C9 Vulcan: “We cannot consistently have bad scrims and expect to show up on stage.” – LCS Spring 2026 Interview

Philippe “Vulcan” Laflamme and Cloud9 are getting the pace up after their loss in the LCS Lock-In 2026 Finals against LYON. After that match things haven’t gone really well for them as they didn’t manage to perform in the Americas Cup, however after their win against Disguised they’re currently undefeated in the LCS Spring Split. Following the match, we sat down with Cloud9’s support to discuss the team’s development and season goals.

Luca: First of all, congrats for the victory. You just easily swept them, your drafts were really on point, it looked like they never had a change to play the game. You just were running on them, especially on bot lane.

What are you’re feelings about the games? How are you feeling after this win?

Vulcan: I felt very good about game 1 mainly because Ashe Seraphine is something we’ve been practicing for a little bit, with not much success in scrims. In stage today it went good as much as you can hope for in this kind of matchup. Blaber was making good calls, he had the strengths of our champions in the back of his mind, so we has making good decisions around it and I’m super happy about that.

We’ve had pretty of a disaster where Jayce teleported behind us but, other than that it was a pretty smooth game and then, you mentioned that the drafts were good. I’m not really sure about the Game two draft i think that, if they play better the matchup is hard for us and so we have a losing lane there. Top playing Vayne against Renekton Nocturne, that was the last option we had because we didn’t really want to pick a tank and have one more losing lane.

It was a bit of a risky draft but we pulled it off and found a way to play the game. The bot lane matchup is just us waiting until we hit our spikes and play the game then, so we did well in not getting dove and playing the game once we were able to.

Luca: You guys were very strong in the early game stages in this series and also for the whole last split, you’re playing very well the first 5-10 minutes but then you’re struggling in the mid game transition. However it looks like you’re improving also on that aspect of the game since, the Jayce mistake was the only one that we’ve seen throughout the whole series.

How are you working on that behind the scenes?

Vulcan: I think that the hard part for us but also for a lot of teams is that, we have a lot of ideas. There are many scenarios in league, the game is really more complicated now, there are just a lot of options and everyone is trying to do what he thinks is the best thing to do to win the game, but also for themselves. Sometimes the biggest challenge is to get on the same page and choose one thing, a lot of times there is more than one option and you just need to chose one.

We want to play the comp we have and the champions we picked how they should be played and, because of that, sometimes it looks like we’re doing something very troll because we’re not either, comfortable as a team on the option we are going for or, maybe not aligned.

Luca: Earlier you mentioned me about Blaber being very convincing today, and, he won the MVP prize so he actually was. Despite that, after the LCS Lock-In Finals he faced a lot of criticism following his performance against Inspired.

Do you think he worked well behind the scenes in order to improve his gameplay? And how did he manage to get past those critics?

Vulcan: I think that Blaber has been receiving a lot of critics for the last few years because he is the most senior member of team so, i think that it’s easy to point the fingers towards him, maybe it’s something he has to get through because it has always been like this and it seems like it won’t stop. It surely affects you when most of the fanbase is calling for you to get replaced, it’s not gonna be easy but, i think it just like working with the team on how we wanna play the game.

Everyone of us has issues it’s not only Blaber facing criticism, it’s not always his fault, he’s actually a very good force when he is in form and he is one of the most reliable players to have in NA for sure and maybe, it’s kinda crazy to say in any prospective but maybe in the world when he is on his game.

For the finals maybe it was like, not bad preparation, we kinda expect Inspired to play in a different way, he can for sure that Blaber should have adapted better in the day when Inspired pulls out the level one invade or whatever happened in the Jungle.

I’m not an expert in the field but i think that Blaber made like the wrong call based on what Inspired did. When this happens you have to make the right decisions and not make bad calls, it’s part of the game so we can’t just brush it off but i think, at the same time it’s not unsolvable, i don’t wanna say “easy fix” but just, don’ get f***** up level 1 and the game will be a lot better.

Luca: After that lose against LYON it looked like you were having a bad moment even in the Americas Cup. But now in the Spring Split you took down LYON, Sentinels and now Disguised and, all of those series were kinda convincing, there were some mistakes but overall the performance seems like it’s improving.

Are you happy with the team’s current form?

Vulcan: Despite the win we have been struggling in scrims and that has to change.

We cannot consistently have bad scrims and expect to show up on stage.

While we tend to perform better in official matches we can’t rely on that forever.

We had a rough couple of months following the finals. It is not an excuse but we need to learn how to play through fast turnarounds since big events are back to back now. Last year teams flew from MSI to EWC on the same day which is a crazy turnaround. When things got tough we weren’t at the required level and we lost our confidence, that really hurted us.

Having a slower spring split is actually helpful because it gives us time to fix our mistakes. After losing the finals we had to fly out the next day to play in the cup and we just didn’t manage to perform. Having this extra time to focus on scrims and improvement is exactly what we need.

Luca: Speaking about international events, during the Kespa Cup, before the season started, you managed to find good performances against teams like BFX and even Gen.G.

Did you watch their runs at First Stand? Do you think you could have had a good run in you attended the event?

Vulcan: I mean, at the time that it happened i don’t think so because, when the event was being held we were pretty dog****, so no. But i think that if it was our finals form, we could have given them a round of their money. I think we were, not great in the finals series, but easily i can say that in the Mel game we were in very good position to win and we should have won.

Gen.G is looking shaky now so i don’t know how good they were at First Stand, maybe they were quite as bad, i don’t how we would have done against them, we’re focusing on getting to International events now so we can see how we matchup against them.

Luca: I wanted to ask you something about how is working with Dom, he joined the team this year as Assistant Coach and like, he is a very well known figure in the scene but, no one really knows how it feels like to work with him behind the scenes.

Do you like him as a Coach? Are you getting along well with him?

Vulcan: Working with him has been great. He is direct and does not shy away from conflict. If we hit a tough moment, he is ready to get to the bottom of it, which is incredibly valuable for a team environment. He works closely with Blaber to help him navigate high-pressure situations and make the right decisions in-game.

He also does a great job in helping communicating the jungler POV to the rest of the roster. Getting everyone on the same page regarding early game priorities like scuttle crab or lane prio is essential. Since the jungle role is so impactful early on, having Dom as another voice in the room helps us understand exactly what we need from our solo lanes and bot lane in different scenarios. He also brings solid draft ideas to the table. He has watched so much league throughout his life, so having an assistant coach with that level of game knowledge is a massive asset.

Is there any particular team in the LCS that you think is good besides you?

Vulcan: TL are definitely dangerous on a good day, but they look shaky once the early game ends and they start to fall off. LYON is the main threat though. Inspired has shown he can step up in big moments and make sure the team follows his calls. LYON is the priority, but TL is also strong. Those are the two teams I would watch out for.