Ezreal or Caitlyn, which we've been picking up a lot of wins on. You could argue they stopped us from doing that, but (Cho Min-seong) was still doing well in all three games. Especially in Game 3, we haven't played Miss Fortune much, but he was a big presence. We have more champion depth than people give us credit for, but we don't get to show it because we keep getting our comfort picks. You could say they stopped us because we lost, so there's a little bit of truth to it.

Goldenglue: In general, we lost our team-fighting prowess today. We weren’t showing our team fighting; we were getting caught, clumping up, and didn't find the angles. When we're not playing well, we're either not finding the angles, not connected, not following up on the engage, or not in the right spot before the fight. Even though there were things we could do better, like some early-game mistakes, at the end of the day, we team-fought worse than them. What we're taking away from this series is that we have only a short week of practice, so we have to focus and get our team fights in a much better spot.

Goldenglue:

Zinie

(Yoo Baek-jin) has improved. Maybe it was (Tristan Stidam) joining or something else, but I feel like their mid and jungle have become more of a threat. We have to keep an eye out for (Ju Yeong-hoon) on specific champions. He definitely has certain strengths as a player. That's my very loose, very vague read of SR.

Goldenglue: It's hard to answer for all three, but we need to have better early games against Shopify, and we need to execute in team fights better than them. This will be critical.

Goldenglue: We're staying humble. We lost to Shopify this split; they're one of our losses, and they have actually improved quite a bit over the split. Even though they lost to , C9 is also pretty strong, so Shopify is a formidable opponent. I told the guys after our match that, even though we're in the lower gauntlet, the teams that get to break through and win games in the lower gauntlet are usually the teams that can grow the most. We have room to grow, and many things we need to learn, so we're in a crucial do-or-die moment. We need to make the most of it. If we want to get better, this is the best route because we get to play the most games this way.

Goldenglue: I feel like I'm beating a dead horse, but it's just gonna be about team fighting. How we want to team fight, how to position in team fights, and how to follow up. That's the main lesson that usually changes from game to game. Typically, we focus on team fights, but then, fuck [sic], now our early game is bad. We’re trying to keep it all together, but our early-mid game was fine overall. Maybe Game 2 was a little rough, but even that game blew up from team fighting, too. We need to have that killer instinct, and finding the right fight angles will be critical to our success.

Goldenglue: Honestly, I don't think it's unique to us; it happens to many of the teams. It has to do with how complex League of Legends is, and how much you can focus on and improve one area, but then realize there are so many elements in every area of the game. Maybe your tenured, experienced players might have experience in stressful in-game late-game situations, but the laning phase is a finger battle on many occasions. Knowledge doesn't always help; sometimes it's more about mechanics. I think it just has more to do with how complex League of Legends is.

Goldenglue: That's a good question. My number one lesson is believing that you can. That's the most important part. You have to really believe that you can do it, even though we're in a bad position. We're at the bottom of the Loser's Bracket. But you have to believe we can beat all these teams and carry on through your day of practice and through what gives you the confidence to make those difficult decisions, whether it's in the draft or for the players in-game; this, plus trusting myself and trusting my instincts. I feel like I have good instincts about my players’ strengths, what champions are good in this meta, and what my players are good at.

I have to trust myself and build drafts that I believe are good and that these players can execute. There are so many opinions coming at you, whether it's from the community, from the players, from the teams, or from everyone! I have to decide what’s best. I learned I should trust myself in that situation and do my best to convey this trust and confidence to my players. They also need to trust their instincts and their guts if they want to win.

Goldenglue: That's a good question. Confidence isn't something someone can give you; you have to find it yourself. The main thing is showing them that I have confidence in them, that they should have confidence in themselves, and then letting them walk into it.

Greyson “Goldenglue” Gilmer: “I would say… Interesting. Riftbound game compared to today's games? I haven't played much recently because practice has been pretty consuming. I was playing a lot a year ago, and I started playing a little bit online, like tiny bits. I feel like today it felt like we were up, you know, like 6 to 6, maybe tied scores, and then we punted and then lost. We punted once, late game. I felt our team’s fighting wasn't very good. Essentially, yeah, mistakes on the final moves would be the comparison to Riftbound.

Goldenglue: I haven't checked Radiance at all, but I've been playing a little bit of Akali and Kennen, especially after Akali won. I've been playing online. Honestly, Kennen is not that fun, but Akali is really fun. You know Gorica was a League of Legends pro, and he won the most recent tournament in Singapore, which is pretty cool. We'll have matches during the Los Angeles Regional Qualifier, but I'm gonna try to go after practice or after our match to hang out and check out LARQ. I do think Akali is pretty cool.”