The Race to Playoffs: Cloud9 vs CLG
The 2018 NA LCS Summer Split is nearing its end, and two popular teams, Cloud9 and CLG, are wrapping up their seventh week. As the league moves closer to the playoffs, these teams couldn’t be more different.
Initially, CLG had a strong start to the split, outperforming most other teams in the league. However, they hit a major slump midway through, losing five consecutive games. On the other hand, C9 started with disappointing performances but then turned things around with three consecutive wins. Today, these teams faced off, resulting in CLG’s sixth-straight loss and C9’s fourth consecutive win.
It seems that C9 found their winning formula by bringing back mid laner Nicolaj Jensen and bot laner Zachary “Sneaky” Scuderi. Although Andy “Smoothie” Ta was traded to Echo Fox, the team seems to work better with their new support, Tristan “Zeyzal” Stidam, as they are currently on a winning streak.
Related: Smoothie on being benched and traded to Echo Fox: “I was pretty upset and it took a toll on me, so I requested to be traded”
Sneaky and Zeyzal had a slow start in their matchup against CLG, but they became C9’s key strength in teamfights as the game progressed. Jensen’s Zilean played a crucial role, providing massive speed boosts to his team’s Dr. Mundo in late-game teamfights and keeping Sneaky alive with his ultimate when needed. The team composition was clearly designed to work together, and they executed it flawlessly against CLG.
CLG’s draft wasn’t bad at all. In fact, it was quite good. However, C9 managed to edge them out with a slightly better strategy. For CLG fans, this game wasn’t a disaster as CLG really put up a fight. However, it’s still a disappointing result since CLG is in danger of missing the playoffs for the second consecutive split.
C9’s next game is against Golden Guardians on Saturday, Aug. 11 at 5pm CT.
NA LCS Summer Split, Cloud9, CLG, playoffs, mid laner, bot laner, support, teamfights, Zilean, team composition, draft, playoffs.