Mush
2022-02-19 02:47:12
LS is a much more infamous personality than the previously mentioned examples, but that isn’t the only difference. Jatt coached TL, but the team wasn't rebuilt entirely around his presence. Papasmithy’s role as GM influences the entire roster, but he maintains an almost entirely “Off-camera” presence. Cloud9 hired LS for a sort of fusion of these two roles in one. LS isn’t the official GM of Cloud9, but he rebuilt the entire roster around his own beliefs, bringing three very young Korean players to fill the gaps around Blaber, the star jungler, and Fudge, the Top laner who roleswapped to mid lane.
The team has been jokingly called Church9, but despite the humorous connotation behind it, it is a fair assessment of what Cloud9 are aiming for. This is the LS project. Years and years of theorycrafting and analyzing the game are being translated into practice, and the results have been, above all else, refreshing.
Riot changes the game considerably every season, but when the dust settles, most things remain the same in pro-play. The meta changes which roles have more weight, Jungler’s usually have a lot more homework to do in pre-season (not this year, though), but the core of the game mostly stays the same. Mid lane is a crucial role due to how central the lane is, Jungle and Support have a lot of impact, especially early to mid game, and the sidelane carries are almost entirely dependent on the meta. If Top lane is strong, ADCs take a backseat, and vice versa.
Creating their own meta
If you’re familiar with LS’s opinions, you’ll know that he’s been outspoken regarding constant mistakes in draft and builds from pro teams every year. A lot of regions have their own stale metas, and NA isn’t an exception, with player pocket picks seeming to be opted into much more often than anywhere else— Bjergsen’s Zilean is probably the biggest offender. Two weeks have gone by and “Church9” has already been spreading their gospel throughout the LCS, leading to a minor earthquake in an attempt to shake up the meta.
First weekend of Mass brought very similar wins against two very different teams, with literally never seen before drafts. I intentionally left the pick order in to show how confusing it must be to draft against this team— especially during this first week in which no one really knew what to expect. If you missed the games, Cloud9 won both of them with two almost identical comps, in execution. Hypercarry for Berserker, safe support for Winsome, carry jungler for Blaber, splitpusher for Summit and enchanter mid for Fudge.
Both games were slow starters with the enemy team gaining a considerable advantage, and both of them had their tides turned around the first dragon fights. It seems that neither team expected how strong these enchanter mids were with very little gold in their pockets. Blaber played as he usually does, except he essentially couldn’t die with two enchanters buffing him up. When Blaber’s mid game power had started to tone down, the focus turned to Berserker who has been showing how good he is despite being only 18 years old and coming straight out of Challengers Korea (the equivalent to LCS Academy).
Loss and adaptation
These two games were both weird and impressive, but are they just gimmicky wins? Cloud9 were already pulling unique bans in the EG game (Lulu/Ivern targeted at Fudge), but it seems that there are enough enchanters in the game to prevent you from banning the game plan entirely. But is this all Cloud9 has shown? Not exactly.
Week two brought a bigger challenge and some new modifications to the script. Team Liquid, despite not playing with Corejj yet, are still one of the most fearsome teams in the League and are, so far, the only roster who’s taken down Cloud9 in these very early times. Their approach was the opposite of EG, focusing on Berserker’s scary Aphelios and Blaber’s more dangerous and flexible carry in Gwen. Cloud9 answered with a very different approach, picking Jhin, Irelia and Karthus. Blaber is still on a carry (and a favorite of LS) but Fudge dropped the enchanters for the much more aggressive and mechanically demanding Irelia.
Team Liquid snowballed bot lane off of a very early mistake from Winsome, but Cloud9 showed that, enchanters or not, they are very dangerous when grouping around early dragons. Blaber farmed up a storm, but Fudge was entirely nullified in the mid game due to being mirrored in the sidelane by Bwipo. Cloud9 nearly turned the entire game on its head but their overagressions cost them dearly, giving an already scaling TL squad an Infernal Soul. Despite the loss, Cloud9 don’t seem like a gimmick squad. This was a very close game and was decided by very specific mistakes.
The game against IMT was a return to Cloud9’s unique normalcy, but with a new flavor. Fudge his back onto an enchanter in Zilean, but this team Berserker is effectively the only weapon of the squad. Summit picked Malphite to nullify Jayce and enhance C9’s teamfighting and the young Korean ADC has all he needs with a strong frontline and two enchanters buffing him up. This was C9’s most dominating win so far and has shown how flexible they can be.
Exciting start
Two weeks isn’t much of a sample to go off of, but they do say first impressions are crystalized onto our brains, and Church9 has left quite a good one. The team has a language barrier, the Korean players and LS only arrived after Lock-in and ended and they’re already looking quite dominant. Regardless of how much you want to meme the Renekton ban — opinions and metas do change, LS’s rants on Renekton are sometimes 2 or 3 years old— he has stuck to his guns and has led the team to 3 victories in his own way.
The Church of LS has been gaining a lot of believers now that the holy text is being put into practice. Only time will tell if it reaches new heights or fails the ascent, but regardless of what the final result is, it is irrefutable that this new Cloud9 has been a much needed breath of fresh air in the LCS. This weekend brings the weakest opposition they’ve faced so far (TSM and CLG both 0-4), but their games will still be must-watch. Even if it is a battering, I think we’ll all be asking: What will Fudge play next?
Mass is on weekends.