The US team Cloud9 discovers the Korean in itself in League of Legends. They have recruited two new Korean players and brought in the American Nick “LS” De Cesare as coach from Korea. He is considered a LoL mastermind with his own unique ideas. One of his first actions: He has thrown the team’s star bot laner, Jesper “Zven” Svnennigsen, out of the roster, there is no place for Zven even in the academy team. The 24-year-old is considered one of the best bot laners in the USA.
This is how it went for Cloud9 in 2020:
- For 2020, Cloud9’s strategy was more or less: We bring in the best players from Europe and then it will work out. Alongside the strong ADC from Denmark, Zven, played probably the best player in Europe, the Croatian Perkz, in the mid lane. Perkz is said to have cost around 5 million US dollars.
- However, the team had major problems in 2020. ADC Zven was banished to the academy team due to issues with his attitude – there he went completely berserk and demolished the talent pool of the US league LCS until he was allowed back in the team.
- Cloud9 then recovered and made it to the Worlds, where they at least survived the group stage – as the only US team. But it ended in the quarter-finals. Nevertheless, the team with Perkz and Zven actually looked quite good. Jungler Blaber was considered a weak point – allegedly a mistake by him caused an outburst from Zven, who was then banished from the team.
Cloud9 will be the “branch office” for Korea in 2022
What’s going on now in 2021? Superstar Perkz is gone – he has left for Europe again after a year. He apparently did not have a good year at Cloud9. The whole drama surrounding Zven seems to have bothered him.
For Perkz, the previous top laner Fudge is now supposed to move to the mid lane, which is already a pretty strange decision. You replace one of the best mid laners in the West with someone who has never professionally played the role.
In addition, they have brought in two new South Koreans, Summit (top lane) and Berserk (bot lane), even though there wasn’t much room left for foreign players. Because there is a “foreign limit” for non-US players in the LCS. On the bot lane, with Zven, there was also an outstanding player – on the top lane with Fudge a key player. So they have brought in 2 players for positions for which they actually did not need new players at all.
Furthermore, Cloud9 has hired analyst “LS” from Korea as the new head coach. The American is known for his controversial views. He thinks of LoL completely differently than most others. For example, he believes that players and coaches in LoL have no idea how the draft actually works. It requires specialists from strategic card games – like him.
New coach throws star player out of the team – relies on “old” academy team
This is LS’s first action now: Cloud9 has now presented the starting lineups for the main team and the academy team. And the surprise: the Dane Zven is in none of the two teams.
- In the main team, he was replaced by the 18-year-old Korean Berserk.
- In the academy team, the Australian K1ng is supposed to play. However, he is already 23 and thus 5 years older than the main player, which seems somewhat strange for a “junior talent”. “Normally” players of the academy team should be younger than the main players they might one day replace.
LS explains that they already have 2 Koreans in the main team, Summit and Berserk, hence they only have one “import slot” left. However, this is needed in the academy team for “Malice”, a 24-year-old Swedish jungler. He needs game experience.
Zven will be available in the academy team for practice matches.
Having a sister team is like cheating
What’s behind it: The decision is – to put it mildly – really bold.
Basically, one is sidelining one of the best players in the USA and citing a really strange justification that a 24-year-old substitute jungler needs game practice. Zven is then supposed to participate in scrimmages, which will lead to the actual substitute ADC, K1ng, not getting any training and not developing further.
It is obvious that Cloud9 simply does not want Zven in the team anymore – sports reasons do not seem to play a role, but rather some kind of atmospheric difficulties.
Also, having some players in the academy team who are significantly older than the players in the main team goes against the usual convention. For example, the top laner in the academy team is already 27 years old. LS explains that they want to have a strong academy team to ensure strong practice matches so that everyone can develop.
Substitute jungler as a new impulse opponent – Malice considers US junglers weak
The new academy jungler Malice (24) is seen as a friend of LS and was with him in South Korea at bbq Olivers. The Swede is regarded as a “failed LoL super talent”, whose attitude has always caused him problems.
Malice says: They plan to introduce new types of scrimmages that they bring from Korea, which should ensure that the teams develop optimally:
- If there are problems in the early game, they will conduct blitz scrimmages
- If there are difficulties with communication, they will have silence scrims
- If there is trouble in team fights, they will play ARAM with 10 people
Having a sister team is like cheating, Malice says (via inven). He believes that in the USA, almost only weak junglers play, whom he will easily dismantle. Only Inspired, the Polish jungler of Evil Geniuses, seems to be the only one he takes seriously.
Academy team as a sparring partner, not as a nurturing ground
From the lineup and decisions, the idea speaks that Cloud9 no longer has an academy team but has assembled a “sister team” as training opponents for the main team. Therefore, they are not using the team as a nurturing ground but as sparring partners.
It is a quite strange situation brewing at Cloud9. Should the team under LS not find success, calls to bring Zven back into the lineup are likely to arise quickly.
Much will now depend on how well Fudge performs in the mid-lane and how strong the two new Koreans really are. The decision to place 23-year-olds and 27-year-olds in the academy team will hopefully prove to be a stroke of genius.
Cloud9 is reinventing itself every year. They had much success with that in 2020:
LoL: US team parts ways with biggest star, is criticized – Now they are the best
