DSG Sajed on Disguised's 2026 LCS run: “The thing that hurt us the most was that our prep was not always the same as scrims… We’d play a whole week of scrims and be adamant we don't want to do X, and then the day of the match we're like, ‘Oh, let's do X.’”

Home > Articles > DSG Sajed on Disguised's 2026 LCS run: “The thing that hurt us the most was that our prep was not always the same as scrims… We’d play a whole week of scrims and be adamant we don't want to do X, and then the day of the match we're like, ‘Oh, let's do X.’”

After two strong years in the NACL, Sajed “Sajed” Ziade joined Disguised in the LCS for the 2026 season. After a promising start to the LCS 2026 Lock-In and a Week 1 win to start the 2026 Spring Split, DSG struggled for the rest of the year, finishing 7th in both splits and missing the playoffs. As the LCS guest team, DSG needed to defend their LCS spot in the Promotion Tournament at the end of the year. After dropping their first set against Maryville University 3-1, DSG was in danger of falling out of the LCS before they settled in and won their next three series by a combined score of 9-0, sweeping Maryville in their Finals rematch to remain in LCS. We sat down with Sajed to talk about his experience as an LCS rookie, DSG’s LCS struggles, and their dominant Promotion Tournament lower bracket run.

How do you feel about your first full year in LCS?

Sajed: Wasn't the greatest. We started off pretty strong, and then as a team and individually we kind of fell off. We didn't improve as fast as other teams. I think part of that is my inexperience. I think the biggest gap between NACL Tier 1 is not the gameplay but learning how to be a pro player at a game. That means knowing how to go about improving, talking to your teammates, and fixing your problems as a team. Our team was more on the rookie side of the spectrum, and we struggled a lot with that. It started off really strong. I think we had the potential to be top four by the end of the year, but the inexperience really got to us. And on top of that, we're the guest team, so we didn't have as many resources as we needed.

Do you feel like there was a big jump in competition going from Tier 2 to Tier 1? How did you handle that?

Sajed: The gameplay difference between Tier 2 and Tier 1 is really really big. I think the top Tier 2 teams are maybe competitive with Dignitas, but that’s it. The games in Tier 1 are a lot faster. Matchups are a lot more crisp. The Tier 2 lanes aren't as punishing, and they don't lose as gracefully. In Tier 1, players can make any matchup go mostly even, and they push their limits a bit more. For me personally, I think that by the end of the time I was playing in Tier 2, I was already at the top level there, so the transition for me was not that hard.

How would you rate your individual performance this year on a scale of 1 to 10?

Sajed: The whole year? Maybe a 4. I wasn't great.

Do you feel like you improved over the course of the year? How do you feel like you progressed?

Sajed: Individually, I improved a lot. My laning got a lot better, I got a lot smarter about stuff, and mechanically I got a bit better. I started off pretty strong, but in winter I had days where I was completely griefing scrims. I'd have scrims where I’d go 0/10, but, on stage, I felt like I was performing really well. Spring started off as the opposite. I had three weeks of scrims where I was winning almost every lane. We had a couple weeks where we were at an 80% win rate in scrims in Spring, and then we made a complete 180. We started playing so badly as a team, and bot lane individually; that was definitely my worst split. Summer was definitely the split where I tried the hardest. I put so much effort into summer and then I remember scrims were actually going pretty well. We were probably around like 50% win rate in scrims. The thing that hurt us the most was that our prep was not always the same as scrims. Our game ones were usually pretty stable because we’d play champs we've been scrimming in every game one for the entire week, and then, once game two and game three come around, we're playing comps we never played, we're playing matchups we’ve never played, we're playing stuff we don't want to play into. But yeah, I think initially I did improve quite a bit even if it didn't really show with the results

How would you rate your performance by the end of the Summer Split, then?

Sajed: I think I'm around the middle of the pack for LCS, like 5 or 6. I think the role is really stacked in NA right now, but I think I kept up most of the time.

You mentioned the preparation for game twos and threes. Do you think that is impacted by the guest team status where you don’t have the same amount of resources as some of the established teams?

Sajed: I think it was a mix of things. We’d play a whole week of scrims and be adamant we don't want to do X, and then the day of the match we're like, “Oh, let's do X.” We had one coach; all our draft prep was usually just game one. Every game one we're getting mostly what we want. I think that's why our game ones looked normal. In a lot of our game ones, we actually had a lead and then we threw, which happens. But then after game one it's like we're off in uncharted territory. We had a second coach come with us for the Promotion Tournament, and that helped the problem a lot. With two coaches, they mapped out the plan for games two through five decently. So that problem got fixed up, but it was too late for LCS.

Most of your wins this split came against Dignitas, who you guys handled cleanly. What did you need to do to translate that success into taking games off of better teams?

Sajed: I think some of our game ones should have been wins. We had a lot of game ones in summer, especially against FlyQuest, Shopify, even the C9 game one. Those should have been wins, but it happens that we lost. That was definitely us misplaying, and even then the series would look less competitive after because of the preparation gap. But for DIG, I'm not sure. FBI was really good. I think the rest of the roster was just whatever. Every time we played against them it felt like they were really desperate and they did a lot of flippy stuff that we took advantage of. Against other teams sometimes it’d work and they’d take games off of them. Also, DIG had two coaches. I think they're decent coaches in terms of having a good game plan.That was something that they were good at, better than we were at least.

You mentioned that DSG is a younger team than a lot of others in LCS. Did that impact the team’s performance?

Sajed: Yeah, for sure. Reviews were a really big struggle for our team. Even when we had Castle, who was kind of our only veteran, it was still a problem. Usually, the veterans on your team will help lead the review like, “Oh, we should have done this, should have done that.” On our team, we didn't really have anyone like that. We’d be annoyed or tilted about a play, so that's what we’d look at. That led to us making very similar mistakes and not fixing a lot of stuff. I wouldn't say it was a rookie gap or anything like that, but the out of game reviews and not fixing our problems definitely made a big difference.

Did that extend to in-game comms as well? Were there issues of people coming to different conclusions about what the right play was in the moment without an individual shotcaller?

Sajed: I don't feel like we had that issue. I think the bigger issue we had is that we didn't really have a leader in or out of game. At first it was Callme, but it got to a point where I think he got annoyed with shotcalling. Sometimes some people wouldn't listen; he’d always have to shotcall the same things, and I think his conclusion was something like, “You guys just have to learn, I can't just say everything.” So then we really didn't have a leader in-game, and sometimes that led to us throwing a lot, especially in scrims.

Speaking of your own gameplay, how did you feel about uh debuting in a year where there were a lot of mages played bot lane? A lot of ADC players really don't enjoy that. Was that frustrating for you?

Sajed: It was fine. I think for our team in particular, that meta was really good for us. Something we struggled as a team was playing around bot, whether that's the 2v2 or as a team. Having more support timers to play around topside because we’d have a mage instead of a traditional AD carry kind of helped us. I think that in meta we were actually pretty good. The only thing that was annoying was there were too many champs being flexed into bot lane, and I was being asked to practice way too many champs.

Time for Jayce.

Sajed: Yeah, like Akali, Jayce, Malphite, all these champs. I’m going to put in 20 games of solo queue, watch a couple VODs of them just to play one scrim game of them. I don't really think that's the move. So that was the only part that was annoying. But for our team in general, playing mages was a temporary band-aid to a lot of our problems that we never really found solutions to.

So, you wouldn't say that it affected your enjoyment of the game as an ADC player having to play as and against mages?

Sajed: Definitely not in competitive. In solo queue it's a lot more annoying, but in competitive you just play whatever. You're not playing your champs or your matchup to enjoy it.

What would you say is the most important thing you learned from playing LCS and how have you grown as a player since the beginning of the year?

Sajed: I touched on it before, but definitely the out of game aspect. Talking to your teammates, having the hard conversations and being able to have them maturely, not having emotions drive how you're going to act, and knowing how to actually go about improving. In my first two splits, I didn't really know how to improve as a player to a Tier 1 level, but then during the summer I made the most improvements to my gameplay. By then, I finally clocked how to actually learn and go about improving.

It certainly showed in the promotion tournament. You dropped the first series against Maryville and then locked in for nine straight wins to stay in the LCS. Bringing on another coach seemed to help a lot, too. Would you say the first series was a fluke or did you level up for the rest of the tournament?

Sajed: We had the coach in the first series. I'll just say that because I know that there's some people implying that we lost, so we had to go buy a second coach or something. But, our first series prep was really bad. That's a recurring theme. As a team, we collectively thought the match would be easier than it is; I'm not sure why. I felt like Maryville was definitely the second-best team in that tournament. So, that was the match to set the tone of the whole tournament. Overall, the team was nervous. We hadn’t played in weeks, and it really showed. Also, Callme was really sick. Like, super sick. I don't think he said almost anything during that series. Not that it really changed much, because we were just getting stomped. I felt like the first three games I actually played fine. Game two was obviously a disaster. We messed up our 3v3 and the game exploded from there. But, I feel like the first three games I actually played pretty decently, but there were a lot of nerves and a lack of preparation. We underestimated them. For sure there were a couple players on our team very nervous. You could tell by the gameplay and the comms. It's definitely better to lose there than any other point in the tournament. It really helped us lock in.

Were you affected by the stress of being a single series from relegation, or were you confident you were going to lock in and crush everyone from then on?

Sajed: Maybe the team got a little bit stressed. This might sound cringe, but honestly, right after we lost that series, I had a wave of relief and I felt like we were going to win the tournament no matter what. It’s a weird feeling. I'm not really someone who gets stressed or nervous. I don't think that's happened for League of Legends, at least. So, being in the lower bracket didn't change how I played or anything like that. If I thought a fight was good or a dive was good, I'd go for it. I don't care if it’s game five in the lower bracket where I can get eliminated if this dive goes bad. Even playing on stage, I feel no different than playing at home. I don't really get that nervous.

Were you playing at a higher level as a team in the Promotion Tournament than you think you were playing in LCS?

Sajed: I don't think so. I think in our first three series up until the finals we were playing poorly. Individually we were just able to be better than the enemy. As a team it still felt like all the problems we had over the whole course of the year were still there; nothing really got fixed. We were doing the same things, but we got away with a lot more. In the finals we individually overperformed a bit more than usual and the enemy was underperforming a bit more than usual.

It sounds like the prep was better in those series.

Sajed: Oh yeah. After the first loss, I think our prep was close to perfect for the next three series. Especially in the finals, we made sure to take away their picks so the rest of the Fearless games would be easier, which is something that I was always a fan of doing. We had the mindset the entire year that you should pick the best comp to win that game and then worry about the next games later. I'm always happy to take the 5-10% less winning pick to get rid of one of their best picks. That's something I always wanted to do, especially in summer. I’d always want to take Lucian game one to take it away from the good Lucian players. But then what would happen is we’d just pick our best, and then in game two they get Lucian. Well, we didn't play against Lucian at all in the entire week of scrims. So, good luck, have fun. That's the prep aspect that was a lot better in the Promotion Tournament.

Do you think that if you had two coaches the whole year it would have meaningfully improved your performance as a team?

Sajed: Yeah, if we had two coaches that complement each other well, a head coach and assistant coach that worked with each other really well, I'm confident when I say we had the potential to be top four by summer. Even now, I still think we're mostly on par with Sentinels, Shopify Rebellion, and FlyQuest in terms of skill. I think they simply out-prepped us a lot of the time. Having two coaches would help bridge that gap on stage, in my opinion.

Hypothetically, let’s say that only the last place team goes to the Promotion Tournament. Do you think the tournament looks different if Dignitas is playing instead of you?

Sajed: That's a hard one. I did think about that. I did think DIG was slightly better than MU, but MU is definitely stronger than their individual pieces. Sometimes they don't do the ideal plays, but they do stuff together. They overload and they play well together as a team, and I think that's something that Dignitas and ourselves were bad at. I think maybe on a good day Maryville could win, but I'd still favor DIG to be honest.

**A lot of people who followed NACL had Cupid as the team that would compete for you for the LCS slot. What happened to them? **

Sajed: I thought Maryville was the better team during summer as well. In the first game of the Summer Finals, Cupid had a 15k gold lead and then Maryville barely lost. They came back and the game was super close. Whoever wins that game one is 3-0ing the series no matter what. It doesn't really matter what you have supporting you, you're going to break down mentally after that game. Fifty minutes, two elder dragons, 15k gold deficit erased, in Tier 2 you’re just going to lose the series if you lose that game. Going into the Promotion Tournament, I thought Maryville was better than Cupid.

So Maryville was always the team to beat?

Sajed: Maryville was going to always be the team to beat in the promo tourney unless some random shenanigans happened. Cupid had a lot of exploitable weaknesses on their team, and as a team we exploited them well. Even though they beat Fuego 3-0, I think Fuego actually exploited their weaknesses very well. Fuego’s prep into Cupid was actually very smart the first two games. They lost the games, but I think if that series had gone to four or five games, Fuego could have won it. Cupid did very well in NACL, and they had that really good playoff run, but they just had weaknesses that were too big to deal with at the level past Tier 2.

All of DSG’s contracts expire at the end of the year. Do you know what’s in store for you in 2027?

Sajed: I have no idea. I talked to them this week to know, but no matter what, they told me that I should explore my options. Even if they wanted me or not, that's just how it is. I honestly don't know the direction of the team that they want to go with. I do think bot lane is stacked in North America. When FBI is on a bottom team and Zven's a free agent, you know it’s a crowded field. I think it’s definitely the most stacked role in LCS.

With that in mind, how are you feeling going into the offseason?

Sajed: I can't change anything anymore. My year already happened; I can’t undo any of the mistakes that I made over the year. So, it's just up to teams. Whatever happens happens. I wouldn't say that I showed my best stuff for all of this year, but in summer especially, I gave 110%. At the very least I can say I had no regrets about that part. If it happens that I don't play Tier 1 next year, then I don't, but I really hope to keep playing and improving.

Any plans for the offseason?

Sajed: I'm back home right now. My mom moved. I thought the ping wasn’t going to be that bad, but I booted up League and I'm at 75 ping, so that kind of sucks.

Where are you now?

Sajed: I'm in Arizona. I don't know how you get 75 ping from here. I was getting 40 ping in Los Angeles. Because of that, I want to go to Korea for sure. I think KryRa and I will go sometime in November. NA solo queue, even with all the pros here, is just so bad. I know the meme always is “NA solo queue bad,” but they made it so much worse this year, it's just unbearable.

Did the ladder reset shenanigans impact your ability to practice in solo queue more so than in other seasons you played?

Sajed: They did a change sometime this year. Apart from that you can go to 5,000 LP, everyone's plus 30, minus 30, whatever. Now you can just queue into whoever. You can be Challenger 3k LP and have double the LP of all the other nine players in the lobby combined. It makes no sense. This year, the games don't feel real. In previous years, you could queue up after LCS scrims and you'd have quality games with four to six pros a game. Now I don't know what I'm looking at, I don't know what's happening, there's eight one-tricks a game. Nothing is real. Even when I went to Korea between spring and summer, it was similar. It was just that the hands were better, but I was so confused.

Any shout-outs or thank-yous?

Sajed: Shout out to my family. They'll probably end up reading this. They watch my matches; they even come to some of my matches in person. Sadly, we lost the one that they drove down to. Shout out to them and shout out to you guys.

Sajed will be looking to return to the LCS in 2027 and push for playoffs. If you’re interested in leveling up your own League gameplay, you can check out the pro player coaches from pros like Sajed on ProDiff.

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