Strange things are happening in the League of Legends right now in the USA. Team Cloud9 has parted ways with its European star Perkz and is now going “all in on Korea”. The new coach LS is impressing with innovative concepts and crazy plans. Cloud9 has now won the first 2 games of the LCS 2022 league with exciting champions in the mid lane.
This is the situation at Cloud9:
- In 2021, Cloud9 had the plan “We will get the best players from Europe and then it will work out” – Cloud9 with Perkz and ADC Sven, but it only lasted a year, and then the Croatian left after a mixed season. Sven had fallen out with the team and was banned to the academy team for parts of the season.
- For 2022, Cloud9 had completely different plans: They brought in controversial US analyst Nick “LS” de Cesare from Korea, also signed his buddy, Malice, a 24-year-old jungler, and some young talents from Korea. There was no place for Sven in the roster. They replaced legendary Perkz in the mid lane with their own top laner Fudge.
- These strange actions raised questions for many people about what is going on at Cloud9. However, after the first games, Cloud9 is looking fantastic.
Cloud9 relies on Ivern and Soraka in the mid lane – Wins both games
This is how it’s going for Cloud9 now: In the first game of the new season in the LCS, Cloud9 played with the champ “Ivern” in the mid lane, which is unusual. If Ivern is played at all, it is usually in the jungle. On the top lane, the Korean summit played the hero “Gnar”, which is also a rather unusual pick in the West.
Cloud9’s unconventional lineup led to a game where the opponent, the Golden Guardians, won the start of the match but was hopeless in the teamfight phase. The site Dotesports attributes to Cloud9 a “incredible understanding of macro play and mechanical skill”.
In the second match of the LCS, Cloud9 faced “Evil Geniuses”. Cloud9 relied on the supporter Soraka in the mid lane, which is also an unusual pick for the LCS. Fudge played 0-3-11 with the heroine, which practically allowed Cloud9 to field 2 supporters.
In the game, the new Korean ADC, Berserker, went berserk. He scored 8-0-5 on Aphelios. Berserker is only 19 years old and comes from the legendary team T1. In the comments on reddit, people are wondering what T1 feeds its carries, whether it might be “Faker Flakes”.
On reddit, people are generally excited about the new “Korean Cloud9”: The South Korean Summit on the top lane is said to be a whole lot better than anything else playing in the LCS.
An unusual coach goes his own way
What makes LS so unusual? The new coach of Cloud9 is Nick “LS” De Cesare. He is considered an unusual LoL mind who actually comes from strategic card games. LS is credited with the thesis that players and coaches in LoL have no idea about drafts. That’s something for strategy experts like him.
LS is apparently fascinated by Korea and the Korean way of playing LoL, has also trained a team in Korea, but was unsuccessful there. When it was rumored that LS was to train the legendary team T1, South Korean fans protested publicly against it.
LS is seen as someone who often questions the current meta, and stands for different ideas. Hiring someone like him as a coach and letting him set up the team was quite a risk, but it seems to be paying off now.
What’s behind it: Before the season, there was some gossip that Cloud9 was now essentially becoming a branch of the LCK – just as Team Liquid is a team of the European LEC and Team Solo Mid is becoming a “Chinese enclave”.
After the first two games, it looks like Cloud9 will be one of the most exciting teams in League of Legends 2022.
LS’s ideas of relying on a “10-man roster” that provides a high level of training and can purposefully practice tactics already seem to be paying off. The two hungry talents from Korea are already impressive in the first games.
