Cloud9 - All Together Now
Riot·8/27/2014, 9:25:00 PM·0 votes·20,780 views
The Cloud9 team that competes in the North American playoffs this week is the exact same team that competed at Worlds last year, and the exact same team that won an unprecedented 25 games in its first split in the LCS. Here at the sharp end of the 2014 season, Cloud9 is the same as it ever was.
That consistency in lineup and consistency in results are inseparable from one another, an LCS chicken-and-egg dilemma. Does Cloud9 keep rising to the top of NA LCS because they stick together and don't make changes, or do they stick together because they keep taking the victories that give them greater confidence in each other? It's a virtuous cycle that's left Cloud9 floating through clear blue skies over their rivals, but it's one that nobody has been able to replicate.
"When you go out and do a roster swap for one or two annoying habits or issues [you] might have - and that's why a lot of these roster swaps happen - all you end up doing is swapping one set of problems for another set of problems," he says. "But suddenly you don't have all that history with that player that you've developed and worked on. And if in that time you've developed some trust, that's not easily replaceable."
That trust between players - and between players and management - is what enables Cloud9 to address their problems effectively. They know they have each other's backs, and that a problem with their play or a problem between players isn't going to end up with someone getting traded or with friends screaming at each other.
"There will be personality clashes in a lot of teams that have new players," explains Cloud9 analyst Charlie Lipsie. "Like, let's say one player would make a mistake. The other player would need to say something to point it out, to correct it. I feel like players that don't know each other well can go about something like that in a bad way, and cause bickering and arguments. But because our players have known each other so long, they know how to talk to each other."
"If it's a little thing, you can just bring it up with the other person," explains team captain Hai “Hai” Lam. "But if it's a major thing, you can talk to Charlie. If you have a problem with another player that you don't really want to bring up with them, you just talk to Charlie and be like, 'Hey, is this a legitimate reason for me to be concerned?'
"And Charlie will look it over, see if you're wrong or right, and if you are right, he'll bring it up with the other person. And if you're wrong, he'll tell you to stop being a baby and fix it yourself."
Lipsie and Hai describe a team that, while they succeed as a group, break a lot of issues down into a series of discreet one-on-one conversations. People can talk to Lipsie to check their bearings, and Lipsie can take concerns to individual player without it turning into finger-pointing.
"I don't like to call players out in front of the rest of the team. That's bad to do," he says. "Some players will get very defensive, and that's really bad. So whenever there is an issue, I'll talk to them personally. And we work out the issue."
That trust and mutual respect was important earlier this split, when Hai was recovering from a collapsed lung, some unfavorable changes to the meta, and a disrupted practice schedule.
"What the team went through with Hai not being able to play with them for a month, has serious repercussions for a team that plays as tightly as C9 does,' Etienne says. "And it took time to get them back in sync. Losing games for them also made them question themselves more than they should have. So they had to first get healthy. Then get in sync with each other, and then regain that confidence that they had in themselves."
Outside the team, Hai was coming under severe criticism for his play. But Lipsie credits the players' confidence in each other's abilities with getting them out of their slump earlier this summer.
"A lot of people were saying we should just replace Hai. He was really not very good at the beginning," Lipsie admits. "But the team understood the position we were in. We knew what the issue was. We knew it was going to take time to fix it. We trusted Hai. We trusted Hai to be the person who could fix the issue and get our act together before the end before the split ended."
Then he adds, "And the trust wouldn't have been there if the players hadn't been together for that long. A less experienced team would have been like, 'Hell with it, let's bring in a Korean.'"
Hai comes across as the least sentimental about Cloud9's roster. It's perhaps to be expected from someone whose job is to instantly read situations, spot weaknesses, and close vulnerabilities. The shot-caller does not labor under any illusions about why Cloud9 have endured.
"We haven't lost as much as other teams, so that's the main reason why [we've stuck together]," he says. "You don't need to change players when everyone is doing well on the team and you've consistently won for the last year.".
But even if that started to change, or if Cloud9 had another disappointing showing at Worlds, both Etienne and Lipsie remain skeptical about the benefits of changing players. It's a course of action that often holds a lot of false promise, they think.
"You can always get a better mechanical player somehow," Lipsie says. "Like, EG, they picked up really strong players. Altec is probably one the strongest ADs in NA, and Helios has a ton of experience. And they started to do well, and early in the split they were having really good early games against good teams. But they could not close out games. That's just the difference between having a really good mechanical team vs. having a really good shot caller and a lot of experience together."
Etienne places a premium on cohesion over raw talent. "The players end up knowing the strengths and the weaknesses of the people they're playing with. And that can be a real benefit. ...People have talked about it when they listen to Cloud9. There isn't all that much communication going on, just a few simple words, because they have intimate knowledge of how their teammates play. And can rely on how their teammate will react.
"That ends up being a huge advantage over our opponents. A lot of our opponents have players that, they can't even communicate because they have different languages and they don't really understand how that person plays yet. So they're still trying to figure a lot of that stuff out. Where that's not an issue with my team," Etienne says.
Etienne also doesn't think it's worth worrying over whether or not players know when it's time to call it a day. While there might be hand-wringing over the fear that players age-out of being capable of sustaining LCS-level play, he think they're the best judges of that.
"From my experience, I think [players] want to step down when they no longer feel that they can compete," Etienne says. "I think a good example of that would be OddOne. He didn't get pushed out by Reginald. He stepped down himself. And Reginald stepped down when he knew he didn't have the time to do it. If they're not able to contribute to the team, they're usually the first ones that want out."
He thinks that thanks to the LCS and the growth of competitive gaming, it's possible for League's brightest, most talented players to stay in the game longer. The problem, he says, was never really about reflexes and speed. It was about players reaching their mid-twenties and realizing that progaming asked too much and gave too little. Now, it can be an actual career, and that makes Etienne confident that he can keep Cloud9 together for as long as the team are happy with their play.
"It's a different ballgame now. These guys can make really good money playing this game. So there isn't this need to push these brilliant guys into jobs that might pay them better," he says. "I mean, LemonNation graduated as an engineer. He could go make a great salary. But this is a better deal for him. ...We haven't seen many older players in LCS because there wasn't this financial incentive, and now there is. So I hope to see Lemon playing until he's old and gray."
Lipsie feels the team is better prepared this time around, and isn't letting the Korean hype get to him or the team. "I don't think the mechanical difference between the teams is that big. Faker, Dade, there are some mechanically brilliant players," he admits. "But it's not a huge enough difference to completely throw your game."
He's and Cloud9 have definitely been thinking about how they can turn the other regions' metagames against them. They did that successfully at IEM, when they hit the Chinese teams with picks and gameplans that simply aren't used in their home regions. But as always, a big part of it comes down to practice. This isn't always easy, but there have been some promising signs for Cloud9.
"As far as Korean teams, we haven't played that many. We scrimmed KT Bullets for a couple games, SKT for a couple games. And we were able to take games off of all of them. So as long as we're on a good day, I think we should be able to do okay. Because I really don't think the skill gap is so huge a difference between Korean teams and us. By the time competition comes around, it should be narrower," he says.
For Hai, the important thing is mindset. Cloud9 got where they are by staying cool, by falling back on their talent and trust in one another. They're built to handle the pressure, because it's in the DNA of their team. So far, their faith has never wavered.
"Cloud9 is a more relaxed team. We're more calm. We're more motivated, I guess," he says. "We're generally happy, optimistic people. That describes the team. That's why we're called Cloud9."
THICK AND THIN
Perhaps one of the most important factors behind Cloud9's ironclad roster is manager Jack Etienne. An experienced manager, Etienne says that in three or four years of overseeing teams, he's only had to make one roster swap: replacing Chaox with WildTurtle on Team SoloMid. But overall, he tends to have grave doubts that roster changes can really address core issues on a team.
"When you go out and do a roster swap for one or two annoying habits or issues [you] might have - and that's why a lot of these roster swaps happen - all you end up doing is swapping one set of problems for another set of problems," he says. "But suddenly you don't have all that history with that player that you've developed and worked on. And if in that time you've developed some trust, that's not easily replaceable."
That trust between players - and between players and management - is what enables Cloud9 to address their problems effectively. They know they have each other's backs, and that a problem with their play or a problem between players isn't going to end up with someone getting traded or with friends screaming at each other.
"There will be personality clashes in a lot of teams that have new players," explains Cloud9 analyst Charlie Lipsie. "Like, let's say one player would make a mistake. The other player would need to say something to point it out, to correct it. I feel like players that don't know each other well can go about something like that in a bad way, and cause bickering and arguments. But because our players have known each other so long, they know how to talk to each other."
TACTFUL HONESTY
A big part of keeping Cloud9 on an even keel is knowing how to raise the issue, and that's a place where Lipsie's analysis plays an important role. He's the safety valve on intra-team disagreements.
"If it's a little thing, you can just bring it up with the other person," explains team captain Hai “Hai” Lam. "But if it's a major thing, you can talk to Charlie. If you have a problem with another player that you don't really want to bring up with them, you just talk to Charlie and be like, 'Hey, is this a legitimate reason for me to be concerned?'
"And Charlie will look it over, see if you're wrong or right, and if you are right, he'll bring it up with the other person. And if you're wrong, he'll tell you to stop being a baby and fix it yourself."
Lipsie and Hai describe a team that, while they succeed as a group, break a lot of issues down into a series of discreet one-on-one conversations. People can talk to Lipsie to check their bearings, and Lipsie can take concerns to individual player without it turning into finger-pointing.
"I don't like to call players out in front of the rest of the team. That's bad to do," he says. "Some players will get very defensive, and that's really bad. So whenever there is an issue, I'll talk to them personally. And we work out the issue."
That trust and mutual respect was important earlier this split, when Hai was recovering from a collapsed lung, some unfavorable changes to the meta, and a disrupted practice schedule.
"What the team went through with Hai not being able to play with them for a month, has serious repercussions for a team that plays as tightly as C9 does,' Etienne says. "And it took time to get them back in sync. Losing games for them also made them question themselves more than they should have. So they had to first get healthy. Then get in sync with each other, and then regain that confidence that they had in themselves."
Outside the team, Hai was coming under severe criticism for his play. But Lipsie credits the players' confidence in each other's abilities with getting them out of their slump earlier this summer.
"A lot of people were saying we should just replace Hai. He was really not very good at the beginning," Lipsie admits. "But the team understood the position we were in. We knew what the issue was. We knew it was going to take time to fix it. We trusted Hai. We trusted Hai to be the person who could fix the issue and get our act together before the end before the split ended."
Then he adds, "And the trust wouldn't have been there if the players hadn't been together for that long. A less experienced team would have been like, 'Hell with it, let's bring in a Korean.'"
KEEPING THE BAND TOGETHER
It's easy to say all of this after Cloud9 have just finished atop their third straight regular season in a row, and stand a very strong chance of going to Worlds. But is there a flip-side to C9's unity and stability? Does keeping the same players around for year after year create a risk that they will plateau, that their impressive synergy will mask mechanical weaknesses? Does the fact that they're all friends make it harder to recognize when someone may be declining, or when there might be a more talented person available for a position?
Hai comes across as the least sentimental about Cloud9's roster. It's perhaps to be expected from someone whose job is to instantly read situations, spot weaknesses, and close vulnerabilities. The shot-caller does not labor under any illusions about why Cloud9 have endured.
"We haven't lost as much as other teams, so that's the main reason why [we've stuck together]," he says. "You don't need to change players when everyone is doing well on the team and you've consistently won for the last year.".
But even if that started to change, or if Cloud9 had another disappointing showing at Worlds, both Etienne and Lipsie remain skeptical about the benefits of changing players. It's a course of action that often holds a lot of false promise, they think.
"You can always get a better mechanical player somehow," Lipsie says. "Like, EG, they picked up really strong players. Altec is probably one the strongest ADs in NA, and Helios has a ton of experience. And they started to do well, and early in the split they were having really good early games against good teams. But they could not close out games. That's just the difference between having a really good mechanical team vs. having a really good shot caller and a lot of experience together."
Etienne places a premium on cohesion over raw talent. "The players end up knowing the strengths and the weaknesses of the people they're playing with. And that can be a real benefit. ...People have talked about it when they listen to Cloud9. There isn't all that much communication going on, just a few simple words, because they have intimate knowledge of how their teammates play. And can rely on how their teammate will react.
"That ends up being a huge advantage over our opponents. A lot of our opponents have players that, they can't even communicate because they have different languages and they don't really understand how that person plays yet. So they're still trying to figure a lot of that stuff out. Where that's not an issue with my team," Etienne says.
Etienne also doesn't think it's worth worrying over whether or not players know when it's time to call it a day. While there might be hand-wringing over the fear that players age-out of being capable of sustaining LCS-level play, he think they're the best judges of that.
"From my experience, I think [players] want to step down when they no longer feel that they can compete," Etienne says. "I think a good example of that would be OddOne. He didn't get pushed out by Reginald. He stepped down himself. And Reginald stepped down when he knew he didn't have the time to do it. If they're not able to contribute to the team, they're usually the first ones that want out."
He thinks that thanks to the LCS and the growth of competitive gaming, it's possible for League's brightest, most talented players to stay in the game longer. The problem, he says, was never really about reflexes and speed. It was about players reaching their mid-twenties and realizing that progaming asked too much and gave too little. Now, it can be an actual career, and that makes Etienne confident that he can keep Cloud9 together for as long as the team are happy with their play.
"It's a different ballgame now. These guys can make really good money playing this game. So there isn't this need to push these brilliant guys into jobs that might pay them better," he says. "I mean, LemonNation graduated as an engineer. He could go make a great salary. But this is a better deal for him. ...We haven't seen many older players in LCS because there wasn't this financial incentive, and now there is. So I hope to see Lemon playing until he's old and gray."
HEADS HELD HIGH
Nobody at Cloud9 denies that the stakes are high for their performance at Worlds. Last year was disappointing for the team, and one of Lipsie's major focuses when he joined the team was to help improve their results on the global stage. With good showings at IEM and All-Star, Cloud9 have definitely made gains in that department. But obviously, the pressure is on for this year.
Lipsie feels the team is better prepared this time around, and isn't letting the Korean hype get to him or the team. "I don't think the mechanical difference between the teams is that big. Faker, Dade, there are some mechanically brilliant players," he admits. "But it's not a huge enough difference to completely throw your game."
He's and Cloud9 have definitely been thinking about how they can turn the other regions' metagames against them. They did that successfully at IEM, when they hit the Chinese teams with picks and gameplans that simply aren't used in their home regions. But as always, a big part of it comes down to practice. This isn't always easy, but there have been some promising signs for Cloud9.
"As far as Korean teams, we haven't played that many. We scrimmed KT Bullets for a couple games, SKT for a couple games. And we were able to take games off of all of them. So as long as we're on a good day, I think we should be able to do okay. Because I really don't think the skill gap is so huge a difference between Korean teams and us. By the time competition comes around, it should be narrower," he says.
For Hai, the important thing is mindset. Cloud9 got where they are by staying cool, by falling back on their talent and trust in one another. They're built to handle the pressure, because it's in the DNA of their team. So far, their faith has never wavered.
"Cloud9 is a more relaxed team. We're more calm. We're more motivated, I guess," he says. "We're generally happy, optimistic people. That describes the team. That's why we're called Cloud9."
#C9 I mean...Draven.
