With the North American League of Legends Championship (Or LCS ) series coming up soon, as well as fantasy LCS now being completely up and running thanks to Riot taking it into their own hands, one has to wonder about which team will come up on top. Nine out of ten of the teams have opted to switch up their roster slightly, either through contract or quickly trying to get a better players, there is a lot of uncertainty going around most teams with exactly how well they’ll play.
Not so much with last year’s second place team of the LCS summer split, Cloud 9. While they narrowly lost to team Solomid in the playoffs, they have always shown to be a favorite going in. Showcasing both great plays alone and as a team. Cloud 9 had some very long win streaks last year, and seem to have gone with the logic, if it ain't broke, don’t fix it.
Starting the line up is the former AD Carry turned into one of the most notorious Rumble top players. His tendency to lean on the ability power bruisers is well known, but he has always become a powerhouse in the mid-game. His control over the team fights has made even the most dire situation for Cloud 9 turn into some of the easiest turnarounds seen in last years LCS.
Back in Season 3 Summer Split of the LCS, Meteos had a 12.7 KDA, the highest in LCS history. He pulled this off by doing something that most people only dream of doing-- never dying. He is an extremely skilled jungler who prefers to jungle with someone who can lock you down such as Zac or Skarner making him a nightmare to any player who overextends even for a second.
Aiding in the raise of popularity of champions such as Orianna and Zed. Hai has showcased time and time again just how important it is to control mid lane in a League of Legends game. His ultimates with Orianna have decided countless games, and his roaming in the early game has caused his team mates to snowball out of control. A very talented mid-laner who has been professionally gaming all the way back to the Counter-Strike days.
In the bot lane it is impossible to separate the two and talk about them individually, Sneaky and LemonNation helped change the metagame of League of Legends with their clever picks. They helped introduce the extremely heavy poke and control method of Ashe/Zyra or the simple burst of Blitz and Lucian. Together they are a force to be reckoned with that most teams showcased difficulties beating in the last LCS.
Cloud 9 is the only team to not change their roster for the year, and haven’t shown any reason to their fans that they won’t be at top form this year. If last year is any indication of what this team is capable of, they will have no issues being in the top 3 of the North American League of Legends Championship.