League of Legends LCS: Breaking Down 2020 Cloud9

Cloud9’s League of Legends team gets ready to start a new era in the LCS in 2020.

Cloud9 in 2020 will look very different from Cloud9 in 2019. The team made several roster changes including one involving a fan-favorite player. So how well will they play League of Legends with this new-look roster? Let’s check it out.

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In 2019 Cloud9 was probably the most consistent team in the LCS beside Team Liquid. They finished second during the Spring Split and third after the playoffs. In Summer they tied for second but won a tiebreaker against CLG to take the second seed for the playoffs. They would keep the second-place finishes going by losing to Team Liquid in the Summer Playoff finals.

This earned them a spot at Worlds as the second seed from North America. During Worlds, they went 2-4 after being placed in a group with Griffin, G2 and Hong Kong Attitude. Cloud9 failed to make it out of the group stage thanks to that record.

So 2019 as a step back after their 2018 run to the Worlds semi-finals. Yet it wasn’t a bad season.

In 2019 the Cloud9 roster was Eric “Licorice” Ritchie in the top lane, Dennis “Svenskeren” Johnsen in the jungle, Yasin “Nisqy” Dinçer in the mid lane and a bottom lane duo of Zachary “Sneaky” Scuderi and Tristan “Zeyzal” Stidam.

In 2020 the roster will be Licorice in the top lane, Robert “Blaber” Huang in the jungle, Nisqy in the mid lane and a bottom lane duo of Jesper “Zven” Svenningsen and Philippe “Vulcan” Laflamme.

Licorice had a strong 2019 and has established himself as one of the best top laners in the LCS. He earned LCS first-team All-Pro honors during the Spring Split and followed that up with a second-team All-Pro honor in the Summer.

Thanks to his strong 2019 he is rated as the second-best top laner in the LCS. Cloud9 should be able to rely on him to carry this team.

Blaber returns to the jungle, after splitting time between the Academy and the main roster the past two years. He is still has some work to do to compete at the upper tiers of the LCS, but the potential is there.

He is rated the sixth-best jungler in the LCS heading into 2020. This is a downgrade from Summer Spit MVP Svenskeren, who is rated the second-best jungler in the LCS.

Yet I feel like this is Blaber’s chance to be a starter full-time and show if he can live up to his hype.

Nisqy returns in the mid lane after a solid 2019 season. During the Spring Split Nisqy was named an LCS third-team All-Pro. During the Summer Spilt he improved and earned second-team All-Pro honors and was ninth in the MVP race. He enters 2020 as the fourth-best rated mid laner in the LCS.

Zven replaces fan-favorite Sneaky in the ADC role. Both were criticized at times last season for less than ideal play. With Sneaky you get the Sneaky in lane memes, but Cloud9 still won even if he wasn’t the main carry.

Zven was very much a coin flip player. He was an LCS third-team All-Pro in the spring and helped lead TSM to the Spring Playoff finals. Yet he failed to return to All-Pro status in the Summer. Zven is still a solid ADC as he is rated fifth in the rankings list heading into 2020.

I think this is a sidegrade move, if not a small upgrade to the League of Legends roster. However, I think the fan base isn’t going to be as strong with the loss of Sneaky. Zven doesn’t seem to have the fan appeal Sneaky does so that will hurt the number of Cloud9 fans that watched for Sneaky.

Then we have Vulcan replacing Zeyzal at support. This is an interesting move. Zeyzal was an All-Pro during the Summer Split while Vulcan wasn’t. However heading into 2020 Vulcan has the higher rating as the third-best support in the LCS, while Zeyzal is rated as the fifth-best. Hopefully, for Cloud9 he can perform well and make the buy out worth it. This is a small upgrade to me then.

So overall it looks like this team is a small upgrade on the 2019 roster. Yet it doesn’t feel like they made any huge star acquiring splashy moves. They should still have enough weapons to contend for a Worlds spot. I just don’t think they will defeat Team Liquid and win an LCS title.

I think this is a third through fifth-place team. Like they have a couple of question marks in Blaber and the bottom lane that could cost them an upper-tier spot in the standings. Yet I don’t feel they don’t have enough firepower to compete with pretty much any LCS team outside of Liquid, or TSM to the point where they won’t make playoffs.

Next. 2020 Team Dignitas Preview. dark

Cloud9 should still be one of the front-runners of the LCS. Yet I think more teams will be able to compete with them in 2020 to challenge them for that third Worlds slot.

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