C9 Dominates LCS: Why Is This Happening?
Cloud 9 has been a great option for the LCS. This team ended up winning the Spring Split and had a victory over FlyQuest. With that, it dethroned Team Liquid and became one of the best teams throughout North America. We’re going to look at how the team was developed and ended up being a powerhouse.
The original C9 roster consisted of William Hartman (Meteos), An Van Le (Balls), Zachary Scuderi (Sneaky), Daerek Hart (Lemmonnation), and Hai Du Lam (Hai). This team has been the most dominant for the LCS. In just those first 50 games, the team had win rates of about 43-7. This allowed them to take two LCS wins consecutively without any issues. Plus, they had a world performance that was solid, making it a consistent group for 2014 and 2013.
With time, though, C9 was still relevant but couldn’t achieve those same performances at home. They only woke up when the Worlds tournaments came. Plus, there were countless roster switches, which led them to not get into debut form. Though they got close to winning a third LCS title back in the summer of 2019, they couldn’t beat Team Liquid and lost in a five-game series.
Big Changes
During the Spring Split in 2020, that all changed. They lost again to Team liquid and had a subpar performance at the Worlds tournament, so they introduced a new roster. Of course, they kept midlaner Yasin Dincer (Nisqy) and Toplaner Eric Ritchie (Licorice), but they promoted Robert Huang (Blaber) to starting position. They also signed Jesper Svenningsen (Zven) from TSM and Phillipe Laflamme (Vulcan) from Dignitas to be botlanes. Of course, the results have spoken for themselves. They demolished the domestic league, taking a 3-0 Spring Split victory in the finals. Now, they are 8-0 for the Summer Season.
There are two arguments for why C9 is now so dominant. The first indicates that they’re outperforming in the region and have a strong roster while the second focuses on their opponents and their lack of development.
Lack of Challenge and Dominance
Primarily, the strength of C9 is Blaber, the King of the Jungle for the deep sea. Of course, the entire roster can be considered strong, and everyone in their respective roles is doing great. However, Blaber is the one who instigates action throughout the map. He can generate tempo around the objectives because of his aggressive playstyle. No one seems to be able to stand against him, either. Though he’s a strong mechanical player, he’s aided by his whole team because they can all do what is necessary. Therefore, C9 can move around the map proactively and doesn’t give up the objectives if they feel that they can win it.
However, while C9 is a great team and has talented players, other teams have a lack of development. TSM is actually the only other team that can consistently make plays, but they have a variety of issues.
What’s to Come
Though Team Liquid always pulled it together for international competitions and the playoffs, they had a disastrous Spring Split. The main test for C9 is when they go to the Worlds. This team does well at the Worlds, even with other performances are lacking. Of course, pressure and expectations run high. A downside as C9 dominates LCS is that they can’t practice as much because no other team stands up to them.
