It was a tough day at the office for Cloud9 today, who lost to FlyQuest in the second-to-last week of the 2019 LCS Summer Split. This is the third week in a row where Cloud9 has lost at least one game, even though the team did swap out North American veteran Zachary “Sneaky” Scuderi for Matthew “Deftly” Chen at the AD carry position.
Cloud9 struggled mightily in today’s game, even with star top laner Eric “Licorice” Ritchie back in the lineup on Kled. Eugene “Pobelter” Park was put on Yasuo—a champion we don’t often see from him—and he played extremely well against Yasin “Nisqy” Dinçer’s Twisted Fate. The Notorious P.O.B. ended the game with five kills and no deaths to his name, while the rest of FlyQuest outplayed C9 in many teamfights.
Lucas “Santorin” Tao Kilmer Larsen also provided a huge boost of power for FlyQuest today on Sejuani. He had some great ganks that helped snowball his lanes to success, including Jason “WildTurtle” Tran, who had five kills.
As for C9, coach Bok “Reapered” Han-gyu explained why the team benched Sneaky for Deftly. He said that the coaching staff was trying to decide who to bring as a sixth player for a playoff run this split. But C9 seemed incredibly disconnected with Deftly in the lineup. Various plays were mistimed and it didn’t look like the roster was on the same page throughout the match.
FlyQuest’s goal of earning a playoff spot is still quite far away. But it isn’t impossible to think that this team could make a miracle run to the postseason. They still have Echo Fox, Clutch Gaming, and TSM left to face, and if they manage to win every last game, the dream is still alive for this crew of veteran players.
