Cloud9’s Championship Off-Season

After their not so shocking sweep of FlyQuest in the Spring Split Finals, Cloud9 rightfully celebrated. Although they were not able to go full-on party mode, due to a Shelter In Place order in Los Angeles County, they made the best of it.  With the start of the LCS Summer Split a week away, Cloud9 looks to return to form and have another dominant split. But what have the Spring Split Champions been up to for the month and a half between splits? Not much thanks to COVID-19, but here is a roundup of what they have been doing.

The Spring All-Pro Team Makes It’s Return June 12.

Licorice

Upon the completion of the Spring Playoffs, Eric “Licorice” Ritchie promised fans to stream on Twitch at least once during the off season. Although it took until nearly the beginning of Summer Split, he first streamed on May 31, Licorice gave the people what they wanted. A master of suspense off the rift, a modern day Alfred Hitchcock and a dominant force on the rift, seeing Licorice back in action is always a treat.

Jungle/Mid Synergy

Robert “Blaber” Huang decided to use this time off to get some much needed rest and relaxation. According to this OP.GG page, Blaber played sporadically since the end of the Spring Split, or possibly playing on an alternate account to remain out of the public eye. Either way he is making his way back to the All-Pro form.

Yasin “Nisqy” Dincer made a few appearances on his Twitch channel, with both Golden Guardians’ Jungler Can “Closer” Celik and TSM’s Top Laner Sergen “BrokenBlade” Celik. As all best friends do, they chose matching names while duo-ing or trio-ing, if that is a word; “Kral” followed by their respective names. Kral in Turkish roughly translates to ‘king’ making the trio the three kings.

Zven with 2 accounts in the top 5 and Vulcan making an appearance as well. As of 6/4/20.

Zven

Jasper “Zven” Svenningsen had the most interesting offseason, at least on Summoners Rift. Unlike Robert “Blaber” Huang, who took time out of the public eye to relax, he doubled down on his League of Legends play. After reaching rank 1 in North America, Zven created another account to test his ability to climb. As expected he was able to get his new account into the top 5 of the North American ladder.

Vulcan

Philippe “Vulcan” Laflamme was able to keep pace with Zven and reached Rank 2 on the ladder. Although Vulcan did play with both of Zven’s accounts, Vulcan played solely on the account pictured. Some may attribute this to Vulcan being boosted by Zven, which may be true. But Vulcan boosted Zven during the Spring Split.

Mid-Season Stream-athon

The boys came together on May 31 to participate in the Mid-Season Stream-athon along with TSM and various players from around the LCS. In an effort to supplant the cancellation of MSI, Riot used this event to raise money for COIVD-19 relief.

The only major rule change was that players could not play their main roles. Licorice participated in one of the show matches with three Golden Guardians members; Kevin “Hauntzer” Yarnell, Victor “FBI” Huang and Choi “huhi” Jae-hyun as well as Immortals Academy’s Apollo “Apollo” Price. The team emerged victorious against a team of; Greyson “Goldenglue” Glimmer, Samson “Lourlo” Jackson, William “Meteos” Hartman, Jake “Xmithie” Puchero and Colin “Solo” Earnest.

Cloud9 as a whole also agreed to play an exhibition match against TSM. Soren “Bjergsen” Bjerg tried to pull a fast one by selecting Zilean to play in the top lane. Although this worked out in the Spring Split, Zilean was in the midlane then. Cloud9 easily ran away with this one. Which may be a preview of the Summer Split, a continuation of their Spring dominance.

Sneak Peek

As with all returning Champions, the expectation is to repeat as Champions. This team has an even better chance to repeat this Summer, especially with all the roster moves. Yes, Yiliang “Doublelift” Peng left the second worst team to a better team in TSM. But keep in mind that Doublelift left TSM in 2017 for a reason, and that reason may still be lingering. Heo “Huni” Seung-hoon also changed teams, going from Dignitas to Evil Geniuses, shoring up what was a glaring weakness for Evil Geniuses. Yes, they improved their team, but Huni has been a shell of himself for the better part of a year, and Cloud9 thoroughly beat them in the Spring Playoffs. In other words, 18-0 The Dream is back and more likely than ever.

Featured photo via Cloud9 Twitter

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