Meteos and Impact Join Cloud9
With the NA LCS Summer Split beginning soon, many teams have made changes in their roster before the season. Cloud9 is one of these teams, and have made multiple changes to their starting five players. One of the players being changed has been with them since the teams’ beginnings, and one has only played one split for the team. The players being brought on include Meteos, who has played multiple past splits for C9, and Impact, the star Korean top laner that won a World Championship with SK Telecom T1. With the changes to the squad, the team dynamic for C9 and their play style will be heavily impacted and these changes could make Cloud9 one of the top teams in North America. Cloud9 announced these two changes at the same time.
Meteos was the previous Jungler on Cloud9 before the Summer split of 2015. Meteos left the team after a string of poor performances and turmoil within the team. He was replaced by Cloud9’s former Mid laner, Hai, for the rest of that split and the teams resulting trip to worlds. Cloud9 then acquired Rush from Team Impulse, a Korean Jungler. With Rush in the team during the Spring split of 2016, the team finished third in the league but lost their first play-off series to Team Solo Mid 1–3.
Balls has been the starting Top laner for Cloud9 since their entrance into the North American LCS. Throughout his career, Balls has been known for his mastery of Rumble and his skill in adapting to new metas. In more recent years, Balls’ form has dropped off and he has been heavily criticized for his play, reaching a climax before worlds when he could only reach Diamond 2 rank in Korean Solo queue. Balls played the role of a low economy Top laner while Rush, Incarnati0n, and Sneaky were the carries of the team.
Impact was the Top laner for SK Telecom when they won the season 3 world championships and during their less than stellar follow-up season. He moved to the North American squad, Team Impulse, alongside Rush, and played with this team for the entirety of the 2015 season before a ban to their starting Mid laner imploded the team. Impact played his most reason season with the new NRG team alongside another popular Korean player, GBM. NRG finished in fifth place and lost their first series to Team Liquid 0–3. Impact plays more of a carry role, but has the talent to play both tanks and carries in the top lane.
With the addition of Impact and Meteos, the play-style of Cloud9, and whom they play around, will change. In the previous season with the line-up of Balls, Rush, Incarnati0n, Sneaky, and Hai, Sneaky and Incarnati0n were the main carries with Rush being the third carry, while Balls was usually given less farm playing a tank, and Hai was the shot-caller on Support. With Meteos and Impact, Incarnati0n and Sneaky will still be the main carries, Impact will take the third carry role and Meteos will take a more supportive role in the team, facilitating the carries of the team. Bunnyfufu will be the Support of the current lime-up and will take over shot-calling from Hai. The current line-up of Cloud9 seems to be a very strong roster but it will remain to be seen if the team works well together. This will be Impacts first team where he is not playing with another Korean. I project this team will finish in the top four in the North American LCS and have a shot at going to worlds at the end of the year.
Cloud9 Roster: Top-Impact Jungle-Meteos Mid-Incarnati0n ADC-Sneaky Support-Bunnyfufu/Smoothie
