TSW WarHorse: "I want audience to see this Team Secret Whales did an even better job than we did at First Stand," ahead of MSI 2026

Team Secret Whales enter MSI 2026 with a clear question hanging over them about whether they can convert early-game advantages into wins on the international stage. Under a veteran guidance, the team has been working to fix recurring issues in game closure and stability under pressure, and MSI becomes the next test of whether those adjustments are finally enough.

In an interview with Sheep Esports, Chen "WarHorse" Ju-Chih talks about the lessons learned from First Stand, the structural gaps between regions, and how mentality and discipline remain the foundation of ’ push for a deeper international MSI run.

Chen "WarHorse" Ju-Chih: I think because back in First Stand there were all the teams from the top or the second seed from different regions; competing with all those best teams, we actually noticed what was missing for the team or the gap between LCP and other teams, so we can actually learn more.

WarHorse: I think the most important part we have learned from our previous experience is for the team like us — not the LPL or the LCK teams — sometimes we can get the advantage from the early game, but we can't maintain this or we can't snowboard it to the very end. We don't know how to end up the game. We like to rush, or we are very afraid of the late game. So because of that we may make some mistakes here and there. Those are the parts we really need to do more adjustments on and try to improve more.

WarHorse: We really watch a lot of T1 games because I think one of the biggest strengths from is they are very stable. Even though they may lose something from the early game, they are very stable and try their best to grab more opportunities to open up new opportunities. But this part is something we are lacking inside the team. Sometimes we lose the one fight, and immediately we win another one, and we lose it, so the whole game goes wrong. So these parts we really do more exercise and we would like to just do better in the future.

WarHorse: So I think the most crucial part is about the mentality because sometimes I feel like, “Oh, I can't win against this opponent team." No matter how good you are, you can't win the game eventually, because sometimes happened that we were in advantage, and we rush. We put in enough hard work in the first 25 minutes, and after that, maybe in three minutes we just lost a game. So we really need to have a very strong mentality. We should believe that if we are good enough, we can win against any single team; we can win against the champions from different regions. We should have this kind of mentality.

WarHorse: Definitely, I think for the pro teams, the most important part is definitely the individual ability, the mechanical skills of the pro players, and how we can showcase those on the stage. But for us, because our mid-jungle, they are the youngest players here, so if they don't have the very good mental, it would be have even more huge influence on the team because I think for the rookie, for the younger player, the most important part is we really need to try more and try to accumulate more experience through the international tournaments. It's very hard to have these improvements, maybe one day. We really need to accommodate this from every single game and travel best to just do better and better every day.

WarHorse: I think in the normal training as a coach for the team, we need to focus more on the in-game content because I believe 80% of the game content should be settled during the normal practice. And when the match is coming, what we should focus more on is the mentality in handling the tournament and also maybe the health conditions of the players. If we just do this 20% better, we can showcase 100% of what we want to show to the audience.

WarHorse: I want the audience to see this, Team Secret Whales did an even better job than we did in First Stand. We could be the better team.