LCS: Reapered’s Successful Yet Complicated Legacy on Cloud9

After famed coach Reapered has been fired by Cloud9, we take a look at his history of success with the organization and why it suddenly ended.

A History of Underperforming

The two most glaring would both be in 2017. After TSM star AD-Carry Doublelift stepped down for the spring split to deal with his own mental state, Cloud9 was poised to take the LCS title. Whether you believe Doublelift to have been the best player in 2016 TSM or not, it seems clear he was their most important player and the deciding factor in their 3-1 victory over C9 in the Summer 2016 Finals.

Cloud9 held first place in the LCS for most of spring 2017 and looked like they were clearly the best team in the region. Then, they slowly lost steam as the split went on, ended up finishing second. and found themselves in the LCS finals against TSM for the second split in a row after a quick 3-0 sweep of Phoenix1.

While TSM fans will claim otherwise, many analysts and experts believed Cloud9 was the stronger of the two teams in that finals and should have defeated TSM. Unfortunately, Jensen’s infamous Game 5 Ekko Zhonyas sealed their fate.

However, Cloud9 had split the series time between Impact and Ray in the top lane for a carry threat in Ray vs a stable weak-side player in Impact. Many critics argued this six-man roster was unnecessary and hurt the team in the long-run. Reapered seemed to agree and C9 played Impact for the remainder of the year.

In the summer Cloud9 were upset in the quarterfinals by Dignitas losing 3-1 in what may be their most embarrassing loss to date. A team that was nowhere near an LCS title contender handily defeated a team that was one misplay away from winning spring.

At Worlds later that year, Cloud9 was tied 2-2 against Team WE and one win away from a top-four finish at Worlds. Cloud9 had banned Galio against Xiye all series long, a pick he was known to perform on, a pick the LPL is known for, but in Game 5 they left it open for what many believe to be a counter pick C9 had been saving all series.

What did Cloud9 pick? Orianna. Cloud9 was smashed and sent home.

In 2018 Cloud9 started the Spring Split 9-1 and was in a position to finish the regular season with a first-round bye. We all know what happened; the team utterly collapsed, fell to 5th place, and were swap 3-0 by Team Liquid in the quarterfinals.

In 2019 Spring Cloud9 finished second in the regular season and tied with TL at 14-4. They found themselves up 2-0 on Team SoloMid and were ready to sweep, but utter collapse ensued once again as Team SoloMid reverse swept Cloud9 and sent them home.

That Summer Cloud9 were in the discussion as having a 50/50 chance of defeating Team Liquid in the finals and claiming Reapered’s first LCS title. But again despite being up 2-1 in the series Cloud9 fell to TL.

After C9 won the Spring Split championship, Reapered’s first with Cloud9, the bottom fell out. Their most recent Summer collapse is not solely Reapered’s fault if at all. However, it is another example in a long history of his career where Cloud9 underperformed.