Through Week 4, Cloud9’s record is sitting at 8-0. This is not a team that has squeaked out eight wins. Cloud9 are absolutely crushing their opponents. What Cloud9 is doing to the LCS is what Faker would do to NA Midlaners if he changed regions.
Quick Wins
Cloud9 has an average game time of 30:04. To put this in perspective, their average is faster than any game played by Immortals, save their game against each other. Over half of the sub-30 minute games this season have occurred in a Cloud9 victory.
Pushing the lanes quickly and then roaming to grab kills and objectives enables Cloud9 to work the map in their favor. Yasin “Nisqy” Dincer consistently pushes in the midlane and looks for Robert “Blaber” Huang to execute a roam. More often than not the roam results in at least one kill for Cloud9. Eric “Licorice” Ritchie also swaps lanes with Jesper “Zven” Svenningsen and Phillipe “Vulcan” Laflamme and takes over the bottom lane. These swaps allow Cloud9 to establish control over the Rift Herald and Baron, or if they switch back, the dragon pit.
Lane Dominance
Their average gold difference at 15 minutes, which is typically when the laning phase ends, is an astonishing +2470, with TSM a close second at +1018. In terms of items, that means Cloud9 are almost a fully completed item ahead at 15 minutes.
Cloud9’s strong lane presence is due to their drafting. They always pick up champions that have above average wave clear. Zoe, Qiyana and Cassiopeia all provide solid wave clear for Nisqy, allowing him to roam early and often. This also true for Licorice as all three of Aatrox’s Qs are area of effect (AOE) attacks, quickly clearing any minions in his way. Aphelios and Miss Fortune provide an insane amount of minion clearing abilities for Zven.
Cloud9 also uses synergistic wave clears. An example would be in the game against Evil Geniuses, using Gragas’ Barrel Roll and Miss Fortune’s Make It Rain to clear waves twice as fast. This allows Cloud9 to clear enemy minions at light speed, making their pushes that much more effective and deadly.
Objective Control
Cloud9 are hammering the opposition over dragon control, having killed 31 and surrendering only three. After some quick math, that’s one dragon allowed every OTHER game while taking on average four per game. By taking the Dragons so aggressively, Cloud9 both builds a slow gold lead as well as enabling the game to go smoother for them. The team has not conceded a single Infernal or Mountain Dragon in their eight wins. Not only does taking these dragons allow Cloud9 to have improved damage, but it also prevents the other teams from having an easy advantage.
Ten towers have been destroyed by Cloud9’s opponents. Conversely, Cloud9 managed to take 78 towers in eight games. They secured First tower in five of their six games, with only Golden Guardians being able to take a tower faster than Cloud9.
This vast disparity is due to the emphasis Cloud9 places on the Rift Herald. Almost like clockwork around the eight-minute mark, Zven and Vulcan will recall to base and then head straight for the Rift Herald. By taking the Eye of the Herald and unleashing it in a lane is a guaranteed two plates, or about 40% of the turret’s health. This compliments Cloud9’s aggression as by the eight to 10-minute mark, at least one of the enemy towers is below 50% health.
In the last two weeks or four games, Cloud9 has conceded two towers, one taken by TSM (4-2 at the time of their match) and the other by FlyQuest (3-1 at the time of the match). Two top ranked teams were only able to take one tower each. Cloud9’s unfettered consistency is noteworthy this season, as other games seem to be toss-ups.
Top of the KDA Charts
As of posting, Cloud9 occupies the top 5 KDAs in the LCS. This is a result of Cloud9 rarely engaging 1 versus 1 and quickly collapsing on any attempted gank or skirmish. Interestingly, Blaber is the least killed Jungler at 1.5 deaths per game, but has the most deaths on the team. If all fove members play an average game, one person is going to finish the game without a death. Dennis “Svenskeren” Johnsen, reigning MVP himself, of Evil Geniuses averages more deaths a game than Cloud9 as a team. For clarity, one player has spent more time with a grey screen than Cloud9 as a whole.
Can They Continue?
The statistics for this team prove that they are not just winning but dominating their opponents. This is only the first time through the round-robin so teams will have had time to study what C9 did to them. But, conversely, Cloud9 have also had time to study them. It will be interesting to watch as they play a second time and see if anyone is able to stop this formidable squad.
All statistics sourced from Games of Legends
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