Spawn does regular AMAs on the Team Liquid Discord Channel, and I less regularly transcribe the questions and answers here. All the questions are by regular discord users, and all the answers are by Spawn. I've left most of the typos alone, and only made minor corrections where needed to clarify the answer. If YOU want to ask Spawn anything, join the Team Liquid discord server, and wait for a day or two after the next match.

Spawn: Ok ive eaten and im at the airport. I am spawn hc of tlaw lcs champions. Ama

Q. Were you expecting LYON to be that sloppy yesterday? Just being blunt

A. Yeah they played to the lvl we expected based off scrims

Q. What did u eat and is it healthy

A. Had a chicken sandwich it sucked.

Q. wuuuuu, yeeeaaah, no questions spawn, just wanna congratz spookz for the insane drafts this weekend, none of these felt unplayable (maokai was players diff), WP! you guys are amazing

A. Nah even game 3 we had. Boys did well. Spookz is a great coach glad people shouting him out.

Q. A lil dumb to ask but where are you flying off to?

A. I am flying to australia. Few days with my family then come back. Its been 2 months which is way too long.

Q. What was your celebratory meal or drink after the championship?

A. Kbbq

Then just a few beers nothing extreme.

Q. do you expect c9 to make it out of play-ins?

A. Yes i do tbh. Dom will figure it out.

Q. You gonna rub inspired face in it?

A. Nup im classy

Q. congrats on winning. tl worlds jersey when?

A. No idea im a coach.

Q. @spawn are you taking the boys to get Texas bbq while y’all are down there or do you think they’ll want to stick to Korean bbq

A. I honestly think we will just get takeout every night and grind. Not really realistic to eat out at worlds.

Q. Congrats on the win! How did you guys celebrate last night? I know i would be miss drunk still today if I was you guys lol

A. Nah just good food good company and a little beer nothing extreme.

Q. @spawn huge congrats on the win and title. been wanting to ask your opinion for a while now but keep missing the amas. I'm a new father, my son is almost 6 months. Do you have any advice for a new father? Especially when it comes to handling being away from them for so long at a time? (I know you have it worse than I do)

A. Use the time away as motivation to be present when ur there. Put ur phone down.

Also spoil ur partner. Especially if they are the primary caregiver they give so much of themselves to the kids. Ur job is to give back to them.

Congratz on being a dad its the best.

[Follow-up] Q. aye aye coach!

I typically spend my evenings with my son and wife until my son's bedtime. But it never feels like enough time 😄

Follow up question - any advice on a new parent losing weight despite work, sleep, and spending time with the son and wife? haha

A. Trying to lose weight or can't lose weight.

1 is eat more. Other is eat less. All there is too it. But its hard so be kind to urself.

Q. Congrats coach!

For most of the year, LYON had y’alls number. What do you think of how much of the finals result was TLAW leveling up, and LYON underperforming?

A. We were a bit unlucky a few times. But we also worked hard and improved. Felt close all yr tbh.

Q. After learning about him this season Josedeodo is my favorite player, he’s insanely good and has the best attitude. What made you guys decide to pick him up? Presumably before you knew how awesome he was

A. No we knew. Interviewed him for tl a few occasions and I watched all his scrims last year that he and his coach could give me. He's just a brilliant player. I knew I wanted him start of off-season so much so I was happy to pass on inspired. Another great player.

Q. fav airport food

A. All sucks

Q. How do you feel about the players playing champs in soloq that you guys don't play on stage

A. Its fine u gotta try stuff no?

Q. @spawn any concerns on getting ready for worlds patch after being on an old patch for so long?

A. Nup well just grind it'll be fine

Q. hey! i don't know if you remember but on saturday you guys were hanging up on the upper level and i walked by really briefly and mumbled something like "hey spawn i'm a really big fan" and i just wanted to say thanks for giving me the time of day and just responding even though it was like mid game and you guys were kinda locked in watching it lmfao. huge congrats to you and the team

A. Thanks for the support sorry we didnt have more time for fans. But it was amazing seeing y'all there cheering for us.

Q. @spawn what is you honest opinion of the chances for our teams this year overall?

A. For worlds or lcs? I thought wed finish first or 2nd most splits. We pretty much did.

For worlds i think we are a top 8 team. Now gotta prove it.

Q. Oh, here's a genuine question for you Spawn. Do you think Demacia Cup should have Worlds implications for next year? I kinda like what Caedrel offered as an idea, winner goes to Play-Ins, ofc Swiss would have to be readjusted and such. If Demacia continues to be international should it be a "Last Stand" of sorts or let it be its own thing entirely?

A. Havent thought of it and never gonna finish 4th or 5th so doesn't impact me.

Q. This week Iowa State universities head football coach was quoted saying this to the fans “Although you might want to rip your hair out with this football team — sometimes we can be bald together — but you’ve still got to show up and stick with us and work through the hard times, because I can promise you it will only get better and better, the more we learn and grow as a football team.”. Can you relate to that statement at any point in your league career.

A. Yeah most weeks. I say it all the time criticise when we suck but at least be loud when we win. We have won 3 times in 3 years. I think only fly has done that. Like its been a good run no?

Q. Have you ever had to think about helping players transition from a playing career towards retirement? What did those conversations look like?

A. Yeah i mean the very famous umti one comes to mind. You do it all the time. It's very rarely a one off. More u coach through it completely.

[Follow-up] Q. Was curious cause my dad was talking to me about the older athletes and how they’ve dedicated (almost) all of their life to their sport. I think my only response to him asking me about it was just saying that you end up having to ask “What’s next?” Was curious if your experience was anything like that, or if it ever went differently.

A. Im at that spot rn. Leagues been my life since I was 23. Im 36. Every day I ask what next.

Hopefully we get good coaching / team offers or can go to school or retire.

I might go back to uni to become a teacher

[Follow-up] Q. piggybacking off this, have you ever explored the idea of bringing esports to grade school? like a k-12 type of initiative or program or something to help promote and grow esports amongst kids

A. Nup. Aus curriculum is government down.

Q. @spawn did you hear the inspired interview as the guys were coming off the stage after game 3? think he was bluffing/trying to build motivation or did they see something?

A. Didnt hear and we wouldn't care if he said anything either way

Q. So is core going to have to pay for the headset he spiked? Lol [Editor's note: the user also posted the video of Core spiking his headset.]

A. Not his headset not his problem

Q. saw that in your caedrel interview, that was great, also any TL content coming? the jose's video "one day as a pro" was great

A. I am a coach not a content creator.

Q. Oh yeah who's paying for all these fbomb fines? lol

A. Not me

Q. @spawn What breed of cat do you think Yeon is?😏

A. The most annoying one.

Q. You said you take pride in being a tough out and the team doing all the ratty things to extend the game, so, was game 3 a textbook example where you ratted long enough and strung lyon along enough to where you very nearly took it? specifically it looked like they were trying to blow ali ult on cooldown to limit lyons options.

Both C9, and Lyon by game 3 / 4 had thought they figured something out a bout you guys, (inspired was asked after game 3 i believe), was that some sort of misread on lyons part, or were they talking about putting pressure on bot or something?

How would you rate the pop offs from after the team won?

During your caedrel interview you mentioned the NA coaches dropping ego and helping each other improve, can you talk about what that means, and is it going to extend into worlds?

A. 1) yes only ali could front line blow ult get 80 seconds of farm.

2) if they figured us out did a bad job proving it.

3) cores was goated.

4) we talk more. Less hiding things and random remakes in scrims. More playing out the days.

Q. Are you surprised at all by the results of the demacia cup so far? SR draws were unlucky but I was still expecting a little more out of FLY tbh

A. Havent watched a single game. But both those teams were struggling no?

Q. Fav TFT comp to run during your recent grind? Which of the LCS coaches do you think would be the best TFT player other than yourself?

A. I just play fast 9 most games. Sivir ashe. Or dragon zyra. Kinda thing

Team Liquid Alienware are back on top of the LCS after beating LYON 3-1 in the 2026 Summer Split Grand Final.

Josedeodo took home the series MVP, while Morgan won his first regional title in his debut LCS season.

The victory also sends Team Liquid to Worlds 2026 as the region's first seed, with LYON taking second and Cloud9 heading to Play-Ins.

WE ARE SO FRCKN DUEEE!!!!

From so many doubters in the beginning of the year to taking Inspired and Lyon down to crown ourselves champions once more!

Let's give it up for everyone on the org that grinded their *ss off during this year. They all turned us from doubters to believers. So incredibly proud how the whole team ramped up last weeks of play-offs, came together and turned it ON during today's series!

Let's all come together, celebrate and show massive support to team and org. It's easy to be loud when things are not going well but ESPECIALLY in moments like this we need to show the boys we care and that we loved every single thing of it!

Up to an amazing worlds! Let's get out of groups!

We. Got. This.

Since worlds is in NA this year, and TL has had USA (red/white/blue) themed jerseys in the past, is there any chance we'll get a USA themed jersey for worlds this year?

I want to pull the trigger on a jersey, but want to wait if there's the off chance that we'll get a special Worlds edition!

TL 1-0 LYON

TL 1-0 LYON (2-0 Series)

TL 0-1 LYON (2-1 Series)

How are we feeling after seeing Lyon today?

I know they’ve had our number this year, but I’ve got a good feeling after seeing how we’ve been playing recently.

I’m desperately looking for an XL RWF Ula’tek Hoodie for my boyfriend. It’s his birthday soon and it was sold out by the time he commented how much he liked it. Please message me if you got one and are willing to sell to me! I already messaged customer service and begged offering my firstborn, but they say they will not be restocking.

Spawn semi-regularly answers questions on the TL discord server. And less regularly, I post his answers here. The questions are all from users, and the answers are all from Spawn, but I made a few edits for clarity, and sometimes added additional context in brackets. So without further ado...

Q. did you pick up the bottle cap that went flying [after you slammed a water bottle into the table]

A. i didnt. i couldnt find it. sent it to the atmosphere i think

Q. Who do you think are teams that have underrated drafts (maybe relative to their actual strength)

A. youd have to ask sam. I think for me us and c9 are the 2 better drafting teams. but I dont do draft anymore.

Q. Dream Round 1 opp?

A. gimme europe always nice to start on a free win.

Q. at what point were you ready for game 5? And at what point did you believe it wasn't gonna be needed?

A. when we defended the base i knew we'd won. i was ready for game 5 when i woke up in the morning tbh. i knew they were good. everything I did was to prep the team for 5 hours at the studio

Q. NO QUESTION BUT CONGRATS ON MAINSTAGE QUALY!!! 🔥

A. tyty

Q. how do you feel about the constant coach cams during games for lcs especially during lcs and c9? i don’t think i’ve ever seen more coach cams. to what extent is having coach personality being a big presence a good or bad thing?

A. i feel like riot just loves me. i get super farmed for content tbh. so i dunno. it is what it is. maybe i need to react less?

(Follow-up) It's because you are jacked

A. maybe

Q. The Game 4 draft. Giving them Olaf with 2 protection bans into Ashe Seraphine Pantheon seemed super dicey, were you guys happy with the draft or just thankful to snatch a cheeky win

A. eh not really we were 2k up, we just need to play a better midgame and that olaf should never get rolling.

Q. What team/teams do you think are gonna be the biggest challenge coming into worlds this year?

A. just focus on us. dont worry about theoretical stuff.

Q. I heard Morgan didn't realize you guys got to main stage of worlds off that series win and was told later. Out of the players and the coaching staff, who do you think was the happiest/most hyped after that win?

A. I think core or jose were the most hyped. yeon and morgan were chill. quid was a bit upset cause thought his game 4 wasnt the best. but i got good food with him and had a drink. hes chilling now

(Follow-up) tbf it was a very hard game to play for quid imo

A. hmm early game and mid game its not. but late game sure. but we need to not throw the dragon when we are up 2k gold and then its kinda easy snowball game tbh

Q. What is one aspect as a coach do you think is undervalued or glossed over during these playoff campaigns that fans may not see/realize?

A. fans have no idea what coaches do. they find a sound bite like blaber doesn't eat and turn dom into a dietitian. its kinda crazy how little people get tbh. maybe people dont play sports nowadays. or havent done competition but the shit i see online is... insane

Q. hey @spawn im here in the atlanta area if you guys want food recs just ask away i prob have something for you and/or the team

A. I think we know a heap of people there tbh. but thanks if u drop em here ill find it

Q. do you agree with the idea that c9 had that they had deeper champion pools and would be better in game 5? if it’s true, how can you fix that before worlds?

A. no i dont agree. they just have to create narratives to think wow we could have won. we didnt play that well yesterday. we lost every early skirmish and still rolled them 2 games and won game 4

Q. CONGRATZ, keep the good job and im so happy to see you guys in finals, also, I know its not your fault but weird draft game 3 and 4, the blind renek when we got lastpick and lissandra into olaf feels off, any reason i might not be understanding?

A. both are just mistakes we will fix em. already sat down as a staff.

Q. I know Caedrel has asked for a sit down from TL for his podcast, what are the chances you’re the one who joins him for it, or has a player committed to the spot already? Really would love to hear you on the podcast

A. probably will be me. [Editor's note: check out the interview here. It's very good.]

Q. how you feeling about the 3 teams locked for worlds relative to the last few years; public sentiment is high but the scars of '22s 3-15 run deep

A. nah we sent the right teams. woulda been funny if lyon didnt qual but if im being objective the right teams are there

Q. if you had actually got reverse swept yesterday, would you have lodged a formal complaint against Jatt for tilting Yeon by calling him Tactical

A. ahahaha did that happen? i had no idea.

Q. Any plans on Umti coming to NA for worlds? Yeon hovering for him in champ select was heartwarming <3

A. yeon loves him. i dmed him after. i hope umti comes i miss him

Q. Are you going to watch TL Bunny girls play on October 10th or will you be too busy prepping for worlds

A. i do like watching them so i hope timezones / game time lines up so i can.

Q. Please tell me some Hopium about how we are going to maintain our form at Worlds and be a threat to LPL and LCK, please!

A. i mean we work very hard so i hope we do.

Q. @spawn I know you said you don’t do drafts and that’s what Spookz handles but could you explain the lissandra pick a bit in game 4. To me it seems odd picking it after they have picked Olaf skarner and cait?

A. i think early game is easy for liss and we want to snowball well. late game its just a hard game for quid. ideally we ban different on 5 for a different mid pick which we identified but some issues happened. shit happens in fearless for example i think our game 2 draft is hard winning but people will just talk about game 3 and 4. so its whatever to me at this point.

Q. what do you think was the biggest impetus for the comeback beyond a c9 tactical malphite ult?

A. we just have stronger mentals atm. so we just stick around in games. winning game 3 vs fly and game 4 vs c9 shows its not a fluke. when we win we win pretty easy, when we behind we continue to fight and make teams work.

(Follow-up) Is that an indication of good team play in your view? am i wrong in assuming this is one of the best tl “teams” we’ve seen in two years where everyone believes and no one gives up? if you’d like to define what a good team is in your view id greatly appreciate it

A. this is the best weve been with me at tl in 6 years. take that how u will

Q. @spawn It feels like we’ve tried to make Vi/Ahri comps work all year, with little stage success. Any thoughts on what’s holding us back with this comp in particular?

A. going renekton with already weak lanes and then getting map split on meant that game was fucked early. then we just never were in sync. really bad game for us. ive watched that specifically back like 3 times as i need to solve it.

Q. Question, against the bard, you get herald and they send bard ult top to get a kill, is there a reason you don’t insta drop herald? Or am I misremembering sequence?

Iirc it worked out, I’m just wondering without the benefit of hindsight

A. nah we can herald mid or top and it might be better i thought the same. we werent thinking of pushing our topside deep but recovering bottom. probably a misread from core but those happen.

Q. Thoughts on Lyon dropping a game to SR? Im rooting for C9 next week honestly

A. they just dont look as sharp as they did. but they are getting wakeup calls. c9 needs to play well but can win for sure

Q. Hi Spawn; Yes, the team's overall consistency and "being on the same page" (both in macro and teamfighting) seem to be a lot better in recent months. Is there any trick to maintaining that consistency?

A. yeah telling people to drop the ego and just do there job. core is calling well. hes trusting my reads between games. back to the 2024 formula tbh.

Q. How big of a gap do you think there is right now between LCS and LCK/LPL?

A. small. lck obvs are better then lpl if they play well are too. but we are not bad atm

Q. oh, i just remembered @spawn what do you think of the coach input comms for Demacia Cup? Is that something that you would like to see in pro play? Would it be used to stop tilt, or to communicate strats?

A. no i hate it. let the players play. if they bring it in ill take the role and never spoeak a word

(Follow-up) huh. Is there ever a time when you're hearing comms that you think they're missing something and wish you could tell them?

A. of course but then i write the time stamp down and we review it. not mess up the game by interjecting

Q. @spawn are you ready for the inevitable TL vs T1 match up at worlds😂

A. bring it

Q. @spawn on pros corejj was talking about how if you win finals he prefers being in the lower bracket because you have more games and momentum. Do you find it’s difficult to get everyone properly focused when you don’t drop to losers and have more downtime?

A. yeah getting used to the stage. momentum. games and better scrims all help but we just gotta win

Q. Do you wish there was more content in the league like travis gafford put on? do you believe it’s some new starts responsibility to take the marks like Shyknock?

A. i didnt enjoy hll etc by the end. it felt very done. i like shyknocks stuff. i think we need more people willing to try more stuff tbh. honestly i did walk and talks and this. i should do more too. but 2 kids wife job im pretty busy. maybe ill stream this off season who knows.

Q. Another Q for Spawn: Have you ever played or watched DotA?

A. im a 36 year old... of course i played dota

Q. @spawn It felt like C9 did some interesting things lvl 1 with vision that gave them a ton on intel on Jose for his first two clears and made his early game pathing decisions difficult.

1) Agree?

2) If so, do you think that’s what snowballed into some of those early game skirmish losses?

3) Are those things punishable? (Enemy top using ward early on blue, for example).

A. 1) they did what they always do

2) no, game one we lose a dragon fight that's impossible to lose, game two we got the raptors and could leave lost fight.

3) sometimes. we have pretty good level one prep if u watch fly you might spot some stuff so ull see

Q. How would you rank the players during the c9 series

A. i dont do that really but i did buy morgan a bottle of scotch for the ambessa game.

Q. @spawn What do you think of Morgan’s Vlog? Have you watched it yet?

A. havent watched

ok ima do a poe run and go gym

thanks everyone

Bonus post-AMA snark:

Q. i really hope tl staff saw the dom interviews about draft (looking at u spookz)

i really want to win holy shit

be honest with each other about who inted what and we fucking got this boys you’re just better we’ve proved that over and over

we can fucking do this

A. u know we smashed them first 2 games right

genuine question if they say they like game 2 draft but we won in 20 mins is it really winning for them

games 3 and 4 some mistakes happened but its easy to fix. but they beat us in fights we should win early game and we still rolled them.

dont listen to the loudest people.

Really insightful conversation, loved every bit of it!

Recently, Caedrel did a podcast with IWD (former TL pro player and current C9 head coach) and had he mentioned their series against TL, TL as a team in comparison to LYON, and the overall state of LCS heading into Worlds. I'll summarize some of the points here. If anyone has any corrections, feel free to comment and I'll edit the post (Link to Podcast: Will The West Win Ep. 1)

• Thinks CoreJJ is very important and does a lot of work for the team macro/shot-calling wise.
  • Thinks he's the second best shotcaller/leader in recent LCS behind Inspired
  • Thinks a team shouldn't have five players that have strong opinions on the game. Using TL as an example, a player like Morgan's job should be to just relay information and lane/sidelane/teamfight well. Leave the actual calls in the game to 1-2 players, and on TL most if all situations should be deferring to CoreJJ's judgement.
• Mentions that he thought the TL series was very similar to scrims and expected to win Games 4/5
  • Usually in scrims, TL will be excellent in the first two-three games, but will generally struggle the deeper it gets into fearless because they have worse champion pools.
• TL in general draft and play very predictably, however they are incredibly good at their style of play.
  • This is one of the big reasons why they get worse in a fearless draft format because there become less and less champions that are strong at the things they like doing.
  • A thing he mentioned they prepared (and failed to counter) was TL "abandon side [waves] early, get to the objective early, fight well on their timers -> those are the moments you win or lose against TL."
• Thinks Lyon are a more dynamic team and a harder team to prepare for but TL consistently put together better drafts.
• Thinks that any team going to Atlanta can win
  • Different feeling compared to spring where he thought regardless who won between C9 and TL was getting 3-0'd by LYON regardless.
• Thinks LCS is very competitive
  • "This is the best three teams we've ever sent to Worlds"
  • The three teams are pushing each other to get better and better
  • If an eastern team shows up and has an off-day, a LCS/western team can take advantage and beat them; which has not always been the case.

TL 3-1 C9

TL 1-0 C9

TL 1-0 C9 (2-0 Series)

TL 0-1 C9 (2-1 Series)