Cloud9 Reveals Offseason Plan to Bounce Back
Today, one of North America’s representatives at the League of Legends World Championships shared their plan to regain their former dominance.
Cloud9 had a tumultuous 2015 season after making changes to their lineup that had previously dominated the domestic competition for years. Now, they are making another change as Daerek “LemonNation” Hart will move to a staff position, leaving Cloud9 without a support player for 2016.
Open Tryouts for New Support Player
The team will be holding tryouts to find a suitable replacement for the support role. They have two options: recruit a new support player or add a jungle player and move the current jungler, Hai Lam, to the support position.
Cloud9 fans have long fantasized about this roster swap. While LemonNation’s ability to draft and theorycraft in League of Legends has always been valuable to the team, his mechanics as a support player were never world class, and he struggled to find his niche as an initiator. Similarly, Lam’s shot-calling skills were unique, but his mid lane mechanics and champion pool held him back. Moving Lam to support could be the perfect solution, allowing him to focus on shot-calling and initiating fights without relying on his mechanical skills.
Whether Lam remains in the jungle or moves to support, Cloud9 wants to keep him in the lineup due to his ability to shot-call games. This opens up interesting possibilities for the team in the upcoming season.
Possible Additions to the Lineup
With Team Impulse potentially up for sale, Cloud9 could consider acquiring Lee “Rush” Yoon-jae, the 2015 LCS Summer MVP. Rush has shown the ability to single-handedly win matches with his mechanical talent, which would complement mid laner Nicolaj “Incarnati0n” Jensen and Zachary “Sneaky” Scuderi.
Another potential addition is William “Meteos” Hartman, a former star player for Cloud9. In 2015, his performance dropped as he took on a more leadership-focused role. He eventually left the lineup but is currently set to lead a Cloud9 Challenger squad in 2016. With an open spot on the main team, the future is uncertain.
Whatever happens, the offseason heading into 2016 is shaping up to be an exciting one for Cloud9. The team’s lineup will undoubtedly change, and it will be interesting to see how Lam leads his team with new talent.
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