Is it time for Cloud9 to make a run?
Cloud9 have proven to have an academy team of some potential, but little viability on the NA LCS stage as of right now. It’s now or never for the playoffs.
Cloud9 has had a rough start to the 2018 NA LCS Summer Split. From the surprising decision to field essentially their entire academy team for the first few weeks of the split, to their poor performance and failure to adapt to an admittedly crazy meta, Cloud9 likely wish to forget the first half of the 2018 Summer Split. But is it finally time for the much vaunted North American squad to step up to the plate and make a playoff run?
Last week, Zachary “Sneaky” Scuderi made his return to the starting line-up, joining long-time teammate Nicolaj “Jensen” Jensen on the rift once again. While Andy “Smoothie” Ta remains to be seen on the LCS stage so far this split, the Cloud9 roster is largely back to what it was during Spring, when they made a solid regular season run before a disappointing exit early in the playoffs.
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While the metagame still proves to be an elusive beast to conquer for coach Bok “Reapered” Han-gyu and company, a Sneaky-bolstered team managed to double their wins for the split last weekend, beating Flyquest handily before losing a struggle of a game to Counter-Logic Gaming.
Unfortunately, Cloud9 doesn’t have too long to work on meshing as a unit again, and despite changes coming to both gold funneling strategies and marksmen crit items, it looks like the team will need to secure a high number of wins under the current metagame if they wish to challenge for playoffs, and eventually worlds.
Cloud9 have never missed a World Championship since their inception, and should their performance continue along its current trends, it’s hard to imagine there being no changes made to the roster of coaching staff going into Spring 2019 should they fail to qualify for Worlds.
Next: NA and EU LCS Power Rankings: Post Rift Rivals
It’s now or never for Cloud9 to get a grasp on this meta, because by the time Riot decides they’ve had enough of the myriad superstar ADCs riding the bench or playing off-roles, Cloud9’s chances at international competition may have already evaporated before them.