Matt “It’s Pure Luck” Lee
Heading into the final day of games last Sunday, it seemed to be a bleak situation for Cloud 9. A loss to Alliance on day three, followed by an Alliance upset of NaJin White Shield put C9 on the ropes and needing multiple things to fall their way. Yet, what was considered nearly unthinkable happened on the final day. Alliance was defeated by the international wild card, Kabum eSports, and Cloud 9 came right back with a clutch victory over Najin White Shield to clinch a spot in the knockout stage.
It won’t get any easier for them from here on out as they meet the OGN’s top seed next in Samsung Galaxy Blue. SSB escaped the “Group of Death” with minimal damage. The only blemish was a loss to Fnatic on the first day, but they bounced back with a vengeance and won four straight games to close the group stage. Eliminating Fnatic had to be particularly sweet for Dade, as they dealt him two losses when he was on SSW (then known as Samsung Galaxy Ozone) in the group stage last year.
This will be the biggest test Cloud 9 has ever had. As terrific a player as Dade is, the biggest challenge probably lies with Sneaky and LemonNation in the bottom lane. Deft has repeatedly shown an ability to make himself relevant in games where he falls behind, something that is very tough for the AD carry position to do. If C9 manages to grab a favorable 2v2 match-up, I’d also expect SSB to lane swap on them to try and nullify this. I’d expect Sneaky to lean towards Lucian and Corki this series. Picking Tristana will play into the hands of Samsung; as strong as she is late game, opting to try and beat a team with such great late game prowess is playing with fire.
For Cloud 9 to have a shot in this series, mid game will be key. If they allow Deft/Heart to get ahead, I’m not sure how they will manage to salvage a win. SSB can be taken advantage of early game and mid game and this where C9 must strike. They are fairly passive early on as they are fine letting games go late and winning with their superior team fighting and objective control. This was evident in most of their group stage wins outside the first victory over LMQ. It often felt as if they were just sort of cruising along before they would slam their foot on the gas and take total control.
In the game Samsung dropped versus Fnatic, we may have seen the blueprint to beating OGN’s top seed. Despite being down (albeit only 4-1) in kills, Fnatic left the lane phase with a decent-sized gold lead all around courtesy of creep score discrepancies and taking two of three dragons. After setting a trap and getting multiple picks above the Samsung blue buff in the mid game, Fnatic seemed to take total control and used the team power spike of Lucian to take over the game before Kog’Maw could become a serious issue. Fnatic snowballed the game from that point and took the easy victory, showing that as great as Samsung Blue is, they are beatable. If C9 hope to pull off the upset, this is the strategy they need to employ. Considering how well versed SSB are in best of five series, it won’t be easy.
---
