As many people already know, the LCS has been suspended for the foreseeable future. This comes at the greatest cost to Cloud9 who have been the best team in the LCS since the very first game against Team Liquid. Unfortunately, fans will not see the rematch of these two for at least the next week and possibly longer. But this begs the question, if Cloud9 were fish, what kind would they be? The answer to this can found a couple leagues under the sea.
Licorice- Shark
Eric “Licorice” Ritchie has been a rock in the top lane the whole season. Would this make him coral? No. He is a shark through and through. Why? When he attacks he kills. He can attack from any angle, as shown by his flanking plays on both Sett and Aatrox. Licorice gets right in the middle of the fight and bloodies everyone up, which somehow makes him even stronger. Sometimes it seems like Licorice has a permanent buff similar to Warwick’s Blood Hunt, which is similar to a shark’s ability to smell blood from miles away.
He can also take a ton of punishment. Numerous sharks have been found with scars from varying sources. Maybe the wounds are from a surprise attack from a stronger shark, Licorice against Heo “Huni” Seung-hoon’s Lucian in Week 7 for example. Also, sometimes sharks get themselves into trouble and have to sit and live with their mistake. Ala, Licorice against TSM when he played Shen.
Sadly, Licorice consistently passes up the opportunity to play a shark by not choosing the Sea Hunter Aatrox skin. The skin is literally a Hammerhead shark.
Blaber- Eel
This one should be easy right? Robert “Blaber” Huang’s old user name was blaberfish2, but blaberfish isn’t an actual fish. So what fish would the beloved blaberfish be? Easy, an eel. Blaber slithers around the map hiding in the coves of the jungle camps and then briefly appearing and attacking.
In both of his Elise games Blaber took the Electrocute keystone rune, like an electric eel. Just like an eel, Blaber’s Elise relies on high burst damage and the dreaded element of surprise to kill their enemies. Blaber also never shies away from laying in wait for a play to develop so he can strike his prey like an eel hiding in their cave.
Another similarity is their natural habitats, Blaber lives in the river as do eels. The two also share diet similarities, as they both feast on crabs and frogs, Scuttle Crab and Gromp respectively.
Nisqy- Mantis Shrimp
Yasin “Nisqy” Dincer is a Mantis Shrimp. Never heard of a Mantis Shrimp? Their main claim to fame is how they hunt. They lay in wait, usually an alcove ala Baron or one of the jungle camps, and then strike their enemies with their club-like claw. They strike their club at a rate of 65 km/s that last for 2.7 milliseconds, which is astonishingly fast, just like when an unsuspecting champion wanders in front of Nisqy.
Some subspecies of Mantis Shrimp instead use a spear-like appendage to stab their prey. Nisqy replicated this with the poke Zoe provides. Out of nowhere a Paddle Star comes shooting towards his enemy and hits them for nearly all of their health. Pantheon literally uses a spear to attack his targets, although his spear is a lot slower and easier to dodge. The only reason for Pantheon’s slower spear is purely balance-related reasons.
With Nisqy playing the always flashy Zoe and the colorful Qiyana, they also play to the Mantis Shrimp narrative. Mantis Shrimp are very colorful and use this to attract prey before they hit them with a quick tap to stun them.
Zven- Immortal Jellyfish
Jesper “Zven” Svennginsen would be the Immortal Jellyfish. The reasoning is simple, he doesn’t die. The Immortal Jellyfish technically never dies it just reverts back to their polyp phase, which is essentially respawning.
Zven’s jellyfish playstyle is more than just not dying. Like a jellyfish Zven hangs out just out of reach of hunters, but if someone wanders too close then BAM! He stings them. A nasty sting too, one that causes the victim to find a fountain and wash off the venom.
Maybe when LCS returns Zven will give a treat to the fans with an Illaoi botlane and show off some sweet tentacle action. A more likely scenario would be a Twitch sighting for Zven. This would further enforce the jellyfish playstyle. Twitch quite literally stings his enemies and watches as their health bars slowly diminish. All this jellyfish talk begs the question, why isn’t there a jellyfish skin?
Vulcan- Pufferfish
Philippe “Vulcan” Laflamme’s most played champion is Tahm Kench and then Nautilus. Tahm Kench seems to be the easy choice, but does he really play like a catfish? His play more resembles a pufferfish. But pufferfish are cute and cuddly. He is more like a pufferfish than anyone would like to admit.
So picture this, Yasuo and his team are attempting a dragon without vision. Suddenly a Tahm Kench appears and starts waddling towards Yasuo. He then realizes how useless he is at taking dragon and instead opts for this lonely catfish. Out of nowhere Tahm Kench grows in size and Yasuo attacks. He makes quick work of him, but forgets there’s a team behind Tahm Kench. Yasuo is quickly outnumbered and dies. He dies after cutting up Vulcan, which is eerily similar to what happens if someone doesn’t cut the right pieces of a, pufferfish.
More information about the Mantis Shrimp’s striking ability can be found here.
Featured Image Courtesy of @Cloud9 on Twitter.
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