Loki LoL: Career, Champions and Worlds 2026

Loki (Lee Sang-min, 이상민) is a South Korean League of Legends mid laner who plays for Cloud9 in North America. Born on 26 March 2005, he is known for a wide pool that mixes control mages with skirmishers. Azir, Yone, Taliyah, Sylas and Tristana are the signature champions of his career so far.

His 2026 has been split across two leagues. He spent the spring with HANJIN BRION in the LCK, then returned to Cloud9 in late July for the LCS summer and playoffs. That run ends with Cloud9 at Worlds 2026, where the team starts in the Play-Ins.

Loki is winning less in 2026 than he did in 2025. Last year was the strongest of his career: a 42–24 record and a 63.6% win rate with Cloud9. This season his win rate is clearly lower, his KDA has dropped, and he is dying a little more often while scoring fewer kills.

The underlying lane numbers have held up better than the results. His CS/min and vision per minute are slightly higher than last season. His share of his team’s damage is a touch lower, and his kill participation is essentially unchanged. In plain terms, he is still farming and still showing up to fights, but those fights are going his team’s way less often.

Keep the context in mind when you read the table. The 2026 line combines LCK games for HANJIN BRION and LCS games for Cloud9, two rosters and two leagues within a few months. That is a harder season to post clean numbers in than a full year on one team, which is what 2025 was.

Orianna is Loki’s go-to champion in 2026. She is his most played champion this season and the one with a winning record on a sample big enough to trust. That makes her the closest thing he has to a safe blind pick, and Cloud9 has leaned on her in playoff series.

Around her, the pool is wide. He has played control mages such as Syndra, Taliyah, Viktor and Vex, skirmishers such as Sylas, Akali and Yone, plus Aurora, Cassiopeia and a single game of Locke. Few of those picks have enough games to judge on their own, which tells you he plays to the draft rather than forcing a short list.

Two champions stand out for the wrong reason. Ryze and Aurora have both seen enough games this season to read, and both have produced losing records. Ryze has been a problem pick across his whole career, not just this year. At the other end, Sylas is unbeaten in 2026 and Syndra has a winning record, but both sit on too few games to call them strengths yet.

Across his career, Azir, Yone, Taliyah, Sylas and Tristana are his signature champions, with Azir the most played of all.

Taliyah and Sylas carry the best long-run results of that group, so a short losing stretch on Taliyah this season reads as a dip rather than a trend. Tristana and Corki belong to his 2025 Cloud9 run, when he played more traditional lane-bully and poke picks. His Neeko and Karma games go back to early 2024, before the career history below begins.

Loki’s builds favor mobility and burst over pure scaling, with Ryze as the one clear exception. Hextech Rocketbelt shows up on both Orianna and Aurora, which says a lot about how he wants fights to start: with him moving forward, not waiting at max range.

Hextech Rocketbelt is the constant in his Orianna builds. He follows it with Blackfire Torch, Zhonya’s Hourglass, Shadowflame or Luden’s Echo depending on the game, and Crimson Lucidity is his usual boot choice. The Rocketbelt dash lets him reposition the ball himself and threaten R from an angle the enemy backline is not watching.

In the games with rune data, he runs a Sorcery primary tree with Arcane Comet and a Resolve secondary. Flash and Teleport complete the setup. Teleport on Orianna means he expects to join side-lane skirmishes and objective fights from range, not just hold mid.

Ryze is built the classic way: Rod of Ages and Seraph’s Embrace, then Actualizer, usually with Chainlaced Crushers or Swiftmarch. The unusual part is the Summoner spells. He takes Flash and Ghost instead of Teleport, paired with Deathfire Touch from Sorcery, which points to a Ryze who wants to win the map by running fights mid game rather than by teleporting to side waves.

Aurora is his burst build. Hextech Rocketbelt and Shadowflame are the core, with Spellslinger’s Shoes and then Rabadon’s Deathcap or Zhonya’s Hourglass. Electrocute from Domination with a Sorcery secondary and Teleport fits the same idea as his Orianna: get into range fast, delete a target, and get back out.

Loki’s latest games come from the LCS 2026 Summer Playoffs, in series against LYON and Team Liquid. He kept returning to Orianna and Aurora across those series and spread the rest over Ryze, Syndra, Sylas, Taliyah and Vex, a sign that Cloud9 drafts around his flexibility rather than one locked comfort pick.

Every game in the table has a Watch link. If you play mid, start with the Orianna games: watch where he holds the ball before Dragon fights and how often he uses Teleport to reach a skirmish on the other side of the map.

Watch his best Orianna, Ryze and Aurora games below, including an Aurora game from his LCK spring with HANJIN BRION.

Loki’s career runs through two stints at Cloud9 with an LCK spring in between. He first joined Cloud9 on 25 January 2025 and played mid there until 7 September 2025. That year produced his best numbers to date, the 42–24 record that still stands as his high-water mark.

He then moved home to Korea, joining HANJIN BRION on 1 April 2026 and playing the LCK 2026 Rounds 1–2 until 14 June 2026. Cloud9 brought him back on 25 July 2026, in time for the LCS 2026 Summer and its playoffs. His scoreboards also include games from early 2024, earlier than the period the career table covers.

No titles are listed for him yet. The story so far is a young mid laner trusted twice by the same organization, with Worlds 2026 as the biggest stage of his career to date.

Loki is at Worlds 2026 with Cloud9, which qualified as North America #3. The team starts in the Play-In phase, and the Play-Ins begin on 15 October 2026, with the Swiss stage and Knockouts to follow for teams that advance.

Follow every stage on the Worlds 2026 hub, and the rest of the international calendar on our esports hub.