Cann’s MSI Breakdown 

LCS: Cloud9

Spring Season Record: 13-5 

Once again, Cloud9 is North America’s hope for international success (insert Bernie Meme here). They have retooled and brought in major star power in European giant in Perkz. This is after they failed to make the World Championships in 2020 even though they were by far the most dominant team in North America in Spring 2020. Throughout Spring, they had their ups and downs but with the pure mechanical skill of Blaber, Perkz, and Zven you could easily see them as a dark horse contender to get to the finals. 

Lane Breakdown

In this section I am going to go lane by lane (or position by position) and grade out each player and set some expectations for what we should see from them in the group stage! Obviously playing on stage in an actual tournament can give us some pretty special moments but I will outline what should be the most likely outcome.

Top Lane (Fudge): Originally for Oceana, Fudge has had a pretty fast rise to a top region team. In three years he went from bottom tier Oceanic team to now playing for one of NA’s most historic teams in international competition. A few months ago everyone pointed to Fudge being the biggest liability for Cloud9 and at the end of the Lockin tournament, they would have been right. What goes unstated is that Cloud9 really drafted Fudge into weaker lane matchups to ensure that players like Blaber and Perkz got the winning matchups they wanted. When you look at him statistically though he has never had a competition (Lockin, Spring Split, Spring Playoffs) where he had less than a 4.04 KDA. His ability to play a more diverse champion pool which includes those picks that can win the 1v1 in lane has helped C9 make a more dynamic identity. While players like Xiaohu, Khan, and Armut will be a challenge, Fudge will be a quality pick throughout the tournament. 

Jungle (Blaber): Every team has a player who is the heart and soul of the team. Blaber is just that player for Cloud9. He has swagger, will smack talk any player who doubts C9, and backs it up far more than he doesn’t. He admittedly had some down performances towards the middle of the split where his ability to carry the team was less evident but what role he transitioned into was that of the facilitator. He averaged over 8 assists per game in the Spring playoffs and on a powerpick like Hecarim he averaged over 12. In this tournament look for him to have the more teamfight orientated picks with a tendency to look towards the Hecarim, Lilia, and even the Taliyah as well. 

Mid Lane (Perkz): A lot of pressure is on Perkz to show up in this tournament. This is the first international tournament for Cloud9 since adding the Croatian mid laner and they brought him in for these moments exactly. This World Finalist, former MSI champion, and the king of the LEC has had all sorts of experience and that is what this younger Cloud9 team needed to push them over the top. Arguably, you could make the case that Perkz really hasn’t made the splash in the LCS like most expected. He had just over a 4.0 KDA in the Spring split and struggled to create that massive gap that most expected him to make over the current NA mid laners. He will have a serious test in the group stage going up against ShowMaker from DWG KIA who focuses on stomping the early game laning phase. I want to see Cloud9 to put an emphasis on drafting Perkz into his Sylas pick which averaged 6 kills per game in the 3 games he played the pick in Spring Playoffs. If Cloud9 can catch a team picking champions with overly powerful team fighting spells, P{erkz should be able to capitalize and turn teamfights for them. 

Bot/AD Carry (Zven): I like Zven a lot. He is a quieter player so his performances can get overshadowed by the flashier players around the world. He averages around 4 kills, 1.5 deaths, and 6.5 assists per game in Spring which is not too bad. He farms well and just does not lose lane with Vulcan. And while his numbers may seem a lot lower than the GALA’s and Ghost’s of this tournament it is important to understand that Cloud9 ask him to do different things. He isn’t the main carry on this team. He isn’t expected to pull the same kill numbers as other players in his role. Instead he is usually the utiliy ADC. He takes picks that are safe, bring someutility to the game, and survive teamfights. In this space, Zven is one of the best. In the LCS playoffs he had a 7.2 KDA and had an average gold lead of 246 at 10 minutes through 12 games. Teams will underestimate the Cloud9 bottom lane and that could be a great way to pull to early leads for Zven. 

Support (Vulcan): This is my controversial take from C9, and feel free to ignore it. Vulcan is the weakest performer on the team. Now take this with a grain of salt because their lineup is stacked. That being said, he doesn’t normally take over a game. Instead we see him follow up on the aggression from Blaber and Perkz. This isn’t me saying he is a bad support but in terms of comparing him domestically to CoreJJ and SwordArt or even internationally to a Kaiser or BeryL, Vulcan doesn’t compare. I really like his Rell pick, especially when he pairs that with Blaber’s Hecarim. I would expect Cloud9 to lean into the jungle/support duo to have the best shot at making a deep run in these playoffs.  

Cann’s Final Thoughts

Cloud9 is a funny team to get a read on. Deep down I recognize my bias of being a huge Team Liquid fanboy but there is some debate on whether TL or C9 was the best team out of NA for this Spring. With a backup jungler TL beat down TSM and then took C9 to 5 games (actually had a 2-1 lead) in the Spring Championships. Could they surprise everyone and make a deep run? Sure. Am I expecting it? Not really. They are super one dimensional and when teams can take them to the late game, their ability to win drops dramatically. They shouldn’t give up too many games to lower teams but will struggle against DWG KIA and RNG.   

Cann’s Record Prediction: 8-12
Cann’s Final Placement Prediction: Tournament Semifinalist