Cloud9 and CLG came into week two of the LCS Spring Split both sporting clean 2-0 records on the season, but it was C9 who emerged from their contest with their winning streak still intact. In just over 26 minutes, C9 dismantled CLG, posting a final gold differential of 14,000 in the one-sided bout.
Cloud9 held nearly a 7,000 gold advantage at the 20-minute mark after snuffing out any attempt CLG had made at getting an early-game advantage. In fact, CLG did not take a single tower during the game and only grabbed one neutral objective throughout the contest, as C9 owned the entire map from start to finish.
In the bot lane, the focus was on support Zven who unleashed the LCS’ first-ever support Kalista pick. Zven, a former AD carry player himself, holds a total of 43 Kalista games in his career, according to League stats site Games of Legends.
“Once they buff Leona and Nautilus it’s over for me,” Zven joked in a post-game interview. “I gotta make sure to use this meta while I can. I’m enjoying being able to play whatever because I’ve already played thousands of games on these champions over the years.”
Picking AD carries at the support position is a bit of a wildcard move, but nothing new in relation to recent trends in pro League. Last week, T1’s Keria picked Kalista support for the first time in the history of professional League of Legends. Today, Zven took a page out of his book and boosted the champion’s all-time win rate as a support to a solid 2-0. Other ADCs like Jhin and Caitlyn have also been making the rounds as supports so that more poke can be applied during the laning phase.
Related: Why are AD carries becoming supports in League?
Despite the bottom lane drawing much of the attention in this game thanks to the draft, it was C9 top laner Fudge who sealed the win for his team. Although his top-tier K’sante was picked away from him by CLG in champ select, Fudge found a way to carry today’s game on Fiora, a pick he’s never really found success with in the past.
Coming into today’s game, Fudge held a 1-7 record on Fiora with an all-time KDA of 1.2 on the champion, according to Games of Legends. In a “get-right” game for his Fiora pick, Fudge finished with a scoreline of 4/0/9, while accounting for 31.5 percent of Cloud9’s total damage. He holds a 26.0 KDA on the season now, enough to pass TSM mid laner Maple for the top spot in the LCS, according to League stats site Oracle’s Elixir.
Cloud9 will look to put another 2-0 week up on the board tomorrow when they take on a second undefeated squad in FlyQuest.
