Cloud9 once again lived up to expectations as they defeated MAD Lions in their opening game of the Worlds 2023 Swiss stage, claiming North America’s first win at the tournament.
The NA squad did so in stunning fashion, with the European representatives looking lost on Summoner’s Rift throughout the game.
In the series itself, MAD Lions tried making proactive plays, but C9 countered them swiftly. At one point, the European squad started making mistake after mistake, and their opponents took advantage of it, quickly taking control of the game.
With some dominating performances from Fudge and Berserker, once it came to mid-game teamfights, MAD could hardly keep up. After taking Baron Nashor, C9 was fully in charge. Without any hesitation, they closed the game in 30 minutes, bringing LCS their first triumph at Worlds 2023.
Fans from North America have tons of reasons to be excited so far. Besides C9’s stunning performance, they also witnessed a strong showing from Team Liquid in the opening game of the Swiss stage. CoreJJ and crew were eventually defeated by T1, but they managed to secure themselves two Baron Nashors, and were more than capable of upsetting Korea’s second seed.
After Golden Guardians’ devastating loss at the hands of Team BDS in the Worlds Qualifying Series, where the Europeans won with a 3-0 score, today’s C9 victory is a sweet payback. Although the Swiss stage is just at its beginning, there is the potential for plenty of EU versus NA series in the near future to settle the never-ending debate.
Worlds 2023 continues with six more matches today. Gen.G is taking on GAM Esports after C9 and MAD left the stage.
Published: Oct 19, 2023 03:23 am