Boards›Esports

Cloud9 - I'm a big fan, I love you, but you need to pull your s#!t together

Kapparoth·7/12/2015, 6:59:35 AM·6 votes·1,932 views

I'm a pretty big fan of Cloud9, and have been following them ever since I got really into watching the LCS during the Summer Split of 2014. They've been going strong, and have been arguably the best team in North America for quite some time. Then, everything changed when Hai stepped down and was replaced by Incarnati0n. Incarnati0n might be a good player, but his shot calling skills aren't nearly as good as Hai's shot calling skills. Without Hai's decisive calls, the team just sort of seems lost.

Watching Cloud9 during Summer Split of 2015 makes me feel like a fan of the Washington Redskins - you hope that they do well and come out on top, but you know deep down that they won't. The team seems to be losing their collective shit. Hai stepped down because of his wrist injury and his play style not being supported by the meta and was replaced by Incarnati0n who might have had better skills, but isn't a good shotcaller. Then, Meteos - who has been called the best jungler in North America on multiple occasions - steps down to be replaced by Hai. This move confuses me on so many levels. Why not just bench the Dane and put Hai back instead of benching Meteos? If you're going to put Hai back in after only 4 months then what's the point of him retiring anyways?

I understand that the original roster for Cloud9 is starting to get past their prime and retire - just like sports players - and that all teams have their ups and downs, but they're still losing their shit in a big way.

28 Comments

Lugg7/12/2015, 7:21:50 AM4 votes

This is a prime example that chemistry is just as important as talent.

Minrog7/13/2015, 7:18:32 AM3 votes

They've been underperforming all of Season 5, it's just worse in Summer. They got hit by 3 major LCS changes all at once: a massive revamp of the map that changed jungle/lane priorities, the addition of coaches into pick/ban phase, and the changes that removed the functionality of all assassin comps (which hurt their champion pool options).

Balls on Rumble is losing now. It used to be you could just drop an equalizer on dragon and pick up easy kills because the enemy team had no MR, cause Fizz/Kha'zix/Jayce/Vayne/Nami. Good luck killing Nautlis/Gragas/Shen with your equalizer now.

Hai was relying on Fizz/Zed/Kha'zix to keep afloat. All those guys are hosed and Hai's play on waveclear mids doesn't impress. It's funny because he went to the jungle and used Lee Sin (and it didn't work either).

I think, ultimately, that the worst issue comes from the coaching changes and it can't be fixed. They won for a year and a half because of LemoNation giving them a huge advantage in pick/ban phase in every game. They were essentially playing a bunch of PUGs and getting easy wins. Now that they don't have favorable matchups in every lane their mechanical deficiencies are being exposed. (*Note: Sneaky is amazing. The only one that is.)

C9 Scott Free 7/12/2015, 10:07:37 PM2 votes

Actually in Season 4 Hai had the third highest amount of solo kills out of any player behind only Bjergsen and Zion Spartan. The community actually really underrates him.

TurquoiseYoshi7/12/2015, 12:41:56 PM2 votes

Loved the Redskins comment.

xJLx MCHammer7/12/2015, 6:53:20 PM1 votes

Incarnation never got a solo kill vs another mid laner. Right now, he is under performing

Quite honestly if I was c9 manager, I'd put incarnation in bench and get a new mid laner with good shot calling and meteos back in to see results. This is clearly not working. They continue this trend and they will be relagated

Seas0ned7/12/2015, 8:42:09 PM1 votes

THAT 25 MINUTE GAME THO.... caps baby

DirkTarTar7/12/2015, 4:57:42 PM1 votes

Honestly, I have always despised C9's mid laners that they pick... they just never seemed very out matched against other mid laners, specifically the Bjerg.

I absolutely love Sneaky, though... but he has moments where I'm like "WTF ARE YOU DOING, STOP IT" and he dies... but when he is playing well he is a straight up boss

and Balls... what a great top laner haahahahaha

Yxgl222HaX7/13/2015, 3:30:53 AM1 votes

and when they do win now its the exception rather than the norm. It's a shame but its w.e i find myself watching more fnatic and unicorns these days than c9 but hopefully soon they will pull it together

BroadSlabber7/12/2015, 4:29:48 PM1 votes

I've come to the conclusion C9 is tanking on purpose and want to go to relegation so they can blow the team up and rebuild it around Incarnation.

B00B007/13/2015, 4:38:33 PM1 votes

i think it all comes down to Hai's shot calling, and honestly if you look across the board they can no longer out-play teams on the map as every team is getting better and better a lot partly due to the analysts and coaches now introduced, you can see it even in challenger where they dont usually have a coach (but do have analysts) - thats where C9 used to win, map preassure and dominance an general rotations but teams now have there own and can counter rotate etc and C9 are left trying to find a style where they can secure another advantage as except from sneaky, maybe lemonation the players are not the best around anymore (they never where) it was there synergy and map pressure.

re-structuring is required from my point of view.

LaceUp237/13/2015, 9:56:45 PM1 votes

Psh, try being a Cleveland sports fan. Only then will you know pain.

RAT IN GAME UwU 7/13/2015, 10:48:03 PM1 votes

it's the community's fault, "hai is so bad, just retire" Cloud 9 on track to lose their LCS top 10 spot and be in the challenger series again after Hai steps down..

This is why you don't EVER listen to the lower 98% of this player base. They are too stupid to even know why they are stupid.