In League of Legends, the South Korean Park “Summit” Woo-tae (23) was voted the best player in the US league LCS. However, two weeks later, the top laner leaves his team Cloud9 again. He was only there for 6 months. No one really understands why he is leaving – but somehow it just didn’t fit. While the regular season went fantastically, the playoffs turned out to be a complete disaster for Cloud9.
Which player are we talking about?
- The top laner Summit was only known to hardcore LoL fans in the West before 2021. He played for South Korean LoL teams like SanBox Gaming, which are not as prominent as the internationally renowned Korean teams T1 or DAMWON Gaming.
- As part of a “Korea” experiment, Summit ended up at Cloud9, who fully embraced “Korea” with a new coach and conquered the US league with an innovative, somewhat crazy style. There was already talk that Cloud9 would become the outpost of the LCK in the USA.
- Summit was voted the best player of the league after the regular season; he was Cloud9’s “win condition” and seemed superior to all other top laners in the USA. Viewers raved about the spectacle that Summit created with champions like Gnar, Camille, or Tryndamere.
There are also great stories about eSports in League of Legends in Germany:
Cloud9 was great in the regular season with Summit as the “win condition”
This is how the regular season went: Early on, a rift appeared at Cloud9: Coach LS, who was supposed to manage the Koreans and is considered a revolutionary thinker in LoL, left the topic early without anyone really knowing what went wrong.
Even without the visionary LS, Cloud9 still looked like a favorite for the championship. Although it didn’t go as brilliantly toward the end of the season as at the start, they finished in 2nd place after the regular season with a 13-5 record. Especially because of Summit, who was later crowned the “most valuable player in the USA”, the MVP.
Cloud9 completely sinks in the playoffs because everyone just targets Summit
This is where things went wrong: However, Cloud9’s weaknesses became apparent in the playoffs. Because Summit was indeed the “only win condition” for Cloud9.
It was enough for the opposing teams in the playoffs to fully concentrate on top laner Summit and take him out of the game early to put Cloud9 out of action. The playoff opponents 100 Thieves and Evil Geniuses started several ganks into the top lane early in their games to keep Summit down.
Summit, the team’s strength in the regular season, now proved to be the Achilles’ heel. In the playoffs, Cloud9 was eliminated with 0-3 and 0-3 without winning a single game.
Summit leaves Cloud9 – Team promises to explain more later
This is the result now: Cloud9 announced that Summit is leaving the team again after only 6 months. This happens less than 2 weeks after he was voted the most valuable player in the USA.
The mid laner Fudge will switch back to the top lane. There is talk that the sidelined Jensen from Team Liquid will be moving to Cloud9 and shifting to the mid lane.
The Korean thanks the team for welcoming him so well. He is especially grateful to the management of Cloud9, who took care of him, even “after we terminated the contract.”
Why exactly the “Summit” experiment ended abruptly after half a year is not known. It sounds as if both sides are satisfied with the solution now.
From Cloud9, it sounds almost like they know how disappointed the fans are and promise “later explanations”.
The fans don’t seem disappointed by Summit’s performance, but rather that the Korean wore their colors for only 6 months. He was simply an exciting player, whether it worked out or not.
Cloud9 is currently a complete puzzle. Even the departure of the star coach fascinates the League of Legends fans:
1.1 million people watch a video on the subject that all of LoL is puzzled over
