Reigning LCS Champions, Cloud9, came into 2023 with 4 returning players from their title run in Summer 2022.
Blaber has been with the org the longest, when he joined C9 Academy as a starter in July 2018 and then got promoted to the main roster in November 2019 going into 2020.
Zven is the next longest member, when he joined C9 in November 2019 as a Bot Laner coming over from TSM. He spent time in Academy and then role swapped to Support of May 2022.
Fudge at the young age of 20 has been with C9 for over 3 years now. He originally joined C9 Academy in December 2019 and then the main roster in October 2020. He spent 1 split in Mid Lane but has returned to Top Lane now.
Berserker came over from T1 Challengers in the LCK in November 2021 and has since looked like one of the best Bot Laners in the LCS.
Lastly, EMENES was signed to the C9 Academy roster in November 2022 and he spent the first half of the split in Academy. It wasn't until the second round robin that EMENES got the starting spot in the main roster.
Going into the split, analysts had this team as high as 1st but as low as 5th. They weren't convinced about the Mid Lanes and felt like there might not be enough firepower to compete against some of the big names in the league.
C9 started off the split strong winner their first 3 games against 100 Thieves, Golden Guardians, and Counter Logic Gaming. Then they faced off against another 3-0 team in FlyQuest and lost pretty handily.
They bounced back right away against TSM, but then lost to Evil Geniuses to close out Week 3. Super Week was great for them as they went 3-0 to finish off the first round robin at 7-2 and in 2nd place.
Even after the strong start, this is when EMENES got introduced into the main roster. Things started off rough against Golden Guardians, where he was targeted heavily in Mid Lane and C9 got steamrolled.
He then brought out his pocket pick Leblanc and showed everyone why Cloud9 had promoted him. He finished 8-2-6 including a triple kill in the river after a messy team fight, which resulted in Cloud9's third dragon.
Against 100 Thieves, even though there were no kills at 10 minutes, Cloud9 still built up a +2.2k lead including the first dragon. This lead ballooned to +10k after a triple kill in the bottom jungle leading to multiple towers and the third dragon to put them at soul point.
The next match was against Dignitas who had picked up their first win and were looking for more. They were aggressive getting six kills by 20 minutes, but Cloud9 had a small +2.0k gold lead. An extended fight at dragon, saw Berserker put in work and Blaber went in to steal the 4th dragon to give Cloud9 soul point.
Evil Genius came into Week 7, 1 game behind, so this match was critical for the standings. It was slower paced, but Cloud9 was able to control the map and reach soul point 3 to 1 by 23 minutes. A couple of picks at 28 minutes led to an uncontested Baron and then the Dragon Soul as well.
Another slow and steady early game saw Cloud9 build a small lead with dragon control. And then a fight broke out in mid, where Berserker went in to secure a double kill and a 3 for 1 team fight win. Soul point at 20 minutes and a +5.0k gold lead was all Cloud9 needed.
Going into Super Week, FlyQuest was the first opponent and both teams were at 12-3, tied in 1st place in the standings. Blaber secured 2 early kills by counter lane ganking Spica for a small lead, but it was at the 2nd dragon fight where things exploded. FlyQuest tried to contest, but Cloud9 took out 4 of them and that was it.
Cloud9 threw a curveball in the draft against Immortals when they picked Jayce for Fudge in top lane and then K'Sante for EMENES in mid lane. Fudge took down both towers and had a 50 CS lead by 12.5 minutes. Fudge outdueled Revenge 1v1 in the side lane and then drew the attention of everyone from Immortals, which led to a free Baron for Cloud9 and that was the game.
In true Counter Logic Gaming fashion, they dropped a game in Week 7 to Dignitas, but then come rushing back 10x stronger in Super Week. Palafox and Contractz went on a rampage in the mid-game stacking 10 kills by 13 minutes and this set up a crazy day of tiebreakers.
With the loss, Cloud9 and FlyQuest were tied once again at 14-4, and with their head-to-head record being 1-1, it would take a tiebreaker to decide the 1st seed. Both teams were ready to fight and after a 3 for 3 fight, there was a total of 14 kills by 12 minutes, this game was bloody.
And then a follow-up fight in top lane and jungle saw Berserker come up and put Cloud9 on his back with a quadra kill on Draven. He was 7/1/1 at 14 minutes and ready to take over the game.
The game continued on until 29 minutes, but Berserker was not going to let Cloud9 lose this one as he finished 12/1/2 to secure 1st seed. Cloud9 will now face off against the 4th seed in Counter Logic Gaming, while FlyQuest will face off against the surprising 100 Thieves.
Both Evil Geniuses and Golden Guardians have dropped down to the lower bracket and await their opponents. But if the end of the regular season has shown us anything, it is to expect the unexpected because you never know what team will go on a run and look super strong.
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