When Top Esports walked off the stage following their 0-2 loss to KT Rolster in the 2025 League of Legends World Championship Swiss Stage, the disappointment was palpable. For a team with a championship pedigree, expectations were high on the home turf, but no one felt the sting of defeat more than head coach Yoon “Homme” Sung-young.
After the Worlds 2025 Swiss Stage match, Homme didn’t shy away from taking responsibility. He reflected on what went wrong and how much of it, in his eyes, came down to his decisions.
“I feel like today, I would say that most of it falls on me because the opponent ended up getting so many of the good [draft] picks,” Homme told Dot Esports in an interview. “We actually saw many mistakes during the objective fights. So, I believe that as long as we’re able to refine those points, I believe that we are able to prepare well to do even better and have a better showing next time.”
He admitted that KT had outmaneuvered them from the draft onwards. In both games, the LCK fourth seed team’s compositions looked sharper and more cohesive, especially when it came to fighting around neutral objectives, which TES failed to match. They had poor objective control in the first game, with just two Dragons and one in the next game, when the enemy secured the Soul as well.
Homme also acknowledged that some of the team’s struggles stemmed from the draft itself, particularly from his early decision to lock in Jarvan IV, a pick that has struggled to find success at Worlds 2025, currently sitting at 1-8. However, the Top Esports coach explained that the issue doesn’t lie with the champion itself, but rather with how it fits into the overall team composition.
“Jarvan IV, as a champion, doesn’t have any problems, but you definitely can find a lot of synergy with certain specific champions that you can play with Jarvan. He’s actually a lot better to play whenever the opponent has a low-mobility composition.”
In hindsight, Homme felt that his eagerness to secure the pick early in the draft might have been premature. “I think today the mistake was that I picked him too fast (during the champ select).”
With several other AD jungle champions recently nerfed, Jarvan has become a comfort option for many teams, which is a trend Homme now questions. “Lately, a lot of teams have been picking him too quickly,” he admitted. “A lot of teams are just picking him [Jarvan IV] just way too quickly. That’s not something you should be doing.”
Despite the loss, Homme didn’t dwell on the disappointment for long and quickly shifted his focus toward improvement. “I believe that I can definitely learn from this mistake,” he said. “From here on, it’s about making up for it, refining our approach, and making sure we’re well-prepared for the next match.”
Holding a 2-1 record, Top Esports still have a path forward in the Swiss Stage, but their margin for error is shrinking as stronger teams now stand in their way to the knockouts. However, if Homme’s introspection translates into reality and the team solves their temporary woes, they could easily become the favorites to win it all in China.
TES takes on Gen.G in another best-of-three series on Thursday, Oct. 23, for another shot at advancing to the Knockout Stage.
