Cover-Credits:
The League of Legends Championship Series (LCS) had its final match of the season at the United Center in Chicago, Illinois on 12th September and Cloud9 (C9) was crowned the winner of the LCS 2022 Championship. The organization won its LCS title after nearly a year since its last trophy was from LCS Spring in 2021. It has been a journey of ups and downs for Cloud9 as the League of Legends team battled against the odds of roster changes, role swaps, and other controversies like letting go of its coaching staff. The series was very one-sided for Cloud9 as it took down 100 Thieves (100T) in a 3-0 series. This is the second time 100 Thieves’ dream has been cut short since it lost to Evil Geniuses (EG) in the 2022 Spring finals.
Proactive Cloud9 capitalizes on early leads
Cloud9 was proactive from the get-go in the first match of the series. The Nocturne pick for Robert "Blaber" Huang came in handy as the jungler used the champion well for setting up ganks and snowballing his lead. At 20-minutes, Cloud9 had one dragon, two towers, and seven kills in its pocket and racked up a steady 5K gold lead. Five minutes later, Cloud9 took down Baron Nashor, aced 100 Thieves, and ended the match.
Cloud9 bounces back from a rough early game
In the second match of the BO5, Cloud9 was on the back foot at the beginning. However, thanks to a flank by Blaber at 17 minutes, Cloud9 secured an important team fight win and found its rhythm in the game. It was only uphill from there for C9, which continued to stack objectives and its gold lead. The men in blue picked up the Baron and broke into 100 Thieves' base. Soon after, the team grouped up on mid and ended the game.
A series of dominance
The third game’s start was a surprise to 100 Thieves and the audience as Cloud9 invaded 100 Thives' red buff, secured it, and also got a kill on the way out at two minutes into the game. A big team fight under C9’s top tower went in favor of 100 Thieves enabling the team to stay afloat in the match. However, Cloud9 matched its aggression near the dragon pit and got its hands on the second dragon of the match. The Baron Nashor was slain by C9 at 24 minutes and at this point, C9 had an 8K gold lead. Despite 100 Thieves’ last-ditch efforts to keep its base intact, its nexus fell soon and Cloud9 picked up the Championship trophy.
Following this series, both 100T and C9 will enter Worlds 2022 directly into the Group Stage. However, Cloud9 has been seeded into Group A aka the group of death alongside T1 and EDward Gaming (EDG) whereas 100 Thieves is grouped with CTBC Flying Oyster (CFO) and Gen.G.
