Cloud9 came into Day 1 with an opportunity to perform against Europe and to also see how they are as a team. The first opponents up for them on Day 1 are G2 Esports and Fnatic.
So now that Day 1 has come to a close, how did they fare in this first game against G2? Let’s find out!
Let’s start by talking about the draft for the first game up for this event. Cloud9 (for some odd reason) picked Sona/Taric bot lane, while G2 picked a combo that Cloud9 themselves are familiar with: Yasuo and Gragas. For the rest of the draft, Cloud9 picked Akali, Kindred and Gnar. While G2 picked Neeko, Twisted Fate and Lee Sin.
Without going too in-depth, Cloud9’s draft is very questionable. To point out one flaw, drafting Kindred when you already see that Gragas and Lee Sin have already been picked is questionable.
Just like how the draft was questionable, the game was practically a roadkill. Despite earning a few kills to their name, that’s all Cloud9 really were able to get. They were not able to contest for objectives, earn objectives, put down vision and do much of anything in this game. The obsession with Sona/Taric needs to stop from Cloud9, as the duo isn’t as strong anymore and not really relevant in the current meta. Zachary “Sneaky” Scuderi and Tristan “Zeyzal” Stidam did not look that impressive as a duo. The two players’ lacking performances have been a concern in the minds of Cloud9 fans as of late and this game just unfortunately gave them another reason to be disappointed by these players’ recent skill level on stage. As expected, G2 Esports played well with their flex picks, despite the fact that it was indeed trolling in a sense, but it doesn’t really matter when the other team can’t do much about it.
Fnatic (unironically) gave a gift of blessing to Cloud9 fans that
don’t
want to see Sona/Taric by banning Sona in the first phase of bans, which is sure to get some excited. Cloud9 first picked Aatrox, which is a top tier pick while Fnatic responded with Jarvan IV and Sivir. To summarize the draft in a nutshell, Cloud9 picked Xin Zhao, Akali, Kai’Sa and Braum while Fnatic picked Twisted Fate, Rakan and Gangplank.
This is a much better draft compared to the first game against G2, although the execution of this draft will be one to look at in this game. Despite not much CC and engage from the side of Cloud9, they will look to make sure the engage of Jarvan and Rakan isn’t a problem.
Around 3:20 into the game. Nisqy roamed up to top and was able to secure first blood onto Gabriël “Bwipo” Rau’s Gangplank, giving Cloud9 a better start for themselves in this game. Licorice a few minutes later unfortunately died a few minutes later to Bwipo, with an assist from Mads “Broxah” Brock-Pedersen’s Jarvan IV.
Cloud9 in this game seemed to have a focus of getting their bot lane ahead, which is something that is preferred in this game. Licorice, however, died again overextending top lane to Broxah. Around 15 minutes in, a team fight broke out with an engage from Fnatic onto Cloud9’s bot lane. As Fnatic took down Sneaky and Zeyzal, Cloud9 tried to respond back. However, Cloud9 picking up scrap kills didn’t amount too much as Fnatic won that fight convincingly. A mid fight broke out two minutes later. It sure looked like it was heading in the direction of Cloud9 this time around, but Fnatic made sure that it was their fight to win as they won not only the fight but also took their first tier mid.
Another fight broke out yet again a few minutes later but this time in the bot jungle with Cloud9 winning the fight barely by taking down three Fnatic members compared to Fnatic’s two kills. This bought Cloud9 some time to get back into the game and get some control and take objectives. After that, Fnatic secured another fight inside Cloud9’s base, kill the Nexus turrets and win the game.
Despite looking way better in the Fnatic game compared to G2, Cloud9 went 0-2 on the day in a depressing mood for NA fans. There are still two more days left so there is a great chance of redemption for not only Cloud9. However, if they want to establish the NA > EU story line, Cloud9 needs to get it together tomorrow.
Cloud9 play Origen tomorrow at 1:30 P.M. PST as their only contest tomorrow. We”ll see if anything changes tomorrow or NA will probably look to not talk in Twitch chat for a while.
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