Karmine Corp has been the clear number one of the LEC 2026 Summer Split for weeks – on match day four, the team faced GiantX. Jungler Yike talked afterward about his Qiyana performance, the team's flawless record, an unusual coach quote from a GiantX interview – and the outlook on the Madrid playoffs.
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"One of My Best Qiyana Performances"
RunItDown: Congrats on the win. First question: what did you have for breakfast? What was going on with that Qiyana? Because that was special.
KC Yike: Yeah, I mean, I think that's like one of my best Qiyana performances.
I feel like I got every single camp today. I just kept farming, went like a circle on the map, and got his camps into my camps into his camps.
It was a very good Qiyana game for me, so I'm happy with that.
RunItDown: It felt like I looked away for a minute and suddenly you were like three levels up – I do not want to know how much CS that was.
That fits into your general split so far, too. You've basically dropped nothing, only one game against G2, playoffs locked in since what feels like forever.
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RunItDown
We saw KC be in that sort of form last spring too – your first losses back then came against G2 and GX, both of which you've already beaten this summer. So is this going to be the perfect split, then – the perfect regular season at least?
KC Yike: I mean, on paper it looks pretty promising, right?
We have Shifters and SK left, and those two teams are, on paper, kind of like lower-tier teams – but we'll come in with a lot of respect and do very good preparation for them.
Going 9-0 hasn't happened yet since they introduced this kind of split format, and that'd be a nice accomplishment for us.
After that, we just keep training, keep making sure we're as good as possible for playoffs – because in the end, the regular season won't really matter that much. It's just going to be the playoffs that matter, so we have to lock in for that.
"We Don't Feel Satisfied Just By Winning"
RunItDown: You already touched on staying locked in – I want to bring up something GiantX's coach, Guilhoto, told me about two weeks ago, referring back to his LEC Versus statement where he said only KC could really be satisfied with how they played. He then added: "I don't think anyone should ever be completely satisfied with how they play."
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RunItDown
So – would you actually tell me something similar? Where exactly do you see the biggest room for improvement?
KC Yike: Yeah. I mean, I feel like it's very easy when you win a lot that you just don't think of the bad things.
You don't review as much, you don't look into the mistakes as much, because you mostly win.
But I think it's very important that we still do that, right? We don't feel satisfied by just being happy with winning. Like today, for example – maybe both games looked kind of easy for us, but I think there's for sure a lot of mistakes that we made that we can learn from.
I think that's something we do very well as a team: even if we keep winning a lot, we still treat it as a normal game and review it like any other, where we can actually learn stuff. I like that way of working.
RunItDown: Is there any specific part – for example, for today's game, is there any specific part where you go, okay, we should look to close out even faster, or we could have done that team fight better? How do you approach those snowballing games?
KC Yike: Yeah, for sure. Especially game one – there were so many small mistakes, small errors from us, even though we were so much gold ahead of them.
We didn't really know exactly how we wanted to close out the game – if we want to hit Nash, if we want to play very deep in the jungle and camp for them, or if we want to play side lanes. We didn't figure it out fast enough.
So the game just got delayed until it was just team fights, right, where they can always have a chance of coming back or something like that. We managed to still win the team fights, but it looked a bit messy – and that's something I'm personally not satisfied with.
RunItDown: So is that a matter of faster or better decisions? What's more the point?
KC Yike: Probably better decisions. I think we're pretty fast now with what we want to do, pretty good at being proactive – but we still need to understand what actually is the best play, you know? That's something we have to rewatch.
"The Biggest Risk Is Ourselves"
RunItDown: Zooming out a bit and looking at the past year – you've had three runner-up finishes in a row now, including the Esports World Cup, unfortunately. And you've already said this summer the team is very hungry for this split.
Let me phrase this a bit provocatively, I hope you don't mind: what's actually stopping you from taking it all this split?
KC Yike: Yeah, I mean, it's a good question. I think the biggest thing that could stop us is just ourselves.
I think the ego – we get too much ego, or we don't take as much from the practice as possible, like the scrims or watching the games. I think that's the biggest mistake a team can make, to lose the fire you have, you know.
We're very good right now, but it's very easy to have just one bad best-of-five in playoffs, and you lose confidence, and everything gets harder from there. So it's just about not losing to ourselves, that's the main thing.
RunItDown: Looking at the split in total – I've checked the post-match threads on Reddit a bit. People are clamoring for either Caliste or Kyeahoo to get the MVP for the entire split. Who of those two is it, or why is it you?
KC Yike: I mean, I was thinking about them too. Personally, I had a stinker against NAVI, so it's hard for me to get MVP.
But between Caliste and Kyeahoo – yeah, they both played very, very good, very solid. Who to give it to is hard, both deserve it. They're both very stable and make very few mistakes.
I'll give it to Kyeahoo, because it's also his first year in LEC, and he's been doing so good so far, playing very, very well. Also, the way he communicates what he wants and needs is very impressive to me. So, I'll give it to Kyeahoo.
RunItDown: Is there a specific difference in strength? Naturally both are capable of explosive plays, both capable of setting back, farming, scaling. But if you had to pinpoint one different strength for each, which would it be?
KC Yike: For Kyeahoo, it's probably laning-phase knowledge – he knows exactly when I can help him, or when Busio can help him, what timing works for that, and he's very vocal about it.
For Caliste, it's team fights – I think he's probably the best player at that, at least in Europe. The way he clicks, the way he plays team fights, the way he outspaces all the enemies – that's a very impressive thing about Caliste.
"Once I Put On My Headset, I Don't Care Where I Am"
RunItDown: For the last section, a bit of a preview – you're already locked in for playoffs. The first round is in Madrid, MKOI's home turf.
Does that sort of home advantage – or disadvantage, in your case, like in football – play a role for you, for example with last split's Kameto/Ibai situation in mind? Or do you just put on the headset and tune everything out, no matter where you are?
KC Yike: Yeah, for me personally, as soon as I put on my headset, I don't care where I am, who I play against, nothing. I just lock in on my game, my team, and stay on that.
But of course, when you go into Spain, you know before the games you're probably going to get booed by the Spanish fans, and that makes sense, right? That's how it is. Same when they go to France.
That's what I think is just fun, you know – I like it, I enjoy it. Even if they boo, I know they're just fans, that's the rivalry, I think it's very fun.
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RunItDown
The only thing is, it would be more fun if it was against MKOI themselves, because then the rivalry would be really spicy. But if MKOI isn't even there, it's going to be different – a bit weird playing in Madrid without the team that's actually hosting it.
But we'll see, maybe they still make it into the playoffs. To answer the question directly, though: I don't really think about anything that happens outside the game once I'm in loading screens, champ select, all of that.
RunItDown: And the other way around – with the Summer Finals in France, in Nice – does that sort of "home advantage" not affect you at all either?
KC Yike: That can only give me something positive, honestly, like a boost. I feel a real push when I walk on stage and hear people chanting my name, or chanting for the whole team.
Same as at the last road trip, in the Adidas Arena in Paris, during the walkout – that's a big boost for me and probably the whole team. And in-game, when you make good plays and hear them screaming loud, that's also a great boost – and it only happens when you actually make the good plays, so it's fun.
"I Would Pick Assassins"
RunItDown: Okay, for my last question – if you had to play only one class of junglers for the rest of your career, which would it be?
KC Yike: Assassins. It'd be between AP junglers or assassins, but right now I'm feeling too much the Qiyana, the Kha'Zix – there's more of them, even Talon, back when jungle was playable on him. There's just a lot of assassins I'd like to play. So, yeah, I'd go with assassins.
RunItDown: Is that for both pro play and solo queue, or would you differ?
KC Yike: Probably mostly solo queue. In pro play it's hard – sometimes you can play assassins and carry games, like my Qiyana game today, but sometimes you just can't pick the champs.
For pro play, maybe the AP junglers – but then you have to make sure your mid can play AD champs pretty well, and that can be harder than you'd think in a meta like this.
RunItDown: You've got Kyeahoo, you'll be fine.
KC Yike: Yeah, he figures it out, yeah.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.