Jensen comes into his own with Cloud9

Spring is often considered to be a time of renewal and rebirth. So, it’s appropriate that the standout mid laner of the 2016 NA LCS Spring Split is a player who was once banned from the game before reforming and excelling: Nicolaj Jensen, formerly known as Incarnati0n.

Cloud9 is poised to challenge Immortals for the 1st place slot, and Jensen has been crucial to their success. However, the future hasn’t always been so bright for this European mid laner.

Welcome to the NA LCS

“Thank you, Hai”, read the headline in April 2015 -- Hai Lam, the face of Cloud9, the star mid laner, and the team’s shotcaller, was stepping down from his position. Hai had been complaining about serious wrist issues, and critics pointed out that his mechanics were lagging behind the competition. While Cloud9 fans were initially devastated, rumors quickly surfaced about who could replace Hai. Despite the debate raging on about who would be best suited, everyone agreed on one thing: Whoever claimed the slot would have enormous shoes to fill.

After weeks of speculation, Cloud9 announced they were signing a Solo Queue star: Jensen.

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The European import had a troubled past, including a ban for DDOSing players and drophacking games, but he was considered to be an enormous upgrade over Hai. Jensen was young and incredibly skilled at mechanic-intensive champions like Zed. Fans eagerly posted montages from his Solo Queue games and bragged about how Cloud9 would surely dominate the NA LCS with their new mechanically gifted mid laner.

In Cloud9’s first game of the 2015 summer split against long time rivals TSM, Jensen locked in Kog’Maw and farmed while Bjergsen took kills and applied map pressure. The war of attrition paid off for Cloud9, and they picked up a win -- but the slow pace and sloppy macro of that game was a sign of things to come -- at least with the current roster. The hype turned to disbelief, and then despair, as the team dropped down to to the bottom half of the rankings by Week 5. Cloud9 was faced with the previously unthinkable possibility of fighting to avoid relegation.

Working It Out

“I definitely felt like I was letting people down,” says Jensen about his early games. “Especially Cloud9 the organization, because Cloud9 have always been good to me and a top team in NA. I had a lot of hype and pressure coming into LCS, so it was even harder for me.”

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But Jensen refused to give up. The rookie put his head down and kept working hard at improving his play, as well as working with the rest of the team. “I didn’t necessarily think it was entirely me that was bringing the team down - even though I got a lot of the blame. Honestly, I was just playing as much as I could and trying to overcome the stage pressure.”

It was during Week 6 that Cloud9 made another shocking change in response to the crisis: Meteos stepped back from the organization, and was replaced with Hai. People wondered if this was a sign that the team was imploding, or an act of desperation. Instead, something remarkable happened -- Jensen finally looked at home on the stage, and with a leader he trusted in his corner, he finally began to improve, week by week.

Four Teams Enter...

Cloud9 was slowly starting to scrape out wins, finding the synergy that had eluded them in the early part of the split. The real test lay ahead: the 2015 NA LCS Regional Qualifiers, which offered a spot in the World Championship. Cloud9’s run through the Gauntlet is practically legend at this point: two reverse sweeps in best of 5s against Gravity and Team Impulse, before taking Team Liquid out 3-1. Cloud9 proved they deserved their spot at Worlds, and many fans credited the synergy of the new squad - especially Jensen and Hai.

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“I think a lot of people are overrating the whole ‘improvement’ regarding me.” Jensen says. “I think I improved a bit, but it was also the fact that we improved a lot more as a team, and we started working better together, and got a lot of synergy. Me and Hai played really well together and really understood each other. So it made it a lot easier for me to play my own game and not feel scared to do stuff.”

There’s no game that showcases this improvement and confidence more than game three against TIP in the Gauntlet. Support and strategist LemonNation suggested Lulu mid, and Jensen responded: “No, I’m playing Yasuo”, and locked in.

“I like playing champions where I feel like I can impact the game myself," Jensen says. "Whereas with Lulu you kinda rely on your team to do good -- which is fine as well, if you’re winning. But if you’re losing or falling behind with Lulu she’s not as strong as other champions. Whereas if you’re Yasuo, you can make the difference yourself."

"I was like, 'fuck it, let me just play something I can carry on and we’ll go from there.'”

New Beginnings

By winning the Gauntlet Cloud9 went to Worlds where they further astonished fans by cleaning up in their first week of the Group Stage with some unorthodox strategies. It was an incredible achievement for Jensen; within his first split he had gone from fighting to avoid relegations to winning games against the top talent from around the world.

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Unfortunately, Cloud9’s strategies faltered in the second week. “Week 2 wasn’t the best at Worlds,” Jensen admits. “We had a really good start, but yeah, the next week we kinda collapsed.”

Cloud9 made another shake up to their roster when the 2016 NA LCS Spring Split started. Long time support Daerek “LemonNation” Hart stepped back to coach and Hai took his place, opening up the jungle slot for Yoon-jae “Rush” Lee. This current roster is proving to be a major threat, especially after their most recent, nailbiting win against TSM. The scrappy squad boasts not only one of the best mid laners in the region, but a jungler who’s completely (maybe a little too) unafraid to back him up, and one of the best shotcallers in the world in his corner. With this killer combo, they’re often coming out ahead.

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“I feel like I still have some flaws,” says Jensen about his recent performance. "I don’t want to be too cocky -- I’m just going to focus on my own play and keep trying to do my best. I’m not really sure how to rank myself -- I don’t want to rank myself because people usually judge you, but I think I’m somewhere at the top.”

Even though Cloud9 is looking the best they have in a long time, Jensen refuses to stop growing as a player (is that a short joke?!) “[I’m planning to] just look at my mistakes more. I’m very harsh on myself when I make mistakes, so I don’t want to repeat the same mistakes over and over, I just want to make sure I cover my flaws and keep improving."

When it comes to his team’s ultimate fate, Jensen remains optimistic: “I think we can definitely place number one. I think by playoffs we have a good chance of beating Immortals.” Of course, it won’t be that simple. First, Cloud9 have to get through a revitalized Dignitas, and then face off against another top contender in Counter Logic Gaming in the match of the week.

Be sure to share your favorite Jensen moments with us, and you can keep up with his adventures with Cloud9 on his Twitter.

 

- by Cassandra "Requine" Marshall