A year ago,
were the story of the LCP. The Taiwanese team won all three domestic splits, played at First Stand, MSI and Worlds, and became the first LCP team to reach the
World Championship quarterfinals. 2026 started very differently. With most of that roster gone, CFO missed First Stand and MSI and were eliminated early in the first two splits.
The turnaround came in the second half of the season. After changes in mid lane and support, CFO reached the Split 3 final, which they lost 3-0 to Team Secret Whales, and qualified for Worlds as the LCP’s second seed. Their first opponent in the Swiss Stage is Team Liquid, the LCS champions. Ahead of the match, Sheep Esports had the opportunity to chat, with the help of a translator, with the team’s AD carry, Chiu “Doggo” Tzu-Chuan.
Worlds is about to start. What are your expectations for this tournament?
Chiu “Doggo” Tzu-Chuan: “For the team, what I’m expecting is for us to be better than our performance during the playoffs. For myself, I would say just not to play embarrassingly, not to embarrass myself.
CFO lost most of last year’s roster and struggled for most of the season. Why did it take so long to find a rhythm, and what was missing in those first months?
Doggo: At the start of the season, I was with a rookie support who didn’t have any tier 1 experience, so it felt like we needed a really long time to build our dynamic and our cohesion. I think young players still need time to grow. Midway through the season, we made a change and brought in
(
Han In-woong) and
(
Wu Hsin-jung), who are more experienced players, and I had already played with Kino. With that, and after reviewing our games, we slowly got better and were able to put up a better performance, which is how we made it to Worlds.
What is the biggest difference between last year’s CFO and this one? Can this team reach the knockout stage again?
Doggo: Last year, the meta had a lot of lane swapping, and we took a lot of advantage of that. This year, I think our laning phase is overall a bit worse than last year, and our reaction speed and decision-making when things change are also slightly slower. So I think this year will overall be a little more difficult.
Many people saw you as a breakout player last year, carrying CFO through the Swiss Stage. How do you feel individually today, and what is the biggest change in your game?
Doggo: I think I’m improving every single day. I’m definitely better than I was this time last year, standing here on the world stage. I’m always learning new matchups and new ways of understanding lane swaps, and I have matured a lot as a player. I’m definitely better than who I was last year.
Is there a team or a player at this Worlds who catches your attention, or someone you want to face?
Doggo: I don’t really think there’s anyone I’m particularly looking forward to facing. I pretty much did all that last year. This year I’m just going to enjoy the games, give it my best and put up the best performance I can.
Your first opponent is Team Liquid, and in the bot lane you’ll face and . What do you expect from that matchup and from the series overall?
Doggo: I think the key here is CoreJJ (Jo Yong-in). We will be paying a lot more attention to our support matchup, and we’ll do our research and work on our strategies for the draft.”
