Salty Runback? Cloud9 To Stay Together in Next LCS Season

The once-dominant Cloud9 League of Legends squad will be staying together next year despite the disappointing end to their season run.

After failing to qualify for Worlds 2020, Cloud9 is now in the off-season and looking to regroup for the next year. Despite the abrupt end to their season, the players announced that they will be staying together as a team in an interview with streamer Christian “IWillDominate” Rivera.

• Top, Eric “Licorice” Ritchie
• Jungle, Robert “Blaber” Huang
• Mid, Yasin “Nisqy” Dinçer
• Bot, Jasper “Zven” Svenningsen
• Support, Philippe “Vulcan” Laflamme

In Spring split, Cloud9 was hailed as one of the most dominant teams in the league’s history after a 17-1 showing in the regular season. In the playoffs, they would only lose a single game throughout the entire bracket and win Cloud9 their first championship trophy since Season 4.

Following their dominance in Spring, Cloud9 continued their winstreak in the first half of Summer going 9-0. However, things quickly took a turn for the worse in the second half as the team struggled to find their identity going 4-5 in the second half.

Despite their slump, the community still expected Cloud9 to perform in the playoffs due to how dominant they were in the recent past. In the upper bracket, Cloud9 looked lost and couldn’t adapt well to the meta which netted them a 3-1 loss at the hands of FlyQuest. Now in the loser’s bracket, they clawed their way back to being one step away from qualifying for Worlds after taking down Evil Geniuses in a 3-0 sweep. At the end of the day however, a rising Team SoloMid took down the squad 3-1 before they could prove their mettle as a team on the international stage.

Cloud9’s failure to qualify for Worlds after such a dominant Spring split shows that teams have to stay on track lest they fall behind the curve. Additionally, Cloud9 suffered an unfortunate loss this season since the Mid-Season Invitational was cancelled due to Covid-19 – which could have been pivotal for the team’s growth and momentum had it pushed through.

As the team’s primary playmaker, star jungler Blaber will be looking to temper and diversify his aggressive playstyle for the next year. Since Cloud9 primarily play around their jungler, the team has to find new ways of winning in changing metas and patches as the year goes on. If they don’t stay sharp and focused, Cloud9 will find themselves in the same predicament they find themselves in now.

Cloud9, the LCS and its community will always look back to Cloud9’s form in Spring and ponder on the team’s what-if’s. With the team’s added experience and bitter defeat, Cloud9 will be on their feet to make sure they succeed in the next year.

Cloud9 will be looking to bounce back in the 2021 season with the same roster, trusting that they will return to dominating North America with the same squad.

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