Kips Arrives as Toronto KOI Look to Turn the Tide

It hasn’t taken long for pressure to mount on Toronto KOI in 2026—but their chance to respond is coming fast.

It’s already been a wild year for Toronto KOI. The boys up north entered the 2026 Call of Duty League season with something to prove after a handful of mixed results in Black Ops 6. An early exit from Champs saw them scrambling to prove themselves against elite competition again at the Esports World Cup. 

That event was a lot more favorable. Early momentum propelled the squad to a podium finish, earning a bronze medal. There was still lots of work to be done, but the potential was clear. Credit some of that success to CleanX, one half of the franchise’s veteran duo, who embraced a new role as a Flex player after spending much of his career as a dedicated SMG.

Now, just one event into Black Ops 7, CleanX is back to his old role, and Toronto KOI is searching for answers after an uninspiring start to the year. The CDL season moves fast, though, and there’s not much time to get things wrong. That’s why a competent coaching staff is so crucial in the modern era. 

Coach Flux on turning around Toronto KOI’s season 

Coaches Joee and Flux are long-time Call of Duty veterans. Most fans remember Joee from his time as a player on the London Royal Ravens' initial roster at the league’s inception. 

Flux, on the other hand, is a deep-cut player for those outside of the EU scene. He was a member of the legendary Epsilon squad that dethroned OpTic Gaming at the European Gaming League (EGL) 8 in Modern Warfare 3 (2011), ending North America’s dominant run during a year when there were very few organized LANs in the United States. He took time away from Call of Duty in the years that followed, gained valuable experience beyond CoD, and is now bringing that wisdom to the gamers he works with daily. 

Together, the duo has brought talent such as Scrap, Mercules, and Hicksy into the league and also identified JoeDeceives as a clear franchise cornerstone. Now, they’re on the hunt for another surefire success to help them right the ship. 

“We had some success at the tail end of last year at Esports World Cup with CleanX on the Flex,” Coach Flux told Monster. “Really, the whole league was chasing OpTic at the end of last year and coming into this year, because they won Champs and EWC so dominantly. Everyone was trying to build teams that could go toe-to-toe with OpTic. When it comes to CleanX at the Flex, we felt that pacing-wise, it would allow us to compete with such a team. 

“But coming into [Black Ops 7], we found that having CleanX on a sub would be more beneficial because of the way he plays. He’s more of a run-it-down, high-engagement SMG player who can put a lot of pressure on the map, and I felt that was something we lacked.”

Flux’s team entered this year with a roster of CleanX, Insight, JoeDeceives, and ReaaL. That group stumbled into Major 1 with a 3-4 record, winning just 50% of their maps, which placed them 9th overall. All the pacing problems that had emerged online only intensified at LAN. They exited the tournament in 9th-12th after losing to the eventual champion, Paris Gentlemates, and then a crushing 2-3 loss to Miami Heretics. 

@TorontoKOI vs @MiamiHeretics | Major I Tournament | Elimination Round 1

An occasional slip-up is bound to happen in a league as talented as the Call of Duty League (CDL), but according to Flux, the coaching staff found the results unacceptable and made fast changes. Not only was CleanX back on the SMG, but after a 0-2 start to Major 2 qualifiers, a roster change was imminent. The primary objective was to find someone capable of providing connective tissue from the left-stick down SMG role and the pre-aim heavy AR side. 

“It came down to finding a Flex that would complement the roster, match the pace of Joe and CleanX, and bridge the gap between Insight and the SMGs. After evaluating Challengers, we felt Kips was our guy.” 

That evaluation may prove to be the difference between sinking or swimming this year, but no coaching staff has identified more bright young talent than Toronto. 

Kips’ leap from Challengers to Toronto KOI

Nicholas “Kips” Lyons is the latest of a round of Challengers standouts to join the Call of Duty League. He arrived in Toronto fresh off a fourth-place finish at Call of Duty Challengers (CDC) #1 with the OpTic-backed Huntsmen organization, and off the eye-test alone, it’s clear what made Toronto confident in their choice to back him. 

“I think even from the very first game against LA Thieves, we lost 3-1, but frankly, we felt like we could have won Maps 1 and 2. Scar Hardpoint,” Flux confessed. “We had a big lead that we tossed a bit. Map 2, it went to Round 11, we had a first blood, but we lined up for aBeZy top mid on Colossus S&D. If a couple of moments- like one or two of those kills - go differently, we 3-0 Thieves in Kips’ debut game.” 

@LAThieves vs @TorontoKOI | Major II Qualifiers Monster Matchup | Week 2 Day 1

While the early results are still a mixed bag, Kips’ confidence hasn’t been shaken at all. He’s more than up to the challenge. The young Flex enters the league in just his second year of official competition, coming off an admittedly shaky debut in Black Ops 6. Still, he believes years of grinding Search and Destroy challenges and rubbing shoulders with the best in the game have prepped him for the level of talent he’s now facing week in and week out in the league. 

“There’s not a bunch of stuff I have to learn on the fly. I was playing the good former pros in Challengers. Obviously, stuff is harder because it’s top-of-the-line players, but I think I’m adapting pretty well. I think I’m looking pretty good out there.

“I bring a lot of gun skill and a lot of flow, and that matters in this day and age, especially in this game. I can do it all ways. Joee always told me before coming in, “Just be yourself. We want you, we want what you’ve been doing [in Challengers].” 

There’s no shortage of confidence in the young star. That early loss to LA Thieves (and his former teammate, Nium) is still fresh in his mind, and he’ll certainly be fired up for their next rematch. The same is true for OpTic Texas.  Kips’ former duo, Mercules, is leading the charge for the Greenwall as they attempt to bounce back from a second-place finish at Major 1. 

The pair’s first meeting has now come and gone, and Toronto KOI was on the wrong end of a tough 3-0. While it wasn’t Kips’ best performance, his potential is evident - and very few teams have been able to compete with OpTic this season - and if a loss to a red-hot OpTic Texas squad was reason to panic, there wouldn’t be a confident team left in the league. 

Adjusting to the pro lifestyle, experience with Huntsmen

While things are going relatively smoothly in-game, Kips’ challenges, it turns out, have mostly been outside of Call of Duty: moving out of his house for the first time as part of Huntsmen, moving to a new country as part of KOI, and adjusting to a different kind of lifestyle as he adapts to the league. 

“It was scary,” he confessed. “I had never gone away [from home.] Moving to a different country, too. It doesn’t seem like much, but I had to get papers done and all that type of stuff. But Toronto has been treating me nicely. It’s great here.” 

Fortunately, his transition to being a pro was made far easier by that stint with Huntsmen, and he says that’s where he built most of his gameday habits: [OpTic] moving me out to Texas, we had a team house, a team room, everything was [about] the game. Everything was about getting better. 

“Everything was about taking steps to get into the CDL. It was a surreal experience…Being on OpTic is a lot of eyes, probably the most you can receive. Methodz and Scump were putting out every match we were playing for everyone to see. It definitely boosted my chances of getting to the league.” 

COACHING THE HUNTSMEN (OpTic Challengers)

Now that he’s here? It’s more of the same: “It’s the same everything, besides showing up an hour early to match days…it’s all the same, but a different level of play, really.” 

He will have to rely on that preparation to get past any mental hurdles that may be in KOI’s way. His squad is facing a play-in match against Vancouver Surge when Major 2 kicks off on March 27, and another early loss could spell disaster for a team that’s still trying to leave its mark on Black Ops 7.