APA On Yamato: “I’ve Grown A Lot Of Respect For Him As A Coach.”

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LCS Summer 2026 is a split of major changes for both C9 Kia and Eain “APA” Stearns, as the team has decided to move forward with a seven man roster. Lee “Loki” Sang-min and Edward “Tactical” Ra have joined the roster alongside Noh “Arrow” Dong-hyeon and Jakob “YamatoCannon” Mebdi. I sat down with APA to talk about his Korea bootcamp, the team’s new setup, and Locke’s current power level.

How did the Korea bootcamp go?

APA: Overall, it was just like another Korean bootcamp. I’ve been on, I don’t know how many now, but probably a dozen by this point. It was all the same. You wake up, you go into solo queue until you eat, then you go back into solo queue until you sleep, and that’s kind of how it goes for most people.

Did you manage to get some good scrims against LCK or LPL teams? Are you happy with them?

APA: Yeah, we got a bunch of MSI scrims. We got a lot of scrims against honestly, most of the MSI teams. The only times we couldn’t were when their schedules conflicted with ours.

For example, we had G2 scrims, but then they beat one of the teams, so we had to cancel scrims with them because they ended up having to play that day. But yeah, we got a lot of good scrims.

Luca: The biggest topic when it comes to C9 this Summer Split is all the roster changes that have been made, and the big shakeup the team went through. We saw that Inero stepped down and Christian “IWDominate” Rivera has been promoted to head coach.

Could you walk me through how that transition happened inside the team?

APA: Well, I think C9 published a video about why Nick stepped down. After that, I think upper management, Jack and David, were scrambling to figure out who would be the head coach. I think they ultimately decided to put Dom in that role. It was just moving him up one step on the ladder, basically. The day-to-day has been more or less very similar. Of course, we still work with Dom every single day.

He does a few things differently from Nick, but it’s still the same players, so not too much has changed. Just a few small things here and there, but nothing major. So far, I think Dom is doing a good job

Luca: Besides Dom, we also saw that Arrow and Yamato joined the team, and we know Yamato is a close friend of Dom and that they’ve worked together before.

What does Yamato bring to the team?

APA: Yamato has a very smart understanding of the game, and he has a really holistic view when we’re reviewing things. That’s very nice to have. It’s good to have someone speak up in review and say, “Hey, I don’t think what we’re doing here is the best. Why are we doing this? I feel like we should be doing this instead.”

To be honest, I knew about his relationship with Dom, of course, but I had never really interacted with him as a person. Since then, I’ve gained a lot of respect for him as a coach. I feel like he’s very knowledgeable about what he’s talking about. I wasn’t worried that Dom was just hiring his friend or anything, but it was a very pleasant surprise.

Luca: Yeah, and he’s someone with a lot of experience, because I remember him being with Vitality a while ago. He’s coached a lot of teams, and now that you’ve added two new players to the roster, with Loki and Tactical coming in, you have a seven-man roster, which I think isn’t easy to manage. Having all that coaching staff is probably helpful.

How has the approach changed with all those players coming in?

APA: Well, we don’t really know yet, because stage games haven’t started. So I honestly can’t say for certain. Right now, we just split scrims. We do two scrim blocks a day, three games, and three games.

For example, in the first scrim block, Loki will play, and in the second scrim block, I’ll play. Then I’ll watch his block, he’ll watch mine, and we’ll either give each other feedback directly or I’ll give feedback to the coaches, like, “I don’t like what we’re doing at 10 minutes in this game. I think this is bad, and I don’t think we should do this. I think we should be doing this instead,” depending on the situation.

That’s how we’re doing it for now, and what happens from here, I’m not totally sure.

Luca: There have been a lot of rosters like this with many players. I remember T1 having two completely different rosters and swapping them around during play days, and personally, I haven’t been a fan of that kind of move because you don’t really have constant practice.

What’s your opinion on having such a big roster?

There are definitely some interesting things about it.

Now I watch more scrims, so I have a more holistic view of the game. Obviously, when you’re playing, you have to focus on your champion, think about how you’re going to combo your spells, how you’re going to lane, and all the things that matter. But when you’re just watching from the spectator client, it’s more like, “Oh, this is weird. Why is this happening?” Stuff like that.

So I’ve gained more insight that way. But, of course, the drawback is that I’m only playing half the games, so there are pros and cons to it. It’s all about what you make of it, I suppose.

Luca: We saw Lyon having an insane run at MSI. They went almost all the way, they beat G2 very easily, and they put up an incredible fight against HLE. Saint also had very strong performances against mid laners like Caps and Zeka, and you played against Saint a lot during the last split.

Do you think Saint has improved a lot during MSI, watching him from the outside? Or do you think you can still face him and be better than him?

APA: Well, that’s the whole goal, to be the best. So I hope so.

Luca: Obviously, they look like the team to beat coming into this split as well. But you showed that you can actually perform and be better than them, mainly in the regular season. Then in playoffs, something seems to fall off.

Saint at MSI 2026 Bracket Stage Day 5
Photo Credit: Colin Young-Wolff/Riot Games

Now that you’ve had all of these coaching additions, are you also planning to work on how you handle high pressure situations and perform well in long series?

APA: Yeah, I think that’s a very obvious discussion we’ve had.

But it’s hard to just say, “Do better.” It’s more complex than that. But, of course, we’ve had conversations about it.

Luca: NA has shown that the top teams are better than the European ones at MSI, and the discussion has gone further because, when it comes to top teams, NA seems to have a higher ceiling at the moment. But as a whole region…

How do you see the difference between the bottom teams in Europe and the bottom teams in NA? Do you think NA is better as a whole region, or is there still something missing in order to become a complete region and compete with every team?

APA: Well, I’d imagine the lower-tier teams in EU are better because they have a strong academy system. They have their whole ERL system, which I think does a lot for them compared to our academy scene. It’s not very strong. I think sometimes you see good individual players rather than good teams.

In ERLs, you actually see whole teams being good, and from what you hear and from what I can tell, some of them are even better than the bottom tier LEC teams.

So I’d guess the bottom-tier LEC teams are better than the bottom-tier LCS teams purely because they have a stronger tier two scene.

Luca: To wrap it up, I’d like a quick question about the new champion, Locke, who has now come into pro play and is completely breaking solo queue.

Do you think Locke is viable in competitive play right now?

APA: I think he’s pretty broken right now. I don’t know if you’ve been watching Kespa Cup. It’s basically the only league on right now, but he’s dominating there. They’re just first picking him.

He seems super strong. He has insane damage numbers. Yeah, he just seems really strong right now. I know he’s already been nerfed once, and he’s getting nerfed next patch again. So I’m not sure how viable he’s going to be after that, but for now, at least for the first week of LCS, I imagine he’ll be picked a lot. I’m not sure when the other leagues start.

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