In the USA, the team “Cloud9” has won the LCS championship for the second consecutive time in League of Legends. They only have one American player on the LoL team. The main burden is carried by two strong acquisitions from South Korea. After long testing, Cloud9 has apparently found its identity, as a branch of South Korea.
This is the story of Cloud9: Cloud9 has gone through a strange development:
- For years, “Cloud9” was a US team that was progressive and alternative. A rarity in the macho world of League of Legends: Their star player was an ADC named Sneaky, a fan of cross-dressing. Sneaky was in the team from 2013 to 2020, relying largely on North Americans.
- Suddenly, starting around 2019, they became ambitious, kicked Sneaky out, and paid a lot to acquire the best players from Europe, like the Dane Zven (ADC, a master of the pentakill) or the Croatian Perkz (midlaner and absolute leading player)
- When that didn’t work out, they started a bold experiment and transformed Cloud9 into a branch of South Korea starting in 2021. This time it has worked.
First expensive stars from Europe, then Cloud9 fully focused on South Korea
What was it like with South Korea? The first experiment of going fully with South Korea failed in 2021. They brought in the analyst “LS,” who wanted to build a 10-man roster and relied on the top-laner Summit from South Korea – the previous top-laner, the Australian Fudge, was moved to the mid-lane.
The previous star player Zven, an ADC, was even relegated to lower leagues because a new South Korean, Berserker, entered the team. Furthermore, Zven allegedly insulted the jungler Blaber after a mistake in such a way that there was no longer a place for him in the first team.
However, this experiment failed for reasons still unclear today after just a few weeks: Coach LS was surprisingly fired, and Summit left the team shortly afterward.
Strong Koreans and an experienced ADC as support are the formula for success
This was the formula for success: Cloud9 made another adjustment in 2022:
- The Australian Fudge (20, cover image) returned to the top lane
- For the mid-lane, they got EMENES (22), a new man from South Korea
- The previously discarded super killer Zven (25) was converted to a supporter and allowed to play alongside Berserker (19, cover image) in the bot lane
- The only US-American on the team, Blaber (23), who was much criticized, remained stable in his position in the jungle since 2018
3 players from Cloud9 rank 1, 2, and 3 in the KDA during the playoffs
And do they have success? Yes, in this combination they have indeed won the last 2 championships in the USA:
- Cloud9 won the regular season in the Spring Split 2023 with 14-4
- In the playoffs, they lost only 2 matches in total and confidently secured title number 2
The strongest components of Cloud9 are mid-lane and bot lane:
- Berserker is probably one of the strongest players in the USA overall. With a KDA of 6.9 in the 11 playoff games, he ranks 1st in the statistics.
- Zven is experiencing his 2nd spring as a supporter. He is ranked 2nd in the playoffs with a KDA of 6.5
- EMENES ranks 3rd with 4.9.
This weekend, Cloud9 confidently eliminated the surprise team Golden Guardians in the finals, who had previously ended Bjergsen’s career;
