The ending of Cloud9 Kia’s Split 1 didn’t go as they planned. The team went 1-3 in its final four games, repairing each loss — but only temporarily.
The time to reset and regroup allowed Cloud9 to start looking at what really happened at the end of the first phase.
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Cloud9 kicked off LCS Split 2 with a 2-1 victory over Split 1 champions LYON on Saturday at Riot Games Arena.
“No more Band-Aids. Only real fixes,” said Philippe “Vulcan” Laflamme, Cloud9 support staff.
In the final moments of the team’s third game win, most of Cloud9’s players were retreating to prepare for the next game. But top laner Park “Thanatos” Seung-gyu had other ideas.
“He said, ‘I’m on TPing base, guys, fight, I’m on TPing base,'” LaFram said. “So, yeah, I guess we were a little surprised that he didn’t come and fight for us, but it was the right decision.”
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As Parker committed to base, LaFlame’s Bader advanced but was eliminated before reaching base.
It didn’t matter, though, as Parker and the team’s minions quickly ended the game and secured the victory.
Park’s split-second decision to attack the Nexus – a target that teams try to destroy to secure victory in League of Legends – is exactly the route Cloud9 wanted to take.
“In order to be the best team we can, we need every player to see these things,” LaFram said. “He asked us without hesitation, ‘What if I TP the base?’ He just said, ‘Well, I understand now, I’ll do it.'”
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Many will focus on Park’s decision to end the game, but for Cloud9, this victory wasn’t necessarily the cleanest, or even the best-played game.
bigger than a play
Instead, Cloud9 is working hard to fix the issues that have plagued the team in the final four games of Split 1.
“Our team played a lot of games and just kept it as simple as possible, like the goal simulator,” Cloud9 coach Nicolas “Inero” Smith said. “Going from one to the other there wasn’t a lot of planning on what we could do in between to push the advantage. So we felt like we were a little too off the team in some areas.”
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That’s why Parker’s selection is so important. This is a classic example of pushing the edge to end a game—a decision that weighs risk and reward in real time.
Proof on the board
This isn’t the only moment where Cloud9 plays differently than in Split 1, either. In the crucial Game 3, when LYON got back-to-back Chemtech Drakes, the team didn’t force the fight at 19:23 and 24:38 – goals that provided a different type of power boost.
“We let the game happen and when we gave them three ducks, we didn’t have too much pressure,” LaFram said. “We just did what we thought was right.”
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The momentum shifted at 25 minutes and 56 seconds when Lyon jungler Kacper “inspired” Słoma to lock down Baron Nashor (another neutral target), but Cloud9 responded with a triple kill to negate the advantage.
“It’s a good sign that we’re able to change that up a little bit because I think other teams are probably going to have an easy time playing us,” LaFram said. “I feel like they can easily understand what we’re going to do, they can anticipate it and respond to it more easily. … So we need to be more flexible than we were this year.”
No one is going to crown Cloud9 as LCS champions after one game, and the same goes for those who don’t include Lyon. The longer split gives both teams time to evaluate and adjust.
But this is a good start for Cloud9, who can use the runway to address the issue with real fixes rather than temporary fixes.
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“We still have a lot of work to do and I think we all realize that,” LaFram said. “Especially in practice, we have to do better because all these teams are going to improve as well.”
Paul de los Santos Covers esports for The Sports Tribune and publishes Inside Esports at insideesports.media, a newsletter covering competitive gaming.
