Meiko Said iG Can Beat Anyone. The LYON Series Shows Why That Quote Has Teeth

When Meiko said after iG reached the quarterfinals, “I think this iG can beat any team right now,” the line was easy to clip and turn into a reckless post-match boast. Competitive sports punishes that kind of quote. Win, and it is confidence. Lose, and it is fodder. Say it too early, and it is borrowing against the future. Say it too late, and it is hindsight.

Put it back into the full timeline of iG climbing from the Nirvana group into the quarterfinals. Put it back into the immediate context of them eliminating LYON in a BO5. The weight of the sentence lands on “can,” not “any.” The quote gives iG a psychological entry ticket. It does not rank them.

LYON Is More Than a Background Prop

To judge how much substance sits behind that sentence, first look at whom iG beat.

LYON is not the usual Western-script team. It does not steal one game with a weird draft and wait for the opponent to hand over free wins. It has faced HLE at MSI and GEN at Worlds. It has shown resilience. It has its own system, and its macro fundamentals are solid. A team like that may not be a title favorite, but it is a qualified test. It can show whether a team’s way of winning is sustainable. Are you winning because the opponent gives it to you, or because your own coordination and execution create the opening?

iG beating a quarterfinal-caliber opponent puts them in the conversation for the top four and beyond. More importantly, iG did not win through a single player exploding. They did not wait for mistakes.

Game One Mattered Because iG Won Outside Its Power Spike

Game One was the most representative game of the series.

iG’s draft was not in its power spike. Around the first dragon, iG was slightly behind in gold in every lane. LYON’s draft was in its fighting spike. The usual script says the weaker side should avoid fights, drag out the curve, and wait for items. iG did not wait. TheShy caught the opponent’s jungler. He and Wei combined. Dragon and kills came in one swing. The tempo swung hard. If that opportunity had slipped, LYON could have run iG over during its strong period.

The key was not “good mechanics.” The team dared to make a proactive setup during a bad time window, and the teammates followed once the idea appeared. The later Vi Q-Flash from Wei and his teammates followed the same logic. One precise initiation sidestepped LYON’s strong teamfight and pushed the game into iG’s winning state.

Anyone can play from ahead. Playing against their draft’s curve, slightly behind in gold, and still creating a winning chance shows iG no longer needs one script.

Bot Lane Is the Breakpoint

Another underrated support beam for iG in this series was the bot lane.

From the playoffs through Worlds, the JiaQi and Meiko duo has rarely been a liability, and its ceiling is high. They do not play a bot lane that only tries not to collapse. They break games open. iG’s bot lane loves early fights. Those fights are built on a distinct understanding of timing and details. That is why they can repeatedly smash lane and pierce through. The snowball after smashing lane is smooth. Caitlyn’s tower-taking tempo almost directly converts bot-lane advantage into map control.

JiaQi’s stability does not look like a rookie’s. Meiko’s form keeps improving. The meta shifted toward enchanters, which fell back into Meiko’s comfort zone. What turned iG’s bot lane into a breakpoint was his in-game judgment and decisiveness. Against HLE, he flashed to Polymorph Kanavi. Against LYON, his Lux Flash-Q ran the bot-lane advantage through the whole game. Those flash-forward moments are judgment that the opponent can be punished right now, and his teammates can immediately follow with crowd control. When a support says “we can beat any team,” his trust in his own and his team’s execution is already in place.

Where the Quote Stops

iG’s only obvious weakness right now is the mid-lane champion pool, plus TheShy’s occasionally unstable form. If opponents repeatedly target those two problems in a BO5, iG’s “we can beat any team” shrinks into “we can cause trouble for any team.” Knockout drafting has teeth. Opponents will compress the mid lane’s pick options, turn up ban pressure on TheShy, and force iG to pay for early-game decisions. Then the quote becomes either confidence or material.

For a team that just climbed out of the Nirvana group and returned to the knockout stage after 2,565 days, building the psychological foundation of “we can wrestle with anyone” matters more than calculating a ranking. Confidence does not mean ignoring risks. It means making proactive BO5 choices while knowing those risks exist.

The Next Game Is the Test

Meiko is not taking out a loan on a championship. He is pushing iG from challenger to contender.

The quote is not a prophecy or a guarantee. It is an entry ticket. The road from the Nirvana group to the quarterfinals put iG at a table where it can be taken seriously. The test is not in the interview room. The test is Game One of the quarterfinal BO5. Opponents will target iG’s mid-lane pool and turn up pressure on TheShy in draft. Then the quote gets weighed.

Whether iG flips the table is a matter for the next game.