The end of the 2018 NA LCS Summer Split is nearly here as two crowd-favorite teams, Cloud9 and CLG, close out their seventh week. As the league approaches playoffs, these two teams are about as opposite as you can get.
CLG started their split performing better than most teams in the league, and fell off a steep cliff around the midway point, losing five straight games. C9, on the other hand, started with one abysmal performance after another, and then rallied with three wins in a row. Today, these teams went head to head, resulting in a sixth-straight loss for CLG and a fourth-consecutive win for C9.
For C9, it seems like the magic formula was bringing back both mid laner Nicolaj Jensen and bot laner Zachary “Sneaky” Scuderi. Andy “Smoothie” Ta was traded away to Echo Fox, but clearly, the team works better with new support Tristan “Zeyzal” Stidam, because they’re on an absolute tear.
Sneaky and Zeyzal’s lane even started off slow against CLG in this match, but by the end of the game, they were C9’s key strength in teamfights. Jensen’s Zilean was the perfect tool for two big reasons. He gave his team’s Dr. Mundo massive speed boosts in late-game teamfights, and his ultimate kept Sneaky alive when he needed it most. The team comp was definitely made to work together, and they certainly pulled if off against CLG.
CLG’s draft wasn’t terrible, though. In fact, it was pretty darn good; C9 just edged them out with a slightly better strategy. If you’re a CLG fan, this game wasn’t the worst, since CLG really made them work for it. It’s still pretty bad, though, because if CLG stay on this path, they’re going to miss playoffs for the second split in a row.
C9’s next game is against Golden Guardians on Saturday, Aug. 11 at 5pm CT.
Published: Aug 5, 2018 03:32 pm