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Esports
Cloud9's route to Worlds starts here with the LCS Summer Championship
Cloud9's League of Legends team is peaking at just the right time, with the playoffs about to kick off and a shot at Worlds hanging in the distance.
The best teams in any sport or competition are those that learn from their mistakes. That’s what Cloud9 must do to avoid history repeating itself.
Last year, the League of Legends Championship Series (LCS) team earned the Spring title, but then inexplicably struggled in the Summer Playoffs at the end of the year and missed out on a place at the World Championships.
This year, Cloud9 once again won the Spring finals and are expected to qualify for Worlds as one of North America's top three teams.
So far, the summer season hasn't been ideal for Cloud9. The team's form slumped a bit and they finished fourth in the standings, but none of that will matter if they make a deep run in the LCS Championship.
Nobody remembers the team that finished first during the regular season. It's all about peaking at the right time and that's what Cloud9 has seemingly accomplished as they earned a strong finish to the season.
Week 8 was especially promising, as the team took down 100 Thieves, league leaders at the time, in a fantastic performance before coming very close to taking down TSM in a really entertaining game. A win in the latter match would have meant Cloud9 took down the current top two in the league.
Then, the squad finished the regular season in style with a pentakill from Jesper 'Zven' Svenningsen to take down Team Liquid in a high-level game between the two powerhouses.
The biggest stage
Cloud9 have made it to Worlds before and will want to again
© Flickr/Lolesports
The major difference for Cloud9's squad this year is they have international experience. In 2020, the organisation couldn't compete against the world's best teams at the Mid-Season Invitational (MSI), but this year the international tournament was able to go ahead after the Spring Split.
There, they faced a variety of different playstyles and managed to defeat two of the best teams in the world – reigning world champions DWG KIA and eventual MSI winners Royal Never Give Up. It shows that at their best, Cloud9 can take down any team.
Historically, Cloud9 have done well internationally. They're the only LCS organisation to have made it further than the group stages at a World Championships in the last five years. On top of that, their 2018 semi-final finish was the highest an LCS team has ever reached at Worlds – excluding the Season 1 championships, which only involved eight teams, none of which were from South Korea or China.
Despite the massive wins at MSI earlier this year, Cloud9 were also the victims of a few shock defeats that cost them a place in the knockout stages of the extremely close tournament.
But best-of-ones have high variance: anything can happen in a one-off game. The aim is to perform consistently and that's exactly what Cloud9 will be striving for heading into best-of-fives – a format where they typically shine.
Few shine brighter in a multi-game series than marquee signing Luka 'Perkz' Perković, the most decorated western player of all time. The Croatian has been far from his best this summer and he has the second-most deaths (71) of LCS mid-laners as his limit-pushing playstyle hasn't quite paid off.
But Perkz in the playoffs is a different monster. During spring, he also failed to reach the incredibly high bar of performance he'd previously set himself, but in the Mid-Season Showdown he looked like a different player. He recorded the highest average kills (5.5) and gold per minute (448) of all players as he led Cloud9 to more silverware.
Perkz has won an extraordinary amount of titles throughout his career
© Riot Games
His experience, creativity and ability to pull off something special in big games makes him a potent weapon in a best-of-five series. Cloud9 will undoubtedly look to him to come up clutch in the high-pressure moments.
The young guns
Another player who could be the difference maker is 19-year-old top-laner Ibrahim 'Fudge' Allami. This is the Australian's first year competing in a major league and his rapid improvement has been breathtaking.
He had a superb showing at MSI, where he recorded the joint-most solo kills at the tournament (10), as he outplayed world-class players without a hint of fear or nerves. That sensational form has continued into the summer, as he has the highest KDA (5.5) of all LCS players who haven't a missed a game, as well as the highest average kills (3.7), gold per minute (405) and second-highest experience difference at 15-minutes (247) of LCS top-laners who played all 27 games.
Plus, there's the X factor that Robert 'Blaber' Huang brings. The jungler has more solo kills (8) than any other LCS player in the role and when looking at stats across the five major regions, he has the highest first-blood participation, with a spectacular rate of 66.7 percent of his 27 games.
Every player will have to be on form for Cloud9 to pick up a second-consecutive LCS title, but there's no doubt the roster is good enough. It's a tricky start, as they'll face Team Liquid in the first series before a potential bout with league-leaders TSM should they win.
After last year's shortcomings, Cloud9's players have vowed to avoid any complacency this year. This is the time for the team to redeem last summer, their chance to return to the Worlds stage and redeem their international performances from MSI and this is the moment where Cloud9 can take the first steps to putting North American LoL back on the map.
