Can Los Ratones Turn It Around? YamatoCannon on the KC game, His Take on the Meta, and Week 2 Expectations

After the series against Karmine Corp at the end of the LEC Versus Week 1, we got the opportunity to chat with Los Ratones head coach Jakob ‘YamatoCannon‘ Mebdi and talk about what he thought about the series, his view on the meta and coach comms, and his expectations going into Week 2.

Davide: Obviously, it sucks to lose and go 0-3, but I definitely think that today’s performance was much more convincing compared to the previous days.

I wanted to get your thoughts and impressions on the game today, especially considering everything that went through in week 1.

YamatoCannon: I think that we are learning about ourselves [in] real time. Definitely with the meta changes, you have to figure out how you want to play. And I think we have a lot more data to work with. I think coming into game 3, the game against KC, we knew what worked and what didn’t work. It did feel a lot better to play the game where there wasn’t super much pressure on the composition to win quickly with four Drakes because the stage games tend to be a little bit slower.

So it felt good to have a little bit of scaling. We set up a little neat trap there to send the Vi to top and get a Dr. Mundo angle, which was nice. I was happy with the prep in the fights. I think this game was really winning for us the entire game. I felt like we just got kind of out-executed in the fights. I think we needed to use our Bard’s ult way more… We needed to chain our spells a little bit more and actually punish them. We just didn’t have Flash and we didn’t manage to do that. But I do agree we qualified really deep into this game and we showed some fight, some grit, and improvement.

Davide: Compared to the two previous games, today’s gameplay is kind of hard to fix because it’s very small stuff. Even Caedrel was also saying on stream that it was small details.

Can you walk me through how, within the team, you usually try to fix these kinds of things?

YamatoCannon: I think the main thing that you can do is [getting] the best draft [possible]. It’s not the one that is [created] by some super AI supercomputer predicting what the best champions are… It’s more about picking the champions that are going to highlight your strengths and hide your weaknesses at the same time. And I think those are the adjustments that you can make. I try to make sure that my feedback between the games is very tight and applicable.

For example, we needed to make sure that we open through mid and make sure that we contest the vision because every other support is doing so. We noticed that the jungle proximity to the top lane was almost nonexistent, so those [are] adjustments that give them something easy to attach to. Because if I start saying this, this, this, this, this, it’s not really going to help, so you just want to give wisdom that they can lean onto in the game because in the end, if you tell them 15 things, they’re not going to remember a single thing at all. So we try to keep it short and sweet and adjust the draft to fit the matches.

HUGE COMBO FROM THE BOYS!!! #LRWIN pic.twitter.com/Bm9RhxCwol

— LosRatones (@LosRatoneslol) January 19, 2026

Davide: What do you think about Velja’s performance today compared to the previous days, considering he struggled in the past few days? I also think of Crownie as well, [who struggled] in these games. How have the guys been handling the pressure and trying to make sure that they can bounce back? Because I think it’s clear that the players have the potential, or you wouldn’t have stuck with them.

This is the stress test for them because they weren’t really pushed to the limits in the ERLs, but now they are in the LEC. How do you think you’re planning on, you know, trying to give them some confidence and form?

YamatoCannon: I think that Velja did very well today. I think that he did a very good clear. I think that he recognized that he had to pressure the second crab spawn, which is very crucial, especially in that timing, because it gives you the upgraded smite if you clear fast; [it’s] the cookie that gives you the upgraded smite spawns at 5:30. And he had a very good read on the enemy red spawning and he found a massive advantage in the jungle. It’s very punishing if you do. I do think that this game he played with poise. He had very good comms. I think that his synergy with Nemesis is also something that was showing because obviously that has been like a struggle point the entire previous year for them.

And this meta is all about how you play together with your mid laner. Every mid laner needs to get the BDD treatment, you know. Jungle goes mid and I think in this game, they did a really good job of controlling things and we really shut down the Azir. I don’t think that he had any opportunities to pressure our Orianna. So Velja did a fantastic job today.

In terms of Crownie, I think that we are kind of letting him down because the conditions of ADC are determined by everything else, and I think that we don’t do a good job of giving him appropriate fight conditions and I think we don’t do a good job of transferring our pressure to Crownie so he can actually posture on the wave. Especially in this game, like Aphelios had no flash and [we had] many windows and I think we could have punished him a little bit harder and I think the game would have flowed a little bit better. So I think that Crownie just needs to keep patience and all of the things will fall into place for sure.

Davide: I wanted to hear your perspective on the meta because people have seen that ADC got a lot of attention in the new season with the seventh item. They’re getting a lot of power in the role, but it also feels like that in pro play; it’s really hard to stand out as an ADC because there are so many threats coming at you consistently.

What do you think is one of the more successful formulas in meta right now?

YamatoCannon: Now I think currently the meta is [about doing] everything you can to get your mid laner ahead because he’s either playing Azir, Orianna, Ryze, or Taliyah. And mid lane is the only role that you can actually pressure with ganks because Faelights are too easy to abuse, and at the same time, base timers are really easy to achieve.

If you’re playing a losing match bot, let’s say you pick Alistar. It’s very easy to just base on a cannon wave and then go into bot. You don’t end up in wave states that are completely soul-crushing anymore. So if your support is free to move and he’s stronger in the 3v3, the party always happens in mid.

I think there was a point in Gen.G versus KT where even Ruler just flashed at minute 10 onto [the] enemy Taliyah to just burn his flash because everything just leads to mid lane. I think the sharper you are on those timers, the better. And then while this skirmish is happening on mid lane, you want to have an ad that kind of is self-sufficient; that’s where we see a lot of Corki Ezreal, Varus. Yunara is strong because she has push.

And then while all of this is happening, the fight around mid, you have the top laners duking it out and sometimes if there’s an advantage top, it’s very overbearing, or in a lot of cases, you just blind K’Sante Rumble and it’s kind of chill. That top lane thing is happening in the background, and in some case,s you have mid laners and Ryze [or] Taliyah roaming top a lot and it happens. But I do feel like everything is just about mid lane. Mid lane is king and anyone who tells you otherwise is trolling because mid lane is the only lane you can gank.

Davide: I also wanted to ask you about Coach Comms. The LEC is not using them right now, but we started seeing them in the LCP and LCK.

Do you think that something like the Coach Comms can potentially, if implemented, help out teams like Los Ratones or maybe some of the newer teams that are struggling a little bit more, find better stage play?

YamatoCannon: I do think that it’s something that could be helpful. I think it depends on the team dynamic. For example, T1 don’t use Coach Comms, which makes sense because they play together for a full year, so there’s nothing really to tweak or save because all the comms are already there.

It’s rare that a coach is going to come in and say something that Faker probably didn’t say already in the game. I think when you’re coming up and your dynamic is new, I can imagine that you can use that as a tool to use it as reminders. I can imagine that the practice process also becomes a little bit cleaner. But personally, I do think that anything that removes the pro players from the experience that actual players have, the worse it is in my opinion, because if you’re playing solo queue or you’re playing FlexQ, you don’t have a coach that’s going to tell you what to do always.

So I think removing that experience makes it less relatable. Even though, probably we would have very funny Coach Comms at some point because we get to hear them, right? Someone’s gonna say something stupid, someone’s gonna say something great to win the game. You know, it kind of reminds me of how Formula 1 does it. You know, how the Ferrari engineers just say dumb, and the drivers get mad. I can imagine it would be for entertainment purposes, fun, but I think people would utilize it.

Maybe actual pro players would be put in that position to just communicate with the players. And maybe there is a way to expand the coaching stuff, because I do think that it’s a unique skill set. And the coaches that are currently active… I’ve played pro, and I keep active in the game, so I can maybe jump into it. But a lot of the coaches that are the greatest in Europe, they don’t have history playing, so it’s kind of weird to put them in that position. So it would just be like another strategic position on the team that you would have to fill in T1’s case. I could imagine Mata (T1’s coach) could easily jump on the mic, you know, and say some good s**t.

Davide: You guys will have a few days to recollect your thoughts and bounce back for next week. You’re facing GIANTX, Shifters, and Team Heretics.

Which team do you think can potentially be a match where you can get your first W, if there’s any?

YamatoCannon: The freaky thing about BO1s and the new patch and everything we’re seeing, it’s been kind of hard to predict winners. Even today, with shifters just stomping MKOI in 27 minutes after they had a couple of games that looked very hard. And we have NAVI losing a 10k gold lead against Fnatic. I feel like the game is so volatile and it’s very, very upset, heavy.

And currently, being 0-3, we are the underdogs against anybody, so we’re just going to follow those rules. It’s the year of the underdog, and I do think looking at those three teams, they are all formidable, but I do think it’s one of those weeks where we should be aiming to get three wins. I think that we are on the right path and we just need to keep working and make sure that we are headstrong because it’s easy to fall into despair when you start 0-3, and that’s why this format is very ruthless. But I think that the boys are ready for what’s to come.

A hard fought game. Some big plays. But it wasn't enough.

We go again next week.

ggwp @KarmineCorp pic.twitter.com/L7ThquWjbp

— LosRatones (@LosRatoneslol) January 19, 2026

Any last message you would like to leave to the Los Ratones fans who have been actually cheering quite heavily in the stands, everyone who’s watching online?

YamatoCannon: Yeah. I think the Los Ratones’ fans, like, they greeted us coming into the venue. They’re in the venue, also online. They’re super, super supportive. I appreciate that super much, and I think it adds a layer of motivation for the players that they care about super much. And having that force behind you means the world to us, and we are trying our absolute best to make you proud. We are working super hard. Everyone’s putting their absolute best efforts, and hopefully, we can make you proud. You know, that’s the main thing.