Jopa on SK Gaming’s teamwork, the Taric pick, and LEC Playoff hopes

LEC Versus is in the final week of the regular season, and SK Gaming have a lot of work to do.

With Los Ratones picking up surprise wins, the LEC Versus Playoffs race is extremely close.

So far, only Karmine Corp Blue are out of Playoff contention while SK Gaming sit just above them with a 3-6 record.

It looked like SK were about to pick up a massive win over the impressive GIANTX, but threw away their gold lead with some bad team fights.

Esports News UK spoke with SK’s rookie ADC Josip ‘Jopa’ Čančar in an exclusive interview after that difficult loss.

We actually just lost that game.#LEC pic.twitter.com/sY2b733eGe

— SK Gaming League of Legends (@SKGamingLeague) February 2, 2026

Commiserations today, you guys had a really good start, but then unfortunately GIANTX came back. Can you talk me through that game? 

Yeah, I think it was a pretty even game until the Herald fight, where we aced them, which gave us the gold swing and control of the game. 

And I think the game plan was just to control the map and stack Drakes with the lead. 

We just misplayed the fights later, we did not fight on our terms. So I think we just misplayed that and obviously they played fights good later on, so yeah… it’s tough.

I know people often talk about making the jump up to the LEC that your mistakes get punished harder. Have you found it’s a really fine line between winning and losing? 

I think the transition was nothing too scary, nothing too big, like from ERLs to LEC. 

I think for sure the teams and players are better and you get punished more, but it’s not like I’m in complete shock by what they’re doing. 

So I think I still have the hang of it.

Talk me through the Taric pick, because obviously it caused GIANTX a lot of issues. Was that something the team had prepared or, in the moment, did Miky say let’s do this?

From 0 kills in 16 minutes to an ace for @SKGamingLeague! pic.twitter.com/Q7h6xR98rN

— LEC (@LEC) February 2, 2026

I think it’s always hard to predict 4-5, what are you going to play in draft. 

And it came that we are picking both on 4-5 and it always depends on what the enemies ban, what you ban, and things like that. 

So we ended up last pick on support and Miky just saw a good angle for Taric and we were like, okay, we trust you. If you think it’s a good Taric game, go for it. 

I think he was doing really good on the champ, he was doing a lot in the fights and yeah, just sad we couldn’t win.

As we’re a few weeks in now, I think we’re starting to see teams settle into play styles and I do feel like SK has shown improvement.  Do you think the team has found how you want to play together? 

Yeah, I think we were a bit lost in team identity at the beginning or like not lost, but just weren’t quite sure in what direction we wanted to go. 

I think now we’ve cleared up more in terms of champions and now we’re just getting a better understanding of how we want to play the mid game.

Like in terms of rotations from side lanes and jungle support, how they want to move on the map, what is needed from me, and things like that. 

So, just getting on the same page, I think it’s been much better this week than last week.

That’s good to hear. You’ve joked about being in the retirement home and on a team of uncs, do you have much of a voice in the game or does everyone else do a lot of shotcalling for you? What’s the dynamic? 

Can we speak about this btw? 🐐#LEC pic.twitter.com/mxmWUw8Obh

— SK Gaming League of Legends (@SKGamingLeague) February 2, 2026

No, I think I have a lot of space and room to talk in the comms. 

And it’s not like, I’m a rookie so nobody listens to things I say.

I think it’s just like a normal team environment.

And I know there has been a lot of talk of you learning from Miky and you said you played over 100 games with him, andI’m sure it’s been a lot more since. What’s the main thing that you guys have focused on together? 

I think mostly just it was first understanding what champions we want to play, what do we think is good into what champions, just understanding what we want to play in bot lane together. 

And I think we watch a lot of like laning phases where you’re just trying to understand what he thinks, what I should do, or what am I thinking he’s going to do.

Things like that, just understanding how we should play.

Also, you said that things have sort of improved with the team and I feel like you guys are getting more confident.  What do you think is missing now? I know today it was just like execution in team fights, but what’s the main thing missing from SK? 

Yeah, I think we need to fix our early games. It’s like sometimes we have a decent early game, sometimes we get stomped. 

But yeah, early games and just mid-game, just talking, making plans. 

How do we want to fight? How do we want to do on side lane? What do we need? 

Just talking about plans and making sure everyone is on the same page and understands each other.

I know today’s result was disappointing, but overall, I think you’ve individually been really impressive this season so far and not just because the pentakill. How are you feeling about your own performances and how you’ve levelled up? 

PENTAKILL for @ADCJopa! #LEC pic.twitter.com/2uPKVeQSZM

— LEC (@LEC) January 31, 2026

Honestly, I’m not the happiest with what I’ve shown. I mean, I know I can do much better. 

And obviously having this score right now is not something I’m happy with. So I just want to do better and get some wins for the team.

How was it playing against Noah and Jun today? As the desk mentioned, they’ve been one of the best-performing bot lanes in the LEC so far

I think lane, there was like nothing really special. 

It was just very stable lane from both sides, I like how they played level one though. 

I think they respected a lot, but also got all the CS as well without like messing up the wave. 

So I think level one, they played pretty well. And the rest of the lane, it was just pretty standard.

“Honestly, I’m not the happiest with what I’ve shown. I mean, I know I can do much better.”

Jopa, SK Gaming

Just two games left now, and one of those is Los Ratones. Have you guys scrimmed against them much at all? And how do you feel about that matchup? 

We did play a few scrims.  I think they’re better than what people think. 

I think the way they play around Drakes and play Drake fights is pretty decent. 

If you put them in a game where everyone is equal on items later on in the game, they’re going to perform really well.

I think where they struggled was early game and getting to that point where they’re stable in the game and can play later game team fights. 

So for sure, they’re a team that we respect. And obviously, they’re doing really good, so I think it’s going to be fun to play against them.

Sure, and I know you’re not happy with the score right now, but you still have a chance to make Playoffs. Are you confident you’ll get there and finish off with a 2-0 week next week? 

Yeah, that’s the goal. I’m still confident we can win these games. 

I think we showed some better gameplay this week and just need to get takeaways from these games, like polish some things and come in strong next week.