Regardless of the numerous flaws that teams have exposed around Cloud 9 in addition to the growth of other teams in North America, they always seem to find themselves in the same position when it counts.  What is truly a one-of-a-kind outlier in the historical context of League of Legends justifies itself once again as the inseparable band of five pave their way to finals once more. 

However, there was no red carpet laid before the team this time around. Each attempt at Cloud 9 returning to their throne and maintaining that top two pedigree seems more of a struggle than the last.  The once invincible North American squad with no clear competitors now wears heavy battle scars marching forward, feeling the harsh winds of improved competition and expiring excellence cut into their flesh as they work their way to the top of the North American mountain in an attempt to reign once again.  This semi-finals proved to be the most difficult yet, with their foes nearly trampling them in a statistically unlikely matchup, nearly dethroning the fatigued heroes.

Cloud 9's collective mind was seemingly alright entering pick and bans in the first game.  The only questionable ban may have been Vladimir, a staple in every game of the set, but the other bans were on point.  Lulu being banned takes away a primary component of Team Liquid's greatest composition historically, while Fenix's Urgot had reigned true terror the last time it was selected.  Nevertheless, Team Liquid was able to get away with a strong lockdown composition for game 1. Unlike Team Liquid's prior victims in CLG, however, Cloud 9 are notoriously better at teamfighting.

When picks set in, there was a slight cause for worry with Sneaky's pick of Draven, especially against a team with a plethora of lockdown capabilities.  Nevertheless, it wasn't until execution when true concern struck.  A distinct lack of vision on Cloud 9's blue side meant an open gate for Team Liquid to set their duo ahead.  Individual outplays allowed Piglet and Xpecial to poke Sneaky down to lethal levels of health.  

One could tell by LemonNation's movements that he may have anticipated a gank coming, but was preparing blindly.  IWillDominate was allowed a free pass inbetween Cloud 9's top lane inner and outer turret, picking up an easy first blood to start the snowball for Piglet. Due to the lack of vision and experience, Meteos was unable to intercept the gank, and even if he had, he was out of mana and level 5 versus Dominate's much more potent level 6 ultimate on Sejuani for lockdown.

LemonNation's activity would continue to be questionable merely moments after.  He had made the ballsy maneuver of attempting a bind in the mid lane to create a pick, but even if he had, the follow up was non existant.  Team Liquid had players missing off the map while Hai was the only one available for follow wup due to Meteos farming wraiths at the time. Regardless, the bind missed and Lemonnation fed another kill, this time freely, to Piglet. For the oftentime brilliant minds of Cloud 9, they displayed uncharacteristic priorities and decisions which continuously gave up their opportunity for leads. Following this, Balls decided to go back to base without teleport up, allowing Quas to rotate bottom and shove the lane in for early access dragon vision.

The denial of Cloud 9's bottom lane and AD carry composition was only endangered further by an extremely early Frozen Heart pickup on  Quas' Sion, and IWillDominate wouldn't be far behind.  Now, Team Liquid had an invulnerable frontline and Cloud 9 lacked an answer. Had Hai decided to go the fashionably new hybrid Corki build, he could at least hope to abuse the lower MR values of the team or attempt to poke out the back line.  Bad decision making would continue again as Hai went a more traditional AD Carry route. 

TL's dramatic lead allowed Piglet to go hyper-aggressive without risk of throwing the game.  

The only viable option Cloud 9 saw late in the first game was to risk a baron at low HP in hopes that they could shove out the waves and take any opportunity they could to bolster their strength.  Solid vision and engage from Team Liquid would thwart this plan.  Cloud 9 was a mess, and Team Liquid were quick to capitalize with their crisp and calculated play, continuing to feed the kills to Piglet and allowing him to rightfully be the primary carry force of the game. Cloud 9 may have held out in turret count for awhile, but the game was over at an early stage for Cloud 9.

While Cloud 9's bans remained static in the second game, their composition emulated Team Liquid's from game 1, except the disengage of Janna was swapped out in favor of Nautilus and Sion was swapped out for Balls' most consistent champion this split, Maokai.  While Cloud 9's composition was very all-in oriented, Team Liquid had answers. Team Liquid had a solid solution for Cloud 9's draft in the form of excessive movespeed and knockback.

Cloud 9 nearly mirroring TL's earlier draft.  

As the game begins, we see another fundamental lack of understanding -- this time, a lot of the blame has to be put on Meteos or the team's command of the jungle.  While we must commend Quas for his stellar play allowing him to go one for one in a 2v1 trade top, why would they continue to commit if one is to assume they have knowledge of the laning damage of Hecarim and his cooldowns?  Surely they knew that Quas had not used his ignite, and it's disingenuous to assume that you're safe when cooldowns come back up and someone is low.  However, the errors didn't simply come down to mechanical misplays or miscalculations, but revealed themselves on a macro level. 

Meteos typically doesn't focus the mid lane in his ganks, so it begs the question of why he would start now.  It was obvious that Hai needed help in this match up, but there comes a time where you must decide if the best method to help is indirectly by getting the rest of the team ahead, thus, allowing Hai to perform his job easier in the mid to late game, rather than helping him snowball his lane.  Cloud 9 was concerningly ignorant to the lesson of last game, wherein TL got their damage threats ahead and their top lane beefy to snowball the game.  Even if Hai was behind in this game, he'd be able to do his job and engage or follow up on the plethora of engage already available to the team.

Cloud 9 had not thought this through and was overcomitting to the mid lane in this game.  This was wasted effort due to Azir's ability to control zones and push people off of him, coupled with the fact that he was running Cleanse, which eliminated any kill threat Hai had on him along with the ability to lock him down. Combine this with the ability for Fenix to constantly farm his side of the jungle and Cloud 9 were in a lot of trouble.

Even while housing two of the best zoners, C9 was adament about picking fights in chokes.  

There was no saving grace for Cloud 9 in this game.  Their focal point was off, their composition couldn't be executed correctly, and their tower sieging wasn't on point.  Cloud 9 is a multiple-time North American champion, so the rookie errors being made were questionable.  If you're against a team that has some of the best zone control the League of Legends roster has to offer, why pick fights in the chokes of the jungle?  Either way, Cloud 9 was looking more vulnerable than ever before, and what they would in the past be heralded for would be exposed as a jarring weakness in the introductory games of the set.  

Game 3 was the point where Cloud 9 turned everything around. While still not looking the invincible monster they've shown to be in prior seasons, they were on course to maintain their all too predictable spot in the finals for yet another consecutive split. It's imperative to know that heading into game 3, although the bans were concerning and Cloud 9 definitely could have drafted better, the team definitely had reason to do what they did.  With the risk of being halted in the semi-finals looming over their heads, the team decided to try banning out Fenix on his strongest playoff picks, despite the fact that he has picked 9 champions over the course of the split.

Given the circumstances of the situation combined with the previous statistic of Fenix's played champions, this was absolutely an unfavorable risk.  Let's remember that Piglet is very snowbally in nature over the course of a series, meaning that the efficiency of a juggermaw composition after having won the previous two games would amplify his strength and confidence for the role furthermore.

Team Liquid secures perhaps the strongest interation of their most successful composition. Ouch.

As luck (or intuition) would have it, Cloud 9 stunted the growth of Piglet with Meteos successfully executing an early gank bottom, killing off Xpecial and burning both flashes from Team Liquid's duo.  This forced Piglet into a position where he had to farm at tower, zoned away and tremendously handicapped on his scaling into the late game. Luckily, this pretty much seals Team Liquid's fate until the ultra late-game, with Sneaky being monumentally ahead and Piglet barely having Triforce and lifesteal by the time Cloud 9 already secures their first baron. Finding a way to stall Piglet's ramp up and abuse the one-dimensional composition saved Cloud 9 a finals spot that was almost ripped from them without their opponent dropping a game.

This is where everything started to go uphill for Cloud 9. Sure, this wasn't the re-ignition of the impeccable, nearly flawless Cloud 9 of old, but the series took a turn and started playing to the team's strengths. Cloud 9 is one of the few teams you can really suggest has the advantage of a constant positive attitude and atmosphere.  While many anecdotally claim a "positive atmosphere" as the reason for their success and the opposite for their failure, the case is uniquely true for Cloud 9 even in critical periods.  Even at their low points, Cloud 9's composure remains nearly as steady as at their peak, which allows them to not tilt and opens the doors for these massive reverse-kill scenarios that elude even the greatest teams both domestically and in other parts of the world.

Cloud 9's confidence is apparent in the fourth game of the set where they retract the Urgot ban from Fenix and instead take away Quas' Hecarim.  To no surprise, Team Liquid wastes no time in locking it in, forming a team around their primary physical threats with Janna and Lulu for steroid assistance and Sejuani as the power pick, bringing tankiness and lockdown to the team.  Cloud 9 punches back, and hard, showing the value of emotional fortitude in a lengthy set, where Team Liquid suffers and tilts.  

Piglet might have played some of his best games since his NA career, but Sneaky is not a roller-coaster like Piglet.  Sneaky held his composure, as trademarked by the team's unique dynamic, and performed incredibly well this game.  In the teamfights, his positioning is immaculate, always aware of the looming threat of Hyper-Kinetic Position Reverser and other engage opportunities presented by Team Liquid, while still successfully able to pump out autos and abilities on cooldown.

Sneaky being the carry force for his team, Piglet struggling.  

 Balls had returned to form once again on his best champion this split, even selecting Rod of Ages over the more favored Righteous Glory variant for enhanced damage in skirmishes and extra scaling. Cloud 9 were easily able to close out this game, and what would soon be the set. A strong and steady level one from Cloud 9 would seal Team Liquid's fate and bring about the fourth consecutive Team Solomid vs. Cloud 9 finals in the North American LCS playoffs.

Cloud 9 remains triumphant and enforces the status quo.  Not a split goes by where despite the happenings of the regular season they are not at the top.  It's often unheard of for the same five players to remain powerful, or even relevant, for such a long time. Still, the book is not closed on the TSM and Cloud 9 era at the top of the league.  The question remains, however, of how long these five can hold out while growing weary, constantly confronted by younger, fiercer competition.   Balls, Meteos, Hai, Sneaky, and LemonNation march forward, knowledgeable of their vulnerabilities but holding out until their worn muscles and competitive drive carry them no further in a sea of constantly refreshed rosters and imported talent. 

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All images couresty of Riot Games.