With the Spring Split of the 2020 LCS Season coming to an end, Cloud9 has fielded a variety of champions. But what are some picks that fit each individual player that were not played this split? These may be weak picks or out of the meta, but seeing each player on these picks would be entertaining.
Cloud9 loves to leave Eric “Licorice” Ritchie on an island, although the island floats around to different lanes depending on the needs of the team. Why not put Licorice on the best duelist in the game, Fiora? Speaking of islands, Fiora even has a Pool Party skin.
Licorice only has one game played professionally with Fiora at World 2019 in a losing effort against Griffin. His stat line was…bad to put it nicely. 3/7/2 was his final KDA in the game against Griffin. This bad stat line is in no way reflective of his play in the game. The rest of the picks for Cloud9 were not optimal to allow an effective split push. He needs a redemption arc with Fiora.
Because Fiora’s strength lies in her insane split-push ability, having an aggressive team is a must. There has been no team more aggressive this split than this iteration of Cloud9. With the constant pressure exerted all over the map, Fiora would be able to split push at will. The pressure also allows for mistakes made by the other team to be punished even faster and with greater consequences. Her only real weakness is very poor team-fighting, but who needs to team fight when towers are destroyed faster than Vulcan can devour Zven?
Blaber via @LCSofficial on Twitter
Through out Spring Split 2020 Robert “Blaber” Huang only picked four champions; Gragas, Lee Sin, Pantheon and Elise. Anything outside those four picks would have been interesting to watch. But to narrow it down to just one, Kindred.
Blaber currently sits at a 77% win rate in 13 games played in his career. Kindred’s faster than normal clear speed would be pure magic in the hands of Blaber. Faster clear speeds lead to more opportunities to gank and invade opponents. Which is exactly what Blaber loves to do.
Kindred’s ultimate, Lamb’s Respite, also serves as a get out of jail free card for Blaber and the rest of Cloud9. Her ultimate creates a zone of invulnerability for whomever is in it upon casting. Kindred also possess an area of effect attack that will aid the rest of Cloud9 in zoning their enemies into kill lanes.
More than anything seeing Blaber on a champion with carry potential is something missing from this season. Cloud9 unbenched the Kench early and often, but what the people really want is a return of blaberfish2. Cloud9 is a rare team where they can have their jungler be the carry and not lose pressure in each lane.
Yasin “Nisqy” Dincer loves to roam with a strong emphasis on love. In fact he seems to need to roam to feel effective. The perfect champion for Nisqy is
Woad Scout Quinn Skin Splash Art via Gamepedia.
Quinn. As Licorice kindly demonstrated during Week 9 against Evil Geniuses, Quinn is one of the best roamers in the game.
There are a couple champions, namely Galio, Pantheon and Taliyah, that can roam quicker than Quinn. But they all have telegraphed roams, allowing the enemy to react and avoid a losing fight. This is not the case with Quinn as she appears without warning and kicks someone and then chunks out half their health. Pair this surprise attack with how strong Blade of the Ruined King is in this meta, equals a very high chance for successful roams.
Nisqy has shown this split that he utilizes assassins and burst champions very well and very often. Add another champion to that list with Quinn flying around the map and filling the other team with fear. Quinn also has an AOE vision ability that can be utilized to prevent a surprise attack on Nisqy himself.
Ashe is Jasper “Zven” Svenningsen’s highest winrate champion at 75% in 24 games played in his career. Zven has played 1 game of Ashe played from Season 8 until the time of this article. This makes Ashe a huge sleeper pick for Zven.
Zven has shown this split that global ultimates are well within his wheelhouse, having played both Ezreal and Senna with great success. Ashe’s Enchanted Crystal Arrow requires team coordination that Cloud9 has shown throughout this split. She could be considered off-meta during Season 10, but not because she is weak, there are just over-tuned ADC picks that are more desirable.
Also to a much less extent there is that whole Freljord being a not so vague reference to Asgard and Midgard of Norse mythology. Which has a real world connection, Zven is Danish and Denmark is considered part of Scandinavia, the birthplace of Norse mythology. And everyone loves real world connections in their esports.
Licorice and Vulcan Fist Bumping via @Mish88363769 on Twitter
Philippe “Vulcan” Laflamme derived his in-game name from the mythological god Vulcan. He was the Roman god of fire, volcanoes and the forge. It should be obvious who Vulcan needs to play. Ornn is Vulcan incarnate, in both senses of Vulcan.
More than just references, Ornn fits into Vulcan’s playstyle perfectly. Ornn enables Vulcan to zone better than he could ever imagine. Three of his four attacks demand enemies to move out the area immediately or risk major damage. His fourth attack, Searing Charge, doesn’t directly zone but the threat coupled with Volcanic Rupture causes enemies to scatter.
Ornn’s passive and ultimate abilities both reference the god Vulcan. Living Forge is what Vulcan uses to hammer away on and creates weapons. Vulcan also was the creator of weapons for the Roman deities and Ornn can upgrade his allies weapons to make them into demi-gods in terms of strength.
On top of all the reasons, and a nice coincidence, if Cloud9 was to pick all these champions in one game they could make an all blue team, the team color of Cloud9. Quinn, Ashe and Ornn all have Freljord themed skins and Kindred is naturally blue. Fiora’s Soaring Sword skin is also blue, but unfortunately isn’t Freljord themed.
All win rates and statistics sourced from Games of Legends
Featured Image Courtesy of @LCSOffical
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