Despite a
promising regular season,
endured a catastrophic end to their playoff run,
finishing with a combined 0–6 record against
and
. As a result, the team once again failed to secure a top-four finish in the league, falling short of qualification for the
2026 Mid-Season Invitational.
In an exclusive interview with
Sheep Esports, toplaner
reflected on the team’s disappointing elimination, addressing lingering internal issues, the team’s low morale following their loss against MKOI, key lessons to take forward, and what lies ahead for the Hive heading into Summer.
What do you think went wrong in playoffs? In several games, your team built early leads but struggled to close them out.
Kaan "Naak Nako" Okan: “We took some good leads in games two and three, but genuinely, I just don’t know. We just kept going in and dying. When we were sieging or skirmishing, someone would go in and die. It made closing out the games pretty hard. There’s not much to do when that happens, and things kind of snowball from there. They take objectives and all. It’s tough.
After such a strong regular season, why do you think the team regressed so much in playoffs? What led to these recurring mistakes, and how did things change in such a short period of time?
Naak Nako: Well, we had about 20 days of break after the regular season, and I guess we just couldn’t figure out how to trade in bot matchups, especially in our match against MKOI. Our drafting then was pretty bad—it was mostly a draft gap especially for our botlane, even if our gameplay was also not great. From a toplaner's perspective, every game was over at minute six. The games were already kind of lost by the time I would join in.
Today, our drafts were fine, but I don’t know… In game two, we were sieging, and then we got Taliyah comboed while trying to hit the Tier 3 turret. They chased us, killed some of us, and yeah. They were just very silly mistakes from us.
Do you think the team's struggles were related to adapting to the new patch or meta?
Naak Nako: I don’t think so, no. It was about figuring out how to draft around botlane against MKOI. Today, we just had really bad gameplay and kept dying randomly. Happens.
Were these issues already present during the split, or did they appear specifically for playoffs due to a lack of progression compared to other teams?
Naak Nako: After the regular season, our scrims haven’t been very good. It was mostly fine before the MKOI series, but even then, we just weren’t progressing or learning anything. We would keep running the same drafts, same shit all the time. After that first series loss in playoffs, we were losing every single scrim block. I have to admit, I was kind of tilted myself and running it down in scrims.
Today, I don’t know… We could end games, but then we have things happen like Twisted Fate chasing Skarner last game, and in game two, we die at really random times before fights, giving them objectives and making the game hard. We were winning early games but our teamfights were horrible.
Do you feel like the frustration and tilt you mentioned had been building up over the past weeks and snowballed into this playoffs performance for the team as a whole?
Naak Nako: I’m not sure. Speaking from my point of view, I felt pretty fine before the MKOI series, but after we got 3–0’d, everyone in the team seemed really depressed. Then we had scrims that were really bad, and yeah, the mood overall was not great. Still, our comms were fine today. Everyone has their share of blame.
What is the biggest lesson you take away as a team from this split, given the strong regular season and difficult playoff finish?
Naak Nako: The lesson is just to stay mentally stable even after losses. Some of us really peaked in the regular season and then just started looking worse and worse with each match. That has to be fixed. But yeah, it’s mostly a mental thing.
How do you personally manage your mental stability, especially in scrims, and deal with tilt as an individual responsibility within the team?
Naak Nako: If I get tilted, especially in scrim days, I just protest in game, you know? If someone makes a mistake in my lane, I run it down. My teammates know that things will always be fine in matches though. That’s just my way of doing things.
Do you do anything outside of the game to reset mentally between matches or scrims?
Naak Nako: Outside of the game, things are always fine. Those issues happen in game only, otherwise people are nice with each other. It’s purely gameplay.
So if you have a bad game, you’re able to shake it off quickly and reset for the next one?
Naak Nako: Yeah, I think everyone is fine after bad losses.
With Spring Split ending, what are the realistic expectations and goals for Summer? Has anything changed after this playoff run?
Naak Nako: Honestly, if we keep playing like this in Summer, I hope we don’t even make playoffs and just head into the offseason fast so we can chill at least. But, if we’re able to play like we usually did this split, the aim should still be top four—it’s still a realistic goal.
What will be the main focus or key requirement for the team to reach top 4 in Summer?
Naak Nako: We’ll have to see what the meta will be like first. It really depends on our coaching staff and how fast we figure that out. That aside, we need to work on early game fundamentals and teamfighting the most.
In terms of the current meta, how do you view the toplane role? Do you feel it has enough agency in solo queue and in pro play?
Naak Nako: Looking at solo queue, you have to play to win your lane so hard that you can go and help win the rest of the map. Take the turret around minute ten and try to stomp lane. You can also just play tanks, and you’ll probably climb if you’re good at the game, but stomping lanes is the fastest way to climb. In competitive, if games are even, I think toplane is probably the most overpowered role when it comes to teamfighting. That said, if the game is not in an even state, there’s not much you can do. If your bot side loses, you will lose most of the time, and you have to accept it.
Looking at your own performance today, how much responsibility do you take for the loss? Do you feel you could have played better individually?
Naak Nako: In the last game, I had two back-to-back bad fights around drake—when they got soul and before Elder. I should have played better. They played well around keeping spells for my Zhonya and controlling me with Skarner E. Aside from that, I think my laning was fine today.
What would you like to say to Vitality fans after the end of Spring Split, and looking ahead to the future of the team?
Naak Nako: I assume management will make a post to recap the split and talk about the future, but yeah, there’s not much to say other than we are sorry, and it happens.”
