LCS Lock-In Playoffs: Three Stomps, One Clear Favorite – Are C9 Going to First Stand?

The LCS Lock-In Playoffs are underway and there seems to be a clear favorite to go to First Stand: Cloud9 (C9). From the start of the tournament, the team has demolished everyone. Here is a recap of what went down in the past week as we figure out if anyone can realistically contest C9 for First Stand.

Team Liquid end Disguised’s run with a clean sweep

On paper, this looked like the closest series of the week, but expectations didn’t match reality. Despite a few shaky early-game moments throughout the series, Team Liquid were much stronger in the mid and late game. Disguised never found an opening in the first game, as Liquid controlled the map and ran away with the win thanks to the support Yo “CoreJJ” Yong-in, who stood out on Neeko.

200IQ Blast Cone -> Pop Blossom 🧠 pic.twitter.com/T4NcoXPFRk

— LCS (@LCSOfficial) February 20, 2026

Disguised looked more competitive in Game 2, finding a few clean fights and grabbing small early advantages, but once the game hit mid-stages, the same problems returned: slower rotations than Team Liquid and messy team fights, which got punished on repeat.

The third game started horribly for Disguised, who got punished early and never fully recovered. They managed to trim the deficit when Liquid’s mid-game skirmishes got messy, but the comeback never became reality. TL’s top side took over and closed the series out cleanly, showing that they managed to fix a lot of the issues they had during the regular season.

DSG AREN'T DOWN FOR THE COUNT JUST YET ‼️ pic.twitter.com/QlqdOhbvk1

— LCS (@LCSOfficial) February 20, 2026

Inspired runs the jungle as LYON sweep Flyquest in the LCS Lock-in Playoffs

After a couple of rough showings against teams like Cloud9 and Disguised, LYON looked ready to flip the switch and remind the league they’re not here to be a stepping stone. From the opening minutes, LYON’s jungler Kacper “Inspired” Słoma took over the series and looked every bit like the best jungler in the LCS.

Rookie jungler Johnson “Gryffinn” Lee was under pressure from start to finish, with Inspired repeatedly reading his pathing and showing up at the perfect time to punish every misstep. The first game turned into a disaster quickly, as LYON slammed the door with a massive 21,000-gold advantage to close it out.

LYON appear to have arrived 😬 pic.twitter.com/PcINtrqjgU

— LCS (@LCSOfficial) February 21, 2026

The second game was far closer than the opener, with FlyQuest slowing the pace and giving their opponents few openings to work with. But the game swung hard at the fourth dragon, where LYON found a clean teamfight win and never let go of the momentum.

LYON closed out the series with another brutal win in the third Game, and Inspired wasted no time taking over the jungle once again from the opening minutes. After this strong performance, LYON are heavy favorite to beat Team Liquid as they looked very solid already from the early stages of the game. The two teams are going to face off on Feb. 27 at 22:00 CET.

Are C9 going to First Stand?

It’s been clear since the first day of the season that Cloud9 are playing at a much higher level than the rest of the league. In Game 1, even though Sentinels’ jungler Ham “HamBack” Yoo-jin found two early kills. Jesper “Zven” Svenningsen stole the show with an unreal Yunara performance, completely running over SEN in what felt like a 1v9.

The second game told a different story, with Sentinels coming out strong and finding a few key picks on Robert “Blaber” Huang. Even with some impressive team fighting from Choi “Huhi” Jae-hyun and Isaac “DARKWINGS” Chou, Cloud9 never let the game slip out of their hands and stayed even in gold. One mistake from HamBack was all they needed, turning it into a Baron take and snowballing the game from there. The script didn’t change in Game 3 as C9 took down the nexus in less than 24 minutes. 

It's the teamfight AND the dragon going the way of #SENWIN! pic.twitter.com/s3hyWrfHkj

— LCS (@LCSOfficial) February 22, 2026

On paper, C9 looks unbeatable. The only team that seems to have a slight chance of beating them is LYON, who, however, has to prove their level up against both TL and SEN. It would need Inspired on his A-game to shut down Blaber and a monstrous bot lane performance to nullify Zven and Vulcan. C9 is now waiting for their opponent in the LCS Lock-In Grand Final this coming Sunday at 22:00 CET.