The patch Cloud 9 needs

Rulo Mercury
Aug 22, 2017 · 4 min read

With the NA LCS semifinals around the corner, one of the big talking points has been the absence of Cloud9 on them, after their 3–1 loss against Dignitas in the Quarterfinals. What many considered one of the most talented lineups in the League ended up falling apart in their first Bo5 encounter of the split against a team which played only half of the tournament with their current roster. While Team Dignitas themselves performed on a great (and for most, unexpected) level, it’s worth taking a closer look at C9’s struggles.

A struggling Mid Game

As with most individually stacked teams, C9 usually finds themselves a lead during the early game. Jensen and Smoothie are contenders for best laner in their respective roles, and Contractz’s main priority has been providing them with adequate vision to play aggressively. To ensure their main star gets ahead, Impact’s been playing most games in the last weeks; a player who can hold his own even when top lane is left on an island.

Take Game 2 of the quarterfinals as an example. At 15 minutes, C9 were 2k gold ahead, with Jensen holding a kill and 30cs on Cassiopeia over Keane’s Syndra. Contractz had not only provided him the kill but also assisted Sneaky in a 3v3 bot lane duel which gave Kalista the edge she needs to shine in the mid game. They also fast-pushed both turrets and rotated around the other outers to get a 4–3 tower lead. With such a strong pick composition on Gragas, Kalista and Thresh, they should’ve been able to deny vision on the enemy jungle while getting a couple extra kills or securing neutral objectives.

Instead, Cloud9 played it too safe. They tried to setup a 1–4 push, but the low ranges of champions like Cassiopeia and Kalista allowed Dignitas to safely waveclear around their mid tier 2 and wait until Impact stepped too far in top. Even with C9 taking a free Infernal Drake in exchange, the play allowed Dignitas not only to get a kill and delay the push but also to regain vision in their Red jungle and Baron area. This setup, combined with poor lane assignment from a teleport-less Impact, allowed Dignitas to rush a 21min Baron and even get a decent 3-for-3 fight afterwards. The buff allowed to continuously siege the mid tier 1 up to a point where C9 was forced to either give up the turret or force a 5-on-5 teamfight, which at that point would only favor Dignitas “peel for Twitch” composition. The game was practically over.

And it’s not just a one-game thing. Game 4 was even worse, with Jensen pushing a massive lead on Lucian and Dignitas having to come back with three inhibitors open. Previously in the split, they had the same issues against other top teams. Their Week 6 decider game against Immortals featured a 6 kills, 2 drakes lead at 20 minutes only to give up everything on a forced, unnecessary Dragon with full vision over the IMT players.

Short-term solutions

Of course, the season isn’t over for C9. They’re still guaranteed to play in the Regional Finals gauntlet, and depending on other results they may only need one Bo5 to get the third Worlds’ seed. While shotcalling and decision making issues are pretty hard to solve without roster changes, there are ways to patch up the problem until 2018 arrives. In C9’s case, that patch might be in their approach to bot lane.

Usually, C9’s drafts prioritize Sneaky’s pick really early, with two different directions. They either grab themselves a lane bully in Kalista or Xayah and try to snowball an early lead, or they go for the long range carries like Tristana and Twitch and switch their early focus around the top side. While the former gives them better early game leads, it takes away a huge part of Sneaky’s teamfight capabilities. He’s at his best on a laid-back, secondary role, and Jensen can perfectly take the main stage himself. But for that to happen, C9 need to build the 2v2 a bit more around him.

During the Dignitas series, C9 picked Twitch-Blitzcrank twice against Caitlyn, relying too heavily on the Rocket Grab all-in while giving up all trading potential. They also went for Tristana-Alistar in game 4 against Sivir-Janna, which leads to a similar situation with Alistar gaining a bit more survivability once he gets to level 6. I guess the reasoning behind these picks is that Smoothie’s skill as a playmaker can make up for those lane disadvantages at later stages of the game, but that pick-heavy style requires a pretty high level of execution that C9 hasn’t been able to show.

But what if then C9 starts picking up the peeling supports? Ardent Censer has already been praised ad infinitum in this meta, and shield-based champions benefit immensely from it. What’s more, Smoothie’s no stranger to those picks, having more than 40 games between Karma, Lulu and Janna in his career. That way, Contractz can still prioritize Jensen’s lead while giving bot lane enough vision to play it even and get into the mid game 5v5s with an easier to execute composition.

It may not look like much of a change, but a small patch may be all C9 needs to get their 2017 Worlds seed.

Pictures taken from the LoLesports YouTube stream and Flickr.

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Rulo Mercury
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