Repeating as champions – Part 3 of the Cloud 9 story
After Cloud 9's incredible 30:3 domination of the LCS Summer split, the team had gone out into the international scene and suffered losses to fnatic and Gambit. Some said their style had been exposed, some said they would not dominated in NA now they teams had been given a full off-season to study their style. If xPeke and Alex Ich had beaten Hai solidly, then surely the new Bjergsen-powered TSM could too, people reasoned.
Nevertheless, Cloud 9 overcame all of their doubters, and said TSM, to reach almost the same pinnacle of domination in the LCS Spring split for 2014, winning 29 out of 33 games they played and having a losing record against none of the seven LCS teams. This is the concluding part of the Cloud 9 story.
The Cloud 9 story
Part 1: The history and formation of Cloud 9
Part 2: A new kind of domination
Part 3: Repeating as champions
2013 had come to a close with Cloud 9's victory over fnatic at Battle of the Atlantic, sealing an overall victory for North America and gaining back some respect for C9 by allowing them to even up the score with the team who had eliminated them from the Season 3 World Championship, even if BotA had been an exhibition tournament. Cloud 9's Summer split performance had been one for the ages, with their incredible 25:3 (89.29%) record one which would seemingly stand forever.
"[Cloud 9's] biggest weakness has always been that their lanes suck. In North America their lanes are actually decent, none of their lanes are so outclassed that they're gonna get crushed. You have to have enough skill disparity in your lane for you to lose hard enough for it to be impactful. If there's this much [makes a gesture representing a small amount] skill disparity and you lose by 10 CS, 5 CS, then whatever, who cares? If there's this much skill disparity and it's Hai vs. xPeke, then xPeke's going to carry and your Mid laner is the reason that you lost the game, right?
I think it exposes a lot of their weaknesses, like this tournament, because North America's just not good enough to crush lane and carry against Cloud 9. On the international stage, when you have fucking Alex Ich and xPeke, I think it would have made a big difference."
-Doublelift on Cloud 9, speaking after the S3 World Championship (Team Acer, 2013)
In fact, many pros and pundits predicted that the following split would be nowhere near as dominant for C9. After fnatic had "exposed" Meteos' jungling style and the team had been thrashed by Gambit at IEM Cologne, a number of Cloud 9's peers expected the next split to see more teams contending with C9 for the title and understanding how to go about beating the reigning champions. Certainly, nearly all would agree, there would be no repeat of an 80%+ win-rate in the LCS Spring split for 2014. C9 were the best, nobody would deny that, but few expected they could dominate in the same fashion for a second split.
With the departure of Alex Penn in late 2013, Cloud 9 brought in a new analyst for 2014. Charlie Lipsie had joined the organisation as part of their European Challenger team, Cloud 9 Eclipse, and would be used in the main team also.
"Charlie first had worked with C9 HyperX Eclipse and they recommended him heavily. Charlie basically watches all of our scrims and does a really good job making sure everyone is doing the correct thing at all times. He watches what we build, when we build it, and gives suggestions. He watches how everyone wards, and so on. He watches all of the little things and makes sure we are not overlooking anything. Charlie also has a lot of intelligent input on what champions we should be picking up and playing in important games."
-LemonNation on the role of their new analyst (Cloud 9, 2014)
In the previous split, the team who had held the most threat for Cloud 9 had been Vulcun, now known as XDG. XDG had beaten Cloud 9 twice in the regular portion of the split, making them the only team Cloud 9 finished the split without a winning record over. XDG had then showed some good performances at the Season 3 World Championship, though not without failures of decision-making that would cost them chances to progress from the group stage. With that international experience under their belts, where Cloud 9 had only gotten to play two Bo3 series against fnatic and one against Gambit, there was the expectation that XDG could look to challenge C9 further in the Spring split.
Despite Vulcun's second place finish in the regular portion of the Summer split, it had been TSM who had met Cloud 9 in the final, by virtue of overcoming Vulcun in the semi-final. While Cloud 9 had dismantled TSM with ease in the final, TSM had shown they were clutch in playoff scenarios and had also given a good account of themselves at the World Championship, particularly their botlane had matched well against those they had faced, even if they also had failed to progress into the bracket phase of the tournament. With TSM having made the move, in late 2013, to bring in Bjergsen, one of hottest rising stars of European scene, as their new Mid laner, fans expected the team to potentially win the LCS Spring split.
"That's not the NA meta, really, that's the Cloud 9 meta, and NA should try gravitate towards it. But that really only worked because Meteos was able to do so. If we give TheOddOne all the farm, he doesn't always carry, because his decision making wasn't always the best, but Meteos does it really well and that's what I like about him. But, as you can see, Cloud 9 isn't exactly in the finals, so it obviously didn't work out too well.
You need your lanes to not lose that hard, they can lose a little bit but they can't get completely pooped on. That's just what happened with Cloud 9 their lanes got completely demolished, their botlane did so poorly in that tournament... Meteos couldn't carry, essentially."
-Xpecial on how C9's laning style (Team Acer, 2013)
The narrative surrounding Cloud 9 had always billed them as a team capable of surviving laning phase going even or not far enough behind for it to matter, so that their superior strategical understanding could take over and win them the game. Certainly, there had been numerous occasions during the Summer split when they had been behind in farm, killed in lane and so on, yet on nearly every such occasion the team had been able to grind their way back into the game by virtue of superior objective control, taking down towers and securing dragons, or outright turning the game in mid to late game team-fights.
With TSM boasting a monster line-up of laners, particularly with Bjergsen to provide the kind of pressure onto Hai that the top EU teams had, a number of NA onlookers were tipping the old masters of NA (TSM) to reclaim the throne from the new (C9). Finally, CLG, who had been the other team to hand C9 a loss during the previous split, had undergone a couple of changes, the most notable being the acquisition of dexter, former Jungler of the Lemondogs team which has finished first in the regular portion of the EU LCS Summer split and second in the playoffs.
Week 1 - Starting superweek rolling
The first week of the Spring split would be a superweek, with four games to be played. Good work had been done by LCS central casting, with Cloud 9 facing TSM in the opening game. Immediately fans would get a sense of what kind of threat the new Bjergsen-powered TSM would pose to C9. The game saw Cloud 9 start off in typical fashion, getting ahead in towers, but for a spell of around six minutes, from 13 minutes through to 19 minutes, TSM took charge and had a solid lead 8:4 in kills, even if they were still down a tower. At 23 minutes C9 caught two TSM players mid for free kills and then six minutes later reasserted the classic Cloud 9 team-fighting they had been known for the previous split, winning a fight cleanly for four kills and the baron.
From there on, C9 simply ground down their opponents as they were so famous for doing, taking the tower and inhib, backing off for dragons and barons and continuing, without ever getting caught, until they had secured a clean and controlled win. Bjergsen had had his moments, such as killing Hai 1v1 in the mid lane, but Hai's Teemo and C9's standard style had been too much for the new era of TSM. Cloud 9 still sat firmly atop the NA throne, for now.
"I personally think [TSM] might have been a little bit stronger [than us now], at least going off scrim scores, we have a bad record vs. them right now. [...] I don't think we're gonna 4:0 them like we did last split"
-Hai on facing TSM (OnGamers, 2014)
The XDG Cloud 9 met in their second game was a little different from the one they had faced previously, as their opponents had chosen to make a role swap, swapping the positions of Jungler Xmithie and AD Carry Zuna. The was close at two points, as C9 took a small early lead that was levelled up, took another small lead that was again levelled and then, from 25 minutes on ran the show entirely. Everything went to C9 and they finished the game 11 minutes later. XDG had been able to get kills, but they had not been able to win any of the team-fights over that time period. Just like that, C9 was up 2:0 in games and it was beginning to look like a familiar story in the LCS Spring split.
"We've been looking to expand our playstyles more. We kind of became predictable, I feel, at the end of the last season, by doing the same things over and over. So we've been trying out different strategies and always trying to find out what the best thing we can do is."
-Meteos on Cloud 9's entry into LCS spring (Riot Games, 2014)
Facing some real resistance
The new look CLG was unfortunately not fielding the new look they had hoped for. dexter had been unable to enter the USA, due to problems at immigration, and the team had brought in former Top laner and owner HotshotGG. Hotshot would play Mid lane, the role he had been practicing in solo queue for months, while Mid laner Link moved into the Jungle. Despite such problems, instantly highlighted by Hai solo killing Hotshot in mid a couple of times, CLG were able to show good fighting capabilities in the laning phase, particularly their botlane.
The game was close around the 18 minute mark, with CLG even leading by a tower. After a fight at 23 minutes gave CLG two kills and two towers, the first upset of the season seemed to be on its way. Instead, C9 used a mixture of split-pushing and punishing CLG's indecision around the baron to find a fight which they could win 4:2 in kills and take the baron. From there C9 closed out the game to go a perfect three for three in their first Spring split matches.
"The game was pretty close, we won mid, lost top and bot was about even, so we just did a little bit better job of pushing our advantages than they did theirs. [...] I think they're probably a top four team [...] They look good"
-Meteos on beating CLG (OnGamers, 2014)
The fourth and final game of superweek was against Dignitas. Cloud 9 had no reason to expect anything impressive out of Dig, as that team had been steam-rolled by the new Alliance team in the Battle of the Atlantic exhibition series. In fact, Dignitas would be the first team of the Spring split to defeat Cloud 9 and not by a close margin. Dignitas repeatedly got kill after kill, with Hai being targeted numerous times, and rushed out to a big lead. C9 hung in there in terms of gold, taking dragons and towers to keep that side of the game close, but could do absolutely nothing about Dignitas' fighting. Dig won every fight of note and finished the game after 37 minutes to hand C9 their first loss.
Superweek had ended 3:1 and C9 were tied with TSM for top of the league. Due to losing them to Dignitas, three teams had no been able to beat C9 in LCS history.
Week 2 - Easy does it
The only game of week two was against Curse and Cloud 9 won with relative ease. Despite Curse getting off some ganks to stay in it in kills early, C9 toyed when them in terms of objective control and got all the dragons and the baron that they needed, with Curse being forced to eventually try a four man fnatic brush camp that didn't work. C9 rolled to a win and their record went to 4:1, even though they would drop to second in the standings, since TSM played more games that week.
Week 3 - Keeping on keeping on
Week three began with a game against Coast that looked to be a second upset on its way for the C9 boys. Coast were all over them for the first 15 minutes in towers and kills, but then C9 began to scrappily win out narrowly in the team-fights. The game finally turned on a 23 minute fight near dragon that went a clean 4:0 to C9 and gifted them the baron too. From there on they were in the driving seat and never let up. The team's LCS record had reached 6:1, right where they'd been last split after seven games. So much for those who had said Cloud 9 would not dominate like they had before.
What had been Velocity last split, this split would be Evil Geniuses, with three of the players from the European team under that name coming over to NA to play. The new team stood no chance against Cloud 9, getting completely outgunned in the fights, only able to keep it close in terms of towers and nothing else. C9 had hit 7:1 and had one last game for the week, facing TSM in a rematch of the opening game of the split. TSM had never beaten Cloud 9 in eight meetings between the two, but the Bjergsen line-up would take a second crack at it.
"I think EG had good rotations against us, they fought for everything, they didn't wanna give us anything for free. Like dragon, vision control, they just kept fighting us"
-Balls on C9's game vs. EG (OnGamers, 2014)
The game was a thriller, as it was close over the first 24 minutes, but without C9 able to get overall objective control. At the point where C9 usually took over the team-fights, it was TSM winning the battles and taking the towers and baron. TSM out-C9'd C9, closing the game in 36 minutes after whittling away Cloud 9 and forcing them into bad fights. TSM had recorded their first every victory over Cloud 9 and remained top of the standings. Perhaps this split would see the rise of a true contender to C9's throne. C9 ended the week at 7:2, a loss worse than their mark after the first nine games of the Spring split.
Week 4 - Domination the lower denizens
XDG was toiling at the bottom of the league as week four began, far from their form the previous split, and Cloud 9 smashing them in a dominating 18:3 kill performance to start things off only highlighted how far the former Vulcun team was from the side which had seemed so dangerous to Meteos and company nine months earlier. The second game of the week was a very convincing stomp of Coast, the other team in the bottom two. C9 moved up to 8:2 and held in second, with TSM at 9:1.
"We had a pretty good game plan going into it, we got to play our game and they kinda just got snowballed on. [...] Lemon had really good hooks, Balls had really good ultimates, Meteos had good pressure and Sneaky didn't die and had good farm"
-Hai on the dominating win vs. XDG (OnGamers, 2014)
Meteos won the MVP award for the week, his games over the last two weeks had seen him aggressively ganking top lane successfully to get Balls ahead and it had been working for Cloud 9. No longer was Meteos just farming up as people expected him to the previous split, now he was much more proactive with his ganks and pressuring lanes.
Week 5 - Hitting their loss total early
The CLG Cloud 9 faced to open week five was the one which had been promised prior to the split, with dexter in the Jungle and Link back in the Mid lane. How different this CLG was would be evident in the game, as CLG handed C9 one of the heaviest defeats in their history, finishing with a score of 28:7 for CLG and total domination of seemingly every lane and fight. Cloud 9 had now suffered three losses, their total for the previous season, after only 11 games of the split. The gap seemingly had closed between C9 and the next best teams, with them taking beatings from TSM and CLG in a short amount of time.
Cloud 9 took out any frustrations the CLG game had caused, by destroying Dignitas in a killfest that helped erase the damage done by Dignitas' opening win on them in the first week of the split. At 9:3, C9 held in second place in the standings.
Week 6 - Stomping on the lower teams
The 13th game of the split was against Curse and again C9 found themselves facing a line-up different from earlier in the split, as Curse had decided to put in former Jungler and coach Saintvicious as their new Support player. The game proved unusual as it took 18 minutes for first blood to be given, as Curse took it. C9 had stayed ahead in towers though and they would dominate the game through and through, giving no way back for Curse.
EG were tied for second from bottom and in the next game C9 would remind them of why, completely crushing them flat and rolling over them with ease. Again EG proved incapable of team-fighting with C9 and C9 went 2:0 for the week. The total record was now 11:3 for C9, still keeping them in second overall. TSM led the way with 12:2, just one game ahead.
"I think last season we could just pick in priority and just always choose the same champions if they were just stronger than others. [...] Every other team has also really gotten better, because Dig, CLG and TSM were all able to take games from us. Last season we went 4:0 against TSM and 3:1 against CLG, where CLG still played really well, but now they're even better, so it's even harder to beat them now. I think every game against both those teams should be really really good matches."
-Sneaky on what had changed between the Summer and Spring splits (OnGamers, 2014)
Week 7 - Shocked by the bottom placed team and rampaging over the top placed
Another game and another new line-up for C9 to get a look at. XDG were bottom of the league but they would now face C9 with a reversal of their role swap, Zuna back to ADC and Xmithie back in the Jungle, but also a new Support, as Sheep took over from the departed BloodWater. With BloodWater one of XDG's strongest players and their team having done so poorly over the split, there was no reason to expect anything of note from them. In the game itself, they would pull out one of their best performances of the split, though.
A fairly even game in terms of kills reached the mid game with XDG up in towers. C9 started to build a kills lead and took the gold lead. At 24 minutes, C9 took the baron after a strong team-fight, but that would actually be the last moment they were in position to win, with XDG overpowering all the fights after that, acing them around 39 minutes. One very uncharacteristic mistake within that five death sequence came as two of C9 could have based, but Hai, on red health, decided to dive over the wall on LeBlanc and was instantly killed, also revealing the location of his team-mate.
XDG won the game, the final kill score of 22:18 for the underdogs showing that for perhaps the first time in their history, C9 had truly thrown a game they had led late. The other game of the week was against TSM, the leaders of the league. A crucial difference from past games, though, was that Bjergsen had had to return to Europe to sort out his papers and TSM owner and previous Mid laner Reginald had stepped into his shoes. C9 would display an excellent laning phase and control the game at all the key points from the mid game onwards, racking up tower upon tower and never giving TSM any breathing room.
At 12:4 in the standings, TSM still led by a single game at 13:3, due to C9's loss to XDG, so C9 still sat in second place. Even more importantly, CLG looked to be gaining ground as they had gone 4:0 in the past two weeks, with Mid laner Link winning the MVP both weeks. It seemed as if it may be more than merely TSM who should be on C9's radars for the latter part of the split.
Week 8 - Superweek yields an appropriate set of results
Week eight was another superweek, with four games on the docket for Cloud 9. The first was against EG and this was even more dominant than the previous had been, with C9 picking on Snoopeh over and over to build a nice lead early. That transitioned into a convincing victory.
Curse came into superweek tied for second from bottom, but you wouldn't have known it from the way their game vs. C9 began. IWillDominate and company kept apace with Cloud 9 throughout the first 32 minutes, even immediately beating a baron'd up C9 in a team-fight. C9 reasserted themselves and were cut-throat when they saw an opening, doing their patented dive past inner towers into the base to secure kills, more towers and inhibitor. The game finished at 47 minutes.
Fourth placed Dignitas would prove Cloud 9 with one of the most interesting games of the split, as scarra and his men were playing them pretty evenly in kills over the first 20 minutes or so, but C9 had their usual tower advantage. Around the 30 minute mark Dignitas turned the game and became putting up kills and towers, taking themselves into a lead in one and an evened up 7:7 in the other by 35 minutes. At 39 minutes Dignitas were at 19:14 in kills, taking their second of the two barons in the game and seeming ready to turn the game entirely into their favour.
Earlier Dignitas had lost inhibitors, now they had taken Cloud 9's mid. At 41 minutes a crazy fight went heavily to C9, acing Dignitas for a single loss and they were able to rush to the base and win out, with one nexus turret already having been down. C9 had recovered from potential turnaround, securing their 16th win of the split.
The final game of superweek came against the rising CLG team who had lost only one game out of their last seven. The game was another exciting match-up, with the first 15 minutes all just trading back and forth of kills, with almost no action onto the towers. The next 10 minutes saw towers falling and C9 starting to win out in team-fights. The key battle came at 23 minutes, as a clean 4:0 for C9 led to the baron. After that they got in position to push the base a few minutes later and were able to take the game. Superweek had finished with a four to zero run from Cloud 9, who were now on a five game win streak.
International competition in Poland
"We're gonna head out early to go to the Logitech offices [...] and bootcamp and prepare for the event, so we can do our best for it."
-Hai on C9's preparation for IEM VIII Katowice (OnGamers, 2014)
Still sat in second in LCS, Cloud 9 flew out to Katowice, Poland, for the IEM VIII World Championship. At the previous IEM in late 2013 they had been humiliated by Gambit and they had only gotten to play a total of three series against international competition, all European so far, in their careers as Cloud 9. Put into a group with World Elite, Taipei Assassins and Gambit, they would be assured some more exposure to the international circuit and their first series against an Asian team.
The opening game was against World Elite, once the best team in China and the world, but now rebuilt and with only two players remaining from their glory days. In China they were not considered the best team, but Cloud 9 had yet to ever face an Asian side, so nobody knew quite what the outcome might be. WeiXiao, AD Carry of World Elite had once been considered the best at his position in the entire world, though his stock had dropped since then, so Sneaky would face a real test in the bot lane.
Fears about C9's laning against a Chinese team proved unfounded, as C9 managed to get and stay ahead early in towers and kills. From 15 minutes onwards the kills began to go their way more and more and by 20 minutes had arrived they were in control. At the 26 minute mark a clean ace allowed C9 to push through and take the opening game. They were now one win away from moving into the semi-finals of the IEM tournament. In the winners match they would surprisingly face Taipei Assassins, with the team from Taiwan having upset Gambit Gaming in the other match.
TPA were another team living off their past glories, with their former line-up having won the Season 2 World Championship in 2012, but only one member remaining from them. The Assassins had defeated Gambit thanks to the outstanding performance of new Mid laner Morning, who had outdueled EU Mid legend Alex Ich.
Another fading Asian ghost fell as Cloud 9 looked very impressive, dominating the game and putting on a clinic of tower pushing. TPA could never find a weakness of chink to dive at, they were constantly being pushed around the map and slaughtered in the fights. Cloud 9 had won Group B and would await the second placed team from Group A in the semi-final of the tournament. As it happened, that opponent would be fnatic. After losing to fnatic in the quarter-final of the Season 3 World Championship and then beating them in the Battle of the Atlantic, the two teams would get a rubber match in the semi-final of this tournament.
A third series against fnatic
The early game of the opener seemed to be looking favourable for Cloud 9, but fnatic could not be bested in the all-out team-fights. The game would swing more and more into the European side's favour, with xPeke on LeBlanc playing to a godlike 7/1/5 for the game, with Rekkles the other carry for fnatic. Cloud 9 did have fights which would occasionally go well, but on the whole fnatic just overwhelmed them straight up. Just as at the S3WC, the first game went to fnatic.
In the second game, things were close again over the early part of the game. Around 21 minutes C9 got a fight near dragon that went 4:1 in their favour. From there on, C9 were the ones in charge and they would take both barons and bully fnatic out of fights. fnatic took a single team-fight, narrowly, part way through, but C9 kept on and would take the base at 44 minutes to knot the series at 1:1 and force a decider. Just as at the Season 3 World Championship a third game would decide the series. It would also decide the head-to-head between the two, as each had won a series so far in their history.
The decider was a dire disappointment for C9, as fnatic got the advantages early and pressed them, always ahead in kills and towers. C9 turned one team-fight mid-game, but everything else was all fnatic, all the time. The European side would crush the last third of the game to finish emphatically, not quite as heavy a blow as the end of the World Championship quarter-final, but still a solid win in the column for fnatic and they would be moving on to the final, while C9 exited the tournament in 3rd-4th.
Week 9 - Pulverising the competition back home
After impressive performances against the international competition, Cloud 9 came home and immediately crushed Coast in the opening game of week nine. Coast had a small early lead, but then Cloud 9 went in on them and brutalised them, finishing the game 24:6 and having given up only a single tower in the entire game. Cloud 9 were sat at 17:4. The second game of the week was even more dominating, as they faced an EG who had substitutes instead of their three European players, due to them needing to update refresh their visas. C9 again put up a 24:6 performance, this time not running all over the opposition from the opening bell to the end. A solid 2:0 week and C9 remained one game behind TSM at the top.
Week 10 - More domination late in the split
As had been the case all split long, even extending into the previous splits, Curse had chances and moments in the early game where they seemed to get an edge, but as the mid game approached Curse shrunk and Cloud 9 grew more and more impressive. The opener to week 10 was closed out by 31 minutes and C9 moved up to 19:4 for the split. The second game was against Dignitas, who had decided to bench scarra and bring in goldenglue at Mid lane. C9 were front-runners the whole game, with Dignitas fighting well but always being behind in kills and towers. At the end, C9 poured it on to finish 32:16 in kills.
Another 2:0 week for C9 put them at 20:4 and granted Sneaky the MVP award. Thanks to TSM losing a game, C9 had now pulled into a tie for first place, the only time they had been ranked first since the opening week. Despite their incredible run of only losing four games, TSM had bested them up until this point in the standings. C9's win-streak was up to 9:0, their best of the split by far.
Week 11 - A return to the top
The last week was a superweek and the final four games would be played. XDG had been bottom of the league every week but one and C9 ensured they'd stay there, ramming home a 34 minute win. For the 26th game of the season, C9 faced a CLG who were on a 4:0 winning streak. This was a contender for the most entertaining game of the split, as CLG had an early lead but C9 began to take control around the 19 minute mark. By the 27 minute mark it seemed like C9 were going to grind down another opponent, up 14:6 in kills and taking towers and an inhibitor. At 32 minutes C9 got kills, baron and moved all the way in to take the first nexus tower, only for a good fight from CLG to hold them off.
Despite their dire situation, CLG would be presented with a chance to perhaps win the game. C9 set up an ambush from a brush onto CLG, only to uncharacteristically lose a big team-fight from in front, being aced with only two kills to their names, Doublelift getting a quadra kill on Lucian. CLG pushed down a tower and were perhaps going to bring the game back. Instead, C9 resumed control of the game and got the couple of engagements they needed, winning at 43 minutes in a true LCS NA thriller, even if it came with a component of each team making some costly mistakes.
The second to last game of the season showed how close the first place race was, as TSM would play C9 knowing that the winner would secure sole possession of first, for the time being. C9 got the ball rolling first and didn't really give up much, TSM could keep up for first 20 minutes or so, but C9 found fight after fight that they could gain a kill or two from. The crucial fight came at 27 minutes, with three kills to one going C9's way and a decent tower lead. They held onto the lead and pushed it to a victory, taking the top position by themselves for the first time in the entire split.
The last opponent in the regular portion of the split was Coast, who came into superweek tied for fifth place. Despite not having beaten C9 during the split, Coast had been able to do well in the earliest part of the game and this time around it was the same story. The difference was that Coast then continued on with that lead, pushing up to 13:4 in kills, though down by a couple of towers. C9 started to claw back some kills, but at 35 minutes CST seemed so close to victory, up 18:7 and taking their second of the two barons of the game.
Pushing for the C9 base, they didn't notice Meteos split-pushing into their base until it was too late. Attempting to recall, one recall was stopped and the other CST carry stayed to kill that C9 players. Meteos was able to take the Coast base by himself, giving C9 their 24th win of the season. After not being top of the league from weeks two through to nine, then only sharing the lead and never being solely at the top, Cloud 9 finished the split with the best record. Hai was awarded the MVP for the week.
Cloud 9's overall 24:4 stood only one loss worse than their incredible 25:3 from the previous split. Those who had imagined C9 could not possibly dominate in the same fashion again had been wrong. In fact, where last split they had had a winning record over everyone but XDG, with whom they drew, this time around they managed the outstanding accomplishment of a winning record over all other seven LCS teams. Heading into the playoffs, they were placed on the side of the bracket without CLG and TSM, making them strong favourites to reach another final.
A semi-final with Curse
After Curse beat Dignitas 2:1, Cloud 9 had their opponent for the semi-final. The previous split they had been waiting for the same two opponents to duke it out, but that time Dignitas had come through the victor 2:1. Curse had shown spells of looking competitive against C9 earlier in the split, but the story was always the same as the mid to late game was the domain of Cloud 9 and Curse couldn't get far enough ahead to ensure Hai and his men weren't able to catch up.
Cloud 9 had never lost a playoff game in the LCS, going a perfect 5:0 in the Spring split, but the opener against Curse was a tense affair for them. Curse got early control and were were leading for the first 16 minutes or so. C9 kept up in towers and then won a brilliant fight at mid, acing Curse while only losing two of their own, taking the lead in kills. Curse never found any sort of opening and game one was over around 33 minutes and it was on to game two in the series.
In the second game, Curse against got the early lead in kills. Cloud 9 responded to retake the lead, but around 18 minutes Curse started to push back and really start winning fights., getting up 7:6 only for it to be tied up again. At 23 minutes they got up 10:7 in kills, though C9 had a solid 6:3 lead in towers. Curse took the baron around 24 minutes, but three minutes later C9 scored a 3:1 in a fight to get back close. Two fights would close the game, one near middle going into a 3:3 trade and then one at 35 minutes, with Curse pushing C9's mid inner tower, as C9 pulled out a team-fight of perfection, acing with no losses and then closing the game.
The semi-final had seen Curse thinking they had good starts both times, only to find out the hard way how good Cloud 9 gets beyond the 15 minute mark. Cloud 9 was into the final and still without suffering a loss in an LCS playoff game. Their opponent there would be TSM, the team they had been compared to all split long. In the final of the previous split they'd faced four of these five players and swept them 3:0. This time around, TSM had that star Mid lane import in Bjergsen. With TSM narrowly edging a 2:1 close semi-final with CLG, many had now fully embraced C9 as NA's best and predicted they would secure their second split win.
The final showdown with TSM
With TSM's slip from the top at the end of the split, followed by their close series they barely escaped against CLG, it was obvious TSM would need a miraculous final to defeat Cloud 9. Instead, Cloud 9 got exactly the kind of series they wanted, convincingly grinding out TSM with superior rotations, objective control and winning team-fight after team-fight. TSM looked barely more in the series than they had a split prior, with Reginald still in the mid lane. Cloud 9 would pull off another sweept, winning the LCS Spring split.
They had once again gone undefeated in the playoffs, bringing their Spring split total to 29:4 (87.88%), only one win shy of their previous split performance. Through adaptation, notably Meteos becoming more of an early game presence, Cloud 9 had remained not just North America's best team, but the same dominant force they had been in the Spring split. Hai received the MVP award for the play-offs to seal the deal.
Domination never before seen in NA
TSM had been dominant in terms of events won, taking a whole handful of LANs in 2012, but even their dominance had not been as overwhelming as Cloud 9's. While Cloud 9 could not boast the same number of tournaments won, their win-rate against NA teams was out of this world. Over the two splits and playoffs combined, Cloud 9 was 59:7 (89.39%). To be approaching a 90% win-rate over more than 65 games is frankly unthinkable even for very good teams. To further emphasis the dominance of C9, TSM, the second best team in the region over the two splits, had only managed to go 1:13 (7.14%) against Meteos and his men.
Cloud 9 had dominated their region entirely and they'd done it in their own unique fashion.
Photo credit: Riot Games
