In League of Legends, organizations continuously try to build a so-called ‘super team’ by acquiring strong individual players from other teams, who were either leaders or even stars in their former teams. In 2024, Cloud9 attempted this in the USA. However, once again, the approach seems to be failing: After a strong start, they faced 4 defeats.
What is it with super-teams in LoL?
- The idea is to purchase stars who were the clear leaders in other teams because it is believed that such a star ensemble must be even stronger when playing together.
- For example, in Europe, Team Vitality tried to build a super team around one of the nominally strongest European players, Perkz, by acquiring top-notch teammates – but this turned out to be a catastrophic failure. Despite having a strong lineup, the team finished last in the summer of 2023 and disbanded.
- This year, Cloud9 acquired the best from the USA and aimed to break the super-team curse.
Cloud9 assembles the best talent that North America has to offer
Who did Cloud9 acquire? Cloud9 has traditionally been one of the strongest teams in the USA. They have won the LCs 6 times in total, most recently in the Spring Split of 2023. However, in the Summer Split, they had to accept defeat against NRG and finished only second.
For the new season, they retained 3 old players to form the backbone:
- Jungler Blaber has been with the team since June 2018
- Top laner Fudge has been there since October 2020
- Bot laner Berserker, the South Korean import, is considered one of the mechanically strongest players in US LoL. In 2022, he dominated the competition in the USA
New signings include:
- Jojopyun, the young mid-laner, who is regarded as one of the greatest talents in US LoL; he defined the Evil Geniuses
- VULCAN, who has been regarded for years as ‘the best North American’ supporter but somehow never settles, switching to a new team each year
If everything goes well, the team looks extremely strong:
Cloud9 wins the first 3 games, then loses 4 in a row
This is how it went: Cloud9 finished first in the LCS in the summer of 2023, and one would assume that if you strengthen a team this well, it would improve, but the opposite is true:
- The team won its first 3 games
- But has now lost 4 games in a row
This puts them in 5th place in the league. This is an unusual losing streak for the success-oriented Cloud9.
Player makes fun of the super-team curse
How does Cloud9 respond? Vulcan takes it all with humor: He tweets – ‘We heard that super-teams fail – so we are currently showing that we are not one.’
What’s behind it: There is likely enough talent at Cloud9; just Jojopyun and Berserker should theoretically be enough to secure a top place in the rather weak LCS.
But the question remains whether the curse of the super team weighs heavier than all this amassed talent.
This is indeed an interesting phenomenon in LoL, that the chemistry and hierarchy within a team seem to be so important that you cannot just throw together top players and hope for the best.
All players mentioned here have made the leap to professionalism that many young LoL players dream of: A student dreams of becoming a professional, but his idol advises against it – now he is close to his dream
